'/- 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
\ ^ 
 
HINTS 
 
 MISSIONS TO INDIA: 
 
 NOTICES OF SOME PROCEEDINGS 
 
 DEPUTATION FROM THE AMERICAN BOARD, 
 
 REPORTS TO IT FROM THE MISSIONS. 
 
 By MIRON WINSLOW, 
 
 MISSIONARY AT MADEAS. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD, 
 
 BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL. 
 
 185.6. _ 
 
•3V 
 
 *,><> f 
 
 ^<° 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1556. by 
 
 M . W . D O D D , 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of 
 
 New York. 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY PR1XTED BY 
 
 THOMAS B. SMITH, E . O . J E X K. I X I 
 
 82 & 84 Beekman Street 24 Frankfort St. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The writer of the following pages left his native land 
 in June, 1819, and went as a missionary to Ceylon. 
 Having buried there his beloved wife, he returned to Amer- 
 ica with three daughters, in 1834 ; and after a short visit 
 at home, resumed his labors among the heathen. Going 
 first to Ceylon, he was, with his brother-in-law, Dr. 
 Scudder, sent by the mission, with the sanction of the Pru- 
 dential Committee, to Madras, to commence a mission in 
 that city, among a people speaking the same language with 
 that to which he had been accustomed in North Ceylon. 
 
 A large printing establishment was taken from the 
 Church Missionary Society, schools in the vernaculars, 
 and in those with English, were formed ; regular preach- 
 ing at the stations, and in the streets and schools, was 
 maintained ; two church-buildings were erected ; more 
 than one hundred were from time to time gathered from 
 among the natives into the church, and the work in 
 other respects — including aid in the translation of the 
 Scriptures, and preparing and sending forth tracts and 
 books — was carried on with encouraging success, by the 
 original founders of the mission, and a part of the time 
 by other brethren. These were the Eev. Messrs. Hutch- 
 ings, H. M. Scudder, Ward, Dullis, Hurd, and Mr. Hunt. 
 Messrs. Hutchings, Ward, and Dullis returned to Amer- 
 ica, on account of failure of health, after a snort period 
 of labor ; Mr. H. M. Scudder removed ere long to Arcot, 
 Dr. Scudder died in 1855 ; and the writer left on account 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 of ill-health, near the end of the same year. Messrs. 
 Hunt and Hurd only remain in the mission. 
 
 On the passage home, by way of England, this little 
 book was composed, as a sort of digest of experience 
 and observation, for nearly thirty-seven years ; with the 
 double hope of assisting those who may be considering 
 the question of personal devotement to a mission in 
 India, and of aiding the supporters of such a mission in its 
 intelligent support and direction. It was written without 
 any knowledge of the discussion before the American 
 Board in Utica, and previous, of course, to the special 
 meeting in Albany. Yery little has been added since, 
 and no modifications of any importance have been made. 
 
 The Deputation, whose doings in some departments 
 are examined — it is hoped with proper respect and 
 candor — discouraged schools for heathen children, es- 
 pecially under unevangelized teachers ; the teaching of 
 English, except as a classic, and to Christian youth ; the 
 continuance of missionaries in the pastoral office, after 
 they may have opportunity to demit it in favor of native 
 pastors; and employing the printing establishments in 
 any other than vernacular work. They encouraged the 
 formation of rural congregations and churches with a 
 native pastor, though a very small number only might 
 be at first collected ; the early separation of the mission- 
 ary from the pastoral duties, so that he might itinerate 
 more abroad ; and they would confine almost all teach- 
 ing — whether in theology, medicine, or science — to the 
 vernaculars. The principle adopted, seems to have been 
 that it is necessary to conform to the apostolic practice, 
 and to seek immediate, rather than far reaching re- 
 sults ; to secure actual success, though on a small scale, 
 rather than progress in a merely preparatory work, 
 however great or promising. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 They also advised the missions to allow a correspond- 
 ence with the secretaries in Boston on the affairs of the 
 mission, without, as they had before done, giving then- 
 brethren the opportunity to read such letters ; and that 
 the missions, as such, though composed in part of lay- 
 men, should act in an ecclesiastical capacity, without the 
 formality of instituting any other body ; as being qualified 
 by their commission to do whatever may be necessary for 
 the introduction of Christianity into a heathen land and 
 providing for it Christian ordinances. Most of the above 
 particulars are in some form alluded to, in these pages. 
 
 What may be called the school question, is more espe- 
 cially kept in mind — whether schools can be properly 
 used among the heathen as converting agencies ; 
 whether the English language, and western science 
 should be taught with that view under any circum- 
 stances; whether English is needed by any class of 
 native ministers ; whether heathen children should be 
 taught Christianity, even in the vernaculars, if brought 
 together for secular instruction by heathen teachers ; 
 whether such schools in the vernaculars, or high schools 
 in English, or boarding schools, either for boys or girls 
 (the Female Boarding-school at Oodooville being an 
 example of the latter) are helps or hindrances — these 
 and other particulars, are considered. 
 
 May the Holy Spirit direct to a right understanding 
 of these and other important and connected subjects, and 
 enable all interested in them to decide how far " the 
 machinery of missions" may be so worked, as most effec- 
 tually, to extend and establish the Redeemer's kingdom. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 New York, April 25, 1856. 
 
 1* 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preliminary Remarks 7 
 
 Inducements of the Field 37 
 
 Obstacles 39 
 
 Personal Duty 51 
 
 What Constitutes a Call to the Missionary "Work 53 
 
 Qualifications .62 
 
 Departure 79 
 
 Passage 83 
 
 Arrival 85 
 
 Preservation of Health 90 
 
 Commencing Labors 93 
 
 Acquiring the Language 95 
 
 Organization 97 
 
 Forms of Labor 104 
 
 Preaching 106 
 
 Schools 125 
 
 Press .......... 190 
 
 Formation of Congregations . . . -. .194 
 
 Native Ministry 201 
 
 Formation of Churches .205 
 
 Family Religion 215 
 
 Ecclesiastical Organization 217 
 
 Conclusion 221 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 Some account of the perishing state of the 
 heathen, and other unevangelized nations — es- 
 pecially of the Hindus — and some abstract, at 
 least, of the obligations lying on Christians to 
 send them the Grospel, would seem to form a 
 proper introduction to this little volume. But 
 to attempt a description of the degraded state 
 of the Hindus, even as to this world — to depict 
 their physical wants, arising not from insalu- 
 brity of climate, nor sterility of soil, nor a de- 
 fective government, but from moral causes— 
 especially the destructive influences of idola- 
 try — and to show their religious and social de- 
 fects, the prevalence of untruth and impuri- 
 ty, the absence of all proper views of a super- 
 intending Providence; and their consequent 
 bondage to superstition, to a belief in witch- 
 craft, fear of signs, and omens, and of death ; 
 
8 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 the ignorance and degradation of the females, 
 and deficiency in domestic happiness ; and to 
 describe the untoward influences which caste, 
 custom, and a false religion exert upon them — 
 would require not an introductory essay, but 
 many chapters. 
 
 To do what is more essential to the object pro- 
 posed, consider the prospects of the Hindus 
 for eternity, and to present, even briefly, all 
 the arguments which go to prove that they are 
 " without God, and without hope in the world," 
 and destined, if not relieved, to endless misery — 
 would require much space. Something, how- 
 ever, may be said, without attempting to ex- 
 haust the subject, and without allowing that 
 the obligation of Christians to extend to them 
 the blessings of the Gospel, depends, even 
 principally, on sympathy for their lost state, 
 or love for their immortal souls. There is a 
 higher argument than this, to which attention 
 should be mainly directed : even sympathy 
 with the Saviour in the travail of his soul for 
 a lost world, and his express command, which 
 no plea of the favorable condition of the 
 heathen as to this world, or their salvable 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 9 
 
 state as to the world to come, can evade. Let 
 us then briefly consider the future prospects 
 of the Hindus, and the influence which these 
 ought to have upon a Christian mind ; and the 
 obligations which lie upon the Church from 
 the injunctions of the Saviour, to extend to 
 all the blessings of the Gospel. 
 
 It is certain that the Hindus are sinners, and 
 by nature without that holiness which alone 
 can fit them for heaven. The Apostle Paul 
 says, " The Scripture hath concluded all under 
 sin ;" and also, " We have before proved both 
 Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." 
 The character of the whole heathen world, and 
 of the Hindus as accurately as any other, is 
 given in the first chapter to the Eomans, the 
 climax of which is, they not only do those 
 things worthy of death, but " have pleasure 
 in them that do them." They are therefore 
 under condemnation : they will not indeed be 
 condemned for rejecting a Saviour of whom they 
 have not heard, but for sinning against the light 
 they have — the light of nature and of con- 
 science. "We are told that " having not the law, 
 they are a law unto themselves" — "Because, 
 
10 PEELIMIN T AEY REMAEKS. 
 
 that which may be known of God is manifest 
 in them. For the invisible things of Him, 
 from the beginning of the world, are clearly 
 seen, being understood by the things that are 
 made, even his eternal power and Godhead ; 
 so that they are without excuse ; because that 
 when they knew God, they glorified Him not 
 as God, neither were thankful." The same 
 apostle also teaches us that "they who are 
 without law, shall perish without law." 
 
 If there be any salvation for the heathen, as 
 a body, it is not revealed in the Bible ; and 
 tremendous, yea insupportable — if fully com- 
 prehended — as the thought is, that twenty mil- 
 lions from the whole world, and nearly five 
 millions from India alone, go year by year un- 
 prepared into eternity, there seems no way of 
 evading it. Those who can take a brighter 
 view of their case, who can fancy that they 
 who are unholy and without any relish for 
 holiness, may yet go to heaven — though our 
 Saviour has said, " These shall go away into 
 everlasting punishment, but the righteous into 
 life eternal," using — -as it is in the original — 
 the same word in both cases, making the hap- 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 11 
 
 piness of the righteous and the misery of the 
 wicked to run parallel — are bound to show 
 some plain reason, or Scripture, lor their belief 
 that all will yet be saved. We need not deny 
 that, if among the Hindus, or other heathens, 
 there were a disposition to receive Christ when 
 made known to them, they might be saved ; but 
 if all observation is to be believed, such cases, 
 if they exist, must be very rare — too few at all 
 to affect the general argument that the heathen 
 are in a perishing state without the Gospel. 
 
 There is a mystery in the dealings of 
 God with the heathen world. He delayed 
 for four thousand years to send the promised 
 seed of the v^oman, and left the greater part 
 of men in ignorance of those prophecies and 
 types and shadows of the Saviour, which were 
 given to the Jews. No doubt it was in part 
 to show us the necessity of a revelation from 
 Himself, and that man " cannot, by searching, 
 find out God ;" that the world, by wisdom 
 could not know Him aright, could not learn 
 the real nature and the true wants of man, or 
 the wav of salvation. "The times of that 
 ignorance God winked at." He allowed it for 
 
12 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 wise purposes, unknown to us, and we are sure 
 that He will do no injustice to those who were 
 thus left in comparative ignorance. That they 
 were not guiltless, is certain, for the Psalmist 
 prays, " Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen, 
 and upon the families that have not 1 called 
 upon thy name." And it is written, "The 
 wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the 
 nations that forget God ;" and " He that knew 
 not his Lord's will, and still did things worthy 
 of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.' 7 
 Our Saviour also, when He declared, concern- 
 ing Capernaum, "It shall be more tolerable 
 for the land of Sodom in the judgment, than 
 for thee," implies that the Sodomites would 
 suffer, though less than those remaining im- 
 penitent under greater light. "If the mighty 
 works which have been done in thee, had been 
 done in Sodom, it would have remained." 
 The mighty works were not done, and it did 
 not remain, but was " set forth for an example, 
 suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." 
 
 The doctrine that all the ancient heathen 
 were saved, because they did not sin against 
 such light as the Jews did, would imply either 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS, 13 
 
 that the j did not sin against light at all ; or 
 that they repented ; or that they were saved in 
 their sins, because sins of ignorance. The two 
 first of these will be discarded by every sober 
 mind. Were they then all saved in their sins ? 
 Were the inhabitants of the old world all 
 taken to heaven by a flood, except Noah, who 
 was left— because he walked with God— to a 
 longer pilgrimage upon the earth? Were the 
 inhabitants of Sodom taken into bliss in a 
 chariot of fire and brimstone, while Lot was 
 left to seek refuge in a mountain ? These as- 
 sertions could hardly find believers anywhere, 
 and we must be content to leave the untaught 
 heathen in the hands of a holy and just God. 
 As there was no command under the Patri- 
 archal, or Mosaic dispensation, for believers to 
 go into all the world and proclaim the love of 
 God to their fellow-sinners, the Church stood 
 in a different relation to the Gentile nations from 
 what it now does. Whatever be the fate of 
 those who were left without a revelation then f 
 or whatever shall be the fate of those who are 
 now in the dark parts of the earth, Christians 
 
 are bound to exert themselves to save them. 
 2 
 
14 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 " If they are drawn unto death/' there will be 
 guilt on the part of those who could, but did 
 not, stretch out a hand for their relief. 
 
 In some important sense, God did what He 
 could for the ancient world. He did what, all 
 things considered, He saw best for the display 
 of his own glorious attributes, without which 
 the universe could not attain the highest degree 
 of happiness, while He left the Gentiles, in 
 great part, to the light of nature and tradition, 
 and gave his laws to the Jews with burden- 
 some rules and ceremonies. Concerning the 
 latter, He says, " What could have been done 
 more to my vineyard, that I have not done 
 in it ? Wherefore, when I looked that it should 
 have brought forth grapes, brought it forth 
 wild grapes?" 
 
 Under the Christian dispensation, this ex- 
 postulation would seem to be still more appro- 
 priate and affecting. Not only is ample provi- 
 sion made for the salvation of all the nations, 
 but there is an express command to the Church 
 to make it known. " Go ye into all the world 
 and preach the Gospel to every creature." 
 "Let him that heareth say, Come." The Bread 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 15 
 
 of Life is intrusted to some for the benefit of all ; 
 not for them only, to feast upon, or form into 
 articles of luxury, while others starve. This 
 were a breach of trust ; this were a dishonest 
 administration of the testament of our Lord 
 and Saviour, to the disinheriting of the help- 
 less portion of the human family. And is no 
 Christian guilty of such appropriation to him- 
 self of what belongs in part to another ? 
 
 Had the Lord Jesus committed to angels 
 the privilege of making known his rich legacy, 
 to all the nations of the earth, it would have 
 been done without delay ; were it possible for 
 them to suffer in doing it, they would have 
 " gloried in tribulations also." Nothing would 
 have hindered their untiring zeal, until peace on 
 earth and good- will to men had been pro- 
 claimed to every son and daughter of Adam. 
 But men were commissioned to make this 
 known to their fellow-men, who were perish- 
 ing for lack of knowledge, and they have 
 left souls to perish, generation after generation ; 
 and there seems but little promise of any bet- 
 ter state of things. The Lord Jesus has waited, 
 in vain, to see his ascending command obeyed. 
 
16 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 He has done what He could, consistently with 
 his perfections, but the world is still lying in 
 the arms of the wicked one, and liberty is 
 not proclaimed to the captive. Is it necessary 
 for the Lord Jesus to come again in person to 
 do this ? Shame on the Church, if it can not 
 fulfill its easy commission. 
 
 Let it be borne in mind that while souls 
 perish, souls of more value than the material 
 universe, all things are ready on God's part for 
 their salvation, and that the fault is with his 
 people ; that because of the unbelief, inactivity 
 and self-indulgence of the Churchy "the dark 
 places of the earth are full of the habitations 
 of cruelty," and immortal souls go from them, 
 in constant succession, to the regions of never- 
 ending despair. 
 
 Suppose a kind-hearted man were standing 
 by the Falls of Niagara, and should see men, 
 women, and children, come tumbling along the 
 rapids above ; some in the water, dead ; some 
 alive and struggling, some on logs ; some on 
 planks, and 'some in frail boats or larger ves- 
 sels, all hurried on to the cataract, shrieking 
 from a sense of danger, or unconscious, or 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 17 
 
 laughing at the rapidity of the motion when 
 drawing near the final leap, or carousing with 
 each other in thoughtless mirth, till at the last 
 instant — seeing where they are — they raise an 
 unearthly cry of terror, as they plunge down — 
 shrieking and struggling — the awful descent, 
 at the rate of one every second, hour after 
 hour, and day after day ; would he not sicken 
 at the sight, and ask with horror, What is the 
 cause of this awful destruction ? Can it not be 
 stayed ? He is told that it might be, were the 
 people on the lakes and rivers above warned 
 of the danger of coming this way on their ex- 
 cursions of pleasure or business ; or of the 
 hazard of slipping into the river, or going into 
 it to bathe, or for any purpose, near the rapids ; 
 but although the population on the banks was 
 said to be very great, and that there were large 
 lakes just above, covered with boats used in 
 fishing, and vessels of every kind ; also that 
 intoxicating liquors were sold all along the 
 banks, and that many went into the river intox- 
 icated, and sometimes pushed each other in, yet 
 none knew or believed that there were any falls 
 below the rapids, for none ever came back to tell 
 
 9* 
 
18 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 them. If this benevolent stranger should then 
 ask, Why, then, are they not warned ? and the 
 reply should be, The people around this place, 
 who know the danger, do not trouble them- 
 selves about it; they have no time to go and 
 give the needed information, and do not like 
 to meddle with other people's affairs ; would 
 he not think, this is strange, passing strange, 
 and incredible ? No doubt it would be incred- 
 ible. Such a state of things, though thus sup- 
 posed, cannot in fact be conceived of as ac- 
 tually existing ; and yet, not human bodies, but 
 never-dying souls are hurrying into the gulf 
 of eternity, at this rate — that is, one every 
 second — from the whole world, and nearly fif- 
 teen everj r minute from India! and yet, who 
 goes forth to proclaim the danger ? Let us take 
 a case that is a possible case, where the affec- 
 tions are concerned, and sympathy is excited. 
 It is not half a century since the Algerines, 
 and other Barbary States, sometimes attacked 
 and plundered vessels, and took the crews and 
 passengers as slaves. A vessel from one of 
 the New England ports, on board of which, 
 among others, are four young persons from a 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 19 
 
 flourishing village in the vicinity of that port, 
 on their way to Europe, is attacked by an Al- 
 gerine pirate ; and, though in consequence of 
 another vessel heaving in sight, the pirates are 
 obliged to flee before they have completed 
 their work, they take with them two of 
 these 3 7 oung persons, a brother and sister; 
 the other two, who were also a brother and 
 sister, escape by secreting themselves. 
 
 Ere long the news of this sad event reaches 
 New England, and by an error in reporting 
 their names, a substantial farmer and his wife 
 are informed that their son and daughter are 
 slaves in Algiers. Their grief is very great, 
 and their thoughts, naturally and properly, 
 turn on the means of immediate emancipation. 
 Money must be raised at once. The farmer, 
 more prudent, or less earnest, than his wife, 
 talks of getting what he can from sale of stock, 
 etc., in addition to his ready money, and then 
 waiting to borrow or beg enough to make up 
 the needed sum ; but, this good wife and mother 
 will not think of an hour's delay. She wishes 
 at once to sell or mortgage their property, and 
 give all they possess, rather than the loved 
 
20 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 ones should remain, in slavery a single 'day 
 after they could be rescued. Soon, however, 
 correct intelligence is brought, and it is not 
 their son and daughter, but the son and 
 daughter of a poor widow in the neighbor- 
 hood who were taken captive, while their 
 children escaped. On hearing this, the farmer 
 says, " Ah ; this alters the case ; it is not our 
 children who are in slavery." " No," says 
 the wife, " but the children of our neighbor, 
 and as we had arranged to get the means of 
 liberating our own, I think we should do 
 something for hers." " Oh, yes," he replied, 
 " I think we should. The mother is poor, 
 and cannot do much herself, we must help 
 her a little." " Help her a little ? I do not 
 mean that, but help her a good deal. Do as 
 we would be done by." "Well, yes, I mean 
 to do as I would be done by. I will give a 
 few dollars, and speak with some of the neigh- 
 bors about a subscription, and in a month or 
 two enough may be raised here and else- 
 where." " My dear husband, what do you 
 say, give a few dollars, talk with the neigh- 
 bors, and wait a month or two ? Is this doing 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 21 
 
 as we would be done by ? I am sure it is not 
 doing as we intended to do by our own." 
 "No, not exactly; we have our own still to 
 care for." " True, I would not forget that. 
 We may not be called to give up every thing, 
 as we might be for our own children ; but I 
 think we ought to make some sacrifices." 
 " Yes, I am willing to do what I can without 
 too much inconvenience, from thankfulness 
 that our own children escaped." " Inconve- 
 nience ! I think if much inconvenience would 
 shorten the slavery of these poor things a sin- 
 gle week, I would undergo it. Inconvenience ! 
 They must find it very inconvenient to be 
 slaves, and we ought to sympathize with them 
 and their afflicted mother; We will raise all 
 we can at once. You can give, not a few dol- 
 lars, but a few hundred, without ' too much in- 
 convenience.' It will only do you good to 
 open your heart wide, and your hand too. I 
 will beg for them. A picture shall be made 
 of the brother — with nothing on but trowsers — 
 chained to a galley oar ; and the sister working 
 in the fields in the sun — without shoes or bon- 
 net, and with very little clothing — and I will 
 
22 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 go round with it to make collections without 
 delay." " Well, wife, perhaps you are right. 
 I do not know as we should hug our paltry 
 dollars so much, when misery can be relieved 
 by them." " Hug them! I think they would 
 scorch us if we did. Why all will soon be 
 burned up. My dear husband, we must be 
 more like God, and know the delight of doing 
 good. I have been thinking, since this has 
 taken place, of the millions in slavery, both 
 sou] and body, to Satan in heathen lands, who 
 are carried down one after another by him 
 every day, and every hour, and every minute, 
 perhaps, to the dungeon of despair, and I 
 think we ought to have more of the spirit of 
 Jesus, who died to save them. I am almost 
 ashamed of being called a Christian — which 
 means being like Christ — while I am so little 
 as He was." 
 
 Now w T ill any one say that this good woman 
 felt too strongly for the young persons thus 
 enslaved, or was wrong in thinking, if she 
 thus cared for her neighbors, she ought to 
 care also for the heathen ? Sure it is if we 
 would know the true use of money, or time, 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 23 
 
 or influence, or any power we have, we must 
 be like the Lord Jesus, " who came to seek 
 and to save that which was lost." 
 
 An English bishop, in one of the colonies, 
 in a printed journal says, " I read the follow- 
 ing passage upon a scrap of an American Mis- 
 sionary Intelligencer, which I had picked up 
 somewhere on my travels. It was the report 
 of a colporteur, who was describing to his em- 
 ployers the manner in which he conducted his 
 ministry, entering first one house, and then 
 another, and distributing according to the ne- 
 cessities of each. In one, for instance, he would 
 find the people careless and negligent in di- 
 vine things, and then he would talk to them 
 about the heathen, and what would become of 
 them ; and would ask them what would become 
 of themselves. If they lived like heathen, 
 they would perish like those heathen, and 
 their children, about whom they thought so 
 much, would twine about them, like creepers 
 on a gnarled oak, and they would burn — burn 
 — burn on forever." 
 
 1 'Here is another passage from the correspond- 
 ence of a missionarj^. Speaking of the heathen. 
 
24 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 the writer says, ' Every hour, every moment 
 they are dying, and dying most of them with- 
 out any knowledge of the Saviour. On whom 
 now rests the responsibility ? If you fail to do 
 all in your power to save them, will you stand 
 at the judgment guiltless of their blood? 
 Said a heathen child, after having embraced 
 the Gospel, to the writer, 'How long have 
 they had the Gospel in New England?' 
 When told, she asked with great earnestness, 
 ' Why did they not come and tell us before V 
 and then added, 'My mother died, and my 
 father died without the Gospel. 7 Here she 
 was unable to restrain her emotions, but at 
 length wiping away her tears, she asked, 
 'Where do you think they are gone?' I, 
 too, could not refrain from weeping, and turn- 
 ing to her, I inquired, ' Where do you, think 
 they have gone?' She hesitated a few mo- 
 ments, and then replied, with much emotion, 
 ' I suppose they have gone down to the dark 
 place — the dark place. Oh, why did they not 
 tell us before?' It wrung my heart as she 
 repeated the question, ' Why did they not tell 
 us before ?' " 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 25 
 
 The bishop enters his protest against this 
 view of the condition of the heathen, and adds, 
 " Why, if such be indeed the condition of the 
 heathen world, how can a Christian comforta- 
 bly eat butter with his bread, ride in a car- 
 riage, wear a fine nap upon his coat, or enjoy 
 one of the commonest blessings of daily life ? 
 What a monster of selfishness that man must 
 be who could endure the thought of ease or 
 enjoyment in body or soul for himself, while 
 such was the possible destiny of so many mil- 
 lions of his fellow-men, simply because they 
 knew not, had not heard of that Name of 
 love, and the hope of life eternal." 
 
 The case as stated by the bishop, is certainly 
 very strong, and it would seem impossible that 
 Christians could be at ease if they thought the 
 heathen perishing, at least through their neg- 
 lect. But are they not perishing ? Compared 
 with the inhabitants of this land, they cer- 
 tainly are, even if there be no future world ; 
 and if there be an eternity of misery for the 
 unholy — and most of them are such — what lan- 
 guage can describe the perishing state of these 
 never-dying souls ? Will any then say, " Be it 
 3 
 
26 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 so that they are perishing, it is not through 
 our neglect ?" Yes, if you are not doing all in 
 your power to save them. All things are ready 
 fc on God's part, and the failure is with his peo- 
 ple. If you are not straining every nerve to 
 the last hair's breadth of effort, to send them 
 the Gospel, by giving of your substance, or 
 your children, or going yourself, and also agon- 
 izing in prayer for them, their misery will lie, 
 in part, at your door ; and the blood of souls 
 may be found in your skirts. 
 
 Our blessed Saviour said, to the Father, in 
 praying for his followers : "This is life eternal, 
 that they might know Thee, the only true God, 
 and Jesus. Christ, whom Thou hast sent." If 
 then this knowledge be life eternal, does not 
 the want of it expose the heathen to death eter- 
 nal? Christ also said, " But he that knew not 
 his Lord's will, and did commit things worthy 
 of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." 
 
 There is something inexpressibly affecting, 
 if we could properly understand it, in the fact 
 that the heathen are perishing through the 
 neglect of the Church — that Christ has done 
 all that He can do for them consistently with 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 27 
 
 his perfections, and now waits for His people 
 to do their part ; and that, while He thus waits, 
 "the god of this world" continues his cruel 
 reign, souls are lost, and the Saviour yearns 
 to see the travail of his soul, and to be satis- 
 fied. Oh, where is to be found the sympathy 
 that there ought to be with Him in this travail 
 of his soul for a lost world ? Where is there 
 that constraining love for Him, that absorbing, 
 transforming affection, which all should feel ? 
 Where is there a proper regard for his glory, a 
 proper sense of stewardship for Him, a hearty 
 and unreserved obedience to his command ? 
 
 Here at least we come upon solid ground. 
 There is no debating as to the duty of the 
 Church, and the consequent duty of every 
 member, to send abroad the Gospel. It is not 
 left to our perverted judgment as to its neces- 
 sity ; or to our weak sympathy, or cold love 
 for the bodies or souls of our fellow-men. Our 
 Saviour has settled the point of duty, and with 
 it, of course, the point of privilege ; and we 
 can have no claim to be called his followers 
 if we hesitate in obedience. The spirit of 
 missions is in no sense a super-addition to 
 
28 PEELIMINAEY KEMARKS. 
 
 Cliristianity — it is an essential part of it. It is 
 the very spirit that brought its founder, the 
 first and great Missionary, into the world. It 
 is his spirit; and "if any man have not the 
 spirit of Christ, he is none of his." 
 
 We are only stewards of Grod's bounty, and all 
 that we have, we have received from the Lord 
 Jesus with the solemn injunction, " Occupy till 
 I come." " Ye are not j^our own, but bought 
 with a price." " It is required of stewards that 
 a man be found faithful." But after all that 
 has been said about stewardship' — and the gen- 
 eral admission of Christians, in words, that 
 they hold the Gospel and every thing else only 
 in trust — there is reason to fear that it is often 
 only in words the admission is made, and that 
 many use their substance, and all their talents, 
 as though they were their own, without asking 
 of the Lord how to employ them, or duly con- 
 sidering their obligations "to do good and to 
 communicate." 
 
 Perhaps the idea of duty is too cold, though 
 it should not be so, to the real believer ; to one 
 who loves his Lord and Master more than 
 money, more than children, more than health, 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 29 
 
 more than life. Such a one will only ask the 
 Lord, " What wilt Thou have me do?" There 
 no other question. I feel that all I do, takes 
 hold on eternity — that I am here just shaping 
 my never-ending course, either upward or 
 downward, and that what I do or omit to do, 
 must also affect the eternal state of others. I 
 wish to keep my eye on the cross, and to be 
 crucified and risen with Christ, to live for Him, 
 and to be willing to die for Him. All that I 
 can do, is too little for the love which fills 
 every fibre of my heart: love to Him, and love 
 to the souls that may become jewels in his 
 crown. To gain the least holiness, to make 
 the least advance in the divine life myself, or 
 aid others to do so— to reflect one ray more of 
 the glory of my Redeemer, I would give all I 
 have of earth. Oh, what is all that I call my 
 own here, in the light of eternity — how will it 
 appear on a dying bed — where will it be when 
 the world is on fire? Jesus, Saviour, Thou 
 hast only to show me my duty, and I will at 
 least strive to do it. Only give me grace, and 
 I will obey all thy commands joyfully, and 
 seek to follow the least intimation of thy will, 
 
30 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 though, it be to suffering and death. I count 
 not my life dear to me ; I count all things but 
 loss, that I may win Christ. I am willing to 
 be " bearing about in the body the dying of the 
 Lord Jesus/' to take up my cross, to die daily, 
 to fill up that which remains behind of the af- 
 flictions of Christ, in the flesh, for his body's 
 sake, which is the Church ; to remember that 
 Christ pleased not himself, and to have all 
 possible fellowship with him in his humilia- 
 tion and suffering, and to be made comform- 
 able unto his death, if thereby I maj^, in the 
 least, aid him to see the travail of his soul, and 
 be satisfied. 
 
 Such will be the feeling, in view of duty 
 and privilege, of every one in whom " Christ is 
 formed the hope of glory." And what more 
 can be needed in the work of missions? 
 The Christian reads the declaration, "As I 
 live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the 
 death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn 
 from his way and live ;" and he says, I will do 
 what I can that he may turn. This shall be 
 my chief end, that my life may not be a 
 failure. I will put on the Lord Jesus ; I will 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 31 
 
 try always to realize his -union with me to 
 have a sense of a present deity. 
 
 When this shall be common among Chris- 
 tians, they will, in truth, live for Christ and 
 for the conversion of the world ; there will be 
 no more need of urging, that most important 
 point, regular systematic benevolence ; giving 
 and laboring, and praying on principle, and 
 not from impulse, not from excitement, or only 
 under the influence of success ; as showing that 
 the Church cannot do without missions, be- 
 cause that sending the life-blood of the heart 
 thus in circulation maintains life — its healthy 
 circulation — and that the reaction of this form 
 of benevolence abroad, is necessary to the 
 greatest prosperity at home. Then the ques- 
 tion will be, not " What must I give ?" but 
 61 What may I give ?" not " What must I do to 
 satisfy conscience ?" but " What can I do to sat- 
 isfy my unquenchable love ? What will my 
 precious Saviour accept ? How can I spread 
 abroad the fragrance of that Name, which is as 
 " ointment poured forth. 7 ' How shall my own 
 soul be filled with its fragrance ? How shall 
 all my affections be saturated with the per- 
 
32 PRELIMINARY REMAKES. 
 
 fume of the divine attributes constantly over- 
 lying and surrounding, and permeating my 
 heart of hearts ? How shall I, by the imita- 
 tion of Christ, who went about doing good, 
 in works of usefulness, and by obedience to the 
 command, ' Be ye therefore perfect, as your 
 Father in heaven is perfect,' become a par- 
 taker of the divine nature ; and know some- 
 thing of the delight which God himself has in 
 benevolence?" 
 
 This will be the result of a right view of 
 every Christian's duty and privilege. He is not 
 his own, but bought with a price. There is 
 no evading this reasoning ; and here, taking 
 my stand, I call upon all that feel, and have 
 the witness in themselves, that the religion of 
 Christ is not a fallacy, and assuredly believe 
 that heaven is not an illusion, nor hell a mere 
 bugbear, and that a never-ending eternity of 
 happiness or misery is a great reality, to do all 
 in their power to send the glad tidings of sal- 
 vation by the cross of Christ to the ends of the 
 earth. 
 
 " Waft, waft, ye winds, his story, 
 And you, ye waters, roll, 
 
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 33 
 
 Till, like a sea of glory, 
 
 It spreads from pole to pole ; 
 Till, o'er our ransomed nature, 
 
 The Lamb, for sinners slain, 
 Redeemer, King, Creator, 
 
 In bliss returns to reign." 
 
HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS, 
 
 This subject, in reference to Christians in 
 America, should begin with the consideration 
 of the previous question, whether they have 
 any personal concern in it. As India is a part 
 of the " inheritance" promised to Christ by the 
 Father, and as his command to his disciples, 
 "Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 gospel to every creature," is binding upon his 
 disciples in America, as well as in Europe, it 
 must be presumed that they have a responsibil- 
 ity in regard to the evangelization of India, un- 
 less they have a dispensation to the contrary — 
 unless they can show reasons why the field 
 should be occupied exclusively by others. 
 
 It may be granted that India has higher 
 claims upon Great Britain than any other part 
 of the Christian world, because under its pofit- 
 
36 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 ical control ; and also that the churches of that 
 kingdom have some facilities for operations in 
 their own possessions, which others have not. 
 But unless the Christians of Great Britain claim 
 the work of regenerating India as their own, 
 and are also equal to the task, others should 
 not be excluded; nor are they excluded. 
 Americans and Germans work side by side 
 w r ith British Christians harmoniously and suc- 
 cessfully. It would be a narrow spirit that 
 should forbid it, inconsistent with the genius 
 of Christianity, which knows no political rela- 
 tions ; nor are the disadvantages of foreigners 
 — so to call them — in India, so great as may 
 be imagined, compared with British Christians. 
 The Germans, especially, receive countenance 
 and pecuniary support in full equality, per- 
 haps; with any denomination from the govern- 
 ing country, if we except those of the Church 
 of England, whose members contribute per- 
 haps four fifths of all that is given to the cause 
 of missions in India. The members of this 
 Church, though they generously aid all faith- 
 ful missionaries, contribute usually most boun- 
 tifdlly to those of their own denomination. 
 
INDUCEMENTS OF THE FIELD. 37 
 
 India then, is a fair field for the Chris- 
 tian enterprise of the American Church ; and 
 though it may be that some other parts of the 
 world have stronger claims, as more peculiarly 
 adapted to laborers from America, there are no 
 claims which shut out and exclude those of 
 India. 
 
 INDUCEMENTS OF THE FIELD. 
 
 It is an immense and glorious country, 
 whose resources have scarcely begun to be 
 developed, and there is room enough among 
 the one hundred and thirty millions of inhab- 
 itants, still heathen or Mohammedan, for the 
 exertions of every Protestant country. Being 
 under a liberal Christian government, ready to 
 protect not only the missionary, but his con- 
 verts, it affords facilities for permanent opera- 
 tions, in any and ever} 7 department of mission- 
 ary labor, not found in any other heathen 
 country. In this remark, of course, Burmah, so 
 far as occupied by the English, and Ceylon — 
 both of which, in an extended sense, come 
 under the name of India---are included. 
 
 A great part of India has also a dense pop- 
 4 
 
38 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 ulation, easy of access, and in a comparatively 
 healthy climate. The missionary is not obliged 
 to seek a flock thinly scattered over extended 
 territories, as in Southern Africa ; or in un- 
 healthy, life-destroying swamps, as in some 
 parts of Western Africa. There is also a great 
 variety of temperature and climate to suit dif- 
 ferent constitutions ; and the sanataria, found 
 in different parts of the hill-country, both north 
 and south, afford opportunities for the repair 
 of debilitated constitutions, at least under some 
 forms of disease, without the expense of a sea- 
 voyage. At suitable times, moreover, the mis- 
 sionary can, without much difficulty, revisit 
 his native land, which it is generally good 
 economy to do — for the invigorating of the 
 body, mind, and spirit — once in twelve or fif- 
 teen years. It is true that India is not more 
 favorably situated, in this respect, than some 
 other large portions of the heathen world — as 
 China and Africa — but it is more so than many 
 of the scattered islands of the great Pacific 
 Ocean, which are yet considered favorable 
 fields for missionary effort. 
 
 In comparing India with Southern Africa, 
 
OBSTACLES. 39 
 
 it has the advantage in a population not only 
 more dense, but much more advanced in civil- 
 ization ; and if it be compared with the parts 
 of China under British protection, its languages 
 are more easily acquired, which, with many, 
 must be an important reason for preference. 
 No missionary can fully magnify his office, un- 
 less he has acquired the language of the people 
 to whom he ministers, and the acquisition of 
 almost any of the oriental languages — differ- 
 ing wholly in genius and structure from the 
 occidental — so as not only to read it, as the 
 dead languages are read, but to write and 
 speak it freely as a living language, by which 
 principally he is to make known the Gospel, is 
 no slight attainment. It is one not made, even 
 in India, by every missionary. 
 
 OBSTACLES. 
 
 In regard to the obstacles to be overcome 
 in India, they are doubtless greater than in 
 many — perhaps most— other missionary fields. 
 But this should only make any success attend- 
 ing the effort the more prized, and not lead any 
 one for a moment to withhold his utmost ef- 
 
40 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 fort. It is a part of the province, given to 
 our Saviour as a reward for his agony and 
 death, and is to be subdued for him ; no mat- 
 ter what difficulties obstruct the enterprise. 
 
 1. There is caste, which is not found in the 
 same form in any other country. It is an ob- 
 stacle, greater than idolatry itself, to the pro- 
 gress of that religion which teaches all men to 
 love as brethren ; which knows no distinction 
 of high or low, male or female, but requires all 
 to consider themselves members of one body, 
 whose head is Christ. This is a hydra-headed 
 monster, which not only lives, when one head 
 after another is cut off, but pushes out new 
 heads in place of the old ; and can be fully 
 slain only when consumed in the fire of di- 
 vine love, kindled by the Spirit of God. 
 
 2. There is an hereditary priesthood. This 
 is unknown elsewhere, except among the Jews. 
 Its influence, as a barrier to the progress of 
 Christianity as a universal leveller of all such 
 distinctions, is almost insurmountable. The 
 brahmans are earthly deities to the Hindus. 
 In some respects they are considered superior 
 even to the gods. It is a common saying with 
 
OBSTACLES. 41 
 
 the people, " the muntras control the gods ; 
 these muntras are under the power of the 
 brahmans, who repeat them ; the brahmans, 
 therefore, are superior to the gods." Now it 
 is a class so reverenced — a class possessing 
 hitherto nearly all the learning and offices in 
 the country, and much of the wealth — whose 
 craft is in danger. Their opposition is most 
 formidable. 
 
 3. There is also a very ancient and much 
 reverenced literature, which is fully saturated 
 with brahmanism. Not only are there the 
 four Vedas, supposed to be given by Brahma, 
 countless ages since, which form the founda- 
 tion of their system, but six shasters, embody- 
 ing and affecting to sanctify medicine, law, 
 and other branches of science—which are all 
 supposed to be matter of revelation from the 
 gods — and eighteen Puranas, containing the 
 exploits of the different gods, with a descrip- 
 tion of the different shrines where their images 
 are worshiped. Thus the Skanda Pur ana con- 
 tains an account of the birth and actions 
 of Skanda, the second son of Siva, and a 
 highly exaggerated poetical description of 
 
42 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 Conjeveram, and the country on the Palar 
 river ; which was the scene of some of his ex- 
 ploits, and the site of a celebrated shrine for 
 his worship. There are, also, two epic poems 
 of great length, and considered masterpieces 
 of composition — one called " the Kaniayanum 
 or history of Kama," one of the incarna- 
 tions of Vishnu; and another, "the Bagha- 
 vathum, or fifth Veda," containing an ac- 
 count of the wars between the Pandavas, and 
 another branch of the same divinely descended 
 race. Now all these, and numerous other 
 writings, as the " Ved-angas ; " and especially 
 the " Up-angas, or Upanishuds" — abstracts of 
 the Vedas, or commentaries on them — are sup- 
 posed to be from the gods themselves ; and to 
 have the character of sacred writings, reveren- 
 ced by the devout Hindu in the same manner 
 as the Bible is by Christians. The greater part 
 of their literature is, in their view, inspired; 
 and exerts over them a commanding influence. 
 4. Custom is also omnipotent with the 
 never-changing Hindu. In almost every 
 thing he is the same that he was three thou- 
 sand years ago. He is the bond-slave of 
 
OBSTACLES. 43 
 
 habit, which takes its shape from custom, and 
 never dreams of doing or thinking differently 
 from his remotest ancestors. Such a change 
 as is implied in becoming a Christian, is not to 
 be thought of for a moment. You might as 
 well ask him to fly to heaven as to reach it by 
 becoming a Christian. 
 
 5. Apathy lends its aid to the obstacles to 
 be overcome. There is certainly a vis inertice 
 about the Hindus, which renders them, gen- 
 erally, as inaccessible to argument as a bale of 
 cotton wool, well pressed, is to a pistol-ball. 
 Their maxim is, "It is better to walk than to 
 run, to sit than to walk, to lie down than to 
 sit and sleep is the best of all." Except as 
 pressed by want, or excited by a prospect of 
 worldly gain, they are generally indisposed to 
 exertion, bodily or mental. When even present 
 worldly good has little power to rouse their 
 energies, it is no wonder that a distant and 
 spiritual benefit or harm, gain or loss, does 
 not easily interest them. They walk by sight, 
 and not by faith ; and even sight is inoperative 
 with them, generally, to long- sustained and 
 difficult effort. 
 
44 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 6. Belief in transmigration operates un- 
 favorably to the reception of Christianity. 
 However absurd this doctrine may appear to 
 western minds, it holds an almost universal 
 sway over all the eastern world. It is true 
 that the common Hindus do not seem to ex- 
 pect to be born again as dogs, horses, cows, 
 serpents, etc., or even as men and women, 
 or among the lower animals, with any such 
 definite expectation as seriously to influence 
 their practice, yet the doctrine is taught in 
 their books, and is so far accepted as to con- 
 found all correct ideas of a future stale of re- 
 wards and punishments. They have, there- 
 fore, very little fear as to the condition of their 
 souls after death. The doctrine of the me- 
 tempsychosis helps their learned brahmans to 
 say why there are differences between men 
 here by birth. They account for one being 
 born blind, or deaf, or otherwise defective in 
 body — while others are perfectly formed — by 
 tracing in this defect the sins of a former birth. 
 They say that otherwise God would be unjust 
 in making the difference. That such difference 
 does exist is a proof of the doctrine, and the 
 
OBSTACLES. 45 
 
 doctrine goes to prove the truth of their 
 system. 
 
 7. Belief in fate, is another obstacle. This 
 is, in a sense, universal. Next to the Moham- 
 medans the Hindus are, perhaps, the greatest 
 religious fatalists. The doctrine is connected 
 with that of transmigration. They suppose 
 that in each successive birth of the soul, an ac- 
 count of good and evil deeds is kept, which is 
 balanced at death, and according to the balance 
 is the fate written in the head by Brahma ; the 
 sutures of the skull indicate this writing, and, 
 except so far as common sense counteracts the 
 belief, every one fancies that he is obliged to 
 work out his fate. If it be his fate to steal, or 
 commit murder, or do any other crime, he can 
 not avoid doing it. This blunts the moral 
 sense, and renders all religion, in a measure, 
 unnecessary. 
 
 8. The ease with which sin is atoned for, 
 makes the offer of salvation, by Christ, nuga- 
 tory. We do not need such a Saviour, be- 
 cause we can save ourselves, would be the re- 
 ply of most, if spoken out. Their sense of 
 guilt is usually very little, and whatever the} 7 " 
 
46 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 may at times feel, they content themselves with. 
 thinking that alms-giving, or bathing in sacred 
 waters, or presents to the brahrnans, or auste- 
 rities, or some other " bodily exercise," will do 
 away with all sin. They have, therefore, little 
 fear of the consequences of sin. Indeed, 
 strictly speaking, they do not know what sin 
 is, in the Scripture sense. Sin is with them 
 any natural or moral evil. It is deficiency. 
 A cow is a sinner, because it cannot reason 
 and talk like a man. A diseased man — as a 
 leper, or one blind, or deaf, or deformed, or 
 one poor and an outcast is a sinner — not only 
 because these defects indicate that he sinned in a 
 former birth, but these defects themselves make 
 him a sinner, one wanting some good. This in- 
 volves no proper idea of guilt, and does not 
 prepare the way for the reception of the 
 Saviour. 
 
 9. Their religious festivals attach them 
 strongly to their system. These are very nu- 
 merous, and are all holidays for young and old, 
 male and female. There is little, perhaps, in 
 most of them, to attract a more refined people ; 
 but as the great processions at the temples are 
 
OBSTACLES. 47 
 
 generally at night, the gaudy decorations of 
 the immense cars on which the idols are 
 placed, show to advantage by the glare of un- 
 numbered torches, blue lights, etc., with the 
 help of fire-works and noisy, though discord- 
 ant, music. One looks at a little, unadorned 
 stone, brass, or even golden idol, and won- 
 ders how it can be an object of worship. But 
 we must place ourselves in the position of the 
 Hindu who has from earliest life been taught 
 that the image represents his god ; and that 
 when duly consecrated by thebrahmans, it is, the 
 real abode of the deity. When worshiped in a 
 private dwelling, as were the penates or house- 
 hold gods of old, a niche is assigned to it after 
 the manner of the Eomanists with the Yirgin 
 Mary and the saints. It is also decorated 
 with flowers, jewels, and fine clothing. 
 
 In the public processions, the god may be 
 small, and perhaps only of brass, but it is 
 placed under a canopy, on the turret of a 
 sumptuous car, drawn by thousands of votar- 
 ies, and is covered with garlands of flowers and 
 jewels. It is fanned by surrounding brahmans — 
 who also burn incense before it — and worshiped 
 
48 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 by the immense multitudes on all sides by 
 lifting up of the bands, prostration of the 
 body, and perhaps rolling after the car. There 
 is something in all this very imposing and im- 
 pressive, and to a Hindu very captivating. 
 He loves display and a religion of form. The 
 festivals answer a double purpose : that of wor- 
 ship and that of diversion — the latter greatly 
 predominating. A religion bare of such 
 sources of amusement, has no charms for him. 
 10. The immense pagodas which, like that 
 of Juggernauth, attract pilgrims from all parts 
 of the country, are also a source of great 
 strength to their system. Many of them in 
 Southern India, as those at Conjeveram, Ohil- 
 lumbram, Seringham, Madura, and Kamisser- 
 am, are, like those at Benares, the most sacred 
 spots in the country. They are very ancient 
 shrines, and can boast of towers some two or 
 three hundred feet high, choultries supported 
 by granite pillars to the number of one thous- 
 and to each choultry, and gateways faced by 
 granite slabs, standing thirty feet high, and be- 
 ing four or five feet square. All the structures 
 are immense buildings ; strong enough for forts. 
 
OBSTACLES. 49 
 
 and the}' seem designed to last forever. The ' 
 Hindu points with pride to these impregnable 
 piles, and appears to think his religion equally 
 impregnable, and that to attack it, is as if one 
 should try to beat down the pagodas by push- 
 ing at them with his arms, or knocking his 
 head against their walls.* 
 
 Under all these circumstances of difficulty, 
 and many more that might be mentioned, the 
 obstacles to the progress of Christianity in 
 India must be considered greater than in most 
 other countries. The Hindu sj^stem is so 
 contrived and fortified, as to be very difficult 
 of attack. It is a master piece of Satan, and 
 w r ith the exception of Mohammedanism and 
 
 * The outer wall of the Pagoda of Seringham is one 
 mile on each side, or four miles around, and there is on 
 each side, in the middle, a gateway through a tower, called 
 a gowbram, say two hundred feet in height. There are 
 seven other walls, decreasing in size, one within the other, 
 with gowbrams in a line on each of the four sides, and 
 the innermost walls inclose a square area, in which is the 
 principal temple or pagoda, a sacred tank, and a thousand- 
 pillared choultry. The principal image in this temple is of 
 Siva, and of solid plates of gold. It is sixteen feet in height, 
 and, of course, of immense value. Some rive thousand 
 brahmans are supported at this temple, and the jewels it 
 contains can hardly be estimated. 
 5 
 
50 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 Romanism, which, from having a greater ad- 
 mixture of truth with soul-destroying error, 
 are even more difficult of successful encounter — 
 it stands prominent as one of the greatest bul- 
 warks of error which the world presents. 
 
 But is it therefore to be avoided, and left 
 standing in its strength, because the conflict is 
 easier in most other parts of heathendom? 
 Eather should the Church concentrate some 
 portion of its most powerful energies on such 
 strongholds of the enemy, and — as will be 
 hereafter shown — instead of giving up the 
 contest at any point, bring the more force to 
 bear upon it ; the more in proportion as there 
 is more opposition. We need not, indeed, at- 
 tempt to take well-fortified, granite forts, with 
 the same weapons which might be successful 
 against mud walls, or attack a Sevastopol in 
 the same way as a Burmese stockade. The 
 condition of different parts of India may re- 
 quire some variety in the forms of operation ; 
 and the obstacles to be overcome there, com- 
 pared with most other parts of the world, call 
 for all the appliances which the Church can 
 bring to bear upon them. 
 
PERSONAL DUTY. 51 
 
 PERSONAL DUTY. 
 
 " Ought I to go to India as a missionary ?" 
 It would be better perhaps to vary the question 
 and ask, "Ought I not to go? Can I give a 
 good reason for not going ? Some ought to go, 
 ought I not?" Or why not say, " May I go ? 
 Some are permitted to do so, may 1 have the 
 privilege ?" 
 
 A soliloquy like the above may occupy the 
 thoughts of youthful believers of either sex, 
 as their hearts glow with love to Christ and to 
 souls, and with an ardent sympathy with the 
 Saviour in the travail of his soul for a lost world. 
 Such a one, remembering the declaration, "Ye 
 are not your own, but are bought with a 
 price," will ask, " What can I do for him who 
 has done so much for me, whose I am, and 
 whom I am bound to serve ? My property, 
 my time, my influence, my whole self, I dedi- 
 cate to Christ, to be employed, as it may please 
 him, in extending his kingdom. He has made 
 an all-sufficient atonement. He has provided 
 the means of salvation for the perishing Hin- 
 dus as well as others, but they know it not. 
 
52 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 He Las done all that is consistent with his 
 perfections to save them ; his language is, 
 " What could have been done more to my 
 vineyard, that I have not done in it?" There 
 is something to be clone which He cannot do, 
 and it must be clone by his Church, of which. 
 I am a part. Should I not consider well the 
 declaration in Prov. xxiv. 11, 12 — ' If thou 
 forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto 
 death, and those that are ready to be slain, if 
 thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not ; doth not 
 he that pondereth the heart consider it ? and 
 he that keepetk thy soul, doth not he know it ? 
 and shall not he render to every man accord- 
 ing to his works V Surely I ought to bear in 
 mind the great end for which I came into 
 the world, and inquire earnestly how I can 
 best serve my generation hj the will of Grod. 
 There are various occupations in the world, 
 and various duties to be performed. Many 
 must till the ground to provide the means of 
 subsistence for all ; some must be mechanics, 
 some may properly be merchants, some law- 
 yers, some physicians, some ministers of the 
 Gospel at home, some statesmen, etc., etc., and 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES A MISSIONARY CALL. 53 
 
 some ought, no doubt, to be missionaries 
 abroad. Among all these, and other import- 
 ant occupations, am I called to the latter ser- 
 vice, and if so, have I a special call to India ? 
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CALL TO THE MISSION- 
 ARY WORK. 
 
 1 . It may be safely affirmed that one of the 
 constituents to such a call must be an earnest 
 desire. It may be one of early origin, in- 
 dulged only at intervals, without any visible 
 prospect of realization, or it may be newly 
 and suddenly awakened hy some providential 
 occurrence, or perhaps by the influence of the 
 Holy Spirit upon the heart, in connection with 
 reading or hearing the Word of God, receiving 
 missionary intelligence, or by some other means e 
 It does not follow that all who may have a 
 desire for the work are called to it. There 
 may be hindrances which would control, and 
 ought to control, such a desire. But no one 
 can have evidence of a call, who has not a de- 
 sire. Perhaps he ought to have. There may 
 be no better excuse for him than for others, 
 5* 
 
54 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 who do not seek to excuse themselves ; but if 
 lie has it not, he has not yet a call to go forth 
 to the heathen. There must first be a " willing 
 mind," a missionary spirit. The Moravians, 
 who, as a body, are missionary, and of whom 
 many are prepared to go abroad if necessary, 
 accept none for the work who have not a 
 strong predilection for it. No person can ex- 
 pect to excel in any profession which he does not 
 like. Nehemiah said to the Jews employed in 
 rebuilding Jerusalem, " The joy of the Lord 
 is your strength." The principle is universal. 
 If there be not delight in an undertaking, it 
 cannot be expected that difficulties will be 
 properly met and overcome, and the under- 
 taking successfully prosecuted. If it be an 
 enterprise, as in the case of missions, of the 
 greatest possible difficulty, there must be an 
 earnestness and even enthusiasm in its prosecu- 
 tion to ensure the wished-for success. A high 
 sense of duty should, indeed, be conjoined with 
 this to give it consistency and permanence; 
 but the duty must be felt to be pleasant, and 
 not irksome. 
 
 Perhaps it may be said, if the heart be right, 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES A MISSIONARY CALL. 55 
 
 every duty is pleasant. So be it. If the love 
 of Christ constrains, it is enough. If that love 
 fills the soul as it should, there will be a burn- 
 ing desire to bring all to love him, and neces- 
 sarily, if it be possible, to bring the Hindu to 
 his cross, that Christ may be glorified, and the 
 poor idolater saved. 
 
 2. There should be ability, that is physical 
 or moral adaptedness to the work. Health, or 
 the prospect of it, is of the first importance. 
 Nothing can be expected of a missionary who 
 has not vigor to apply himself to the language 
 of the people to whom he is to minister, and 
 having obtained it, to use it for their benefit. 
 Nor can much less be said in regard to his 
 wife. So much, indeed, may not depend upon 
 her, but if she be feeble, she will often rather 
 hinder than help him. At the same time, in 
 regard to both, it is not so much robustness 
 of constitution, as adaptedness and pliancy, that 
 is required. The climate of India generally, 
 is by no means unfavorable to most persons ; 
 but some are better adapted to it than others. 
 No one of a remarkably delicate, nervous 
 system and great excitability, can expect health 
 
56 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 there. Nor is its climate generally favorable 
 to those of a very sanguine or a bilious habit. 
 Those suspected of a tendency to consumption 
 would be safer, to say the least, in India than in 
 America. Where the symptoms are developed 
 they should not go — they should not thus cause 
 expense to a missionary society, though their 
 going might be rather favorable than other- 
 wise to themselves. As the best constitution 
 any where is not that which may appear the 
 strongest, but that which has the greatest re- 
 storative power, so those who most easily rally 
 again after illness, are best adapted to India. 
 The opinion of really intelligent physicians 
 should be asked. 
 
 As physical ability is necessary, so also is 
 moral. Though there are various labors to be 
 performed, and persons of various qualifica- 
 tions may find work, it is not desirable to send 
 those so far who can do but little — whose 
 moral calibre is too small to effect much. 
 Agents for the minor employments of a mis- 
 sion can usually be found or raised up, on the 
 ground. The idea that those who can do little 
 at home will answer for the heathen of India, 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES A MISSIONARY CALL. 57 
 
 is a mistake. None are too highly endowed 
 for the work there, in some of its departments. 
 No doubt there are those who are so peculiarly 
 qualified for important posts at home, that they 
 ought not to go abroad, if such posts cannot be 
 filled except by them, but not because there is 
 not in India a field adequate to their abilities. 
 If any, from their own consciousness of 
 possessing superior abilities, or from the opin- 
 ion of partial friends, are ready to think the 
 work is too small for them, they have only to 
 consider it was not too small for Peter, or 
 Paul, or Carey, or Henry Martyn. Let him 
 choose his employment to correspond with his 
 capacity. Is he a linguist, here is full occupa- 
 tion — in addition to preaching in an oriental 
 tongue — in the w r ork of translating the Scrip- 
 tures, or translating and writing the many 
 books needed for schools, and to form a Chris- 
 tian literature for the native church. In most 
 places almost every thing is yet to be done, and 
 no talent is too great to lay the foundations of 
 the native church for all time. If any one 
 will duly consider the obstacles he has to en- 
 counter, the antagonists he has to meet with, in 
 
58 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 the Brahman and learned Hindu Sastri, he must 
 either be a very uncommon man, or have an 
 overweening opinion of himself, if he thinks the 
 contest below his powers. Were he to confine 
 himself to the most simple form of missionary 
 labor, preaching to the adults in the streets and 
 houses, and wherever he might find them, he 
 need not be afraid lest the work should not tax 
 all his powers, and employ, in some form or 
 other, all his talents. One of the most accom- 
 plished men known to the writer, who holds a 
 scholarship of one of the universities in England, 
 is employed as an itinerant preacher to the na- 
 tives, and he who might perhaps in England 
 have aspired to a bishopric, is content to be a 
 missionary. 
 
 A facility in acquiring languages, a readi- 
 ness of adaptation to circumstances, capacity 
 of improvement rather than mere acquisition 
 already secured, a well-trained rather than fully 
 stored intellect, the power of learning in pref- 
 erence to some fixed amount obtained, and, 
 above all, common sense, are desirable ; but ex- 
 cept the first, need not, perhaps, be insisted on 
 for the foreign missionary more than for the 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES A MISSIONARY CALL. 59 
 
 minister at home ; and the same remark would 
 apply to almost all the moral qualifications. 
 
 A very useful missionary, who has now been 
 nearly twenty years in India, and has acquired a 
 good and practical knowledge of one of the ver- 
 nacular languages extensively spoken, came 
 out to the country with only the training of a 
 saddler. 
 
 As the subject of qualification must, how- 
 ever, be considered at some length, in speaking 
 of preparation for the work, what is already said, 
 may perhaps suffice in determining a call to it. 
 
 Opportunity. — This may be, in the case of a 
 female, an invitation from a missionary to ac- 
 company him as a wife, or an opening for her 
 to go single to occupy some specified sphere of 
 usefulness. In general, it is not desirable that 
 a young lady should go to India, unless some 
 family is prepared to receive her and give her 
 a home, or some post is vacant which she is 
 needed to fill. Undoubtedly the society in 
 England for the promotion of female educa- 
 tion in the east, has done much good by send- 
 ing out suitable persons, even when they 
 had no definite work to give them, for they 
 
60 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 have thus provided suitable wives for many 
 missionaries needing them ; but this could not 
 be imitated to any extent in America, and 
 young ladies sent out single, without a pro- 
 tector and a definite object, might be exposed 
 to many annoyances. But when invited to go 
 as a missionary's wife, or to occupy some im- 
 portant post as a single laborer, it is certainly 
 a call in providence, which should be well 
 considered. Nor should parents or other 
 relatives interpose between the subject of 
 such a call and her Saviour, except by way 
 of advice. The mother even, if she has dedi- 
 cated her daughter to the Lord in sincerity, 
 cannot step in and reclaim her, if there be 
 reason to think that He called her. No such 
 reserve was made in the dedication. The 
 mother did not say " Take this, my daughter, 
 she is thine and not mine ; but do not send her 
 away from me on a mission to a distant land. 
 Take her, but preserve her alive, and keep 
 her near me, in my native country, and cause 
 her to be comfortably settled here, or I cannot 
 dedicate her to thee ; or, send her away from 
 me, if it be thy will, but do not send her 
 
WHAT CONSTITUTES A MISSIONARY CALL. 61 
 
 over sea or to savages." No, Christian mother, 
 this was not your dedication, it was without 
 reserve, or it would have been a mockery, and 
 you cannot make conditions now. Study 
 only to know what the will of the Lord is, in 
 regard to your precious child, and do that 
 cheerfully, or you withhold from God his 
 own, and must suffer the consequences of this 
 sacrilege, perhaps in the early loss of what 
 you cannot voluntarily resign. Whosoever 
 keepeth back part of the price, as did Ana- 
 nias and Sapphira, must expect some judg- 
 ment. Instances have occurred in which a 
 daughter has been kept back from a mission, 
 only soon to die at home. 
 
 In case of a man, the opportunity may be 
 not only a freedom from engagements, which 
 would prevent his going, but a providential 
 opening and invitation. There may be suffi- 
 cient reason at any time for his instituting the 
 inquiry as to his duty, and every candidate 
 for the ministry must do so at some time in a 
 solemn manner, and settle the question so as 
 to satisfy his conscience, if he would have 
 peace in after life ; but there are some seasons 
 6 
 
62 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 when, from the general want of laborers, or 
 from the uncommon necessities of some mis- 
 sion, or, it may be, the visit of some missionary 
 or other agent in the work, there is a special 
 call in providence to take up the question of 
 personal devotement to a foreign mission. Let 
 such an opportunity be considered as from the 
 Lord, and treated accordingly ; and let every 
 one presume that, inasmuch as many are needed 
 abroad, and few are willing to go, there is a 
 providential call upon him, unless he can show 
 good reason to the contrary. 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS. 
 
 In thus speaking of a call to the work, 
 I have adverted briefly to some physical 
 and moral qualifications, which of themselves 
 may constitute a presumptive call. Whether 
 natural or acquired — as being already pos- 
 sessed — they form a preparation of condi- 
 tion for the work. There are others which, if 
 not already possessed, may be acquired or cul- 
 tivated. The present want of them, therefore, 
 whether more or less important, should not be 
 
QUALIFICATIONS. 63 
 
 considered as excusing any one from the 
 undertaking. 
 
 1. Ardent Piety. — This is most important, 
 for without it the missionary — no longer sur- 
 rounded by those who love God, or aided by 
 favoring influences from without — may find 
 himself too much inclined to halt in his reli- 
 gious course. Most persons, moving with the 
 current of public opinion in a Christian land, 
 kept in countenance by those around them, 
 and shielded in the warm bosom of the Church 
 from all chilling blasts, know little how much 
 of their piety is adventitious — the piety of 
 circumstances. 
 
 Let them be stripped of these aids — let them 
 find themselves called to contend against pub- 
 lic opinion exposed to the ridicule and mockery 
 of the open enemies of their God and Saviour, 
 and they will also find themselves much less 
 efficient soldiers of Christ than they had sup- 
 posed. Without ardent piety in the heart, the 
 exertions of such would be likely to diminish ; 
 and especially would this be the case of any 
 one who should be much alone in his field, and 
 who, if he faints, has no one to hold him up. 
 
64 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 It is generally supposed that the situation 
 of a missionary to the heathen is peculiarly 
 favorable to growth in grace. If he be a true 
 man, who has renounced home and country for 
 Christ's sake, and is not actuated by any ro- 
 mantic or ascetic views, or by love of change, 
 or desire of distinction, his circumstances are 
 in some respects favorable. He is relieved 
 from undue care as to his pecuniary support, 
 he has no longer any competition with others 
 for place or salary, he is removed from scenes 
 of party and denominational strife, he is, or 
 ought to be, in a good measure dead to the 
 world ; but he carries with him the remains of 
 his depraved nature; he can find, if he seek 
 them, opportunities for controversy with his 
 brethren or others ; the climate, or ill-health, or 
 other circumstances may expose him to indo- 
 lence; want of success may discourage him; and 
 the great enemy — into whose. strong-holds ho 
 has ventured — may attack him with such fiery 
 darts, that without the shield of faith, vigor- 
 ously upheld, he will be staggered in his 
 course, if he do not fall. Swimming against 
 the stream, and without aid from others, if he 
 
QUALIFICATIONS. 65 
 
 has life in himself, and daily and constantly 
 looks to God for strength, he will make pro- 
 gress ; and the circumstances most unfavorable 
 will be turned to good account, by leading 
 him to trust more implicitly in the Lord, and 
 to cease from man. Being cut off from other 
 help, and shut up to dependence on Divine 
 aid, he may truly walk by faith. But if he be 
 dead or asleep, he will be carried down the 
 current, helpless of progress for himself, in the 
 right direction, and useless to those to whom 
 he was sent. 
 
 2. Zeal, or earnestness of purpose. — The mis- 
 sionary should be an earnest man. There is 
 enough, undoubtedly, to make him earnest, 
 but he must cultivate this spirit, that he may 
 magnify his office. There is no occasion for 
 making the work of a foreign missionary so 
 peculiar as to exclude from it persons of com- 
 mon zeal, supposing that the love of Christ 
 really constrains them, and that they have a 
 zeal for God — and not some lower motive — in 
 entering the ministry ; but it must not be con- 
 cealed that there is this peculiarity in a foreign 
 mission, that it shows what men are more than 
 6* 
 
66 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 most positions at home ; where want of earnest- 
 ness in a minister may be remedied in part by 
 that of his elders or deacons, or other members 
 of his church. Active habits, arising from 
 true zeal for the honor of God and the salva- 
 tion of souls, are most important in a mis- 
 sionary. 
 
 3. An accommodating disposition. — By this is 
 not meant a softness which prevents one 
 from forming and expressing an opinion con- 
 trary to others. On the contrary, self-reliance 
 and decision of character are very necessary 
 in one who must often be left to settle very 
 grave questions on his own responsibility, and 
 cannot have the help which ministers at home 
 may have from their fellow Christians — hav- 
 ing none around them but heathen and mere 
 babes in Christ — but it is meant that there 
 should not be a dogged, crotchety, and imprac- 
 ticable temper. Such a crooked stick as will 
 not lie straight, nor even keep its place, how- 
 ever laid, but turn up some corner whenever 
 pressed, is not fit for the missionary pile. At 
 the same time a sense of some deficiency in 
 this respect, or conviction of the want of good 
 
QUALIFICATIONS. 67 
 
 temper, should not discourage any one who, 
 mourning over his short-comings, endeavors 
 to correct them at the foot of the cross. 
 " What is crooked cannot he made straight' 7 
 in one's own strength, or by others ; but 
 " what is impossible to men, is possible with 
 God." 
 
 4. Cheerfulness of mind. — Too much stress 
 need not be laid upon this. It is only neces- 
 sary that a melancholy habit, or giving way to 
 depression of spirits, be guarded against. A 
 misanthropic missionary is an absurdity. His 
 very calling supposes that he loves his fellow- 
 men ; and the more of a tender, loving, genial, 
 sunny spirit he has, the more useful he is 
 likely to be. 
 
 There are some, however, who are melan- 
 choly, not from sourness of temper, or want of 
 interest in the happiness of others, but from 
 desponding views of themselves, and of their 
 own acceptance with Grod. Surely this can be 
 remedied by faith and prayer. It must not be 
 indulged. A great part of the duty of a mis- 
 sionary is to give his testimony for Christ. He 
 is a witness. He must speak of that which he 
 
68 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 lias " tasted and handled of the Word of 
 Life.' 7 If he cannot, he can do but little. 
 His words will fall powerless upon those who 
 know not God, if they come not from the 
 heart, and if he cannot say, " I know in whom 
 I have believed." A little boy, when ridi- 
 culed for worshiping an unseen God, said, 
 " You worship a god whom you can see, an 
 idol made by hands, but we worship the God 
 whom we cannot see, because He is a Spirit, 
 but who made us and all things." The Hindu 
 says, "Show us your God," and asks, "Have 
 you seen him ?" The missionary must be able 
 to say, " As He is a Spirit, I cannot show him 
 to you, as you show your dumb idols, which 
 have no spirit ; but I have seen him by the 
 eye of faith, and you, too, may see him when 
 the eyes of your understanding are opened." 
 He must, therefore, seek the "full assurance 
 of faith." The trumpet in his hand must not 
 give an " uncertain sound." It is still much 
 as it was when our Saviour said, " According 
 to your faith be it unto you." 
 
 Cheerfulness is important, as it gives birth to 
 a hopeful spirit, which tends to counteract the 
 
QUALIFICATIONS. 69 
 
 depressing influences too often affecting the 
 missionary in his work. A habit of looking 
 on the bright, rather than the dark side of 
 things, is to be cultivated — at least, of taking a 
 perfectly fair view of them in the light of 
 reason and of Scripture, of remembering that 
 the work is the Lord's, and of hearing the 
 voice which still says, "What art thou, 
 great mountain, before Zerubbabel ? thou shalt 
 become a plain." 
 
 5. Humility. — As a fundamental grac§ in the 
 Christian character, wonderfully displayed by 
 the first and great missionary of the cross, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, this is in every respect im- 
 portant ; but I would speak of it particularly as 
 opposed to ambition, or a desire of pre-emi- 
 nence, rather than to pride. We may take it 
 for granted that one who is anticipating the 
 missionary work, or already engaged in it, is 
 convinced that he should not give place to 
 vanity. It is wholly opposed to all proper 
 views of such a work. Also, that he is not 
 knowingly governed by pride. But through 
 the selfishness which all have, and the effect 
 of that emulation which is usually so much 
 
70 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 encouraged in education as a stimulus to effort, 
 there are too many, even among missionaries, 
 who, like Diotrephes, love to have the pre- 
 eminence. Undoubtedly if two persons are on 
 a horse one must be before, and so, in most 
 other positions, where several are together, 
 some one or two naturally take the lead. Some 
 minds are formed to lead, and others to follow. 
 If all but properly feel that they are parts of 
 one body, and that every one, whether the 
 hand pr foot, should only seek to do his part 
 well, there will be no schism. The foot will 
 be found as necessary as the hand ; and all the 
 members will have mutual sympathy, if all 
 have true humility ; but pride, being overbear- 
 ing and dictatorial, makes fatal divisions in the 
 body. 
 
 The right-minded missionary, whatever may 
 be his relative position among his brethren, 
 will cultivate true humility of spirit. He will 
 remember the teaching of our Saviour, who 
 " pleased not himself;" and that he placed a 
 little child in the midst of his disciples, saying, 
 ""Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself 
 as this little child, shall be greatest in the 
 
QUALIFICATIONS. 71 
 
 kingdom of heaven." He will not seek dis- 
 tinction among his brethren, except as useful- 
 ness requires it, and not covet the " honor 
 which cometh from men,' 7 but that which 
 " cometh from God only." 
 
 6. Contentment — It is very important that 
 the missionary learn in whatever state he is, 
 therewith to be content. A roving, unsettled, 
 discontented disposition will be fatal to his 
 usefulness. He must not mind high things, 
 but condescend to men of low estate. His 
 language must be, " Seekest thou great things 
 for thyself, seek them not." He must, indeed, 
 covet earnestly the best gifts. He must long 
 for higher degrees of usefulness. He must 
 forget the things that are behind, and press to- 
 ward the mark for the prize of his high call- 
 ing ; but as to this world, he must be content 
 with such things as he has, and with the labor 
 to which God has called him. Let him have 
 this well settled in his mind, that he has been 
 placed in his office by the Holy Spirit : that 
 he has not taken it of himself ; that he is really 
 where his Lord and Master would have him 
 be, and is really doing that Master's work, and 
 
72 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 not his own, and lie may rest in that content- 
 ment. He need not be anxious about results, 
 but only to do his duty ; he need not envy 
 those around him living at ease, who though 
 not superior to him in qualifications, receive 
 ten, or twenty, or thirty times his salary ; or 
 remember with regret opportunities for ad- 
 vancing himself in the world which he left at 
 home. No, he will be content to be conformed 
 to Christ in his humiliation, that he may be 
 prepared, and instrumental in preparing others, 
 to be received at length to glory. Such a con- 
 tentment will make a missionary happy and 
 useful in all conditions. The peace of Grod, 
 which passeth all understanding, will keep his 
 heart and mind through Christ Jesus. 
 
 7. Thankfulness. — This is one step beyond 
 mere contentment, and is important to the 
 missionary who would " be strong in the Lord 
 and in the power of his might." "Whoso 
 offereth praise, glorifieth me, and to him that 
 ordereth his conversation aright, will I show 
 the salvation of God." This is the gracious 
 assurance to a thankful spirit. No one needs 
 to understand and to feel its strengthening in- 
 
QUALIFICATIONS. 73 
 
 fluence more than a lone-laborer among the 
 heathen. He must ask, "Who hath despised 
 the day of small things?" He must learn the 
 command, " In every thing give thanks." Per- 
 haps most Christians are deficient in this re- 
 spect ; but a foreign laborer must take special 
 care that he is not. If he have a musical turn 
 it will be of much use. If possible, he should 
 sing ; he should cultivate and practice music, 
 at least so as to chant and sing by himself. He 
 should cherish a love for children, and all the 
 bright and joyous objects of nature. No man 
 or woman will be likely to do well in a foreign 
 field who does not love children, who has 
 not simple tastes, who is not joyous, who is 
 not thankful. 
 
 Preparation. — Study of Medicine. — Some 
 have thought that when circumstances allow, 
 a candidate for foreign service should study 
 surgery and medicine. To unite a knowledge 
 of the method of healing both body and mind, 
 is undoubtedly an advantage to a missionary 
 anywhere, as the greater the qualifications, the 
 more useful one may be ; but in India, gener- 
 ally, he will not be obliged to depend on his 
 
74 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 own medical or surgical knowledge, there be- 
 ing professional men maintained by govern- 
 ment, at all the principal stations. Besides, it 
 is the practice of most missionary societies to 
 send a well-read and practical physician to 
 each of their large missions. As no one can 
 excel in every thing, it is usually best to make 
 a division of labor in this, as in other respects; 
 and depend principally on the doctor of the 
 mission, or of the station, for medical and 
 surgical aid. At the same time, every mission- 
 ary should study enough on these subjects, to 
 render needed help to his own family, and 
 those around him, in common ailments ; and 
 especially should he inform himself so far in 
 physiology and the laws of life, as to under- 
 stand the best means of preserving life and 
 health, and know that he ought not to take or 
 give much medicine. Prevention is better 
 than cure, and it will be generally sufficient if his 
 knowledge is in that direction and his pharma- 
 copoeia extend little further than to common 
 family medicines. Perhaps, on the whole, as 
 many are injured in India by the excess of med- 
 icines, especially the more powerful mineral 
 
QUALIFICATIONS. 75 
 
 drugs, as by the want of them, and except in 
 special cases the less one takes, or gives of 
 them, the better. Let a missionary learn 
 enough to wait upon nature, and assist her 
 operations, and it will be sufficient. The Hin- 
 dus have very generally a pernicious habit of 
 giving medicines to persons in health, to pre- 
 vent sickness, and of giving different drugs 
 mixed together, that some of them may suit the 
 disease. It is well to know enough to correct 
 such tendencies. 
 
 Music and Drawing. — The cultivation of a 
 musical taste, as already hinted, will be well, 
 and a knowledge of drawing, where there is 
 any turn for it, will often be found useful, as 
 well as pleasing. 
 
 The best methods of teaching, of conveying 
 truth to the minds of the young and old, 
 should be carefully studied, and the principles 
 which should govern the infant-school, Sun- 
 day-school, Bible-class, and seminary of every 
 kind, be as far as possible understood, as also 
 the difference between teaching and educating. 
 The training system, in its main features, should 
 be well mastered. 
 
76 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 Commencing the Language. — It lias sometimes 
 been a question whether the language of the 
 people to whom the missionary is going, may 
 not be profitably studied at home. If there 
 be a teacher and books, and the time of the 
 candidate allow,. there will be a great advan- 
 tage in thus beginning the study. A little 
 knowledge gained, will be a stock to which he 
 may add on his passage, and with which he 
 may commence business at once on his arrival. 
 As to one of his principal difficulties, the pro- 
 nunciation of the language, he may not learn 
 much, and what he does learn, some part, per- 
 haps, he will find afterward he must unlearn ; 
 but he will still find almost any attainment in 
 this respect a real gain. The greater facilities, 
 however, of studying on the ground, espe- 
 cially in regard to the pronunciation, should 
 prevent any one from remaining at home for 
 the alone purpose of studying the language, 
 under the idea that a better climate will 
 counterbalance these deficiencies. It will not 
 by any means, and if other occupations and 
 employments do not interfere — as is too often 
 the case in India — there will usually- be no 
 
QUALIFICATIONS. 77 
 
 hindrance there to -vigorous application to the 
 study and gradual use of the language. 
 
 Marriage. — There is another item of pre- 
 paration, more important than any which has 
 been mentioned, and that is, getting married. In 
 regard to pioneer-missions, and missions to the 
 more savage parts of the world, it may often be a 
 question whether the missionary would better 
 not be single. As to India, the rule should be 
 to marry, and the exceptions should be in the 
 case of such as have no need, or who wish to 
 confine themselves to itinerant labors. In 
 most cases what was said by an African chief 
 will apply: " Double-handed men are wanted." 
 The help of the wife is needed in various 
 ways — in almost every way. There is much 
 teaching to be done in which she may aid — 
 the native women are to be approached in a 
 way in which she only can get access to them 
 — the relations of a Christian family are to be 
 illustrated, and domestic life in a proper form 
 exemplified. With all this, the wife is needed 
 for the comfort, counsel, and aid of her hus- 
 band ; and usually one half that he does, may 
 
 be fairly put to her credit. This the writer 
 
 7* 
 
78 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 has heard again and again stated by mission- 
 aries whose wives deserved all the com- 
 mendation. 
 
 But if one going to India as a laborer should 
 be married, may he not go out single and 
 marry there, or return for a wife? This is 
 often done by the English missionaries. It 
 has the advantage of leaving them, free from 
 family cares, while they apply themselves to 
 the language, and get initiated into their work. 
 It also enables them to prove the climate, and 
 test their qualifications, at less expense than if 
 they were married ; and perhaps for those from 
 Europe, who have more facilities for going 
 back and forth than Americans have, and 
 more favorable opportunities than they for 
 forming connections in the country, it may 
 often be very well. 
 
 But there are some advantages in the hus- 
 band and wife going at the same time, and be- 
 ginning together with all the freshness of their 
 first zeal and devotedness to a work new to 
 them both. There is more mutual counsel, 
 their habits are formed more in unison, and 
 even in getting the language and knowledge 
 
DEPASTURE. 79 
 
 of the customs of the country, they both suc- 
 ceed as well or better when thus united. The 
 expense and loss of time for one from America 
 to return so soon as he will probably wish to 
 do, will also operate against any general cus- 
 tom of those going out single who intend to 
 marry. 
 
 Departure.— Leaving one's home and coun- 
 try, probably for life, is an important and 
 serious event. If, indeed, as suggested to be 
 generally advisable, and as is now often done, 
 the missionary return on a visit at the end of 
 twelve or fifteen years, should he be spared so 
 long, it will not be literally for life. But if he 
 thus return, it will not be to all that he left. 
 Many whom he loved will have gone, and 
 those that remain will be much changed. So 
 will most of the places that he left. He comes 
 home to feel himself a stranger. The friends 
 whom he has kept embalmed in his memory 
 just as he left them, are not the same whose 
 images he has been cherishing and loving. 
 He, too, is changed, and though respect and 
 affection may on both sides remain, it is not 
 as though he had continued and grown 
 
80 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 old with his loved ones ; and, after a short 
 visit, he is generally desirous of hastening 
 back to his adopted home, and to the familiar 
 forms there. He does, therefore, practically, 
 and in the beginning, leave all for life. Such 
 should be his own devotement. Except in 
 some extreme case, no one should go out for a 
 limited time. If he do this, by the time he has 
 gotten the language — which, however, as to be 
 used only for a season, he may not have a suffi- 
 cient motive to get thoroughly — and obtained 
 some knowledge of the people and acquaint- 
 ance with the work, he will begin to think 
 about leaving, and be preparing for his depart- 
 ure. All should intend to spend their lives 
 in the work. This is a serious undertaking, 
 and should not be lightly attempted. 
 
 Looking at the enterprise in this view, it 
 cannot be made to resemble so much the labor 
 of the minister at home as some would contend 
 it should be, or be governed altogether by the 
 same maxims; there is a peculiarity in it, which 
 should be duly considered both in the choice 
 and prosecution. 
 
 For the choice, as already intimated, there 
 
PROSECUTION OF THE WORK. 81 
 
 should be proper qualifications, and a call re- 
 sponded to with the whole heart. When the 
 inquiry comes, " Whom shall we send?" the 
 response must be from the inmost soul, ' Here 
 am I, send me.' Yes, send me far away from 
 home and country. I cheerfully bid them a 
 long farewell, from my love to my crucified 
 Saviour and the perishing heathen. Yea, wo 
 is me if I preach not the Gospel on a foreign 
 shore." 
 
 For the prosecution, besides such prepara- 
 tions as have been hinted at, it may be well, if 
 circumstances allow, to visit friends and the 
 churches somewhat extensively, so as to have 
 a deeper place in their affections and prayers. 
 There should also, of course, be a proper pre- 
 paration for the passage to India and settlement 
 there. 
 
 A moderate outfit for the four months at sea 
 and the first landing, will be necessary, ac- 
 cording to lists furnished from the Missionary 
 House, or by experienced persons. Generally 
 the outfit prepared is too large ; and almost 
 always, more or less of it ill chosen. The 
 articles should be principally those adapted for 
 
82 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 a warm climate, and be of a good quality. 
 Unless under good advice as to what will 
 be needed, money should not be laid out 
 on wearing apparel, crockery, household uten- 
 sils, furniture, etc., as various articles can 
 be procured at either Presidency in India, 
 cheaper than in America. At any rate they 
 will usually be better adapted to the country, 
 and therefore the money paid for them be 
 profitably kept to expend there. Whenever 
 the outfit is furnished by friends, of course it 
 is different ; but one thing should be known, 
 that the washing in India is done by dip- 
 ping the clothes in water, and beating them 
 on a stone, or with a board, and that this 
 requires garments of a strong texture, and 
 sewing in double seams, or overstitched, with 
 wide hems, so as not to fret out. 
 
 For the passage, if in an American ship, 
 with few companions, it is not necessary to 
 provide so many changes as for the English 
 vessels, going or coming. In all the larger 
 passenger ships of the better class, the passen- 
 gers must appear neat at breakfast, and dressed 
 for dinner, as in a hotel at home, or else be 
 
PASSAGE. 83 
 
 thought shabby; which imputation need not 
 frighten any from their propriety, but must be 
 taken into the account in deciding on the out- 
 fit needed. 
 
 Passage. — Hints for those unaccustomed to 
 the sea, are usually given by the Secretaries 
 and Committee who have the responsibility of 
 sending out missionaries, or by some one act- 
 ing for them ; and need not be here enlarged 
 upon. They will learn that it is important to 
 make themselves acquainted with the rules of 
 the ship, and abide by them, whether as to 
 putting out their lights at night, not speaking 
 to the men while engaged in working the ship 
 — especially the helmsman at the wheel — not 
 going forward among the seamen, without lib- 
 erty, etc., etc. They should ask permission 
 of the captain for any services which they may 
 wish to hold, except those in their own cabin 
 or cabins, and it will be proper, at a suitable 
 time, when at sea, and all things are ship- 
 shape, to ask leave, if not invited to do so, to 
 preach to all on board. If circumstances al- 
 low, they should also have, from the first, 
 morning and evening prayers, for such as may 
 
84 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 like to attend, in the cuddy, or principal 
 cabin. Should the captain have no objection, 
 such services may be held ; and also a blessing 
 asked at table. In some cases tact will be re- 
 quired to bring these things about, and wis- 
 dom will be profitable to direct. There must 
 not be an over-eagerness even to do good, lest 
 it should defeat its object ; and if the captain 
 be found averse, or even indifferent, the mis- 
 sionary should bear in mind that he cannot 
 claim such privileges as a right, but ask them 
 as a favor ; with due regard also to the fact 
 that the captain must be supreme on board 
 ship ; and that he may, if of inferior education 
 — except in his profession — be jealous of 
 learned missionaries. Some knowledge of 
 human nature, much forbearance, perhaps, and 
 abundance of zeal, may be necessary in the 
 missionary, to enable him to do all that might 
 be done, in teaching the seamen in Bible- 
 classes, and preaching the Gospel to them 
 as well as to the officers and passengers, and 
 thus making a good beginning of his mis- 
 sionary work. One thing he can always 
 do without interruption, and that is pray. 
 
ARRIVAL. 85 
 
 Let him, then, on the passage, occupy himself 
 much in prayer. 
 
 Arrival — If this be, as usual, at either- of 
 the Presidencies, there will be missionaries, 
 either from America or Great Britain, to 
 receive the new-comer. If not from his 
 own Society, he should not feel that he has 
 any claim upon them, but they will be ready 
 to assist him in finding proper lodgings. 
 There is great hospitality in India, especially 
 in the country where, except on some trunk- 
 road, there are no taverns and no places 
 of entertainment or shelter except the bunga- 
 lows provided by government, containing 
 two or three rooms each, with table, couch, 
 and chairs ; and where water, milk, and per- 
 haps eggs, or a fowl, may be obtained by 
 help of the peon, who guards the building. 
 Most of the provisions, with means for cooking, 
 must be furnished by the traveller himself; 
 who is something like a turtle, carrying his 
 house on his back. The residents, at out- 
 stations, consequently expect that wayfarers, - 
 of any respectability, will make free to come 
 to their houses when passing, and though 
 8 
 
86 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 utter strangers, they are always cordially re- 
 ceived. It is usual, however, to get a letter 
 of introduction, or to send on notice of such 
 contemplated intrusion. In the large towns, 
 and especially the Presidencies, the case is dif- 
 ferent; because comfortable lodgings can be 
 procured with money. Yet missionaries are 
 always ready to receive their brethren, though 
 of other denominations, or from another coun- 
 try ; when circumstances admit. But, as be- 
 fore said, the new-comer should not, because 
 he is a missionary, feel that he has a claim 
 upon the hospitality of any, if not from his 
 own society. He should be grateful for at- 
 tentions and aid, and it will be well if he be 
 ready to receive advice from those able and 
 willing to advise him. It sometimes happens 
 that newly-arrived missionaries, because more 
 recently from home than those before on the 
 ground, consider themselves better informed, 
 even on subjects connected with the work 
 abroad. With them, as with most others, 
 few are willing to profit fully by any ex- 
 perience except their own. The writer was 
 once conversing with Dr. Marshman, the col- 
 
ARRIVAL. 87 
 
 league of Carey and Ward, in the Serampore 
 mission, when the doctor expressed his regret 
 concerning the course taken by some newly- 
 arrived missionaries of their own society. 
 The question was asked, "Why not advise 
 them better ?" The answer was, " It would 
 be of no use, every one must learn for him- 
 self." There was much truth in the remark, 
 but it should not be applied without limita- 
 tion, and was not probably so intended. 
 Young missionaries are sometimes unwilling 
 to learn, and old missionaries unapt to teach 
 in the most acceptable and conciliatory man- 
 ner. On the side of the former, may be 
 want of due deference, perhaps from a sense 
 of superiority except as regards experimental 
 knowledge ; and on the other, too much dog- 
 matism. A strong-minded missionary, not 
 long after his arrival in the country, some- 
 times said, "They talk about need of ex- 
 perience ; I think some men learn more in 
 a few months, than many others do in several 
 years." He, however, when he became an ex- 
 periencec] missionary, found that, in some 
 things, he had yet to learn even from others. 
 
88 HINTS 0N T INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 There is no subject, perhaps, of which a prac- 
 tical, in distinction from a theoretical knowl- 
 edge, is more important. Almost every thing, 
 to the young missionary, is new and strange, 
 and not only apparently, but really different 
 from what he has been accustomed to, or has 
 imagined. He must, therefore, whatever his 
 ability or attainments, content himself for a 
 time with being a learner. He should keep 
 his eyes and ears open, and his mouth shut, 
 except to use every word and sentence of the 
 vernacular language which he can lay hold of 
 and make his own. He should be quick to 
 observe, yet reserved in communicating his 
 opinions to his friends at home, on any doubt- 
 ful points. His pen may, however, be well 
 employed in giving facts and descriptions 
 of what he meets with in so strange a coun- 
 try. The freshness of first impressions have 
 much value, and may well be conveyed in his 
 letters home and his journals ; but he must be 
 cautious of making his still immature judg- 
 ment a decider of controversies, as to the 
 methods of conducting the missionary work. 
 He should also guard, both on reaching his 
 
AEEIVAL. 89 
 
 own field and before entering it, against hasty 
 decisions as to the success of his brethren and 
 other missionaries. The work in India is 
 still, to a great extent, preparatory, and some 
 are more engaged in this part of the labor 
 than others, not the less usefully because with 
 less apparent results. In building a small hut, 
 there is little need of a foundation, but if you 
 are to erect a cathedral or castle, you should 
 dig deep and bury in the earth huge masses 
 of masonry, costing great labor. Even before 
 this is done, you have, perhaps, to clear the 
 ground, not only of briars and thorns, and un- 
 der-brush, but of tall and deep-rooted trees, 
 and the remains of former buildings. To one 
 who visits the scene of this labor, when the 
 structure is scarcely risen above the surface 
 of the ground, little may seem to be accom- 
 plished ; especially if the materials gathered 
 for the edifice, and scattered on all sides, are 
 left unnoticed, as well as the foundation which 
 is buried. There are two sources of error to 
 the newly-arrived missionary — one is, that he 
 cannot well understand the difficulties over- 
 come ; and the other, that he cannot at once 
 
90 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 comprehend all which, notwithstanding those 
 difficulties, has been accomplished. Let him, 
 then, " be swift to hear, and slow to speak." 
 
 PRESEEVATION OF HEALTH. 
 
 A hint or two respecting this, may be here 
 given. It will be well also to take the advice 
 of experienced men as to many other points. 
 Most, perhaps, who go to India, are inclined 
 to think that they can do there much as they 
 have been accustomed to do at home — that 
 they can eat, and drink, and labor, and expose 
 themselves to the sun, as they have done in a 
 temperate climate. They are partly confirmed 
 in this notion, after arrival, by finding the 
 sensible heat less than they expected, less per- 
 haps, than they have sometimes felt at home ; 
 and forgetting that it is the continuance of the 
 heat without intermission, as much as its inten- 
 sity, which makes it debilitating, they fancy 
 that fear of it is idle, and the effect of indo- 
 lence. They are not going to make a bug-bear 
 of over-fatigue ; they are not intending to 
 worship the sun, or to be afraid of his beams ; 
 and while they have an appetite they think it 
 
PEESEKVATION OF HEALTH. 91 
 
 proper to eat and drink. If anywhere, how- 
 ever, it is important to remember the maxim, 
 " Be temperate," it is in India. This extends to 
 every thing. All excesses are injurious to a 
 degree they cannot be in a colder climate. 
 Even in regard to application to study, and 
 the labors of the mission, every one should at 
 first be content to make haste slowly. 
 
 As to eating and drinking, a sea appetite 
 and habit are perhaps brought on shore, and 
 tempting means of gratifying it may be af- 
 forded. Let the new-comer then put a knife 
 to his throat, ." if he be a man given to ap- 
 petite," especially as to much indulgence in the 
 fruits of the country, until he learns what he 
 can bear. Erom one part of the pleasures of 
 the table, most dangerous to those inclined to 
 over-indulgence — the use of alcoholic drinks — 
 it is to be hoped that missionaries in general 
 need have no reason to fear, because of total 
 abstinence from them. Time was when they 
 were thought peculiarly necessary in a hot 
 climate. Those times of ignorance have pass- 
 ed away, and it is better understood than it 
 was, that ice and cooling drinks are better 
 
92 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 adapted to temper the fervency of the sun, 
 than alcoholic potations, which inflame the 
 blood. Yet many very many men, and even 
 women, entering the country with the brightest 
 prospects, find a premature grave from this 
 cause. Nor are the victims to intemperance 
 in eating few or far between; although the 
 cause of their wreck of health is less obvious. 
 Over-fatigue should be carefully avoided, be- 
 cause it is more exhausting than in a temperate 
 climate, and because the consequent debility 
 is less easily remedied. One can afford to be 
 more extravagant of health, where the loss is 
 easily repaired. In India the repair is too 
 difficult to warrant any excesses. Uniform, 
 steady, systematic, and cheerful effort, will 
 effect more in the end, and be much safer than 
 spasmodic exertions, leading to over-action. 
 Too much rapidity is unfavorable to health, 
 and defeats its own object. At the same time 
 let no one plead for inactivity, or make the 
 climate an apology for indoleace. It affords no 
 excuse. There is no reason for men or women 
 rusting out in India, more than in any other 
 country; though perhaps more do rust out than 
 
■COMMENCING LABOR. 93 
 
 wear out, either in mind or body, or both. 
 The climate is not unfavorable to steady and 
 continued exertion. Most persons can with, 
 temperance and moderation do as much there 
 as elsewhere, and perhaps live as long. 
 
 Exposure to the sun for any length of time 
 must be avoided, when it is near meridian. 
 Its direct rays are too powerful for any but 
 African or Asiatic heads. One of the most 
 promising missionaries perhaps, that ever en- 
 tered the field in India, Adams, a friend of the 
 lamented Urquhart, found an early grave at 
 Calcutta, by injudicious exposure of himself 
 to the sun ; against doing which, he was abund- 
 antly warned. He thought the missionaries 
 too fearful, and used to stay in the bazaars to 
 preach until ten or eleven o'clock, and come 
 home with a wet handkerchief in his hat ; but 
 his head still burning with heat. Thus he soon 
 burnt out. It is better to do as did Bishop 
 Turner of Calcutta, whose ill health obliged 
 him to be careful, and who was accustomed to 
 say, " I have learned in India to pay great re- 
 spect to the sun." 
 
 Commencing Labor. — As already intimated, 
 
94 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 the first business is to acquire a practical and 
 ready knowledge of the spoken language, and 
 the second is, to use it constantly, to preach in 
 it, talk in it, think in it, dream in it, and make 
 it one's own. 
 
 One of the best methods of obtaining it 
 practically, is by constant use of words and 
 sentences, one after another, by little and little, 
 in the midst of abundant blundering. " By 
 erring we learn,'' and one must be content to 
 be thought a blunderer, and flounder away 
 continually, only being willing to be set right. 
 He must not be like the man who would not 
 go into the water until he had learned to swim. 
 No mistake can be greater than this. He will 
 never learn to speak, if he confine himself to 
 his books, until he has learned to speak cor- 
 rectly. He will find after all his study that 
 his words do not come in the right place, or 
 with the right sound, and he will be ashamed 
 after a while to make the attempt. At first all 
 sorts of blunders are expected, and overlooked 
 by speaker and hearer, but after one has been 
 studying for months and years, he dares* not 
 attempt to speak, unless he knows he is right, 
 
ACQUIRING THE LANGUAGE. 95 
 
 and therefore usually keeps his mouth shut ; 
 whatever he may do with his pen. On this 
 account, if one does not get a good start in 
 the vernacular the first year, he is likely never 
 to get it ; and study at home, however useful, 
 does not take the place of study on the ground 
 and among the people. 
 
 While thus the common dialect of the people 
 is attained, and employed, books, and what 
 forms the poetic or high dialect in most Eastern 
 languages, should not be neglected. On the 
 contrary, the high dialect should be learned 
 thoroughly, if circumstances allow. If there 
 be a talent for languages, the Sanscrit, which is 
 the parent of most of the dialects and the com- 
 mon treasury from which all draw, may well 
 be studied. The Tamil, for instance, though 
 not a daughter of the Sanscrit, differing from 
 that divine language, as it is called, in gram- 
 mar, and in its rules of combination, yet bor- 
 rows from it nearly all its abstract terms, and 
 words connected with religion and science. 
 As it is the language of the Vedas, and that, 
 in which all the sacred books of the Hindus 
 were originally written, it is held in great 
 
96 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 veneration. One who can quote from it is 
 supposed to have the key to all religious mys- 
 teries, and to be a suitable guide to inquirers ; 
 but without this knowledge, confidence cannot 
 be claimed. He who understands Sanscrit can 
 meet the brahmans on their own ground, and 
 go round them ; for most of their number 
 only know enough of the language to say their 
 muntra and recite such sentences as occur in 
 their ceremonies. They do not themselves all 
 read their sh asters.- The missionary who does 
 this, has the advantage, even of the brahmans ; 
 he also, by this means, increases his knowledge 
 of the vernacular in the same manner as by the 
 stud;)| of Latin, he obtains a better mastery of 
 the English. 
 
 Forms of Labor. — These will be determined 
 in general for the missionary, by instructions 
 from the officers of the society under which 
 he acts, or some agent appointed by them. 
 This is proper, because they represent those 
 who have contributed the fund by which the 
 missionaries are supported, and who have a 
 right, in some way, to direct how those funds 
 shall be expended. At the same time, while 
 
ORGANIZATION. 97 
 
 the society and its officers, as representing 
 those who contribute the funds for the mission, 
 have a right to decide, in the main, what shall 
 be done, the missionary who gives himself 
 to the work, and is not to be regarded as a 
 mere hireling, fully rewarded by having a liv- 
 ing, should have a voice also in the decision. 
 This is the more necessary as every missionary 
 is not alike fitted for every kind of service^ 
 and it is important to study the adaptation of 
 the workman to his work. If you make one 
 an educationist who knows not how to teach, 
 or send another on an itineracy among the 
 heathen, who is only qualified to nurse young 
 converts, or do the work of a pastor, you have 
 not the right man in the right place ; and may 
 spoil a good missionary by not giving him a 
 suitable field for his energies. 
 
 It is therefore desirable that while the gen- 
 eral course of the missionary should be marked 
 out by those who send him forth, the details 
 of operation, and casting of the parts, should 
 be left very much to those on the ground. 
 
 Organization for conducting Operations. — The 
 societies of the Church of England for con- 
 9 
 
98 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 ducting missions in India, have committees in 
 the country, to direct these missions, with aid 
 of the bishop. These are composed of intel- 
 ligent friends of the cause, both clergymen 
 and laymen, not missionaries. The advantage 
 of this is, that the committee, being independ- 
 ent and impartial, and the members residing 
 at some centre of information — where they 
 may also meet and confer together — have bet- 
 ter opportunities for directing affairs wisely, 
 than perhaps some of the missionaries them- 
 selves, and better certainly than those some 
 thousand miles distant. They moreover afford 
 a guarrantee to the public, that the money 
 given shall be properly expended; and their 
 advice and direction may be of use where 
 missionaries have not experience, or are not 
 agreed among themselves. 
 
 The disadvantages are, that the operations 
 of the missionary may be needlessly hampered 
 by a committee at a distance from him, who 
 have no practical knowledge of the work, and 
 perhaps no special interest in it, while his own 
 sense of responsibility will be weakened in pro- 
 portion as his independence is destroyed. 
 
PLAN OF OPERATIONS. 99 
 
 The plan followed by the other societies 
 is, to give the management of details into the 
 hands of responsible missionaries. The London 
 and Wesleyan Missionary Societies direct their 
 operations by a committee of the whole, or 
 sometimes of a part, of the missionaries of the 
 district. In the case of the Wesleyan, there is 
 a superintendent of the missions, but he acts in 
 concert with a committee of all the missionaries 
 from Great Britain, who meet him once a year, to 
 arrange the manning of the stations, the forms 
 of operation, and the distribution of the funds. 
 
 The London missionaries have also a com- 
 mittee, composed of most of their foreign 
 laborers, to which those brought forward in 
 the country, whether English or East Indian, 
 are eligible by election ; but it is not a matter 
 of course that all the ordained missionaries 
 should be members, especially if natives. The 
 object is to have such a body as can be trusted 
 by the directors at home, and therefore it must 
 be usually composed of those sent out by them. 
 This committee, composed of laborers scattered 
 over a given district, settle questions relating 
 to their operations, in circulation, receive their 
 
100 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 funds through a financial secretary, and meet 
 occasionally for more important business, as 
 circumstances may require. They are severally 
 more independent of each other, and more im- 
 mediately connected with the directors at home, 
 than are most American missionaries with the 
 committees of their societies. 
 
 The missionaries of the American Board are 
 united in larger or smaller missions, which, 
 with plans of polity, more or less definite, 
 regulate all the particulars of their work. 
 They are usually composed of several families — 
 say from three to twelve — -situated so near each 
 other, as to be able to give mutual aid in sick- 
 ness, and in their work, to meet for counsel 
 and, for devotional purposes ; and, at stated 
 times, to come together for the transaction of 
 the business of the mission. 
 
 With such a mission a physician is usually 
 connected, who has the medical charge of all 
 the families, and employs himself also in mis- 
 sion-work, as he may be able. Such a mis- 
 sion ; composed of men worthy of their place, 
 personally engaged in active operations, ac- 
 quainted with the native character, and the 
 
PLAX OF POLITY. 101 
 
 capabilities and wants of the field, are better 
 able to direct all the details of operation than 
 any committee at a distance can be ; and it has 
 been the policy of the Board to leave, with 
 proper limitations, the appropriation of the 
 funds granted to the mission — the arrange- 
 ment of stations — and the different forms of 
 operation, very much to those missions. The 
 Prudential Committee in America only re- 
 quire that carefully-prepared estimates of funds 
 needed be sent to them in season for their an- 
 nual grant of allowances, and that these, duly 
 passed by the mission, be accompanied with 
 reasons for any expenses out of the common 
 course ; that accounts of all expenses be sent 
 them yearly, and that journals and statements 
 of labor be regularly transmitted to them. 
 On this plan the details of operation are set- 
 tled by the missions ; and as to the general 
 course of procedure, and the objects to be 
 kept in view, the opinion of the missionaries 
 has always had much weight. May the time 
 be far distant, when it shall be thought they 
 are not to be trusted, and when a desire for 
 centralization shall seek to connect them indi- 
 9* 
 
102 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 vidually and directly with the Committee at 
 home, instead of binding them as missions in 
 united bodies firmly to the Prudential Com- 
 mittee and the Board. Any thing unfavorable 
 to that union among the missionaries them- 
 selves which gives real strength, is to be 
 deprecated, so long as they are worthy of 
 their trust. If they use their strength im- 
 properly and rebel against the Board which 
 supports them, the remedy is at hand in the 
 withdrawal of support. Segregating them, or 
 preventing union for good, is to defeat the 
 object for which they were sent out. Let 
 a mission be worthy of support and capable 
 of self-government, and then let it be left 
 to depend on the Society which supports it for 
 such an amount of funds as they can show 
 reason for asking, in view of the ability of 
 the Society, and the wants of the whole field ; 
 and then under general directions, and in ac- 
 cordance with the estimates submitted, let them 
 distribute their allowances, and prosecute their 
 work on their own responsibility. Too much 
 legislation, whether at home or abroad, is to 
 be earnestly deprecated. 
 
 There will, from time to time, be special 
 
PLAN OF POLITY. 103 
 
 questions to refer to the Committee at home, 
 such as the return of missionaries, or the tak- 
 ing up of new stations, purchase of lands or 
 houses, altering the course of labor, etc., which, 
 if time allow, should be referred home ; and 
 which — as in the purchase of premises — may 
 probably be specially reserved for that pur- 
 pose in the instructions given; but these 
 should be referred by the mission, and not 
 by individuals. It is only when individuals, 
 or the minority of a mission, have grievances 
 to present which their brethren refuse to re- 
 medy, that an appeal should be entertained. 
 If every idle story of discontented missionaries 
 be listened to by the Home Committees, 
 much good time, which should be spent in mis- 
 sion-work, will be lost in useless discussions, 
 destructive of temper, peace, and brotherly 
 love. It will be as if, in a family of children, 
 instead of being taught to settle their little 
 differences among themselves, with kind feel- 
 ing, they be allowed to criminate each other be- 
 fore their parents, and each strive to make his 
 own appear the better cause ; and when thwart- 
 ed in any thing to say, " I'll go and tell 
 
104 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 mamma." Indeed, when mamma is near at 
 hand, this may be easy, and proper enough, 
 "but not if across the waters. 
 
 Forms of labor. — To determine these, we 
 must keep in view the object to be gained. 
 This is the extension and permanent estab- 
 lishment of the true religion — including the 
 conversion of souls, gathering converts into 
 churches, placing over them native pastors, 
 and introducing all the ordinances of the 
 Gospel. A witnessing, aggressive, and self- 
 supporting Christianity is to be introduced; 
 and collaterally a healthy civilization, with 
 proper social and domestic institutions, hav- 
 ing "sweet homes" for their nucleus. 
 
 The cultivation of the arts and sciences, and 
 the general worldly prosperity of the people 
 to whom the missionary is sent, he may en- 
 courage in a subordinate manner, but not so 
 as to interfere with his great object. He may 
 be thankful if he can show that " godliness is 
 profitable unto all things, having the promise 
 of the life that now is, as well as of that which 
 is to come," but it must be by teaching those to 
 whom he has access, " to seek first the kingdom 
 
FOKMS OF LABOR. 105 
 
 of God,' 7 in the assurance that "all these 
 things shall be added unto them." 
 
 It has often been contended that we must 
 civilize before we can Christianize a people. 
 Brainerd did not do so among the western 
 Indians. He made known to them, as he found 
 them, the love of Jesus, and many were melted 
 to repentance. The Moravians did the same 
 among the Greenlanders. Undoubtedly civil- 
 ization, to a certain extent, should go hand in 
 hand with Christianity. Had Brainerd, who 
 in fact had a school, possessed the means of 
 forming his Indian converts into settled com- 
 munities, of establishing permanent schools 
 among them, and teaching them something of 
 agriculture and the common arts of civilized 
 life, the results of his labors would have been 
 more enduring. Among a savage and scat- 
 tered people, it is necessary, in some way, to 
 bring them together, before the gospel can be 
 proclaimed to them with full effect. Settle- 
 ments may therefore be formed, as they have 
 been in Southern Africa by all the different 
 missionaries. One of the oldest of this num- 
 ber, a pioneer among several of the tribes of 
 
106 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 the interior, told the writer of these hints, that 
 he had often travelled a hundred miles, and seen 
 only two or three persons. When thus scat- 
 tered, undoubtedly, to do much good, some 
 means must be taken to bring them together, 
 and give them a " local habitation." But ail 
 the tribes, even of Africa, are not scattered, 
 and in India there is no occasion for forming 
 settlements to bring people together, or of 
 teaching those arts necessary for the existence 
 of compact communities. The difficulty is in 
 getting entrance into such communities, and 
 of securing a proper hearing for the gospel 
 message, for which preaching, schools, and the 
 press are used. Let us, then, consider a little 
 in detail these different methods. 
 
 I. Pkeaching. — It need scarcely be said, be- 
 cause generally admitted, that the preaching 
 of the gospel, in the more strict and proper 
 application of that phrase, is usually the first 
 and principal duty of a missionary to the 
 heathen. " It pleases God by the foolishness 
 of preaching to save them that believe." We 
 must not, however, understand by this the 
 enunciation of a regular sermon from some 
 
PREACHING. 107 
 
 text of Scripture. " Preaching is proclaiming 
 God's Word, and causing the people to under- 
 stand the sense," with personal application of 
 moral truth to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God.* " Christ often preached sitting 
 by the sea-side, and sometimes upon a moun- 
 tain. Philip preached to the eunuch of Ethi- 
 opia, while seated with him in a chariot ; Peter 
 preached to Cornelius and his kinsmen in a 
 private dwelling-house ; Paul and Silas to the 
 jailor and his household in the middle of the 
 night ; Paul disputed, or, more properly, 
 preached daily in the school of Tyrannus ; 
 and so may the missionary at the present 
 day preach whenever and wherever he can 
 find even one to hear him. He may preach 
 in a school-house, either to the members of a 
 school, or others; but it should be kept in 
 mind that the ordinary work of a teacher in a 
 secular school is not preaching, "f 
 
 As to the manner of preaching to the Hin- 
 dus, that of our Saviour to the Jews is the 
 best model — as dealing largely in Scripture, 
 and being often historical and parabolic. The 
 
 * Rev. L. Spaulding f Rev, J. Herrick. 
 
108 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 Hindus reverence the authority of Scripture, 
 as they do that of any ancient writings, though 
 they do not believe the Bible as the only in- 
 spired revelation of God ; and they are quick 
 to understand a comparison, a historical illus- 
 tration, or a parable in any shape. A single 
 text of Scripture, or line of poetry from their 
 own books, will often go farther than a long 
 discourse, especially if the logic of the dis- 
 course be at all abstract; and a proverb or 
 parable is with them better than an argument. 
 As intimated above, there are .different places 
 for preaching, and discourses may be of very 
 different kinds. 
 
 Street and Bazaar Preaching. — Many exalt 
 this beyond its proper value, and others think 
 of it too lightly. Generally there is not much 
 reason to hope for saving results from a single 
 proclamation of the gospel to those entirely 
 ignorant of its nature, and who are opposed to 
 its requirements. The Spirit may bless a 
 single word, and inquiry at least may be ex- 
 cited, which may lead to good results. Some- 
 times the street or bazaar may be the only 
 place in which a missionary can preach. 
 
STREET AND BAZAAR PREACHING. 109 
 
 Where there are large gatherings of people, 
 as at some fairs, and at the principal temples 
 where festivals are celebrated, something may- 
 be done by missionaries, or their assistants, if 
 well qualified to address tumultuous audiences. 
 A stand may be taken a little apart from the 
 immediate vicinity of the procession ; and 
 tracts and books may also be distributed to 
 some advantage. It is better, however, to dis- 
 tribute tracts and books to the people, as they 
 are leaving for their homes, rather than while 
 remaining near the temple. It is better also on 
 such, festival occasions, when great multitudes 
 are collected, and all are " mad upon their 
 idols," to take a shed or room in some retired 
 place, to which such as are inclined may have 
 easy access, and there speak to them in small 
 companies. The writer has done this, going 
 into a room large enough, to accommodate 
 thirty or forty at a time; and admitting by 
 turns those wishing to come in, addressing 
 them as long as seemed best, giving each a 
 tract or portion of Scripture, and then dismiss- 
 ing them. In this way the fragrant name of 
 
 Jesus may be " as ointment" poured forth, and 
 10 
 
110 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 a testimony given to the truth. It is not al- 
 ways labor lost or time misspent, but neither 
 the missionary nor his friends must measure 
 his usefulness or prospects of success by the 
 numbers he may thus address. He may speak 
 to hundreds or thousands, on these or other 
 occasions, and yet produce very little impres- 
 sion. 
 
 Speaking at and in private houses. — The 
 Apostle Paul, in recounting to the elders of 
 Ephesus his labors, could say, " I have taught 
 you publicly and from house to house." This 
 is an improvement on street or bazaar preach- 
 ing, where it is practicable. It is by "line 
 upon line, and precept upon precept" princi- 
 pally, that saving results are to be expected. 
 There is also much advantage in personal ap- 
 plication of the truth. When large numbers 
 are addressed, each, perhaps, hears for another, 
 and not himself; at any rate the truth is so 
 divided among many, that no one may feel its 
 point in his own breast. In visiting from 
 house to house, and speaking in a more private 
 manner to individuals, or to a small company, 
 there is a better opportunity of repeating the 
 
ITINERATING. Ill 
 
 impression, and also of sending the arrows of 
 conviction directly to the heart. In going 
 from house to house, there may be often diffi- 
 culty in getting access to the inmates of high 
 castes, especially in cities. The females are 
 nearly inaccessible to a missionary. His wife 
 may venture where he cannot, in attempts to 
 approach the more secluded classes, but they 
 must be operated upon at first principally 
 through the children, and to some extent by 
 books. 
 
 Itinerating. — That the gospel may be ex- 
 tended abroad, and " preached as a witness," 
 missionaries must often go on tours. In every 
 large mission it would be well to have one or 
 two whose principal business should be to 
 itinerate. The Church Mission in Tinnevelly 
 is favored in having, at this time, no less than 
 three men of superior qualifications, devoted 
 to itinerant labors, within and beyond the im- 
 mediate sphere of the mission. One of these 
 has already been referred to as holding a 
 scholarship in an English university, which is 
 adequate to his support, and enables him to 
 devote himself to this work without charge to 
 
112 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 his society. He was for some time the secre- 
 tary of their committee in Madras, and there 
 studied the Tamil language. Though most 
 acceptable as an English preacher, and in a 
 station of influence at the presidency, he was 
 obliged to leave for England, on account of 
 ill-health, and on his return, instead of resum- 
 ing those duties, he chose to become an itin- 
 erant with two other young brethren, who 
 were sent out by the society for the purpose. 
 Their labors have already done much to excite 
 the native church to emulation, in the same 
 work ; and more than one individual from 
 among the converts may be pointed out al- 
 ready as engaged, at least some part of the 
 time, in carrying the gospel without charge to 
 the " regions beyond." 
 
 It must not be left, however, entirely to 
 itinerants devoted to that work, to sound forth 
 the gospel. Every missionary whose health 
 and circumstances allow, should, at least occa- 
 sionally, go on tours. It will usually be con- 
 ducive to his bodily health, and do much to 
 keep alive his missionary spirit, and enlarge 
 his views of the work ; while it will directly 
 
ITINEEATING. 113 
 
 promote the object for which he lives and 
 labors. 
 
 In prosecuting this work, it will be well if 
 the tourist can repeat his visits at intervals, to 
 the same place, and stay long enough in every 
 principal town or village to form some real 
 acquaintance with the people, and to follow up 
 any impressions which may be made. The 
 American missionaries in Bombay, who have 
 had a good deal of experience in this depart- 
 ment of the work, say in their report to the 
 late deputation of the board : 
 
 " A great amount of time and labor have been 
 expended in making tours, and preaching to 
 the people of distant villages, towns, and cities. 
 These labors were commenced soon after the 
 arrival of our missionaries at Bombay, and 
 have been continued at all our stations, more 
 or less, ever since. These tours have been more 
 distant, extending sometimes to three hundred 
 miles from the residence of the missionary ; 
 or they have been made to a particular field 
 where interest has been manifested and where 
 the object has been to follow up the impres- 
 sions previously made by the truth ; or they 
 10* 
 
114 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 have been made to neighboring villages, where 
 the missionary, having pitched his tent at some 
 central place, holds daily religions services 
 there and visits the villages immediately 
 around, and after a few clays passes on with 
 his tent to another central village. Each of 
 these modes of making tours is attended with 
 some peculiar advantages. It seems important 
 that the missionary should stay long enough 
 in a place to see whether any interest is devel- 
 oped in any mind in connection with his 
 preaching, and wherever any interest appears 
 to be excited, to follow it up with further in- 
 struction ; and it is important also that repeated 
 visits should be made to places where the Holy 
 Spirit seems to be working on the minds of 
 men. By thus co-operating with Grod, follow- 
 ing where He leads, and laboring where his 
 providence directs, we may expect the most 
 satisfactory results of our labors. And where- 
 ever several individuals are converted to God, 
 there a native catechist should be placed, and 
 the interest extended as far as possible ; and 
 new centres of light being thus established one 
 after another, we may hope for the more rapid 
 
PKEACHING IN ZAYATS AND SCHOOLS. 115 
 
 diffusion of the knowledge of the gospel 
 through the whole country around. In all 
 our endeavors to preach the gospel it seems 
 very important that the providences of God 
 should be watched and carefully followed, and 
 although hopes may often be disappointed, yet 
 God will not let his Word return unto him 
 void. We know not which shall prosper this 
 or that, but we may rest assured that some 
 seed shall spring up and bear fruit to the praise 
 of his glory." 
 
 Preaching in Zayats and Schools. — By the 
 former is understood some house or room on a 
 thoroughfare, where a missionary may spend 
 so much time as he may have at command for 
 the purpose, in speaking on the subject of the 
 great salvation to such as may call ; and preach 
 at stated times to those who may there be col- 
 lected together. At the schools, he also has a 
 similar opportunity, and has the advantage of 
 some part of an audience in the scholars. 
 This latter form of labor was very much fol- 
 lowed in Ceylon, when the writer was there, 
 and the scholars often induced their parents. 
 
116 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 especially their fathers, and sometimes their 
 mothers, to attend. 
 
 Concerning this, the Rev. L. Spaulding says, 
 in his report on preaching : 
 
 "In connection with our village schools, our 
 method has been to make an appointment, 
 (statedly or occasionally, as the case may be), 
 and to require the teacher to give notice of the 
 meeting. Our native assistants make that vil- 
 lage the field of their labor for that day, going 
 from house to house, reading tracts or portions 
 of the Bible, conversing with all they meet, 
 and giving notice of the evening meeting. 
 The missionary himself, as often as health and 
 other circumstances will allow, joins in this 
 previous preparation. At early candle light- 
 ing, the people assemble at the bungalow. Our 
 practice may vary a little, but generally the 
 meeting is opened by prayer and by reading a 
 portion of the Bible. Some leading truth in 
 the portion read is then taken for the subject, 
 and the missionary and one or two of his 
 native assistants address the assembly, using 
 explanations, parables, applications, exhorta- 
 tions and appeals, with all the fearlessness and 
 
PREACHING IN SCHOOLS. 117 
 
 confidence of 'thus saith the Lord.' Ques- 
 tions are answered, and the meeting is closed 
 with prayer. 
 
 " The place of these assemblies has not been 
 confined to the village school-house. Head 
 men and others who have a convenient place 
 for such a gathering, not -unfrequently invite 
 us to hold meetings in their own compounds, 
 or readily accommodate us when requested. 
 In many places the shade of a great tree or an 
 open field has been found even better than the 
 school-house for such gatherings, when the 
 weather would permit, and the bright moon- 
 light invited. * * * 
 
 "Simple oral declaration of the Word of God, 
 by way of sermons or exhortations, as an 
 agency by itself, has not appeared to have 
 been distinguished above other departments 
 of missionary work in the conversion of men. 
 God has blessed us ' in all we have put our 
 hand unto,' and every day's experience has 
 convinced us that the people 'need to be 
 taught what be the first principles of the 
 oracles of God, and have need of milk and 
 not of strong meat.' Hence the necessity of 
 
118 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 frequent interviews with such children, youth, 
 and adults, as seem inclined to listen, for in- 
 struction, exhortation and prayer. Whether 
 preaching, teaching, or discipling, this has been 
 our great work — our united supplication. * * * 
 
 " Greatly encouraged by past experience, 
 your committee would urge upon the attention 
 of each missionary, pastor, and catechist, the 
 great advantage of frequent and personal visits 
 to individuals for reading the Bible, for con- 
 versation and prayer. 
 
 " This is considered a most efficient mode of 
 making known the gospel. It fastens the nail 
 in a sure place. Christian schools, when the 
 Bible is made the principal text-book, may do 
 much to remove prejudice and superstition. 
 The eye and soul of the missionary in address- 
 ing assemblies and congregations, have done 
 and may do much more to impress Divine 
 truth on the minds of this dark-hearted and 
 deceitful people. But, personal and frequent 
 application of the truth seems absolutely 
 needed, in order to arrest the attention suffi- 
 ciently to secure the object. * * * 
 
 "We should ever keep in mind, that 'the 
 
PREACHING IK SCHOOLS. 119 
 
 race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the 
 strong.' Until the Spirit of God moved upon 
 the face of the waters, the world could not be 
 organized ; so until the Spirit of God descends 
 to melt and remove the love of ungodliness, 
 which has so freely flowed and petrified over 
 the masses of India for these four thousand 
 years, we cannot expect plants of righteous- 
 ness to grow up into the garden of God. We 
 have laid the wood on the altar. We have 
 divided the sacrifice into various parts, and 
 laid them on the wood. We have looked up 
 to the Lord God of Israel for the manifestation 
 of his presence and power. We have seen 
 the fire kindle again and again, in times of 
 precious revivals, and our hearts have cried 
 out with weeping joy, ' Behold, now is the ac- 
 cepted time ; behold, now is the day of salva- 
 tion ;' but some blast from Baal, or the letting 
 down of the hands of Moses, has quenched 
 the kindling flame, and left only here and 
 there a few live coals. But even this has been 
 exceedingly encouraging, as it shows how easy 
 it will be for God to flood the whole land with 
 his glory, as we have seen his presence in our 
 
120 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 schools ; and these live coals, when collected 
 together, may help to kindle the whole pile, 
 and show 'how great a matter a little fire 
 kindleth.' But until our prayers become 
 more importunate, and our dependence on the 
 means employed more despairing, the fire from 
 heaven will not descend to consume the sacri- 
 fice ; the prophets of Baal will not be slain ; 
 nor the people unite in the exclamation, ' The 
 Lord, he is the God ! the Lord, he is the 
 God! 7 " 
 
 There can be no doubt that this is a promis- 
 ing method of making known the gospel, and 
 its influence in the schools may be increased by 
 calling upon some of the pupils to sing stanzas 
 showing the folly of idolatry, or excellence of 
 Christianity, or to recite, in presence of those 
 assembled, some of their Scripture lessons. 
 The Hindus are very fond of poetry, and any- 
 thing addressed to them in songs is heard 
 with pleasure, and thought to have authority. 
 This plan was pursued in a zayat at Chintadre- 
 pettah in Madras, and some cases of inquiry, 
 and conversion were the result. The preacher 
 may also, in such places, and even in the church 
 
PREACHING IN CHURCHES. 121 
 
 on the Sabbath, use more or less the catechet- 
 ical method in his addresses and sermons, call- 
 ing for a repetition of what he has said, or 
 putting questions to ascertain if it be under- 
 stood. This serves to awaken curiosity and 
 excite interest. 
 
 It has been objected that these schools do 
 not help to form permanent congregations. If 
 by these is meant nominally Christian com- 
 munities, or villages separate from the central 
 church, at which the missionary resides, it has 
 not been usually attempted, as perhaps it should 
 have been earlier ; but that they do not form 
 audiences and congregations, consisting of 
 many of the same persons, from month to 
 month, and even year to year, is not true. The 
 object in such cases has generally been, not to 
 gather the people attending preaching in these 
 schools into permanent congregations, but from 
 them to receive into the church at the station 
 such as may appear to be converted. The way 
 has been prepared, however, for forming also 
 Christian congregations or villages. 
 
 Preaching in Chapel, Church, or Meeting- 
 house. — Wherever, or however else the gospel 
 
 11 
 
122 HINTS OK INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 is made known, some suitable stated place of 
 worship, where the minister may not only pro- 
 claim his message without interruption, and 
 officially lead his people in prayer and praise, 
 but administer the ordinances of baptism and 
 the Lord's Supper, is quite essential. For the 
 sake of the heathen, he needs this to show 
 what Christian worship is, and for the sake of 
 the converts he needs it, that they may join 
 in such worship to the best advantage. There 
 is also a special promise of Grod to be pleaded, 
 for He has said, "In all places where I record 
 my name, I will come unto thee, and I will 
 bless thee." 
 
 The Deputation say : 
 
 "We have been led to attach great import- 
 ance to the maintenance of regular preaching, 
 in some one place, at each station, on the 
 Lord's day ; and to its being done forenoon 
 and afternoon. It may require long time and 
 the auxiliary influence of all the other forms 
 of preachiog, to procure and sustain even a 
 small congregation for this service. But the 
 tone of the enterprise cannot be kept suffi- 
 ciently high without it. The missionary him- 
 
PKEACHING IN CHURCHES. 123 
 
 self needs it. He needs the preparation, the 
 effort, the reacting influence upon his own 
 mind and heart. He needs a service where he 
 can speak, ex-cathedra, as an ambassador, 
 authoritatively, without the humiliation of 
 rude objections and foul abuse. And the 
 native Christians need it, twice on the Sab- 
 bath. They need the full development and 
 force of God's own institution; of regular, 
 well studied exhibitions of the plan of salva- 
 tion, and of their duty as Christians. They 
 cannot be elevated as they should be without 
 it. Prayer-meetings, conferences, conversa- 
 tional preaching, etc., etc., they will need 
 abundantly; but they can never attain their 
 full stature as Christians, without the regular, 
 stated, formal preaching of the Word. Such 
 preaching on the Sabbath is of the last im- 
 portance to the success of the mission. It 
 distinguishes and honors the Sabbath. It is 
 one of the grand recuperative powers in a mis- 
 sion. The heathen see the missionary then in 
 his true place and dignity. They may not 
 often go to hear him, but they will know that 
 there is a place and a time, when he speaks 
 
124 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 and when, none may reply, when he assumes 
 authority to speak where it is the sole busi- 
 ness of all present to hear. Nor would we 
 ever admit that at such times, one may inter- 
 rupt with objections, nor even with inquiries. 
 Thus we would make the Sabbath directly 
 auxiliary to the preached word ; and claim for 
 it and for Christ's ministers on such an occa- 
 sion, the weight and authority, which belong 
 to the one as the Lord's day and to the other 
 as the Lord's ministry." 
 
 This is well said. Although there is no 
 longer a priesthood, distinct from the Church 
 itself, but every believer is a king and a priest 
 unto God, and there is but one great High- 
 priest in heaven, who has entered into the holy 
 of holies for us all, yet " He has given some 
 apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and 
 some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of 
 the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the 
 edifying of the body of Christ ;" and the native 
 Church should have the advantage of this min- 
 istry in its completeness. The office of apostles 
 and prophets has ceased with the attainment of 
 the design for which these were given— the es- 
 
ENGLISH HIGH SCHOOLS. 125 
 
 tablishment of Christianity — but that of the 
 others remains, and should never be in abey- 
 ance. Any missionary who knows by ex- 
 perience the difference between speaking in 
 the streets, or even in more favorable places, 
 to heathens, or other unconverted persons, and 
 preaching to a regular audience, in which 
 there are some to sympathize with him, and 
 where all are at least quiet, and where he may 
 have the devotional exercises of prayer and 
 praise, knows that these adjuncts are necessary 
 to give his preaching its fullest effect ; and there 
 are few missionaries who, without such aids, 
 can continually labor only with ridiculing idol- 
 aters, without finding his spirit drying up, and 
 even his intellect becoming dwarfish. A mis- 
 sionary, somewhat isolated from the world, 
 needs to have all his energies periodically 
 drawn out and fully exercised, in order to 
 keep them properly alive. 
 
 II. Schools. — In examining this form of 
 operation, we must bear in mind that great 
 diversity of opinion exists regarding them 
 even among missionaries, and still greater 
 
 among their most intelligent supporters. We 
 11* 
 
126 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 will examine briefly the different kinds of 
 schools. 
 
 English High Schools. — Most, probably, are 
 aware that the Scotch missionaries, more 
 than twenty years ago, commenced English 
 High Schools on a large scale for the native 
 youth at Calcutta and Bombay ; and soon 
 after, also, at Madras ; and still more recently 
 at Nagpore. In Calcutta Dr. Duff was at the 
 head of this movement, and expressed publicly 
 his opinion that it was the only one calculated 
 to reach the Hindus, especially those of the 
 higher classes, effectually. In fact, he then 
 contended, though he seems to have altered 
 his views somewhat since, that the natives 
 generally must be taught in schools before 
 much could be done among them by oral 
 preaching; that they were not a people pre- 
 pared to receive the Gospel, and could not be 
 expected to understand it. In regard to the 
 importance of English in the system of teach- 
 ing, in preference to Sanscrit, which, with the 
 vernaculars, had the advocacy of the Seram- 
 pore missionaries in the plan of their college, 
 he had been anticipated by the American 
 
ENGLISH HIGH SCHOOLS. 127 
 
 missionaries in Ceylon in the prospectus of a 
 seminary in Jaffna. These had shown that 
 while Sanscrit for the Hindus could only be 
 compared in value to Latin for the European 
 — both having, as dead languages, yielded up 
 most of their treasures to living tongues — a 
 knowledge of English would be a key to open 
 nearly all the treasures of European literature, 
 art and science. 
 
 The institutions for teaching the English 
 language and Western science in connection 
 with the vernacular, and with the Bible, as a 
 constant text-book in religion, thus com- 
 menced by the American and Scottish mis- 
 sionaries on a broader basis than had before 
 been attempted, have accomplished very 
 marked results, especially among the middle 
 and higher classes of natives, whether Hindu, 
 Mohammedan, or Parsee. Establishments sim- 
 ilar to the Scotch schools, which were for day 
 scholars, while those in Jaffna were princi- 
 pally for boarders, have been commenced 
 by the missionaries of other societies also, 
 in most of the large towns of India. The 
 London Missionary Society, the Wesleyan 
 
128 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 and the Americans, all have High Schools 
 like those of the Scotch. Much has already 
 been effected by them; as much, perhaps, as 
 could be rationally expected, considering the 
 obstacles to be surmounted. The folio wing- 
 statement of what has been done in Madras 
 by the missionaries of the Free Church of 
 Scotland, furnished to the Madras Missionary 
 Conference, gives a favorable specimen of the 
 fruits of this kind of labor. 
 
 " Their mission, now in the eighteenth year 
 of its existence, commenced with the Chris- 
 tian education of the rising generation of the 
 Hindus and Mohammedans with a view to their 
 highest interests, both for time and eternity. 
 The avowed object, from the outset, was con- 
 version, and every branch of knowledge taught 
 in the school, whether English or vernacular, 
 was made subservient to this end. The mis- 
 sionaries, from the beginning, had two grand 
 objects in view. First, they pressed home on 
 the consciences of their pupils the gospel as 
 taught in God's Word, day by day, in season 
 and out of season, with the view of bringing 
 them to Christ, preaching, not only in English 
 
SCOTCH SCHOOLS. 129 
 
 to the educated few, but through interpreters 
 in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindustani, to their 
 pupils, and all who came within their in- 
 fluence. It was thus that the first three mis- 
 sionaries, after four years' labor, laid, by God's 
 blessing, the foundations of the mission, with- 
 out detriment to a single branch of the secular 
 education taught along with the Word of God. 
 Second, they trained up from the converts 
 whom Grod gave them native Christian teach- 
 ers and preachers, that the benefits of a sound 
 Christian education and the blessings of the 
 gospel of Christ, might be. effectually diffused, 
 not only through the medium of English to 
 the few, but of the vernacular languages, 
 Tamil, Telugu, and Hindustani, among the 
 masses of the Hindu and Mohammedan com- 
 munities. 
 
 a From the central institution in Black 
 Town, four offshoots, or branches, have sprung, 
 the most recent of which was begun nearly 
 fourteen years ago. These branch schools are 
 at Conjeveram, Chingleput, Nellore, and Trip- 
 licane, all stations of great importance, as nu- 
 clei of missions, and as regards the spread of 
 
130 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 the gospel among the Hindus and Mohamme- 
 dans around. Through these channels the 
 mission has, from its commencement, supplied 
 a superior Christian education to upwards of 
 eight thousand young Hindus and Moham- 
 medans of the more respectable classes and caste 
 families, inclusive of eight hundred Hindu 
 girls of caste. The minds of very many of 
 these pupils have been deeply imbued with 
 the vital doctrines, and with the promises and 
 precepts, of (rod's "Word, explained to them, 
 while under instruction in their own tongues, 
 as well as in English. The leaven of the gos- 
 pel has thus been carried into the bosom of 
 thousands of Hindu families, impervious to 
 direct preaching, by those who will themselves 
 hereafter be the heads of families. Who can 
 foretell the results when the Spirit breathes on 
 the Word and quickens souls into life by it ? 
 
 u Since 1842, the gospel has been directly 
 preached in Tamil, and Telugu, by converted 
 Hindus, to their countrymen, statedly at Ma- 
 dras, and periodically at all the out-stations of 
 the mission. The schools are in fact preaching 
 houses, where the European missionaries, 
 
SCOTCH SCHOOLS. 131 
 
 through interpreters, or in English, to the 
 advanced scholars, and the native mission- 
 aries and catechists in their own vernacular 
 tongues, have preached Christ to all the pupils, 
 and to many thousands of adults, not a few 
 of them belonging to the higher castes and in- 
 fluential classes of native society, who could 
 not have been reached by the gospel in any 
 other way. 
 
 " As to the material on which the mission- 
 aries daily operate : — in the Central Institute 
 at Madras, and its four branches, there are 
 at present on the roll upwards of two thousand 
 two hundred and fifty scholars, nearly two 
 thousand of whom are daily in attendance. 
 The pupils vary in age from six to fifteen, 
 twenty, twenty-five, and thirty ; embracing 
 every caste from the brahman to the pariah. 
 About a hundred and eighty of the male 
 pupils are brahmans, and two hundred are 
 Mohammedans. Upwards of six hundred are 
 Hindu girls, mostly of caste, with a small 
 number of Moslem girls. On each of these 
 pupils, according to their age and circum- 
 stances, the gospel is pressed home at stated 
 
182 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 periods by the missionaries, European and 
 native ; and by the native Christian teachers 
 and catechists. It thus appears that, though 
 the missionaries began with Christian educa- 
 tion and preaching daily in their schools to 
 the young, they did not end there ; but preached 
 the gospel to many of the parents and rela- 
 tives of their pupils, as well as to other influ- 
 ential adults, in circumstances highly favorable 
 for impression. 
 
 " To raise up a qualified and thoroughly- 
 equipped native agency, to teach and preach 
 Christ, has been, from the first, one of the 
 chief ends of the mission. After five years 
 of anxious training, during which they acted 
 as catechists, the Eev. P. Eajahgopaul, the 
 Eev. A. Venkataramiah, and the Eev. S. Et- 
 tirajooloo, the last of whom is now laboring at 
 the Nellore station among the Telugus, were, 
 in 1846, licensed to preach the gospel, and 
 three years ago ordained. They preach and 
 make known the gospel to every class of their 
 people of both sexes, in three languages ; 
 in Tamil and Telugu, to all who understand 
 these languages, and at stated seasons in En- 
 
SCOTCH SCHOOLS. 133 
 
 glish, not only to Europeans and East Indians, 
 but also to educated natives, both. Christian 
 and heathen. These three native ministers 
 have, since 1842, preached in the native 
 tongues, five years as catechists, five years as 
 licentiates, and three years as ordained mis- 
 sionaries of the Free Church. It is encourag- 
 ing to note that every Sabbath, day they preach 
 in Tamil and Telugu, to increasing audiences 
 of Hindus and Mohammedans, averaging, 
 throughout the year, upwards of twelve hun- 
 dred. This they do at Madras, where, after a 
 native Sabbath-school is held for an hour, the 
 native Christian congregation statedly assem- 
 bles ; at Triplicane, where, after the Sabbath- 
 school, there is a preaching-house open every 
 Sabbath day on the great Mount Eoad tho- 
 roughfare, in which the gospel is proclaimed 
 for hours in Tamil and Telugu, by a native 
 minister and catechists, to Hindus, and in 
 Hindustani to Mohammedans, by two Moham- 
 medan converts ; and at Nellore, by the Eev. S. 
 Ettirajooloo, in Telugu, in the hall of the 
 School-house, after an hour has been spent in 
 teaching the Sabbath-school. Of these twelve 
 
184 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 hundred hearers, a very large number are 
 Hindu adults with a fair proportion of Moham- 
 medans. The rest are boys and girls and edu- 
 cated young Hindus belonging to the schools 
 of every caste and class from the highest 
 to the lowest grade of native society. The 
 mission thus preaches the gospel to every 
 class of the people, and it at times has been 
 so carried home, in demonstration of the Spirit 
 and of power, as to convulse the Hindu com- 
 munity at Madras, and to evince in some of 
 the conversions both of males and females 
 from different classes and castes, that the doc- 
 trine of Christ and him crucified has proved 
 itself, as of old, the power of God to salvation, 
 and has been felt to be aggressive. 
 
 " The native Christian congregation at Mad- 
 ras is mainly the fruit of teaching and preaching 
 in the schools, both on week and Sabbath 
 days. It has increased since 1841 from three 
 Hindu young men, as first-fruits, to upwards 
 of a hundred converts male and female, of 
 whom more than sixty are communicants. A 
 large proportion of this number were brought 
 into the church from respectable caste families 
 
SCOTCH SCHOOLSv 135 
 
 at Madras and the "branch schools. In the 
 midst of much opposition, all these literally 
 forsook father and mother, and all that they 
 held dear for Christ, and broke their caste at 
 baptism. This, considering the way in which 
 caste has been tampered with in the native 
 Christian church, is not one of the least proofs 
 of the power of a preached gospel in the mis- 
 sion. Many of the converts are well educated, 
 some of them highly so, and maintain them- 
 selves as teachers, catechists, writers, and medi- 
 cal pupils. They are almost all able, as well 
 males as females, to speak English, and to 
 read and understand books and discourses in 
 it, in addition to knowing their own tongues, 
 Tamil, Telugu, Hindustani and Malyalim. 
 The missionaries have heard of more than ten 
 young Hindus, who received their first impres- 
 sions and convictions of the truth of Chris- 
 tianity in their schools, baptized in other mis- 
 sions in different parts of India ; and doubtless 
 there have been other cases not reported to 
 them. 
 
 " Besides the three ordained native mission- 
 aries, a band of ten students are preparing for 
 
136 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 the work of the ministry in the collegiate de- 
 partment of the Madras Institution. Four of 
 this number are, God willing, to be licensed 
 by the Madras Free Church Presbytery this 
 year. In addition to a knowledge of English, 
 they have been taught the Greek and He- 
 brew Scriptures, mathematics, church history, 
 and theology. It forms a part of the prepara- 
 tory training of each of these students to 
 preach the gospel in their own tongues, not 
 only to the young but to adults. They enjoy 
 many a precious opportunity of thus making 
 Christ known, both on week days and Sab- 
 baths, and for weeks together, during the an- 
 nual visits to the branch-schools. Six native 
 Christian teachers, along with eight younger 
 converts, are training up for usefulness in the 
 work. Though thoroughly trained in English, 
 they do not neglect their own tongues, but 
 speak, explain to their scholars, and occa- 
 sionally deliver addresses in them. As to the 
 ten converts in government employ, they have 
 shown a ready mind to teach the gospel in the 
 mission Sabbath-schools, and to preach Christ, 
 when occasion offers, in their own tongues to 
 
SCOTCH SCHOOLS. 137 
 
 their countrymen. It thus appears that a lit- 
 tle band of Christian Hindus, and two Moham- 
 medan converts, daily labor, side by side with 
 their European instructors and East Indian as- 
 sistants, in teaching the young, and preaching 
 Christ to large numbers of old and young. 
 
 " Among other results bearing on the pro- 
 gress of the gospel in this land, the mission 
 has been honored to give a great . impulse to 
 native education, male and female. Fifteen 
 years ago it grappled with and settled the 
 question of caste, at least as regards its princi- 
 ple in native schools and native Christian 
 churches. It has sent forth not a few well 
 educated young men to conduct and assist in 
 Christian schools, and to set a-going among the 
 Hindu community schools of their own, both 
 for males and females. Above all, it has been 
 privileged to imbue with the leaven of God's 
 word many thousands of Hindu youths and 
 hundreds of Mohammedans, and has thus been 
 paving the way for greater triumphs of the 
 Gospel in the day of the Lord's power." 
 
 In the same document for the conference is 
 furnished, by the writer of these hints, a state- 
 
138 HINTS OX INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 ment in reference to the High School in 
 Madras, and other labors. 
 
 " The missionary at Chintadrepettah super- 
 intends four native vernacular schools with two 
 hundred, and twenty boys, one for girls, with 
 one hundred and twenty pupils, and an En- 
 glish and vernacular grammar-school of two 
 hundred and forty youths, with whom he 
 spends, upon an average, about one hour each 
 morning, in giving religious instruction. He 
 also devotes four hours each day to the prepara- 
 tion and printing of a Tamil and English Dic- 
 tionary, which is a needed help to missionaries ; 
 and, although some portion of his remaining 
 time is given to the business of his own and 
 other missions of the society with which he is 
 connected — and for which he acts as a finan- 
 cial agent — and some parts of it to translation, 
 revision and other committees, yet he does 
 4 preach to the people/ and does it as f his 
 business,' and not 'incidentally.' He spends 
 as many hours in preaching to the natives 
 regularly -prepared sermons in Tamil, and ad- 
 dressing them on religious subjects in that lan- 
 guage, and in English, as if he went two hours 
 
CHIOTADREPETTAH STATION. 139 
 
 each week-day to the bazaar to preach. In 
 the church, where he holds divine service 
 twice every Lord's day, he has large congrega- 
 tions, especially on Sabbath mornings, num- 
 bering from four to six hundred, including the 
 pupils. In a zayat, where he preaches once a 
 week, and in the school-rooms of out schools, 
 from time to time, he has numerous heathens 
 as hearers. He has the care of a native church, 
 with forty communicants, to whom, with sev- 
 eral candidates and young persons, he lectures 
 once a week. He also meets the teachers and 
 pupils of the vernacular schools, for an hour 
 or more, each week, in Bible classes, and the 
 same time on Sabbath mornings in a Sunday- 
 school for them, and another for all the pupils 
 in the English school. 
 
 " If this labor is not all preaching to the 
 people, it is most of it making known the gos- 
 pel, and is all designed to be for the promotion 
 of Christianity. Four young men, baptized 
 while in the English school, in which three of 
 them are now teaching — the other being an 
 assistant catechist — and four more, at least, 
 who received in it good impressions, and have 
 
140 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 been baptized elsewhere, are witnesses that 
 the Great Master does not wholly disapprove 
 of this form of labor." 
 
 The English schools for native youth, are 
 more peculiarly adapted to the circumstances 
 of the large towns, which are the seat of gov- 
 ernment and centres of commerce ; and must, 
 if established at all, be but limited in other 
 locations. It was thought by the late Deputa- 
 tion, on its visit to the Madura and Ceylon 
 missions, that the limit had in those places 
 been already reached, and that English should 
 be dispensed with, except as a classic for the 
 more advanced students. They also advised 
 the suspension of an institute, then recently 
 commenced at Bombay, for the establishment 
 of which, the missionaries had given, among 
 others, the following cogent reasons : 
 
 " A very great desire has sprung up among 
 the natives of this country to obtain a knowl- 
 edge of the English language, literature, and 
 science. That which sprang up in Europe, 
 just before the dawn of the Eeformation, for 
 the classical tongues and classical lore, was not 
 more eager or more general. We need not now 
 
BOMBAY HIGH SCHOOL. 141 
 
 inquire minutely into the origin of this desire 
 for English learning on the part of the people 
 of this presidency. Neither need we discuss 
 the propriety or otherwise of such a desire. 
 We may just remark that there is no mystery 
 about its existence. It is perfectly natural un- 
 der the circumstances. Hindus find them- 
 selves brought, in the providence of God, 
 into contact with a race who exhibit not only 
 great military superiority, but a wisdom and 
 ingenuity, an acquaintance with undreamed-of 
 powers of nature, an extent of knowledge, a 
 command of resources, a height of civilization, 
 immeasurably above any thing that they were 
 ever in contact with before. One of two 
 things could not but result from a meeting 
 of two races so very different. Either the in- 
 ferior race must become disheartened and 
 paralyzed by the thought of the unapproach- 
 able superiority of the other, lose its energy, 
 and perhaps dwindle away as the aborigines 
 of America and the natives of the Pacific 
 islands are doing; or it must be stimulated 
 into a desire to obtain those things which, 
 seem to be most intimately connected with the 
 
142 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 superiority of the other race. The latter is the 
 case in India. The inhabitants of this coun- 
 try admit the fact of their inferiority in the 
 scale of civilization, but are not disposed 
 to submit to it as a thing that must inevi- 
 tably continue to be. They have been seized 
 with the spirit of progress. This manifests 
 itself, of course, more among some classes 
 than others ; more in the cities than in the 
 interior ; more among the young than among 
 the aged ; more among the middling and 
 higher castes, than among those which are 
 reputed the lowest. 
 
 " What we make use of in our argument is 
 the simple fact. The desire exists. It will 
 not be suppressed. It is clearly destined to 
 wax stronger and stronger. It just as much 
 demands our attention as any other fact in the 
 providence of God. The young men of Bom- 
 bay are ready to flock to educational institu- 
 tions where they may obtain a knowledge of 
 the English language and the things connected 
 with it; and they are not deterred by the 
 fact that the Word of God is there taught and 
 the claims of Christianity urged upon them.. 
 
BOMBAY HIGH SCHOOL. 143 
 
 Shall the missionary avail himself of this 
 readiness on their part, and embrace this as 
 one mode of fulfilling the command to preach 
 the gospel to every creature ? 
 
 " The above argument did not, of itself, lead 
 the members of the American mission in Bom- 
 bay to decide that it was desirable to include 
 in the operations of that mission an English 
 High School. The following consideration 
 had chief weight in bringing them to admit 
 the desirableness of it. The thirst for English 
 education entertained by the native youth of 
 this presidency is fully shared by those of 
 them who have embraced Christianity. That 
 these should wish and seek for the opportunity 
 of self-improvement is not to be wondered at. 
 The Christian missionaries, with whom they 
 are in close intercourse, are men of education, 
 who value mental discipline, who bring their 
 stores of information to bear upon whatever 
 they take in hand, who urge it as an incidental 
 proof of the superiority of Christianity that it 
 elevates man in his entire character, social, 
 moral, and intellectual, and who regard the 
 education of their children as of very great im- 
 
144 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 portance. That the young men in contact 
 with, them, and under their care, should be- 
 come animated with a desire to fit themselves 
 in all ways to occupy a position of influence 
 in the land, is not strange. At all events, it 
 is a fact that young men, connected with the 
 American missions in Western India, have 
 shown such aspirations, and under the influ- 
 ence of them, wisely or unwisely, many of the 
 most promising have left the Dakhan and re- 
 paired to Bombay to avail themselves of the 
 advantages enjoyed in missionary institutions 
 there. It is quite possible that they sacrificed 
 other advantages of another kind, in so doing. 
 But they were not disposed so to regard it. 
 They came to Bombay, one and another and 
 others in succession. The members of the 
 Bombay American mission saw, with regret, 
 that the tide was setting past themselves, and 
 that the converts of the American missions in 
 the Dakhan, the members most likely to be 
 influential and useful, were passing under the 
 care of brethren of other denominations. In 
 this regret no feeling of sectarian jealousy min- 
 gled. In every point of view it certainly 
 
HIGH SCHOOL IN BOMBAY. 145 
 
 seemed desirable that those who had been the 
 means of converting these persons, should 
 have the future direction of them and enjoy 
 their assistance in the field to which they 
 naturally belonged, and where they were most 
 likely to be useful. This it is believed was 
 the consideration that first powerfully awaken- 
 ed the minds of the American missionaries in 
 Bombay, to the desirableness of an institution, 
 where persons of the character spoken of 
 could obtain that education which they were 
 seeking, without becoming disconnected with 
 the missions of the American Board in West- 
 ern India. 
 
 11 It was thought that such a school could 
 be conducted without necessarily withdrawing 
 the missionary, or missionaries, from other 
 labors of paramount importance. It was con- 
 sidered, that a missionary, who felt the im- 
 portance of preaching in its stricter sense, 
 would not neglect this, because he was engaged 
 in teaching Divine truth in such an institution 
 several hours in the day. It was hoped that 
 the disadvantageous tendency of large educa- 
 tional establishments, in withdrawing those 
 
 13 
 
146 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 engaged in them from other labors, might be 
 avoided in this institution. Is it not possible 
 to carry on a school of this kind without re- 
 garding it as the mission field, but only as 
 a portion of the field of the missionary ? So 
 far as the present experiment has gone, it 
 would seem to be possible. If it be distinctly 
 understood by all connected or to be connected 
 with the mission, that the mission polity is in 
 the main something else than educational, that 
 it is only the pressure of circumstances that 
 has called this school into existence, and that 
 its existence is permitted only as a subsidiary 
 to the direct and oral preaching of the gospel, 
 doubtless the tendency above alluded to might 
 be counteracted. 
 
 "The mission can hardly expect to have 
 Christian catechists or preachers, natives, to 
 labor efficiently in connection with it, unless it 
 has the means of training them for this service. 
 As things now are, persons of the needed 
 ability will prefer to profess Christianity in 
 connection with a mission that has these 
 means. Young men convinced of the truth 
 of Christianity and fully resolved to embrace 
 
HIGH SCHOOL IN BOMBAY. 147 
 
 it, have been known to hesitate some time as 
 to the mission with which they would unite 
 themselves. Perhaps there is in this nothing 
 stranger than in the fact that persons in Amer- 
 ica, ready to make a profession of faith in 
 Christ, sometimes deliberate as to the church 
 in which they will seek admission. To be 
 without the means of giving converts an En- 
 glish education, would, in Bombay, be in 
 many instances, to lose the converts. 
 
 " It seems better that persons who are look- 
 ing to the ministry of the gospel should pur- 
 sue their studies, or a considerable part of 
 their studies, in a school where they are daily 
 and hourly brought into juxta-position with 
 the same classes and the same characters that 
 they .will be obliged to meet when they enter 
 upon their labors. They will thus acquire 
 much more facility in addressing men, more 
 acquaintance with their actual condition, more 
 readiness in meeting objections. 
 
 " These arguments might be expanded. 
 Others might be presented. To obtain in this 
 country regular and attentive congregations 
 willing to hear the gospel statedly, is felt to be 
 
148 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 almost as difficult as it is desirable; but in 
 a school like that spoken of, such an audience 
 is obtained. The object of the present report, 
 however, is not to state the advantages of 
 educational institutions generally as a means 
 % of missionary operation ; but only to point out 
 a peculiar pressure of circumstances existing 
 in Bombay, requiring, on the part of the 
 American mission there, an institution, some- 
 thing like that of which a description has 
 been given." 
 
 The mission, however, notwithstanding these 
 strong arguments, and without refuting them, 
 report against the continuance of the school. 
 As the ground of this decision, they say, that 
 "past experience has seemed to show that 
 such schools are not the most efficient instru- 
 ments in forwarding the great work of mis- 
 sions," that "the expense is an objection," 
 and that " the influence of such schools on 
 other mission-fields is undesirable." These 
 are little else than mere assertions, needing 
 ample proof ; but the Deputation, acting un- 
 der instructions, no doubt enlightened the 
 mission in regard to "the general policy and 
 
HIGH SCHOOL. IN MADRAS. 149 
 
 plans of the board as unfavorable to such a 
 school f and this must have greatly aided the 
 decision. In their letter of instruction it was 
 said, " At present it is the strong persuasion of 
 the Prudential Committee, that no school can 
 properly be sustained by the funds of the 
 Board in which the vernacular language is not 
 the grand medium of instruction ; and the De- 
 putation will not feel at liberty to do any thing 
 contrary to this persuasion, without what shall 
 seem to them very conclusive reasons." 
 
 After receiving their report of the mission, 
 the deputation say to them : 
 
 "Your general meeting has proved to our sat- 
 isfaction, with what we have seen and learned 
 elsewhere, that the American churches may 
 have a prosperous system of missions in the 
 Deccan, with the ordinary blessing of heaven, 
 without such a school as was proposed at the 
 Bombay presidency. 5 ' 
 
 They allowed the High School at Madras, 
 which had been established several years, and 
 was supported by contributions from funds in 
 India, to be continued. The language of the 
 letter is— 
 
 13* 
 
150 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 " The English language, and not the verna- 
 cular, being the grand medium of instruction 
 in the High School, there must be, according 
 to our instructions, l very conclusive reasons' 
 for this exception to what may be regarded as 
 now a settled principle in our educational ap- 
 pliances. These reasons we find in the actual 
 and long tolerated existence of the school by 
 the Prudential Committee in its present form ; 
 in its relation to opinions, feelings and habits 
 of our beloved and venerated fellow-laborer ; 
 in the cheerful support given to it by the 
 friends of niissions in this region ; and in the 
 fact that something like it is apparently essen- 
 tial to the present happy working of this mis- 
 sion. And considering the hold which Mr. 
 Winslow has on the respect of the youth in 
 this school — heathen though most of them be 
 — and his perfect knowledge of their language ; 
 considering the extreme moral degradation of 
 the lower castes in great cities, and the almost 
 insuperable difficulty in obtaining direct access 
 there to the upper castes for continued preach- 
 ing to the same persons ; and considering also 
 the development of mind in the lads generally 
 
HIGH SCHOOL IN" MADRAS. 151 
 
 of the High School beyond that of most un- 
 educated adult heathens ; it must be regarded 
 as an important point gained, considering Mr. 
 Winslow's preaching habits, for him to have 
 them as a stated congregation. Experience 
 in English High Schools has not indeed 
 shown, so far as we have yet learned (unless 
 it be in Madras), that such congregations of 
 day-scholars are very promising for conver- 
 sions. But where the preacher has such ad- 
 vantages of personal respect, and of an idi- 
 omatic use of the language, and of deep, 
 fervent interest in the souls of the pupils, the 
 congregation, in such a city as Madras, must 
 be regarded with hope. It is now eight years 
 since the school came on its present plan. Six 
 of the pupils have been baptized by Mr. "Wins- 
 low, and eight others, awakened in the school, 
 have been baptized elsewhere. The principal 
 cause of these leaving the school, was to se- 
 cure board and a more effectual protection in 
 the Scotch and English schools, and has a 
 serious bearing on our future plank. One of 
 the mission helpers was educated in the High 
 School. Four of the monitors, or subordinate 
 
152 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 teachers, are Christians, one of whom was 
 wholly educated in the school. The head 
 teacher is of European descent, and a religious 
 man ; and the instruction, excepting one hour 
 a day of religious teaching by Mr. Winslow, 
 is all done by him and fifteen monitors." 
 
 On the general subject, also, Dr. Anderson, 
 very candidly remarks : 
 
 "It may be freely admitted, that the great 
 cities of India have their peculiarities ; and 
 the experience in the rural districts, and the 
 reasoning concerning the missionary work 
 there, must not be regarded as decisive when 
 planned to carry the strongholds of idolatry 
 in Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay. The differ- 
 ence lies in the facilities of access to the higher 
 classes. This access is not easy anywhere, 
 but it is specially difficult in great cities. We 
 have met with intelligent and excellent men, 
 who despaired of reaching these classes in 
 cities, except through the medium of English 
 High Schools. "We are by no means satisfied 
 that the experiment has yet been fully tried. 
 Mere street preaching requires strength of 
 nerve, quickness of mind, and command of 
 
ENGLISH HIGH SCHOOLS. 153 
 
 the native language, which but few mission- 
 aries can be expected to possess ; and this 
 method of proclaiming the gospel is but an 
 auxiliary to zayat and bungalow preaching. 
 We are required to preach the gospel to all, 
 and must attempt it ; but " to the poor the 
 gospel is preached" in fact; that is, to the 
 masses. The necessity and the value of En- 
 glish High Schools in the city missions of 
 India, is now in a progress of experiment on 
 a large scale, by pious, able, devoted men in 
 each of the great Presidential centres. In 
 Madras, especially, we were delighted with the 
 earnestness with which the gospel was pressed 
 upon the youthful minds, and with the fruits 
 of that earnestness already gathered. While 
 not prepared to recommend such expensive 
 schools to our own Board, we cordially bid 
 them l God speed,' as a part of the appointed 
 agency for India's conversion to God." 
 
 Among missionaries in India, there is a very 
 general, and all bufr universal opinion of the 
 value of such schools, even as converting 
 agencies ; especially for the middle and higher 
 classes, who can scarce be approached in any 
 
154 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 other way. To be such, however, in any con- 
 siderable degree, they require a large amount 
 of efficient missionary superintendence, and to 
 be made in some sense, asj^lums for the con- 
 verts, who may be obliged to flee to the mis- 
 sionary for protection when persecuted, or 
 even cast off by their relatives. This renders 
 them less eligible, on a large scale for Ameri- 
 can than British missionaries, and where much 
 encouragement is given to converts by large 
 salaries to such as are employed, and full sup- 
 port to others, there is danger, without great 
 watchfulness, of awakening a mercenary spirit, 
 by enabling the natives to make " gain of 
 godliness," and of drawing hypocrites into the 
 church, notwithstanding the trials through 
 which most of them must pass. There is also 
 danger of separating them too much from 
 their own people, and thus lessening their use- 
 fulness as missionary assistants. 
 
 Still, with proper guards, as a method which 
 seems opened by Providence for access to the 
 more respectable classes, and for bringing the 
 mind of the missionary in contact with the 
 minds and hearts of those otherwise nearly in- 
 
ENGLISH FOE HINDUS. 155 
 
 accessible, it is the decided opinion of the 
 writer that for making known the gospel, and 
 as an important means of raising up native as- 
 sistants, and an efficient native ministry, High 
 Schools for English and European science, 
 with the vernaculars, are worthy the cordial 
 and generous support of American Christians. 
 English will be studied, whether taught by 
 missionaries in connection with Christianity, 
 or otherwise. It will be pursued. Its influx 
 is as irresistible as that of the tides of the 
 ocean. For good or evil it is overlaying the 
 leading minds of the country. If the govern- 
 ment schools are left without the Scriptures, 
 and institutions in which the Bible is thorough- 
 ly taught — whether receiving the grants in aid 
 from government, or proceeding without them 
 — are not largely established, and energetically 
 conducted, the leading classes of the Hindus, 
 learning,, in the light of true science, to despise 
 the senseless idols of their own creed, and not 
 being taught a better, will become extensively 
 infidel; and more irreclaimable, and unap- 
 proachable, and immoral than the followers of 
 the brahmanic system. These have at least some 
 
156 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 sense of religion, and fear of superior powers, 
 but as infidels they will have neither. To 
 prevent their becoming such, we must, if pos- 
 sible, give them the Bible with their superior 
 education. 
 
 It is also certain that while the mass of the 
 people are to be taught Christianity in their 
 own tongue, and it is absurd to fancy that 
 English is to supplant the vernaculars, except 
 in case of some rude and unformed dialect, yet 
 it will so far prevail that those ignorant of it, 
 will be thought unlearned, and unfit to be 
 leaders in the native church, or to contend 
 with their infidel or idolatrous countrymen 
 who have acquired this knowledge. Besides, 
 while it may be granted that different grades 
 of laborers are needed, and that comparatively 
 unlearned, but pious and devoted teachers may 
 be principally relied upon, in rural districts, 
 yet even they will need the benefit of some 
 amoijg them, capable of strengthening their 
 faith when attacked; and a higher class of 
 ministers will be required in more cultivated 
 societies. It may be very well in the new set- 
 tlements of North America, where the preachers 
 
ENGLISH FOE NATIVE MINISTERS. 157 
 
 of the gospel must be liardy and live on little, 
 and where great numbers are wanted, for the 
 people to content themselves with plain but 
 good men of moderate acquirements for min- 
 isters ; but the rule in general is, that minis- 
 ters of the gospel should be men of ] earning. 
 Their hearers may not, perhaps, understand 
 Latin, or Greek, or Hebrew, and may know 
 little of science, but authorized, religious 
 teachers are required, very properly, to have 
 some knowledge of these, for the enlargement 
 of their own minds, that they may be the safer 
 guides, even in religion, in which they use 
 their own plain vernacular, " avoiding vain 
 and profane babblings and oppositions of 
 science falsely so called." 
 
 It is equally necessary among the Hindus, 
 that some, at least, should be learned, and for 
 this higher class of ministers, and also for 
 physicians, and surgeons, and schoolmasters, 
 qualified properly to teach geography, astro- 
 nomy, or even arithmetic, in the best manner, 
 and for the proper elevation of the native 
 Christian community, a knowledge of English, 
 sufficient to use books in this language, is very 
 14 
 
158 HINTS ON INDIAN" MISSIONS. 
 
 desirable. It is also necessary for the creation 
 of a Christian literature, and for Christianizing 
 the vernacular languages. A process of this 
 kind was wonderfully employed by God for 
 moulding a dialect of the Greek language, by the 
 Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, 
 and by making it, to a great extent, the lan- 
 guage of his own people, so as to make it a pro- 
 per vehicle for the New Testament revelation. 
 The objection that those who attend the 
 high schools are lost for the native work — ■ 
 though not lost to the community — because 
 they can command higher wages than the 
 natives can give, is more specious than real, 
 except in liniited localities. It will be re- 
 moved when large numbers are qualified for 
 government and other service. Before that, 
 something may be done by accustoming the 
 youths of the school to frugal habits, and not 
 raising them out of their proper sphere. Teach- 
 ing the native Christians so to manage their 
 affairs that they may be better able to support 
 their native teachers than they now are, will 
 also be a remedy. The country is abundantly 
 productive, and with those improvements which 
 
ENGLISH FOR NATIVE MINISTERS. 159 
 
 government seems disposed to make in its poli- 
 tical state, there is no reason why native 
 Christian communities should not be so far 
 elevated as to support teachers, physicians, 
 and ministers, who have even studied English ; 
 without which knowledge, they could not in a 
 rising and improving commuuity be in the 
 best manner qualified for their work. 
 
 The London Missionary Society, for many 
 years, confined their efforts, in Southern India, 
 to preaching and teaching in the vernaculars, 
 and established a vernacular seminary at 
 Bangalore, which still continues, for training 
 native assistants from different stations, and 
 to fit for the ministry such as might be found 
 suitable. The failure, however, of securing in 
 this way a well-qualified native ministry, has 
 led them lately to form an English High 
 School at Madras, which now contains more 
 than four hundred youths. 
 
 Concerning this, one of their oldest and 
 most efficient missionaries, absent from Madras 
 at the time, wrote as follows : " I was very glad 
 to observe you speaking so encouragingly of 
 our institution. I believe it to be a most 
 
160 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 valuable and needful auxiliary to our work in 
 such a country as Madras, and trust our Direc- 
 tors will be able always to give us two men 
 for it. I would not ask for more. I like Dr. 
 
 S 's ideas and plan for his own sphere. It 
 
 is well that we should hear both sides, and 
 work both methods ; both are most valuable 
 in their proper place. God has blessed both, 
 and will, I believe, continue to do so. All we 
 want is to work in the spirit of Abraham's 
 words to Lot, * If thou wilt go to the right 
 hand, I will go to the left.' There is room 
 enough for both. Alas ! how wide and how 
 unoccupied ; and we need not jostle one an- 
 other, nor contend with one another. The 
 fruits of the two methods in coming years will 
 be the best test of their relative worth, wisely 
 estimated." 
 
 This is the language of one who is himself 
 engaged only in the vernacular work, and is 
 the best vernacular preacher of his society, in 
 Madras. 
 
 If the number of converts in these high 
 schools be not large, they are very important 
 in their influences as affecting the higher 
 
VERNACULAR FREE SCHOOLS. 161 
 
 classes of society. Though all souls are equal 
 in the sight of Grod, the conversion of an 
 educated brahman has an effect upon others, 
 which that of a low caste, or no-caste, man has 
 not. It shakes the Hindu system more vio- 
 lently. The value of converts, therefore, is to 
 be reckoned by their quality as well as num- 
 ber, and those from the high schools, prepared 
 by education, position in life, and persecution 
 — which they must generally pass through — 
 for extended usefulness have a higher relative 
 value than obscure converts. 
 
 Vernacular Free Schools. — These, in the earlier 
 periods of Indian missions, were largely estab- 
 lished, for heathen, Mohammedan, and Jewish 
 children, as a means of access to the parents ; 
 as a method of preparing the way for the 
 operations of the press, by teaching the pupils 
 to read the printed character; as furnishing 
 places for the preaching of the gospel ; and as aid- 
 ing to gather audiences. They were considered 
 also as direct converting agencies to operate 
 upon the teachers, and children, and, through 
 the children upon, the parents. In new mis- 
 sions, or those in new localities, these reasons, 
 14* 
 
162 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 except so far as modified by a more general 
 knowledge than first existed of the object of 
 the missionaries, and the nature of the religion 
 they have come to teach, and acquaintance 
 with the printed character, in consequence of 
 the more extended circulation of books, from 
 native as well as foreign presses, still exist ; 
 and many schools are still maintained. They 
 were at first of necessity, for want of other 
 teachers, conducted by unevangelized masters, 
 under Christian superintendence, and using 
 Christian books. The greater part of the pupils 
 were heathen children, and such is still the case 
 where they are continued on any large scale. 
 
 Objections have been made to the instruc- 
 tion of heathen children — which of course 
 apply to all except those of at least nominally 
 Christian parents — but it is difficult to see how 
 these can lie, while the young are confessedly 
 everywhere, the most hopeful subjects of in- 
 struction ; and the command is, " Go and teach 
 all nations," and " preach the gospel to every 
 creature;" and while it is the practice in all 
 Christian countries, not only to allow, but 
 earnestly to invite the children of Eomanists, 
 
VERNACULAR FREE SCHOOLS. 163 
 
 Jews, and infidels to the Sabbath and other 
 Christian schools. 
 
 On this point the Bombay missionaries well 
 say, in their report to the Deputation : 
 
 "Persons who place themselves under Chris- 
 tian instruction should have opportunities for 
 learning the truth, and for having their chil- 
 dren instructed, especially in the Bible. When 
 schools are established for such persons, there 
 seems to be no good reason why children of 
 other persons may not attend — they conform- 
 ing to all the rules of such Christian school, 
 and studying with the other boys. The only 
 limit would be that of the strength and time 
 of the teacher. It would seem to be an im- 
 portant means of communicating truth to the 
 minds of the parents, and leading them to yield 
 to the claims of the gospel. 
 
 " The objection to allowing such children 
 to attend the schools is, that we provide the 
 schools for persons who place themselves under 
 our instruction, and if we admit others, the 
 inducement to become connected with us is so 
 far forth weakened. If we admit the children 
 of heathen and Christian parents alike, then 
 
164 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 there is no inducement for the heathen to for- 
 sake his gods, in the fact that his children will 
 be instructed in the Christian school. On this 
 we would simply remark, that we wish our 
 converts to come to us without the inducement 
 of any worldly motive, and to restrict our 
 schools to the children of persons formally 
 placing themselves under our instruction, 
 might prove quite a strong worldly motive. 
 "We desire to bring as much spiritual influence 
 to bear upon the heathen as possible. l Faith 
 cometh by hearing,' and we cherish the hope 
 that all such schools will prove a means of 
 leading men to Christ." 
 
 These remarks are sound. The objection 
 to confining the benefit of the schools to the 
 children of those who join a congregation, and 
 are thus, though not baptized, in some sense, 
 nominal Christians, has much weight among a 
 people like the Hindus. It may operate as a 
 premium on hypocrisy, inducing some, for the 
 benefit of the schools, to profess what they do 
 not feel. 
 
 More specious, perhaps more weighty ob- 
 jections are made to the employment of un- 
 
VERNACULAR FREE SCHOOLS. 165 
 
 evangelized teachers. But it must be borne 
 in mind that they have been and are employed 
 for want of others, or because others could not 
 collect the class of pupils which it was wished 
 to have. It should also be remembered that 
 they are not depended on, for instructing in 
 religion, any further than the mere repetition 
 of lessons is concerned ; and that the schools 
 are all under Christian superintendence, and 
 the pupils when they are rightly managed, are 
 brought frequently where they hear the gospel 
 preached ; also that a missionary is often 
 obliged to be content with what he can do, 
 rather than what he would. 
 
 These schools may not have done all the 
 good that was expected of them. By some 
 they are accounted a failure. If it be so, then 
 are all other forms of operation more nearly a 
 failure than their advocates would be willing 
 to admit, or than they ought to admit. What 
 they have done, even when most ill-managed, 
 to prepare the way for the gospel, no man 
 probably is qualified to say. That they have 
 done harm, no one will pretend. In them have 
 thousands upon thousands been taught to read, 
 
166 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 and been made acquainted with, the Scriptures, 
 and the way of salvation. By means of them 
 the missionary has had favorable access to the 
 parents as well as the children, and thousands 
 of females, even, who otherwise would have 
 remained in utter ignorance, have been in- 
 structed in them. The minds of multitudes 
 of the rising generation, male and female, have 
 received an impulse in the right direction. 
 Prejudice has been removed, and hundreds of 
 teachers and pupils have been converted to 
 God, and all this, as to each particular school, 
 at very trifling expense, less than one dollar a 
 year for every child instructed. Would that 
 dollar have been better laid out for children at 
 home, in sweetmeats, or playthings, or finery ? 
 "I trow not." But, it may be said, it might 
 do more good in some other form of mission- 
 ary work. Possibly, if it could be obtained 
 for that ; but many children and others give 
 for schools what they would not give for other 
 objects. But let us look at some of the pros 
 and cons on the subject in the printed docu- 
 ments of missionary experience. 
 
BOMBAY FE.EE SCHOOLS. 167 
 
 The Bombay missionaries report to the De- 
 putation as follows : 
 
 " We think a moderate estimate would show 
 that at least ten thousand pupils have been 
 connected with these schools. 
 
 " We cannot point to a single case of con- 
 version from among all this number. A few 
 instances of conversion have occurred among 
 the suDerintendents and teachers of these 
 schools, and these men are among our most 
 valuable helpers at the present time. We oc- 
 casionally meet with those who were formerly 
 pupils in these schools, while preaching in the 
 villages. Often such persons are interested 
 and attentive hearers, and often they are the 
 abusers of us and our work. The result seems 
 to show that these schools have failed of ac- 
 complishing, except to a very slight extent, 
 what was hoped from their establishment, in 
 the way of influencing the people, and gain- 
 ing them over to the truth. From this result 
 follows, as a general rule, the inexpediency 
 of employing heathen teachers in common 
 schools. The main ground upon which such 
 schools are urged at present is, that they are a 
 
168 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 means of communicating with the people, of 
 forming some kind of connection with them, 
 of getting a congregation. It is probable, 
 however, that in most cases, the missionary 
 can secure a hearing for his message without 
 the aid of such schools. 
 
 11 The objections which are felt to the em- 
 ployment of heathens* as teachers of common 
 schools, would not lie against the employment 
 of Christians. We have much to hope from 
 such efforts, where a decided Christian influ- 
 ence is exerted upon the children, and upon 
 all connected with them. The experiment is 
 but a recent one in any of our stations." 
 
 It may be noticed that while they state that 
 they cannot point to a single instance of con- 
 version among the children, " a few instances 
 have occurred among the superintendents and 
 teachers." Surely, then, they were not alto- 
 gether a failure ; and how many of the chil- 
 dren, who being most of them very young, 
 could hardly be expected to become Chris- 
 tians, while in the schools, have become, in 
 subsequent life, or may yet be converts ; or 
 have been taken to heaven, while young, by 
 
CEYLON VERNACULAR SCHOOLS, 169 
 
 the Good Shepherd, unknown to the mission- 
 aries ! The writer has seen some little ones, 
 never baptized, whom he hopes to meet in a 
 better world. 
 
 The missionaries of the Board in Ceylon, 
 
 " In regard to the agency of these schools, 
 in turning the people from sin unto holiness, 
 the following facts may be stated. Yery 
 many of the persons educated in our seminary 
 both at Batticotta and Oodooville, who subse- 
 quently became members of the church, re- 
 ceived their first religious impressions while 
 belonging to these schools. It appears, also, 
 from the records of the mission, that sixty-two 
 persons who have joined our churches, were 
 formerly educated more or less in these schools. 
 It should, however, be distinctly stated, that, 
 none of these were educated in our seminary, 
 neither were they received to the church while 
 pupils in the schools. As the children in 
 these schools usually leave them at an early 
 age, it is hardly to be expected that the num- 
 ber of conversions in them will be very large. 
 Still there have been some. The brethren of 
 15 
 
170 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 the mission distinctly recollect about thirty 
 cases. Of these a few died before making a 
 public profession of religion. Five of this 
 number are now candidates for church-mem- 
 bership ; and seven of them did not join the 
 church till they became monitors in the 
 schools, though they were converted, as we 
 trust, at an earlier age. We cherish the hope 
 that the day of judgment will reveal the fact, 
 that a considerable number of these children, 
 who have been cut off by various diseases, 
 especially by cholera, have 7 in their dying 
 hour, trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation. 
 
 " With respect to our heathen school-mas- 
 ters, eighty of them have become members of 
 our churches; twenty-five of this number 
 having been dismissed from service in the 
 mission, have shown, by their subsequent 
 conduct, that they were unworthy members. 
 
 " Several instances have occurred in which 
 both men and women have been induced to 
 attend the services of the sanctuary, through 
 the influence of their children, and have 
 thereby found the Saviour." 
 
 Here then are fifty -five schoolmasters, besides 
 
VERNACULAR FREE SCHOOLS. 171 
 
 the apostates, and thirty pupils, while in the 
 schools, or after leaving them, without the ad- 
 vantages of the seminary, known as hopefully 
 converted ; and sixty-two who had been pu- 
 pils, and were afterwards received to the 
 church ; of whom many received their first 
 impressions in the schools. How many more 
 have been or will be converted, we know not, 
 and what good the converts have done, or will 
 do, we know not ; nor can we estimate the in- 
 direct benefits of these schools. It is therefore 
 submitted that funds for them have been well 
 employed 
 
 The Deputation, in their reply to the Bom- 
 bay mission, say : 
 
 " Schools, regarded as converting instru- 
 mentalities, have almost wholly disappointed 
 us ; regarded as preparatory means, they have 
 not answered expectation ; and as auxiliaries, 
 they have been expensive. Yet where there 
 are competent Christian teachers, and funds to 
 spare for the purpose, it is well to have schools 
 in heathen villages. In general, however, and 
 more as missions succeed, the funds to appro- 
 priate for such purposes will little more than 
 
172 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 suffice for aiding the native Christians in edu- 
 cating their own children, and for educating 
 catechists and preachers." 
 
 Also to the Madura mission : 
 
 "We are happy to find none of the old 
 schools of heathen children taught by heathen 
 masters, remaining in the mission. The large 
 churches erected years ago at Madura, Dindi- 
 gol, Tirupuyanum, and Sivagunga — tog large, 
 except, perhaps, that at Madura, for present ne- 
 cessities, but once filled every Sabbath by the 
 pupils of these congregated schools — are monu- 
 ments of the power of that system to create 
 congregations for the time being, and of the 
 folly of trusting to such schools for stated con- 
 gregations after the pay of the teachers is with- 
 drawn, or for converts, or for any very tangi- 
 ble results. Yet the experience is doubtless 
 worth what it cost. Were it not for that ex- 
 perience, such schools would, perhaps, even, 
 now, be thought a deserving branch of the 
 missionary work. Nor should we forget that, 
 in the early stages of modern missions, when 
 the sowing of the good seed of the word had 
 not begun to yield its harvests of converts, 
 
VERNACULAR FREE SCHOOLS. 173 
 
 such, schools exerted an important influence at 
 home. The teaching of so many thousands 
 of heathen youth to read in the Scriptures, and 
 to repeat the leading facts in the gospel his- 
 tory, was itself a result ; it was a success, and 
 did much to sustain and extend the missionary 
 spirit at the time in our churches. And 
 though more excellent ways of employing our 
 funds* are now pursued, it may be presumed 
 that those schools will hereafter appear to have 
 been a labor by no means lost upon the native 
 mind and heart of India." 
 
 To the Ceylon mission they say : 
 " The place which education should hold in 
 the missionary work, is no longer a matter for 
 theoretical speculations. It is to be deter- 
 mined in the light of a long, expensive and 
 very ample experience. Experience affords 
 little encouragement to employ them among 
 the heathen as a converting instrumentality, 
 or as a means of gaining stated congregations 
 for the preacher, or in any form as a prepara- 
 tory means for the publication of the gospel. 
 Their proper sphere is among the children of 
 converts and stated hearers, in helping to 
 15* 
 
174 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 "build up a Christian community, and for the 
 education of the native helpers of the mission, 
 and pastors for the native churches ; and the 
 medium of instruction, in all cases, should be 
 the vernacular language. Such, we believe, 
 to be the teaching of experience. Such, at 
 least, is that teaching within the range of our 
 own observation." 
 
 It will be seen that the Deputation, in this 
 latter extract, speak with much decision on 
 the whole subject. The question is to be 
 " determined in the light of a long, expensive, 
 and very ample experience," and we have the 
 result. They afford " little encouragement," as 
 a "converting instrumentality," as "a means 
 of gaining stated congregations ;" or "in any 
 form as a preparatory means for the publica- 
 tion of the gospel." How far they may be 
 considered a " converting instrumentality," 
 some of the above facts, especial]y those in the 
 Ceylon report, will tend to show. The writer 
 does not view them as affording " little en- 
 couragement" in any well-conducted schools. 
 As to gaining " stated congregations," remarks 
 have already been made to show that they 
 
BOARDING SCHOOLS. 175 
 
 have formed encouraging audiences; and though, 
 not usually worked with a view to " stated 
 congregations," they have prepared the way 
 even for these. Whether they have been "in 
 any form a preparatory means for the publica- 
 tion of the gospel," when they have them- 
 selves published it in various forms, as ap- 
 pears above, need hardly be inquired. 
 
 Boarding schools. — These have been more 
 largely established in Ceylon than in any other 
 American mission in the east. Concerning 
 that at Oodooville for females, the mission re- 
 port to the Deputation, among other things, 
 says: 
 
 " The age at which pupils have been admit- 
 ted has varied from six to ten years. They 
 have been taken from various castes. There 
 have been none, however, from the lowest 
 caste, and none from among the brahmans. 
 Very few have been obtained from the more 
 wealthy families of the province. The in- 
 struction has been given principally by the 
 missionary ladies at the station, and three 
 native teachers. The whole number who have 
 been connected with the school, is two hun- 
 
176 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 dred and twenty-two, exclusive of the present 
 pupils ; nineteen of them died while members 
 of the school. 
 
 u Of the whole number, one hundred and 
 seventy -five became members of the Christian 
 church, ten of whom ultimately relapsed into 
 heathenism, and two became Romanists. * * * 
 
 u The influence of this boarding-school, we 
 need hardly say, has been most excellent and 
 far-reaching. The many Christian families 
 scattered over the province, the island, and 
 the continent, exerting a silent, but important 
 influence, testify to its usefulness. Many 
 tokens of (rod's special blessing have been 
 granted, in the frequent revivals which have 
 been enjoyed, and in the uniform prosperity 
 which has attended the institution. There is 
 no part of our missionary work which we 
 have regarded with more pleasure and hope 
 than this school, and there are no results of 
 our labors here, which seem to us to be tell- 
 ing with more power, at the present moment, 
 upon the evangelization of the land, than 
 those connected with this department of our 
 mission." 
 
BATTICOTTA SEMINARY. 177 
 
 Concerning the Batticotta Seminary for 
 native lads, they in like manner say : 
 
 "The Batticotta Seminary was established 
 in the year 1823. Previous to that time, 
 boarding-schools for boys had been sustained 
 at most of the mission stations, and the semi- 
 nary was composed of the most advanced and 
 promising boys in those schools. 
 
 11 The main design of the mission in establish- 
 ing this institution, was to raise up efficient 
 laborers to aid in the work of evangelizing 
 this people. Subsequently it was enlarged, 
 with the hope that it might furnish suitable 
 men to aid in extending missionary operations 
 on the neighboring continent. By a reference 
 to some of the early reports, it appears that 
 the mission had in view also the general ele- 
 vation of the people and the raising of the 
 standard of education in the country. There 
 are also some expressions which indicate that, 
 the fitting of men to act as efficient officers of 
 government was among the minor considera- 
 tions which influenced the mission to carry 
 on and enlarge their operations in this depart- 
 ment. 
 
178 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 "For the carrying out of this design, it has 
 been a permanent object from the first to give 
 the pupils a thorough knowledge of the En- 
 glish language, and thus furnish them a key 
 to western science and literature, and relieve 
 them from the bondage of Hindu superstitions 
 founded on false science. * ^ * 
 
 " The present state of the Institution, if we 
 look at it in view of some of the objects for 
 which it was founded, is very encouraging. 
 There is a corps of able and well-qualified 
 native teachers, fitted to give instruction in all 
 important branches, and the attainments of 
 those under their charge are such as, in many 
 cases, to do honor both to the teachers and 
 pupils. It has attained a commanding influ- 
 ence in the community, as a literal and scien- 
 tific institution, and is a stepping-stone by 
 which many have been able, at a cheap rate, 
 to rise to posts of influence and emolument. 
 The mission, through the influence of the 
 seminary, has had the control of education in 
 the province for many } T ears. Some have re- 
 garded this as a reason why the institution 
 should be sustained, lest the power of educat- 
 
BATTICOTTA SEMINARY. 179 
 
 ing this people should fall into the hands of 
 the heathen or others opposed to the pure 
 principles of the gospel. 
 
 "Were it our object to educate the com- 
 munity, we should regard our position in this 
 respect as very encouraging. Viewed as a 
 missionary seminary, its present state is not 
 so encouraging. The whole number of stu- 
 dents is ninety-six ; of these eleven only are 
 members of the Christian church. Many of 
 the older pupils are of that class who are look- 
 ing mainly to government for employment, 
 and seem determined to have nothing to do 
 with Christianity. There is, however, a re- 
 deeming feature in the fact that many in the 
 lower classes are children of church members, 
 who will, we trust, be found on the right side, 
 if not exposed to too great temptations by 
 being thrown in contact with evil influences. 
 In the last class of thirty, admitted in 1854, 
 fifteen were from Christian families. In the 
 class which graduated in September, 1854, 
 there were six church members ; and of the 
 ninety-six, above named, thirty were admitted 
 in October, 1854. 
 
180 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 The whole number who have sustained membership is. 670 
 The whole number of students now living, who have 
 
 been educated, is 454 
 
 Of these there are in mission service 112 
 
 Of whom there are employed by the American Ceylon 
 
 Mission 81 
 
 The number in service of Government in Ceylon and 
 
 India 158 
 
 The number in different kinds of business in Ceylon and 
 
 on the Continent Ill 
 
 Those whose employment is unknown, or who are not 
 
 known to be employed in any useful business .... *T3 
 
 The whole number of church members 352 
 
 Number excommunicated 92 
 
 Whole number who have died ; (8 of whom after ex- 
 communication, 12 
 
 Present number connected with Protestant churches. . . 196 
 The number now connected with the American mission 
 
 churches 185 
 
 "The institution has raised up a class of 
 native assistants who have greatly aided the 
 mission in carrying on their work, and who 
 will, we trust, be of still greater service as 
 preachers and pastors in different parts of the 
 field. Many of them are the fruits of the 
 revivals to which allusion has been made, and 
 are indeed the most promising fruit of the in- 
 stitution. 
 
BATTICOTTA SEMINARY. 181 
 
 11 There are also some among those who are 
 not connected with us, but are engaged in 
 government and other service, who, we hope, 
 are Christians, and honor their professions by 
 an humble and consistent life. 
 
 "Aside from the above results, the seminary 
 has exerted an influence in the land which 
 cannot be mistaken, in waking up the native 
 mind, in diffusing useful knowledge, and creat- 
 ing a power, which, if directed into the right 
 channel, will do much for the elevation of this 
 people. There is a class in the community 
 who have, in a measure, been freed from the 
 bondage of superstition, whose views have 
 been liberalized by science, and who may do 
 much for the improvement of their country- 
 men. Though the seminary has failed in some 
 respects, to accomplish all its friends hoped 
 for, it has done a great work in its day, which 
 will yet, by the blessing of Grod, turn to good 
 account in the establishment of the kingdom 
 of Christ in Ceylon." 
 
 In both the above institutions, material mo- 
 difications were made, on the visit of the 
 Deputation ; reducing the number of pupils, 
 16 
 
182 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 and excluding English as 'a principal study. 
 This was virtually to destroy the Batticotta 
 Seminary, as it removed its main attraction, 
 and it almost necessarily led to its suspension. 
 On the subject of boarding-schools, the Depu- 
 tation said to the Bombay Mission : 
 
 " Our experience in boarding schools in our 
 somewhat extended system of missions, has 
 not been altogether satisfactory. The experi- 
 ence has been chiefly on what we have seen 
 denominated in India the hot-house system ; 
 where the youth were isolated from their 
 heathen friends and idolatrous festivals, and 
 lived altogether under the missionary's eye. 
 "Where the youth are taken early and the isola- 
 tion is complete, the proportion of hopeful 
 conversions is considerable ; but we have 
 found these results, with some exceptions, less 
 practical, less available for entire, self-denying 
 service than we had expected." 
 
 The opinion of these able men, after much 
 opportunity for observing the working of 
 boarding-schools, must have great weight. 
 There are undoubtedly many evils incidental 
 to the system, but it does not follow that it is 
 
SEMINARY IN MADURA. 183 
 
 therefore to be abandoned ; nor did the Depu- 
 tation come to that conclusion. Kightly con- 
 ducted, with proper regard to the ends to be 
 sought, and a suitable adaptation of means to 
 those ends, much good may be effected by 
 these schools. One of the ends should be the 
 raising up of well qualified native agents, and 
 this is a most important object. It was for this 
 purpose that the seminary at Madura, in which 
 the pupils are all boarded, was established. 
 Concerning this, the mission say : 
 
 "As the mission had no Christian com- 
 munity from which to draw a supply of young 
 men, the majority of the first students were 
 from heathen families. Many of them also 
 were from Tanjore and other neighboring dis- 
 tricts. Of the thirty-four collected at the time, 
 twenty-one were heathen and Eomanists and 
 fifty of the whole number were from other 
 districts. The classes also which entered in 
 1844, 1845, 1846, and 1847, were composed 
 of similar materials. Notwithstanding these 
 disadvantages, the seminary was greatly bless- 
 ed. Very many of the students were con- 
 verted, and some of the first graduates are our 
 
184 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 most efficient helpers at this time. The year 
 1847 formed an era in the history of this in- 
 stitution. The mission took action on the sub- 
 ject of caste in July, having direct reference 
 to the catechists and church members j and it 
 was the occasion of some excitement in the 
 seminary from the fact, that many of the 
 catechists and others affected by the caste 
 movement, had sons in the institution at the 
 time. The object of the seminary being to 
 raise up helpers for the mission, it seemed 
 to be inconsistent to admit, or even to 
 retain those in the institution, who, by observ- 
 ing the rules of caste, would be unqualified 
 to enter into the service of the mission as 
 catechists, after having completed their course 
 of study. In consequence of the action of 
 the mission on this subject in October 1847, 
 the seminary was nearly disbanded, only one 
 of the teachers and nine of the students hav- 
 ing complied with the requisition of the mis- 
 sion. Some of the scholars and one of the 
 teachers afterwards returned. 
 
 " A few months later, a class of twelve, 
 mostly from our own people, and of low caste, 
 
SEMINARY IN MADURA. 185 
 
 were received. Since that time the number 
 of students from abroad has constantly dimin- 
 ished. In 1854. a class of fifteen were re- 
 ceived, not one of whom was from without the 
 District. * * * 
 
 " The present teachers are four in number, 
 all of whom are graduates of the seminary. 
 The first teacher, Albert Barnes, was a mem- 
 ber of the first graduating class, and is a most 
 worthy man. The second and third teachers 
 are also very promising both in respect to edu- 
 cation and piety. The fourth teacher is young, 
 having graduated last year. He had a good 
 reputation in his class. * * * 
 
 " There are in the seminary at present four 
 classes. In the first class seven students, in 
 the second nine, in the third twelve, and in 
 the fourth fifteen ; in all forty -three persons. 
 Of these thirty-six are members of the church, 
 and three are candidates for admission. Near- 
 ly all are from our own field and our own 
 people." 
 
 There can be no doubt of the usefulness of 
 such an institution ; and when the immense im- 
 portance of female education among the Hin- 
 16* 
 
186 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 dus is considered, all must agree that well 
 conducted boarding-schools for girls, where 
 the circumstances of a mission allow, should 
 be encouraged. The education of one girl 
 may be considered equal to that of three boys 
 in its prospective influence. 
 
 The boarding-schools in many places are 
 what in America would be called, perhaps, 
 manual-labor-schools — that is, the pupils, 
 whether males or females, work a part of 
 each day for their support. In fact, in all the 
 schools for girls, sewing, cutting, crotchet- 
 work, lace-making, etc., with taking their 
 turn in cooking, are more or less practiced. 
 The object is, as much as possible — in connec- 
 tion with giving them proper employment and 
 exercise, and it may be also lessening the ex- 
 pense of their support — to fit them for after 
 duties in life. The employment should there- 
 fore be as far as possible such as they may 
 subsequently follow, and find useful and prof- 
 itable. In the cities the girls received, are 
 generally of low caste, others not being read- 
 ily obtained ; they have, therefore, except such 
 as may perhaps marry a catechist, or school- 
 
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. 187 
 
 master, or some other assistant in the mission, 
 to look forward to employment as ayahs, or fam- 
 ily servants. For such, a knowledge of English 
 is desirable ; for others, it is less important. 
 
 Industrial schools of a more extended cha- 
 racter, and especially for boys, are also estab- 
 lished in some places, with a good measure of 
 success. The Germans have done most in this 
 department. They have taught various handi- 
 crafts and trades, as well as the cultivation of 
 the soil. In a school of a German missionary 
 at Salem, under the London Missionary So- 
 ciety, the profits of the work in the business 
 of blacksmiths, carpenters, etc., have at times 
 gone far to support the establishment. It con- 
 tains some scores of youths, who, in addition 
 to their Christian education, obtain a trade, 
 which will enable them to support themselves 
 in after life. The object in these industrial 
 schools is not, as among savages, civilization ; 
 but in the first place, conversion, by bringing 
 the members of them under efficient Christian 
 instruction ; and secondly, giving the means of 
 self-support to the converts, which, among a 
 people so poor and dependent, is very important. 
 
188 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 One of the great problems to be solved, is, 
 what can be done for the native converts, to 
 ensure them the means of obtaining an honest 
 livelihood. It may be thought this should be 
 left to themselves, and as patient endur- 
 ance is part of the duty of all Christians, 
 and as it is through much tribulation that 
 most enter the kingdom, it cannot be neces- 
 sary for missionaries to smooth the path of 
 the converts, so as to save them from suffering 
 for want of support. But common charity, 
 not to say the progress of Christianity, re- 
 quires them to do what they can in this re- 
 spect, without encouraging a mercenarj^ spirit, 
 or leading any to follow Christ for the loaves 
 and fishes. 
 
 Orphan schools are also established, in some 
 places, which are usually, in part, self-support- 
 ing by means of some kind of labor. These 
 may be thought too expensive for missionary 
 societies, whose object is to save the soul, 
 rather than feed the body, but the two are 
 often united, and as in the case of Khoud 
 children, rescued from the Meriah sacrifice, the 
 supporting and teaching of the children is often 
 
ORPHAN SCHOOLS. 189 
 
 the only means of reaching the tribes from 
 which they come. If, in a famine, hundreds 
 of brahman children could be gathered into an 
 orphan school and taught, it would probably 
 be as good a use of mission-funds for that class 
 as could be made; because adult brahmans 
 are so difficult of proper access. The Roman 
 Catholics, who know well how to adopt their 
 means to their ends, have often succeeded in 
 China and other places, by means of such 
 schools, in obtaining an influence which they 
 could get in no other way. Where free access 
 can be had to all classes to preach the gospel, 
 as in most parts of India, they are unnecessary 
 as a part of the mission- work ; and may be left 
 to private charity. 
 
 The place which education should have in 
 missionary operations in India, must be deter- 
 mined by circumstances, and not by any uni- 
 versal rules applicable to one particular state 
 of society. There is in India almost every 
 grade, from barbarism to a refined, though 
 sickly, civilization. It does not follow because 
 the apostles did not establish schools among 
 the refined Greeks and intellectual Romans, 
 
190 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 who were, in part, prepared to receive their 
 message by some previous acquaintance with 
 the Jewish Scriptures, that they are not need- 
 ful for access to the ignorant, prejudiced, 
 priest-ridden, and caste-enslaved Hindus. The 
 apostles went with divine credentials, in the 
 power of working miracles, speaking various 
 tongues, and imparting spiritual gifts ; they 
 had no schools, yet Paul disputed in the school 
 of one Tyrannus, daily, for the space of two 
 years. Schools are now an important aid in 
 their proper place ; and until the energies of a 
 mission are sufficiently taxed for the education 
 of Christian children, they may be opened for 
 those of the unevangelized, and so give profit- 
 able employment to its female members, who 
 otherwise might have little to do, and to the 
 missionaries themselves, when not able to be 
 abroad, to preach. 
 
 III. The Pbess.— This is a mighty engine 
 for good or evil, everywhere, in these modern 
 days ; and its influence should not be lost 
 sight of, or undervalued by missionaries. In 
 a place like India, a Christian press is of in- 
 calculable importance. Whatever is done di- 
 
THE PEESS. 191 
 
 rectly by the foreign missionary in preaching 
 the gospel himself, or by training others to 
 preach it, he can in no way reach by the liv- 
 ing voice, effectually, the millions scattered 
 over this widely- extended land. Truth on the 
 printed page can go where he cannot find en- 
 trance, as into the temple and into the women's 
 apartments of the house. It can be carried 
 forth, as winged seeds are carried by the wind ; 
 in various ways, and scattered broad-cast. Nor 
 is it in vain ; seed thus scattered sometimes falls 
 in a fruitful place. 
 
 Nor is it merely because the living voice 
 cannot be lifted up everywhere that truth in 
 the printed form is needed. The press is re- 
 quired, also, for permanency of effect ; to reit- 
 erate, again and again, what the preacher may 
 have stated ; to bring the truth home to the 
 conscience in places of retirement ; to refresh 
 the memory, morning and night, and at the 
 midnight hour ; to be at all times and in all 
 places an efficient, though silent preacher ; not 
 tiring with the message, not failing under a 
 hot sun, nor sinking from disease, as may the 
 living agent. 
 
192 HINTS OK INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 It is the peculiarity of Protestants in dis- 
 tinction from the Komanists, that they give 
 the Scriptures to the common people in their 
 own tongue. It will not be contended that 
 any mission can prosper if this be not done, or 
 if the converts are not properly instructed in 
 all the main truths of Christianity ; but how 
 shall this be done without the help of the 
 press ? What would the professed followers 
 of Christ, in a Christian land, be without its 
 aid ? With all the help they have from each 
 other, and notwithstanding the beneficial influ- 
 ence of Christian society, how barren would 
 the minds and hearts of most persons be, if 
 they had no help from books, or tracts, or 
 newspapers ; not to say Bibles ? In some way 
 a Christian press must be brought to bear 
 upon the Hindus, converted, or unconverted, 
 if we would not meet the brahmans at disad- 
 vantage ; for they are using the press largely 
 to support their falling system. 
 
 It will not do to refer us to the apostles, as 
 not having had schools, or presses, or other 
 11 machinery,' 7 as it is sometimes called, in their 
 missions. If we would strictly imitate the 
 
MACHINERY OF MISSIONS. 193 
 
 apostles, we must go forth, as they did, with- 
 out pecuniary support from others, and labor, 
 working with our hands, as Paul did. We 
 must repudiate the machinery of a missionary 
 society, and committees, and secretaries, and 
 treasurers ; and, if we would be thorough, roll 
 back the tide of civilization, and go, as Paul 
 did, on foot by land, and on sea in a ves- 
 sel without compass or chart or chronometer, 
 and have nothing to do, in our locomotion, or 
 transmission of intelligence, with rail-roads, or 
 steamers, and electric telegraphs. It is easy to 
 remind us that the work of missions is a work 
 of faith, and that God is able to remove all ob- 
 stacles. So it is at home also ; yet when He 
 gives his church facilities based on this work 
 of faith, He requires them to use these facilities. 
 He never interposes to do what men can do. 
 He might remove all obstacles and convert the 
 heathen without the aid of his church, but He 
 gives his people the privilege of being co- 
 workers with him, and as such to use all the 
 means He has put in their power. We are all 
 to put our " shoulders to the wheel;" yea, to 
 every wheel, and then cry to him for a "living 
 17 
 
194 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 spirit in the wheels." It is not the use of 
 " machinery" in missions that is to be blamed, 
 but dependence upon it ; as would be the use 
 of medicine in sickness, if we did not with 
 that, trust in God, and pray for his blessing. 
 
 Formation of Congregations and Churches, and 
 Ordaining Native Pastors. — The forming of 
 Christian congregations in villages, surrounded 
 by heathens, and where, perhaps, the members 
 are mingled with them as neighbors, has been 
 found a good initiatory step. These congrega- 
 tions are composed principally of unbaptized 
 persons, who profess their belief in Chris- 
 tianity and desire of baptism, and who put 
 themselves under instruction. The missionary, 
 or some one in his place, teaches them ; and 
 their children are gathered into a school. At- 
 tention is paid to their wants, as to marriage, 
 burial, etc., and they are expected to renounce 
 idolatrous practices, keep the. Sabbath, and at- 
 tend on public worship. When the members 
 are enlightened, and appear to receive the truth 
 in the love of it, they are baptized, and re- 
 ceived to the church ; and their children are 
 then baptized. The importance of these 
 
FORMATION OF CONGREGATIONS. 195 
 
 associations is thus noticed by the Madura 
 mission : 
 
 a Why is it that congregations are organ- 
 ized ? "Why not freely preach to all, and 
 gather into churches those whom the Lord is 
 pleased to convert ? To this we answer : It 
 must be obvious, that minds sunk in the 
 deep darkness of heathenism, cannot at once 
 understand the mysteries of the gospel. The 
 truth must be repeatedly explained and en- 
 forced, and conscience and all the moral 
 powers aroused and educated. Then convic- 
 tion of sin and faith in Christ may follow. 
 
 " But people, while heathen, will not give 
 such attention to Christianity as to secure this 
 result, nor can they without subjecting them- 
 selves to the charge of apostac}^. For to at- 
 tend our religious services regularly, or to ex- 
 amine the Bible prayerfully, would imply, in 
 the judgment of the community, a reception 
 of the Christian faith. 
 
 " Here is the necessity for Christian congre- 
 gations. The people, while heathen, can be 
 led to see that Christianity is better than 
 idolatry. They can be persuaded to abandon 
 
196 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 the latter, arid receive the former. But con- 
 gregations thus formed, will at first be un- 
 stable. It would be unnatural that all who 
 join them should stand firm in the time of 
 persecution. The motives to go back are 
 many. The power of public opinion, their 
 own evil natures, and the snares of the devil, 
 are all against them. It should, therefore, be 
 expected, that a large proportion will return to 
 their former faith. It is only after the image 
 of Christ has, by the Holy Spirit, been in- 
 wrought into the hearts of a portion of any 
 community, that we can hope to see stability." 
 The Deputation, already -frequently men- 
 tioned, in calling special attention to that branch 
 of missionary operations, did a good work. 
 There had been too much delay in forming 
 native churches in the villages removed from 
 the principal stations, and putting them under 
 native pastors. In some cases the mission- 
 aries had not devolved a proper share of re- 
 sponsibility on the native assistants, who, if 
 not trusted, would probably never be prepared 
 to bear it ; and, keeping them too much under 
 their own shadow, had not given them space 
 
REMARKS OF THE DEPUTATION. 197 
 
 and sunshine by which they might take root 
 and stand by themselves. They had not 
 room enough. This, in consequence of the 
 visit, is being remedied. The Deputation say 
 to the Bombay mission : 
 
 " The report well expresses the grand and 
 governing object of the American Board, in 
 its plans, and in the distribution of its funds ; 
 as being the conversion of sinners, the gather- 
 ing of these converts into churches ; and the 
 ordaining of native pastors over these churches. 
 This was not always exactly the practical view 
 which the Prudential Committee took of the 
 duty of a missionary society. Their Eeports 
 will show this. Once they aimed in their 
 plans, more than now, at communities ; plan- 
 ning for distant great results affecting the 
 masses. They are now falling back upon the 
 apostolical practice, and aiming directly at 
 immediate conversions — the conversion of 
 individuals — and at the multiplication of 
 churches, with native pastors to work under 
 supervision till the missionaries leave the 
 field. It is our belief that greater spiritual 
 results will be reached in this way than by 
 17* 
 
198 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 any other. We have less to do now, than 
 formerly with preparatory means, with pio- 
 neering for the preached word, with mere civil- 
 izing processes, with any thing and every thing 
 not recognized by the Scriptures as our ap- 
 pointed means of conversion through the 
 agency of the Holy Spirit." 
 
 Also to the Madura mission : 
 
 " Mission churches obviously require the 
 utmost simplicity of structure; and all that 
 they require, and all that is good for them, 
 may be learned from the New Testament. A 
 local church is God's institution. So is the 
 pastoral office. So are deacons, to do work 
 from which pastors should be relieved. And 
 a church thus organized on heathen ground in 
 the New Testament simplicity of structure is, as 
 all the New Testament churches were, a mis- 
 sionary church, and belongs of right to none 
 of the existing complicated denominations of 
 Christendom. And never shall we know what 
 such churches, in their full local development, 
 will do and become in heathen lands, till we 
 have made full proof of them ; till we bring 
 them into an organized, active existence ; and 
 
ADMISSION TO THE CHURCH. 199 
 
 throw responsibility upon them for self-govern- 
 ment, self-support, and the propagation of the 
 gospel. Nor are adverse theories on this sub- 
 ject, before a bold confiding experiment has 
 been made under favorable circumstances, en- 
 titled to any weight." 
 
 In regard to those who should be admitted 
 to communion, the Bombay Mission make 
 some judicious remarks : 
 
 " Every person who gives evidence of true 
 repentance for sin and faith in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ should be received into the Christian 
 church. It is often difficult to determine in 
 respect to particular individuals what con- 
 stitutes sufficient evidence. Any thing which 
 indicates that a man has forsaken his sins, that 
 he loves the Saviour and desires to do his will 
 and is willing to suffer for his sake, is import- 
 ant evidence. It should be remarked that we 
 very rarely see such deep contrition for sin, 
 and such loathing of self on account of it, 
 among the natives of this country, as is often 
 exhibited among those who have known the 
 Bible from their childhood. But when an 
 individual manifests a love for the truth, a con- 
 
200 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 stant desire to hear and know it, an evident 
 effort to do what is right, and this effort long 
 continued, and especially when we see resist- 
 ance to strong temptation or stedfastness under 
 opposition and trial, then we may have con- 
 fidence that he is a true child of God. Knowl- 
 edge of the great doctrines of Christianity 
 may be very limited and yet a man be a true 
 Christian. If he exhibit evidence of a change 
 of heart, his ignorance of these doctrines 
 should not be a bar to his admission to the 
 church. His knowledge or ignorance should 
 be considered only so far as it is an evidence 
 of conversion or otherwise. Distrust of the 
 native character may sometimes 'prevent us 
 from receiving individuals to the church who 
 ought to be admitted. Distrust should not be 
 allowed to prevail too far. There is danger 
 of this from our general feeling in regard to 
 the deceptive practices of the natives. And 
 yet on the other hand, there may be too much 
 credulity, and in consequence great rashness 
 in receiving men to the church who are un- 
 worthy. It is well for the missionary to put a 
 great deal of the responsibility of receiving 
 
NATIVE MINISTEY. 201 
 
 members to the church upon the native church 
 members. It will be found almost invariably 
 to work well. The native Christians gene- 
 rally form a very correct opinion as to the cha- 
 racter of those with whom they are daily con- 
 versant. A native pastor will often judge 
 more correctly, with regard to the character of 
 a native candidate for church membership, than 
 the missionary." 
 
 This whole subject is one of the deepest 
 interest. There may be differences of opinion 
 as to the manner of raising up and qualifying 
 an efficient native ministry, and as to the 
 amount of responsibility or authority, which 
 should be committed to it ; but there can be 
 no doubt of its immense importance. We 
 might as well talk of conquering and govern- 
 ing India politically by foreigners, as to ex- 
 pect to bring it into subjection to Christ by 
 agents wholly from abroad. It is well known 
 that India has been subdued, and is kept in 
 order principally by an army of Sepoys ; offi- 
 cered indeed in part by Britons, but an army 
 principally of her own sons. 
 
 In reference to preparation for the native min- 
 
202 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 istry, something has already been said in 
 speaking of education in English, as desirable 
 for some. This is not to be understood as ap- 
 plying to all ministers, nor is it to be thought 
 that all the pastors, of native churches should 
 be trained for a length of time in any school. 
 They may, after the manner of some Baptist 
 and Congregational churches in England, be 
 selected from the members of a church, as 
 possessing piety and gifts, and after some 
 private preparation, perhaps with a mission- 
 ary, be called to the ministry. 
 
 In regard to the preparation of native 
 agents, the Arcot Mission in their letter to the 
 Deputation, say, among other things : 
 
 " They should have a street-education. We 
 mean by this, that they should, in their pre- 
 paratory training, accompany the missionary 
 in his street-preaching. Thus they will learn 
 his mode of presenting truth, his arguments, 
 and his illustrations. These will open to them 
 a fund of thought, will shape the working of 
 their minds, and stimulate their natural powers 
 to independent efforts in the same direction. 
 They will acquire confidence and moral cour- 
 
NATIVE MINISTRY. 203 
 
 age, so as to fear the face of no man. Their 
 minds will be whetted, and brightened, and 
 practically educated, to meet the various exi- 
 gences of their office. This is the form of a 
 theological seminary, which appears to us to 
 come very near the one that our Lord insti- 
 tuted." 
 
 The Bombay Mission say : 
 
 " The first assistants and teachers will need 
 to be taught almost exclusively by the mis- 
 sionary, for he has no one else to teach them. 
 He has their training, as it were, in his own 
 hands. He will take them with him to his 
 preaching places, and on his tours. He will 
 converse with them familiarly and freely upon 
 the truths they read. His teaching should be 
 mostly from the Bible itself. The knowledge 
 of other related things can be communicated 
 as may be requisite. In case of hopeful con- 
 versions of persons who have such natural 
 abilities that they afford a hope of being quali- 
 fied for preachers and pastors, a more extended 
 training will be required. They should be put 
 upon a course of study. 
 
 "In process of time we look, with the bless- 
 
204 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 ing of Grod, for results which, will demand 
 more training for assistants and teachers, than 
 the missionary himself has time to give. There 
 should be provision made for a school for 
 catechists and teachers, as soon as there are 
 proper candidates for such a school. They 
 should be trained in the common branches of 
 study. The Biblical element, however, should 
 be the most prominent, and the training should 
 be thorough in the Scriptures. One important 
 object in bringing young men into such a 
 school, would be to develope and strengthen 
 their Christian character, to enable them to 
 face the difficulties they will meet when placed 
 by themselves, away from the station where 
 missionaries reside and Christians are found — 
 to be leaders of the flock. How many such 
 schools there should be, and whether more 
 than one in connection with any mission, 
 must be left for future circumstances to decide. 
 All we would now say is, there must be ade- 
 quate provision for the education of catechists 
 and teachers in every mission." 
 
 The Deputation, in reply, write : 
 
 " The manner of training native preachers 
 
FORMATIOK OF CHURCHES. 205 
 
 indicated in the report, is precisely the one 
 which the Prudential Committee desire to see 
 carried out in the missions as far as may be ; 
 less in seminaries, more in actual connection 
 with the preaching missionary. Science, litera- 
 ture, general knowledge, what is called a lib- 
 eral education, are good and important ; but 
 in educating our native preachers in this way 
 among the heathen, we have often paid dear 
 for the education ; and when obtained, have 
 too often found that we had paid more than it 
 was worth. Better dispense altogether with 
 our theological seminaries among the heathen, 
 for the present, if we cannot combine with our 
 instruction an active training in the work of 
 the ministry. Every missionary ought to feel, 
 that his office constitutes him the gatherer of 
 churches and the educator of preachers. Let 
 it be our aim, depending on the Holy Spirit, 
 to plant a church in every considerable village, 
 and without delay to furnish every church, thus 
 planted, with a pastor." 
 
 As to the formation of churches, some re- 
 marks may be quoted, both from the Madura 
 and Ceylon missions. The former say : 
 
206 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 "The formation of churches is necessary to 
 the continued existence and development of 
 Christianity in any country, and especially is 
 it suited to the condition of the Tamil people. 
 The maxim that 'union is strength' is true 
 in regard to Christianity, as it is in worldly 
 things. An. army ever so numerous and 
 brave, unless united and properly organized, 
 could accomplish but little. So with the 
 church militant. It must be united and pro- 
 perly organized and watched over, or its sta- 
 bility, strength, and aggressive influence, will 
 never be developed ; nor can it in any way 
 withstand the assaults of the world, the flesh, 
 and the devil, but must fall before them. This 
 assertion is not made irrespective of the power 
 of the Holy Ghost, but in direct regard to that. 
 This organization we consider the channel or 
 means, through which the Spirit is to operate. 
 If these organizations are necessary in a civil- 
 ized and Christian land, how much more are 
 they necessary in lands where the heathenism 
 of ages has weakened the intellect, debased 
 the moral character, destroyed the independ- 
 
FOBMATION OF CHUECHES. 207 
 
 ence and self-respect, and assimilated the man 
 to the brute." 
 
 The Ceylon mission say : 
 
 " The command of Christ, ' Go ye into all 
 the world and preach the gospel to every 
 creature,' though given directly to the apos- 
 tles, is fully binding upon every Christian to 
 the extent of his ability. It is also a principle 
 "universally recognized that union of action 
 and influence, gives increased pov/er; and 
 hence it will appear that the missionary who 
 seeks as rapidly and thoroughly as possible to 
 carry on his aggressive movements against 
 heathenism, must, in the prosecution of his 
 work, gather the native converts into churches 
 and unite their power as witnesses for the 
 truth and as examples of faith and obedience 
 to the principles of the gospel ; and in order 
 that he may be relieved in part from care and 
 responsibility, and be left more free to preach 
 the gospel in other places, and to plant other 
 churches, he will place over them native 
 pastors, who will feed and watch over the 
 flock." 
 
 There would probably be much variety of 
 
208 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 judgment as to the extent to which missionaries 
 should divest themselves of the pastoral care. 
 Many, quoting the example of the apostles, 
 who, after forming churches, committed them 
 to the care of others, and passed on to new 
 fields, seem to think that missionaries should 
 seldom — and only in the early stages of their 
 labors — retain the pastorate. But missionaries 
 have not precisely the office or endowments 
 of the apostles. They have not the discerning 
 of spirits to guide them in the choice of agents 
 to carry on the work which they may begin, 
 nor the power of communicating the Holy 
 Ghost by the laying on of hands. Nor do 
 they, in India, find a people prepared of the 
 Lord, as were most to whom the apostles went. 
 The office of the apostles, and for which they 
 were divinely inspired, was not only to extend 
 Christianity to the unevangelized of a parti- 
 cular country — as missionaries now endeavor, 
 to do — but to establish it in the world as a 
 new religion, and give it its proper form and 
 rules ; both in the institution of churches, with 
 proper officers and ordinances, and furnishing 
 regulations for them, by giving the written 
 
ORDAINING NATIVES. 209 
 
 gospels, and sending them inspired epistles. 
 They had a higher work to perform than 
 merely preaching — though it seems that this 
 was committed to them rather than baptizing, 
 for which Paul says, he was not sent, and 
 consequently than the organizing of churches, 
 to which preaching and baptism were initia- 
 tory — and this was the completion of the Scrip- 
 ture canon, and the " care of all the churches." 
 Missionaries do not now readily find- — at 
 least among the Hindus, however it may be 
 among the Armenians, Nestorians, and others 
 — a Timothy or a Titus to make a presbyter. 
 Let these things be well borne in mind, and 
 let them remember both the weakness of the 
 Hindu character, and the peculiar temptations in 
 every Hindu church to retain heathen customs 
 and Hindu caste ; and then, while they feel the 
 importance of " ordaining elders in every city," 
 where a few believers are gathered, they will 
 feel also the necessity of carefulness in select- 
 ing " faithful men, who shall be able to teach 
 others also." The ordained natives in Tanjore, 
 who have had more or less responsibility in 
 the church for a century past, have done little 
 18* 
 
210 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 for its purification from either heathenish, caste 
 or custom. Probably, in most cases, a mis- 
 sionary in laying the " foundations for many 
 generations/' and seeing to it that " hay, 
 wood and stubble" are not built upon them, 
 must not only oversee, but often put his own 
 hand to the work. He must nurse, he must 
 discipline, he must guide the infant church. 
 He must, for some length of time, at least, 
 be a pastor in reality, if not in name, both 
 to the sheep and to the lambs. He must be 
 gentle among them, as a nurse cherisheth her 
 children. " He must exhort, reprove, rebuke, 
 with all long-suffering and doctrine." He 
 must " feed the flock of God." It is com- 
 paratively an easy thing to gather a flock ; 
 but, among the heathen, at least — let alone 
 Christian lands — the tug of the battle is in 
 keeping them together, and leading them into 
 green pastures that they may grow thereby, 
 and re-commend the Shepherd, so that others 
 may join them. Above all things a witness- 
 ing church is wanted ; and for the difficult ser- 
 vice of training its members, not the lowest, 
 but the highest gifts and graces will be found 
 
A WITNESSING CHURCH. 211 
 
 needful. One living, spiritual church, divested 
 of worldliness, warm with the love of Christ 
 and of souls, with a pastor like Brainerd, or 
 Martyn, or Payson, would do more to recom- 
 mend and extend Christianity, than a dozen 
 of the ordinary character, especially if the 
 members felt, as they would be likely to do, 
 under such training, that the " grand desidera- 
 tum" as the Deputation express it, of foreign 
 missions, "now is, that every convert should 
 feel that, as a Christian, he is bound to declare 
 the great salvation to his neighbors." 
 
 With such exceptions as circumstances are 
 found to require, the views expressed in the 
 Bombay report, of the duty of the missionary, 
 may be well adopted. 
 
 " He must look beyond the mere pastorate 
 of a church. He must endeavor to collect 
 native churches in different places, and he 
 must train up some of his converts to be the 
 pastors of these churches. He should be pre- 
 pared to commit the truths of the gospel to 
 faithful men that they may teach them to others 
 also. As they increase in knowledge of the 
 distinctive doctrines of the gospel and in adap- 
 
212 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 tation to the work of making them known to 
 others, he must give them the opportunity of 
 exercising their talents, standing out of the 
 way when necessary, that they may gradually 
 be preparing to come forward and perform the 
 duties of faithful ministers of Jesus Christ. 
 He should ever himself be aiming at further 
 extension, seeking how he may collect new 
 churches and prepare pastors for them, thus 
 making all his plans subserve the one "object 
 of fully planting the gospel of Christ in the 
 country where he "resides, by the establishment 
 of churches, with their appropriate pastors and 
 other officers. The missionary should feel it 
 to be his business to go forward and find out 
 where new churches can be established, collect 
 the nucleus and then furnish the native laborer 
 who shall carry on the work. * * * 
 
 " Let not the missionary then regard him- 
 self as a mere preacher or pastor of a native 
 church, but rather as a trainer and educator 
 of preachers. The work of preaching the gos- 
 pel is indeed a glorious work ; how much 
 more important and honorable, then, for the 
 missionary, in addition to the work of preach- 
 
GROWTH OF THE NATIVE CHURCH. 213 
 
 ing, to train others who shall proclaim the 
 message of salvation to their countrymen." 
 
 The spiritual growth of the native church, 
 or improvement among its members, is — as 
 previously mentioned — to be considered a first 
 necessity. Contrary to what many suppose, 
 that those who have been taken from the 
 slough of gross idolatry, and all its untold and 
 inconceivable abominations and wretchedness, 
 will of course so remember the hole of the pit 
 from whence they were digged, as always to 
 dread an approach to it, and be filled with the 
 liveliest gratitude and love at having had much 
 forgiven, and escaped from much misery, they 
 are found too often like a sow that is washed, 
 ready again to wallow in the mire; and as 
 much inclined to relapse into heathenism as 
 the half-tamed savage is to return to the wild 
 forest, or the partridge, which has been caught, 
 but cannot be domesticated, to its native 
 woods. There is in man always a tendency 
 downwards. Some two or three generations 
 must probably elapse before the Hindus, as a 
 body, will be, what could be wished, entire 
 Christians, in warp and woof, in the grain as 
 
214 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 well as in. the bark. The operations of the 
 Holy Spirit, his renewing and sanctifying in- 
 fluences, are by no means overlooked in giving 
 this opinion. It is matter for rejoicing and 
 praise that He has so wrought upon many that 
 most delightful changes are manifest, and stout 
 Christian characters are formed. But they are 
 exceptions to the general rule ; and all are 
 aware that, with much grace, the remains of 
 constitutional temperament and previously- 
 formed habits may be found among the real 
 children of God in any and every land. 
 
 Improvement of native Christians should, 
 therefore, be earnestly studied. On this sub- 
 ject some good remarks are made in the Cey- 
 lon Eeport : 
 
 " Certain leading vices may be specified as 
 needing to be watched with vigilance, and 
 certain improvements must be followed up 
 with unwearied step. In this country, caste 
 is an organized evil, directly contrary to the 
 word of God, and while it exists, may never 
 be unheeded. Polygamy is an evil thing in 
 the heathen community, which not only may 
 never receive any countenance, but the mis- 
 
FAMILY RELIGION. 215 
 
 sionary and the native churches, in all points 
 in which, they come in contact with it, must 
 give clear and unequivocal manifestations of 
 non-fellowship therewith. 
 
 " The universal degradation of females de- 
 mands special attention. They need the 
 gospel to raise them, and special pains should 
 be taken, by improving the conscience of the 
 people and their Christian feelings, and by the 
 word of God, to introduce habits and customs 
 more in accordance with those of enlightened 
 society and the laws of Christ's kingdom. The 
 seating of the whole family at meals at once, 
 or the asking of God's blessing on the food 
 provided, would be a great improvement in 
 itself, and very salutary in its bearings on all 
 the social and domestic relations of native life. 
 It would go further than almost any other 
 single change towards introducing a taste and 
 desire for the education of females. Social 
 evils keep company with each other, and the 
 general introduction of such a change as this 
 would bring along a goodly number of attend- 
 ant improvements. The family, as well as the 
 church, is God's institution, and every needed 
 
216 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 improvement made here will be a well-spring 
 of life. The maintenance of family worship, 
 though difficult for unlearned heads of fami- 
 lies, is a thing so nearly and intimately con- 
 nected with house-hold religion, and house-hold 
 religion is so intimately connected with the 
 prosperity of the church, that it should be a 
 matter of earnest effort ; and it may perhaps 
 be well to inquire, whether daily religious 
 services in the village congregations do, by 
 coming in as a substitute, stand in the way of 
 its introduction. But whatever the difficulties 
 in the way may be, this must be regarded as a 
 point of primary importance, and be sought 
 after accordingly." 
 
 The missionary has thus the high privilege 
 of stamping his own image, in a measure, upon 
 the converts and native preachers, who are to 
 be his living epistle ; and in proportion as he 
 bears the image of Christ, will God be glorified 
 through him. He may multiply himself — he 
 may live after death. Let him be a living, 
 walking, shining temple of the Holy Ghost, 
 and he will kindle up other shining lights in 
 the midst of heathen darkness, and continue 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION". 217 
 
 by the example left behind, a guiding beacon 
 to all who may come after him. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATION. 
 
 This has been left to the direction of each 
 mission, and has sometimes approximated to 
 the Congregational and sometimes the Presby- 
 terian form, with such modifications as the 
 state of infant churches in the midst of the 
 heathen has seemed to require. Perhaps all 
 the missionaries have found that these babes 
 in Christ require more nursing by the pastor, 
 more watchful care, and even control by him, 
 than churches in a Christian land ; and that he 
 cannot depend as much on the brethren at 
 large, or even on ruling elders, as is custom- 
 ary in Christian lands. Some modification of 
 either of the above forms of church order, 
 may, therefore, be expedient. But the plan 
 proposed of making each mission, as such, an 
 ecclesiastical body, seems liable to grave ob- 
 jections. 
 
 In speaking of the action of the Ceylon 
 mission, Dr. Anderson, in a letter, dated Bat- 
 19 
 
218 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 ticotta, Ceylon, May 26, 1855, as published 
 in the Missionary Herald of September of 
 that year, says : 
 
 " Early in their special meeting, they unan- 
 imously voted to dissolve their ecclesiastical 
 body, as unnecessarily complicating their sys- 
 tem, and to do all their missionary work here- 
 after by means of their simple missionary 
 organization. This would leave the native 
 churches to develop themselves wholly dis- 
 tinct, and give the mission great advantages as 
 an originating and presiding agency. But, in- 
 asmuch as the missionary body was to stand 
 thus separated from the native churches, the 
 desire was awakened that a church might be 
 formed of the missionaries and their families. 
 Such a church was actually formed thirty-nine 
 years ago by the first company ; of which but 
 a single member now remains on the ground. 
 It was resolved to organize the new church 
 on the same confession and covenant with the 
 old." 
 
 The reason for voting to " dissolve their ec- 
 clesiastical body," and do all their missionary 
 work by means of their simple missionary 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL OEGANIZATION. 219 
 
 organization, was that it unnecessarily compli- 
 cated their system. There were two bodies, 
 composed of the same persons, and it was 
 thought unnecessary to have two. After 
 transacting secular business, as a mission, to 
 form themselves a-new as an ecclesiastical 
 body, in order to regulate their church affairs, 
 seemed to complicate their business " un- 
 necessarily." But the mission included two 
 laymen, who, unless made deacons or eld- 
 ers, would not belong to an ecclesiastical 
 body — nor then except as delegates ; and, 
 on the other hand, the native pastors, as 
 ordained men, might be members of an eccle- 
 siastical body, having an equal voice with the 
 missionaries in matters purely spiritual, while 
 they could not with propriety be made mem- 
 bers of the mission, and have a vote in the 
 disposal of funds entrusted only to those sent 
 out by the board. There are reasons against 
 the latter, in view of a large number of pas- 
 tors being ordained, so as to out-vote the 
 missionaries, which do not exist against the 
 former, because temptations to abuse in secular 
 matters are greater than in those purely spirit- 
 
220 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 ual ; and though, the native pastors, by their 
 ordination, are made equal to the missionaries, 
 as officers in the Church of Christ, they are 
 not by ordination made agents of a missionary 
 society, and entrusted with its funds. It is 
 important to keep church and state, or the 
 secular and spiritual, distinct ; whatever form 
 of church goverment be adopted. 
 
 If the ordained pastors are neither members 
 of the mission, nor of an ecclesiastical body, 
 they can have no voice in church matters, ex- 
 cept each one in his own pastorate ; and in 
 that, even, he would be controlled by the mis- 
 sion, so long as dependent on it for funds. 
 If made self-supporting, each church would be 
 independent of every other, and also of the 
 mission. Whatever of caste, or other heathen 
 custom, should be introduced, neither the 
 missionaries nor other brethren could inter- 
 fere. The effect of this would probably be 
 that such churches would become thorns in 
 the sides of the missionaries. On the one 
 hand they would be too dependent when 
 under the control of the mission, and on the 
 other too independent of all control, before 
 
CONCLUSION". 221 
 
 capable of self-government, when able to sup- 
 port their pastor. The objection to the same 
 persons constituting two different bodies, as a 
 mission and an association or presbytery, has 
 little weight, as it constantly occurs in delib- 
 eratiye assemblies, even in Congress, and the 
 parliament of Great Britain, 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The writer of these hints has been glad 
 whenever he has found that he could fortify 
 his own views by those of the honored Depu- 
 tation, whose decision he has sometimes quoted, 
 or the esteemed missionaries, with most of 
 whom he has the pleasure of somewhat inti- 
 mate acquaintance. Wherein he has in any 
 degree differed from them, it has been with 
 great deference, and only because his own ex- 
 perience and personal observation for many 
 years, could not always be made to give the 
 same results as theirs. There is another cir- 
 cumstance, also, to be considered in reference 
 to some differences, apparent, rather than real. 
 
 The Deputation confined themselves, almost 
 19* 
 
222 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 exclusively, to the consideration of rural mis- 
 sions, or the state and prospect of missions in 
 country places, in distinction from large cities, 
 the centres of commerce and government. 
 The missions which they visited are nearly all 
 in such more retired parts ; and they seem in- 
 clined to adopt the policy of continuing the 
 efforts of the Board, principally — it is hoped 
 not exclusively — in the country rather than in 
 the town. The hints, however, are intended 
 for both, and so to cover a larger surface than 
 was brought into view in most of the reports, 
 and the remarks upon them. That the cities 
 should not be abandoned by all even of the 
 American churches, or the forms of operation 
 more peculiar to them, be discouraged, may, 
 perhaps, be satisfactorily shown in connection 
 with these few closing remarks. 
 
 In regard to the missions in Bombay and 
 Madras, however discouraging they may be 
 comparatively, and as to immediate results, in 
 regard to churches and pastors, they have a 
 two-fold importance, arising from benefits con- 
 ferred upon the natives, or their direct mis- 
 sionary bearing; and as connected with the 
 
MADRAS MISSION". 223 
 
 sions in the country — or their direct use- 
 fulness. Concerning Madras, it is said in the 
 statement : 
 
 " In Madras, though, there are now only 
 fifty- three members of the churches in com- 
 munion, there have been in eighteen years 
 more than twice that number, or one hundred 
 and twelve ; and hundreds upon hundreds of 
 children and youth of both sexes have been 
 taught the Scriptures, of whom several, not 
 only from the high school, but the vernacular 
 schools, have been baptized ; some in this 
 mission, and more in other communions ; one 
 of them as far off as Belgaum. 
 
 "Besides, in estimating the good done, it 
 should be considered that the mission has 
 been to some extent, what it was first designed 
 to be, a book-making mission, and an agency 
 of the American Bible and Tract Societies. 
 More than twenty tracts and books, larger and 
 smaller, have been prepared and sent forth, 
 some of them in large editions, besides what 
 have been printed for the local Tract Society. 
 This has required a good deal of the time of 
 one of the missionaries in the getting of them 
 
224 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 up, and of the other in their distribution. 
 Editions of the Scriptures, in whole or part, 
 in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindustani, have also 
 been brought out; and one missionary has 
 spent much time in preparing some of these, 
 and in the work of revising and translating 
 the Tamil Scriptures, as well as in the pre- 
 paration of the Tamil and English dictionary. 
 
 " The mission is also to be considered as an 
 agency of the Board, to supply the mission at 
 Jaffna, Madura, and Arcot, with funds and 
 with articles needed from Madras; and also 
 to help on their way those who arrive for 
 these missions, or depart from them for Amer- 
 ica. The saving to the board in the article of 
 funds, is more than equal to the salary of a 
 missionary, year by year. 
 
 " The laborers in the work, on an average, 
 for the eighteen and a half years, are about 
 two and a half missionaries for each year, ex- 
 clusive of the superintendent of the press." 
 
 In reference to Bombay, much longer 
 established, and better manned, far more 
 might no doubt be said. These missions, it is 
 thought, are quite necessary to the best pros- 
 
CHANGES IK THE COUNTRY. 225 
 
 perity of those in the country, which are, in 
 some respects, 'dependent on them. Will it 
 then be politic to establish any rules for mis- 
 sions, which would prevent operations in such 
 places ? There must be some variety in 
 talents and acquirements among those sent 
 out, and why not have some variety in the 
 field and the kinds of labor ? It will not do 
 to place a Procrustean bed, and bring all 
 shapes and lengths to fit it, by stretching 
 some, and cutting off others. There is no 
 reason why a missionary society should have 
 a stereotyped plan, or theory, for all its mis- 
 sions in India. The circumstances of different 
 parts of the field are very different, and the 
 country itself is greatly changing its aspect ; 
 being at length, in many places, in a transition 
 state. Eailroads have been introduced on the 
 land, and steamers along the coast, and electric 
 telegraphs communicating intelligence with the 
 speed of lightning, from one end of the coun- 
 try to the other. Canals are being formed to 
 aid inter-communication in various parts of 
 the country ; anicuts, or giant dams, with ex- 
 tended water-courses, are being constructed 
 
226 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 to control, and retain when necessary, the 
 waters of large rivers, and make them use- 
 ful for the double purpose of navigation, and 
 for irrigating the fields ; and the charter of 
 the East India Company being altered, it is 
 no longer altogether a close corporation, but 
 many of its offices are open to competition, 
 even by the natives, and the benefits of a more 
 liberal government are beginning to be en- 
 joyed. The " schoolmaster is abroad," and 
 the English language, in connexion with the 
 vernaculars, is becoming the language of all 
 the government offices and the courts of law, 
 instead of the Persian and Arabic ; and Eu- 
 ropean science is disseminated even by the 
 government itself. All these changes, and 
 notes of change, from the shrill scream of the 
 steam-whistle to the conning of the alphabet 
 by brahmans and soodras, and even pariahs, 
 on the same form, are telling upon the Hindu 
 mind, and working great revolutions in all his 
 long-settled opinions. Eeal science is destroy- 
 ing his confidence in his sacred books, and 
 brahmans, and idols. Even the barrier of 
 caste, so long thought impregnable, begins to 
 
MARKS OF PROGRESS. 227 
 
 give way through, the combined influences of 
 education, intercourse with foreigners, and 
 Christianity. The brahmans who used to ex- 
 pel permanently all who had broken caste, by 
 eating with one of lower caste, or even drink- 
 ing water from the same vessel with one, or 
 with a foreigner, have lately contrived means 
 for re-instating those who have left them. A 
 fine paid to the brahmans, with some ceremo- 
 nies, such as burning the tongue, and causing 
 them to swallow the five products of the cow, 
 the urine, dung, milk, etc., will now restore 
 the revolter again to caste. This is a tribute 
 to the influence of light, and the power of 
 truth, in making converts to Christianity; the 
 number of whom has alarmed the brahmans. 
 It, however, increases the facilities for conver- 
 sion, while it lessens its security. It is one of 
 the signs of progress, and at the same time an 
 element of change. The suttee, or burning 
 of widows alive, is abolished ; female infanti- 
 cide is forbidden ; the re-marriage of widows is 
 beginning to be advocated even by natives ; 
 the ceremony of cheddul, or swinging high in 
 the air on hooks passed through the integu- 
 
228 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 ments of the back ; treading on beds of coals, 
 running strips of bamboo through the flesh of 
 the arms and sides, and other self-tortures are 
 discountenanced, and in some places prohib- 
 ited. The connection of government with 
 idolatry, is being withdrawn ; the brahmans 
 have lost their prestige as government em- 
 ployees, in the offices — to the exclusion of 
 other castes — by the more general spread of 
 learning ; and among the educated young men, 
 great numbers have renounced idol worship, 
 who have not embraced Christianity. 
 
 Progress is thus beginning to be the order 
 of the day, and though it does not, as yet, 
 affect the retired and rural sections of the 
 country very sensibly, it does greatly influx 
 ence the more central portions, and requires 
 that missionary efforts in them should be 
 adapted to these changes. The spirit of prog- 
 ress must be seized upon and guided by such 
 1 as are qualified for the work, and are in a 
 position to bring about good results, or its 
 course will be evil. For this, the missionary 
 needs, in the towns, the aids of education and 
 the press. Without these, and confining him- 
 
IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH. 229 
 
 self only to preaching, he will lack some of 
 the essential elements of influence. He can- 
 not, efficiently, bring his mind into contact 
 with that of the Hindu; intent on other things, 
 cannot get access to any extent to the higher 
 classes, or at all to respectable females ; and 
 therefore he is neglected, and his mission is 
 unknown. By teaching English at small ex- 
 pense, and principally by means of teachers 
 employed for moderate pay, while he gives 
 himself principally to the missionary work in 
 the vernaculars, he may have large classes of 
 select native youths, both male and female, 
 of all castes, under his instruction, in the 
 Scriptures, as well as in science, in the com- 
 mon-school, Sunday-school, and church ; and 
 he will be able to take advantage of the spirit 
 of change at work, and to direct the teachable 
 minds of the young in the ways of godliness. 
 God has also blessed these schools with pre- 
 cious revivals of religion. 
 
 Without advantages like the above, how is 
 
 he himself to meet opposers, and to train his 
 
 native assistants to confute the learned infidels 
 
 of the Volney, and Voltaire, and Hume schools, 
 
 20 
 
280 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 and the subtle brahmans, who can split a hair 
 in metaphysics, and crawl through the small- 
 est knot-hole when cornered in an argument. 
 And how are they to overthrow the time- 
 indurated fortifications of caste, contend with 
 a priesthood accounted divine, bring into dis- 
 repute books supposed to contain revelations 
 from the gods on religion, morals, law, physic, 
 geography, astronomy, astrology, and every 
 thing necessary to be known ; and change the 
 whole course of life of a whole people, whose 
 every action, almost, is guided by religion or 
 superstition ? How is he to do this, with the 
 obstacles to be overcome, mentioned in the 
 former parts of these Hints, and while the 
 religion to be supplanted falls in with every 
 natural inclination and lust of his heart, as 
 well as the example of all his ancestors and 
 co-temporaries, and that which he is asked 
 to embrace calls for constant self-denial, and 
 exposes to shame and persecution? It is not 
 forgotten that the Holy Spirit can enable a 
 Hindu to overcome the obstacles in his path, 
 to tear himself away from all that is naturally 
 dear to him ; to stem the current of public 
 
MEANS NECESSARY. 231 
 
 opinion, to bear ridicule and persecution in 
 order to save his soul ; but that same Holy 
 Spirit usually works by means — and means 
 proportionate to the end. A David may be 
 raised up of God to kill a Goliath with a 
 pebble from a sling, but in the ordinary course 
 of warfare such pebbles would not kill even 
 common soldiers. Is there no lesson to be 
 learned from the dealings of God with the 
 Israelites, whom He led through the wilder- 
 ness, and disciplined for forty years, that they 
 might be prepared to enter Canaan? If it 
 were an easy thing to raise up a witnessing 
 church in the midst of the heathen, would 
 God have taken so expensive and extended a 
 course as He did to establish the Jewish 
 nation, as the depositaries of his truth in the 
 earth ? What long preparations, what impres- 
 sive manifestations ! Was the work too great 
 for the purpose intended ? We must be con- 
 vinced that it is a great work to bring a nation 
 to God, and that, as in the natural world, so in 
 the moral, great operations are of slow develop- 
 ment. God has given his people the means of 
 overthrowing some of the strongholds of Hin- 
 
232 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 chrism by the communication of true science, 
 which is destructive of the authority of the 
 shasters. The} 7 can be demonstrated to be 
 false. Is that an advantage to be discarded, 
 as of no use? He has also put them in a 
 position to bring the light of history to bear 
 upon caste and custom, and the influence of 
 all the arts of advanced civilization to disa- 
 buse the Hindu mind of its fancied sense 
 of superiorit} 7 , and to scatter the clouds which 
 have settled upon it for centuries. Shall they 
 not do this ? 
 
 He has brought the apathetic Hindus under 
 the influence of an energetic race, and in the 
 position of pupils, willing to read and study 
 the Scriptures, which contain the germ of all 
 social, as well as religious blessings, on the 
 condition that they may also be taught the 
 English language. If there be not some evil 
 in such teaching, most certainly it is a duty to 
 teach it, for the benefits to be obtained. If it 
 were only innocent though not useful, if it did 
 not afford the key to most valuable knowledge 
 and enlarge the mind, all would say, " Let it 
 be taught for the collateral benefits." But the 
 
CITIES NOT TO BE NEGLECTED. 233 
 
 objector may say it is not innocent, it unfits the 
 student for the missionary work. Then does a 
 university education in Christian lands, and we 
 must say, "Blessed be ignorance, it is the 
 mother of devotion." We must join the 
 preacher, who thanked God that he under- 
 stood only one language, and was hardly able 
 to read that ! No, the remedy is not in ceasing 
 to educate in the cities, but in educating pro- 
 perly, and in not attempting to make town and 
 country in every respect alike, merely because 
 in both the gospel only is the power of Grod 
 unto salvation. The question is how to make 
 the gospel known in each. Even in Christian, 
 lands, ministers most useful in country places, 
 may fail entirely in cities. 
 
 Still, it may be said, " Why attack the large 
 towns, the high places of heathenism, where 
 Satan's seat is? Why not go to a simple- 
 minded people, a rural population, pass in and 
 out before them, become acquainted with 
 them, and convince all that you seek their 
 good. You may be known among them and 
 not lost, as you would be among the masses 
 of a crowded population. They will listen 
 20* 
 
234 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 to you. You may, in such places, gather 
 churches and appoint pastors." Yery well, and 
 so let many, so let most do. It is right, it is 
 well. But while this is done, let not the 
 other be left undone. The city is the heart 
 of the country. Whatever you do at the ex- 
 tremities, if the heart remain corrupt, your 
 efforts will, in the end, be counteracted. Let 
 there go from the town a healing influence, 
 and the country will be healed. Let a poison- 
 ous current issue from these centres, and all 
 around them will wither and die. The apos- 
 tles did not turn from Corinth, or Bphesus, or 
 Philippi, or even Eome, because of the pecu- 
 liar wickedness of these places, and the obsta- 
 cles to be overcome. Nor must modern mis- 
 sionaries neglect the large towns because the 
 country is of easier cultivation. Neither must 
 they seek only immediate results. These are 
 important, no doubt, to keep the church alive, 
 most of whose members require the stimulus 
 of success. Perhaps the church, generally, is 
 getting to be impatient, because so little is 
 done, especially in India. If this impatience 
 excited to prayer and self-denial, and more 
 
CULTIVATION" NECESSARY. 235 
 
 vigorous exertions on comprehensive plans 
 and fixed principles, it would turn to good 
 account. If it lead only to turning from one 
 expedient to another, and seeking an easy 
 field of labor, and quick returns, without re- 
 gard to far-reaching results, it will defeat its 
 object. If the whole field is to be cultivated, 
 then " Indian planting," as it is called — or stir- 
 ring the earth a little, here and there, in some 
 places, and dropping in a seed-corn while the 
 trees and brush around are left to thrive and 
 overshadow the springing grain- — will not 
 answer. All must turn to and engage ear- 
 nestly in felling the tall trees, grubbing up 
 the roots, removing the under-brush, gathering 
 out the stones, forming channels for water, and 
 converting the wilderness into a garden ; and 
 this must be done everywhere, be the obsta- 
 cles ever so great. Blessed be God there is no 
 jungle of heathenism, even in India, which 
 shall be found impervious to the gospel-plough, 
 when, with needed aids, it is guided in faith, 
 and in due dependence on the Spirit of all 
 grace ; and no strong towers of lying idolatry, 
 even in the seats of pride and power, which the 
 
236 HINTS ON INDIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 truth of God, with all the appliances provided 
 by his providence, shall not be found mighty to 
 overthrow. It may be the duty of American 
 Christians to direct their energies principally to 
 rural places, but if they wholly neglect the 
 towns, the expostulation of Mordecai to Esther, 
 may be applicable to them: " If thou alto- 
 gether holdest thy peace, at this time, then 
 shall their enlargement and deliverance arise 
 from another place, but thou shalt suffer loss." 
 
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