f Toes. WM LS a. Che Missionary LITERATURE. F le the ea BY THE paper ede Ruy. H. U. WEITBRECHT, Pu. D., Stonorary ddutorial Secretary, seeseprsdaanzcparsren PUNJAB FLELIGIOUS Pook pOciery. Published as a Supplement to the soctety’s Report for 1888, Walhare: PRINTED AT THE NEW IMPERIAL PRESS, BY SAYYAD RAJAB ALI SHAM, i889. PREVACE. =——“NYOtG Ww Tis paper was written for the Centennial Mis- sionary Conference of 1888, and read before that body by the Rev. Dyson, (see Report of Centennial Con- ference Vol. IL., p. 258.) Itis published in a separate form to make it accessible to friends of the work here in India with a few corrections, | | HU ewe April 1889. THE MISSIONARY IN RELATION TO LITERATURE. Ir is, happily, needless to prove to persons conversant with Missionary work that the formation of a Christian literature is an essential part of Missionary work in any given nation. The question which practically concerns us now, is the relative im- portance of literary as compared with other aspects of Mission- ary work, and the best means and methods for promoting it, In treating this subject I can speak personally of India only ; and in India I have had to do chiefly ee Ra: with publications in Urdu. But the Urdu language is, from a literary point of view, the most widely extended tongue in India: that is to say, it probably reaches the largest number of readers, and it is also the best furnished with general and Christian literature. Moreover India offers a wider field of observation and deduction than any other Mission field, ranging from the most finished products of Western science and education in the Presidency cities and provincial capitals, to the merest savages in their hilly retreats. Hence the observa- tions here recorded and the deductions attempted may, perhaps, have an application wider than the area from which they proceed, What then are the special difficulties and special opportuni- ties which the experience of the present juncture emphasises in respect of the literary work of Missions ? To menticn the chief difficulty, first, I would say that, ex- cluding strictly spiritual opponents, it is the same which meets us throughout our modern missions, the wide difference of race and civilization between the evangelist Difficulties in adapting. , ble idvce and the eyangelised, And this it 1s 2 which renders it so difficult to adapt our literary work both in form and matter to those for whom it is intended, so that it may appeal to their faculties and influence them permanently. The area influenced by Western ideas is continually and rapidly en- larging, without a corresponding increase of power on the part -of:the Missionary body to cover it with Christian literature. To ‘take only one instance. The early leaders of higher English -education in India were Missionaries like Duff and Wilson, into the fruits of whose labours we have entered and are still entering. THe ecitee Theses But since their day this higher education ) has fallen—not through a relaxation of effort on the part of Missionaries, but through the increased acti- vity of the State—for the most part into the hands of the Gov- ernment institutions, while primary education has received an ‘enormous impulse. Most of the youths who receive the higher education engage either in Government service or in the legal profession; and both during and after their training they are schooled in a system of religious neutrality oftea amounting to indifference. Thus, in addition to the old world of India, which offered its peculiar difficulties, Christian literature now has to reach a new generation. There are still the ignorant and illite- rate masses; still a community educated on the old indigenous lines, with more or less of Hindu or Muhammadan classical knowledge ; but there is also a community educated by Western methods, many through English, more through the vernacular tongues; some quite or nearly up to the standard of English scholars, others occupying an intermediate position between this and the purely vernacular reader, while even his language is receiving a strong dash of English words, uncouth as they look in their Indian dress. And yet, near as he may come to Western notions, the Indian is still an Indian in mind and disposition, and as such he must be approached. The many sided sympathy - 3 in tone, the wide variety in form, needed to meet all these classes, must be found in Mission literature, if it is not to fall behind in its great vocation. With the difficulty of adequately performing a task of such. increasing complexity, a corresponding opportunity is closely bound up. The spread of knowledge, resultiog from the rapid. advance of education is opening an ever-widening door to Mission. literature. A supply of readers is being prepared much. faster: than a supply of goodreading. Western Increase of readers. oot : knowledge and acquaintance with Eng- lish is eagerly sought for, so that the Missionary—pressed as he is Nf ? I by his own proper work—finds himself ana confronted by the question of pure literature for the people. At no previous periud: has the increase of the reading community in India been so rapid; oS a and the ratio of progress. promises to increase. Before the Edu-- cation Commission in 1882, the number. of scholars was estima. ted at 2,000,000 ; it is now computed at. 3,500,000, the increase being chiefly in the primary department. Not ail of, these be- come regular readers, but the majority will require some mental. food. The third feature of the Missionsd eld which bears upon liter-- } } +4 +h Vv yy? 4 ; A Ee ae Growth of Christiancom- 2'Y work j ust NOW 18 tne grow th of the munity. Christian. community. The rates of in- crease in the three decades, preceding 1882, were as follows :— 1851—61 Se ... Ol percent: 1661—71 ee peta ats 1871—81L “as Ve F8Go oP At the end of 1881 there were 417,372 Protestant Native Christians in India. For this community, as it increases in num: bers and grows in intelligence, a Christian literature is more need- ed every year; and itis only in a well-taught Christian Church that we haye a reasonable hope of permanence and self-propagation, ee 4 To set forth the practical conclusions which flow from these facts it may be useful to borrow the terms of political economy, and consider Mission literature in respect of its production, its distribution, and its consumption. And as its consumption is the practical end that we wish to attain, it may be taken first. 1. The Consumption of Mission Literature.* Consumption depends upon demand. How enormously the Tictonced demand tor demand for literature generally is being literature. increased by the educational work now going on,I have already pointed out. Between 1882 and 1885, the pupils in Government and aided schools in India increased by some eight hundred thousand.t Of the three-and-a-half millions now under instruction, some two hundred thousand are in Mis- sion schools. For these readers literature of a sort is forthcoming. I have not the means of obtaining full statistics, but I may refer to the figures given by Dr. Murdoch in his Paper [read at the same Conference], showing that 8,963 publications were regis- gistered during 1886 in British India. Of these, the largest number in any one language (1,435) were in Urdu; and judging by the Panjab publications of a few years previous, we may roughly estimate that the percentage of subjects was as follows :— Religion ee 8 Beh IZB Poetry, Fiction, and Drama ... ee a Education = i ciel tle Other subjects fii wan Tayo 100 Of the first class a certain number, perhaps a sixth, are Chris- tian works. Thesecond class of books and pamphlets are largely * T use this term in preference to ‘‘ Missionary Literature,” as the latter might be understood to mean Missionary magazines, biographies, and the like, + This increase may include a considerable number of schools already existing, which came under Governmental inspection and cognisance during the period named, but even this connotes an important increase in the effective- ‘ness of the education given, fi$ 5 demoralising ; while the third again include a sprinkling of Christian books, published chiefly by the Christian Vernacular Education Society. With the exception of these school books, most of the Christian works have a limited circulation, especially those of any size. The other languages of North India are relatively less well supplied with Christian books than Urdu. From these facts we gather that the Vernacular books, which are read for purposes other than studious Pernicious literature. eave or professional are, to a great extent, morally pernicious. And this applies also, in great measure, to the English literature favoured by young India, so far as it is secular. Secularism and free love go hand-in-hand to furnish the mental food of many English-reading natives; nor is this a result to be wondered at, when we consider the secular character of education in Government schools. The Government of India, in its memorandum of the 3lst December, 1887, on moral educae tion, has shown its sense of this dangerous tendency, and its desire to check it, by the introduction into schools and colleges of moral text-books, and by other means. It is obvious that such efforts need to be accompanied by the provision of a pure litera- ture, which will, in due course, be more largely demanded by a purer generation, and which tends to produce the frame of mind that perpetuates such a demand. To such efforts the Literary Missionary (when he has been evolved) will give all the help that he can spare from his direct Christian work. The demand for literature, further, will depend not only upon 7 . ee a o4 ; the number of people who possess the Reading on the increase, ys ; ; ability to read, but also upon their will to use it, 7.e., on the reading habits they have formed. That reading habits are on the increase cannot be doubted; but, so far as my observation and the testimony I have been able to gather go, such habits are weak, considering the number of 6 possible readers. The only literature excepted from this neglect is newspapers ; these are overlooked by very few who pretend to- education. In this matter of reading the Missionary is able to influence’ CHE eee substantially two classes of the commu- the Missions. nity, the native Christians and pupils in: Mission schools, and he should see to it that he does his best to. promote reading habits and a taste for good literature among. them. Every school and every congregation should have its lending library, to be kept replenished with the most attractive books to be had, and new books or tracts or new editions which come out, should be brought to the notice of the Christian com-- munity or the pupils of the school, by the colporteur and others.. To do this systematically will prove no small stimulus to the consumption of our literature; and the student, once inoculated. with a taste for it, will desire its further gratification. It is, however, most important for us to consider that, owing to the great extension of Government education, and the pressure-on Mission schools of examinations and education codes, squeezing down religious instruction to a minimum, the provision of Christian literature for the army of readers is rapidly oversha-- dowing the question of conveying a limited amount of Christian instruction to eh sional Bae few who attend Mission schools, This leads us to two conclusions. First, the importance of Importance of news. “ewspapers. Each language area should papers. have a good Christian. vernacular news- paper, vigorously supported and well-pushed; and each great 12 centre, at least each Presidency town, an evangelistic organ, doing also the work of a literary paper—similar to Progress, so | exce!lently conducted at Madras. The second point is the increasing importance of English as an element in Missionary literature. Here the popular demand 7 is really increasing. Mr. H. H. Perkins (C. M.S., Amritsar, late Commissioner of Rawalpindi ) writes: “ Natives have in many places, ¢. g.,in Rawalpindi, instituted English lending libraries among themselves.’? Many an English book of distinctly reli- gious tendency will be acceptable for the sake of its literary merit or interest, where a vernacular book of similar tone would be passed by. The English sales of our religious book deposito- ries, therefore, have a direct Missionary value, if rightly used. 2. The Distribution of Mission Literature. Distribution must doubtless depend upon demand on the one Beem iauuon by lsale or side and production on the other, but gift. the method by which it is carried on will do much to influence beth. The question is raised in the Con- ference programme, as to whether distribution should be gratui- tous or by purchase, If we are aiming to place our literary work on a solid and permanent basis, this can only be on the basis of a real popular demand for such literature as we supply. The demand which we can reasonably expect will be, first, on the part of the Christian community for its own edification and for evangelising purposes; and, second, on the part of outsiders who desire from motives of curiosity or spiritual unrest to know the Christian religion ; or who are in part so favourably disposed towards Christianity that they welcome books with a certain amount of Christian teaching. Hence a rule has been adopted, since the Allahabad Missionary Conference of 1872, by the Indian Tract Societies, that all supplies of bouks must be paid for by the persons who order them, whether Missionaries or others. This throws the question of free distribution on the purchasers, and places a definite limit to it, inasmuch as Mission funds will seldom permit of free distribution of Christian books to any large extent But it is obvious that the tendency of dis- tribution should be from free gifts towards purchase; and to say § that a man, notably an Indian, will value and read what he purchases more than what he receives gratis, is to utter a truism. What we need in the distribution of our Mission literature is aIreLTy, 10 that commercial principles should be more cern mena er fully applied to it. I will take only two points. The first is attention to details. For instance, in regard to the get-up of books. Such matters as the best arrangement of the title page, proper tables of contents, the best style of bind- ing, having regard to the nature and use of the book, advertising other publications on the fly leaves, the various minutiz of typo- graphy, and a hundred other things demand attention. Again, in the sale room, showing up the stock without exposing it to damage from glare, weeding out old stock, advertising new arrivals, sending out specimens by colporteurs, looking out for new openings; all this, and much more, has to be considered with care and vigilance. More especially, a constant improve- ment must be kept up, otherwise distribution infallibly suffers. In these respects, we must econtess our Indian Publishing Socie- ties have much leeway to make up. ‘The second point simply 5 follows on the first, I mean the need of pon eta. ete a Pe eficient supervision. How can vigilance be without a vigilans, watchfulness without a watcher? And how can one watch the distribution of literature when he has his own proper work to look after? Yet this is, with scarcely an exception, the position of evary Missionary and layman in India, upon whom the guidance of literary work devolves. And, if we consider that the circulation of Mission literature has hitherto been carried on thus a3 a by-work, we caa only be thankful to God for the extension which He has permitted it to attain. Moreover, if we regard the only instance that I am acquainted with, of a Huropean Missionary entirely devoted to literary work,-— I-refer to my honoured friend, Dr. John Murdoch, of Madras,— g we cannot but keenly feel how much more might be done were more men of the right kind assigned to sub-divide the labour of this immense task. The Church of Christ must enlarge her ideas of Missionary work. We need laymen acquainted with the book trade, yet full of a desire to win souls, who will devote themselves, with no thought of worldly gain, on the same footing as other Mission- aries, to the work of pushing the sale of Mission literature in Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Allahabad and Lahore, without neglect- ing the many opportunities for direct evangelisation that will come in their way. Will Christian England give us such? Before passing on to the last part of my subject, I will touch Must enlarge our ideas. on two more points connected with the distribution of literature. The first is the desirableness of having in every town Mission something of the nature of an institute to supplement the ordinary bookshop or Two points. colportage ; a place in which there is a lending library, books for sale, a paper or two to read, and a Catechist, or other preacher in attendance; the same place serving also for preaching and lectures. The other point is that, as already urged, pupils in schools and colleges should be encouraged to buy books and tracts not only vernacular, but English ; and that these should be more widely used in prize distribution. 3. The Production of Mission Literature. Production is of two kinds, material and mental. Under the first head comes the question of the Mission Press, mentioned ( in the programme ; under the second that of Authorship. — The Mission Press—The value of the Mission Press in a country such as India rests, of course, on The Mission Press, : : grounds different from those which neces- sitate such an institution, say, in Madagascar, There is now an 10 eager competition for printing work in the way of regular trade. Still the Mission Press has its value, if efficiently supervised, inasmuch as it frees the Publishing Society from the disadvan- tages of competition, and affords a guarantee for correctness of proof-reading and goodness of work. The Press should print Missionary work at a rate which will just cover expenses (not including the Superintendent’s salary), and outside work should only be done as a resource when Mission work is not at hand, at ordinary market rates. Above all, the Superintendent of the Press should be a missionary layman, acquainted with printing work, and assigned to that as his special duty. Last, not least, comes the matter of Authorship. The Chris- tian vernacular books that we have, do all credit to those who produced them ; but the mass of them are only first attempts, and stand in great need of revision and improvement, to render them fitted for our present needs, and the rise in the standard of education. Useless will be the pushing of sales, vain all improvement in the get-up of books, only saddening the demand for Christian reading, unless we can improve in the matter of Authorship, both by engaging the ser- vices of fresh talent and experience, and by developing the gifts of those who already work. Who, then, 1s to do this? Whois to watch the needs of his province, to inquire after literary workers, native and European ; to suggest to them the part that each shall take, to unify and press forward the production of Christian books in each of the great languages of India? We wust have Literary Missionaries, one at least for each language area. Authorship. To quote from words previously written on the same subject :—- ‘* The production and distribution of Christian literature is a distinct phase of Missionary work, the supervision of which needs men distinctly devoted to the work, ‘Till the Church of Christ and its handmaidens, the Missionary Societies, recognise this as an axiom, and till men of recognised ability are set apart for the purpose, our literary work will remain, as it has hitherto, more or less defective, Considering the haphazard manner in which the work i] of Christian literature has been allowed by Missionary authorities to shift for itself, we cannot but be most thankful for the amount of progress made. When we reflect that, generally speaking, the work has been done chiefly asa parergon by those whose time was already fully occupied, it is no small matter for icongratulation that there should be works on most subjects extant, all of which contain a great deal that our young Christian communities need to be: taught, and some of which put that instruction in a clear and attractive manner.. At the same time we cannot but feel that much of the work is more imperfectly done than it need be, and that what has been done is not always brought to. bear in the most effective manner on the spiritual needs of the people.” To show the feeling of not a few Missionaries on this poins I add part of a letter received from one who is labouring in a great stronghold of Hinduism :— ‘* Tt makes me sad and impatient at the same time to. see how little regard our Society pays to the great need cf pushing forward the literary branch of Missionary labour, There are some thirty periodicals of the Arya Samaj pub- lished in Hindi and Urdu, dealing with religious questions either in a spirit indifferent or hostile to Christianity. Our Society, big as it is in comparison with the Arya Samaj, publishes none in these dialects. Books also, like those: I have mentioned before, are sadly needed, Some time ago, on two different: occasions, two Hindu gentlemen argued with me about that wretched farce- Theosophism: I do not think any of our tracts deal with this matter. A. Muhammadan pleader who is dissatisfied with Islam has come to me to argue about the difficulties of Genesis I., and the proof of the existence of a personal God. A Pandit (the spiritual tutor of some prince in the Agra Government Col-. lege) the other day argued with me among other matters about the apparent disproportion between man’s sin and condemnation, further how our Blessed Saviour being born of Mary could have been free of the taint of original sin. Now what tracts or commentaries in the vernacular have we on these subjects ? ** Natives are publishing tracts exactly on the same lines as Ram-pariksha,,. &c. I have such an one bearing the title Isupariksha, and a Native Christian. preacher, whom I had made peruse it said to me: ‘* Sahib, a man who has: read Isupariksha will now not be induced by Rampariksha to give up Ram.” Another pamphlet, ‘‘ self-contradictions of the Bible, ” in Hindi has fallen into. my hands.* What ARE we doing to counteract these publications? In one. respect of course it is matter for rejoicing to see them, for they plainly show that the natives are advancing more and more from the stage of indifference: and dormancy as regards Christian influences to the second stage of opposition. (the secret mainspring of which isfear!) By and by, Deo adjuvante, we shall. have the third stage—that of conviction, and then the fourth and final.one— that of conversion and profession—will be reached !” *% * * * & But while emphasizing the need for Literary Missionaries, ET would also add the expression of a conviction that the true ‘‘ Literary Missionary.” cannot be merely a man who will sitin a corner and write, Our literature is intended to. influence the thoughts and lives of men, and he who would produce it must have some practical acquaintance with both. Ido not know the qualifications which are needed can be better described than in the words of the Rev. J. pat lest of Benares in a paper read. before: the Calcutta Decennial Conference- of 1882-83. ‘* Wirst, there must be brought about in the soul of the writer, by the power of the Holy Spirit, an intensely earnest experiences of the great spiritual strug- gle which is being carried on by the kingdom of Christ to gain the victory over: Hinduism. and Mahomedanism. All good literature is a distillation of the most stirring events of the age through the mind of the writer, No valuable. _ _" I myself lately heard from a young Hindu convert that when he was inquiring Hindus had: plied him with a book entitled “ Baibalwirudh,’”’or “ Anti-Bible,” This seems to be the same as,, or similar to, the one mentioned,—H, U, W, 12 vernacular Christian literature can be produced unless the soul of the writer in ane to Christ has entered the thickest of the battle to establish His kingdom in India. ‘* Secondly, the writer must feel, together with a burning hatred of idolatry and superstition and all other sin, an intense Christ-like love of the people. A knowledge of their language is far from sufficient. There must be a sympathe- tic knowledge of the people themselves, gained from close intercourse with them, from hearing their daily troubles and daily joys, a knowledge which deeply realises their wants and yearns to satisfy them. ‘* Thirdly, the literature on which the minds of the people feed should be studied, however distasteful. The Hindi-speaking community make the Prem Sagar and the Ramayana their greatest spiritual nourishment, The style of these books pleases their taste, just as the stories of Krishna and Rama con- tained in them enchant their souls. Without a mastery of such books how is it possible to make the best of matter attractive to readers to whom they have been the greatest delight ? ‘* Fourthly, there should be a thorough knowledge of the Hindu and Moha.- medan systems. To a considerable extent, sufficient perhaps for popular writ- ings, such a knowledge can be gained from English books. Butin order to be complete:y equipped, to make the press a successful Missionary agency in India, such an understanding of the full strength of Hinduism and Mohamedanism is ~ necessary as can only be acquired by a deep study of those religions in their original writings. ” ** Of course it is presupposed that the writer has already acquired a thorough mental training previous to his entry on the mission field. Philosophy, linguis- tic study, literature, business training—these and many other. forms of mental culture will all contribute their quota. ” I am not insensible of two qualifications to this plea for the Missionaries devoted to ®ppointment of Literary Missionaries. literature. One is suggested by the Rev. R. Clark, of Amritsar, who has worked in this cause as few have, that well- known authors in England might do not a little to help us by writing short papers or articles with special reference to the religious doubts and difficulties of Indians. Still it is only a small part of the needed work which can thus be done. The other consideration is of more weight. It is that we foreigners are but working to prepare the way for the natives of India itself, and that our chief care should be to train them for the work of providing a Christian literature for their own land. Most true this is. We foreign Missionaries desire nothing more ardently than to be able to pass on the torch to Indians. But now there is the conflict, and in the midst of it the work to be set forward, as the walls of Jerusalem were built by Nehemiah and his compa- nions, for at least a temporary shelter; and in this the more 13 highly-endowed brother who has come from without must, as yet, lead the denizens of the land. Moreover, it is just because the work of training or eliciting literary ability in the Indian Church, is so vastly important, that special men are needed to do it. When, in the name of Christ, will they be given ? The question is raised in the programme of this Conference as to how far the Missionary may devote himself generally to the _ work of pure literature? Ireply: Give the Missionary, whom God has so called, leisure, first of all, to devote himself to the work of Christian literature, and when he has surveyed and assayed this field in earnest, we will then begin to discuss what time he can spare for the remoter work. The appointment of Literary Missionaries is part of a larger ee) question: that of Missionary reserves. Soe The Literary Missionary, as has already been shown, cannot be a neophyte. Experience in general Mis- sionary work is a necessary pre-requisite for his calling. But how can Missionaries of experience be set free for this work under the present system of distributing our forces? No sooner, in the majority of cases, does a Mission appear strongly manned, than some ot the staff are drafted off “to enter a fresh door. ”’ The first Mission is reduced to the strength barely necessary for the maintenance of the work; a vacancy occurs through death or sickness ; and once more the mournful cry goes forth : “ Under- manned.’’ Is any earthly warfare carried on as we prosecute, for the most part, this campaign of Christ’s kingdom? What general would dare systemically to fight without reserves? And what treatment would be accorded to one who did so, when he met with well-merited defeat ? Does any business succeed on such principles? If it is immoral to extend our pecuniary obligations, especially where others are involved, beyond the limit at which we can reasonably hope to meet them, what shall we say of the 14 policy of extending our spiritual liabilities when we are inade- quately fulfilling those which we have already contracted? Let u *? The best of works engage not in such cases speak of a “ call. in outside the line of God’s moral guidance becomes a decoy Nor let us cover the rashness with the name of “ faith.”” By a means let us go forward in faith ; but let us first apply that fait to the provision of proper resources for the prosecution of th work in hand, by accumulating some reserves to supply deficien- cies which we know by experience will constantly occur, calls which must arise within the limits of the field already entered on. bye iosee A aire malice