FOREiaN MISSIONS 
 
 THEIR 
 
 RELATIONS AND CLAIMS. 
 
 RUFUS ANDERSON, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 LATK FOaSIQN SIOSETABT 0? THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN 
 MISSIONS. 
 
 > 3 * 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER AND COMPANY. 
 
 1869. 
 
/f4 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1869, by 
 Chaelks Sceibnee and Cobipant, 
 the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 
 
 RITERSrDE, CAHBRISaE: 
 
 STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 
 
 H. O. HOCGHTON AND COJIPANY. 
 
TO THE TRUSTEES 
 
 OF THK 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN ANDOVER, 
 
 UNDER 
 WHOSE APPOINTMENT THIS WORK WAS PBEPASED. 
 
 293333 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2008 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/foreignmissionthOOanderich 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 The work now offered to the Christian public 
 had its origin in a series of Lectures on Foreign 
 Missions, delivered in the Theological Seminary 
 at Andover, under appointment from the Trus- 
 tees ; and subsequently, by request, before the 
 Theological Seminaries at Bangor, Hartford, 
 Auburn, and Princeton, and the Union Semi- 
 nary in New York City. It was fitting that the 
 oldest of our theological seminaries, and the 
 first to send missionaries into foreign heathen 
 lands, should take the lead in establishing, for 
 its students, a permanent Lectureship on For- 
 eign Missions. This was created by a vote of 
 the Trustees early in the year 1866 ; and the 
 needful pecuniary endowment was secured to 
 the Seminary by Henry H. Hyde, Esq., a citizen 
 of Boston. The statutes of the endowment re- 
 quire the course to embrace as many as ten 
 lectures; but it is left for the Trustees to de- 
 cide, whether they shall be delivered annually, 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 to the Middle Class, or trienniallj, before the 
 entire Seminary. 
 
 In February, 1866, the author was appointed 
 by the Trustees lecturer on this foundation, 
 and was requested to deliver, at his early con- 
 venience, a course of lectures on Foreign Mis- 
 sions. The appointment had reference to his 
 intended retirement from official life; which 
 was effected that year, at the age of threescore 
 and ten, after a connection of more than forty 
 years with the Foreign Correspondence of the 
 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions. It was with the hope, however, of 
 being enabled, through the divine blessing, to 
 devote the residue of his life to embodying the 
 results of his experience in forms that should 
 be useful to the missionary cause. 
 
 The duty first in order was to select topics 
 for the lectures, and to make the needful in- 
 vestigations, which required longer time and 
 greater labor than had been expected. The 
 aim was to embody practical views of the mis- 
 sionary work in its largest sense, contemplated 
 from the missionary stand-point, and to draw 
 illustrations from every part of the great field 
 where they seemed most appropriate. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 The lectures were delivered to three succes- 
 sive Middle Classes in the Andover Seminary ; 
 and the author takes pleasure in acknowledg- 
 ing his obligations to Dr. Edwards A. Park, 
 of the theological department, having special 
 charge of that class, for his kind and efficient 
 support, as also to the other Professors, and to 
 the Students. At the five other seminaries, 
 the Lectures were delivered before the body of 
 Professors and Students. It may not be im^ 
 proper to say, that at Auburn the delivery was 
 on nine successive evenings, and at Princeton 
 on ten, and that this unbroken succession 
 seemed to be with the happiest effect. The 
 last six lectures of the course at Hartford were 
 delivered on successive days, and with the like 
 result. 
 
 The author thankfully acknowledges his ob- 
 ligations to the Trustees of the Andover Sem- 
 inary, for the formal expression of their earnest 
 desire for the publication of the lectures ; and 
 also to the Professors in the several institutions 
 where he had the privelege of lecturing, for 
 their very kind manner of communicating the 
 same sentiment. And he the more confidently 
 appears before the Christian public by reason 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 of the frequent expressions of this sentiment 
 by students in the different seminaries. The 
 present work is in compHance with these wishes ; 
 though in a form that is deemed better adapted 
 to the taste of the reading public. The text is 
 unaltered, except so far as was rendered neces- 
 sary by the change of form ; and hence the 
 reason why the writer is more prominently be- 
 fore the reader, than he is desirous of being. 
 
 As reference is occasionally made to the au- 
 thor's personal intercourse with missions, it may 
 be well to state, that he made an official visit to 
 the missions of the American Board, bordering 
 on the Mediterranean, in the years 1828 and 
 1829 ; again, in 1844 and 1845, when he had 
 the friendly companionship of the late Dr. Joel 
 Hawes, of Hartford; and again, in 1855, on his 
 way home from India. He visited the India 
 missions, with Dr. Augustus C. Thompson as an 
 associate, in 1854 and 1855 ; and in the year 
 1863, he spent four months, in an official visit, 
 on the Sandwich Islands. Each of these visits 
 involved much travel by land and sea ; yet, 
 under the protection of a kind Providence, not 
 a single accident was anywhere experienced. 
 
PREFACE, VI 1 
 
 It will at once be seen what is the object of 
 this work. It is to show the extent of the field 
 that has been providentially opened for foreign 
 missions ; the providential preparation other- 
 wise made for such missions ; the peculiar na- 
 ture of the work of missions; the extent to 
 which it has been carried; its success; the 
 hindrances at home and abroad, and how they 
 may be removed ; and the claims of foreign 
 missions upon the churches, and upon young 
 ministers of the gospel. 
 
 The appeal is to those, w^ho look upon the 
 gospel as the only hope of this lost world. To 
 this view the author's experience has brought 
 him with a power he is unable to resist. His 
 theory of missions is substantially that of the 
 Apostle to the Gentiles. And he has the more 
 confidence in his exposition of it, because of the 
 ample scope it allows for the exercise of discre- 
 tion in the use of subordinate means. What>- 
 ever exalts the cross, whatever impressively 
 sets forth the gospel, must be within the scope 
 of the great commission given by our Lord. 
 
 But the use to be made of subordinate means, 
 the is a subject of much difficulty, on which 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 best and most intelligent men are not yet 
 fully agreed. Should this volume have the 
 effect to stimulate secretaries, missionaries, or 
 others specially interested in the subject and 
 conversant with it, to efforts for solving the yet 
 unresolved problems, even should their opinions 
 differ from his own, the author will greatly re- 
 joice; believing that, in so mighty an enter- 
 prise, entered upon so recently, we must yet 
 be far from a complete apprehension of the 
 agencies that ought to be employed. 
 
 While the value of local native churches as a 
 prominent instrumentality for renovating the 
 heathen world, is set forth with earnestness; 
 the word church is used only in the sense of an 
 associated, local body of Christians, whether 
 governed by the popular vote, by elders chosen 
 for the purpose, or in some other way. The 
 necessity of native pastors is indeed insisted 
 upon ; and also of a pastorate confessedly modi- 
 fied from that of the apostolic churches, though 
 in strict conformity with the present usage of 
 all evangelical denominations. Into the minor 
 details of church polity, the author has not 
 deemed himself called to enter. 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 Some may be ready to regard the theory of 
 missions here described as being self-evident, 
 seeing it is so very simple. But such an impres- 
 sion would betray much ignorance of the history 
 of modern missions. It is even now a contro- 
 verted point with not a few friends of missions, 
 to say nothing of others, whether civilization 
 must not precede Christianity, or, at any rate, 
 what is the precise relation of the two. Eecent 
 publications show, also, that the relative place of 
 preaching in the missionary work, as compared 
 with education, is not quite settled, though the 
 difference is perhaps somewhat more theoreti- 
 cal than practical ; and the question seems to 
 have no great interest beyond the caste-regions 
 of India. Scarcely fifteen years have elapsed 
 since it was deemed advisable to send a Deputa- 
 tion to India, with one of its leading objects to 
 persuade the missionaries of the American 
 Board in that country to commence the prac- 
 tice of ordaining native pastors. There is 
 printed evidence, much of which has not been 
 published, that the theory of missions advocated 
 by the Deputation when in India, was substan- 
 tially the same which is embodied in this work ; 
 and the unexpected discussion at the annual 
 
X PREFACE, 
 
 meeting of the American Board in 1855, as to 
 the proceedings of that Deputation, and the 
 holding of a special meeting to inquire into their 
 proceedings, was in great measure the result of 
 misapprehension ; as was abundantly shown, at 
 the annual meeting in 1856, by the Report of 
 the " Committee of Thirteen." Yet the nu- 
 merous columns of the religious newspapers, 
 occupied with this subject previous to the re- 
 port of that committee, would convince any 
 one, that the theory of missions was then by 
 no means determined. Seven years later, a 
 Deputation was sent to the Sandwich Islands, 
 largely to induce the missionaries on those 
 islands to put the native church-members gen- 
 erally under a native pastorate, and to place 
 the native pastorate of the islands on an inde- 
 pendent footing, which there was an apparent 
 backwardness to do. And so far as informa- 
 tion is yet attainable, it is only a few years 
 since the discovery was made, that native pas- 
 tors form an essential element in native churches, 
 to make them healthful, vigorous, self-support- 
 ing, and aggressive. 
 
 In point of fact, the principles and methods 
 of foreign missions embodied in the seventh 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 chapter, were wrought out with painstaking, 
 and through much conflict of opinion. 
 
 The author's aim, throughout, has been to 
 give an honest presentation of what may prop- 
 erly be called the science of missions, as it is 
 understood by himself, and never in a con- 
 troversial form ; and he ventures the hope that 
 this result of his labors may serve, in future 
 times, for a landmark to those who shall per- 
 form the service for their generation, which he 
 has endeavored to perform for his. 
 
 It is proper to say a word as to the clas- 
 sification and arrangement of topics. The first 
 chapter presents the field of the world, as it is 
 opening to the foreign missions of our day, and 
 the second the preparations for occupying it. 
 The seven following chapters illustrate, in va- 
 rious forms, the nature of the work. The hin- 
 drances existing at home to the propagation 
 of the gospel in heathen lands are next consid- 
 ered ; and then there are two chapters setting 
 forth the extent to which modern missions have 
 been prosecuted, and the success which has 
 attended them. It was natural to discuss the 
 claims of the work on young ministers of the 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 gospel, which is the topic of the thirteenth 
 chapter. Nor could the great subject of mis- 
 sions, avowedly for the conversion of the hea- 
 then world to the evangelical faith, be dismissed 
 without an inquiry into the strength of the 
 opposing force there is in the Eomish missions. 
 The last chapter contains a r^siim^ of the vol- 
 ume, with concluding reflections. Articles will 
 be found in the Appendix, that are believed to 
 add materially to the value of the work. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 T. An Opening World 1 
 
 II. An Uprising Church 16 
 
 III. Development of the Idea of the Christian Church 29 
 
 IV. Characteristics of Apostolic Missions .... 44 
 V. Irish Missions in the Early Ages .... 62 
 
 VI. Historical Development of Modern Missions . . 91 
 
 VII. Principles and Methods of Modern Missions . . 109 
 
 Vin. Value of Native Churches 120 
 
 IX. Missionary Life illustrated 145 
 
 X. Hindrances at Home 169 
 
 XI. Diffusion of Missions 194 
 
 XII. Success of Missions 219 
 
 XIII. Claims of Missions on Young Ministers . . . 248 
 
 XIV. Romish Missions as an Opposing Force . . . .269 
 XV. Rbsum^ and Conclusion 301 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. Competence of Missionaries to testify concerning 
 
 Missions 318 
 
 n. Secular Newspapers and Religious Intelligence . 316 
 
 ni. English Mission Schools 317 
 
 IV. The Brahmo Samaj 319 
 
 V. Preaching and Education 321 
 
XIV ' CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 VI. The Christian Ministry ....... 826 
 
 VII. Success of Missions 331 
 
 VIII. Tabular Views 333 
 
 IX. Summary of Roman Catholic Missions .... 349 
 
 X. Francis Xavier and Romish Missions . . . 351 
 
 Index "65 
 
FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 AN OPENING WORLD. 
 
 Objects of Inquiry. — Why restricted to Asia. — Importance of India. 
 Problems to be solved. — How the Possession of India by Great 
 Britain opened the Way into Turkey. — How into China. — Combi- 
 nation of the Great Christian Powers for opening China to Com- 
 merce. — Kemarkable Change in the Diplomatic World. — How 
 India was opened. — Openings in other Parts of the World. 
 
 It is proper that I enter *upon my subject by 
 showing, in the first place, how the unevangelized 
 world has of late been providentially opened to 
 Christian missions; secondly, how Christendom, 
 meanwhile, has been in a process of unconscious 
 preparation for evangelizing it; and, thirdly, the 
 consequent development, in the Evangelical Church, 
 of a missionary spirit, and of missionary organiza- 
 tions, with the avowed expectation and purpose — for 
 the first time since the apostolic age — of laboring 
 for the conversion of the whole heathen world. 
 
 The first branch of the subject is too extended for 
 an exhaustive discussion. I shall therefore attempt 
 
2 ' FOBmG^ MISSIONS. 
 
 only to show how the portions of the unevangelized 
 world were opened that are most populous. I refer 
 to Southern, Eastern, and Western Asia, containing" 
 a population of more than six hundred millions. It 
 has for many years been my official duty to give at- 
 tention to this process ; and it has seemed to me to 
 be one of the most impressive indications of an all- 
 embracing Providence, preparing the way for the 
 great work now claiming the attention and efforts of 
 the Christian Church. Preliminary to this, it will 
 be necessary to state the great problems that were 
 to be practically solved. 
 
 I begin with India, because that was the pivot 
 on which the lever of Providence (so to speak) 
 seemed to move in opening so large a portion of the 
 heathen world. Her^, in a population of nearly two 
 hundred millions, it was necessary, first, to break 
 down the Mohammedan power, extending over most 
 of the country ; secondly, to break down the Brah- 
 minical power, resting upon caste, and having the 
 sanction of ages ; and, thirdly, when the East India 
 Company had answered its purpose, it was needful 
 to bring that great selfish corporation to an end. 
 India was not fully prepared for the entrance of the 
 gospel, until these results were all substantially 
 attained. 
 
 In Western Asia, it was necessary, first, that Eng- 
 land should secure a predominant influence in the 
 governments of both Turkey and Persia; secondly. 
 
AN OPENING WORLD. 3 
 
 that the persecuting ecclesiastical rulers of the Ori- 
 ental churches should somehow he so far restrained, 
 as to secure a tolerable protection for Protestant 
 converts ; thirdly, that the death-penalty in Moham- 
 medan law should be practically nullified ; and, 
 fourthly, that Western and Central Asia should be 
 protected against the encroachments of the late 
 ambitious and bigoted autocrat of Russia. 
 
 In Eastern Asia it was necessary, that the great 
 Christian powers of the world should combine to 
 secure a free commercial and religious access to the 
 vast population of China and the neighboring coun- 
 tries. 
 
 We at once see, that only the " Hand which 
 moves the World " could accomplish all this. Fifty 
 years ago, no well-informed man would have said 
 that any part of Western, Southern, or Eastern 
 Asia was fairly open to Christian missions ; and no 
 well-informed man can doubt that these countries 
 are now open, with only a few partial exceptions. 
 
 How was the opening for the gospel effected into 
 these extended and populous regions P 
 
 The discovery of the way to India by the Cape of 
 Good Hope, in 1498, was the first step. The second 
 was the chartering of a small company of English- 
 men by Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1600, for trad- 
 ing in India, which afterwards took the name of the 
 East India Company. The next step was twelve 
 
4 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 years later, when the Grand Mogul was persuaded to 
 authorize this Company to form a commercial post 
 in India. This was the beginning of the British 
 empire in the East. Then came the struggle, first 
 with the Portuguese, and then with the French, 
 which was to determine whether Popery or Prot- 
 estantism should govern India ; and the triumph of 
 Protestantism. The Mohammedan powers of India 
 were partially subdued by means of successive wars. 
 The celebrated battle of Plassey, in 1757, with Clive 
 in command, more than a hundred and fifty years 
 after the chartering of the Company, first gave it 
 dominion; and this dominion was constantly ex- 
 tended by similar measures, until it covered thirty 
 degrees of latitude, and as many of longitude, em- 
 bracing every variety of climate, scenery, and soil, 
 and nearly two hundred millions of people, speaking 
 twelve or fifteen polished languages. 
 
 The possession of this Indian empire by the Eng- 
 lish nation, — the opening of which to the gospel I 
 shall illustrate after tracing its influence in the west 
 and east of Asia, — made it necessary to keep open 
 a highway between India and England, the mother 
 country. This is a point of special interest; for 
 were it not for this, the whole political influence in 
 Turkey, if not the absolute dominion (so far as we 
 can now see), would have been divided between 
 France and Russia, — the one Roman Catholic, the 
 other of the Greek Church, and both hostile to 
 Protestant missions. 
 
AN OPENING WORLD. 5 
 
 The security of the English empire in India made 
 it imperative with England to acquire and to exer- 
 cise a paramount influence in the government of 
 Turkey. For this purpose she kept her ablest diplo- 
 matist at the Porte. Her war with Egypt in 1840, 
 with Russia in 1855, called the Crimean war (in 
 which France found it for her interest to unite), and 
 with Persia in 1856, — from which the immortal 
 Havelock returned just in time to act his important 
 part in saving India to England and to the cause of 
 missions, — all these wars grew more or less directly 
 out of the necessity of keeping this great highway 
 open ; and also of restraining the progress of Rus- 
 sian power across Central Asia towards the Indian 
 empire. 
 
 Moreover, as Russia was the acknowledged pro- 
 tector of the Greek Christians in Turkey, and France 
 of the Roman Catholics, the question naturally 
 arose with the enlightened English Ambassador at 
 the Porte, and with English statesmen, whether 
 England would not strengthen herself in Western 
 Asia, by becoming the protector of the Protestant 
 Christians, then multiplying in those regions 
 through the labors of Protestant missionaries. A 
 Parliamentary " Blue Book " contains the proof of 
 this. Thus it came to pass that the English em- 
 bassies, both at Constantinople and in Persia, were 
 providentially induced, if they were not really in- 
 structed, to extend that protection to the American 
 
6 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 missionaries, and their converts, among the Arme- 
 nians and Nestorians, without which neither Turkey 
 nor Persia would have been really open to the gos- 
 pel. Through the influence of Lord Stratford de 
 Redcliffe, the British Ambassador at Constanti- 
 nople, the death-penalty in Mohammedan law for 
 abjuring the Moslem faith, was virtually abolished; 
 and the Protestant Christians of the empire were 
 recognized by the Sultan as a distinct body, inde- 
 pendent of all the other Christian sects, and en- 
 titled to the protection of the government in their 
 persons and religious privileges. We owe all this, 
 under God, to the providential fact, that England 
 had gained an empire in India, and must needs 
 preserve an unincumbered way to it. 
 
 Next, as to the great and vastly populous coun- 
 tries lying eastward of India. The East India Com- 
 pany had a trading-post in China, at Canton, and 
 one of their most profitable articles for sale was 
 opium. It was, and is now, a rich source of rev- 
 enue. As this was exerting a pernicious influence 
 on the health and morals of the people, the Chinese 
 government wisely sought to put a stop to the 
 trade. Finding no other way to prevent the intro- 
 duction of the poison into the empire, they de- 
 stroyed a large quantity of it at Canton. The 
 result was a war, — an iniquitous war, doubtless, on 
 the part of the East India Company, — but still a 
 war ; and this was the beginning of a series of war- 
 
AN OPENING WORLD. 7 
 
 like aggressions, in which, ultimately, for the pur- 
 pose of opening China to the commercial world, not 
 only England, but France, Russia, and even the 
 United States, became more or less involved ; 
 until, in 1858, treaties were made by the Chinese 
 with each of the four great powers, — England, 
 France, Russia, and America, engaging, among 
 other things (I quote the words of the treaty), 
 that "any person, either citizen of the country 
 with which the treaty is made, or Chinese convert 
 to the faith of the Protestant or Roman Catholic 
 churches, who, according to these tenets, peaceably 
 teaches and practices the principles of Christianity, 
 shall in iio case be interfered with, or molested." ^ 
 
 As this was a stipulation made with each and all 
 of those powers, for not less than four hundred mil- 
 lions of pagans, it must be regarded as one of the 
 most important transactions of modern times. Sub- 
 sequent events have shown that the treaty was not 
 a vain form. Every important port of China is 
 accessible, and so is almost every part of the in- 
 terior, not in a state of rebellion ; and China is 
 now seeking, through an embassy, at the head of 
 which is one of our own countrymen, to establish 
 peaceful and honorable relations with the Christian 
 world. 
 
 It should be added that, after China had been 
 made thus accessible to the commerce and religion 
 
 1 Report of Am. Board, 1859, p. Ill ; Miss. Herald, 1858, p. 338. 
 
8 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 of Christendom, it was not possible for its near 
 neighbor, Japan, to be much longer in determined 
 non-intercourse with other nations ; and Japan is 
 now being opened, though reluctantly, to the light 
 and influence of Christian truth, as well as to the 
 commerce of the world. 
 
 The remarkable union of the plenipotentiaries of 
 the four great Christian nations, in stipulating with 
 the Chinese emperor for the entrance and protec- 
 tion of Christian missionaries, and for the protec- 
 tion also of their converts in every province of 
 the empire, reveals an astonishing change in the 
 public sentiment of the diplomatic world, as re- 
 gards the value of missionaries, and of Christian 
 missions. 
 
 It may be well to add, that these treaties were 
 negotiated in 1858, a year memorable as the one in 
 which the East India Company closed its existence. 
 
 We shall be more impressed with the magnitude 
 of this revolution (for it was such, as regards re- 
 ligious toleration), if we now go back to the begin- 
 ning of the centuiy, and observe what indications 
 of hostile feeling to missions existed in the high 
 places, not of India alone, but even of England, 
 and how the hostile feeling was overcome at last. 
 
 The well-known English Baptist missionaries, 
 Carey, Marshman, and Ward, arrived at Calcutta 
 
AN OPENING WORLD. 9 
 
 in 1799, and were ordered by the East India gov- 
 ernment to leave India; bnt found a refuge, for a 
 time, in the Danish town of Serampore, sixteen 
 miles above Calcutta, which was not then subject 
 to the East India Company. On a subsequent 
 arrival of missionaries, orders were given by the 
 anthorities at Calcutta, not to preach to the natives, 
 nor to allow their converts to preach, nor to distrib- 
 ute books or tracts, nor to take any step to induce 
 the people to embrace Christianity.^ In 1812, the 
 first American missionaries, — Hall, Judson, New- 
 ell, Nott, and Rice, — arrived at Calcutta, and were 
 ordered away, though they somehow found means 
 to evade the order. An English missionary, who 
 accompanied them from America, was actually forced 
 by the government to return to England. 
 
 How strangely the East India government was 
 long in sympathy, and even partnership, with Hindu 
 idolatry, is strikingly set forth by Dr. Mullens, now 
 Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society, 
 whose valuable acquaintance I formed while he was 
 a missionary at Calcutta. He says : — 
 
 " There was a time when, through the extensive 
 preaching of the gospel by the Tranquebar and 
 Tanjore missionaries and other causes, the temples 
 in the Madras Presidency began to be deserted, and 
 to fall into decay. Then it was that the government 
 of Madras took them under its own protection, 
 
 1 Marshman's Life and Times of Carey, etc., vol. i. p. 260. 
 
10 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 appointed the officiating priests, received the offer- 
 ings, disbursed the expenses, publicly presented 
 gifts, and restored new vigor to the dying system ! 
 The government of Madras made itself trustee of 
 the pagoda-lands. In times of drought, the Col- 
 lector ordered the Brahmins to pray to the gods 
 for rain, and paid money for their expenses. Euro- 
 pean officers joined in salutes to the idols. Some, 
 of their own accord, would make their obeisance, 
 and others would ride in front of the cars, shouting 
 with the multitude, ' Hari Bol ! ' Villagers were 
 summoned to draw the cars by order of the Col- 
 lector, and were whipped by the native officials, if 
 they refused. The temples were kept in repair by 
 the government, and the illuminations at the festi- 
 vals were paid for from the treasury." ^ 
 
 Another authority states than more than eighi 
 thousand temples in the Madras Presidency, with 
 all their estates, were entirely managed by the Eng- 
 lish officers of government. In 1852, they paid out 
 $750,000 for repairs of temples, for making and 
 consecrating new idols, and for priests, idol cars, 
 musicians, painters, watchmen, and dancing women.2 
 
 " The same guilty course," Dr. Mullens con- 
 tinues, "was adopted at the other Presidencies. 
 In Ceylon, all the chief Buddhist priests were ap- 
 pointed by government, and expenses for ' devil 
 
 1 Result of Missionary Labor in India, p. 44. 
 
 2 Christian Work, July, 1864. 
 
AN OPENING WORLD. 11 
 
 dancing,' continued at Kandy for seven days, were 
 paid, as per voucher, ' For Her Majesty's service ' ! " 
 There v^^ere members of the government, and 
 some of the Governor Generals, to whom this hea- 
 thenish policy was far from being acceptable; but 
 such was the prevailing spirit of the ruling pow- 
 ers. Such, too, was the spirit of the " Old In- 
 dians," as those were called who had retired to 
 opulence and ease in England. A mutiny of native 
 troops at Nellore, in 1806, occasioned the loss of 
 five hundred English lives ; and this mutiny the 
 " Old Indians " attributed — as indeed they after- 
 wards did the larger one of 1857 — to the pres- 
 ence and influence of Christian missions. A great 
 controversy arose at length in England, in which 
 nearly thirty different publications were issued. 
 This did something towards preparing the public 
 mind for the question of a new charter for the 
 East India Company, which came before Parlia- 
 ment in 1813, and which the friends of missions 
 were determined should be made to secure religious 
 toleration in India. This was three years after the 
 formation of the American Board, thirteen years 
 after that of the Church Missionary Society, and 
 eighteen after that of the London Missionary So- 
 ciety. There was then an energetic renewal of the 
 controversy. And it is painful to see how indif- 
 ferent, how hostile even, what was in fact the most 
 Christian government in Europe then was to the 
 
12 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 diffusion of the glorious gospel of Christ among 
 the millions of its subjects in the East. The great 
 bulk of the Anglo-Indians insisted, that any attempt 
 to evangelize India would cost England a loss of the 
 Indian empire. Mr. Wilberforce believed that nine 
 tenths of the members of the House of Commons 
 would vote against any motion the friends of re- 
 ligion might make. The periodical press was 
 almost universally opposed to introducing the gos- 
 pel into India; and the high ministers of state 
 were believed to be utterly devoid of sympathy 
 with missionary efforts.^ Nothing could have over- 
 come all this, and secured ^freedom to the missiona- 
 ries in India, except such an unlooked-for devel- 
 opment of interest in missions in the English 
 churches, as was evinced by nine hundred peti- 
 tions, from all parts of the country, w^hich came 
 in as the result of an appeal from Wilberforce, 
 Grant, and others, together with the addition of 
 two of Wilberforce's eloquent speeches during the 
 progress of the debate in Parliament. The char- 
 ter was finally made substantially conformable to 
 the wishes of the friends of missions, and thus, in 
 the good providence of God, India was thrown open 
 to missionaries. That is to say, English missiona- 
 ries could no longer be debarred by the East India 
 government from entering that country. 
 
 But the connection of the government with the 
 
 1 Marshman's Life and Times, etc., vol. ii. p. 3. 
 
AN OPENING WORLD. 13 
 
 idolatry of the country continued to be active, and 
 its spirit more or less hostile to missions, for nearly 
 thirty years longer ; and the full preparation of India 
 for the gospel was not before the year 1 857, — the 
 year of the great mutiny and rebellion, — and was 
 the immediate consequence of that terrible convul- 
 sion. Caste was the last idol in India which the 
 English rulers ceased to dread. Its terror lay 
 mainly in the Sepoy army, of some two or three 
 hundred thousands, which they could not trust, 
 and did not know how to disband. At length this 
 great native army rebelled, and made war alike upon 
 English rulers and native Christians. Everywhere 
 English dwellings were burned down, and the bodies 
 of more than fifteen hundred English men and 
 women, many of rank and culture, " lay unburied 
 upon the wastes, the food of dogs and jackals, and 
 of foul birds of prey ; and riot, plunder, and mur- 
 der strode wildly over the land." ^ Yet this storm, 
 after it had passed, was found to have been a rich 
 blessing, though terribly disguised. The Sepoy 
 army had been disbanded. Caste was no longer a 
 terror. The Moslem power was broken. And, 
 what was perhaps most important of all, it was 
 found that two thousand native converts had en- 
 dured persecution firmly, some of them unto death ; 
 and the missionaries thus learned to hold such con- 
 verts in much higher estimation, and became more 
 
 1 Mullens' Ten Years in India, p. 8. 
 
14 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 ready to repose confidence in them when formed 
 into churches, and to entrust to them the pastoral 
 office. To crown all, the reign of the East India 
 Company was hrought to a most desirable close, and 
 Sir John Lawrence, one of the ablest and best of 
 the Christian men in India, was placed on the vice- 
 regal throne. 
 
 This opening of a population of more than six 
 hundred millions in India and Western and Eastern 
 Asia, to the missionaries of the gospel, may all be 
 said to have occurred (excepting the earlier wars 
 with the Moslem and Pagan powers) after the year 
 1812, or within the space of about fifty years, and 
 since the formation of the American Board. I be- 
 lieve the change, for magnitude and importance, is 
 without a parallel in the history of the world. And 
 who can fail to see the hand of Him, who, with all 
 power in heaven and earth, is preparing the way for 
 His people to carry out the grand purpose of His re- 
 demption. 
 
 Were I to pursue this illustration of a world 
 opening to the gospel, I might point to Western 
 and Southern Africa, to Italy, to South America, 
 and to the Isles of the Pacific. I might speak of 
 the Protestant ascendency recently gained in Cen- 
 tral Europe, of the recent change in Spain, and of 
 the four emancipated millions in our own country. 
 
 But enough has been said. The providence of 
 
AN OPENING WORLD. 15 
 
 God, in so marvelously opening the uncivilized world 
 for the propagation of the gospel, naturally leads to 
 the inquiry, whether corresponding changes have 
 meanwhile occurred in the Christian world. This 
 will be the topic of the next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 AN UPRISING CHURCH. 
 
 Preparations in the Christian World. — Development of a Missionary- 
 Spirit. — What is meant by it. — How differing from that of Former 
 Ages. — Missionary Development in England, and its Early Charac- 
 teristics. — When the several Evangelical Denominations of Europe 
 entered upon the Work. — Missionary Developments in the United 
 States. — Characteristics. — The Time come for attempting the Con- 
 version of the World. 
 
 The providential changes in the Christian world, 
 of which I am now to speak, did not severally awaken 
 any great attention at the time of their occurrence, 
 but we now see in them the hand of God. Volumes 
 would not exhaust the subject; and I can merely 
 glance at the more important topics. Nor is it need- 
 ful that I do more, as the reader must already be so 
 familiar with this part of the subject, that a simple 
 utterance of the propositions will suggest the need- 
 ful illustrations. 
 
 Since the Reformation, the human mind in the 
 Christian Church has been continually becoming 
 more free 'for examining, embracing, and promul- 
 gating the truths of the gospel. The Bible has been 
 set at liberty, to be translated into all languages, and 
 to be read by all the world. The apostolic idea of 
 
AN UPRISING CHURCH. 17 
 
 the local, self-governed church, for many ages in 
 great measure lost to the world, has been recovered, 
 as one of the great results of the Reformation. A 
 Christian literature has been created. And, finally, 
 while the churches remain in the full exercise of 
 their ecclesiastical prerogatives, with what facility 
 do their members, whose hearts beat in unison with 
 the Saviour's command, form themselves into associa- 
 tions, in harmonious cooperation with the churches, 
 and really a part of their organization, for collecting 
 and managing the funds which are needed to fill the 
 world with preachers, with the Scriptures, and with 
 intelligent readers of the same. These are all im- 
 mense results, and of inestimable value. 
 
 In a general view, embracing the Christian world 
 at large, the preparation is even more striking. 
 We see it in all the domains of literature, science, 
 art, commerce, and geographical discovery; in the 
 rebellions and revolutions of nations ; in the history 
 of civilization from the Reformation until now. As 
 compared with the Roman world, in the first ages 
 of Christianity, or with the Christian world, in the 
 Early and Middle Ages, everything is greatly 
 changed. The tendency among Christian nations 
 now, is more and more to the forming of interna- 
 tional relations, which is a new and most hopeful 
 feature. Life, thought, labor, all have a greatly in- 
 creased value, because of the immense increase of 
 facilities for the intercommunication of man with 
 
 2 
 
18 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 man. With our railroads, steamships, and tele- 
 graphic wires; with our electrotyping, and power- 
 presses ; our sciences, arts, and commerce ; with 
 neither Hun, Vandal, or Moslem to set back the 
 tide of civilization, who does not see that the time 
 for blessing the whole earth with the gospel has 
 come, and that this is the grand business of the 
 churches in our day ? 
 
 We should not be surprised, then, if, as a conse- 
 quence of this, and the result of divine agency, we 
 find also a new and strange development of the mis- 
 sionary spirit, and a strange uprising for the mis- 
 sionary work, throughout the evangelical churches. 
 
 This suggests our third and last topic, namely, — 
 the development, in the Evangelical Church, of a 
 missionary spirit, and of missionary organizations, 
 with the avowed expectation and purpose of labor- 
 ing for the conversion of the whole heathen world. 
 
 To avoid misapprehension, I define what I mean 
 by the missionary spirit. It is really the same thing 
 in foreign missions, and in home missions; being 
 the earnest response of a believing heart to the 
 Saviour's last injunction. I of course use the phrase 
 in its special relation to foreign missions. Yet it is 
 not the foreign missionary alone, who illustrates this 
 spirit. It is as really illustrated by the home mis- 
 sionary, and by every pastor who labors to call forth 
 the prayers and contributions of his people for the 
 conversion of the world. 
 
AN UPRISING CHURCH. 19 
 
 It will at once be seen, that the modern develop- 
 ment of the missionary spirit must needs differ in 
 many respects from that of all past ages. This is 
 owing to the vastly changed condition, already de- 
 scribed, both of the unevangelized world, and of 
 Christendom. The missionary spirit is now intensely 
 social and enterprising, seeking to enlist and organ- 
 ize Christians in large bodies, with the declared and 
 earnest purpose of a universal diffusion of the gospel. 
 We saw it not in this form in the apostolic age, nor 
 do we in any of the subsequent ages. Indeed, the 
 missionary spirit is possible in this form only in a 
 considerably advanced Christian civilization. 
 
 I am not able distinctly to trace a historical con- 
 nection between either the Danish mission to India, 
 commenced in 1705, or the Moravian mission to 
 Greenland, commenced in 1733, or the missions to 
 the American Indians previous to 1750, with the 
 modern development of the missionary spirit, of 
 which I am now treating ; though each of those is 
 worthy of all honor, and of a grateful commemora- 
 tion. 
 
 The missionary development, in its modern form, 
 would seem to have had its rise about the year 1789, 
 in the efforts of William Carey, a Baptist minister 
 in the interior of England, who afterwards became 
 a distinguished missionary in India. The project of 
 personally effecting a mission among the heathen, 
 
20 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 and of an organized movement in the churches at 
 home for that purpose, seems to have taken full pos- 
 session of his soul. Yet he found little encourage- 
 ment among his ministerial brethren. Marshman, 
 in his " Life and Times " of Carey and his associates, 
 relates the following singular occurrence at a meet- 
 ing of Baptist ministers in Northampton. He says : 
 " Mr. Ryland, senior, called on the young men 
 around him to propose a topic for discussion; on 
 which Mr. Carey rose, and proposed for considera- 
 tion ' The duty of Christians to attempt the spread 
 of the gospel among heathen nations.' The vener- 
 able divine received the proposal with astonishment ; 
 and, springing on his feet, denounced the proposi- 
 tion with a frown, and thundered out, ' Young man, 
 sit down ; when God pleases to convert the heathen, 
 he will do it without your aid, or mine.' " ^ 
 
 It is diflScult to account for this feeling of the 
 good old minister, even should we suppose him 
 strongly tinctured with the antinomianism then so 
 prevalent among his brethren. But Mr. Ryland was 
 not thus tinctured, and was not alone in this feel- 
 ing ; for we are told, that " the aged and more in- 
 fluential ministers generally " endeavored to dis- 
 suade Mr. Carey from what they deemed " so vision- 
 ary a scheme." ^ His ultimate success was with men 
 nearer his own age and standing; such as Andrew 
 Fuller, Sutcliff, John Ryland, and Pearce. 
 
 1 Marshman's Life and Times, etc., vol. i. p. 10. 
 
 2 Marshman, vol. i. p. 14. 
 
AN UPRISING CHURCH. 21 
 
 What I now relate, as having' occurred in the 
 Scottish Church, is on the same authority, and is 
 corroborated by other testimony. 
 
 In the year 1796, after the Baptist and London 
 Missionary Societies liad both been formed, a prop- 
 osition to establish a foreign mission was made in 
 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; 
 and " was treated," we are told, " not only as an un- 
 natural, but a revolutionary design." A clergyman 
 by the name of Hamilton asserted, that " to spread 
 abroad the knowledge of the gospel among barba- 
 rous heathen nations, seemed to him highly prepos- 
 terous, inasmuch as it anticipates, nay, reverses the 
 order of nature." " Men," he said, " must be pol- 
 ished and refined in their manners, before they can 
 be properly enlightened in religious truths. The 
 venerable Dr. Erskine earnestly opposed those views. 
 But Dr. Hill pronounced missionary societies to be 
 highly dangerous in their tendencies to the good 
 order of society ; and Mr. Boyle declared his appre- 
 hension that their funds would in time be turned 
 against the constitution, and therefore the General 
 Assembly ought to give the overtures recommending 
 them its most serious disapprobation, and its im- 
 mediate and most decisive opposition .^ 
 
 Yet in that very year a missionary society of 
 moderate size was formed in Edinburgh, by Presby- 
 
 1 Marshman, vol. i. p. 19. See also Dr. William Brown's History of 
 the Propagation of Christianity, vol. ii. p. 474. 
 
22 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 terians and others, which afterwards took the name 
 of the Scottish Missionary Society, and another was 
 formed in Glasgow ; both of which sent missionaries 
 to Western Africa. It was nearly thirty years after 
 the debate just mentioned, before the General As- 
 sembly of Scotland entered on foreign missions, but 
 the Church of Scotland has since done good mission- 
 ary service. 
 
 I must state, in the briefest manner, at what time 
 the different European evangelical denominations 
 entered the field. The English Baptists, as we have 
 seen, in 1792 ; the English Independents in 1795, 
 in the London Missionary Society ; the Scottish and 
 Glasgow Missionary Societies in 1796 ; the Dutch, in 
 the Netherlands Missionary Society, in 1797; the 
 Evangelical English Episcopalians, in the Church 
 Missionary Society, in 1800 ; the Swiss, in the Basle 
 Missionary Society, in 1816 ; the English Wesleyans 
 in 1817 ; and the Church of Scotland in 1824. Since 
 then, five missionary societies, on a small scale, have 
 been formed in England ; five in Scotland ; one in 
 Ireland, one in France ; eight in Germany and Swit- 
 zerland ; one in Holland ; one in Norway, and two in 
 Sweden. And the annual aggregate income of these 
 thirty-three European missionary societies, in the 
 year 1866, exceeded $3,500,000. 
 
 I come now to the development of the foreign 
 missionary spirit in our own country. 
 
AN UPRISING CHURCH. 23 
 
 It was a leading object with the " Pilgrims " in 
 migrating to this western continent, to extend the 
 Redeemer's kingdom in lands where Christ had not 
 been named. They worked under great disadvan- 
 tage ; but the age of John Eliot, from 1646 to 1675, 
 is said, with probable justice, to have been as really 
 a missionary age in New England, as is the present ; 
 and that portion of our country is believed to have 
 done as much then for the conversion of the heathen, 
 in proportion to its ability, as it is doing now.^ Of 
 Eliot's translation of the Bible, a single copy of 
 which (because so few copies are in existence) is now 
 worth a large sum, three thousand five hundred copies 
 were printed at Cambridge ; and these were the only 
 Bibles printed in America for a long time. In 1675, 
 as the result of the labors of Eliot and perhaps a 
 dozen other missionaries, there were fourteen settle- 
 ments of " praying Indians," with a population of 
 three thousand and six hundred, and twenty-four 
 regular congregations, with as many Indian preach- 
 ers. The whole formed a partially civilized Christian 
 community. It suffered greatly in King Philip's war, 
 which commenced in 1675. But the missions were 
 continued, and in 1696 there were thirty Indian 
 churches in Massachusetts alone, some with Indian 
 pastors ; and the number of Christian Indians was 
 somewhat over four thousand.^ The missions were 
 
 1 Tracy's History of the American Board, p. 21 . 
 
 2 See Tracy's History of the American Board, for a more extended 
 account of the early missions to the Indians. 
 
24 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 nearly suspended in the revolutionary war ; but were 
 revived early in the present century. 
 
 Missions to the Indians have, therefore, been 
 always sustained in this country. It remains for me 
 to show, though in the briefest manner, how the 
 American missions were revived on a much broader 
 scale. 
 
 The Foreign Missionary Societies now existing in 
 our country, were formed in the following order. 
 The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions, in 1810; the American Baptist Mission- 
 ary Union, in 1814 ; the Methodist Episcopal Mis- 
 sionary Society, in 1819 ; the Board of the Reformed 
 Dutch Church, in 1832 ; the Free-will Baptist Foreign 
 Missionary Society, in 1833 ; the Presbyterian Board 
 •of Foreign Missions, in 1833 (though the Presby- 
 terian Church properly dates its entrance upon 
 foreign missions as far back as the year 1812, when 
 it commenced that associated operation through the 
 American Board which a portion of it still con- 
 tinues) ; the Protestant Episcopal Board of Missions, 
 in 1835 (though Episcopal missionaries had been 
 sent to Greece five years before) ; the Evangelical 
 Lutheran Missionary Society, in 1837 ; the Re- 
 formed Presbyterian, the Associate Presbyterian, 
 and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian, in 1844 ; 
 the Southern Baptist Board, in 1845 ; the American 
 Missionary Association, in 1846 ; the American and 
 
AN UPRISING CHURCH^ 25 
 
 Foreign Christian Union, in 1850 ; the United Pres- 
 byterian (by union of the Associate and Associate 
 Reformed), in 1859; the American Church Mission- 
 ary Society, in 1860 ; and the Southern Presbyterian 
 Board, in 1861. 
 
 Two or three of the more important character- 
 istics in the development of our present missionary 
 spirit, should receive a brief notice. 
 
 1. It had a small beginning and many discourage- 
 ments in this country, as it had in England. So 
 far as is known, the idea of a personal consecration 
 to a foreign mission was first entertained by a few 
 students in Williams College, in 1808, and after- 
 wards by those and others in the Andover Theological 
 Seminary. But they found so little sympathy in the 
 religious community, that they long kept their in- 
 tention a secret. When at length they ventured^to 
 ask advice at Bradford of the General Association 
 of Massachusetts, two of the six names on their paper 
 were stricken off, lest so many candidates for a 
 foreign mission should alarm the clerical body. Our 
 Christian community, as a whole, was then far from 
 being ready to approve of their mission. The Rev. 
 Mr. Sanborn, of Reading, in Massachusetts, a good 
 man, expressed the widely extended sentiment of the 
 community when, at a conference with the young 
 candidates in Professor Stuart's study in Andover, 
 he said, — after expressing his sense of the import- 
 ance of the object, — that the project seemed to 
 
26 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 savor of infatuation ; that the proposal was pre- 
 mature ; that we had more work at home than we 
 could do ; and that it would be impossible to meet 
 the expense.^ 
 
 It is the opinion of some good men, now, that the 
 American Board, the first foreign missionary society 
 formed in this country, ought to have been consti- 
 tuted by a vote of the individual Congregational 
 churches, rather than by that of a General Associa- 
 tion. But the Congregational churches, as a body, 
 were not then interested enough to vote generally on 
 the subject. A general vote could not have been 
 obtained. And if it could, the vote would doubtless 
 have been against going forward, at that time, in 
 missions to foreign heathen nations. 
 
 2. That the missionary spirit is yet far from being 
 air all-pervading sentiment in the churches, is evinced 
 by the large number of church-members — from a 
 fourth to one third — who are known to give nothing 
 in support of the cause. 
 
 3. There has, however, been an encouraging prog- 
 ress. The most spiritual, prayerful, active, and in- 
 telligent members of the evangelical churches have, 
 to great extent, been at length partially enlisted ; 
 and they are acting on principle, and have enlisted 
 for life. The contributions are an evidence of ad- 
 vance. Those in this country, for foreign missions, 
 
 1 Memorial Volume of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions, p. 52. 
 
AN UPRISING CHURCH. 27 
 
 in the year 1811, amounted to only 11,667 ; but in / 
 the year 1868, their sum total exceeded 11,600,000. 
 
 In a review of the facts which have passed under 
 survey, the conclusion seems irresistible, that the 
 time for all the friends of the Redeemer to pray, 
 plan, and labor for the speedy conversion of the 
 world, has come. How do we account for all this ? 
 What does it mean ? Within the memory of many 
 who are now living, the world has been strangely 
 opened, as by a miracle, and made accessible to the 
 gospel. Why is this ? And why has such a vast, 
 systematic organization grown up of associations 
 over the Christian world, with the specific and de- 
 clared purpose to publish the gospel to every crea- 
 ture ? Never was such a thing seen before. Why 
 has the great and blessed God crowded so many and 
 such stupendous results into our day ? I am unable 
 to answer these inquiries, except on the supposition 
 that the " fullness of time " has come for the com- 
 manded and predicted publication of the gospel 
 through the world. Surely there has never been an 
 age like the present. Never did churches, never 
 did individual Christians, never did any man with the 
 gospel in his hands, stand in such a relation to the 
 unevangelized world, as we now do. Not only is that 
 world accessible, but it lies on our very borders. 
 Men sometimes complain of the frequency and the 
 urgency of the calls on their religious benevolence, 
 
28 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 or upon their missionary service. But do they not 
 see that these calls result from the character which 
 God has impressed upon our age, and from the rela- 
 tions we stand in to the surrounding world ? Our 
 fathers of the last century had no such calls from 
 nations heyond the limits of Christendom ; and they 
 had not, hecause those nations were then compara- 
 tively unknown, or else were unapproachable. But 
 God has been pleased to lift the pall of death from off 
 the heathen world ; to bring it near ; and to fill our 
 eyes with the sight and our ears with the cry of 
 their distress. He has leveled mountains and bridged 
 oceans, which separated the benighted nations from 
 us, and made for us a highway to every land. To us 
 he says, " Go ! " — with an emphasis and a meaning 
 such as this command never had to ministers and 
 Christians in former ages. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF THE CHRISTIAN 
 CHURCH. 
 
 The Apostles Missionaries. — Their Missions the Model for all Mis- 
 sions. — Theirs a Missionary Age Surveyed from a Missionary 
 
 Stand-point. — A New and Great Idea. — Developed in the Face of 
 Jewish Prejudices. — Jewish Notion of Messiah's Reign. — Idea 
 underlying the Prediction of Messiah's Kingdom. — Backwardness 
 to receive Gentile Converts simply as Christians. — The Judaizing 
 Doctrine disowned by the Apostles. — "Why they were so long in 
 Jerusalem. — Reserve of the Supernatural. — Unrecorded Years of 
 St. Paul. — Mission to Cyprus. — Labors at Antioch. — Ritualists. 
 Matters referred to Jerusalem. — The Church Idea developed, and 
 St. Paul enters on his Mission. — Why the Intellectual Christian 
 Life was so slowly developed. 
 
 Experience has brought me to the conchision, 
 that the apostolic missions ought to be regarded 
 as substantially the model for Christian missions to 
 the heathen in all subsequent ages. I may then be 
 allowed, thus early in the discussion, to ask atten- 
 tion to those missions, as they are set forth in the 
 New Testament, and beheld from a missionary stand- 
 point. 
 
 The apostles were really missionaries, though 
 with an inspiration and authority peculiar to them- 
 selves, and with miraculous powers that were not 
 
30 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 transmitted. Timothy, Titus, and others their com- 
 panions, usually called Evangelists, were missiona- 
 ries in the ordinary sense. The apostolic age was 
 preeminently a missionary age, and will best be 
 understood when contemplated as such ; and it is 
 as such that I propose now to view it, presenting 
 the facts as I find them in the inspired record. 
 That record being inspired, it is of course infal- 
 libly correct, and whatever there is in it of doc- 
 trine or duty, is from God. But it does not fol- 
 low, that the first missionaries did not profit by 
 the teachings of experience in the prosecution of 
 their missions. It will appear as we proceed, I 
 think, that they did thus profit, and that there is 
 therefore, much in their experience which we may 
 use for our own instruction and encouragement. 
 
 The first thing claiming our attention, is the pro- 
 cess by which the Christian Idea of a Church 
 was originally developed. It was a remarkable pro- 
 cess. And it is the more important for us to con- 
 sider it, and the time it took to develop that idea, 
 because we have been much longer in modern mis- 
 sions, as I shajl have occasion to show hereafter, in 
 working out the true, spiritual idea of missions. 
 Considering the strength and prevalence of the 
 Judaizing spirit and prejudices in the apostolic age, 
 we must not wonder that there was a tardy develop- 
 ment of so new and great an idea, as a Church for 
 
THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 31 
 
 THE WHOLE WORLD; involving baptism, to take 
 the place of circumcision ; the relation sustained to 
 Abraham, as the Father of the Faithful, to he no 
 longer one of descent, or of blood, but simply one 
 of faith ; and the promises of the Old Testament to 
 be no longer understood as applicable exclusively to 
 the Jews as such, but to the Christian Church. This 
 grand idea — the hope of a perishing world — was 
 wrought out through years of strife, imprisonments, 
 and blood. This process I am now to consider in its 
 several aspects. And, — 
 
 1. The apostles, when chosen to be such, were 
 thoroughly imbued with the Jewish notion, that 
 the Messiah was to reign personally on earth — to 
 have a temporal kingdom, and to elevate the Jews 
 to the rank of a royal nation. And the evidence 
 that they retained this notion until after the resur- 
 rection of Christ, appears in the question put by 
 ^hem to their Lord before his ascension. We are 
 told that they then asked him, " Lord, wilt thou 
 at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel ? " ^ 
 As there is ample proof that this error of the apos- 
 tles prevented them, while entertained, from clearly 
 apprehending the spiritual nature oi the kingdom 
 their Lord had come to set up, he might perhaps 
 have been expected to eradicate it while he was with 
 them. But he did not, and his reply to the question 
 proposed was : " It is not for you to know the times 
 
 1 Acts i. 6. 
 
32 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 or the seasons wliich the Father hath put in his 
 own power; but ye shall receive power after that 
 the Holy Ghost is come upon you." ^ And no doubt 
 they did at length arrive at a correct apprehension 
 of this subject, under the teachings of the Spirit. 
 St. Paul fully comprehended the grand idea under- 
 lying the predictions of Messiah's kingdom. Writ- 
 ing to the Galatians, and to the Romans, during his 
 second visit to Corinth, he boldly sets forth the 
 purely spiritual nature of Messiah's reign. He 
 declares, that under that reign, — that is, under 
 the Christian dispensation, — " there is neither Jew 
 nor Greek, neither male nor female," but that all 
 are " one in Christ Jesus." He affirms, that all 
 who are Christ's, Gentiles as well as Jews, " are 
 Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the prom- 
 ise ; " '^ that the middle 'wall of partition between 
 Jews and Gentiles is broken down by the gospel.^ 
 This was what so especially roused the enmity of 
 the Jews. " He is not a Jew," says the apostle, 
 "which is one outwardly; neither is that circum- 
 cision, which is outward in the flesh ; but he is a 
 Jew, who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that 
 of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the let- 
 ter." * Meaning, that Jewish descent and circum- 
 cision were no longer to be considered, in gathering 
 a Christian church. Again, he declares Abraham 
 
 1 Acts i. 7, 8, 2 Gal. iii. 28, 29. 
 
 8 Eph. ii. 14. * Rom. ii. 28, 29. 
 
TEE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 33 
 
 to be " the father of all them that believe, though 
 they be not circumcised." " For," he adds, " the 
 promise that he should be the heir of the world, 
 was not to Abraham, or his seed, through the law, 
 but through the righteousness of faith." ^ Which 
 can mean no less than that the promises and bless- 
 ings connected with the covenant made with Abra- 
 ham, are the common inheritance of all who possess 
 his faith, to whatever age or nation they may be- 
 long. 
 
 Thus broadly did the holy apostle lay the ever- 
 enduring foundations of the Christian Church. But 
 the chronological development, and full acceptance 
 of this grand idea by the apostles, was not until 
 years after the day of Pentecost. 
 
 2. A remarkable fact, considering the positive 
 nature of the Saviour's parting command, was the 
 apparent backwardness of the apostles and their 
 Jewish brethren to receive heathen converts into 
 the church simply as Christians, without their being 
 first circumcised. Notwithstanding the tongues 
 of fire, notwithstanding the vision of Peter, not- 
 withstanding the conversion of Gentiles to Chris- 
 tianity, but not to Judaism, and the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost to them, notwithstanding the voice of the 
 ascending Lord, commanding to go into all the 
 world, and preach the gospel to every creature; 
 baptizing all who believe in the name of the Father, 
 
 1 Rom. iv. 11, 13. 
 3 
 
84 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; no for- 
 mal decision on this subject appears to have been 
 reached by the apostles, until after the memorable 
 discussion at Jerusalem, in which Paul and Barnabas 
 assisted, and declared the ''miracles and wonders 
 God had wrought among the Gentiles by them." ^ 
 It was not until then, that the ritualistic doctrine, 
 so obnoxious to those missionaries and to their Gen- 
 tile converts, was authoritatively and publicly dis- 
 owned. This was as many as ten or twelve years 
 after Paul's conversion. 
 
 3. Another fact worthy of attention is, the proba- 
 ble cause of the long abode of the twelve apostles at 
 Jerusalem. They had been instructed by their Lord 
 to remain there until they were endowed with power 
 from on high ; ^ but they appear to have remained 
 there much longer, and we are left by the sacred his- 
 torian without any certain information when, and how 
 far, any of them went forth to preach the gospel to 
 Gentile nations. 
 
 It is nowhere intimated in the Scriptures that 
 the apostles were wrong in this. We know that 
 they were active in their ministry among the Jews. 
 They " gave themselves continually to prayer and to 
 the ministry of the word." ^ St. Paul, in his Epistle 
 to the Galatians, testifies to the effective mission of 
 Peter to his own countrymen. At the same time he 
 informs the Galatian church that James, Peter, and 
 
 1 Acts XV. 12. 2 L^ii^e xxiv. 47, 49. ^ ^^tg yj 4^ 
 
THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 35 
 
 John, the three leading apostles, gave to him and 
 Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they 
 were at Jerusalem, that thej^ should labor among 
 the Gentiles, while the three apostles and their im- 
 mediate associates devoted themselves to the Jews.^ 
 This apparently disproportionate amount of labor 
 among the Jews, probably arose from the extreme 
 danger to which the Jewish-Christian churches, and 
 the Gentile churches, were exposed from the ritual- 
 istic Judaizing members of the church. Those 
 erring but zealous brethren were everywhere an 
 annoyance to the Apostle Paul during his whole 
 missionary life. They were so even among churches 
 gathered from the Gentiles ; and how much worse 
 must the case have been in Judea. Hence the ne- 
 cessity, at that time, of having an acknowledged 
 human authority in matters ecclesiastical ; and since 
 the apostles alone possessed such authority, it may 
 have been deemed important for most of them to 
 reside where their advice and decisions could have 
 the weight of the collective body, until the Christian 
 commonwealth should have settled upon its true 
 foundation. In this way we account for the pro- 
 longed residence of the apostles in Jerusalem. The 
 necessity arose from that mysterious economy of 
 sovereign grace, by which the gifts of the Holy 
 Spirit were so restricted in their influence upon 
 Jewish opinions and prejudices. And this may have 
 
 i Gal. ii. 8, 9. 
 
36 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 been among the principal reasons, in the providence 
 of God, why the original band of the apostles had 
 no more opportunity for engaging in missions in the 
 Gentile world. 
 
 This reserve of the illuminating agency of the 
 Spirit is more noticeable from its having been in an 
 age so conspicuous for the supernatural; but it is 
 only the development of a permanent law of grace — 
 namely, to put forth no more of supernatural agency 
 than is needful — which we shall find in every age 
 of the church, and to which we need to give heed. 
 
 4. It is due to the Apostle Paul, that I ofier a few 
 suggestions on the six or seven unrecorded years of 
 his early Christian life, since they stand connected 
 with the subject under consideration. I believe it 
 is a common opinion, that his missionary life com- 
 menced with his tour to Cyprus and Asia Minor. 
 But there is a strong improbability in such an as- 
 sumption. From St. Paul's bold and zealous preach- 
 ing of Christ in the synagogues of Damascus, 
 " straightway " after his conversion, I think it right 
 to infer, that he could not have been silent during 
 the three years of his comparative retirement in 
 Arabia; though we are not informed how he was 
 employed. We may suppose it was in those years 
 he received some at least of the abundant revela- 
 tions of which he speaks so emphatically in his 
 Epistle to the Corinthians.^ At the expiration of 
 
 1 2 Cor. xii. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 37 
 
 that time he went to Jerusalem to see Peter, and 
 abode with him fifteen days. He saw, also, James, 
 the Lord's brother.^ And it is pleasant to think 
 how large a part of this visit, both with Petei* and 
 James, must have been employed, by this young 
 candidate for the foreign missionary service, in draw- 
 ing from their well-stored memories the facts in the 
 history of the blessed Saviour. It was probably at 
 this time he was entranced while praying in the 
 temple, and was directed by the Lord to leave Jeru- 
 salem at once, and go " far hence to the Gentiles," 
 since the people of Jerusalem would not receive his 
 testimony .2 
 
 He withdrew to his native province of Cilicia. 
 And now we have as many as four more unrecorded 
 years. But was not the apostle true to his original 
 calling, and to the injunction to preach to the Gen- 
 tiles, so lately received from his Master ? I have no 
 doubt that he was. This I infer from his decisive 
 character ; from his previous history at Damascus 
 and Jerusalem; and from the fact that Barnabas, 
 when overburdened with ministerial labors at An- 
 tioch, and needing a helper, went down to Tarsus to 
 obtain the aid of Paul. Doubtless he had been suc- 
 cessfully employed in planting those churches in 
 Cilicia, and the adjoining districts of Syria, of which 
 mention is made in the subsequent history.^ And 
 we may presume it was here and now he was sub- 
 
 1 Gal. i. 18, 19. '^ Acts xxii. 18, 21. » Qal. i. 21. 
 
38 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 jected to some of tUe Jewish scoiirgings, the beatings 
 with Roman rods, the journeyings, and the perils of 
 waters and robbers, in the city and in the wilder- 
 ness, of which he speaks, fourteen years later, when 
 writing to the Corinthians.^ 
 
 It is recorded of Paul and Barnabas, that, in this 
 reunion at Antioch, "they assembled themselves 
 with the church, and taught much people, for a 
 whole year." ^ These words of Scripture would seem 
 to restrict their labors to the great heathen city of 
 Antioch; but while I was travelling through that 
 region, in the year 1855, and beheld the remains of 
 ancient cities and villages all easy of access from 
 Antioch, I could not resist the impression, that these 
 two popular and enterprising preachers found time 
 to make their voices heard over no small part of the 
 then heathen country, now so usefully occupied by 
 American missionaries. 
 
 About the year forty-five or forty-eight, the 
 " prophets and teachers " in the church of Antioch 
 were directed by the Holy Ghost, as they ministered 
 to the Lord and fasted, to separate Barnabas and 
 Saul, two of their number, and the most eminent 
 and useful among the few who were laboring in that 
 only partially Christianized metropolis of the East, 
 for a more distant service than any hitherto per- 
 formed. This was a new and important step in ad- 
 vance ; and thus originated the mission to Cyprus 
 
 1 2 Cor. xi. '^ Acts xi. 26. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 39 
 
 and Asia Minor, which occupied a year or more. 
 And here it should be remarked, that their selection 
 for this foreign mission was by the Holy Ghost ; that 
 their formal recognition by the laying on of hands, 
 with prayer and fasting, was by their ministerial 
 associates, the prophets and teachers ; that this was 
 in no sense an introduction to the gospel ministry, 
 for they had both been in that ministry, and promi- 
 nently so, for years; that there is no evidence of 
 their having been in any proper sense then sent 
 forth as missionaries by the church at Antioch ; and 
 no evidence of that church having done anything for 
 their support on that mission, except what may be 
 inferred from the fact that, on their return, they 
 " gathered the church in that city together, and re- 
 hearsed " to it " all that God had done with them, 
 and how he had opened the door of faith unto the 
 Gentiles." And for two years or more after this, or 
 (as the sacred narrative has it) " for a long time," 
 there is no evidence of a movement in that metro- 
 politan church to renew the mission. ^ 
 
 A principal cause of this apparent weakness of the 
 Christian spirit in the Antiochian church may have 
 been the influence of high-church teachers from 
 Judea, who created no small dissension there by 
 their notions of the constitution of the Christian 
 Church ; holding that all, who would enjoy its priv- 
 ileges, must first be circumcised after the Mosaic 
 
 1 Acts xiv. 27, 28. 
 
40 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 law. To be consistent, they must have held, that" 
 there was no true church in which this principle 
 was not followed. Indeed, they went so far as to 
 teach that none could be saved who were not circum- 
 cised after the manner of Moses, and thus entered 
 the church. 1 They of course met with strenuous 
 opposition from the two missionaries; and it was 
 finally decided to refer the matter to the apostles at 
 Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas, with others, were 
 accordingly sent thither for that purpose. The 
 event shows that those two brethren must have gone 
 with the determined purpose of having the prin- 
 ciples on which churches among the Gentiles were 
 to be constituted, fully and formally decided. Such, 
 happily, was the result ; and after laboring somewhat 
 longer at Antioch, the two missionaries resolved to 
 revisit the churches they had planted on their former 
 missionary tour. 
 
 This meeting at Jerusalem was in after ages, and 
 is still, called a Council. But it was not such, in the 
 common acceptation of that term. It was simply a 
 reference of an ecclesiastical question, which had 
 awakened feeling and prejudices, and divided the 
 opinion of the churches, to the judgment of the only 
 body of men recognized as having authority in such 
 matters, namely, the apostles ; who, in an assembly 
 of the whole Jerusalem church, gave a full hearing 
 to the two missionary brethren. 
 
 1 Acts XV. 1 . 
 
THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 41 
 
 The constitution of the Gentile Christian churches 
 was now settled hy apostolic authority, and on a 
 spiritual basis; and the needful preliminaries were 
 completed for the regular prosecution of the life- 
 work of the great apostle to the Gentiles. 
 
 With the apostle's second tour, — which gave the 
 gospel to Europe, and to us, — about the year fifty- 
 one, began his uninterrupted career as a foreign 
 missionary ; which terminated only with his martyr- 
 dom at Rome, between the years sixty-two and sixty- 
 eight. A short time, truly, for so great a work. 
 
 Some of the facts, to which I have briefly ad- 
 verted, are among the most notable in the history of 
 the church, and doubtless involve principles worthy 
 of our serious attention. For that age of marvelous 
 divine interpositions, they certainly involve a reserve 
 we should not have expected, in the use of supernat- 
 ural agency on the minds of men. The spiritual 
 illumination of the apostles, excepting the matter 
 of inspiration, though extraordinary, differed only in 
 degree from the ordinary spiritual illuminations. 
 There was no coercion of the mind. Prejudice, error, 
 conflicting opinions, were as possible in that age of 
 miracles as they are now, and the triumphs of 
 faith over sin were wrought in the same manner. 
 " Miracles," as has been well said, " did not con- 
 vert; inspiration did not sanctify. Then, as now, 
 imperfection and evil clung to the members, and 
 
42 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 clogged the energies of the kingdom of God. " ^ 
 The slowness of the first missionaries in apprehend- 
 ing the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom, and 
 afterwards the spiritual nature of the Christian 
 Church ; their backwardness to receive Gentile con- 
 verts into the church on a purely Christian basis ; 
 and finally the wonderful fact, as recorded in the 
 New Testament, that nearly the whole of what may 
 properly be called the foreign missionary work of that 
 age, was performed by a single apostle and his assist- 
 ants, must of course have been foreseen and intended 
 by our Lord, and formed a part of his all-wise plan ; 
 and there must have been a fitness in these his 
 chosen instruments, and in his manner of treating 
 them, to the ends he had in view. Had he seen fit, 
 how easily might he have given every one of his 
 apostles, and every Jewish disciple, an immediate 
 and thorough insight into the spiritual nature of 
 his kingdom, so that the constitution of the Chris- 
 tian Church, for Gentiles as well as Jews, might have 
 been settled without delay. This reserve of super- 
 natural agency, at a time when it was so frequently 
 exerted upon the minds of men, leaving the grand 
 results to be wrought out more slowly by the opera- 
 tion of natural causes, may have been necessary to 
 the best permanent development of the church. 
 Had the apostles, James, Peter, and John, and their 
 associates at Jerusalem, been carried forward as 
 
 A Conybeare and Howson's Life of St. Paid, vol. i. p. 456. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH. 43 
 
 rapidly in the intellectual development of the Chris- 
 tian life, as was the Apostle Paul, it is easy to see 
 that, without a constant miracle, they would all have 
 heen driven from Judea, as St. Paul actually was. 
 
 I should here repeat the remark, that in view of 
 this tardy development of the exclusively spiritual 
 nature of the apostolic missions, we shall he less 
 surprised when we shall see, that a much longer 
 time was occupied in developing the purely spiritual 
 nature of the modern missionary work. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OP THE APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 
 
 Silence of Inspired History as to Apostolic Missions. — Small Credit 
 given to Uninspired Accounts. — Why the Mission of St. Paul is 
 alone considered. — His Relation to the Lord Jesus. — His Under- 
 standing of Christ's Commission. — His Use of Local Churches, and 
 Care for them. — His Confidence in them. — The Idea of the Local 
 Church afterwards lost. — Its Importance. — How the Apostolic 
 Missionaries appeared to their Contemporaries. — How supported. 
 What Classes composed their Churches. — Influence of Pious Fe- 
 males, — Character of Primitive Churches. — Apostolic Success. — 
 Summary. 
 
 It is among the mysteries of Providence, that the 
 book of Acts gives no account of the closing labors 
 of the Apostle Paul, and none of the labors of the 
 other apostles bearing directly on the heathen world; 
 if we except the mission of Peter to the Roman cen- 
 turion, and of Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch. From 
 a remark in the First Epistle of Peter it has been 
 inferred, that he preached the gospel to the Jews 
 eastward as far as Babylon; and from the super- 
 scription to the same Epistle it has been supposed, 
 that his labors may have extended into Asia Minor. 
 The zealous efforts of the Judaizers at Corinth suf- 
 fice to account for the party formed in that church 
 bearing Peter's name, without supposing that he 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 45 
 
 was ever there. The evidence that Peter was never 
 at Rome, preponderates over the evidence that he 
 was. The reference in the Apocalypse to the seven 
 churches of Asia gives support to the early tradi- 
 tion, that the Apostle John resided among them in 
 his old age. Little credit is given, however, by the 
 best ecclesiastical historians, to the uninspired ac- 
 counts of the missions of the twelve apostles into 
 distant regions of the unevangelized world, or to the 
 stories of the martyrdom of any of them, except 
 Peter, Paul, and James. 
 
 Of course in treating of the missions to the 
 heathen after the year 50, our chief attention must 
 be given to the Apostle Paul and his immediate 
 associates. What I have to say concerning his mis- 
 sion, will be under distinct heads. 
 
 1. The Apostle Paul claimed to sustain a very 
 high and intimate relation to the Lord Jesus, the 
 foundation doubtless of his great courage and 
 spiritual strength. It was nothing less than that 
 he was Christ's ambassador, authorized to speak in 
 his name when calling upon men to be reconciled 
 to God.i 
 
 2. We learn what were the apostle's views of his 
 responsibilities under Christ's commission, from the 
 following emphatic declaration : " I have planted, 
 Apollos watered, but God gave the increase ; so 
 neither is he that planted anything, neither he 
 
 A 2 Cor. V. 20. 
 
46 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 that watereth, but God that giveth the increase." ^ 
 His responsibility was for the faithful use of the 
 prescribed means. In the spiritual culture of the 
 world, it was for planting and watering. Then 
 with respect to his views as to how far those means 
 were to be employed, we learn that opportunity was 
 to be given to all, so far as possible, to hear the gos- 
 pel. This having been done in Pisidia, the sacred 
 historian affirms, that " as many as were ordained 
 to eternal life believed." ^ It was of course neces- 
 sary for them to have opportunity to hear the gospel 
 in order that they might believe, and herein lay the 
 duty of the apostle and his fellow-laborers. This 
 general publication of the gospel, with the gathering 
 of the converts into churches (of which I shall 
 speak under the next head), illustrates St. Paul's 
 understanding of the import and obligation of 
 Christ's command. 
 
 3. The kind of instrumentality, on which the 
 apostle depended for success in his mission, clearly 
 appears in his description of his ministrations at 
 Corinth. He says, that when he came from Athens 
 to Corinth, there to declare the testimony of God, it 
 was not with any surpassing skill of eloquence, or 
 philosophy. For it was no earthly knowledge, which 
 he desired to display among them, but the knowl- 
 edge of Jesus Christ alone, and him crucified. And 
 in proclaiming this message, he had not used the 
 
 1 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7. 2 ^cts xiii. 48. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 47 
 
 persuasive arguments of human wisdom, but set 
 forth the proofs of the might of the Holy Spirit, 
 so that their faith might not rest on the wisdom of 
 men, but on the power of God.^ 
 
 Such was the eminently spiritual nature of the 
 instrumentality employed by the apostle, in his per- 
 sonal ministry among the Gentiles. 
 
 But his stay in most places was generally and 
 necessarily short. At Corinth it was indeed ex- 
 tended to nearly two years, and at Ephesus to nearly 
 three. But in most places he could have spent only 
 a few weeks, or months, though he may often have 
 left behind him Silas, Timothy, or Titus, " to set 
 in order the things which were wanting." 
 
 His grand means, as a missionary, was the gather- 
 ing and forming of local churches. These appear 
 to have been formed wherever there was a suffi- 
 cient number of converts, each with its own pres- 
 byters, to whom must have been committed the pas- 
 toral oversight of the church, whatever may have 
 been their other duties. In every church there 
 appears to have been more than one, — an idea 
 apparentl)^ borrowed from the Jewish synagogue, 
 — and thus was formed the early pastorate. Such 
 would seem to have been his practice ; for it is ex- 
 pressly declared that, in his first recorded mission- 
 ary tour, presbyters were ordained in every church ; 
 and in the great island of Crete, where he had not 
 
 1 Life of St. Paul, vol. ii. p. 36 ; 1 Cor. ii. 1-5. 
 
48 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 time to do it himself, he left Titus, and required him 
 to ordain them in every city.^ 
 
 Such was the apostle's custom. He thus in each 
 place put in requisition the power of association, 
 organization, combination, of a self-governed Chris- 
 tian community ; and the churches must necessarily 
 have been self-supporting. They were formed for 
 standing without foreign aid. And that they pos- 
 sessed a singular vitality, that they were self-propa- 
 gating, as well as self-governing and self-supporting, 
 is evident from the tenor of the Epistles addressed 
 to them by their founder. Indeed, Christian 
 churches are among the most vital of organiza- 
 tions. They are spiritual agencies, deriving their 
 nature and motive power from the spiritual world. 
 They are among the most indestructible of agencies. 
 When the apostle had fully organized a church, he 
 boldly left it. If he could, he visited it, and he 
 wrote to it. To the larger churches, as I believe, 
 he wrote repeatedly. How else could he have 
 " daily " exercised, as he claims to have done, 
 " the care of all the churches ? " ^ Looking at 
 the subject in the light of experience, and at the 
 Apostle Paul as a man, with eminent epistolary pow- 
 ers, and freely acting out his nature, I come to no 
 other conclusion, than that he wrote many letters ; 
 though Divine Providence was pleased to allow only 
 certain of them to come down to us. Perhaps St. 
 
 1 Titus i. 5. 2 2 Cor. xi. 28. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 49 
 
 Paul's short Epistles to Timothy, Titus, aud Phile- 
 mon, and St. John's to " the Elect Lady,"* and " the 
 well-beloved Gaius," are specimens of their ordinary 
 missionary correspondence. Added to all, was a 
 constant habit of commending his churches to God 
 in his prayers. It appears to have been a settled 
 point with him, that a church once fairly planted 
 and organized, with a proper arrangement for the 
 pastoral care, might be safely left to itself, under the 
 supervising grace of God. This, as will readily be 
 seen, is a point of vital importance in the mission- 
 ary work. Had not the apostolic idea of self-gov- 
 erning, self-supporting, self-propagating churches 
 dropped out of the Christian mind so soon after 
 the age of the apostles, not to be fully regained 
 until modern times, how very different had been 
 the history of Christendom, and of the world ! 
 
 4. The apostolic missions belonging to a remote 
 antiquity, and to an age of miracles and inspiration, 
 we almost instinctively clothe the apostles, in our 
 conceptions of them, with somewhat of the super- 
 natural, or at least with the extraordinary. Let us 
 then briefly consider the manner in which they must 
 have appeared to their contemporaries. 
 
 For some years the name of Paul is mentioned in 
 the Acts after that of his senior, Barnabas. The 
 bold, dashing persecutor must have been singularly 
 transformed by his conversion. He is modest and 
 retiring ; and, until he entered fully upon the great 
 
60 FOREIGN MISSIONS. ' 
 
 purpose of his life, was probably regarded as no 
 more than a zealous, eloquent, promising young 
 preacher, and, by the Judaizing Christians, as of 
 decidedly radical tendencies. By many of the Jew- 
 ish converts, if not for a time even by some of the 
 apostles, he was looked upon with more or less of 
 distrust. In his last ten or twelve years, he may be 
 supposed to have moved among the churches he had 
 gathered from the Gentiles much as Wesley did 
 among the churches of his connection ; and some- 
 times — as at Ephesus, where his miraculous pow- 
 ers were marvelously exercised — the enthusiasm 
 he awakened may have more resembled that which 
 attended the apostolic Whitfield.^ His miraculous 
 powers were of course less appreciated in that age, 
 than such powers would be in our own. Uncon- 
 verted Jews and heathens did not at all recognize 
 the signs of his apostleship, and they generally 
 looked upon him with aversion. In short, I sup- 
 pose that the first Christian missionaries to the 
 heathen were regarded very much as Christian mis- 
 sionaries are now ; and that even the apostles, beyond 
 a limited circle, inspired but little of the reverence 
 which we so justly award to them. 
 
 5. It is interesting to inquire as to the manner in 
 which the apostles and their missionary associates 
 were supported in their travels and labors. The 
 information we have on this subject is mostly inci- 
 
 1 Actsxix. 11, 12. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 51 
 
 dental. Their voyages in ships owned by heathen, 
 their food and clothing, the animals on which they 
 rode, — how were these and other expenses met dur- 
 ing St. Paul's long and active career ? No mission- 
 ary society existed, to raise and remit funds. The 
 churches of Judea were so poor, that they looked for 
 relief in their poverty to churches gathered among 
 the heathen. The apostle, in his letters, insists 
 upon a principle, which he says was propounded by 
 the Lord ; ''that they who preach the gospel should 
 live by the gospel ; " and he intimates that Peter and 
 the other apostles acted on this principle in their 
 mission to the Jews. But it was among the charac- 
 teristics of this wonderful man, that he, in his mis- 
 sion to the Gentiles, declined doing so, and preferred 
 laboring with his own hands to being dependent on 
 his converts. He also intimated, that the other 
 apostles having their field of labor especially among 
 the Jews, and so being differently situated from him- 
 self, and more at home, had wives, who travelled 
 with them ; and he claimed the right to do the same 
 thing. Nevertheless, in his peculiar circumstances 
 and relations, he had not used that liberty, lest he 
 " should hinder the gospel of Christ." ^ He doubt- 
 less refers to his itinerant life, and to the necessity 
 of not deriving his support from churches gathered 
 among the heathen. At Ephesus he claims to have 
 labored not only for his own support, but also for the 
 support of his assistants.^ 
 
 1 1 Cor. ix. 4. 5, 14. '^ Acts xx. 34. 
 
62 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 St. Paul's liberal education, and his high social 
 position in early life, warrant the supposition that 
 he inherited property to some extent ; and this was 
 doubtless used by him in defraying his early expenses. 
 Then Barnabas, a native of Cyprus, who had contrib- 
 uted largely to the church-fund at Jerusalem, was 
 probably able to defray the united cost of their first 
 mission. The history states, that when the Apostle 
 Paul started from Antioch, on his second grand mis- 
 sionary tour, the church of that city had made such 
 progress in the missionary spirit, that they " recom- 
 mended him unto the grace of God." ^ Having done 
 so much, they could hardly have sent him away 
 empty. But whatever were his means, they seem to 
 have been exhausted soon after entering Europe. 
 At Philippi, he and his companions enjoyed the hos- 
 pitality of that noble woman, Lydia.^ At Thessa- 
 lonica, for some unexplained reason, he declined re- 
 ceiving anything from his converts there, and labored 
 " night and day," because, as he says, he would not 
 be chargeable to them ; ^ while, at the same time, he 
 allowed the Philippian church to supply his necessi- 
 ties. This that church did " once and again," while 
 he was at Thessalonica ; and afterwards at Corinth ; 
 and again, when he was a prisoner at Rome.* At 
 Athens, after his speech on Mars' Hill, he would be 
 joyfully entertained by his patrician convert, Diony- 
 
 1 Acts XV. 40. 2 ^ctg xvi. 15. 
 
 » Thess. ii. 9. * PhU. ii. 25 ; iv. 15, 16 ; 2 Cor. xi. 9. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 53 
 
 sius the Areopagite ; who, I cannot doubt, after- 
 wards took pleasure in seeing him over the Isthmus 
 to Corinth. During the year and a half of his abode 
 in Corinth, he declares to the church in that city, 
 that he " was chargeable to no man ; " for what was 
 lacking to him the messengers from the distant 
 Philippian church supplied, and he meant to keep 
 himself from being burdensome to them. It must 
 have been a matter of notoriety at Corinth, that he 
 labored for his own support in the tent-factory of 
 Aquila and Priscilla, having learned the craft at 
 Tarsus, as a part of his Jewish education ; though I 
 imagine that one object he had in view, both there 
 and at Ephesus, was to set an example of self-sup- 
 port to the native presbyters. 
 
 It is due, however, to the primitive Gentile 
 churches to presume, that the Christian community, 
 which was growing up under the self-denying labors 
 of this holy apostle, became at length alive to the 
 duty and privilege of carefully looking after his 
 wants ; and that while, for special reasons in the 
 infancy of the churches, he refused to receive aid 
 from certain of them, he was not ordinarily accus- 
 tomed to refuse the hospitalities and kindly prof- 
 fered benefactions of personal friends, as he passed 
 from place to place. That love, which hung on his 
 lips at Troas " even till break of day ; " which re- 
 ceived him in Galatia " as an angel of God, as Jesus 
 Christ ; " which fell weeping on his neck at Miletus, 
 
54 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 because they should see his face no more ; and which 
 wept at Cesarea over his approaching sufferings so 
 as to break his heart, — would not have permitted 
 him to want, when there was the power to prevent it. 
 
 Yet there is a passage in the Apostle John's brief 
 letter to the " well-beloved Gains," which seems to 
 intimate the general usage, not only of St. Paul, 
 but also of his associates, not to depend for their 
 support on mission churches among the Gentiles. 
 St. John expressly declares, that, for Christ's sake, 
 "they went forth, taking nothing from the Gen- 
 tiles." 1 
 
 6. It is important, in a missionary point of view, 
 to observe what classes of persons were gathered 
 into the apostolic churches. Our Saviour evidently 
 sought, in his private instructions, to guard his dis- 
 ciples against expecting great success among the 
 rich and noble of the earth. The foundations of his 
 spiritual kingdom were not to be laid among such. 
 " Verily I say unto you," was his emphatic declara- 
 tion, " that a rich man shall hardly enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven." That this declaration made a 
 strong impression at the time, is evident from its 
 being recorded, with the addition of its more em- 
 phatic reduplication by three of the Evangelists.^ 
 There are indeed names of rich and noble converts 
 on the pages of the New Testament ; but the great 
 
 1 3 John V. 7. See 2 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
 2 Matt. xix. 23, 24 ; Mark x. 23-27 ; Luke xviii. 24-27. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 55 
 
 body was from the middle and poorer classes. It 
 was eminently so among the Greeks at Corinth. 
 " Ye see your calling, brethren," the apostle wrote 
 to them, "how that not many wise men after the 
 flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called ; 
 but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, 
 to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak 
 things of the world, to confound the things that are 
 mighty ; and base things of the world, and things 
 which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things 
 w hich are not, to bring to nought things which are ; 
 that no flesh should glory in his presence." ^ One 
 of the ancient historians of the church,^ speaking 
 of the early Christians, says, — " They were neither 
 rich nor learned, but workers in brass, builders, 
 house-slaves, laborers, tree-fellers, and women." In 
 an age of the world when wealth and power w^ere 
 never held in higher estimation, the leaven of the 
 gospel was cast into the lower and middle strata of 
 society, and worked upwards, till the w^hole was 
 leavened. It is interesting to notice, — 
 
 7. That the influence of pious females is a con- 
 spicuous fact in the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epis- 
 tles. There is no need that I illustrate this. Pious 
 women, as is well known, have a noble record in the 
 missionary life of the great apostle, as they also 
 have in that of our blessed Lord. 
 
 8. The tardy development of the Ecclesia, the 
 
 1 1 Cor. i. 26-29. '^ Theodorct, a. d. 420. 
 
56 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 cliurch, in the apostolic age, has been already illus- 
 trated. Not till after nearly a score of years was it 
 fully settled, that Gentile churches should not be 
 required to conform to Jewish customs and preju- 
 dices. While we nowhere find distinct traces in the 
 New Testament of the associated, organized denomi- 
 nationalism of our times, it is not on that account 
 to be condemned, when not opposed to the spirit of 
 the gospel. It is obvious, that neither Presbyteries, 
 Consociations, Associations, or Conferences could be 
 formed, until there were churches enough with which 
 to form them, churches sufficiently trained and near 
 together to be advantageously associated. It may 
 be that the sacred history closed before there was 
 a full ecclesiastical development in any direction. ^ 
 But the local church in its principles and outline is 
 there; and modern missionaries from the several 
 evangelical communities are at no loss for an exam- 
 ple as regards such churches. 
 
 1 " Neither in the New Testament, nor in any ancient document 
 whatever, do we find anything recorded, from whence it might he in- 
 ferred, that any of the minor churches were at all dependent on, or 
 looked up for direction to those of greater magnitude or consequence ; 
 on the contrary, several things occurred therein, which put it out of all 
 douht that every one of them enjoyed the same rights, and was con- 
 sidered as being on a footing of the most perfect equality with the rest. 
 Indeed it cannot, — I will not say be proved, but even be made to 
 appear probable, from any estimony divine or human, — that in this 
 age it was the practice for several churches to enter into and maintain 
 amongst themselves that sort of association, which afterwards came to 
 subsist amongst the churches of almost every province." — Mosheim, 
 Commentaries, vol. i. p. 196. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 67 
 
 It is more to my purpose to inquire into the 
 character of the apostolic churches, than into their 
 method of organization and government. The com- 
 mon opinion, that those churches excelled the 
 churches of modern times in their Christian devel- 
 opment, is not sustained by a thoughtful reading of 
 the inspired documents, nor could such a thing be 
 reasonably expected. The work of the Holy Spirit, 
 in its permanent results on the hearts and minds 
 and lives of men, appears not to have differed mate- 
 rially then, from what it is in our day. St. Paul 
 seems to have had as many and as great trials with 
 his mission churches, as do modern missionaries 
 with theirs. In the church of Corinth, on which 
 the apostle had bestowed so much labor, he had to 
 lament the many carried away by false teachers, dis- 
 orders in their worship, irregularities at the Lord's 
 Supper, neglect of discipline, party divisions, litiga- 
 tions, " debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbit- 
 ings." 1 And how soon were the Galatians seduced 
 from their loyalty to the truth, even to what seemed 
 " another gospel ; " so that the apostle feared he 
 had labored among them in vain.^ He thought it 
 needful to exhort the Ephesian church to put away 
 lying, to steal no more, and to have no more to do 
 with fornication and coveteousness.^ He also ex- 
 horts the Colossians not to lie one to another ; * and 
 
 1 2 Cor. xii. 20. 2 Qal. i. 6 ; iv. 11. 
 
 8 Eph. iv. 25, 28 ; V. 3. * Col. iii. 9. 
 
58 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 the Thessalonians to withdraw from such of their 
 brethren as walked disorderly .^ He cautions Timo- 
 thy against fables, endless genealogies, and profane 
 and vain babblings, as if such were prevalent in 
 some of the churches ; and speaks of preachers who, 
 after making shipwreck of their faith, added blas- 
 phemies to their heresies.^ And the Apostle John 
 declares, somewhat later, that many " antichrists " 
 had gone out from the church.^ 
 
 As there were great defects, so there were also 
 great excellences coexisting in the churches gath- 
 ered by the apostles. At the very time of St. Paul's 
 censures of the Corinthians, he declares that church 
 to be " enriched by Jesus Christ in all utterance and 
 in all knowledge," so that it came behind in no gift.^ 
 And while he so seriously cautions the Ephesians, he 
 ceases not to give thanks for "their faith in the 
 Lord Jesus, and their love unto all the saints." ^ He 
 thanked God upon every remembrance of the Philip- 
 pians ; ^ and when he wrote to the Colossians, he 
 gave thanks for their faith in Christ Jesus, and their 
 love to all the saints.^ And how abundant his com- 
 mendations of the Thessalonians, whom he declares 
 to be " ensamples to all that believe in Macedonia 
 and Achaia." ^ 
 
 1 2 Thess. iii. 6. 2 j tjjj^ j jg^ gO ; vi. 3-5. 
 
 8 1 John ii. 18, 19. * 1 Cor. i. 5, 7. 
 
 6 Eph. i. 15, 16. 6 Phil. i. 3. 
 
 T Col. i. 3, 4. » 1 Thess. i. 3, 7. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 59 
 
 We come to this result as to the character of the 
 apostolic churches : that while the primitive con- 
 verts were remarkable, as a class, for the high tone 
 of their religious feelings, and the simplicity and 
 strength of their faith, they were deficient in a clear, 
 practical apprehension of the ethical code of the gos- 
 pel. Considering all things, this was not strange ; 
 and we should always remember this, when we con- 
 sider the character of modern mission churches. 
 
 9. Finally, I must make some estimate of the 
 amount of success, on the whole, which resulted 
 from the apostolic missions ; though the materials 
 for this are imperfect, owing to the brevity of the 
 sacred narrative. 
 
 The Jews had synagogues, the pagans had tem- 
 ples ; but there is no reason to suppose that church- 
 buildings were erected anywhere in connection with 
 the apostolic missions. The religious assemblies 
 were private. No separate and distinguished edi- 
 fice attracted attention ; and ecclesiastical history 
 affirms, that there were no Christian houses of wor- 
 ship erected before the third century.^ 
 
 There is no reason to suppose that the Apostle 
 Paul was privileged to see any one district, or even 
 any one city, so much as nominally Christianized. 
 Antioch was not for at least two centuries. The 
 people in Lesser Asia, both Jews and Greeks, are 
 said all to have heard the word of the Lord Jesus ; 
 1 Neander, vol. i. p. 291 ; Mosheim, vol. i. p. 134. 
 
GO FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 but though the worship of Diana is declared to have 
 suffered much decline in consequence, the mob at 
 Ephesus drove the apostle away at last, and showed 
 that paganism was still the ascendant power. 
 
 The most that can be said — and that is saying 
 very much — is that self-supporting, self-governing, 
 and self-propagating churches had been planted in 
 all the principal cities of the Roman Empire ; as far 
 West, certainly, as Rome, and as far East as Meso- 
 potamia ; each under the instruction and care of its 
 own presbyters. Fabricius has collected from the 
 New Testament the names of more than fifty places, 
 which must have had churches.^ Doubtless the 
 whole number was greater. Judea, Samaria, Syria, 
 Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece and its Islands, and 
 perhaps a portion of Western Italy, all had churches. 
 The great apostle planted them "from Jerusalem 
 round about unto Illyricum." 
 
 These churches were lights shining amid a gen- 
 eral and deep spiritual gloom. We may compare 
 the whole process to the lighting up of some great 
 metropolis. Night is not thereby converted into 
 day. A distant observer would not perceive that 
 any impression was made upon the darkness. Yet 
 the wayfarer in the street, or crossing a public 
 square, would find his path illuminated, and go on 
 his way rejoicing.^ For. each one of those churches, 
 
 1 Salutaris Imx Evangdii, etc., p. 83. 
 
 ^ This illustration first occurred to me at Calcutta, while looking out 
 
THE APOSTOLIC MISSIONS. 61 
 
 scattered over the empire, was a growing influence, 
 and growing the more rapidly for the frequent and 
 cruel persecutions, and was constantly extending its 
 illumination; until, through the divine blessing, 
 under the combined influence of the whole, the 
 Roman Empire bowed to the supremacy of the gos- 
 pel, and assumed the Christian name. 
 
 Such were the apostolic missions. Such were the 
 efforts made for propagating the gospel among the 
 heathen by missionaries under a special divine guid- 
 ance. It was by gathering converts into churches 
 at the centres of influence, and putting them under 
 native pastoral inspection and care. The means 
 employed were spiritual ; namely, the gospel of 
 Christ. The power relied upon for giving efficacy 
 to these means was divine; namely, the promised 
 aid of the Holy Spirit. The main success was among 
 the middle and lower classes of society; and the 
 responsibilities for self-government, self-support, and 
 self-propagation were thrown at once upon the sev- 
 eral churches. 
 
 Another chapter will show how far the apostolic 
 missions to the heathen reappear in the missions of 
 the present day. 
 
 one dark night upon the large, gas-lighted public square. I thought, 
 this dark yet illuminated space is India, and the lights are her mis- 
 sions. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 IRISH MISSIONS IN THE EARLY AGES. 
 
 Nestorian Missions. — Irish Missions. — The Present and Past of Ire- 
 land contrasted. — Hume's Statement. — D'Aubigne's. — McLanch- 
 lan's. — Ireland distinguished for its Learning, Piety, and Missions. 
 A Refuge for the Church. — Its Situation favorable. — Early His- 
 tory of Patrick. — A True Missionary. — Not connected with Rome. 
 His Mission to Ireland. — Followed by a Native Ministry. — Prev- 
 alence of Religion. — Monasteries and Schools. — Why not spoken 
 of as a " Culdee " Mission. — Columba's Mission. — Monastery 
 of lona. — Mission of Columbanus. — His Character. — Among 
 the Pagans o^Burgundy. — His Schools and Co-laborers, — Teach- 
 ings. — Banishment, and Subsequent History. — Callus, the Apostle 
 of Switzerland. — Missionaries from Ireland. — Extent and Nature 
 of their Labors. — Defects in their Missions. — lona. — Irish Mis- 
 sions connected with the Reformation of Luther. — Melancholy 
 Decline. — Reflections and Inferences. 
 
 The most remarkable of the missions in the ages 
 subsequent to the apostles, was doubtless that of the 
 Nestorians in Central and Eastern Asia, begun in 
 the fourth century, and extending onward — it 
 may be with prolonged interruptions — through the 
 greater part of a thousand years. But the missions 
 most interesting to us, are those which went forth 
 from Ireland to Continental Europe, in the sixth 
 and seventh centuries. So little were they known 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 63 
 
 to me when I began to investigate their history, 
 that I pursued the investigation with increasing 
 wonder and delight. 
 
 In a religious point of view, Ireland of the pres- 
 ent day is painfully contrasted with Ireland as it was 
 a thousand years ago. Yet one would scarcely think 
 so, on reading what Hume says of it, previous to its 
 conquest by Henry II. in the year 1172. 
 
 " The Irish," he says, " from the beginning of 
 time, had been buried in the most profound bar- 
 barism and ignorance ; and as they were never con- 
 quered, or even invaded by the Romans, from whom 
 all the Western world derived its civility, they con- 
 tinued still in the most rude state of society, and 
 were distinguished by those vices alone, to which 
 human nature, not tamed by education or restrained 
 by laws, is forever subject." ^ He adds, indeed, that 
 "the Irish had, by precedent missions from the 
 Britons, been imperfectly converted to Christianity ; 
 and, what the Pope regarded as the surest mark of 
 their imperfect conversion, they followed the doc- 
 trines of their first teachers, and had never acknowl- 
 edged any subjection to the See of Rome." 
 
 How remote the first of these extracts is from 
 historic truth, in respect to Ireland before its sub- 
 jection to the Pope of Rome, will appear as we pro- 
 ceed. 
 
 But Ireland has suffered more from the errors of 
 
 1 Hume's History of England, vol. i. p. 328. 
 
64 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 ecclesiastical historians, than from those of mere 
 secular writers. The excellent D'Aubigne, in his 
 history of the " Reformation in England," misled 
 by his authorities, has done much injustice to the 
 ancient Irish Christians ; and Irish authors very prop- 
 erly take exception to his statement concerning the 
 propagation of the gospel on the continent of Eu- 
 rope. " The missionary bishops of Britain" he 
 says, " traversed the low countries, Gaul, Switzer- 
 land, Germany, and even Italy Columbanus 
 
 (whom we must not confound with Coluraba), feeling 
 in his heart the burning of the fire which the Lord 
 had kindled upon earth, quitted Bangor in 590, with 
 twelve other missionaries, and carried the gospel to 
 
 the Burgundians, Franks, and Swiss Thus 
 
 was Britain faithful in planting the standard of 
 Christ in the heart of Europe." Again : " The 
 British Church, which, at the beginning of the 
 seventh century, carried faith and civilization into 
 Burgundy, the Vosges mountains, and Switzerland, 
 might well have spread them both over Britain." 
 Once more : " At that time there existed at Bangor, 
 in North Wales, a large Christian society, amount- 
 ing to nearly three thousand individuals, collected 
 together to work with their own hands, to study, 
 and to pray, and from whose bosoms numerous mis- 
 sionaries (Columbanus was among the number) had 
 from time to time gone forth." ^ 
 
 1 History of the Reformation, vol. v. pp. 29, 34. 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS Qb 
 
 It will be seen that the honor of one of the most 
 protracted, influential, and noble missions subse- 
 quent to the apostolic age, which belonged chiefly to 
 Ireland, is here given to Britain. 
 
 The Rev. Thomas McLauchlan, a recent historian 
 of the Church of Scotland, has fallen into a similar 
 error. He assumes (what to a certain extent is 
 true) that the ancient Scots, emigrating from Ire- 
 land, inhabited a part of Albania (the present Scot- 
 land), as well as Ireland. He also assumes, that the 
 monastery of lona was a Scottish institution ; and 
 calling the missions Scottish missions, and rarely, 
 if ever, Irish, he leaves an impression very like to 
 that of D'Aubigne. His unqualified use of the word 
 " Scottish " is somewhat remarkable ; and the Irish 
 biographer of Archbishop Usher charges the Scot- 
 tish writers with claiming, without hesitation, for 
 their country everything that is said of " Scotia," 
 utterly disregarding the teaching of all the ancient 
 historians.^ 
 
 I shall not find it difficult to show, that the his- 
 torians above mentioned all wrote under a misap- 
 prehension. 
 
 1 Usher's Works, vol. i. p. 144. It is due to Mr. McLauchlan to say, 
 that his error originated in no desire to gain authority for his own sys- 
 tem of church i^olity ; for he cordially acknowledges, that it would he 
 vain to look among the establishments in theeai-ly " Scottish Church/* 
 for anything like what is called a Presbyterian organization. Early 
 Scottish Church, pp. 171, 172. 
 5 
 
Q6 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 D'Aubigue quotes the following from the cele- 
 brated Al^uin, of the court of Charlemagne, in sup- 
 port of his first assertion : " Antiquo tempore doc- 
 tissimi solehant magistri de Hibernia Britanniam, 
 Galliam, Italiam venire, et multos per ecclesias 
 Christi fecisse profectus." Now the declaration 
 here is, that the most learned teachers in ancient 
 times were accustomed to come from Ireland to visit 
 the churches in Britain, Gaul, and Italy. Nor was 
 Columbanus from Bangor in Wales, as is asserted, 
 but ftom one of the most renowned of the Irish 
 monasteries, at Bangor in Ireland, founded by the 
 Abbot Comgall, early in the sixth century, and em- 
 bracing at one time a community numbering three 
 thousand.^ In a life of Columbanus, still extant in 
 the Latin language, written in the seventh century 
 by Jonas, his contemporary and countryman, his birth 
 is declared to have been in Hibernia. It is added 
 that Ireland was " then inhabited by the Scots, who, 
 though without the laws of other nations, yet in the 
 worthiness of the Christian faith exceeded the piety 
 of all other people." ^ The venerable Bede, writing 
 in the eighth century, calls Hibernia by the name of 
 Scotia, and the inhabitants he calls Scots. And 
 Archbishop Usher afiirms that no author, before the 
 eleventh century, has described Albania under the 
 name of Scotland, and that the name of Ireland 
 
 1 Neander's Memorials, p. 434. 
 
 2 Webb's Annotations on D'Aubigne, p. 41 . 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 67 
 
 until then was Scotia, and its inhabitants were 
 called Scots.^ The famous monastery of lona was 
 founded by a native of Ireland, and was claimed as 
 an Irish institution by the Synod of Ulster, as late 
 as the thirteenth century .^ Neander, speaking of 
 the fifth and sixth centuries, represents the wild 
 parts of Ireland as covered with monasteries, that 
 were distinguished for Christian discipline, industry, 
 knowledge of the Scriptures, and such general 
 knowledge as could be obtained from Britain and 
 France.^ Henry, Bishop of Auxerre, writing to 
 Charles the Bald, about the middle of the ninth 
 century, informs him that Ireland, notwithstanding 
 the dangers of the sea, was sending crowds of phi- 
 losophers to their shores. Under the successors of 
 Charlemagne, Hibernians were extensively engaged 
 in the work of education throughout the empire, and 
 were the chief Biblical translators and commenta- 
 tors of Europe. Mosheim, writing concerning the 
 ninth century, says of the Irish, that they " were 
 lovers of learning; " and " distinguished themselves 
 in those times of ignorance by the culture of the 
 sciences beyond all other European nations." He 
 adds, that "so early as the eighth century, they 
 illustrated the doctrines of religion by the princi- 
 ples of philosophy," and " were the first teachers of 
 
 1 Usher's Works, vol. i. p. 144. 
 
 2 Webb's Annotations, p. 35. 
 
 8 Neauder's Memorials, p. 434. 
 
68 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 the scholastic theology in Europe." ^ Neander, speak- 
 ing of the theological teaching in the ninth century, 
 declares the Irish monasteries to have been "the 
 seat of science and art, whence, and for a long time 
 afterwards, teachers in the sciences and useful arts 
 scattered themselves in all directions." He says, 
 moreover, that there issued from the Irish Church 
 " a more original and free development of theology, 
 than was elsewhere to be found, and was thence 
 propagated to other lands." '^ 
 
 These testimonies are applicable to Ireland for the 
 space of about four centuries, from the fifth to the 
 ninth, and present us with a very interesting view of 
 the Irish people. Ireland then served, under Divine 
 Providence, as a convenient refuge for the church, in 
 a very disordered and dangerous period of the nom- 
 inally Christian world; being the remotest of the 
 European islands, secured by distance, and by hav- 
 ing England and Scotland as a rampart, from the de- 
 structive inroads of Goths and Huns, and, for a long 
 time, from those also of the sea-roving Northmen. 
 For many ages it was a sanctuary for Scriptural in- 
 struction and scholarship, in the intellectual night 
 that followed the downfall of the Roman Empire. It 
 was also the source of gospel missions, which sowed 
 the seeds of the great Keformation in Germany, Eng- 
 
 1 Webb's Annotations, pp. 40, 141, 142, 148 
 
 2 Quoted by Webb, p. 143. 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 69 
 
 laud, and Scotland, that came as a blessing to the 
 world, eight or nine centuries afterwards. 
 
 The gospel was planted in Ireland by a single 
 missionary, self-moved — or rather divinely moved 
 — and self-supported. His historic name was Patrick, 
 and the Roman Catholics (claiming him, without 
 reason, as their own) call him St. Patrick. He was 
 born about the year 410, and most probably in some 
 part of Scotland. His parents were Christians, and 
 instructed him in the gospel. Patrick's first visit 
 to the field of his future mission was in his youth, as 
 a captive of pirates, who carried him away, with 
 many others, as a prisoner. Patrick was sold to a 
 chieftain, who placed him in charge of his cattle. 
 His own statement is, that his heart was turned to 
 the Lord during the hardships of his captivity. " I 
 prayed many times a day," he says. " The fear of 
 God and love to him were increasingly kindled in 
 me. Faith grew in me, so that in one day I offered 
 a hundred prayers, and at night almost as many ; 
 and when I passed the night in the woods, or on 
 the mountains, I rose up to pray in the snow, ice, 
 and rain, before daybreak. Yet I felt no pain.' 
 There was no sluggishness in me, such as I now find 
 in myself, for then the spirit glowed within me." 
 This is extracted from what is called the "Con- 
 fession " of Patrick, written in his old age. 
 
 Some years later, he was again taken by the 
 
70 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 pirates, but soou regained his liberty, and returned 
 home. His parents urged him to remain with them ; 
 but he felt an irresistible call to carry the gospel to 
 those among whom he had passed his youth as a 
 bondman. " Many opposed my going," he says in 
 his " Confession," " and said, behind my back, ' Why 
 does this man rush into danger among the heathen, 
 who do not know the Lord ? ' It was not badly in- 
 tended on their part; but they could not compre- 
 hend the matter on account of my uncouth disposi- 
 tion ! Many gifts were offered me with tears, if I 
 would remain. But, according to God's guidance, I 
 did not yield to them; not by my own power, it 
 was God who conquered in me, and I withstood them 
 all ; so that I went to the people of Ireland to pub- 
 lish the gospel to them, and suffered many insults 
 from unbelievers, and many persecutions, even unto 
 bonds, resigning my liberty for the good of others. 
 And if I am found worthy, I am ready to give up my 
 life with joy for His name's sake." ^ 
 
 In such a spirit did this apostle to Ireland com- 
 mence his mission, about the year 440 ; not far from 
 the time when Britain was finally evacuated by the 
 Romans. 
 
 A papal legend makes Patrick to have visited 
 Rome, and to have received his appointment as a 
 missionary from Pope Celestine. This, though ap- 
 parently credited by Mosheim, is rejected by Neander 
 
 1 Neander's Memorials^ pp. 426-428. 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 71 
 
 as incredible. The oldest of what profess to be the 
 Lives of Patrick, is believed to have been written at 
 least four hundred years after his time. The one by 
 Joceline, in his " Acta Sanctorum " (Lives of the 
 Saints), dates as late as the twelfth century, and 
 all are regarded as very doubtful authority. What 
 is commonly known as his " Confession " (already 
 quoted) is almost universally received as authentic. 
 It was written in his old age. The " Epistola ad 
 Coroticum," and the hymn known as his " Lorica," 
 are regarded as his. Of high authority, as claiming 
 to be contemporary with him, or nearly so, is the 
 '' Hymn of Sechnal " or " Secundinus," and a bio- 
 graphic poem in his praise, called the " Hymn of 
 Fiace," composed not more than eighty years after 
 his death. ^ 
 
 Patrick being acquainted with the language and 
 customs of the Irish people, as a consequence of his 
 early captivity, gathered them about him in large 
 assemblies at the beat of a kettle-drum, and told the 
 story of Christ so as to move their hearts. Having 
 taught them to read, he encouraged the importation 
 of useful books from England and France. He 
 established cloisters after the fashion of the times, 
 which were really missionary schools, for educating 
 the people in the knowledge of the gospel, and for 
 training a native ministry and missionaries ; and he 
 claims to have baptized many thousands of the peo- 
 (Ple. 
 
 I London Quarterly Review, April, 1866, p. 252. 
 
72 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 It is perhaps needful to a just appreciation of the 
 case, that I quote the discriminating remarks of Dr. 
 Todd, one of his ablest Protestant biographers. 
 After stating that Patrick always addressed him- 
 self, in the first instance, to the kings or chieftains, 
 Dr. Todd says : " The people may not have adopted 
 the outward profession of Christianity, which was all 
 that, perhaps, in the first instance they adopted, 
 from any clear or intellectual appreciation of its 
 superiority to their former religion; but to obtain 
 from the people even an outward profession of Chris- 
 tianity was an important step to ultimate success. 
 It secured toleration, at least, for Christian insti- 
 tutions. It enabled Patrick to plant in every tribe 
 his churches, schools, and monasteries. He was 
 permitted, without opposition, to establish, among 
 the half pagan inhabitants of the country, societies 
 of holy men, whose devotion, usefulness, and piety 
 soon produced an effect upon the most barbarous and 
 savage hearts. 
 
 '' This was the secret of the rapid success attrib- 
 uted to St. Patrick's preaching in Ireland. The 
 chieftains were at first the real converts. The bap- 
 tism of the chieftains was immediately followed by 
 the adhesion of the clan. The clansmen pressed 
 eagerly around the missionary, who had baptized 
 the chief, anxious to receive that mysterious initia- 
 tion into the new faith, to which their chieftain and 
 father had submitted. The requirements preparatory 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 73 
 
 to baptism do not seem to have been very rigorous ; 
 and it is, therefore, by no means improbable that in 
 Tirawley, and other remote districts, where the spirit 
 of clanship was strong, Patrick, as he tells us him- 
 self he did, may have baptized some thousands of 
 men." 
 
 I cannot forbear also quoting a summary view of 
 the life and labors of the Irish apostle. 
 
 "On the whole, the biographers of St. Patrick, 
 notwithstanding the admixture of much fable, have 
 undoubtedly portrayed in his character the features 
 of a great and judicious missionary. He seems to 
 have made himself ' all things,' in accordance with 
 the apostolic injunction, to the rude and barbarous 
 tribes of Ireland. He dealt tenderly with their 
 usages and prejudices. Although he sometimes felt 
 it necessary to overturn their idols, and on some 
 occasions risked his life, he was guilty of no offen- 
 sive or unnecessary iconoclasm. A native himself of 
 another country, he adopted the language of the 
 Irish tribes, and conformed to their political institu- 
 tions. By his judicious management, the Chris- 
 tianity which he founded became self-supporting. It 
 was endowed by the chieftains without any foreign 
 aid. It was supplied with prelates [ecclesiastics?] 
 by the people themselves ; and its fruits were soon 
 seen in that wonderful stream of zealous mission- 
 aries, the glory of the Irish Church, who went forth 
 
74 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 in the sixth and seventh centuries to evangelize the 
 barbarians of Central Europe." ^ 
 
 When this zealous missionary died, about the 
 year 493, his disciples, who seem all to have been 
 natives of Ireland, — a native ministry, — continued 
 his work in the same spirit. The monasteries be- 
 came at length so numerous and famous, that Ire- 
 land was called Insula Sanctorum, the " Island of 
 Saints." 2 
 
 It gives a wrong idea of these institutions to call 
 them monasteries, or to call their inmates monks. 
 " They were schools of learning and abodes of piety, 
 uniting the instruction of the college, the labors of 
 the workshop, the charities of the hospital, and the 
 worship of the church. They originated partly in a 
 mistaken view of the Christian life, and partly out 
 of the necessity of the case, which drove Christians 
 to live together for mutual protection. The mission- 
 ary spirit, and consequent religious activity, pre- 
 vailing in the Irish monasteries, preserved them for 
 a long time from the asceticism and mysticism inci- 
 dental to the monastic life, and made them a source 
 of blessing to the world." ^ The celibacy of the 
 clergy was not enjoined in those times.^ Married 
 men were connected with the cloisters, living, how- 
 
 1 Life of St. Patrick, pp. 499, 514. 
 
 ^ Neander's Church History, vol. iii. p. 103 ; and Memorial, p. 434. 
 
 3 Walsh's Christian Missions, p. 74. 
 
 * Usher's Works, vol. i. p. 137 ; vol. iv. p. 294. 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. . 75 
 
 ever, in single houses. The Scriptures were read, 
 and ancient hooks were collected and studied. 
 
 The missions which went forth from these institu- 
 tions, as also those from England and Wales, are 
 frequently called " Culdee " missions ; hut as that 
 term is of uncertain import, and appears to add 
 nothing to the significance of the history, hut rather 
 the contrary, it is not here used. 
 
 Neither have I deemed it necessary to discuss the 
 ecclesiastical position and relations of Patrick and 
 his three hundred and fifty Irish associates. Epis- 
 copal writers call them all bishops ; hut are naturally 
 perplexed by their great number. In my apprehen- 
 sion, they have their counterpart in the foreign 
 missionaries of modern times and their native cleri- 
 cal associates, — more especially the latter; the 
 one class (including Patrick himself) being neither 
 more nor less bishops than the other. In this 
 manner, we are not incommoded with the difficulty 
 of accounting for the acknowledged fact, of the very 
 slight reference made to Patrick by the Irish mis- 
 sionaries of subsequent ages ; and I find no reason 
 in that fact for assuming, as some have done, that 
 those missionaries were connected with the British 
 and not with the Irish churches. 
 
 The names of Columba and Columbanus are famil- 
 iar to the readers of ecclesiastical history. Both 
 were Irish missionaries, and both were from the in- 
 stitution at Bangor, in Ireland. 
 
76 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Columba's mission was to the Picts of Scotland, 
 and was entered upon at the age of forty-two, in the 
 year 563. This was thirteen hundred years ago, and 
 about seventy years after the time of Patrick. He 
 was accompanied by twelve associates, and was the 
 founder of the celebrated monastery on lona, an' 
 island situated on the north of Scotland, now reck- 
 oned one of the Hebrides. This school of the proph- 
 ets, which has had an enduring fame, became one of 
 the chief lights of that age. Continuing thirty -five 
 years under Columba's management, it attained a 
 high reputation for Biblical studies, and other sci- 
 ences ; and missionaries went from it to the north- 
 ern and southern Picts of Scotland, and into Eng- 
 land, along the eastern coast to the Thames, and to 
 the European continent.^ 
 
 Columbanus entered on his mission to the par- 
 tially Christianized, but more especially to the pagan 
 portions of Europe, in the year 589. That he was 
 an evangelical missionary may be confidently in- 
 ferred from the tenor of his life, and from the 
 records of his Christian experience. 
 
 He thus writes : " Lord, give me, I beseech 
 thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, thy Son, my God, 
 that love which can never cease, that will kindle my 
 lamp but not extinguish it, that it may burn in me 
 
 1 Neander's Church History, vol. iii. p. 10 ; McLauchlan's History 
 of the Church of Scotland, pp. 225, 226. 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 77 
 
 and enlighten others. Do thou, Christ, our dear- 
 est Saviour, thyself kindle our lamps, that they may 
 evermore shine in thy temple ; that they may receive 
 unquenchable light from thee, that will enlighten 
 our darkness, and lessen the darkness of the world. 
 My Jesus, 1 pray thee, give thy light to my lamp, 
 that in its light the most holy place may be revealed 
 to me in which thou dwellest as the eternal Priest, 
 that I may always behold thee, desire thee, look 
 upon thee in love, and long after thee." ^ 
 
 Columbanus went first to France, taking with him 
 twelve young men, as Columba had done, to be his 
 co-laborers; men who had been trained under his 
 especial guidance. Here, as a consequence of con- 
 tinual wars, political disturbances, and the remiss- 
 ness of worldly-minded ecclesiastics, the greatest con- 
 fusion and irregularity prevailed, and there was great 
 degeneracy in the monastic orders. Columbanus 
 preferred casting his lot among the pagans of Bur- 
 gundy, and chose for his settlement the ruins of an 
 ancient castle in the midst of an immense wilder- 
 ness, at the foot of the Vosges mountains.^ There 
 they often suffered hunger, until the wilderness had 
 been in some measure subdued, and the earth 
 brought under cultivation. The mission then be- 
 came self-supporting, but we are not informed by 
 what means the previous expenses were defrayed. 
 Preaching was a part of their duty, though there 
 
 1 Neander's Memorials. ^ Neander's Memorials, p. 35. 
 
78 FORKIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 is less said of this, than of their efforts to impart 
 the benefits of a Christian education to the children 
 of the higher classes. The surrounding poor were 
 taught gratuitously. All the pupils joined in tilling 
 the fields, and such was their success in education, 
 that the Frank ish nobles were forward to place their 
 sons under their care. It was the most famous 
 school in Burgundy, and there was not room in the 
 abbey for all who pressed to gain admittance ; so 
 that it became necessary to erect other buildings, 
 and to bring a large number of teachers over from 
 Ireland to meet the demand. 
 
 Here the eminent missionary pursued his labors 
 for a score of years. As he represents himself to 
 have buried as many as seventeen of his associates 
 during twelve years, the number of his co-laborers 
 must have been large. The discipline which Colum- 
 banus imposed on the monastic life was severe, but 
 perhaps scarcely more so than was required by the 
 rude spirit of the age ; and he took pains to avoid 
 the error so prevalent in the Romish Church, of 
 making the essence of piety to consist in externals. 
 The drift of his teaching was, that everyttiing de- 
 pended on the state of the heart. Both by precept 
 and example he sought to combine the contempla- 
 tive with the useful. At the same time he adhered, 
 with a free and independent spirit, to the peculiar 
 religious usages of his native land. As these differed 
 in some important respects from what were then 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 79 
 
 prevalent among the degenerate Frankish clergy, he 
 had many enemies among them who sought to drive 
 him from the country. This they at length effected, 
 with the aid of the wicked mother of the reigning 
 prince. Columhanus was ordered to return to Ire- 
 land, and to take his countrymen with him. This 
 he did not do, but repaired first to Germany, and 
 then to Switzerland. He spent a year near the 
 eastern extremity of the Lake Constance, laboring 
 among the Suevi, a heathen people in that neighbor- 
 hood. This territory coming at length under the 
 dominion of his enemies, he crossed the Alps, in the 
 year 612, into Lombardy, and founded a monastery 
 near Pavia ; and there this apostle to Franks, Swa- 
 bians, Bavarians, and other nations of Germany, 
 passed the remainder of his days, and breathed out 
 his life on the twenty-first of November, 615, aged 
 seventy- two years. ^ 
 
 Gallus, a favorite pupil and follower of Columha- 
 nus, remained behind in consequence of illness, and 
 became the apostle of Switzerland. He also was an 
 Irishman, and was characterized, as was his master, 
 by love for the sacred volume. In what was then a 
 wilderness he founded a monastery, " which led to 
 the clearing up of the forest, and the conversion of 
 the land into cultivable soil, and it afterwards be- 
 came celebrated under his name, St. Gall." Here 
 he labored for the Swiss and Swabian population till 
 
 1 Webb's Annotations, p. 71. 
 
80 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 his death, in the year 640.^ This monastery was 
 preeminent for the nnmber and beauty of the man- 
 uscripts prepared by its monks ; many of which, and 
 among others, some fragments of a translation of 
 the Scriptures into the Alemanni language, about 
 the year 700, are said to be preserved in the libra- 
 ries of Germany. 
 
 There is no special advantage in going further 
 into the details of these missions. Neander is of 
 the opinion, that the number of missionaries who 
 passed over from Ireland to the continent of Europe 
 must have been great ; though of very few is there 
 any exact information. Wherever they went, clois- 
 ters were founded, and the wilderness soon gave 
 place to cultivated %elds. According to Ebrard, 
 there were more than forty cloisters in the vicinity 
 of the Loire and Rhone, which were governed ac- 
 cording to the rules of Columbanus, and to which 
 emigrants came from Ireland as late as the close of 
 the seventh century. He also affirms, that Germany 
 was almost wholly heathen when that missionary 
 entered it. But before the year 720, the gospel had 
 been proclaimed by himself and his countrymen, 
 from the mountains of Switzerland down to the 
 islands in the delta of the Rhine, and eastward from 
 that river to the river Inn, and the Bohemian forest, 
 and the borders of Saxony, and still farther on the 
 
 1 Neander's History, vol. iii. p. 36. 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 81 
 
 sea-coast ; and all the really German tribes within 
 those borders were in subjection to the Christian 
 faith as it had been taught by the Irish missiona- 
 ries.^ 
 
 It was in 723 that the English Winfred, better 
 known as Boniface, began his well-intentioned and 
 successful labors to reduce the Germanic Irish 
 Church to the Roman rule. But into that part of 
 the history — the subjection of the German Church 
 to the Romish See — I cannot now enter, as it does 
 not come within my proper range. 
 
 Ebrard's earnest testimony to the evangelical 
 nature of the Irish missions, should not be over- 
 looked. He declares, that they read the Scriptures 
 in the original text ; translated them wherever they 
 went; expounded them to the congregations; rec- 
 ommended the regular and diligent perusal of 
 them; and held them to be the living word of 
 Christ. The Scriptures were their only rule of faith. 
 They preached the inherited depravity of man ; the 
 atoning death of Christ; justification without the 
 merit of works ; regeneration as the life in Him who 
 died for us ; and the sacraments as signs and seals 
 of grace in Christ. They held to no transubstantia- 
 tion ; no purgatory ; no prayers to saints ; and their 
 worship was in the native language. But though 
 they used neither pictures nor images, they seem 
 to have been attached to the use of the simple cross; 
 
 1 Ebrard's Manual, vol. i. pp. 409, 410, 415, 416. 
 
82 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 and Gallus, the distinguished companion of Colum- 
 ban us, is said, when marking out a place on which 
 to erect a monastery, to have done it by means of a 
 cross, from which he had suspended a capsule of 
 relics.^ Complete exemption from superstition, was 
 perhaps among the impossibilities of that age. 
 
 The statement of evangelical truths in the ancient 
 Irish Church, may be enlarged. The life of Colum- 
 banus, by his friend and successor Jonas, somehow 
 escaped destruction under the papal interdict, and is 
 our fullest record of individual Irish missionaries. 
 We have also a statement of the doctrinal views of 
 two distinguished missionaries from Ireland, in the 
 eighth century, named Clement and Yirgilius ; and 
 of another, still more distinguished, named Claude, 
 in the ninth century, two hundred years after Col- 
 umbanus. From these and other sources it is in- 
 ferred, that the early Irish Church did not inculcate 
 adoration of relics and images ; nor pilgrimages ; 
 nor auricular confessions, penances, or absolution ; 
 nor masses ; nor works of supererogation ; nor ado- 
 ration of the Virgin Mary ; nor baptismal regenera- 
 tion. And Mosheim declares the Irish divines to 
 have been the only ones in the ninth century, who 
 refused to submit implicitly to the dictates of 
 authority. 
 
 Yet there were defects in the Irish missions, grow- 
 
 1 Ebrard's Manual, vol. i. p. 396 ; Neander's History, vol. iii. p. 36. 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 8B 
 
 ing" out of the times, and such as were uot easily 
 avoided. 
 
 1. They did not fully recover the apostolic idea, 
 which had heen lost, of the local, self-governed 
 church. Their churches, so to speak, were monas- 
 teries or colleges, held together hy the authority of 
 priest or abhofc. Hence the perpetual pupilage of 
 their missionary communities, and the consequent 
 protracted need in those communities of foreign cul- 
 ture and aid. In our own sense of the term, they 
 'appear to have had no local, self-governed churches. 
 
 Nor was religious freedom of thought and action a 
 current idea in those ages, even in the Irish clois- 
 ters.i Then the Irish missions were too protracted. 
 Irish missionaries continued to be needed, and to 
 follow each other into Germany for successive ages. 
 And so it must be in missions where the church of 
 the Apostle Paul is not a primary element in the 
 working of the mission. 
 
 2. The leading instrumentality employed by the 
 Irish missionaries, appears to have been education. 
 Light and influence were thus diffused, and the edu- 
 cation was an essential thing. But though the 
 Scriptures appear to have been freely used by the 
 missionaries, so far as was possible in an age of 
 costly manuscripts, and though there was preaching, 
 and often no doubt much of it, yet schools would 
 seem to have been the predominant agency. These 
 
 1 Neander's Memorials of Christian Life, p. 438. 
 
84 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 were so in the monastery ; and while they may have 
 heen essential to the life of such institutions as grew 
 out of the Irish missions, they had not, in them- 
 selves, the renovating, life-giving power essential to 
 the creation and preservation of the organized, self- 
 propagating church. And the predominance of 
 school instruction over preaching, if such were the 
 fact, was an error. 
 
 3. Another defect in these missions was their 
 want of intimate connection with the churches at 
 home. The missionaries appear not to have heen- 
 sent forth by home churches acting in any capacity, 
 not even by the cloisters, nor to have derived their 
 support from their native land.^ We do not know 
 how they met the expense of travelling into what 
 must have been to them remote regions. But when 
 once they were there, they became associated in 
 schools, or cloisters, and were soon self-supported. 
 And having abundant occupation, and no strong 
 motive for keeping their work before the attention 
 of Christians at home, and there being few facilities 
 for correspondence, the missionaries must have been 
 soon in great measure forgotten. Hence Ireland 
 lost an invaluable reaction from its missions ; and 
 hence, probably, one cause, along with the destruc- 
 
 1 McLauchlan believes there were contributions made in Ireland for 
 the continental missions nnder direction from lona. But these were 
 probably for those missionaries only who went from lona, and it is also 
 probable, that the contributions were made only in Ulster. 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 85 
 
 tive invasions of the Northmen in the ninth and 
 tenth centuries, of the apparent decline of vital 
 Christianity in that island before the more general 
 desolation of the Norman and Papal invasion. 
 
 The missionary' institution at lona, which dates 
 from the sixth century, held out against Romish 
 aggression until the eighth; and Ireland, though 
 sadly ravaged by the roving Danes in the ninth cen- 
 tury, maintained its religious independence three or 
 four hundred years longer, until conquered by Henry 
 the Norman. In that conquest, which was avowedly 
 made in the interest of the Pope, and for a long 
 time afterwards, an exterminating war is said to 
 have been waged against such of the old manu- 
 scripts of the Irish Church as had escaped the 
 ravages of the Danes ; and also against the schools, 
 which, for several hundred years, had supplied Eu- 
 rope with her brightest examples of Christian life, 
 and her most efficient literary teachers.^ 
 
 But the ^eed which had been sowed over Central 
 Europe, though long buried, sprang up in the Ref- 
 ormation of the sixteenth century. And it is a fact 
 of some interest that Luther, the great leader of the 
 Reformation, came from the convent of Erfuth, one 
 of those founded many ages before by the Irish mis- 
 sionaries, and said to have been the very last of their 
 
 1 Webb's Annotations, p. 177. 
 
86 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 German convents which survived.^ He was a monk 
 of the order of St. Augustine, and it may be said that 
 the two streams of theological influence, having 
 their rise a thousand years before — the one from 
 Augustine, in Northern Africa, the other from Pat- 
 rick, in Ireland — were here united, to flow on to- 
 gether for ages we know not how many. 
 
 It is a question deserving of more consideration 
 than I have the means of giving, how the early and 
 truly Protestant Christian and missionary spirit of 
 the Irish people came to so melancholy an end. The 
 invasions of the Danes must have exerted a disas- 
 trous influence, both upon the learning and the re- 
 ligion of the island. A Roman Catholic historian 
 asserts, that these sea-rovers destroyed the Irish 
 monastery at Bangor, in the year 821, and massacred 
 nine hundred of its inmates.^ The middle of the 
 ninth century was specially distinguished for these 
 inroads, but they extended into the tenth. The 
 Irish Church retained its independence longer than 
 the Church of England, and its missiona-ry light in 
 consequence burned longer and brighter. But this 
 spirit gradually declined, until her sons, while they 
 continued to travel in numbers through foreign 
 countries, went rather as teachers of the Prankish 
 clergy, than as preachers.^ 
 
 1 Walsh's Christian Missions, p. 82. 
 
 2 Brenan's Eccl Hist, of Ireland, Dublin, 1864, p. 158. 
 8 Walsh's Christian Missions, p. 82. 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 87 
 
 The bull of Pope Adrian IV., in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, authorizing Henry 11. to invade Ireland, for 
 the purpose, as he said, of " extending the bound- 
 aries of the church," shows that, up to that time, 
 Rome had no control of the island. The frightful 
 carnage and desolation occasioned by these Norman 
 invaders, and the subsequent stout opposition of the 
 Irish clergy and the people to the papal decrees, are 
 admitted by papal historians.^ But the unremitted 
 efforts of the Romish Church to subvert the eccle- 
 siastical constitution of Ireland, were at length suc- 
 cessful ; and the Reformation of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, the seeds whereof had long before been planted 
 by Irish missionaries, seems not to have exerted 
 much influence in Ireland. It was repelled by the 
 native Irish, out of their intense hatred of England 5 
 and Richard Baxter, a contemporary witness, says, 
 that Papists, in the days of Charles I., rising at 
 once all over the island, massacred two hundred thou- 
 sand Protestants within the space of a few weeks. ^ 
 The Irish Jesuit, O'Mahoney, confessed, in 1645, 
 that his party had cut off one hundred and fifty 
 thousand heretics in the space of four years.^ 
 The retribution by Cromwell, eight years after the 
 massacre, was terrible. Forty thousand Irish sol- 
 diers were transported to Spain, France, and Poland, 
 
 1 Brenan's Ecd. Hist, of Ireland, pp. 232, 237, 238. 
 
 2 Jesuit Juggling; or, Forty Popish Frauds Detect^ and Disclosed^ 
 New York, 1835. 
 
 8 Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1845, p. 264. 
 
88 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 where they were drafted into the armies of those 
 kingdoms ; and the " Irish nation " was compelled 
 to vacate ten of the most fertile counties, and crowd 
 itself into the counties of Connaught and Clare. 
 The whole island, excepting those counties — and 
 also a part of Ulster, which was already occupied hy 
 Scotch settlers — was assigned to the English army 
 and to English colonists. The Scotchmen of Ulster 
 brought with them families, and obtained godly min- 
 isters from Scotland, who remained through the pre- 
 latic persecutions of after times, and the good results 
 are still seen. The Cromwell soldiers, on the other 
 hand, felt obliged to intermarry with the natives, 
 and were thus absorbed, in a few generations, into 
 the mass of the unenterprising, unimproving Roman 
 Catholic population. It should be added, that most 
 of the one hundred and thirty Independent and 
 Baptist ministers, who had been sent to look after 
 the spiritual interests of this class of settlers, re- 
 turned to England when their salaries were with- 
 drawn at the Restoration, having no means of support, 
 leaving their people without provision for their spir- 
 itual wants. The Episcopal establishment, which 
 took the place of these, though it was and is richly 
 endowed, seems never to have exerted a decided re- 
 ligious influence ; ^ and its disestablishment is now 
 one of the exciting questions in the British Parlia- 
 ment and nation. 
 
 1 See Edinburgh Review, for Oct. 1865, p. 270 ; North British He- 
 view, Dec. 1866. 
 
EARLY IRISH MISSIONS. 89 
 
 In a review of the Irish missions in the early 
 ages of the Christian Church, I have heen not a 
 little interested in the reflections and inferences 
 with which I close this statement. 
 
 It surely is wonderful, that the Irish missions 
 continued in operation so long. For, unlike papal 
 missions, they had no strong central government to 
 urge them forward, and to lean upon. Indeed the 
 Irish missions had nothing of the kind. Just think 
 of missions, with such defective agencies, and moved 
 only by the voluntary principle, being prosecuted 
 continuously for successive centuries ! There must 
 have been a good degree of Christian principle back 
 of all this. And whether we regard the missionary 
 spirit as the normal condition of piety in the true 
 church of God or not, we must admit that the mis- 
 sionary work, when once fairly entered upon by a 
 large body of true Christians, is not likely to be of 
 transient duration ; and especially that it will not 
 be so in our day. This seems to be a legitimate 
 inference from the wonderfully protracted missions 
 now under consideration, and it may well encourage 
 us. Surely if the Irish missions of those early ages 
 had so much of life and duration, we may expect the 
 missions of our times, with their purer theology, 
 their freer spirit, their great extent, and their 
 numerous other advantages both in the church and 
 the world, will have an enduring existence. If the 
 Protestant nations which send them forth do not re- 
 
90 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 lapse into a worldly formalism — and the missionary 
 enterprises of our times are a great defense against 
 such a result — the Protestant missions may be ex- 
 pected to grow and extend until their great work is 
 accomplished. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HISTOEICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MISSIONS. 
 
 Importance of the Subject. — No DiiFerence of Opinion as to the Object 
 
 of Missions Diversity as to Modes of Operating. — Number to be 
 
 Evangelized. — Not a Hopeless Work. — How to be accomplished. 
 Method proposed by Gordon Hall. — Why not rely on such Cal- 
 culations. — Great Providential Results usually exceed our Cal- 
 culations. — Analogy between Apostolic and Modern Missions. 
 Missions a Work of Faith. — Use of Agriculture and the Arts. 
 Of the Language, Literature, Science, and Manners of Western 
 Civilization. — St. Paul's Dealing with Churches. — Why Native 
 Churches should engage in Foreign Missions. — Result of Experi- 
 ence. 
 
 I PROPOSE, in this chapter and the next, to give a 
 practical illustration of the nature of modern mis- 
 sions. The subject is vitally important, and I would 
 present it so as at the same time to interest the 
 attention of the reader, and to satisfy his judgment. 
 I shall be expected to develop the missionary work 
 in connection with its principles, and shall treat 
 the case historically, so far as may be, giving the 
 facts needful for the forming of opinions. 
 
 I know of no diversity, in the views of different 
 portions of the Evangelical Church, as to the proper 
 objects of missions; for there is no mistaking the 
 command, on which the enterprise is founded, which 
 
9*2 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 is SO to make known the gospel to perishing men as 
 to induce them to repent and believe on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. So far as there has been diversity of 
 opinion, it has been in respect to the most effectual 
 methods of bringing the gospel to bear on the hearts 
 and lives of the unevangelized, in their different con- 
 ditions and countries. Here there has been con- 
 siderable difference of opinion, and of practice, in 
 the different missionary societies, and in the same 
 missionary society at different stages of its progress. 
 
 We have already seen how more than six hundred 
 millions of heathen were made accessible to the gos- 
 pel, who were not accessible to it forty years ago ; 
 and how the Evangelical Church is beginning to 
 rouse itself to the work of sending the gospel to 
 them. I must add two hundred millions to the six 
 hundred, for parts of the unevangelized world not 
 distinctly embraced in that survey, and we have at 
 least eight hundred millions to be somehow evan- 
 gelized. 
 
 A work of such magnitude would be appalling, 
 v^rere it not expressly enjoined upon us by divine 
 command, with the promise of all needed dfvine aid ; 
 and were it not brought before the church by almost 
 miraculous interventions of Providence, and with 
 the facilities for doing it multiplied a hundred fold. 
 
 There must be a possible way of accomplishing 
 the work, vast as it is ; and the question now before 
 us is, What is that way ? 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MISSIONS. 93 
 
 Gordon Hall, one of. the first and ablest of the 
 American missionaries, writing fifty years ago in the 
 celebrated tract entitled " Claims of Six Hundred Mil- 
 lions," held that the work was to be done by sending 
 one missionary for every twenty thousand souls. He 
 says : " One missionary for every twenty thousand 
 souls may be considered a tolerable supply, because 
 that wherever the gospel is preached, and its power 
 experienced, native preachers will be raised up on the 
 spot, to aid missionaries, and ultimately to take the 
 work off their hands." With one missionary to every 
 twenty thousand souls, and as many as nine native 
 preachers to every missionary, he says, the heathen 
 world would have as great a proportion of Christian 
 teachers as the United States was supposed then 
 to have. He also shows the possibility of bringing 
 all these missionaries on the ground in twenty-one 
 years. 
 
 But I have ceased to place much reliance on such 
 calculations. Great results depending on the prov- 
 idence and grace of God, come about much easier 
 and more rapidly than our previous calculations 
 would lead us to expect. Was it not marvelously so 
 with the liberation of our four millions of slaves ? 
 It will doubtless be so with the conversion of the 
 world. Let one reflect how soon the old Roman 
 Empire was compelled to receive the Christian name, 
 notwithstanding the whole force of that mighty em- 
 pire was in determined resistance, and he will see 
 
94 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 how little human calculations have to do with such 
 matters. The very wonderful opening of the un- 
 evangelized world to the gospel, and the preparation 
 in Christendom for sending it . forth, as already- 
 described, lead to the same conclusion. I therefore 
 go into no general calculations as to the time, or the 
 number of missionaries, necessary for the whole 
 work. My belief is, that " the Lord will hasten it 
 in his time." ^ 
 
 There is a striking analogy, in one respect, between 
 the apostolic missions and those of modern times. 
 The apostles, as a body, were a considerable time in 
 coming to the conclusion, that Gentile Christian 
 churches ought not to be subjected to the Jewish 
 ritual ; that is to say, they were so long in securing 
 an acknowledged purely spiritual basis for their 
 foreign missions. We, also, have had substantially 
 the same difficulty in respect to the purely spiritual 
 nature of the missionary work itself, and we have 
 been longer in surmounting that difficulty, if we 
 have even yet fully surmounted it. The main cause 
 of our difficulty, however, is not one that affected the 
 apostolic missions. It has been the higher civiliza- 
 tion of the Christian Church, as compared with that 
 of modern heathen nations. This has tended to con- 
 fuse our conceptions of the religion we were to prop- 
 agate. Our idea of the Christian religion from our 
 childhood has been identified with education, social 
 
 1 Isa. Ix. 22. 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MISSIONS. 95 
 
 order, and a certain correctness of morals and man- 
 ners ; in other words, with civilization. It is even 
 true of us all, that the civilization of centuries forms 
 a part of the hourly manifestations of our piety ; and 
 we seldom reflect how our personal religion would 
 appear to casual observers, were we divested of a 
 culture which we share in common with the world 
 around us. 
 
 This composite idea of the gospel (if I may so 
 describe it), this foreign intermixture, has placed 
 the missionaries of our day under a disadvantage, as 
 compared with missionaries in the apostolic age. It 
 has weakened their faith in that perfectly simple form 
 of the gospel as a converting agency, in which it was 
 apprehended by the apostles ; and also their reliance 
 on the divine power, upon which the apostles so ex- 
 clusively depended for success. 
 
 This faith in God, and in his appointed means for 
 the conversion of the world, is now the grand de- 
 sideratum in the Christian Church, and in Christian 
 missions. And it is remarkable, through the whole 
 recorded history of the church, what a demand God 
 has ever been pleased to make upon it for an exclu- 
 sive faith in the divine presence and power. The 
 church of the old dispensation stood on the defen- 
 sive, with a hostile world around it. Yet it was for- 
 bidden to trust in chariots and horsemen, and only 
 in Jehovah. The forty-sixth Psalm, beginning, 
 " God is our Refuge and Strength," was the jubilant 
 
9G FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 song of piety with the ancient theocratic people, in 
 view of their entire safety under the protection of 
 Almighty God. 
 
 The church of the new or Christian dispensation, 
 on the other hand, is an aggressive hody, with insti- 
 tutions all shaped for conquest and extension. It 
 exists for the spiritual suhjugation of the world. 
 And in the use of its spiritual weapons, it is as much 
 required to rely on the Almighty Saviour and the 
 " Spirit of Truth," as the church of the old dispen- 
 sation was on Jehovah. It would seem to he no 
 more allowahle for the Christian Church or for its 
 missionaries to "trust in chariots and horsemen," 
 and " go to Egypt for help," than it was for God's 
 ancient people. 
 
 Experience, with the grace of God, has heen 
 bringing us gradually into more spiritual concep- 
 tions of the end we should have in view, and of the 
 means by which that end is to be attained. This I 
 am now to illustrate, in several particulars. 
 
 1. A question often mooted at the outset of 
 modern Christian missions, and sometimes mooted 
 now, is. Whether savages must be civilized before 
 they can be Christianized. I shall be excused for 
 drawing illustrations of this point from missions 
 with which I have been most conversant. Our 
 fathers, in their earlier missions to savage peoples, 
 acting with the light they had, avowedly sent Chris- 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MISSIONS. 97 
 
 tianity and civilization forth together, as cooperat- 
 ing forces. For instance, ordained missionaries to 
 the North American Indians were accompanied by 
 farmers and mechanics ; and a farmer was sent 
 with the first mission to the Sandwich Islands. 
 The American Board, in its Report for 1816, de- 
 clared it to be the object of the missions to the 
 Indians, " to make them English in their language, 
 civilized in their habits, and Christian in their re- 
 ligion." And, three years later, the pioneers of the 
 Sandwich Islands mission were instructed, " to aim 
 at nothing short of covering those Islands with 
 fruitful fields and pleasant dwellings, and schools 
 and churches, and of raising the whole people to an 
 elevated state of Christian civilization." 
 
 What now have been the results of experience? 
 In the year 1823, the missions of the American 
 Board to the Indians, with ten preaching missiona- 
 ries, numbered fifteen farmers and mechanics. In 
 1842, with twenty-four preaching missionaries in 
 those missions, the farmers and mechanics had been 
 reduced to nine ; and in 1852, thirty-six years from 
 the commencement of the missions, with twenty-five 
 preaching missionaries, not a single farmer or me- 
 chanic remained. You understand the. import of 
 these facts. The honest aim in sending these secu- 
 lar helpers was to aid the preaching missionaries. 
 But the means were found to be inappropriate. A 
 
98 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 simpler, cheaper, more effectual means of civilizing 
 the savage, was the gospel alone. 
 
 I should add, that the missionary farmer sent to 
 the Sandwich Islands remained there only a short 
 time ; and never since has there been a thought of 
 sending another. 
 
 Thus ended the experiment by the American 
 Board, of connecting agriculture and the arts with 
 the missionary agencies. 
 
 2. It was supposed that, in the spiritual conquest 
 of modern heathen nations, the gospel would be es- 
 sentially aided by the languages, literature, science, 
 and manners of Western civilization. The English 
 language being the chief repository of this civiliza- 
 tion in its evangelical form, it has been more or less 
 used as a medium. The Report of the American 
 Board for 1816, already quoted, declared — and it 
 was then the general belief — that if the Indians 
 should learn the English language, their sources of 
 knowledge and means of improvement would be 
 vastly greater than they could be with only their 
 own language ; and that, being thus assimilated in 
 language to their white neighbors, they would more 
 readily become assimilated to them \\j^ habits and 
 manners. But the venerable Dr. Kingsbury, the 
 first missionary sent to the Indians by the American 
 Board, and still living among the Choctaws, writing 
 in 1861, forty years after entering the field, bears 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MISSIONS. 99 
 
 the following testimony: "With a few interesting 
 exceptions," he says, " those who acquired the most 
 knowledge of the English language seemed the 
 farthest from embracing the gospel, and the least 
 disposed to attend on the means of grace. They 
 -^•egarded themselves as elevated above their parents, 
 and the mass of their people, and became vain in 
 their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were 
 darkened." At the same time, while Dr. Kingsbury 
 believed it would have been more for the moral and 
 religious interests of the Indians had the schools 
 been taught wholly in their own vernacular, he did 
 not hesitate to pronounce the Choctaws a Christian 
 nation. 
 
 Another illustration I derive from the experience 
 in Syria. A high school was established by the 
 American Board, at Beirut, in 1835, and was con- 
 tinued in operation seven years. The literature of 
 Western civilization was taught through the Eng- 
 lish language, and the boarding, lodging, and cloth- 
 ing had a Western type. The pupils were faithfully 
 instructed in the Scriptures ; but it was found, that 
 the tendency of their training, on the whole, was to 
 make them foreign in their manners, foreign in their 
 habits, foreign in their sympathies ; in other words, 
 to denationalize them. In 1842 that seminary was 
 disbanded, and another was formed on Mount Leba- 
 non, on a more simple plan, and with a thoroughly 
 Biblical instruction. It was Arabic in its language. 
 
100 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 clothing, boarding", and lodging, and discounte- 
 nanced all aspirations after foreign habits and cus- 
 toms.^ 
 
 I shall be understood as now speaking of missions, 
 and of what is strictly appropriate to them. There 
 is a stage of advancement — as, perhaps, at Con- 
 stantinople, Beirut, Calcutta, and the Sandwich 
 Islands — where a portion of the native mind de- 
 mands a broader, higher culture even than the 
 mission can give ; where it is the part of wisdom to 
 afford it through a college, distinct from the mis- 
 sion, and deriving its support from other sources. 
 
 I shall state explicitly, further on, what I conceive 
 to be the true place and office of education in mis- 
 sions. What I am now speaking of, is the growth 
 of experience as to the best mode of conducting 
 missions. 
 
 The natural order in missions is, " first the blade ; 
 then the ear ; after that the full corn in the ear." 
 In the earlier missions, this seems not to have been 
 sufficiently observed. The native preachers were 
 sometimes too highly taught in secular knowledge 
 for the incipient stages of the work. Raised too far 
 above the general level of intelligence among their 
 people, they longed for more cultivated hearers than 
 they found in the villages, and for larger salaries 
 than they could receive, or ought to receive, and 
 shrank from pastorates in obscure places, among 
 
 1 Annual Repmi, 1845, pp. 133, 134. 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF 'MMRNMtf^Sldm. lOl 
 
 low-caste, ignorant people ; and sometimes they were 
 impatient of advice and wholesome restraint from 
 their missionary fathers. In some quarters, they 
 were tempted to contrast business relations with the 
 world, and thus the labor and money bestowed on 
 their education were in great measure lost to the 
 cause. 
 
 3. We have been slow to admit the extent to which 
 the Apostle Paul's method of dealing with native 
 churches is applicable to the missions of our day. 
 In this remark, I equally include missionaries and 
 their directors. The apostle wrote to Titus, that 
 he had left him in Crete, to " set in order the 
 things that were wanting, and to ordain presbyters 
 in every city ; " and with all this in charge, he still 
 required the evangelist to come to him before win- 
 ter ; leaving the churches, thus rapidly organized, to 
 take care of themselves. It will be seen that if the 
 charge to Timothy, to " lay hands suddenly on no 
 man," was equally applicable to Titus (as doubtless it 
 was), it must have had respect more to the judg- 
 ment to be exercised in the selection of the presby- 
 ters, than to haste in the matter of time, as is the 
 common opinion. 
 
 Such appears to have been the Apostle Paul's 
 manner with all his churches. In our undue esti- 
 mate of the influence of civilization, as an auxiliary 
 to the gospel in sustaining the higher Christian life 
 
102 FOEEXGN MISSIONS. 
 
 among the heathen, and from an overestimate of 
 the value of Roman civilization in the apostolic age, 
 as an auxiliary to spiritual life in the primitive 
 churches, the apostle's example has by no means had 
 its proper influence. We have been slow to believe, 
 that native churches, or native pastors, with forms 
 of civilization so inferior to our own, or so very un- 
 like it, could stand without foreign aid. Hence the 
 prolonged existence of mission churches with their 
 centre and seat at the residence of the missionary, 
 and their membership spread over a large surround- 
 ing district. They often had native preachers, in- 
 deed, stationed at some of the more important points 
 in the district, but no native pastors; the whole 
 church membership being long retained under the 
 pastoral supervision of the missionary himself. It 
 is a remarkable fact, that, prior to 1854, forty years 
 after the first entrance of the American Board into 
 India, and until the visit of the Deputation, not one 
 of its missions in that country had a native pastor. 
 Those missions had not then, indeed, even an or- 
 dained native preacher. There were, moreover, only 
 a very few native pastors at the Sandwich Islands 
 previous to 1863, more than forty years after the com- 
 mencement of the mission ; though they then had 
 several ordained native missionaries in Micronesia 
 and the Marquesas Islands. And among the missions 
 of that Board to the American Indians, there never 
 was more than one or two native pastors. How far 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MISSIONS. 103 
 
 there was a similar experience in the case of other 
 missionary societies, I am not exactly prepared to 
 say ; though I find many proofs of the same remark- 
 able short-coming. 
 
 In the providence of God, there have been signal 
 rebukes of his people for so unscriptural a policy. 
 In 1842, the French seized the island of Tahiti, and 
 sent the English missionaries away ; who, thirty 
 years after the conversion of the people of that island, 
 had not ordained one native pastor. The late em- 
 inent Dr. Tidman, Foreign Secretary of the Lon- 
 don Missionary Society, adverting to this fact in a 
 speech at Liverpool in 1860, spoke as follows : — 
 
 " I must be permitted to say one word concerning 
 the Tvative pastors of Tahiti. Why did they become 
 so? Just hecause our Europeans were sent adrift 
 by French authority. They were thus called forth 
 by the necessities of the situation. These native 
 brethren were not ordained before ; but as soon as 
 they were called to the work in the providence of 
 God, they proved quite equal to it. And after twenty 
 years of French misrule, notwithstanding all the in- 
 fluences of Popery on the one hand, and of brandy 
 and wine on the other, there were now living under 
 the instruction and influence of these native pastors 
 a greater number of church-members, than they had 
 had aforetime." 
 
 On the same occasion. Dr. Tidman gave another 
 memorable illustration : " With regard to Madagas- 
 
104 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 car/' he said, " twenty years ago or more, the 
 European shepherds were all sent away, and a few 
 poor, timid lambs were left in the midst of wolves. 
 And what has been the result? Why men [he 
 means native men] had been raised up by God to 
 take the oversight ; and instead of tens of Christians 
 under the care of European pastors, there were now 
 hundreds, nay thousands, under the teaching of these 
 men." i 
 
 Thus the Evangelical Church profits by its ex- 
 perience, and there is progress. Local churches, 
 with a native pastorate, are now being multiplied in 
 the heathen world as never before, after the manner 
 of the apostle to the Gentiles. 
 
 It may be asked whether the missionary, thus 
 giving place to the native pastor, is to move from 
 one station to another, as did the Apostle Paul. I 
 answer, by no means to the same extent. But if he 
 be successful in gathering churches, he may find it 
 expedient occasionally to change his position, so as 
 to throw the indispensable responsibility on the na- 
 tive churches and pastors. The child will never 
 stand and walk firmly, if always in leading-strings. 
 The plan of the divine government in the apostolic 
 age, in accordance with which the apostles acted, 
 was in some respects different from what it appears 
 to be now. They were to plant churches only in the 
 central points of the Roman world ; they could do 
 no more. But now, as has been shown abundantly, 
 
 1 Conference an Missions at Liverpool, 1860, p. 225. 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MISSIONS. 105 
 
 the greater part of the globe, and nearly all the 
 great nations, are open and ready for us; and we are 
 to go for the early and complete conquest of every 
 nation, and for remaining in our several fields so 
 long as there is appropriate work for us to do. 
 
 4. There is still another view, which, while it ac- 
 cords with apostolic usage, doubtless lies beyond 
 what the Apostle Paul could have lived to experience. 
 I will illustrate it by a reference to the Sandwich 
 Islands. 
 
 In the year 1847, twenty-seven years after the 
 commencement of the mission on those Islands, the 
 Committee and Secretaries of the American Board 
 were surprised, and somewhat disconcerted, by a dis- 
 covery of what seemed like a threatened collapse of 
 the mission. 
 
 It appeared as if the missionary was being absorbed 
 in the parent, and that the foreign laborers on those 
 Islands were all coming home in a few years, to 
 look after the interests of their children. It was 
 soon known that there were a variety of causes for 
 this result. One was the reaction among mission- 
 aries and people, consequent upon the great national 
 awakening, which had then reached its crisis. An- 
 other was the uncommon number of children in the 
 missionary families, the climate being favorable to 
 their health and life, and the want of arrangements 
 for their education at the Islands ; which was met 
 
106 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 by instituting the Oahii College. But the statement 
 received from the Islands went to show still another 
 influential cause. This was a deficiency of religious 
 stimulus, suited to the sensibilities and habits of a 
 people so low on the scale of intelligence. All the 
 Islands had been alike Christianized. Had one of 
 them remained under the influence of savage pagan- 
 ism, as the whole had been, — as, for instance, the 
 island of Hawaii, — then the four Christianized 
 islands might have been roused to send the gospel 
 to the seventy-five thousand benighted people of 
 Hawaii; and they would have had an appropriate 
 and interesting field near by for their Christian 
 activities. Whereas, there was no such pagan island 
 within less than two thousand miles. To be sure, 
 there was very much of real home missionary work 
 on each of the Sandwich Islands. But it was found 
 there, as it has been in our own country, that the 
 motive-power of the home missionary plea alone, is 
 not of itself sufiiciently awakening and powerful. In 
 short, it was painfully certain, that the infant 
 churches on those Islands, regarded as a whole, could 
 not be raised to the level of enduring and eflPective 
 working churches, without a stronger religious in- 
 fluence than could be brought to act upon them from 
 within their own Christianized islands. It was also 
 evident that the missionaries themselves then needed 
 an additional motive-power, beyond what the Islands 
 any longer afforded. 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN MISSIONS. 107 
 
 It was precisely this discovery — for discovery it 
 was — which gave rise to the mission to Micronesia ; 
 a group of islands two thousand miles westward; 
 and also to the sending from this country, in the 
 year 1856, of the missionary packet " Morning Star," 
 to facilitate the forming of that mission ; and to the 
 employment of native Hawaiians as missionaries on 
 those islands, who should look for their support to 
 their own Hawaiian churches. 
 
 I do not mean, that it would have been proper 
 actually to have left either one of the Sandwich 
 Islands in heathenism for such a purpose. I am 
 only illustrating a principle ; and it is one of high 
 practical importance ; namely, that it is impossible 
 for mission churches to reach their highest and 
 truest state, without the aid of what is to them vir- 
 tually a foreign mission, — without some outside 
 field of labor for them, resembling the " hole of the 
 pit " from which they had themselves been digged. 
 
 We have now seen how foreign missions were 
 gradually divested, first of the grosser elements of 
 the world, and then of the more refined elements ; 
 how they were contracted, simplified, economized, and 
 brought more and more to depend for success on 
 the cross of Christ, and the " Spirit of truth." The 
 tendency has been directly, though not rapidly, to- 
 wards the high Christian stand, which the great 
 apostle describes himself to have held as a mission- 
 
108 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 ary ; determining, with that holy energy of purpose 
 which characterized him, to know nothing among 
 the heathen, and nothing among his converts, " save 
 Jesus Christ and him crucified ; " and not to teach 
 " with enticing words of man's wisdom," hut in the 
 power and demonstration of the Spirit. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PBINCIPLES AND METHODS OF MODERN MISSIONS. 
 
 What the Apostolic Missions embraced. — Local Churches prominent. 
 Nature of the Mission Church. — Missionaries not to be Pastors. 
 The Missionary System built upon this View of Native Churches. 
 Education and the Press. — English High Schools. — The Object 
 and Work of the Poreign Missionary not peculiar. — Why Funds go 
 further now, than formerly. — Civilization not the Object of Foreign 
 Missions. — Preaching Christ applicable to all False Religion. 
 
 I AM now prepared to state, in a concise but posi- 
 tive form, what I believe to be the true and proper 
 nature of a mission among the heathen. The mis- 
 sion of the Apostle Paul, as set forth in the fourth 
 chapter, embraced the following things : — 
 
 1. The aim of the apostle was to save the souls of 
 men. 
 
 2. The means he employed for this purpose were 
 spiritual ; namely, the gospel of Christ. 
 
 3. The power on which he relied to give efficacy 
 to these means, was divine; namely, the promised 
 aid of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 4. His success was chiefly in the middle and 
 poorer classes, — the Christian influence ascending 
 from thence. 
 
 5. When he had formed local churches, he did not 
 
110 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 hesitate to ordain presbyters over them, the best he 
 could find ; and then to throw upon the churches, 
 thus officered, the responsibilities of self-government, 
 self-support, and self-propagation. His " presbyters 
 in every church," whatever their number and other 
 duties, had doubtless the pastoral care of the 
 churches. 
 
 Prominent, then, among the visible agencies in 
 foreign missions, if we follow the great apostle, are 
 LOCAL CHURCHES. I Call them by no denominational 
 name. They may be churches governed by the 
 popular vote, or by elders they have themselves 
 chosen for the purpose. They are local bodies of 
 associated Christians. The first duty of a mission- 
 ary is to gather such a church. That will serve as 
 a nucleus — and it is the only possible nucleus, a 
 school not being one — of a permanent congrega- 
 tion. A missionary, by means of properly located, 
 well organized, well trained churches, may extend 
 his influence over a large territory. In such a 
 country as India, or China, his direct influence may 
 reach even scores of thousands. 
 
 I find nothing in the history of the mission of the 
 Apostle Paul, which seems to me decisive, as to the 
 manner in which these multiplied mission churches 
 should be brought into social relations to each other, 
 and would cheerfully leave that to the good sense 
 and piety of missionaries on the ground. 
 
 I now inquire, What should be the nature of the 
 
PBINCIPLES AND METHODS OF MISSIONS. Ill 
 
 mission church? It should he composed only of 
 hopeful converts ; and should have, as soon as possi- 
 ble, a native pastor, and of the same race, who has 
 been trained cheerfully to take the oversight of what 
 will generally he a small, poor, ignorant people, and 
 mingle with them familiarly and sympathetically. 
 And by a native pastor, I mean one recognized as 
 having the pastoral care of a local church, with the 
 right to administer the ordinances of baptism and 
 the Lord's Supper. 
 
 This necessity of a native pastor to the healthful 
 and complete development of a self-reliant, effective 
 native church, is a discovery of recent date. I can- 
 not say, nor is it important to know, by whom this 
 fundamental truth or law in missions was first de- 
 clared. Like many discoveries in science, it very 
 probably was reached by a number of persons, at 
 nearly the same time, and as the result of a common 
 experience.! 
 
 1 " It may be said to have been only lately discovered in the science of 
 missions, that when the missionary is of another and superior race than 
 his converts, he must not attempt to be their pastor ; though they will 
 be bound to him by personal attachment, and by a sense of the benefits 
 received from him ; yet if he continues to act as their pastor, they will 
 not form a vigorous native church, but, as a general rule, they will 
 remain in a dependent condition, and make but little progress in 
 spiritual attainments. The same congregation, under competent 
 native pastors, would become more self-reliant, and their religion 
 would be of a more manly, home character." — Rev. Henry Venn's 
 Letter to the Bishop of Jamaica, dated January, 1867. Mr. Venn is 
 Honorary Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, and no one is 
 better informed on missionary subjects. 
 
112 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 As soon as the missiou church has a native pastor, 
 the responsibilities of self-government should be de- 
 volved upon it. Mistakes, perplexities, and some- 
 times scandals, there will be ; but it is often thus 
 that useful experience is gained, even in churches 
 here at home. The salary of the native pastor should 
 be based on the Christianized ideas of living acquired 
 by his people ; and the church should become self- 
 supporting at the earliest possible day. It should 
 also be self-propagating from the very first. Such 
 churches, and only such, are the life, strength, and 
 glory of missions. 
 
 A foreign missionary should not be the pastor of 
 a native church. His business is to plant churches, 
 in well-chosen parts of his field, committing them 
 as soon as possible to the care of native pastors ; 
 himself sustaining a common relation to all, as their 
 ecclesiastical father and adviser; having, in some 
 sense, like the apostle, the daily care of the churches. 
 He might stand thus related to a score of churches, 
 and even more, however they were related to each 
 other; and when he is old, might be able to say, 
 through the abounding grace of God, " Though ye 
 have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye 
 not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have be- 
 gotten you all through the gospel. " ^ 
 
 Self-evident as this idea of a mission church may 
 seem on its announcement, it is not yet adopted 
 
 I 1 Cor. iv. 15. 
 
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF MISSIONS. 113 
 
 in all Protestant missions, and until of late, has 
 seemed to gain ground very slowly. Its universal 
 adoption, however, cannot he far distant, and will 
 add immensely hoth to the economy and the power 
 of missions. 
 
 It is upon this view of the nature and relations of 
 native churches, that we build our missionary sys- 
 tem. 
 
 Education, schools, the press, and whatever else 
 goes to make up the working system, are held in 
 strict subordination to the planting and building 
 up of effective working churches. But though held 
 strictly in such subordination, we see in it the utmost 
 latitude for the exercise of a wise discretion in the 
 conduct of missions. The governing object to be 
 always aimed at, is self-reliant, effective churches, — 
 churches that are purely native. Whatever mis- 
 sionaries believe to be most directly conducive to 
 this end, comes within the scope of their privilege 
 and duty ; of course, under reasonable restrictions 
 growing out of their fundamental relations. The 
 use of schools and the press comes under the ques- 
 tion, how far they are subservient to the great 
 end, namely, the rapid and perfect development of 
 churches. 
 
 We thus perceive the place which education must 
 hold in missions. Without education, it is not 
 possible for mission churches to be in any proper 
 
114 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 sense self-governed ; nor, without it, will they be 
 self- supported, and much less self-propagating. For 
 the church-members there must be common schools. 
 This results from the degraded mental condition of 
 the heathen world, as compared with the field of the 
 apostolic missions. Scarcely a ray of light reaches 
 it from sun, moon, or stars in the intellectual and 
 moral firmament. Mind is vacant, crushed, un- 
 thinking, enslaved to animal instincts and passions ; 
 earthly, sensual, terribly debased. The common 
 school, therefore, is a necessity among the degraded 
 heathen, to help elevate the converts, and make the 
 village church an effective agency. And the church- 
 members, as far as may be, should be educated within 
 the bounds of their own villages ; and in such man- 
 ner that a large number of them will abide with 
 their people, and help to support their native pastor 
 and schools, and make their Christian village a power 
 in the land. At first, these schools must be sus- 
 tained by the mission ; but it is better for them, not 
 long afterwards, to be sustained by the parents. 
 
 The native preachers and pastors come, almost of 
 course, from the same depths of mental degrada- 
 tion ; and since they must be enabled to stand alone 
 and firmly in the gospel ministry, and be competent 
 spiritual guides to others, they should of course have 
 a higher training. What this shall be, what it shall 
 include and exclude, must depend on circumstances 
 too various for general rules. But one thing is clear. 
 
PRINCiPLES AND METHODS OF MISSIONS. 115 
 
 Our army, liberated from the thralldom of pagan 
 slavery, must be well officered in order to fight 
 bravely. 
 
 The printing-press in missions is mainly for the 
 schools and for the church-members, to whom, in- 
 deed, books are indispensable. Experience tends to 
 the result of having missions cease to own printing 
 establishments as soon as the needful printing can 
 be secured from presses owned by others. 
 
 Wherein, then, do our modern missions differ from 
 those of the apostolic age ? They differ in several 
 particulars. 
 
 1. Modern missionaries are sent forth and sup- 
 ported by churches in their native lands ; by churches, 
 too, of long standing and experience ; and, so far at 
 least as this country and Great Britain are con- 
 cerned, by churches existing and operating in the 
 midst of freedom and high religious intelligence. 
 In this modern missions have certainly a great ad 
 vantage over the primitive missions. 
 
 2. They have not the personal presence and ac- 
 tive agency of apostles ; but they have the four 
 Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and their Letters 
 of Instruction, all written under the guidance of in- 
 spiration ; and the press, to multiply copies of these 
 documents by thousands. A portion of the modern 
 Evangelical Church, indeed, is coming into the prac- 
 tice of putting their missionaries under the control 
 
116 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 of missionary bishops, and regards these as successors 
 of the apostles. But they evidently are not apostles, 
 since they lack the " signs, and wonders, and mighty 
 deeds," which St. Paul, in his Second Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, declares to be the needful " signs of an 
 apostle." ^ 
 
 3. The pastorate in modern missions differs from 
 that of the apostolic age, in that it ordinarily has 
 but one pastor for each church ; whereas the New 
 Testament always uses the plural in speaking of the 
 pastorate in the churches planted by the Apostle 
 Paul. " They ordained presbyters in every church ; " 
 being influenced in this, perhaps (as has been already 
 said), by the usage of the Jewish synagogue. This 
 practice seems to have been lost, with the very idea 
 of the apostolic church, in the great decline of the 
 Early and Middle Ages ; and when that idea was re- 
 covered, as it was at the Reformation, and put in 
 practice, the usage of having but one pastor in each 
 church was adopted by all evangelical denominations, 
 as being more conformed to the demands of the age. 
 And this is now the general usage in all the evan- 
 gelical churches ; and it has thence been transferred 
 to the mission churches among the heathen. The 
 apostolic principle is retained, but the form is 
 changed. I speak only of the pastorate, in which 
 the evangelical denominations agree ; leaving en- 
 tirely untouched the points concerning which the 
 evangelical denominations differ. 
 
 1 2 Cor. xii. 12 ; Rom. xv. 18, 19. 
 
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF MISSIONS. 117 
 
 Such is the simple structure of our foreign mis- 
 sions, as the combined result of experience, and of 
 the apostolic example ; in all which the grand object 
 is to plant and multiply self-reliant, efficient churches, 
 composed wholly of native converts, each church 
 complete in itself, with pastors of the same race with 
 the people. And when the unevangelized world shall 
 be dotted over with such churches, so that all men 
 have it within their power to learn what they must 
 do to be saved, then may we expect the promised 
 advent of the Spirit, and the conversion of the world. 
 
 It might be deemed an omission in my description 
 of the missionary work, should I not advert to a 
 series of efforts made in the cities of India, and more 
 especially in Calcutta, to gain access for the gospel 
 to the higher classes by means of English schools. 
 In these schools a large number of high-caste Hin- 
 dus have received a liberal Christian education, 
 through the medium of the English language and 
 literature. The result of the experiment is regarded 
 as very hopeful by those who are making it. And 
 there is certainly a development among the higher 
 class of Hindus in Calcutta, and in some other of 
 the India cities, that is worthy of attentive consider- 
 ation. But the results of the experiments are not 
 yet sufficiently developed to occupy a prominent 
 place in a description of the fundamental nature 
 of the missionary work.^ 
 
 1 See Appendices III. and IV. 
 
118 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 I close with a few g-eneral remarks. 
 
 1. The foreign missionary, the home missionary, 
 and the pastor have each substantially the same ob- 
 ject. It is to plant churches, and make them shine 
 as lights in the world. Our leading sentiment is 
 as really applicable to home missionaries, as it is to 
 foreign missionaries. The labors of the home mis- 
 sionary have a direct reference to the forming of 
 self-governed, self-supported churches, and such 
 churches are proofs of his success. The home mis- 
 sionaiy becomes then a pastor, or gives place to one 
 sustaining that relation. 
 
 2. The great simplification in the use of means, 
 and relying more on those which are spiritual, is a 
 principal reason why a given amount of funds now 
 sustains a more extended working mission than it 
 formerly did. The grand object and means are the 
 same ; but the working process, becoming more 
 spiritual, bears more effectively on the heart and 
 conscience. 
 
 3. The proper test of success in missions, is not 
 the progress of civilization, but the evidence of a 
 religious life. 
 
 4. The gospel is applicable equally to all false 
 religions. Generically considered, there can be but 
 two religions : the one looking for salvation by 
 grace ; the other, by worTcs. The principle of evil 
 in all unbelieving men, is the same. The refuges 
 of lies in Popery, in Judaism, in Mohammedanism, 
 
PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF MISSIONS. 119 
 
 in Brahminism, Buddhism, and every form of pagan- 
 ism, are wonderfully alike. There is one disease, 
 and one remedy. Before the gospel, the unbeliev- 
 ing world stands an undistinguished mass of re- 
 bellious sinners; unwilling that God should reign 
 over them, unwilling to be saved except by their 
 own works, and averse to all real holiness of heart 
 and life. There is power in the doctrine of the 
 cross, through grace, to overcome this. The doc- 
 trine of the cross — as will more clearly appear 
 when we come to the evidences of success in mis- 
 sions — is the grand instrument of conquest. Not 
 one of the great superstitions of the world could 
 hold a governing place in the human soul, after the 
 conviction has once been thoroughly produced, that 
 there is salvation only in Christ. Be it what it may, 
 the man, thus convinced, would flee from it, as he 
 would from a falling building in the rockings of an 
 earthquake. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 
 
 To be illustrated by Native Converts, and tbe Native Ministry. 
 Value of Native Converts : in Sierra Leone ; in Madagascar ; in 
 India ; in Western Asia. — Value of the Native Ministry : among 
 the Karens ; among the §hanars ; in the Sandwich Islands ; in 
 the Islands of the South Pacific. — How far Native Churches are 
 dependent on the Presence of Missionaries. — How far Revivals of 
 Religion are common in them. — The Prospect. 
 
 It was stated in the last chapter, that the grand 
 object of foreign missions is to plant and multiply 
 churches, composed of native converts ; each church 
 complete in itself, with presbyters of the same race, 
 left to determine their ecclesiastical relations for 
 themselves, with the aid of judicious advice from 
 their missionary fathers. 
 
 The value of native churches must be learned by 
 an estimate of the value of native converts, and of 
 the native ministry. And should it be thought that 
 I produce the richest specimens from our golden 
 mines, it should be remembered that such specimens 
 best illustrate the work of the Holy Spirit in extend- 
 ing Messiah's kingdom. They will best show what 
 can and m.ust be done before the glorious reign of 
 our Lord and Saviour extends over all nations. 
 
VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 121 
 
 In estimating the value of native converts, I begin 
 with Western Africa. The oldest mission on the 
 West African coast is that of the English Church 
 Missionary Society at Sierra Leone. Here, in the 
 early stage of that mission, we shall find a native 
 church of marvelous interest and power, gathered 
 out of the most unpromising materials, in circum- 
 stances the most unpropitious. 
 
 It is fifty years since a plain German laborer in 
 London, named William A. B. Johnson, offered him- 
 self to the Church Missionary Society to be sent as a 
 school-master to Sierra Leone. He had only a com- 
 mon school education, but was rich in Christian ex- 
 perience. It soon appeared that he was called of 
 God to the gospel ministry, and he accordingly 
 received ordination in Africa. His was a wonderful 
 ministry. When Mr. Johnson first took up his 
 abode at what was afterwards called Regent's Town, 
 in Sierra Leone, the people numbered about a thou- 
 sand. They had been taken at different times from 
 the holds of slave-ships ; were wild and naked ; and 
 being from twenty-two different nations, were hostile 
 to each other. They had no common medium of 
 intercourse, except a little broken English, had no 
 ideas of marriage, and lived crowded together in the 
 rudest huts. They were devil-worshippers, and most 
 of them lazy, thieving, plundering, brutal savages. 
 
 Mr. Johnson was at first exceedingly discouraged. 
 But he resolved to preach Christ to them as the 
 
122 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Saviour of sinners, in the simple manner of the gos- 
 pel, and to open to them the raiserahle state of a 
 sinner rejecting such a Saviour. His resolution was 
 the same with that of the Apostle Paul, when he 
 surveyed the desperate pollutions of the Corinthians, 
 — " to know nothing among them, save Jesus Christ 
 and him crucified." There is no other adequate 
 power of deliverance. After pursuing this course 
 the greater part of a year, preaching salvation 
 through the Lord Jesus, a remarkable change began 
 to come over the people. Old and young became 
 concerned for their souls. There was, in short, an 
 outpouring of the Spirit. Many sought retirement 
 in the woods for prayer ; and soon the neighboring 
 mountains echoed, in moonlight evenings, with the 
 hymns of worshippers. Mr. Johnson has left a 
 record of the experience of many of the converts, 
 in their own simple and broken, but expressive lan- 
 guage, when examined, as they all were, for admis- 
 sion to the Lord's Supper. I am impressed by his 
 record of their convictions of sin ; their acknowl- 
 edgments of the divine forbearance; their distrust 
 of their own hearts ; their inward conflicts ; their 
 tender consciences ; their faith and patience ; their 
 benevolence ; and their love for souls. The outward 
 changes were most striking. The people learned 
 trades, became farmers, attached well-kept gardens 
 to their dwellings. They built a stone church large 
 enough, with the help of galleries, to seat closely 
 
VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 123 
 
 nearly two thousand persons ; which was regularly 
 filled with decently dressed, orderly, and serious 
 worshippers. They built a parsonage, school-houses, 
 store-houses, a bridge of several arches — all of 
 stone. Most of the adult population were mar- 
 ried. Their night-dances and heathenish drumming 
 ceased, and so did their oaths, drunkenness, and 
 stealing ; and the schools contained a thousand chil- 
 dren.^ 
 
 All this Mr. Johnson lived to see ; but he died in 
 1823, only seven years from the commencement of 
 his mission! Was there ever a more wonderful 
 religious change ? It shows the power of the sim- 
 ple gospel, both to convert the savage, and to civilize 
 him. It shows the power of the cross of Christ. It 
 shows, also, the illuminating, reforming influence of 
 such a church, regarded as a missionary agency. 
 Would that the same influences could have been 
 continued in all their power. But this was more 
 than forty years ago, and it was then too early for 
 native pastors; their necessity to the full develop- 
 ment of a native church not having then been dis- 
 covered. A worthy missionary successor to Mr. 
 
 1 See Memoir of Rev. W. A. B. Johnson, London, 1852, Preface, 
 and pp. 168, 169, 245, 275, 279, 283, 299, 305, 419, 423, 424, 426. 
 Also, London Missionary Register for 1819, pp. 5, 378-381, 486-492 ; 
 and for 1829, pp. 18, 107-113, 197, 252-256, 371. Also, and espe- 
 cially. Twentieth Report of the- Church Missionary Society; extracts 
 from which are embodied in Missionary Register for 1820, pp. 473- 
 476. 
 
124 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Johnson was not soon found, and Regent's Town 
 suffered a decline after his death. But the founda- 
 tions he had laid were sure^ and there was progress 
 on the whole. In the year 1842, twenty-four years 
 after Mr. Johnson hegan his mission, one fifth of 
 the population of Sierra Leone was at school, and 
 the attendance at puhlic worship was estimated at 
 twelve thousand. In 1862, native pastorates were 
 estahlished, and ten parishes undertook the support 
 of their own pastors ; and no less than six different 
 missions were sent hy the people to the unevangel- 
 ized tribes beyond the colony. The present number 
 of nominal Christians in the colony, is said, on high 
 authority, to be eighty thousand, of whom twenty 
 thousand are communicants; and the missionary 
 work at Sierra Leone is regarded as having been 
 accomplished.^ 
 
 I venture to say, to the glory of God in the gos- 
 pel, that not one of the " seven churches of Asia " 
 shone with a brighter light, than did this one, at 
 that time, gathered from the slave-ships of Western 
 Africa. And were such churches now along the 
 whole extent of that coast, and in the vast interior, 
 the darkness, crime, and misery of that benighted 
 region would give place to the blessedness of a 
 Christian civilization. 
 
 Look, next, at the great* island of Madagascar, 
 
 1 Church Missionary Intelligencer, 1868, pp. 203, 250. 
 
VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 125 
 
 situated on the eastern coast of Africa. Here we 
 shall see, as of old, infant churches struggling suc- 
 cessfully against the utmost efforts of the civil 
 power to destroy them. The London Missionary 
 Society commenced a mission on that island in 1820, 
 under the protection of the King Radama. The 
 missionaries gave the people a written language, a 
 grammar and dictionary, school hooks, a hymn-book, 
 and the Bible, and taught some thousands to read 
 the Scriptures.^ The converts were virtually, if not 
 formally, embodied in churches. A pagan queen, 
 the widow of Radama, succeeded her husband in 
 1828, and, being hostile to the Christian religion, 
 forbade the observance of its ordinances, and the 
 reading of the Bible ; and persistence in either was 
 punishable with death. Perceiving that the gospel 
 continued to gain ground, notwithstanding her de- 
 cree, she, in 1835, banished all the missionaries. 
 The Christians, still increasing, were then sub- 
 jected to fierce persecution, which continued through 
 twenty-five years, until her death in 1861. They 
 were poisoned ; they were hanged ; they were speared ; 
 they were stoned, and the stoning was a most bar- 
 barous mode of execution. They were thrown down 
 a fatal precipice. Loaded with heavy iron collars, 
 and chained together, they were driven into banish- 
 ment. They were burned at the stake, and some 
 were crucified. Many were sold into slavery. It 
 
 1 Ellis's Madagascar Revisited, p. 2. 
 
126 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 is believed that more than two thousand persons 
 suffered as Christians, during this persecution, in 
 some cruel form or other. 
 
 So far as was possible they associated together as 
 Christian communities; and there were those of 
 their number intelligent and courageous enough to 
 act as pastors and teachers, though always at the 
 peril, and sometimes at the sacrifice, of life. The 
 result was a continual growth in numbers through 
 all the persecutions. 
 
 The queen was succeeded by her son ; who favored 
 the Christians, and invited the return of the mis- 
 sionaries. This was seven years ago ; and now, as 
 we have the account from the well-known Dr. William 
 Ellis, in his work recently published, entitled " Mad- 
 agascar Revisited," dedicated by permission to the 
 Queen of England, and from other sources, there 
 are, within and around the capital of Madagascar, 
 ninety churches, with more than five thousand mem- 
 bers; one hundred and one native pastors; and 
 twenty thousand claiming the Christian name. In 
 the space of four years, the number of nominal 
 Christians was more than doubled, and the number 
 of the communicants was increased tenfold.^ And 
 we hear that a queen, lately come to the throne, 
 has virtually embraced the Christian religion, and 
 that, if she should live, we may expect Christianity 
 to be soon adopted as the national religion. 
 
 1 Ellis's Madagascar Revisited, pp. 469, 501. 
 
VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 127 
 
 We may read the history of Roman persecutions 
 from Nero down, and we shall find none more cruel 
 than the one in Madagascar, and none more dis- 
 tinguished for the inflexible firmness of its martyrs ; 
 upon whojn, it should he remembered, the fiery tem- 
 pest burst in the very infancy of their religious life. 
 Nor should we forget that these heroic martyrs 
 belonged to the negro race. 
 
 Another case illustrating the same thing, but 
 bearing on a more numerous people, is the remark- 
 able steadfastness of native Christians in the great 
 India rebellion of 1857. This was wholly unex- 
 pected. The native Christians at the twenty mis- 
 sionary stations which were swept away in that 
 terrible mutiny of the native army, exceeded two 
 thousand in number. A very large portion of these 
 were compelled, as Christians, to flee for their lives. 
 They were beaten, their houses were plundered, and 
 eleven of them suffered death. Everywhere Mos- 
 lems or Hindus urged them to apostatize, and 
 threatened and persecuted them ; but they were firm 
 to their Christian profession. Of the whole num- 
 ber only six yielded, and these returned as soon as 
 the rebellion ceased.^ Dr. Mullens, long time a 
 leading missionary at Calcutta, and now the able 
 Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary So- 
 ciety, wrote thus, while in India, concerning these 
 native Christians : — 
 
 1 Mullens' Ten Years in India, p. 24. 
 
128 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 " Drawn, to a very large extent," lie says, " from 
 the artificial hot-house system' of orphan and hoard- 
 ing schools ; helped from first to last by mission- 
 aries ; not only fed and taught, hut in a measure 
 having employments created for them ; ^tlie com- 
 munity, as a whole, had grown up in the possession 
 of sound principles, hut weak in character, with little 
 self-reliance, and a great deal of the petulance of 
 spoiled children. The mutiny has driven all this 
 away ; and they who were thrown headlong into 
 the troubled waters, and had to swim for their lives, 
 without the aid of the corks and. bladders on which 
 they had relied, gained health and vigor in the pro- 
 cess, and landed, not only alive, but men. The old 
 system has been flung away forever." ^ 
 
 We see in these converts the nature of the ma- 
 terials for Hindu churches. Indeed the examples 
 thus far adduced go to show, that the mission 
 churches of our times are formed of the same ma- 
 terial with the churches of the apostolic and martyr 
 ages, and have, through the grace of God, the same 
 power of endurance. 
 
 Let us next see what manner of converts, through 
 divine grace, are produced in Eastern Turkey. It 
 is true, that the churches in that empire are not 
 composed of converts from heathenism ; but then 
 the knowledge of the w ay of salvation through faith 
 
 1 Mullens' Ten Years in India, p. 25. 
 
- VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 129 
 
 iu Christ had perished from among them, and they 
 stood, in that respect, very much on a level with 
 Mohammedans and Pagans. 
 
 At Harpoot, on the upper waters of the Euphrates, 
 the mission of the American Board formed a station 
 in 1856 ; and eleven or twelve years ago, a church 
 was gathered there, which, after two years, received 
 a native pastor, and at once guaranteed a portion of 
 his salary, and doubled the amount in the next year. 
 A training-school for the native ministry was opened ; 
 and of the eighteen young men in the first class sent 
 forth from that school in the year 1864, eight were 
 licensed to preach the gospel, and most of the others 
 occupied out-stations as catechists and teachers. 
 Churches were soon formed in the villages, to which 
 these native preachers were sent, which showed 
 great readiness to support their pastors and preach- 
 ers. As soon as a village became interested in the 
 truth, it earnestly desired a native pastor of its own, 
 and was easily pleased with him, and opposed to a 
 change. 
 
 You will bear in mind, that Harpoot is only one ' 
 of the five stations composing what is called the 
 Eastern Turkey mission ; and I have selected it to 
 show how, in the use of appropriate means, with the 
 divine blessing, a mission church may become as 
 leaven thrown into the lump, and how its offshoots, 
 developing into other churches, and they becoming 
 the nuclei of congregations, grow and multiply until 
 
130 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 they fill the land. At the end of eleven years 
 from the commencement of that church, the work 
 had so extended, that there were connected with 
 it thirteen churches ; four hundred and eighteen 
 church-memhers ; eleven native pastors, more than 
 half of them supported by their own people ; twelve 
 licensed native preachers ; twenty-one native teachers, 
 and forty-one other helpers. The people were very 
 poor ; but, as in the Macedonian church of old, " their 
 deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their 
 liberality." Of pupils there were two thousand and 
 forty-one ; and scores of unpaid laborers went spon- 
 taneously forth every Sabbath-day, as missionaries 
 into the harvest fields around. This was the growth 
 of a single missionary station, and of a single church, 
 in less than twelve years.^ 
 
 The missionary stations at Aintab and Marash, in 
 the Central Turkey mission, are illustrations of the 
 speedy gathering of large mission churches and 
 congregations. It lately became necessary to divide 
 the churches at each of those stations, and the num- 
 *ber of members in each of the four churches, thus 
 constituted, was about one hundred and fifty, with 
 congregations of from six to eight hundred. It 
 is not twenty years since the first missionary sent to 
 Aintab was stoned and driven away by the people. 
 Eight years after that time, visiting Aintab, I was 
 
 1 See Ten Years on the Euphrates, and Letters from Eden, by Rev. G. 
 H. Wheeler. 
 
VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 131 
 
 myself met by a cavalcade of Christian men, several 
 miles from Aintab, who escorted me into the very 
 heart of the city, and I saw nowhere among the 
 people so much as a look of disapprobation. It is 
 only twelve years since a missionary station was 
 begun at Marash ; but it was not effected until the 
 messengers of the gospel had been driven repeatedly 
 away by violence. Yet, in 1861, the late Dr. Dwight 
 from Constantinople, being in Marash at a com- 
 munion season, had the joy of addressing an orderly 
 assembly of twelve hundred people. 
 
 Time would fail me to speak of the growth and 
 value of churches elsewhere. Enough has been ad- 
 duced to show, that the chief work of evangelical 
 Christendom for the conversion of the heathen world, 
 is to plant churches, instinct with gospel life, in all 
 the central and influential districts of the unevan- 
 gelized land. 
 
 I next illustrate the value of the Tiative ministry. 
 This also I do by adducing some of the more re- 
 markable cases. 
 
 The first is that of a Karen preacher, pastor, and 
 missionary, named Quala (or Sau Quala), a convert 
 of the Baptist mission in Burmah. Quala signifies 
 " Hope," and the name was given him by his parents 
 because of hoped-for relief from Burmese oppres- 
 sion, awakened by the entrance of British ships into 
 Burman ports at the time of his birth ; but it was 
 
132 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 not till the boy was fifteen or sixteen years old, that 
 the British took actual possession of Tavoy. Three 
 yeai's after this, the first Karen convert was bap- 
 tized by Dr. Judson, and began immediately to 
 preach, and the first sermon of this convert was in 
 the house of Quala's father. That sermon was 
 blessed to the inquiring youth, who was received 
 into the church in the year 1830, thirty-eight years 
 ago. 
 
 As with so many of his countrymen, so with him ; 
 the first impulse of his spiritual life was " to declare 
 what God had done for his soul, and to invite all 
 whom he could reach to believe and live." His 
 father was an unbeliever almost to the day of his 
 death ; but his mother is said to have been a " lovely 
 picture," when sitting under the sound of the gos- 
 pel, with large beaming eyes, full of intelligence, 
 fixed on the speaker.^ Quala resembled his mother. 
 He was employed some years by the missionaries in 
 assisting to translate the New Testament into the 
 Karen language. For fifteen years he accompanied 
 the missionary in his jungle-tours in Tavoy and Mer- 
 gui, tours sometimes extended three or four hundred 
 miles; and they together laid the foundations in 
 those regions of many Karen churches. Thus was 
 this young servant of the Lord prepared for more 
 responsible service. 
 
 It is a striking illustration of the excessive cau- 
 
 1 Gospd in Burmah, p. 215. 
 
VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 133 
 
 tion of early missionaries in putting native converts 
 into the ministry, that Quala did not receive ordina- 
 tion until fourteen years after his reception into the 
 church.^ Some time after this, he felt strongly 
 moved to enter on what proved to be the great 
 work of his life, a mission to the Karens in the 
 province of Toungoo. This was a great trial to 
 the churches in Tavoy and Mergui, all of which 
 joined in a written remonstrance to the missiona- 
 ries against his leaving them. It was like our 
 sending to the heathen our most useful, learned, 
 and valued pastors and ministers. But it was de- 
 cided to be his duty to go, as may yet perhaps be 
 true of some such men among ourselves. Quala 
 reached Toungoo in December, 1853, the year after 
 that province, by the annexation of Pegu, came 
 under the protection of English law. The first 
 baptism he performed was in the following January. 
 Before the close of that year, the number of con- 
 verts connected with his labors was seven hundred 
 and forty-one, who were associated in nine churches. 
 In less than three years, the number of churches 
 was increased under his ministry to thirty, with an 
 aggregate of two thousand one hundred and twenty- 
 seven members, more than two thousand of whom 
 were baptized by Quala himself.^ Nor do those con- 
 
 1 Gospd in Burmah, p. 231, 236. 
 
 2 Gospel in Burmah, p. 241 ; also, Reports of the American Baptist 
 Union for 1856, pp. 72, 76; and for 1855, p. 86. 
 
134 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 verts appear to have been admitted to the church 
 without due consideration. His labors and fatigue 
 were truly apostolical, and such was his success. 
 His singleness of purpose was like that of the Apos- 
 tle Paul. He received no salary in Toungoo, and, 
 being constantly on the move, he found it necessary, 
 for two years, to leave his lovely wife in Tavoy, who 
 is represented as "the flower of the jungle." One 
 and another of the native disciples gave him a gar- 
 ment when he needed it, and, having no house, he 
 got his food where he labored. 
 
 The wild mountain Karens, in " regions beyond," 
 sent a petition, that he would come and tell them of 
 the "Eternal God." The English Commissioner, 
 hearing of this, offered Quala a salary from the Eng- 
 lish government, if he would become the head and 
 overseer of that wild tribe. Quala gives this very 
 touching account of his conference with the Com- 
 missioner. His reply was : " Sir, I cannot do it. I 
 will not have the money. I will not mix up God's 
 work with government work. There are others to 
 do this thing. Employ them. As for me, I will con- 
 tinue the work in which I hav e been engaged." The 
 Commissioner asked, " Where do you obtain money 
 to live on ? Why do you not like money ? We will 
 give you money, and you may continue your work as 
 teacher as heretofore. Will it not make it easier for 
 you P " He answered, " No, sir ; when I eat with the 
 children of poverty, my heart sleeps. I did not 
 
VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 135 
 
 leave my dear wife, and come up hither in search of 
 silver, or agreeable food. I came to this land that 
 its poor people might be saved. Be patient with 
 me, sir. Were I to take your money, the wild Ka- 
 rens would turn against me." Admirable man ! 
 Where shall we find his equal in devotion to the 
 cause of Christ? 
 
 This servant of God is still living, and his char- 
 acter shines, in a venerable old age.^ Though he 
 stands out preeminently above his brethren in the 
 native Karen ministry, we still recognize him as a 
 Karen, and as owing all that he was and is to the 
 grace of God, who can easily raise up many such 
 apostolic men from among heathen converts. 
 
 Many of the older missions in other heathen coun- 
 tries have also had native ministers of distinguished 
 ability and usefulness, but I shall specify only two 
 more. 
 
 The Rev. John Thomas, a distinguished mission- 
 ary of the English Church Missionary Society in 
 Southern India, having the care of ten thousand 
 native Christians, speaks thus of a native preacher 
 among the Shanars : " Without any exception, he is 
 the most able and eloquent native preacher of the 
 gospel now in India." " I have no hesitation," Mr. 
 Thomas adds, " in saying, that if such sermons as 
 
 1 In the Annual Report of the Baptist Missionary Union for 1864, he 
 is called " the Prince of Preachers." 
 
136 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 are generally preached by him, were delivered in any 
 pulpit in London, the church would be crowded to 
 overflowing. Nor am I singular in this opinion, for 
 several of my brother missionaries, after hearing 
 him, have expressed themselves in terms of the 
 highest admiration of his pulpit abilities. The peo- 
 ple, also, everywhere, listen to him with great atten- 
 tion and delight." 
 
 In 1860, death deprived Mr. Thomas of this be- 
 loved native co-laborer, and the missionary thus tes- 
 tifies to his worth : " His affection, his simplicity, 
 honesty, and straightforwardness, his amazing pulpit 
 talents, and profound humility, endeared him to me 
 more than I can describe. The last sermon I heard 
 from him was, without exception, the greatest ser- 
 mon I ever heard. The text was, ' Enduring the 
 cross, despising the shame.' Never did I hear 
 Christ so exalted by human tongue. The effect was 
 perfectly overwhelming." 
 
 My third specimen is Bartimeus, an eloquent 
 blind native preacher at the Sandwich Islands. 
 From the lowest physical, intellectual, moral, and 
 social degradation and wretchedness, in his state of 
 heathenism, Bartimeus (so named at his baptism) 
 gradually rose, under the new-creating power of the 
 gospel, to be a devoted, active, eloquent, and success- 
 ful minister of the Word. The late Dr. Armstrong, 
 a judicious and able missionary, who was with him 
 
VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 137 
 
 five years, speaks thus of him : " He is a short man, 
 and rather corpulent, very inferior in appearance 
 when sitting, hut when he rises to speak he looks 
 well, stands erect, gesticulates with freedom, and 
 pours forth, as he becomes animated, words in tor- 
 rents. He is perfectly familiar with the former as 
 well as the present modes of thinking of the island- 
 ers, which gives him a power in comparisons, allu- 
 sions, and direct appeals, which no foreigner will 
 ever possess. Often, while listening with exquisite 
 delight to his eloquent strains, have I thought of 
 Wii*t's description of the celebrated blind preacher 
 of Virginia." 
 
 Bartimeus died in the autumn of 1843. "His 
 funeral," says the Rev. E. W. Clark, one of the 
 older members of the mission, " was attended by 
 a large congregation of sincere mourners. The 
 voice which had so often been heard among us in 
 devout supplication, and in earnest entreaty, calling 
 the sinner to repentance, was silent in death. His 
 purified spirit, raised from the darkest heathenism, 
 by the blessing of God on missionary labor, was at 
 peace with the Saviour." 
 
 His calling to be a preacher was evidently of 
 God. He had original endowments for that ser- 
 vice. He had great strength of memory, and there 
 has already been a reference to his eloquence. An 
 illustration of both is given by Mr. Clark, writing 
 from Wailuku soon after his decease. 
 
138 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 " In January last, I met him at a protracted meet- 
 ing, and was then more than ever impressed with 
 the extent and accuracy of his knowledge of the 
 Scriptures. He was called upon to preach at an 
 evening meeting. His heart was glowing with love 
 for souls. The overwhelming destruction of the im- 
 penitent seemed to he pressing with great weight 
 upon his mind ; and this he took for the suhject of 
 his discourse at the evening meeting. He chose for 
 the foundation of his remarks, Jer. iv. 13 : ' Behold, 
 he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be 
 as a whirlwind.' The anger of the Lord against the 
 wicked, and the terrible overthrow of all his ene- 
 mies, were portrayed in vivid colors. He seized 
 upon the terrific image of a whirlwind or tornado 
 as an emblem of the ruin which God would bring 
 upon his enemies. This image he presented in all 
 its majestic and awful aspects, enforcing his remarks 
 with such passages as Ps. Iviii. 9 : ' He shall take 
 them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in 
 his wrath;' Prov. i. 27: 'And your destruction 
 cometh as a whirlwind ; ' Isa. xl. 24 : ' And the 
 whirlwind shall take them away as stubble ; ' Jer. 
 XXX. 23 : ' Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goetli 
 forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind ; it shall fall 
 with pain upon the head of the wicked ; ' Hosea viii. 
 7 : ' For they have sown the wind, and they shall 
 reap the whirlwind ; ' Nahum i. 3, Zech. vii. 14, and 
 other passages in which the same image is presented 
 
VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 139 
 
 — always quoting chapter and verse. I was sur- 
 prised to find that this image is so often used by the 
 sacred writers. And how this blind man, never 
 having used a concordance or a reference Bible in 
 his life, could, on the spur of the moment, refer to 
 all these texts, was quite a mystery. But his mind 
 was stored with the precious treasure, and in such 
 order that he always had it at command. Never 
 have 1 been so forcibly impressed, as while listening 
 to this address, with the remark of the apostle, 
 ' Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we 
 persuade men ; ' and seldom have I witnessed a 
 specimen of more genuine eloquence. Near the 
 close he said, 'Who can withstand the fury of the 
 Lord, when he comes in his chariots of whirlwind ? 
 You have heard of the cars in America, propelled 
 by fire and steam, with what mighty speed they go, 
 and how they crush all in their way; so will the 
 swift chariots of Jehovah overwhelm all his ene- 
 mies. Flee, then, to the ark of safety.' " 
 
 These three remarkable men were from the lowest 
 grades of heathen life. What they became was the 
 result of the grace of God, through the gospel. 
 And I bring them forward that our hopes may be 
 raised as to what God may be expected to do through 
 a native ministry. We must not, however, expect 
 such eloquent native preachers to bear a larger pro- 
 portion among the ministers of their own respective 
 
140 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 countries, than such men do in our own. As in 
 old Christian countries, so among preachers of 
 heathen lands, such men give a character to their 
 profession. We thereby obtain a more exalted and 
 just view of the capabilities of the profession ; and 
 they help to overcome the natural backwardness in 
 missionaries to throw responsibilities on a ministry 
 so recently rescued from the pollutions of idolatry. 
 
 My own estimate of the value of a native ministry 
 has been rising for more than a score of years. A 
 large number of the Christian islands in Central 
 and Western Polynesia are properly reckoned among 
 their trophies. They have been the fearless pioneers 
 of the white missionary, facing dangers which to 
 him would have been fatal, and which were some- 
 times fatal to themselves; and many a beautiful 
 Christianized group in the broad Pacific is now 
 manned solely by native missionaries and pastors. 
 
 The question naturally arises, and needs a brief 
 reply. Whether mission churches may be expected 
 to hold fast to their profession, in case the mission- 
 aries should withdraw, and leave them to them- 
 selves ? There are some very interesting facts bear- 
 ing on this question. 
 
 The churches of Tahiti, one of the Society Islands, 
 were thus situated, for twenty years after the Eng- 
 lish missionaries had been excluded by the French. 
 They were living under French rule, and fully ex- 
 
VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 141 
 
 posed to French vices and to Roman Catholic influ- 
 ences ; and were left by the missionaries, moreover, 
 without native pastors. Yet, as is related elsewhere, 
 they at once instituted pastors from among them- 
 selves, and more than held their ground. Tahiti and 
 its dependencies are still under French rule ; but it 
 was stated last year by a London journal, that there 
 are now thirty-seven native Protestant parishes and 
 churches with only native pastors, containing three 
 thousand communicants ; and that Pomare, the 
 queen, and nearly all her people, still adhere to the 
 Protestant faith .^ 
 
 And we have seen how it was in Madagascar, 
 after the banishment of the English missionaries, 
 and during five and twenty years of persecution. I 
 know of no more remarkable firmness in the primi- 
 tive churches. The blood of the martyrs in Mada- 
 gascar, as in ancient times, was the seed of the 
 church. We have seen, too, how it was with the 
 native Christians in India, during the great rebel- 
 lion; which had for its object not only the over- 
 throw of the English power, but the utter destruc- 
 tion of Christianity, and when the native Christians 
 were without the presence and support of their mis- 
 sionary fathers and brethren. Nowhere — never, was 
 greater firmness shown by persecuted Christians 
 than by those. 
 
 As the rebellion did not extend to Southern India, 
 
 1 London Patriot, Aug. 16, 1866, p. 542. 
 
142 FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 the native Christians there had not to pass through 
 the fiery ordeal of their brethren at the north. Yet 
 the Rev. Mr. Thomas, the venerable missionary 
 already quoted, bears the most pleasing testimony 
 concerning the native Christians under his mission- 
 ary care. " I do not for a moment doubt," he says, 
 " but that this people would retain their religion, if 
 the English government in India, and all the mis- 
 sionaries, were providentially withdrawn from the 
 country. Their stability arises very much, I think, 
 from their knowledge of God's holy word, and the 
 very great extent to which the power of reading that 
 word has been afforded by means of our village ver- 
 nacular schools." 1 Thus showing wherein lies the 
 strength and glory of Protestant missions, as dis- 
 tinguished from those of the Romish Church. 
 
 It is natural also to inquire. Whether what are 
 called revivals of religion are common in churches 
 among the heathen ? They appear to me to be not 
 unfrequent, and to be evidently the work of the 
 Holy Spirit. Indeed, revivals of religion do not 
 seem peculiar to any age, or country, where there 
 is vital religion. The reformation in the days of 
 Hezekiah is declared to have occurred " suddenly." 2 
 It was both sudden and rapid. So was that in the 
 time of Ezra. So was that in the time of John, the 
 
 1 Church Missionary^ Report, 1864-5, p. 134. 
 
 2 2 Chron. xxix. 36. 
 
VALUE OF NATIVE CHURCHES. 143 
 
 forerunner. So was that of the Pentecost. Such 
 must have been the character of much of the suc- 
 cess of the Apostle Paul ; else why was he repre- 
 sented, by his opposers, as creating so great a dis- 
 turbance ? Such was the reformation in the time 
 of Luther, whose grand victory was achieved within 
 ten years after he first raised the standard of reform. 
 The " Great Awakening " in New England was also 
 sudden and rapid. So was that at the Sandwich 
 Islands. In a very few years, subsequent to 1836, 
 more than thirty thousand hopeful converts were 
 added to the church. Nor was the progress of the 
 gospel less rapid in the Islands of the South Pacific. 
 We have seen how it was in Sierra Leone, in Mada- 
 gascar, and among the Karens of Burmah. In the 
 missions of Western Asia there have been frequent 
 revivals, though no one was very extensive. And 
 we have reason to believe that this general law of 
 progress in the kingdom of Christ will be more and 
 more exemplified as the time for the world's conver- 
 sion draws near. 4 
 
 In the Christian Church, which is yet but par- 
 tially sanctified, the stream of gospel grace has not 
 a continuous, even flow. It meets with obstruc- 
 tions ; and when it rises above them and overflows 
 them, we call the overflow a revival, a reformation. 
 
 The influences that modify revivals of religion are 
 clearly seen in the heathen world. The really great 
 awakenings hitherto, have all been among what may 
 
144 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 be called the aboriginal races, where the gospel 
 encounters less of organized antagonism than in 
 the conquering and dominant races. And by press- 
 ing the work among these more pliant races, the 
 Evangelical Church has not only gained important 
 positions and advantages, but has had the encour- 
 agement it so much needed at the outset of its 
 great work, to labor hopefully and patiently in the 
 fields of greater difficulty, where the harvest must 
 needs be delayed, but will be more abundant when it 
 comes. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MISSIONABY LIFE ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Fundamental Principles. — The Missionary contemplated in his Rela- 
 tions — as a Son ; as a Brother ; as a Husband ; as a Father — to 
 his Missionary Board ; to his Mission ; to the People for whom he 
 labors. — Influence of the Missionary Life on Mental Development ; 
 on Piety ; on Happiness. — Cautionary Suggestions. 
 
 I PROPOSE to illustrate the Missionary Life in 
 some of its more important relations, as that life has 
 fallen under my personal observation. Of course on 
 such a topic I must draw my facts from the ex- 
 perience of that Board of Missions, with which I 
 have been officially connected. There will be an ad- 
 vantage in presenting this particular aspect of the 
 missionary life; and should secretaries of other 
 societies do the same with theirs, it would doubtless 
 be found, that there is no great diversity in its gen- 
 eral aspects. 
 
 It is a fundamental principle, that the missionary 
 goes on his mission in the discharge of his own per- 
 sonal duty ; not as a servant of the churches, and 
 not as a servant of the missionary society. The 
 churches and the missionary society are his helpers, 
 to carry out his own benevolent purpose. The mis- 
 
 10 
 
146 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 sionary is indebted to the churches just as the 
 churches are indebted to him ; and he does their 
 work in the same sense in which they do his by 
 supporting him. This is the view that best com- 
 ports with the prosecution of missions on an ex- 
 tended scale. 
 
 Moreover, the missionary and the pastor both 
 derive their authority from the same commission. 
 Both are alike '•' called of God " to the ministry of 
 the gospel. The notion that " evangelists," in the 
 Scripture sense of that term, were restricted, as an 
 order of ministers, to the apostolic age, and that 
 pastors are now the only Scriptural ministry, — which 
 bears too great a resemblance to the old Popish no- 
 tion, that ministers may not be ordained sine titulo, 
 — though countenanced by some of the Puritan 
 Fathers, was disowned by the Presbyterians in 1764, 
 and is not in keeping with the command of our Lord, 
 as it is now understood, to preach the gospel to every 
 creature. If there be any class of gospel ministers, 
 which is clearly recognized and enjoined in the New 
 Testament, to endure until the world is converted, 
 it is Christ's ambassadors to the benighted and the 
 lost ; it is those who devote their lives to the exten- 
 sion of his kingdom. 
 
 Should any one affirm, in opposition to this view, 
 that we find directions in St. Paul's Epistles only 
 for the office of presbyters, then what are the Epistles 
 to Timothy and Titus ? i 
 
 1 See Appendix V. — Looking from the author's stand-point, it seems 
 
THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 147 
 
 I now contemplate the missionary in some of his 
 more important personal relations. 
 
 1. In his relations as a smi and a brother. It is 
 not uncommon for parents to make ohjections, at 
 first, to the going of a son or daughter on a foreign 
 mission. Often this is the result of mere natural 
 instinct; as in the mother of Samuel J. Mills, 
 though she had dedicated him from his hirth to the 
 work of missions, and when it is so, as in her case, 
 the objection soon yields to reflection. Sometimes 
 
 strange that the fathers of Congregationalism should have taken the 
 limited view some of them did of the office and duties of the gospel 
 ministry, and of the power and duty of the churches to provide a com- 
 petent ministry for planting churches outside of Christendom, and sup- 
 plying those churches with a competent pastorate. To instance only the 
 excellent Dr. Owen, in his Discourses of Spiritual Gijls. [ Works, iv. p. 
 275.] After declaring it to be the principal work of an evangelist, 
 " to go up and down from one place and nation unto another, to preach 
 the gospel unto Jews and Gentiles as yet unconverted," he asks : " Who 
 shall now empower any one hereunto ? What church, what persons, 
 have received authority to ordain any one to be such an evangelist ? It 
 cannot be proved," he adds, " that any church or person has power or 
 authority to ordain a person into this office ! " That the eminent 
 divine was writing with no reference to the claims and exigencies of 
 the heathen world of his times, with the restricted idea of the church 
 as a self-preserving, self-governing, and not a selt-propagating body, 
 and mainly with his eye on hierarchal assumptions so rampant in those 
 times, is obvious from the general tenor of his reasoning. Had he 
 lived in our day, he would on no account have shut up the preaching 
 ministry of the church to the pastoral office, nor to lands already 
 Christianized. Nor will the evangelical churches and ministry of any 
 denomination, in these days, allow themselves to be restricted iu 
 their labors for the kingdom of their blessed Lord and Saviour. 
 
148 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 it is the result of ignorance concerning missions, or 
 of a lack of pious reflection, or of deficient self-con- 
 secration. In such cases it is not common, I be- 
 lieve, for parents to yield, until they clearly see that 
 the mind of their son or daughter is made up on 
 conscientious grounds. Supposing the parent to be 
 in the wrong, there is the more call for calm persis- 
 tence in the child, because such a state of mind 
 must be injurious to the parent, and because the 
 parent will be almost sure to yield at last (if a true 
 disciple), and to find the sacrifice conducive to his 
 growth in grace and religious enjoyment. 
 
 I recollect but one instance, and that many years 
 since, in which a mother regarded the mission con- 
 templated by her two sons with such nervous terror, 
 as to threaten the overthrow of her reason. Both 
 of the sons were members of the Andover Seminary, 
 and the case was so marked, that I advised them, as 
 a filial duty, to relinquish the idea of going abroad, 
 and they are now highly useful pastors. Our Sav- 
 iour's declaration, Mark vii. 11,^ is obviously appli- 
 cable to cases of this sort ; as also, when the com- 
 fortable support of parents requires the young min- 
 ister to remain near them. There is a tradition of 
 Dr. Milne, the celebrated associate of Dr. Morrison, 
 in China, which probably has some foundation in 
 
 1 " But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Cor- 
 ban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by 
 me, he shall go free," etc. 
 
THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 149 
 
 fact ; that before decidedly entering on his prepara- 
 tion for a foreign mission, he labored to secure a 
 cottage, a cow, and a few other needful things for 
 his Scottish mother, which placed her in comfortable 
 circumstances. In so doing, he complied with the 
 spirit of our Lord's injunction. I recollect one in- 
 stance, and but one, of a missionary actually coming 
 home, which he did with the approval of his society, 
 to look after an impoverished and dependent mother. 
 Very few cases have been within my knowledge, 
 however, where parents have actually suffered for 
 want of support, as a consequence of giving up their 
 children to the gospel ministry among the heathen. 
 Questions of this sort have more frequently had 
 weight when the theological student was deciding 
 upon his duty prospectively, and generally because 
 of younger brothers or sisters requiring protection 
 and aid. It is my belief, that the claims of kindred 
 have exerted very little more legitimate influence in 
 relation to foreign missions, than they have when 
 determining where to settle in pastoral life at home. 
 
 2. I contemplate the missionary in the relations 
 of a husband and father. That he should generally 
 go as a married man, is beyond all reasonable ques- 
 tion. With an intelligent, pious, well-educated wife, 
 having good health and a devoted spirit, his value as 
 a missionary is greatly enhanced. She faces danger 
 and endures hardship as well as he. Her courage, 
 
150 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 faith, and patience among barbarous heathens, fully 
 equal her husband's, and her presence adds much to. 
 his safety, and the more if she have little children. 
 When the wife proves unable to endure the exposures 
 of the missionary life, if the medical opinion require 
 a visit to this country, and the mission advise it, the 
 executive committee seldom hesitates to afford the 
 means for a return, and reasonable facilities, also, 
 for a recovery of health. When a recovery is out 
 of the question, such as would warrant a return to 
 the mission, an honorable release is granted, and 
 the missionary exercises his ministry in his native 
 land. Some of the most esteemed of our home 
 ministers have been of this class. 
 
 How is it with the children of missionaries ? I 
 am probably better informed on this subject thau 
 any other person, and I approach it with pleasure. 
 I speak of the children after they have been sepa- 
 rated from their parents, and brought to this coun- 
 try for education. 
 
 In continental tropical regions, there are reasons 
 in the climate why children should be sent home ; 
 but in general they may be safely retained there 
 until about the age of twelve years, in which time 
 the very important result is secured, if it ever is, of 
 impressing the parental relation strongly upon the 
 mind and heart of the child. There are various 
 reasons, besides the climate, for sending the chil- 
 dren home. By obtaining a part of their education 
 
THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 151 
 
 here, they will be of far greater value as the proba- 
 ble successors of their parents in the missionary 
 work. Indeed, a competent education for that ser- 
 vice, or for any of the higher departments of a 
 Christian life, cannot be well obtained either in 
 India or China; and when the time comes for a 
 transfer to the parental home, the parents, though 
 weeping over the sacrifice, are ready, out of love to 
 their offspring, to welcome it as a boon. 
 
 The time for sending the children home rests 
 wholly with the parents, as also does the choice of 
 a guardian ; for it is expected that the parental 
 authority will always be delegated by the parent to 
 some one in this country. The expenses of the voy- 
 age are usually met by the missionary society, which 
 also makes an annual grant to the child of about 
 one hundred dollars until eighteen years of age, 
 when applied for by the guardian. As the mission- 
 ary society sustains an equal relation to all the re- 
 turned children, and could not be at the expense of 
 giving a liberal education to all, it is obviously pre- 
 cluded from making grants expressly for the educa- 
 tion of any one at college. It aims to do just 
 enough, as shown by experience, to secure a place 
 for the returned children of missionaries in the 
 great current of social life in this country, which 
 bears along the children of Christian parents. It 
 aims to do just enough to enable and induce rela- 
 tives and friends to do the rest. More than this 
 
152 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 would tend to defeat the object of sending the chil- 
 dren home. A permanent fund raised for this pur- 
 pose, which some have urged, besides being unneces- 
 sary, would be detrimental in various respects to the 
 best interests of the children. A separate school 
 for them, which some have strongly recommended, 
 would be a calamity, since they ought by all means 
 to be educated along with other boys and girls, along 
 with the young men and women of their generation. 
 Missionaries would generally, and with good reason, 
 oppose such a separation and isolation of their chil- 
 dren. 
 
 I have made considerable progress in obtaining 
 positive information as to the results of this system. 
 Answers have been received to one hundred and 
 eighty-four printed circulars sent to returned chil- 
 dren above twelve years of age, or to their guardians. 
 The age of the oldest of these is now almost fifty 
 years, and their places of residence of course it is 
 not always easy to ascertain. The number of males 
 was ninety-five, and of females eighty-nine. Of the 
 ninety-five males, seventy-one were reported to be 
 members of churches ; and of the eighty-nine 
 females, seventy-eight were thus reported. That 
 is to say, one hundred and forty-nine of the one 
 hundred and eighty-four were church-members. 
 Although the Board has never made a single grant, 
 so far as I recollect, expressly for a college educa- 
 tion, for the reason just stated, yet as many as fifty- 
 
THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 153 
 
 one of the ninety-five males have received such an 
 education, or are now receiving it ; and thirty-one 
 others are in academies, and believed to be generally 
 preparing for college. That is to say, eighty-two of 
 the ninety-five males are reported as having received, 
 or as now receiving a liberal education ; and thirteen 
 of them have been or are now in the gospel ministry. 
 Of the eighty-nine females, seventy-eight are re- 
 ported as having received, or as now receiving, an 
 education in academies or high schools; and thir- 
 teen of them are, or have been wives of missionaries. 
 And I believe that responses from those not heard 
 from, would vary but little from the reports already 
 received. • 
 
 These will probably be regarded as remarkable 
 results, — superior, perhaps, to what we should find 
 on a similar inquiry into the circumstances and his- 
 tory of any other class of children in our country ; 
 and they are directly referable to the providence and 
 grace of God. How large a proportion of them we 
 may number among the followers of the Lamb ! 
 How large a proportion receive the best education 
 our country affords ! And yet who is able to tell, in 
 respect to most, in what manner all the expenses of 
 their college or high school education have been 
 met? We see clearly the hand of Him, who said, 
 '' Lo, I am with you always." 
 
 3. I next contemplate the missionary in his rela- 
 
154 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 tions to his Missionary Board, The missionary has 
 the same ecclesiastical liberty which pastors have at 
 home ; and he is, at the same time, as much under 
 proper controlling influences. No body of ministers 
 is more free, or under greater responsibility. I say 
 this in view of the fundamental principle with which 
 I started, that the missionary goes on his mission in 
 the conscientious discharge of his personal duty to 
 his Lord and Master. And I rejoice in being able 
 to say, that, in this service, he is quite sure of what 
 is or ought to be a comfortable support. The enter- 
 prise of the celebrated Miiller, in England, is often 
 spoken of as if it were peculiarly a work of faith. 
 It does not seem to me to be so very peculiar in this 
 respect. That of the American Board, in appro- 
 priating half a million of dollars and more for an 
 expenditure a year before it is received, is not less a 
 work of faith. The trust in God is the same in 
 nature, the same in degree ; and so, substantially, is 
 the use of means. This is true as to the support of 
 every missionary. The pledge given by the mission- 
 ary society of a support to its missionaries, is noth- 
 ing more than the expression of an assured faith, 
 that the means will be provided. The Board can 
 give no more than it receives. There is no firm 
 footing for the society, or for its missionaries, except 
 in the promise of the great Lord of all. If the mis- 
 sionary feels sure of a support, it is for precisely the 
 reason that is said to animate the celebrated philan- 
 thropist just named. 
 
THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 155 
 
 I believe there has been no case in the experience 
 of the American Board, where the missionary has 
 failed to receive his full salary, nor do I believe there 
 ever w^ill be. The ground of this confidence is in 
 faith ; strengthened indeed by a long experience, 
 and by the well-known fact in missions to foreign 
 heathen lands, that such a support is essential to 
 their existence. Nor do I believe it will ever be 
 found more difficult than it has been heretofore, to 
 provide for the returned disabled missionary, and 
 for the missionary widow. As for the returned chil- 
 dren of missionaries, I cannot doubt that a way will 
 ere long be devised, with but little actual increase of 
 expense, to enable every missionary, acting through 
 his relatives and friends, or in cooperation with 
 them, to take the whole arrangement for the educa- 
 tion of his children in this country into his own 
 hands, just as ministers do who are in the pastoral 
 office at home. 
 
 I next inquire, how it is with the missionary when 
 no longer able to labor in his field. The case differs 
 from that of the pastor at home chiefly in this, that 
 the Executive Committee of the Board, perhap^s 
 without having greater power than parishes gener- 
 ally have to do what is equitable in the case, has 
 yet a stronger disposition so to do. Each case is 
 treated on its own individual merits, with the inten- 
 tion always to do what is equitable. There is some- 
 
156 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 times a difference of opinion between the missionary 
 and his mission, and sometimes between the mis- 
 sionary and his committee ; but in all cases, so far as 
 I recollect, where an appeal was made to the public 
 judgment, the final result has been, substantially, 
 with the mission, and with the committee. I fear 
 as much as this can hardly be said of parishes here 
 at home as a general fact, nor even of churches, in 
 relation to their dismissed pastors. 
 
 The case of returned widows is the most difficult 
 to treat, because they so easily pass out from obser- 
 vation, and this is most true of the more meritorious 
 among them. Nevertheless I believe, that as a class, 
 they are, to say the least, as much favored as are 
 the widows of pastors at home. Some persons have 
 advocated the raising of a fund for their support; 
 and such a fund could be raised. But it would in- 
 jure the Board, without being of use to them. The 
 possession, by the Missionary Board, of a greater 
 amount of permanent funds than is actually needed 
 for its credit in the world of commerce, would 
 weaken that principle of faith, on which so much 
 depends. And where it is a fact, that as much is 
 allowed to widows, all things considered, as ought 
 to be, to aid them in serving the Lord Jesus in their 
 widowed state, then it would not be expected that 
 they should receive a greater amount, were there a 
 widow's fund. Nor would grants made to them from 
 
THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 157 
 
 such a fund be any less a charity than they are 
 under the present arrang-ement. Nor, in either 
 case, would it be more a charity than our blessed 
 Lord submitted to during his whole public ministry 
 on earth. And the servant is not above his Lord. 
 
 After carefully examining the experience of the 
 American Board from the commencement of its 
 operations, I have no hesitation in affirming, that 
 the widows of missionaries have been as kindly cared 
 for, as a class, as are the widows of pastors in this 
 country ; and I could use even stronger language, 
 were it needful. 
 
 The result of my observation on this whole sub- 
 ject, during the past five and forty years, is, that 
 the relation between the missionary and his Board 
 is one of great mutual satisfaction ; though of course 
 not without its share of the misapprehensions and 
 trials which are incident to every sphere of human 
 life. 
 
 4. We come next to the relations sustained by 
 the missionary to his mission. In the mission he 
 belongs to a self-governing republic, where every 
 man has an equal vote, and where the majority 
 rules ; with the right, however (which is very rarely 
 exercised), of an appeal to the Prudential Commit- 
 tee, and ultimately to the Board. Years ago, a cer- 
 tain mission was much afflicted by divided counsels 
 among its members, and the cause was not apparent. 
 
158 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 It was at length ascertained, that this was the result 
 of a want of a proper division of labor among the 
 several missionaries. The missionaries had not a 
 sufficient weight of responsibility resting upon them 
 individually. This principle, in its relations to mis- 
 sions, was then somewhat of a discovery, and has 
 since been acted on with the most happy results. 
 When missionaries have been trained to feel fully 
 the moral responsibility of a majority vote (as it has 
 been found that Europeans, from a deficiency in 
 their early education, seldom are), and when each 
 has a sufficient pressure of duty, this method of or- 
 ganizing missions works exceedingly well. 
 
 The policy of the American Board is, to throw all 
 possible responsibility upon the mission thus organ- 
 ized. The mission is not, however, in a technical 
 sense, an ecclesiastical body. It is simply a mission 
 acting under the commission of our blessed Lord, 
 with liberty to do what is needful for its greatest 
 success. Of course there is, as there ought to be, 
 much room for the exercise of a wise discretion, and 
 for the development of experience. We have been 
 learning, during the fifty or sixty years past, in what 
 manner a mission should be worked, but probably 
 have yet more to learn. We have learned this : that 
 particular forms of ecclesiastical machinery, because 
 they work well at home, are not therefore to be re- 
 garded as exactly the thing to be set up in young 
 Christian communities formed in heathen lands ; and 
 
THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 159 
 
 precisely what the modifications should be, is still an 
 open question. We have learned, moreover, that 
 matters of this sort should be mainly left to the 
 discretion of missionaries in the field. They have 
 liberty to form associations, or presbyteries, as they 
 feel the need of them ; yet since their financial ques- 
 tions all helong to the mission as such, and since 
 most of the questions that arise have more or less 
 connection with finance, their social life is very much 
 in the meetings of the mission, or of its committees. 
 Moreover, it is a fundamental principle, in the sys- 
 tem of missions now under special contemplation, 
 that ecclesiastical bodies for native churches and 
 pastors, should be exclusively for them ; the mis- 
 sionaries sustaining to them only the relation of 
 advisers. 
 
 Of course the relations of missionaries to their 
 missions in no degree affect their relations to their 
 ecclesiastical bodies at home. The Board may dis- 
 miss a missionary for malpractice, but cannot depose 
 him from the ministry; yet the ecclesiastical body 
 at home may call upon the Board for the facts within 
 its knowledge, when investigating the conduct of a 
 missionary to learn whether he should be deposed 
 from the ministry. 
 
 I should add, that missionary societies and the 
 missions, though technically speaking not ecclesi- 
 astical bodies, have become (as has been elsewhere 
 afiirmed) a component part of the great modern 
 
160 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 structure of the Christian Church, as it is being 
 organized under God's providence, for the conver- 
 sion of the world ; and they should be permitted to 
 sustain the responsibilities and perforin the duties, 
 that are essential to the successful prosecution of 
 the missionary work on the broad scale of the world. 
 
 5. We next contemplate the missionary in his 
 relations to the people for whom he labors. He is an 
 ambassador from the Sovereign Lord to benighted 
 men in a state of rebellion, with a message of 
 mercy. And it seems reasonable to suppose, after 
 he has acquired the language of the people, that no 
 elaborate process of education is needful to make the 
 people understand his message. Many of the ear- 
 lier missionaries thought otherwise; and it would 
 be easy to find statements, by eminent men now in 
 the " Better Land," showing how the heathen must 
 be elaborately educated into the Christian import of 
 the words God, sin, holiness, and other similar terms, 
 before they will be able to comprehend the gospel 
 message. There is something in this, if the gospel 
 message is to be conveyed to the heathen simply 
 through a process of education. But the heathen 
 hiow that they are sinners ; they have a con- 
 science ; and if boldly and affectionately approached 
 by one whose own heart is full of the subject, and 
 solemnly assured of their lost condition as sinners, 
 and of the free salvation offered them through the 
 
THE MISSIOJS/ARY LIFE. 161 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ, experience has abundantly shown, 
 that there is no way so effectual as this of securing* 
 the aid of the Holy Spirit for their conversion. The 
 gospel may have direct access to the most debased 
 heathen mind. Of this there is evidence in the 
 abounding proofs of the success of missions. We 
 see it in Sierra Leone, among the Karens and Sha- 
 nars of India, in Madagascar, in South Africa, and 
 on the Pacific Islands. The especial demand in mis- 
 sions for education and for books comes after the 
 attention has been arrested, and more especially for 
 converts, and for such as are being trained for the 
 gospel ministry. Nothing precedes of necessity the 
 simple declaration of salvation through the cross 
 of Christ, when it comes from lips that have been 
 touched with a coal from off the altar of God. 
 
 6. I now contemplate the missionary simply as a 
 man. And, first, as to the influence of the mis- 
 sionary life on his mental development. I believe 
 there is as much of this development in mission- 
 aries, as there is in the home ministry ; and the 
 question I raise is only how this is possible in cir- 
 cumstances apparently so unfavorable. I account 
 for it by the fact, that, with the more intelligent 
 missionaries, the pressure is not less upon the men- 
 tal faculties, than it is in the pastoral office at home ; 
 and this is as true in the more barbarous heathen 
 countries, as it is in the more civilized. I even 
 11 
 
162 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 think, that the mental pressure upon the intelligent 
 and conscientious missionary is often greater than 
 it is upon his hrethren at home. For he finds that 
 there is everything to be done, and that he is the 
 only one to do it. He must be feet to the lame, eyes 
 to the blind, ears to the deaf, and must almost re- 
 construct the intellect, and almost recreate the con- 
 science. Did this responsibility come upon the mis- 
 sionary all at once, he could not bear it ; but come 
 it will, sooner or later, and the intelligent and faith- 
 ful missionary^ need fear no loss of stimulus to his 
 mind. It is the same that operated on the mind 
 and heart of the apostle to the Gentiles; and it 
 will increase with his years, especially in its demands 
 upon the judging and administrative powers. 
 
 How is it with the influence of the missionary life 
 upon the happiness of the missionary ? Among the 
 more than four hundred ordained missionaries, with 
 whom I have sustained an intimate official relation, 
 there have been cases of extreme sorrow; arising 
 from early prostration of the health, from the pre- 
 dominance of morbid sensibilities, from failure to 
 acquire the language, and other causes. But these 
 have been the exceptions, not the rule. The mis- 
 sionaries as a body have been happy in the field and 
 work of their choice. They have seemed to me, 
 when among them at their several homes, both men 
 and women, to be the happiest clerical families, as a 
 whole, within my knowledge. There is no way of 
 
THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 163 
 
 accounting for this, but in the fulfillment of the 
 Saviour's promise. For it is a fact that mission- 
 aries, being far away from civilized Christian society, 
 experience a certain degree of loss in the diminished 
 pressure of a wholesome public opinion, which sur- 
 rounds and sustains us in Christian lands like an 
 atmosphere ; thus creating a need of more grace to 
 insure right feeling and living, than is required at 
 home. Nor do I believe that any Protestant mis- 
 sionary, without this special grace, is likely to per- 
 severe in his mission. But the grace that is needed 
 is usually imparted ; and if sacrifices are demanded, 
 there is a pleasure in making them for Christ which 
 is proportioned to the sacrifice. That missionary 
 mother, parting with her child on the Burman 
 shore, when she raised her hand to heaven and ex- 
 claimed, " Saviour, I do this for thee ! " must 
 have felt a joy at that moment, rising above her 
 grief, akin to that of the martyr at the stake. And 
 what joy had Sarah Lanman Smith, dying in West- 
 ern Asia, when she declared that, for the world, she 
 would not lay her remains anywhere but there on 
 missionary ground. 
 
 And this leads me to speak, finally, of the influ- 
 ence of the missionary life on the piety of the mis- 
 sionary. For the reason just now stated, more 
 strength of piety is required to be a good mission- 
 ary among the heathen, than to be a good pastor at 
 home. I do not claim for missionaries a more per- 
 
164 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 feet exhibition of the Christian life, than is seen in 
 the home ministry ; but since, in their exposed cir- 
 cumstances, they need a higher and firmer tone of 
 the inward Christian life, I think that, through 
 divine grace, they have it. I believe that is the im- 
 pression made by them, as a class, in their visits to 
 this country. At any rate, that is the impression 
 they have made upon me. 
 
 I have long been impressed with the general char- 
 acter of missionary death-beds. The love of native 
 land and of the friends in that land, is not dimin- 
 ished by distance and the lapse of time, and death 
 sometimes comes early to the missionary, and unex- 
 pectedly, and in circumstances of great discomfort ; 
 yet I recall no case of regret expressed at meeting 
 it, by the missionary, or his wife, under any cir- 
 cumstances on missionary ground. The sentiment 
 expressed by Mrs. Smith, has been the common sen- 
 timent with missionaries ; and the venerable Allen 
 Graves, when he came from India, many years ago, 
 for the benefit of his health, and found that he must 
 die, proffered a request through me, that he might 
 be allowed to return to India and die there, which 
 request was granted. Harriet Newell, when told, 
 on the Isle of France, that she was soon to leave 
 the world, exclaimed, " Joyful news ! I long to de- 
 part." The last audible words of Levi Parsons, 
 dying in Egypt, were, " The angel of the Lord en- 
 campeth round about them that fear him." Mrs. 
 
THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 165 
 
 Poor's dying words in Ceylon were, " Glory to God 
 the Father, to God the Son, to God the Holy 
 Ghost" — words, it may be, among the first she 
 uttered on reaching the heavenly world. And her 
 venerated husband, dying many years after, whis- 
 pered, as he closed his eyes on earth, " Joy ! Joy ! 
 Hallelujah ! " " If this be the darh valley, ^^ said the 
 excellent Mrs. Hervey, dying soon after her arrival 
 in India, " there is no darkness in it ; all is light — 
 light ! " 
 
 And the cases might be easily multiplied of calm, 
 peaceful trust in Christ in the dying hour, of a tran- 
 quil hope of immortality, and of gratitude for the 
 privilege of living and dying in the work of mis- 
 sions. 
 
 I may not close without a few suggestions, which 
 are needed to prevent misapprehension. 
 
 As I have stated the case, the support of the for- 
 eign missionary and his family is more nearly a uni- 
 form and adequate supply of their temporal wants, 
 than is generally enjoyed by ministers and their 
 families in this country. The final cause for this, 
 in the ordering of Divine Providence, would- seem to 
 be, that the prosecution of missions among heathen 
 nations by married missionaries, would not other- 
 wise be a possibility. How could a missionary, with 
 wife and children, as human nature is, possibly keep 
 the field in a tropical region, surrounded by a half- 
 
166 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 civilized, unsympathizing, heathen people, with only 
 a partial or uncertain support? Very different 
 would it be, were he anywhere within the bounds 
 of his native land, in a community homogeneous 
 with himself, where only a few years are needed for 
 the incoming of civilization to develop a congenial 
 home for his family ; and still more, were he labor- 
 ing in an already matured and well-organized Chris- 
 tian community. A mission composed of married 
 missionaries does indeed cost considerably more 
 than would a mission composed of unmarried mis- 
 sionaries ; yet such a mission is so much more effect- 
 ive abroad, and so much more interesting at home, 
 that it is easier, in point of fact, to obtain the means 
 of supporting it from the churches, than it would be 
 to support a mission of unmarried missionaries. An 
 adequate support is believed to be an essential thing 
 in foreign Protestant missions, since on no other 
 supposition would such missions be possible on an 
 extended scale. 
 
 Yet it is by no means true, as is often asserted, 
 and as is perhaps generally believed, that the trials 
 of the home missionary life are greater than those 
 to which the foreign missionary is subjected. I do 
 not undervalue the trials of the home missionary. 
 My habit for many years has been carefully to note 
 them, as set forth, monthly, by the Home Mission- 
 ary Society ; and they are a noble testimony to the 
 self-consecration and zeal of that enterprising, de- 
 
THE MISSIONARY LIFE. 167 
 
 voted, and most useful and essential body of Chris- 
 tian ministers. But the most painful trials of gos- 
 pel ministers, whether pastors or missionaries, are 
 those which appertain to their spiritual vocation ; 
 and here the foreign missionary must be the greater 
 sufferer. I have long ceased to expect a foreign 
 missionary to persevere in his work, who does not 
 enter upon it as a life of faith, and with a certain 
 amount of physical, mental, and moral adaptation. 
 Mere philosophers will not go on such missions, and 
 mere philanthropists would not remain long, should 
 they happen to go. Impulsive, unreflecting piety 
 will give out before the day of embarkation, or retire 
 ere the language has been acquired, or the battle 
 has fairly begun. Fine conceptions of the beautiful 
 in social life, glowing apprehensions of pastoral 
 duty, broad and elevated views of the nature and re- 
 lations of theological truth, are not sufficient to 
 give enduring life to the zeal of a missionary. 
 Something more than all this is needed. There 
 must be the grand aim, the living, undying purpose, 
 of reconciling men to God, and thus extending the 
 kingdom of the blessed Redeemer. There needs to 
 be a real enthusiasm, sustained by a spiritualized 
 doctrinal experience, and by the " powers of the 
 world to come." Nothing short of this will keep 
 the foreign missionary cheerfully and long in the 
 field. 
 
 And even with such missionaries, — who are men 
 
168 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 after all, — it would be disastrous for a mission, 
 should a well-founded apprehension come over it of 
 failure in the temporal support of their families. 
 And it is a great mercy to the heathen world, and 
 to the churches as hound to publish the gospel 
 through the whole extent of that world, that the 
 providence and grace of God, in the experience of 
 the past fifty years, afford a wonderful guarantee for 
 the earthly support of the missionary and his wife 
 and children. It is one of the significant facts of 
 our times, for which we should ascribe glory to God. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 HINDRANCES AT HOME. 
 
 The Chief Hindrance. — "Want of Information. — Pastors will find 
 this. — The Facts stated. — How the Ignorance is to be removed. 
 Causes that are purely Providential. — Human Agencies. — Pas- 
 toral. — Sabbath-schools. — Monthly Concert of Prayer. — Mission- 
 ary Publications. — Ecclesiastical Bodies. — Benevolent Societies. 
 Hindrances resulting from Misapprehensions and Objections. 
 Skepticism. — Change in the Evidences of Piety. — Circumstances 
 favoring the Pastor. — The Responsibility of Christian People. 
 Ministers all stand related to the Whole Work. 
 
 My present object is not so much to specify the hin- 
 drances to the work of missions in the churches at 
 home, which exist in the form of misapprehensions 
 and objections, though they will receive a brief con- 
 sideration, as what I conceive to be, in true Christians, 
 the root and source of them all ; namely, ignorance 
 of the facts in missions. I am to speak, then, of 
 this great obstacle in the Christian churches to the 
 progress of the missionary work, and how it is to be 
 removed. No department of duty, at the present 
 time, is more deserving than this of critical atten- 
 tion from ministers of the gospel, and from the 
 churches. 
 
 I. I must first illustrate the fact of this ignorance. 
 The deficiency is in what may be called appropriate 
 
170 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 information. Specific duties demand appropriate 
 facts, and these are indispensable. It was seeing 
 the wounded man who fell among thieves, which 
 called forth the compassionate ministrations of the 
 good Samaritan. It was beholding the sin and 
 misery of mankind, that brought the Son of God 
 from heaven on his mission to^earth. 
 
 Pastors will be sure to find among the members 
 of their churches a deficiency in that kind of in- 
 formation, which is productive, through the divine 
 blessing, of a missionary spirit. Our age is indeed 
 called, and very properly, a reading age. '' The 
 popular taste," as one has justly said, "is discur- 
 sive ; travelling over the fields of trade, agriculture, 
 commercfe, and all the productive industries of the 
 times. It follows the diplomacy of cabinets, and 
 the movements of armies, with the world's map 
 constantly in hand. It is alive to the lessons of 
 science, the attractions of literature, and especially 
 the fascinations of fiction, in its dealings with life 
 and religion. And yet here is a cause confessedly 
 transcending every other, in the judgment of the 
 Christian mind, which, if we were to estimate its 
 importance by what the bulk of the people know 
 about it, we should be forced to set it down as one 
 of the most insignificant topics of the day." ^ 
 
 This is the strong testimony of a writer in our 
 father-land ; and it is applicable to our country. 
 
 1 The Missionary News, 1866, p. 110. 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME. 17 1 
 
 How little accurate information has the great body 
 of church-members in our best churches, as to the 
 moral and religious condition of the world ! Per- 
 haps there are no churches in Christendom, un- 
 less we except the Moravian, which have a better 
 missionary development than the Congregational 
 churches in the States of Massachusetts and Con- 
 necticut ; and I draw my illustration specially from 
 them because I have more certain information con- 
 cerning them. I believe that nowhere does a larger 
 proportion of Christians read about missions, and 
 pray for them, and contribute for their support. Yet 
 it is known that even in the best of those churches, 
 nearly one fourth of the members really contribute 
 nothing for sending the gospel to the heathen, and 
 scarcely more than a fifth part give attendance at 
 the monthly concert of prayer for the conversion of 
 the world. It is believed, also, to be true of those 
 churches, with few exceptions, that not more than 
 one professedly Christian family in three or four 
 takes, or even looks into the monthly journal, which 
 contains a definite and intelligent account of the 
 missions they are pledged to support. The want of 
 missionary information in the Presbyterian Church 
 would seem to be also great, if we judge by the fact, ^ 
 stated on high authority, that nearly one half of the 
 four or five thousand churches, in the year 1865, 
 made no contribution whatever in support of the 
 foreign missionary cause. 
 
172 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 I will not presume to say how far missionary pub- 
 lications are actually read by those who take them, 
 nor what amount of missionary information is ac- 
 tually imparted at the monthly concert. But I 
 believe the interest which truly Christian people 
 take in the missionary work, is equal to their cor- 
 rect knowledge of it. For we must charitably sup- 
 pose, that the apparent insensibility of so many real 
 Christians to the enlargement and glory of their 
 Redeemer's kingdom on earth, is not because their 
 hearts are really cold and dead to the interests of 
 that kingdom, but because they know so little about 
 it. 
 
 The great hindrance to the development of a mis- 
 sionary spirit in the evangelical churches, is in this 
 lack of appropriate information. Its removal will, of 
 course, require labor and time. 
 
 II. What are the means and agencies, by which 
 this desirable, and even necessary end is to be at- 
 tained ? 
 
 1. I am happy to say, in the first place, by causes 
 that are purely providential. The Providence, which 
 has so marvelously opened the heathen workl for the 
 messengers of the gospel, as ah*eady described, is 
 operating constantly in the churches, with a steadi- 
 ness and force like that of the laws of nature. We 
 are really part of a great progressive system of social 
 religious life, and are moving on together. There 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME. 178 
 
 is inherent power in facts and ideas. Our social 
 religious life is subject to the great laws of Provi- 
 dence. The stupendous changes already noticed as 
 going forward in the heathen world and in Christen- 
 dom, as the result of God's providence, should lead 
 us to expect corresponding changes in what may be 
 called the religious world, and especially in the 
 evangelical churches. As an illustration of this 
 onward movement, I refer to the early fathers of 
 New England. Their writings show, that training 
 the churches for the work of converting the heathen 
 world, intelligent and pious as they were, scarcely 
 formed any part of their conceptions of the pastoral 
 duty. And the general tone of the very best in- 
 formed ecclesiastical literature down to a late period, 
 tells the same story. It was so, also, in pastoral life. 
 The author's father was pastor of a church for nearly 
 a score of years, and joyfully greeted the first devel- 
 opments of the missionary spirit in our own country. 
 Yet he did not realize the duty of enlisting his 
 church in missions to heathen nations, until about 
 the time of the forming of the American Board. He 
 was not blameworthy in this. There had been no 
 perceptible call for it. The idea of that specific pas- 
 toral duty had not at that time a place in the public 
 mind. It was a new idea ; the introduction of a 
 new power into the churches of our land. 
 
 But then commenced a remarkable inflow of facts, 
 lights, and influences from the outer world upon the 
 
174 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 ministry and upon the churches of our land ; form- 
 ing one of the religious characteristics of our age. 
 And these influences have never ceased their inflow, 
 like tidal waves, with a constantly increasing power. 
 It was with the church of God, in this respect, as it 
 is with the sleeping world as day approaches. The 
 stars are shining, and the breaking day reaches hut 
 a few. But the morn advances, and, with the rising 
 sun, hamlet, village, and city awake, and go forth to 
 the duties of life. The evangelical spirit of our 
 churches has been coming, and is coming, more and 
 more, under this providential influence; nor may 
 we believe there will be an arrest of its progress, 
 until the condition and claims of the heathen world 
 are generally recognized by the really pious, and 
 stand out in the light of a glorious day. 
 
 This providential inflow of missionary information 
 and influence upon the churches, and the conse- 
 quent development and growth of the missionary 
 spirit among pastors and people, should encourage 
 us. It is a blessed thing, and the wise and faithful 
 pastor will favor it by every proper means. 
 
 2. Among the human agencies for the removal of 
 this paralyzing evil, the first place is to be given to 
 the pastoral. What should pastors do to remove 
 the ignorance, and consequent indifference, of their 
 people ? 
 
 Their attention should be early given to the chil- 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME. 175 
 
 dren of their charge, who need to be educated to a 
 knowledge of what will be their future duty as Chris- 
 tians. There is doubtless a great deficiency here. 
 Children are believed to have a less specific training 
 for benevolent giving, especially giving for foreign 
 missions, now, than they had when such missions 
 were a new thing, forty or fifty years ago ; though, 
 in many other respects, there has doubtless been a 
 progress. Our Sabbath-schools, so far as I have 
 been able to learn, while they distinctly inculcate 
 missions to the heathen as among the duties pre- 
 scribed by the gospel, and while many of the schools 
 give for the education of heathen youth, do yet allow 
 to modern missions no prominent place in their 
 system of instruction. So far as I have yet been 
 able to learn, they, with here and there an excep- 
 tion, give it no place at all ; excepting an occasional 
 address from a returned missionary, which is of 
 course an excellent usage. The text-books, in this 
 respect, seem to me not to be up to the demands of 
 the times. I find no distinct reference to modern 
 missions in any of the text-books I have consulted. 
 Nor have I yet heard of any, which treat at all of 
 the missions in our day. I see not how the text- 
 books in common use would be constructed differ- 
 ently, or the teaching be materially changed, were 
 there no missions in existence, and were there no 
 heathen world accessible to the churches. In a late 
 Sabbath-school convention, no reference was made 
 
176 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 to this class of duties, nor to the development 
 of Christian character in the rising generation, as 
 having anything to do with the conversion of the 
 unevangelized world. 
 
 Yet certainly no Christian duties are more really 
 important, and none, in this age, more fundamental 
 in the development of Christian character, and as a 
 test of its genuineness. The foundations for a broad 
 and elevated Christian character need to be laid in 
 youth. Then is the time to inculcate the duty, to 
 awaken an interest in the work, and to cultivate the 
 habit of giving for its advancement. If this be not 
 done then, it never will be done effectually. If ad- 
 ditional text-books are needed for this purpose, let 
 them be prepared, and judiciously introduced into 
 the Sabbath-school instruction. 
 
 Of course the Sabbath-school library will need 
 attention. Sabbath-school libraries are greatly de- 
 ficient in this department. The reading has too 
 much of fiction, is too sensational, and creates in 
 the minds of the children a positive distaste for the 
 plain matter-of-fact connected w^ith the extension of 
 Christ's kingdom. This is a calamitous result in 
 the religious education of the rising generation, and 
 is a dark omen for the future. Indeed, there is 
 probably no department of influence in the Christian 
 Church of our times, that needs more prompt and 
 thorough attention, than do these libraries.^ 
 
 1 There are signs of improvement. Mr. Warren's Tvodve Years 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME. 177 
 
 Missionary societies are sometimes formed in 
 Sabbath-schools. Quite recently my attention has 
 been called to a successful experiment of this kind 
 in a town of Connecticut, extended through a score 
 of years. The principal agent in the case was the 
 superintendent of the school.^ A missionary associ- 
 ation was formed of the pupils, and became a popular 
 institution. Once in a quarter, the Sabbath-school 
 monthly concert was converted into a missionary 
 concert; when the children were encouraged to 
 bring in written resolutions, or sentiments, and lay 
 them on the table, from whence they were taken 
 and read in the course of the meeting. They were 
 also invited to select and write out texts from the 
 Scriptures, fitted to stimulate the missionary spirit 
 of the school, and these were also read. From 
 samples of these resolutions and Scripture extracts, 
 I judge that their influence must have been good. 
 Reports were occasionally read by the president; 
 and he availed himself of every opportunity to secure 
 addresses from returned missionaries, and often suc- 
 ceeded ; and some of those speakers, no longer 
 among the living, whose memory is cherished by the 
 
 among the Children, is a valuable contribution to the literature for the 
 young. So is Mr. Parmelee's Life Scenes among the Mountains of 
 Ararat. So, also, is Mr. Wheeler's Letters from Eden, or, Reminiscences 
 of Missionary Life in the East. Mr. Wheeler's Ten Years on the 
 Euphrates, or, Primitive Missionary Policy Illustrated, though written 
 for adults, should be in libraries for the young, as well as the old. 
 1 J. H. Stickiiey, Esq., Ilockville, Ct. 
 12 
 
178 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 churches, must have left a salutary impression on 
 those youthful minds. 
 
 In another Sabbath-school, the missionary field 
 was divided among the children of the advanced 
 classes, and, once a quarter, the Sabbath-school 
 monthly concert was devoted to missions. Each of 
 the children was expected then to bring in some fact, 
 or facts, concerning his own held. In this way mis- 
 sionary information was constantly coming into the 
 school, and a missionary spirit was promoted. 
 
 As Sabbath-school societies are educational, it 
 should be their aim to train the youth for the great 
 Christian work of their future lives, and their atten- 
 tion should be directed to the missionary work at 
 home, as well as abroad. The destitute of our own 
 lands, the degenerate churches of the East, the 
 Jews, the pagan nations, and the missions among 
 them, should each receive their share of attention; 
 of course, with the help of maps, and other appro- 
 priate illustrations. All they will need is a presid- 
 ing spirit, well informed and interested on the sub- 
 ject of missions. 
 
 Another department of pastoral duty is the 
 monthly concert of prayer for the conversion of 
 the world. That should be what its name imports, 
 — a prayer-meeting for missions, foreign and do- 
 mestic ; literally, for the conversion of the world. 
 The information and prayers should not be restricted 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME. 179 
 
 to the missions of one society, or of one denomina- 
 tion, or to one class of missions, nor to the missions 
 from our own country. Moreover, the pastor should 
 guard against feeling himself, or allowing his people 
 to feel, that the meeting is unimportant, much less 
 a failure, because only a few attend it. Those few, 
 even should they happen to be chiefly females, are 
 really, in respect to the missionary cause, \\hat the 
 " three hundred " were to the " ten thousand," in 
 Gideon's army. 
 
 Experience teaches that we must not expect even 
 good people to take a very lively interest in the in- 
 formation given at the monthly concert, while they 
 know little of the geography and history of missions. 
 We remember how the newspapers, in the late war, 
 accompanied their accounts of battles and sieges 
 with maps and illustrations. Wliile the only effect- 
 ual remedy for ignorance in missionary geography 
 is early training, much can be done in the mission- 
 ary prayer-meeting itself, by pastor and others, 
 through a judicious use of maps and other illustra- 
 tions. 
 
 The churches in some parts of our land seem, 
 just now, to be somewhat in a transition state as to 
 their religious habits. In many places, the afternoon 
 preaching service is giving place to the Sabbath- 
 school; and if the second preaching service be not 
 relinquished altogether, it is transferred to the even- 
 ing, to the no small peril of the monthly concert, 
 
180 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 where that meeting has been held on Sabbath even- 
 ing. What shall be done in this case? This 
 monthly missionary prayer-meeting was the out- 
 growth of the missionary spirit, and is believed to 
 be quite necessary to the life and vigor of that spirit. 
 It has been asked, whether the weekly church prayer- 
 meeting may not be converted, once a month, into a 
 missionary prayer-meeting. That has been tried, 
 but in many cases it has been a short-lived experi- 
 ment. The first Sabbath in the month is the best 
 time for the concert; and might not the Sabbath 
 evening preaching service, once a month, where it 
 exists, be so modified as to meet the exigency? 
 This, also, has in some cases been tried, and it only 
 needs that pastor and people enter heartily into the 
 arrangement. Take the broad view, just now inti- 
 mated, of the field as occupied by the various socie- 
 ties at home and abroad, of the whole active efibrts 
 of the church, and let the people be at the expense 
 of providing their minister with the needful sources 
 of information, and the needful illustrations, and 
 there would be no serious difficulty. 
 
 Much will of course depend on the manner of 
 conducting the monthly concert. It is the result 
 of my own experience and observation, that there is 
 no more safety in going into this meeting without 
 previous preparation, than there is into the pulpit on 
 the Sabbath. Indeed, permanent success in that 
 meeting requires that this department of pastoral 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME. 181 
 
 duty should by no means be forgotten in the habits 
 of study, which are cultivated in the seminary course. 
 Men, who go through the seminary in habitual 
 neglect of the intelligence concerning which I now 
 speak, will be likely to go through their ministerial 
 life in the same manner. But with the established 
 habit of keeping the monthly prayer-meeting in 
 view in the miscellaneous reading of the month, and 
 with a hearty interest in the subject, an adequate 
 preparation for the monthly concert will not be 
 found to interfere with the weekly preparation for 
 the Sabbath pulpit. 
 
 I am not in favor of reading much at that meet- 
 ing, and what reading there is should, for the most 
 part, be avowedly illustrative of some point or 
 points that have been distinctly stated. The ob- 
 ject is to awaken an interest, rather than fully to 
 satisfy it, and thus lead the people to read for them- 
 selves. And there should be so much of intelligent 
 and appropriate remark by the pastor, as will make 
 the reading of the people at home more interesting 
 and profitable, and also induce those who thus read 
 to value the prayer-meeting. Pastors may have the 
 world before them, with the whole range of efforts 
 to evangelize it, as also the opened books of provi- 
 dence and grace, from which to draw materials. It 
 is often the case that lay members of the church 
 might materially aid in giving the intelligence. 
 But in this meeting there is and can be no ade- 
 
182 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 quate substitute for the pastor. You might even 
 bring in secretaries of the great missionary socie- 
 ties, with autograph letters of missionaries in their 
 hands ; yet if ordinarily there be uncertainty as to 
 the pastor's attendance, or doubt as to the reality of 
 his interest, the meeting will not be a success. 
 
 The use of maps and other illustrations is so im- 
 portant in the monthly concert, that, if they cannot 
 be otherwise obtained, it would be well to employ for 
 this purpose some part of the contributions on that 
 occasion. The well-known missionary maps of Mr. 
 Bidwell are invaluable. Those prepared by Profes- 
 sor Guyot are not missionary maps, yet, having 
 some special excellences, a pastor, conversant with 
 the geography and history of missions, may use 
 them to advantage. 
 
 It might be well, occasionally, to employ the skill 
 of young amateur artists in the parish to furnish 
 rough drawings of the more interesting illustrations 
 of the pagan world, to be used at the missionary 
 prayer-meeting. The young artists themselves will 
 at any rate be interested. 
 
 Another department of pastoral duty, is in respect 
 to the various missionary publications of the day. 
 In this important department, many a pastor, not 
 having made up his mind what he ought to do, does 
 nothing, and the whole is left to chance, that most 
 irresponsible and inefficient of agents. It is not 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME. 183 
 
 recommended that the pastor hecome an agent for 
 any of the publications. All he needs to do is, by a 
 legitimate pastoral influence to create a desire, a 
 feeling of necessity for the knowledge, and then let 
 it be distinctly known how that knowledge may be 
 obtained, and his end is gained. The religious 
 newspaper, though important in its place, does not 
 and cannot supersede the necessity for the mission- 
 ary monthly; and the missionary monthly will be 
 more likely to be valued and read, if paid for, than 
 if received as a gratuity; but is better as a gra- 
 tuity, than not at all. 
 
 3. It is proper to say a word concerning the meet- 
 ings of ecclesiastical bodies. In some portions of 
 New England they seem not to be just what they 
 should be in relation to the benevolent movements 
 of the church, since they cling so tenaciously to tra- 
 ditional usages. Time is given grudgingly to the 
 benevolent operations of the church, as if they had 
 no right to it. It is much as if the grand object of 
 Christian churches was self-defense, self-preserva- 
 tion, self-edification. This is the old feeling and 
 habit, transmitted from former generations. The 
 remedy is with the pastors. The Christian Church 
 is not a fortress, nor a garrison ; it is an army in 
 the field, intent upon the enemy. I know not 
 whether a similar lack of practical interest exists in 
 ecclesiastical meetings elsewhere. But if the great 
 
184 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Christian work providentially devolved on the church, 
 finds only a reluctant place in the large ecclesiastical 
 bodies, how can it be otherwise in tlie local churches ? 
 
 4. A word concerning the relations of pastors to 
 benevolent societies. These relations are very direct 
 and simple. The benevolent societies, whether ex- 
 isting in the form of ecclesiastical boards, as in the 
 Presbyterian Church, or as voluntary boards or so- 
 cieties, as in the Congregational body, are indis- 
 pensable auxiliaries to the churches, and the pastor 
 avails himself of their aid, so far as he deems it ex- 
 pedient, for increasing the knowledge and develop- 
 ing the benevolence of his people. The churches 
 have now so long acted through them, and in every 
 possible way recognized their agency, that, for the 
 purposes for which these organizations exist, they 
 have come really to form a part of our ecclesiastical 
 system. They are, as has been already affirmed, an 
 integral part of it. And this is alike true of all the 
 larger institutions. The Board of Missions of the 
 Old School Presbyterian General Assembly, and the 
 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
 sions, are both, in this respect, on the same footing. 
 Each of them, in their respective and appropriate 
 spheres, performs services, which neither of the 
 large ecclesiastical bodies of the laud can possibly 
 perform ; and thus the churches, acting through 
 them, accomplish the great evangelical duties of the 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME. 185 
 
 day. And it is a sign of progress that the nature, 
 relations, and duties of these benevolent agencies 
 are better understood, and more highly appreciated 
 now, than they once were. 
 
 III. I now state briefly some of the more im- 
 portant misapprehensions and objections, growing 
 out of a want of correct information, which hin- 
 der the development of the missionary life in our 
 churches. 
 
 The first I shall mention is this — that the heathen 
 are so very degraded and wicked, as to be unworthy 
 of the great eflfort that is necessary to give them the 
 gospel. 
 
 Another, not so often raised as formerly, is, that 
 the expense of money and life in the foreign mis- 
 sions is more than we can afford. 
 
 Another, heard less frequently than it once was, 
 but frequently operating as a silent influence, is, that 
 missions have had but little success. 
 
 It is sometimes objected, that but a small part of 
 the contributions actually reaches the heathen. 
 
 Another objection has a lodgment in many a mind, 
 that would hesitate to give it utterance ; that the 
 heathen will not be lost without the gospel, and 
 therefore it is unkind to send the gospel to them. 
 
 It is further objected, that charity begins at 
 home ; that it were better to bestow the money and 
 labor on home missions ; that we must take care of 
 
186 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 our own great country, where we have as much as 
 we can do; that our country is worth a score of 
 heathen nations, etc. The objection assumes a pro- 
 tean form ; but the amount of it is, that we shall be 
 more in the way of our duty, and be doing more for 
 our own growth in grace, for the spiritual interests 
 of our own nation, and for the building up of the 
 Redeemer's kingdom, by restricting our evangelical 
 labors within the bounds of our own country, and 
 neglecting the world at large. 
 
 Some people believe that the conversion of the 
 world is nofc to be looked for in the present dispensa- 
 tion, nor to be accomplished by the present agencies ; 
 that Christ's advent is to be pre-millennial ; that the 
 world will grow worse, instead of better, till his com- 
 ing ; which is to be sudden, and attended by convul- 
 sions; that the wicked are then to be destroyed; 
 and that the Jews are to be miraculously converted, 
 and made the favored people under this new Mes- 
 sianic reign, with Jerusalem for the capital. All I 
 shall say in respect to this is, that it absurdly makes 
 certain earnestly contested interpretations of proph- 
 ecy as to Christ's second coming, and not his ex- 
 press command to " preach the gospel to every crea- 
 ture," the rule of action in this great mattei". 
 
 Upon the other objections I shall make a few 
 general remarks. 
 
 As to the degraded and wicked condition of the 
 heathen, it will suffice to say — that Christ certainly 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME. 187 
 
 commands his gospel to be preached to the heathen ; 
 that, for the most part, they are no more degraded 
 and wicked than were our own wild and ferocious an- 
 cestors of Druidical times ; and that, in point of fact, 
 the gospel does elevate them. 
 
 As to the cost of life and of money in missions, it 
 may he replied — that the cost of life, on the whole, 
 has been scarcely greater in the missions abroad, 
 than in the ministry at home. The average mis- 
 sionary life in India, fifteen years ago, was sixteen 
 years and a half, and it is longer now. In 1858, the 
 more than sixty ordained foreign missionaries from 
 the Andover Seminary, then living, had been prose- 
 cuting their work on an average of seventeen years. 
 
 As to the pecuniary cost of missions, it is easy to 
 show, that the country is in no danger of being im- 
 poverished by them. The expenditure of the Ameri- 
 can Board for fifty-six years, did not exceed the cost 
 of a hundred and fifty miles of railroad in Massachu- 
 setts ; and was nearly three millions less than the 
 average expense of a single week in the late war. 
 The cost of an iron-clad man-of-war was double the 
 yearly expenditure of the American Board. The 
 cost of the Sandwich Islands mission, for the whole 
 forty-six years of its existence, was less than that of 
 an exploring expedition of about three years, under 
 Commodore Wilkes, sent by the United States gov- 
 ernment into the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 The objection, that but a small part of the money 
 
188 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 contributed reaches the missions, is founded on sheer 
 ignorance. In one of our Western States, a banker 
 when called upon by the collector for a subscription 
 for foreign missions, gave him ten dollars as his 
 annual contribution, and then gave him fifteen dollars 
 more — to aid, as he said, in sending it to them. He 
 meant, that it cost more to send his donation to the 
 mission, than the donation was worth. This wg-s 
 wholly a misapprehension. The cost for everything 
 in the administration of one of our large Missionary 
 Boards, including every species of agency, is only 
 about eight per cent, of its receipts. Of every dollar 
 contributed, therefore, ninety-two cents find their 
 way to the missions. The banker already mentioned 
 is said once to have remitted his donation directly to 
 the mission in Turkey, but he gained nothing by the 
 operation. Indeed, it is not possible for this objection 
 to be entertained by one who reads the well authen- 
 ticated treasury reports of the missionary societies. 
 
 The proof that the heathen are not saved without 
 the gospel, is in the explicit command of Christ to 
 preach the gospel to them ; in the argument of the 
 Apostle Paul in the first chapter of his Epistle to 
 the Romans ; in his own labors among the heathen ; 
 and in the uniform testimony of missionaries to the 
 unholy lives and characters of the heathen of our 
 day, and to their acknowledged consciousness of sin 
 and guilt. The assumed unkindness in sending the 
 gospel to the heathen, is on the assumption that 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME. 189 
 
 many of them, by rejecting it, will incur a deeper 
 condemnation. This must be admitted ; but then 
 if the heathen perish without the gospel, and may 
 be saved by it, there is obviously the same reason for 
 preaching the gospel to them, as there is for preach- 
 ing it to the ungodly in Christian lands. 
 
 What can a pastor say to objections founded on 
 the exclusive claims of our own great country ? An 
 eminent clergyman residing in Missouri once said, 
 that the religion they needed for the West, is one 
 " strong enough for the conversion of the world." 
 And we might well ask, whether our home missions 
 would really be prosecuted with their present vigor, 
 had we not, at the same time, missions in Asia, 
 Africa, and the Islands of the sea? The principle 
 underlying this objection, were it to govern the 
 churches throughout our land, would be a monstrous 
 national selfishness, destructive of every generous 
 Christian feeling. It is important to remark, that 
 this objection is generally made under an erroneous 
 impression as to the proportion actually contributed 
 to these two branches of the same great work. Dr. 
 Mullens says that, in one hundred and fourteen Lon- 
 don churches in 1865, not more than one fourth of 
 the benevolent contributions were for foreign mis- 
 sions ; and that in 1866, out of every <;S100 contrib- 
 uted by eighty Congregational churches in London 
 and the country, only ,£15, or less than one sixth, 
 were for foreign missions. In the Free Church of 
 
190 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Scotland, during ten years, only six per cent, of the 
 sum contributed for religious objects went for for- 
 eign missions. I am not prepared to say what is 
 the proportion in our own country. But it should 
 be remembered, that every foreign missionary society 
 combines a number of objects, while what is actually 
 the home missionary work is divided among several 
 societies, as the Home Missionary, Church-building, 
 Sabbath-school, Education, etc. We are glad to feel 
 assured, in the existing relations of the unevangel- 
 ized world to the church, that the true church of 
 Christ cannot have an exclusive regard for either 
 home or foreign missions, since the spirit of the 
 true church, so far as informed on the subject, will 
 necessarily be responsive to the all-embracing com- 
 mand of its Redeemer and King. I shall be excused 
 for the utterance of my own belief, that the subver- 
 sion of foreign missions would be destroying the 
 great wheel, in the vast machine of many wheels, of 
 which our benevolent system is composed. 
 
 Such are some of the causes, which keep the 
 churches from putting forth their energies for the 
 extension of the Redeemer's kingdom. It is thus 
 that skepticism, in one form or another, paralyzes 
 the arm of the church. Let a man doubt whether 
 the heathen deserve our sympathy, whether they 
 are in perishing need of the gospel, or whether they 
 will be really benefited by it, and you cannot in- 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME. 191 
 
 terest him in sending them the gospel. Let a man 
 doubt whether God really intends to accomplish the 
 conversion of the world, w hether the time has really 
 come for engaging in the work, or the efficacy of 
 the means employed, and, until these doubts are 
 removed, you cannot have his hearty cooperation.^ 
 
 I need not take time to prove, that upon pastors 
 of the churches rests especially the duty of remov- 
 ing these obstacles. This they can do by seeing that 
 their people are properly informed as to the facts, 
 which bear so strongly on their personal duty in this 
 peculiar age of the world. We are to aim at two 
 things; correct information, and its bearing upon 
 the development of Christian character. The evi- 
 dences of personal piety need now to be reinvesti- 
 gated and reconstructed. In former ages, the tests 
 of Christian character were persecution, imprison- 
 ment, the rack, the stake ; they were suffering in 
 some form. Piety and the profession of it stood con- 
 nected, in God's providence, with losses and priva- 
 tions. But times have changed. Piety and the pro- 
 fession of it are now respected. The grand test of 
 piety .now, is the life of faith, benevolence, giving 
 for the cause of Christ, self-denying efforts. 
 
 The treatises on this subject need to have an addi- 
 tional chapter. Few Christian people yet realize the 
 vast change there has been in their position and 
 relations, as regards the world perishing for lack of 
 
 ' See Dr J. P Thompson's Introduction to Foster's Essay, p. 58. 
 
192 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 the gospel, nor the effect of this change upon the 
 evidences of their own personal piety. Many a 
 church-member has a comfortable hope of heaven, 
 while doing almost nothing for extending Christ's 
 kingdom and the blessedness of his reign, and feel- 
 ing no interest in the cause. This might have been 
 safe for the soul in the days of Richard Baxter, or 
 even in the days of our grandparents. But God has 
 brought a mighty change over our situation, and 
 our relations ; and if any choose to be ignorant of 
 the fact, it is a willful ignorance, that will not avail 
 in the great day. In any view, it is disloyalty to the 
 Lord of Glory. Just here is the grand defect in the 
 practical Christianity of our age. It responds not, 
 as it should do, to the call of God's providence. 
 Nothing can be more certain, than that the vast 
 changes in the unevangelized world do immensely 
 concern us as Christians. And it is time that God's 
 ministers should speak out plainly on this subject. 
 Satan hath great wrath, because of the shortness of 
 his time. By infidel philosophy he is seeking to 
 gain possession of the human understanding, and to 
 fortify it against all approaches of the truth to the 
 hearts of men, and his emissaries are going into all 
 the world. Moreover, the Roman hierarchy is pre- 
 pared and determined everywhere to oppose the ex- 
 tension of Christ's spiritual kingdom, and will be 
 the grand opponent of the true church in its effort 
 to extend Messiah's reign ; and if successful in that, 
 
HINDRANCES AT HOME, 193 
 
 it will be almost sure to recover once more its lost 
 domiuion in Christendom. 
 
 Pastors have much encouragement, then, ih view 
 of those providential tidal waves of influence from 
 the unevangelized world already spoken of, which 
 are flowing in upon the churches, and now more 
 than ever. In most churches they will flnd there 
 has been a favorable beginning, and some progress 
 in the right direction ; that there is no longer 
 the profound indifference or the early opposition to 
 missions. Perhaps they will find that one half, or 
 even more, of their church-members already contrib- 
 ute something for the cause. Perhaps as many as 
 a third of them, and those the best, assemble at the 
 monthly missionary prayer-meeting. Perhaps even 
 a larger number are more or less in the habit of 
 reading missionary intelligence. Possibly a member 
 of the church is a missionary, or among the honored 
 dead fallen in the service. 
 
 If all pastors of the churches could be induced 
 to take the decided stand with their people, which 
 many have taken, — educating them for the work 
 of missions, and urging them forward in it, — we 
 should soon have the men and the funds that are 
 needed, and great would be the joy among the peo- 
 ple of God. 
 
 13 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS. 
 
 Human and Divine Agency. — Import of the Divine Command. 
 Important Facilities. — Progress in Missionary Explorations. — 
 Progress in Missionary Occupation ; in Western Asia ; in India. 
 Vast System of Railways in India. — Their Bearing on Missions in 
 India. — Progress in Eastern Asia ; in the Pacific Ocean ; in Africa. 
 Great Reduction in the Cost of Occupation. — Progress in giving 
 the Bible, and a Religious Literature. — Advance in Contributions. 
 Recent Date of the Missions, — The Forces now in the Field. 
 Portions of the Unevangelized World not yet reached. — General 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Two things in missions are perfectly distinct, and 
 yet are intimately connected. These are the human 
 agency, enjoined hy the command of our Lord to 
 " preach the gospel to every creature ; " and the 
 divine agency, or God's blessing on the missions, in- 
 volved in the promise, " Lo, I am with you," The 
 latter includes the providential opening of the un- 
 evangelized world to the gospel, the preparation of 
 Christendom for the work, and the uprising of the 
 Evangelical Church, which were the themes that 
 first claimed our attention. 
 
 I propose now to show what progress has been 
 made in obeying the Saviour's command, to "go 
 into all the world." This command, as recorded by 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS. 195 
 
 the different Evangelists, reads thus: "Teach all 
 nations ; " ** Preach repentance and remission of sins 
 in my name among all nations ; " " Go into all the 
 world ; " " Preach the gospel to every creature." 
 The duty therefore prescribed for the people of 
 God, is a proclamation of the gospel, as far as may 
 be, to all the inhabitants of the v^^orld. 
 
 As has been already remarked, we have a practical 
 illustration of the duty devolved on Christians in the 
 mission of the Apostle Paul, as it was set forth in the 
 fourth chapter. He labored in the great centres of 
 influence, planting in them self-propagating churches, 
 and he and his associates did what more they could 
 in the adjacent regions. 
 
 As auxiliary to the progress of the Evangelical 
 Church in planting its missions, I mention two 
 important facilities, which have been providentially 
 secured. 
 
 One is a recognition of the claim of missionaries 
 to the protection of their own governments. This 
 protection even the nominally Protestant Christian 
 governments were at first backward to give. The 
 earliest formal and official recognition of it in this 
 country known to me was in the year 1842. Daniel 
 Webster was then Secretary of State, and in conse- 
 quence of a representation made to the government 
 in that year, he thus wrote to the Minister resident 
 at Constantinople : — 
 
196 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 " It has been represented to this department," says 
 Mr. Webster, " that the American missionaries, re- 
 siding in the Ottoman dominions, do not receive 
 from your Legation that aid and protection, to 
 which, as citizens of the United States, they feel 
 themselves entitled; and I have been directed by 
 the President, who is profoundly interested in the 
 matter, to call your immediate attention to the sub- 
 ject, and to instruct you to omit no occasion, where 
 your interference in behalf of such persons may be- 
 come necessary or useful, to extend to them all proper 
 succor and attentions, of which they may stand in 
 need, in the same manner that you would to other 
 citizens of the United States, who, as merchants, 
 visit or dwell in Turkey." 
 
 This claim of the foreign missionary for protection 
 in the lawful prosecution of his mission, was after- 
 wards distinctly recognized by successive Secretaries 
 of State, and the usage may be regarded as now 
 settled. 
 
 Years after this, the four great powers of Chris- 
 tendom negotiated the memorable treaty with China, 
 noticed at the outset of our discussion, and made 
 express provision for the protection of both mission- 
 aries and their converts.^ 
 
 While we should rely for protection in the work 
 of missions mainly on the Lord of missions, it shows 
 an important advance in our work, when the " Roman 
 
 1 See Chapt^-r I. 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS. 197 
 
 citizenship " of the missionary is recognized hy Chris- 
 tian governments. 
 
 I also notice a remarkable change in the secular 
 newspapers, as regards the benevolent operations 
 of the church, and missions in particular. Mr. 
 Sydney E. Morse states, in his " Memorabilia " of 
 his father, that the institution of the " Boston Re- 
 corder," in the year 1816, induced as many as twenty 
 country newspapers to go into the publication of 
 religious intelligence. According to my recollec- 
 tion, this practice afterwards declined, and the more 
 influential newspapers in the cities did not come 
 into it for many years afterwards. There ought to 
 be a more specific record of the manner in which 
 this was effected, than I am able to make from per- 
 sonal recollection. I think it was in the year 1844, 
 that the late Rev. Austin Dickinson began his judi- 
 cious and successful efforts to enlist the commercial 
 newspapers in the publication of religious intelli- 
 gence. Believing that this would be advantageous 
 to them, as well as to the cause of religion, he made 
 an engagement with certain leading journals to pre- 
 pare for them brief articles of religious news, such 
 as he deemed suitable for their columns, with a 
 promise of their insertion. The way being thus 
 opened, the same promise was obtained from editors 
 of other papers ; and he at length sent around more 
 extended summaries in printed slips. The editors 
 became at length convinced of the propriety and 
 
198 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 policy of obtaining the intelligence through paid re- 
 porters sent for the purpose to attend the meetings 
 of benevolent societies. It was by efforts such as 
 these, that the secular newspapers were gradually 
 led to open their columns for religious news. The 
 marvelous progress since made in this direction is 
 evinced by the fact, that the newspapers in the city 
 of Chicago, in 1865, made full and accurate reports, 
 from day to day, of the proceedings and speeches at 
 the annual meeting of the American Board in that 
 city. It is easy to see what a prodigious gain this 
 access to the secular newspapers is, for the cause of 
 religion and of missions.^ 
 
 In proceeding to state the progress of the Evan- 
 gelical Church in measures for obeying the Saviour's 
 command, I notice, — 
 
 1. The progress made in special missionary ex- 
 plorations. These have been found indispensable to 
 the advantageous occupation of an unevangelized 
 country by missions. A mercantile house sends a 
 man to explore for it who is skilled in trade; the 
 warrior sends a soldier ; the missionary society sends 
 a missionary. There is a great deal in the point of 
 view. Our traveller must have the eye, the ear, the 
 heart of a missionary. Lion-hunters would not 
 answer our purpose in Africa ; nor would the mem- 
 bers of the London Anthropological Society. Nor can 
 
 ^ i See Appendix II. 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS. 199 
 
 we implicitly rely, in such a country as China, so far 
 as vital points in missions are concerned, upon the re- 
 ports of unmarried Jesuits, with their unscrupulous 
 concealment of their own character and objects, and 
 the half-Christianized Buddhism of their religion. 
 
 We must make our own surveys. We do it geo- 
 graphically, that we may know where to find the 
 people, and what physical causes affect their pursuits 
 and characters, and will facilitate or obstruct our 
 operations. We do it statistically, to know the 
 number of youth to be gathered into schools ; of 
 families to be supplied with the Bible ; of cities and 
 villages to be furnished with the stated preaching of 
 the gospel ; and of souls to whom a Saviour's love 
 must be proclaimed. We investigate the social 
 relations of the people, in order to know the ties of 
 family, neighborhood, business, pleasure, govern- 
 ment, and religion, which bind them together ; and 
 also, what repellant influences there are to produce 
 "hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, envy- 
 ings, and such like ; " of which we are assured, that 
 "they which do such things shall not inherit the 
 kingdom of God." 
 
 That to which I would call special attention is, the 
 extent to which this work of missionary explora- 
 tion has been carried. I can give only a brief illus- 
 tration. Somewhat more than forty years ago, the 
 late Dr. John C. Brigham, afterwards Secretary of 
 the American Bible Society, was sent by the Ameri- 
 
200 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 cau Board to Buenos Ayres, in South America, with 
 instructions to cross the Southern continent, and 
 visit the republics along the Western slopes, as far 
 north as Mexico ; which occupied him about two 
 years. Dr. Brigham's report, published in the 
 " Missionary Herald," was adverse to an occupation 
 at that time, mainly on the ground of the predomi- 
 nant influence of the Popish priesthood in the sev- 
 eral governments. The world has moved forward 
 since then, and recent missionary explorations in 
 several of these countries have reached a more favor- 
 able result. Ten years later, the Rev. Samuel Parker 
 was sent, by the American Board, with some others, 
 across the continent of North America, to see what 
 could be done for the Indian tribes on either side of 
 the Rocky Mountains. The investigation was pushed 
 to the shores of the Pacific, and was the first step 
 in the deuionstration, afterwards made by a mission- 
 ary of the same Board, of a practicable wagon-road 
 through the Rocky Mountains; which demonstra- 
 tion history will testify to have saved Oregon, the 
 Washington Territory, the Columbia River, and per- 
 haps even the golden mines of California, to the 
 United States. In 1829, the Rev. Eli Smith and 
 myself traversed the Peloponnesus and Greek Islands. 
 Out of the exploration just mentioned grew directly 
 the more important one of Messrs. Smith and 
 Dwight through Asia Minor, Armenia, and Georgia, 
 as far as to the region inhabited by the Nestorian 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS. 201 
 
 Christians of Persia; who before that time were 
 scarcely known to the modern Christian Church. 
 Tlie whole of Palestine, and a large portion of Asia 
 Minor and Syria, had previously been surveyed by 
 missionaries of the American Board, and of the 
 Church Missionary Society, as were also several 
 districts of Noi-thern Africa. There has since been 
 a missionary survey to some extent, by German mis- 
 sionaries, of Abyssinia and the interior of Eastern 
 Africa ; also, by English missionaries, of a part of 
 the island of Madagascar. The missionary explora- 
 tion of a large part of Southern Africa by Campbell, 
 Moffatt, Livingstone, and others, furnish chapters 
 of surpassing interest in the history of missions. 
 Of the Western coast of Africa there has been a 
 missionary survey along at least two thousand miles, 
 and also for a considerable distance up the river 
 Niger. But in Africa there is yet much unknown 
 land. 
 
 The whole great country occupied by the two hun- 
 dred millions of India, is now sufficiently known for 
 missionary purposes. So are Assam, Burmah, and 
 Siam. And a process of missionary exploration is 
 now advancing somewhat rapidly in China, with its 
 four hundred and fourteen millions of inhabitants, 
 and its thirteen hundred thousand square miles. 
 Some parts of the Indian Archipelago are not well 
 known in a missionary point of view; neither is 
 Corea, nor Japan, nor Chinese Tartary, nor Cen- 
 
202 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 tral Asia. But the Isles of the Pacific Ocean are 
 known to a very great extent, and so are the Indian 
 tribes of our Westeril wilderness. 
 
 Indeed it may be truthfully said, that the mission- 
 ary survey of the world has now been carried so far 
 forward, that scarcely anything more needs to be 
 done in that way at present. As a preliminary work 
 this exploration was necessary, and it has been in 
 great measure accomplished, and by missionaries 
 under the supervision of missionary societies ; and 
 it will not need to be repeated. 
 
 In the year 1812, as is generally known, it was 
 not possible for the American Board to determine 
 upon a field for a small band of five or six mission- 
 aries, and those missionaries were actually sent to 
 India without any very positive instructions as to 
 where they should labor. And for many years after 
 this, as I can testify, the needful information as re- 
 gards the heathen world at large, was gained with 
 considerable difficulty. But now, we should scarcely 
 be at a loss in designating hundreds of missionaries, 
 and in giving them specific instructions. 
 
 2. It will be natural for us to consider the progress 
 which has been made in the missionary occupation 
 of the unevangelized world. Regarding the small- 
 ness of the invading force, the number of important 
 centres occupied is truly marvelous. The single 
 point we have now in view is, the occupancy of cen- 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS. 203 
 
 tral aud influential posts. We commence in the 
 countries of the Mediterranean. 
 
 The English Church Missionary Society was the 
 first to move towards this part of the world, which 
 it did- in 1815 ; sending Mr. Jowett, an enlightened 
 scholar, whose published " Researches," as I thank- 
 fully remember, were a valuable guide and incentive 
 forty years ago. He was followed by Mr. Lowndes, 
 of the London Missionary Society. In 1819, Messrs. 
 Fisk and Parsons, of the American Board, went 
 forth to occupy Jerusalem, then believed to be an 
 important centre in that part of Western Asia. 
 Beirut, the capital of Syria, was next occupied, by 
 Messrs. Goodell and Bird. This was in 1823 ; and 
 it was the beginning of that great movement of 
 our American churches, which has since extended 
 through Turkey, and into Persia; and gained a 
 footing in most of the more important influential 
 posts among the races speaking the Arabic, Turk- 
 ish, Syriac, Armenian, and Bulgarian languages. 
 The churches have taken possession, moreover, of 
 what may be regarded as the religious centres of the 
 Greek, Armenian, Bulgarian, and Syriac churches ; 
 and there are but few places in Western Asia, north 
 of Arabia, not now occupied by foreign missionaries, 
 which we should desire to see occupied for any length 
 of time by others than native laborers. 
 
 Passing over the countries of Central Asia, all yet 
 destitute of evangelical missionaries, we step from 
 
204 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 among the bigoted Moslems of Afghanistan into 
 British India; and there, in the northwest corner 
 of India, we find missionaries. From thence, down 
 througli the hundred and twenty millions in the 
 great valley of the Ganges to Calcutta, we find a 
 large number of the more important posts in posses- 
 sion of different missionary societies ; though as yet, 
 for the most part, with an altogether inadequate 
 missionary force. The valley of the Indus is also 
 beginning to be occupied by missionary stations ; 
 and so is Rajpootana. 
 
 From Calcutta towards the southwest, and from 
 Surat and Bombay towards the east and southeast, 
 and over the great populous peninsula of India, mis- 
 sionaries are found at very many of the more in- 
 fluential centres ; and the same is true of Ceylon. A 
 late number of the " Friend of India," published in 
 Calcutta, affirms, that thirty societies in Great Brit- 
 ain, the United States, and Germany are at work in 
 India, with five hundred and forty white and two 
 hundred and twenty native clergy, and eighteen 
 hundred native catechists ; working in four hundred 
 central stations, with two thousand three hundred 
 branches ; and that they have eighty thousand boys 
 and thirty thousand girls in their schools. The an- 
 nual cost is reckoned at ^300,000, or f 1,500,000 ; of 
 which 1250,000 are given by people in India who 
 are conversant with the facts ; and $100,000 by the 
 native converts themselves. 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSWNS. 206 
 
 India is of great extent, and travelling has here- 
 tofore been exceedingly laborious and expensive. It 
 has been hard to see in what manner missions could 
 permeate the country. It is therefore important to 
 mention, that durable railways are now considerably 
 advanced through its whole extent, under the patron- 
 age of government, which guarantees an income of 
 at least five percent, to the several English com- 
 panies building the roads. 
 
 The railway system embraces an extent of about 
 five thousand miles, and the larger part of it has 
 been completed. What is called the "East India 
 Railway," running up the valley of the Ganges, con- 
 nects Calcutta with Delhi, a distance of a thousand 
 miles. The " Great India Peninsular Railway " 
 connects with the one in the Ganges valley, at Alla- 
 habad, about five hundred miles above Calcutta, 
 crosses the Deccan plateau, and descends thence to 
 the Concan and Bombay, and from Bombay it pro- 
 ceeds to Madras ; the whole length of the line being 
 twelve hundred and sixty-six miles. The ascent of 
 the Ghauts on this line from Bombay to Madras, 
 was a work requiring upwards of seven years, during 
 which as many as forty thousand laborers were occa- 
 sionally employed upon it at one time. " Beginning 
 its ascent along a spur thrown out from the main 
 range, this incline continues its upward winding 
 way through long tunnels piercing the hardest basalt, 
 across viaducts spanning ravines of great width and 
 
206 'FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 depth, often aloug what is simply a large notch cut 
 in the face of a precipice." ^ The " Madras Rail- 
 way " crosses from Madras to a port on the Malahar 
 coast, eight hundred and twenty-five miles. The 
 " Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway " goes 
 uorthward from Bombay into the fertile province of 
 Guzerat, three hundred and twelve miles ; and may 
 yet be extended through Rajpootana to Delhi. The 
 " Punjaub Railway " extends from Delhi through 
 Lahore, the capital of the Punjaub, and thence west- 
 ward to Mooltan ; from whence there will be a con- 
 nection by steamers, and by the " Scinde Railway," 
 with Kurrachee, a seaport near the mouth of that 
 river. The extent of the " Punjaub Railway " is five 
 hundred and sixty-six miles, and of the " Scinde Rail- 
 way " one hundred and nine miles. From Calcutta, 
 the " Eastern Bengal Railway " runs northeasterly 
 one hundred and fifty-nine miles, and may yet be 
 extended to the borders of China ; and the "• South- 
 eastern Railway" twenty-nine miles, to a point on 
 the neighboring coast. The '' Southern India Rail- 
 way," one hundred and sixty-eight miles, connects 
 Madras with Negapatam, a seaport on the eastern 
 coast of the continent ; and will probably be extended 
 through the Madura and Tinnevelly provinces to 
 Travancore. 
 
 On the 1st of May, 1868, nearly four thousand 
 miles on these railways were open to travel and traffic, 
 
 1 North British Review, 1868, p. 177. 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS. 207 
 
 aud an additional thousand miles were under con- 
 struction. Bombay is therefore to become " the 
 sea-gate, through which the postal communications 
 of Europe and India are henceforth to flow." 
 
 The estimated cost of these five thousand miles of 
 railway is four hundred and fifty millions of dollars. 
 And, under the orderings of Divine Providence, the 
 whole is built as really for the church, as for the 
 world, and wholly at the expense of the latter. These 
 railways are not less important in a missionary point 
 of view, than they are in their relation to the social, 
 civil, political, and commercial interests of India. 
 The saving to the church, in its work of converting 
 India, will be immense in travel, labor, time, ex- 
 posure, health, life, and expenditure. Bombay, and 
 not Calcutta nor Madras, must henceforward be the 
 great landing place and point of departure for mis- 
 sionaries to India. And how easy, how compar- 
 atively inexpensive and safe will be access to every 
 part of the country. In how short a time will the 
 lines radiating from that great commercial en- 
 trepot transport the missionary to the valleys of the 
 Ganges and the Indus, to the northern provinces, and 
 far down into the Peninsula. 
 
 The more influential posts in Bur m ah, Assam, and 
 Siam eastward of India, are occupied by mission- 
 aries. There are also missionary stations on the 
 great island of Borneo, and on the Molluccas and 
 Celebes. In the maritime provinces of China, 
 
208 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 nearly every important port has missionaries ; and 
 there are missionaries some hundreds of miles up 
 the Yangtszkiang, the great river of China, others 
 half-way from the sea to the capital, others in 
 Pekin, and there is a missionary post beyond the 
 famous Chinese wall. Japan has also been entered by 
 Protestant missionary societies, and so are different 
 portions of Papal Europe, and of Spanish and Portu- 
 guese America. 
 
 In the Pacific Ocean, a large portion of the more 
 important groups of islands are occupied, and so ex- 
 tensively that the chances of shipwreck among sav- 
 age pagans have been greatly reduced — as I presume 
 the rates of insurance would show. 
 
 Nearly the whole of Southern Africa has, for many 
 years, been under religious culture by missionaries. 
 So is a small portion of the eastern coast, and a part 
 of Madagascar. So is the coast of Western Africa 
 from the equator a long distance westward, and 
 there are missionaries on the Niger, and also in 
 Egypt. 
 
 This will suffice for an illustration of the extent, to 
 which the more important regions of the unevangel- 
 ized world have been occupied. 
 
 3. There has been great progress in reducing the 
 cost of missionary occupation. For this we are 
 largely indebted to the business enterprise of men of 
 the world, as seen in steamships, railways, and other 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS. 209 
 
 signs of progress in civilization too numerous to 
 specify ; all of which are doubtless providentially in- 
 tended to facilitate the church in its great work of 
 evangelizing the world of mankind. These are 
 economies on a grand scale. But what I have now 
 specially in view, are economies in the working of 
 the missions themselves. This I can best illustrate 
 from the experience of the institution with which I 
 have been intimately connected. The number of sta- 
 tions and out-stations connected with the American 
 Board has increased, since the year 1852, from one 
 hundred and forty-nine to five hundred and eighty- 
 six ; and its laborers, foreign and native, from six 
 hundred and twenty to twelve hundred and sixty- 
 four ; and its churches, from ninety-four to two hun- 
 dred and five. Yet the expenditure rose only from 
 $310,000 to $442,000, which, considering the com- 
 parative value of gold at the two periods, was really 
 almost no increase at all. The number of foreign 
 laborers decreased somewhat in this time, but the 
 increase of native laborers was more than threefold ; 
 and thus it was that the number of occupied posts 
 could be nearly quadrupled, as they were, with very 
 little actual increase of expenditure. Native laborers 
 cost far less than foreign laborers. Then there was, 
 as already described, an increase in spiritual agencies, 
 which are less expensive than secular agencies. The 
 native churches, moreover, were more than doubled ; 
 and sixty-two of these churches received native pas- 
 
 14 
 
210 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 tors for the first time, with the understanding that 
 they would support them wholly, or in part. It is 
 important to add, that in associated, self-governing 
 missions there is necessarily a growth of experience, 
 and of superintending and executive power, and new 
 discoveries of the relations and capabilities of the 
 missionary enterprise, and new arrangements and 
 combinations for increasing the economy and effi- 
 cacy of its spiritual agencies. 
 
 This progress of economy in the working of mis- 
 sions might be illustrated at great length, but I con- 
 tent myself with instancing the saving in houses 
 for public worship. Each of the churches of course 
 needs one such house. It is the misfortune of some 
 of the older missions of which I am now speaking, 
 that their first houses for worship were not erected 
 for Christian congregations, — for such congrega- 
 tions were then scarcely existing, — but for large 
 gatherings of heathen children in schools, taught by 
 heathen masters. Those schools no longer exist ; 
 but the church buildings erected for them do, and 
 each of these, built after our Western models, cost so 
 much that, being naturally looked upon by the 
 natives as proper models for houses of worship, they 
 necessarily stand somewhat in the way of the native 
 Christians themselves erecting appropriate houses 
 in their several villages. The India missions, in 
 1854-55, decided, in view of their own experience, 
 that the style of houses for worship ought to have a 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS. 211 
 
 general correspondence with the dwellings of the 
 people. In the same year the missions in Western 
 Asia resolved that, extraordinary cases excepted, the 
 houses for public worship should be cheap and plain, 
 and should be built only when there were congrega- 
 tions to render them necessary ; and this for the 
 reason, that such houses should correspond to the 
 size of the congregations, and should be built, in 
 good part, by the people themselves.^ 
 
 The past fifty years have been especially the time 
 for gaining experience ; and the experience, though 
 sometimes it has been expensive, we have for all 
 future time. 
 
 4. In nothing have the Protestant churches been 
 so agreed in the working of missions among the 
 heathen, as in the duty of giving them the Bible. 
 This surely is obedience to Christ's command, and I 
 am to state briefly what has been done in this de- 
 partment. 
 
 Often one of the first things missionaries had to 
 do among a savage people was to catch the fleeting 
 sounds in their utterances, and express them in a 
 written form. There being thousands of these in 
 every language not easily distinguishable, we may 
 imagine the labor and patience that were required. 
 The missionaries of the American Board have, to a 
 greater or less extent, reduced twenty languages to 
 
 1 Annual Report of the American Board, for 1865, pp. 23, 25. 
 
212 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 writing, all of them, except the Modern Syriac, bar- 
 barous languages. I have not the means of deter- 
 mining how many rude languages, on the whole, 
 have been subjected to this process. But we know, 
 that, within the last half century, the entire Bible 
 has been translated into thirty-nine languages, out- 
 side of Christendom, embracing nearly all the more 
 important languages ; the New Testament into thir- 
 ty-five others ; and portions of Scripture into forty- 
 eight others — making one hundred and twenty- 
 two languages in the great field of Christian mis- 
 sions, that have been enriched and ennobled within 
 fifty years past, by having at least portions of God's 
 Word transfused into them. And it is a wonderful 
 fact, that by far the largest part of the necessary 
 work of translating the Scriptures has been already 
 accomplished. 
 
 Scarcely less than a hundred million copies of the 
 Scriptures have been issued, in whole or in part, 
 since the formation of the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society in 1804 ; and not less than ten millions of 
 these have gone into nations beyond the bounds of 
 Christendom. And we are impressed with the com- 
 parative magnitude of this branch of the enterprise, 
 when we reflect that these ten millions of Bibles are 
 more than double the number of copies believed to 
 have existed within the bounds of Christendom, 
 during the three centuries and a half from the 
 printing of the first Bible, in 1460, down to the era 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS. 213 
 
 of Bible societies, and a far greater number of 
 copies than were in the hands of mankind through 
 ^11 the ages of the world, from Moses to the Refor- 
 mation. What an advance is this in obedience to 
 Christ's most beneficent command ! 
 
 The number of other books, and of tracts, that 
 have been printed in the languages of the unevan- 
 gelized nations, in this era of modern missions, it is 
 impossible to estimate with certainty. I know that 
 the American Board has published them in forty-two 
 languages, and to the extent of more than a thou- 
 sand millions of pages ; and that the American Bap- 
 tist Missionary Union has published in thirty-three 
 languages, and to the extent of more than two hun- 
 dred millions of pages. These two American socie- 
 ties alone have published in not less than sixty-eight 
 different languages of the unevangelized world; and 
 the number of titles to their works, and of course 
 the number of separate works, does not fall far short 
 of three thousand. The amount of printing by the 
 General Assembly's Board, I cannot state with cer- 
 tainty, but it is believed not to fall short of three 
 hundred and sixty millions of pages. Though other 
 societies may not have operated through the press 
 to the same extent, we yet see how immense, on the 
 whole, must have been the product of the missionary 
 press, and the addition to the means of knowledge, 
 and especially of religious knowledge, in the heathen 
 world. 
 
214 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 5. There has been an encouraging progress in the 
 contributions for the support of foreign missions. 
 The American Board began with one thousand dollars 
 in its first year, and has since received more than 
 half a million in one year ; and the sum total of its 
 receipts is about twelve millions of dollars. The 
 Presbyterian Board of Missions has a sum total of 
 four millions five hundred thousand dollars ; and the 
 American Baptist Union of more than four millions. 
 These are given merely as illustrations. There has 
 been a corresponding growth in the receipts of the 
 great missionary societies generally, both in this 
 country, and in Great Britain. The combined re- 
 ceipts of twenty-four British foreign missionary 
 societies for the propagation of the gospel among 
 the heathen and the Jews, in the year 1867, ex- 
 ceeded two millions of dollars. That of twelve Ameri- 
 can missionary societies, for the same object, in the 
 year 1868, exceeded one million five hundred thou- 
 sand. 
 
 It is a remarkable and very encouraging feature 
 in the financial history of the larger missionary so- 
 cieties, that dividing their existence into periods of 
 a few years each, there has generally been an increase 
 of receipts in each of these periods. The law is 
 one of growth and progress ; and the continuance of 
 this progress seems more probable now than ever. 
 
 It should be borne in mind, that what I am now 
 seeking to develop, is not the success of missions in 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS, 215 
 
 the way of converting the heathen. It is rather the 
 great preparation for success. It is the progress in 
 learning the precise nature of our work ; in securing 
 influential positions in the un evangelized world; in 
 improving our methods of employing native forces ; 
 and in substituting the more potential spiritual 
 agencies for such as are less potential. 
 
 We should reflect on the shortness of the time 
 since the oldest of the foreign missions began to 
 operate. I myself well remember when there was 
 no missionary in Turkey ; when missionaries were 
 debarred from the greater part of India ; when none 
 were in Burmah, none in China, none in the Indian 
 Archipelago; when there were none in Africa, ex- 
 cepting Sierra Leone, and the southern extremity of 
 the continent; and none in the great island-world 
 of the Pacific Ocean, except some small groups in 
 the south. 
 
 But how is it now? The number of ordained 
 missionaries in the field falls but little short of two 
 thousand. There are nearly a thousand missionary 
 stations, occupied by missionaries ; and nearly three 
 thousand out-stations, occupied by a native ministry 
 of some sort. The native helpers in the missions, of 
 all kinds, cannot be less than five thousand ; and 
 perhaps half of these are preachers of the gospel, 
 and more than three hundred are pastors of native 
 churches. 
 
 Thus much as to the missionary force already in the 
 
216 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 field. Of converts, churches, and nominal Christians 
 I shall speak hereafter. 
 
 It is proper that we should take some notice of 
 those portions of the unevangelized world, which 
 have not yet been reached by Christian missions. 
 
 In respect to Africa, my thoughts go back to the 
 evening of September 22, 1833, and to the first 
 Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, where was then 
 assembled one of the finest audiences I ever beheld. 
 Then and there the two first missionaries of the 
 American Board to Africa received their instructions 
 as missionaries to the Western coast ; and I never 
 performed that service with a feeling so nearly ap- 
 proaching to enthusiasm. To my then unchastened 
 imagination, it seemed easy to cross the Kong 
 Mountains, and to ascend the Niger and Tshadda 
 to the supposed pastoral highlands of the interior ; 
 and there, meeting the missionary forces from the 
 East and Southeast, to unite with them in lofty 
 praise over Africa's redemption. The remarkable 
 mission of Mr. Johnson at Sierra Leone, already 
 described, was prior to that time, and fresh in my 
 memory, and so was that of Dr. Vanderkemp and 
 others among the Hottentots of South Africa. But 
 it seems not to be the divine purpose that Equatorial 
 Africa shall be evangelized by the white man, or 
 that it should be effected by any means until slavery 
 had been abolished in Protestant Christendom. It 
 was reserved, as I now love to believe, for the de- 
 
DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS. 217 
 
 sceudants of Africans to carry the gospel to the lands 
 of their forefathers. And we may expect them to be 
 forward so to do, when once their own Christian priv- 
 ileges have become assured. No white man should 
 join their missions ; and men from their own race 
 will in due time be their agents for raising funds 
 from among themselves, and perhaps, too, their 
 secretaries for correspondence with the African mis- 
 sions. 
 
 The Mohammedans number one hundred and forty 
 millions, and, as a race, have heretofore not been 
 accessible to the gospel. The abolition of the death- 
 penalty for renouncing Mohammedanism by the 
 Sultan in the year 1843, is probably without effect in 
 provinces remote from Constantinople. But the 
 progress of Christian empire, whether Russia, France, 
 or England be the triumphing power, will go far to 
 abolish this fundamental law of Moslemism. And 
 experience encourages the hope, that where this is 
 done, large numbers of Moslems, — descendants, it 
 may be, of ancient Christians, — will embrace the 
 gospel. At present there is no distinct call to plant 
 missions among the Moslems of Northern Africa, or 
 Central Asia. 
 
 Of Thibet we know almost nothing, and therefore 
 I may not speak of it. 
 
 The Roman Catholic world is shut against us, so far 
 as the Romish priesthood have the power of so doing. 
 Such power they had, until within a single year, 
 
218 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 in Spain and Austria; and now have in Portugal, 
 and several of the smaller Roman Catholic States of 
 Europe. They wield it more or less in most of the 
 Roman Catholic American States. In France they 
 are yet ahle greatly to embarrass the Protestant press 
 and ministry. In Italy, and even in Spain, their 
 power seems to be considerably broken. 
 
 I come to this general conclusion. That the Evan- 
 gelical Church is now fast occupying the central and 
 influential points in all countries that are really open 
 to the heralds of the cross. Not thoroughly and 
 effectually, but in part, and with the intent and ex- 
 pectation of enlargement, until the end is accom- 
 plished, and these countries become the Lord's. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 
 
 The Missions yet in the Infancy of their Experience. — Success among 
 the North American Indians ; in the Isles of the Pacific ; in China ; 
 among the Karens of Burmah ; in India ; in Madagascar ; in Africa ; 
 in Western Asia. — Extent of the Invasion. — Strength of the 
 Invading Army. — Summary. — The Hope of the Church. 
 
 I COME to a most interesting portion of my great 
 theme, namely, the fulfillment of Christ's promise to 
 be with his missionary servants. The fulfillment has 
 been commensurate with the obedience. 
 
 In illustrating the success granted by the Head of 
 the Church to modern missions, I adduce, as hereto- 
 fore, the more striking proofs, and these will gener- 
 ally be found in the older missions. Many of the 
 more important missions are of recent date; as,, for 
 instance, the missions in Northern China and Japan, 
 several in Northern India, and several in Northern 
 and Western Polynesia. It is also to be remembered, 
 how few are the years since the discovery was made 
 of the vital importance of native pastors to the 
 development of self-reliant, enterprising native 
 churches. I begin with the nearest field. 
 
 1. Missions have been crowned with success, all 
 
220 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 things considered, among our North American In- 
 dians. This is contrary, I believe, to the general 
 opinion. The missions to the Cherokee and Choc- 
 taw Indians, tribes numbering together about forty 
 thousand souls, were begun in the years 1816 and 
 1818. In 1860, these Indians were pronounced a 
 Christian people. They were then as accessible to 
 Christian preachers, and listened to them with as 
 much deference, to say the least, as their white 
 neighbors in the adjoining States. The professors 
 of the Christian religion among them were in as 
 large a proportion, as in any part of our country, 
 and Christianity was their only religion. They rec- 
 ognized the Sabbath as a divine institution, and 
 transacted no public business on that day. Among 
 the Cherokees, the Bible was required by law to be 
 read in the schools, and no person denying the being 
 of God, or a future state of rewards and punish- 
 ments, could hold a civil office. In addition to six- 
 teen white preachers of different denominations, 
 the Cherokees had more than forty licensed native 
 preachers.^ 
 
 Surrounded by slaveholders, and being such to 
 some extent themselves, those Indians suffered much 
 in their religious condition during the late war. 
 Nevertheless, they are a monument and proof of what 
 might have been accomplished among the Indians 
 of North America, through the grace of God, but 
 
 1 See Report of American Board for 1860, p. 137. 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 221 
 
 for the pernicious influences of white neighbors and 
 traders. 
 
 A more remarkable triumph of the gospel was 
 among the Dakota Indians in Minnesota, within the 
 past six or seven years. There had been missionary 
 labors among them before, but without much appar- 
 ent success. In 1862, the pagan Dakotas resolved 
 upon exterminating, in true Indian style, the whites 
 who had encroached on their hunting-grounds, and 
 they actually commenced a general massacre. The 
 missionaries and their families escaped only by a 
 painful flight, in which they were aided by Christian 
 Indians. It was a renewal of the old King Philip 
 war, and the exasperated whites, as aforetime, after 
 the Indians had been subdued, made little distinc- 
 tion between the innocent and guilty. Two thou- 
 sand Dakotas were held in military custody, of whom 
 more than three hundred were sentenced to death by 
 a military commission, though less than forty were 
 executed, in consequence of an appeal to President 
 Lincoln. 
 
 The missionaries were allowed free access to the 
 Indians under this military restraint, and then com- 
 menced their harvest. Within three years, more 
 than five hundred Dakotas were admitted to the 
 church on giving credible evidence of piety. Two 
 thirds of these soon learned to read and write their 
 own language, and several were licensed as preach- 
 ers of the gospel. 
 
222 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Just think of a scene like the following", which 
 occurred during the first of those three years. It is 
 in a company of some hundreds of Dakotas, just 
 emharked on the Mississippi Kiver for a residence 
 — to them a banishment — far up the Missouri 
 River. The missionary who accompanied them, 
 writes thus : — 
 
 " As darkness shut in the skies, the Indians looked 
 out upon their native hills, as they said, for the last 
 time. We were hardly under way, however, when 
 from all the different parts of the boat where the 
 Indians were collected, we heard hymns of praise 
 ascending to Jehovah ; not loud, but soft and 
 .sweet, like the gentle murmuring of waters. Then 
 one of them led in prayer, after which another hymn 
 was sung, and so they continued till all were com- 
 posed, and, drawing their blankets over them, each 
 fell asleep. The next morning, before sunrise, they 
 were again at their devotions. So they continued, 
 evening and morning; and these services were com- 
 menced without any suggestion from us." 
 
 Think, too, of another scene, near the centre of 
 Minnesota, on the brow of what is called the 
 " Mountain of the Prairie," looking out upon a wide 
 and beautiful prospect. Here the missionary writes 
 in October, 1867: — 
 
 " Our first public meeting was on Friday, a little 
 before sunset, when we preached to nearly one hun- 
 dred persons, seated on the grass in the open air. 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 223 
 
 most of whom had come that day from five to ten 
 miles. Not half a dozen were within three miles in 
 the morning, and the nearest house was more than 
 fifteen miles awa3^ Most of the day we were occu- 
 pied in examining" candidates for church fellowship. 
 In the afternoon we found our audience considerably 
 increased by such as had come in during the day, 
 notwithstanding the unpleasant weather. Two 
 women had walked more than twenty miles, and, 
 lest they might be late, came most of the lonesome 
 road in the chilly air of the night. One of these, 
 more than fifty years old, came to Mr. Riggs, and 
 handed him five dollars, which she and her daughter 
 gave for the support of the gospel among their 
 people. 
 
 " Most of the Lord's day was spent in public re- 
 ligious exercises. I can find no words to express my 
 feelings of joy and wonder, as on that day I contem- 
 plated God's mighty doings among these Dakotas. 
 They were more than sufficient to compensate for a 
 weary journey of several hundred miles over the 
 trackless prairie. When the candidates for baptism 
 were called for, more than fifty presented them- 
 selves, including parents and children, of whom 
 twenty were about to partake of the Lord's Supper 
 for the first time." ^ 
 
 In the year 1852, ten American missionary socie- 
 ties had missions among the Indian tribes; with 
 
 Missionary Herald, 1863, p. 205 ; 1867, p. 387. 
 
224 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 ninety-four ordained mi&'sionaries, thirty-eight na- 
 tive preachers (of whom I think few had received 
 ordination), nine thousand nine hundred and sixty- 
 four church-members, nine hundred and thirty-six 
 in hoarding-schools, and about fifteen hundred in 
 day-schools. The decline in these missions, since 
 that time, is attributable mainly to national causes, 
 into which it is not needful that I now enter. 
 
 2. My next illustration is from the Islands of the 
 Pacific Ocean. These islands have awakened an ex- 
 traordinary interest during the past half century. I 
 have the titles of more than sixty volumes concern- 
 ing them, in the English language, which are chiefly 
 occupied with the Christian missions; not to speak 
 of the contents of missionary periodicals, reports, 
 and pamphlets, which, if printed in volumes, would 
 largely increase the number. I can only glance at 
 this great field; but even a glance will reveal to 
 us missionary triumphs, exceeded by nothing since 
 the apostolic age. 
 
 The Sandwich Islands come first in the geographi- 
 cal order. The system of idolatry there, such as it 
 was, had its overthrow before the arrival of the 
 American mission in 1820. This singular occurrence 
 is traceable to no Christian cause. It was a revolt, 
 under God's providence, from the oppressive restric- 
 tions of the tabu. Yet the timing of the two events, 
 is what no believer in the divine government will 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 225 
 
 overlook. The missionaries anticipated no such 
 thing when they sailed from their native land ; nor 
 did the natives overthrow their bloody altars with 
 any expectation of the coming missionaries. Nor is 
 it by any means certain, that this occurrence materi- 
 ally hastened the triumphs of Christianity. Seven- 
 teen years after the commencement of the mission, 
 and when the primary truths of the gospel had been 
 generally diffused, there commenced throughout the 
 Islands, as the evident result of an outpouring of the 
 Holy Spirit, a wonderful religious movement affect- 
 ing the entire native mind ; and more than a fourth 
 part of the adult population was then added to the 
 church. 
 
 The generation in which this remarkable triumph 
 of grace occurred, has nearly passed away. Yet 
 almost a third part of the inhabitants are, at this 
 time, members of the church, of whom more than 
 eight hundred were received as communicants in the 
 year 1868. There are now thirty native churches 
 on those Islands, with native pastors supported by 
 themselves ; which churches also support thirteen 
 native foreign missionaries in the Marquesas Islands 
 and Micronesia. And they contributed more than 
 129,000 in gold, the past year, for various Christian 
 objects, including the publication of nearly three 
 million pages of Christian literature. Having my- 
 self traversed all the Sandwich Islands, five years 
 ago, I do not hesitate to declare the United States 
 
 15 
 
226 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 to be no more entitled, as a whole, to the appellation 
 of Christian, than are those Islands. 
 
 Let us turn to islands in the South Pacific. 
 Twenty-three years before the gospel was brought 
 to the Sandwich Islands, a company of English 
 missionaries landed on Tahiti, in Eastern Polynesia, 
 and after laboring in great discouragement almost a 
 score of years, they rejoiced over their first convert. 
 Then began a religious revolution on that island, the 
 evident work of the Holy Spirit, which will always 
 deserve a place in the Christian history. Island 
 after island, group after group of islands, in quick 
 succession threw away their idols, and embraced the 
 gospel. In some cases, the mere tidings of what 
 had occurred on Tahiti, though carried only by a 
 native convert, was enough to produce this result. 
 Indeed, it may almost be said, that the chief instru- 
 ments in this propagation of the gospel, were native 
 evangelists. In less than twenty years, Christianity 
 had become the only religion in most of the numer- 
 ous islands westward, through the space of nearly 
 three thousand miles. Never was there seen an 
 overthrow of idolatry more extensive, and more 
 rapid and complete. 
 
 The chief foreign agency in Eastern and Central 
 Polynesia, was that of missionaries of the London 
 Missionary Society, and the reader will be interested 
 in the following recent testimony given by that 
 society : — 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 227 
 
 " Sixty years ago, there was not a solitary native 
 Christian in Polynesia ; now, it would be difficult to 
 find a professed idolater in the islands of Eastern or 
 Central Polynesia, where Christian missionaries have 
 been established. The hideous rites of their fore- 
 fathers have ceased to be practiced. Their heathen 
 legends and war-songs are forgotten. Their cruel 
 and desolating tribal wars, which were rapidly de- 
 stroying the population, appear to be at an end. 
 They are gathered together in peaceful village com- 
 munities. They live under recognized codes of laws. 
 They are constructing roads, cultivating their fertile 
 lands, and engaging in commerce. On the return 
 of the Sabbath, a very large proportion of the popu- 
 lation attend the worship of God, and in some in- 
 stances more than half the adult population are 
 recognized members of Christian churches. They 
 educate their children, endeavoring to train them for 
 usefulness in after life. They sustain their native 
 ministers, and send their noblest sons as missionaries 
 to the heathen lands which lie farther west. There 
 may not be the culture, the wealth, the refinement 
 of the older lands of Christendom. These things 
 are the slow growth of ages. But these lands must 
 no longer be regarded as a part of heathendom. In 
 God's faithfulness and mercy, they have been won 
 from the domains of heathendom, and have been 
 added to the domains of Christendom." ^ 
 
 1 Report of London Missionary Society for 1866, p. 7. 
 
228 FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 But the most remarkable results are in the Feejee 
 Islands, about eighty in number, with a population 
 of two hundred thousand. Thirty years ago the 
 people were all cannibals, and delighted in their 
 horrid feasts. If a hundred white men had been 
 cast upon their shores before the entrance of the 
 gospel, they would all have been immediately killed 
 and eaten. Seamen dreaded them. An American 
 vessel from Vancouver's Island, not long ago, was 
 wrecked at sea. The crew took to their boat, and 
 after drifting some hundreds of miles, struck at 
 length on a coral reef. On reaching the shore, they 
 found themselves on one of the Feejee Islands, and 
 gave themselves up for lost. But one of them pick- 
 ing up a book from the sand, exclaimed : " Jack, I 
 say, airs right ; here is a Bible ! Thank God, 
 Christianity is here, and we shall be saved ! " And 
 so it proved. There is no record of more remark- 
 able courage, self-denial, and success in missions, 
 than that of the English Wesleyan missionaries on 
 those islands. The mission was commenced in the 
 year 1835, and within thirty years of its commence- 
 ment, one hundred thousand, or about one half, of 
 the inhabitants, were in possession of the Scriptures 
 in their own language ; and, according to the latest 
 intelligence, ninety thousand attended public wor- 
 ship, including the Sabbath- school children ; and 
 there were twenty-two thousand church-members. 
 The Feejeean preachers numbered six hundred and 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 229 
 
 sixty-three. Forty-five of the native preachers had 
 received ordination, or were candidates for it ; while 
 the number of teachers exceeded one thousand, and 
 there were thirty-six thousand in the schools. The 
 people, thus brought under the power of the gospel, 
 have of course ceased from their cannibalism, and 
 polygamy and infanticide are fast passing away. A 
 value is set upon human life. No more do the 
 avengers of blood come as savage warriors, or as 
 stealthy assassins, but make their peaceful appeal to 
 laws, founded on the Word of God. An English 
 naval officer, speaking lately of a religious service 
 he attended on one of these islands, says : " I was very 
 much impressed by the scene before me. Only fif- 
 teen years before, every man I saw was a cannibal. 
 Close to me sat the old chief, Bible in hand, and 
 spectacles on forehead, who was, twenty years back, 
 one of the most sanguinary and ferocious of this ter- 
 rible land ; and within twenty yards of me was the 
 sight of the fatal oven, with the tree still standing, 
 covered with the ndtches that marked each new 
 victim." 
 
 An affecting contrast to all this is seen in islands 
 and districts which have not yet been reached by 
 the gospel. There the natives continue to devour one 
 another ; to bury their sick alive ; to strangle their 
 widows, murder their infants, and prosecute their 
 treacherous and cruel wars. The newspapers gave 
 recently an account of the murder of a missionary 
 
230 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 and his assistants, when venturing across the largest 
 of the pagan islands. 
 
 A few years more, and all this will have passed 
 forever away. And we need only to estimate with 
 some care the causes now in operation in that part 
 of the world, in order to be assured that mission- 
 aries, native or foreign, will erelong be found on 
 every island of that great ocean, with the certainty 
 of reclaiming the inhabitants to the worship of the 
 true God. 
 
 3. In China, a world of heathenism, there has 
 been scarcely time yet for more than the first har- 
 vest fruits. It is not forty years since a missionary 
 was safe only within the trading factories of Canton ; 
 and not even there, if his profession were publicly 
 avowed. But now, the missionary may traverse nearly 
 the whole of that mighty empire. Missionaries 
 labor openly and freely at all the chief marts of trade 
 along the coast, and one of the strongest missions 
 is in the great metropolis. The success we can yet 
 speak of in that vast domain of paganism, is chiefly 
 of discovery, of accessibility, of peaceful occupancy, 
 and of some promising first fruits. 
 
 4. Our progress westward brings us next among 
 the Karens of Burmah. I had occasion, in a former 
 chapter, to state the remarkable success of a Karen 
 evangelist, named Quala ; who, in the space of three 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 231 
 
 years, was the means of hopefully converting more 
 than two thousand of his countrymen. 
 
 It is forty years since the mission was commenced 
 among the Karens, and the success of that native 
 evangelist was five and twenty years after that time. 
 Contemporary with that remarkable man were the 
 labors and successes of the missionary, Mr. Vinton. 
 After some years successfully spent in Maulmain and 
 the surrounding country, Mr. Vinton removed into 
 the province of Rangoon, where his Christian ardor 
 found ample scope in unoccupied districts among the 
 Karens. This was in 1852, and in six years he died. 
 In the first of these years, Mr. Vinton received five 
 hundred Karens into the church. His labors were 
 apostolical. The country over which he travelled 
 was destitute of roads, and the people were poor and 
 ignorant. His last tour was in districts not before 
 traversed, and was the immediate cause of his death. 
 The heat was fearful. Several nights he slept in 
 bamboo jungles, and one day he rode forty miles on 
 an elephant across burning rice-fields. In these six 
 years, Mr. Vinton planted forty churches, opened 
 forty-two houses of worship, and thirty-two school- 
 houses, and between eight and nine thousand Karens 
 were raised to the level of Christian worshippers. In 
 the rainy season, when he could not travel, he em- 
 ployed himself in bringing forward a native ministry, 
 and about one hundred native pastors, evangelists, 
 and school-teachers were thus trained.^ 
 
 1 Gospd in Burrnah. 
 
232 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 The mission, to which Mr. Vinton belonged, con- 
 tained, in the year 1868, sixty-six native ordained 
 pastors and evangelists, three hundred and forty- 
 six native preachers unordained, three hundred and 
 sixty native churches, nineteen thousand two hun- 
 dred and thirty-one church-members, and nearly 
 sixty thousand native Christians of all ages.^ This 
 surely is success ; this is the blessing of God.^ 
 
 The Karens, the Santhals, the Coles of Nagpore, 
 the Mahars of Western India, the Shauars of South- 
 ern India, the Hottentots and Kaffirs of Africa, the 
 islanders of the Pacific Ocean, and the American 
 Indians, are nearly all in the same stratum of society ; 
 and their low social position makes a change of re- 
 ligion comparatively easy. To the poor, the gospel 
 comes with its most alluring power ; and, in the early 
 stages of the missionary enterprise, it was necessary, 
 owing to the weakness of faith in the churches of 
 England and America, to give a disproportionate 
 attention to the aboriginal races. By the speedier 
 
 1 Report of Amer. Bapt. Miss. Union, for 1868. 
 
 2 The Madras Observer states that a gentleman, not in sympathy 
 with the Baptists, but a great traveller, performing his journeys on 
 foot, said, that on one occasion he found himself for seventeen succes- 
 sive nights at the end of his days' journeys through the forest, in a 
 native Christian village. He also bore a high testimony to the relig- 
 iousness of the people, more particularly to their strict observance of 
 the Sabbath, and their abstinence from the use of intoxicating liquors. 
 Bombay Guardian, Oct. 31, 1868. 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 233 
 
 results thus obtained, the churches at home were 
 prepared to enter upon the more costly and protracted 
 efforts in the more populous and difficult regions. 
 
 5. The Santhals inhabit a country through which 
 the railway of the Ganges valley passes, not very far 
 to the northwest of Calcutta. In 1865, three years 
 ago, there were only three Santhal Christians ; now 
 there are four hundred. 
 
 The Coles inhabit a fine table-laud, three hundred 
 miles west of Calcutta, and are devil- worshippers, 
 and exceedingly debased in morals. The Germans 
 commenced a mission among them in 1845. Their 
 first convert was not till after five years. Since 
 then, the progress has been constant ; and the native 
 converts have done far more to spread the gospel, 
 than the missionaries. "Who taught you about 
 Jesus Christ ? " asked a missionary of an intelligent 
 native woman. " Who ? " was her reply ; " why this 
 teaching is all over the country." She had in view 
 the self-propagating spirit of the native converts. 
 The number of communicants, at the latest date, was 
 fifteen hundred, and that of the nominal Christians 
 was much larger. 
 
 The most remarkable success in India, as regards 
 numbers, has been among the Shanars, a great tribe 
 of devil-worshippers, within one hundred and fifty 
 miles of Cape Comorin. Thirteen years ago, it was 
 my privilege to pass, with the Rev. Dr. Thompson, 
 
234 FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 through their country, and to witness many interest- 
 ing scenes. Dr. Mullens, who preceded us, charac- 
 terizes the Shanars, in their heathen condition, as 
 " an oppressed race ; living on palm sugar ; climbing 
 trees, with hard, daily toil ; untaught ; with scarcely 
 an idea about God; fearing only the powers that 
 work in the sky, air, and earth, close around them ; 
 their only recreations the wild dances of devil priests, 
 with the loud drumming and rude feasts that ever 
 accompanied the dances." " They have been easy 
 to win," he says, " but hard to raise." Yet we may 
 remember what Mr. Thomas, the able missionary 
 among this people, said concerning the ten thousand 
 converted Shanars under his care. The missionaries 
 employed in this field during the last twenty years, 
 though generally able men, were backward, until of 
 late, to ordain native pastors. But the native preach- 
 ers among this people number over five hundred, 
 and the nominal Christians are estimated at one 
 hundred thousand; all separated from heathenism, 
 formed into congregations for regular Christian wor- 
 ship, with their names all on the mission rolls. 
 These native Christians contributed 120,000 (in 
 gold) for religious purposes, in the year I8664 The 
 Rev. John Thomas Tucker died in that year. He 
 was connected wdtli the Church Missionary Society 
 in Southern India, and, during a mission of twenty 
 years among this people, baptized three thousand 
 five hundred Christian converts. And these converts 
 
SUCCESS OF MISl^IONS. 235 
 
 he saw destroy, with their own hands, fifty-four devil 
 temples, and build sixty-four houses for Christian 
 worship. He had also the satisfaction of seeing 
 thirteen of his native converts ordained to the work 
 of the gospel ministry. 
 
 6. The successes among the more degraded and 
 accessible classes of India, seem to me not to com- 
 pare, in importance and value, with results already 
 attained in the vast East India empire of Brah- 
 minism. In this Brahminic empire, there are now 
 missionary laborers at more than a thousand sta- 
 tions and out-stations; and nowhere do they ap- 
 pear to labor in vain. Dr. Mullens declares, that 
 "the greatest fruit of all missionary labor in India, 
 is in the mighty changes produced in the knowledge 
 and convictions of the people at large." He assures 
 us, that " the Hindus are learning, everywhere, that 
 an idol is nothing, and that bathing in the Ganges 
 cannot cleanse away sin." He declares his belief 
 that, while the vested interests of idolatry are of 
 enormous value, while Brahmin families may be 
 counted by millions, while the Hindu system dates 
 back long before the coming of Christ, and is a most 
 formidable antagonist; "yet even Hinduism, so 
 powerful, so rich, so ancient, is giving way at every 
 point." 1 
 
 1 Dr. Mullens, at the Conference of the Evangelical Alliance in 
 Amsterdam. 
 
236 FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 The same distinguished missionary also says, that 
 knowledge of gospel truth is spreading more widely 
 every year, that it is moulding the opinions of native 
 society, and is the only power that has increasiiig 
 influence. He says, that everywhere in India, in 
 Ceylon, in Burmah, in the great cities, in the open 
 country, in the seats of commerce and of govern- 
 ment, and in the centres of native opinion, " it is 
 Christianity alone, which makes real advance ; " and 
 that the Christian agency " was never more com- 
 pact, more judiciously located, more steady in its 
 working, more calm and quiet in its tone." ^ 
 
 I am now speaking of the Hindus. Considerahle 
 time must be allowed for a general religious and 
 social change to take place among a hundred 
 thousand people, whose religious and social habits 
 date back three thousand years. But they are 
 human beings, with minds like our own, capable of 
 being influenced and moulded by the gospel ; and 
 they are tenacious of their convictions, when once 
 on the side of the gospel, as we saw marvelously 
 demonstrated in the great rebellion. 
 
 A recent India statement places the number of 
 communicants in the churches at fifty thousand, and 
 the number of nominal Christians at two hundred 
 and fifty thousand ; and puts their annual contribu- 
 tions for religious objects as high as $100,000.^ Dr. 
 
 1 Ten Years' Missionary Labor in India, p. 196, 
 "^ Friend of India. 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 237 
 
 Mullens states the number of missionaries in India 
 to be five hundred and eighty, and estimates the 
 number of native helpers at more than two thou- 
 sand.i 
 
 An extract from the " Church Missionary Intelli- 
 gencer," for October, 1868, gives a striking view of 
 the recent condition of the India mind. " In India, 
 the present time is a season of disruption, not of ice 
 and frost, but of prejudices and popular superstitions 
 which have long fettered the energies of the natives. 
 The sullen reign of Brahminical idolatry has been 
 invaded by influences, at first despised, but which 
 have gathered strength, and are manifesting their 
 power; and the native mind, breaking forth from 
 the old prescriptive bonds, is coming widely into 
 action. yThe unquestioning servility wherewith dense 
 masses of population had submitted themselves to 
 the degrading superstitions submitted to them by 
 former generations, is at an end. Men no longer 
 consider themselves as shut up in the religious opin- 
 ions of their fathers, and bound to think only as they 
 thought. They have discovered what it is to be in- 
 tellectually free ; and as the old prejudices, no longer 
 able to endure the strain, yield and break, the human 
 mind, rushing forth with a wild impetuosity of move- 
 ment, not only casts off what is false, but, confound- 
 ing all distinctions of right and wrong, liberty and 
 license, antagonizes against that truth of God which 
 
 1 London and Calcutta, p. l37. See Appendix VI. 
 
238 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 would exercise over it a just control, and preserve it 
 from extravagance. There is a conflict of opinions : 
 there is therefore cause for anxiety, and a pressing 
 necessity for wise and arduous efl*orts on the part of 
 all who desire the true happiness and prosperity of 
 India, lest the educated Hindus, the first fruits of 
 India's emancipation, in ceasing to be idolatrous, be- 
 come stereotyped in skepticism." 
 
 7. The remarkable triumphs of grace in the island 
 of Madagascar, inhabited by the negro race, were 
 stated in a former chapter, and need not be now re- 
 peated.i It will be remembered that, not long after 
 the gospel had been planted, the English mission- 
 aries were driven away by a pagan queen, and that 
 the native converts, left to themselves, and subjected 
 to a terrible persecution for twenty-five years, yet 
 grew in numbers ; so that, only seven years after 
 the return of the missionaries, there were ninety 
 churches and one hundred and one pastors, within 
 and around the metropolis ; and the church- members 
 were five thousand two hundred and fifty-five, and 
 the nominal Christians twenty thousand. I think 
 nothing more remarkable than this is found in the 
 history of missions. In ^Ye years, subsequent to 
 1861, the people erected a hundred simple houses 
 for worship at their own cost. And only two years 
 later, we have authentic information, that a new 
 
 1 See Chapter VIII. 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 239 
 
 queen and her government have publicly renounced 
 idolatry, sent away the great idol, and stopped the 
 government works on the Lord's day, and that the 
 places of Christian worship are crowded to excess. 
 At one large church erected by the missionaries, 
 more than two thousand were counted in one church 
 on the Sabbath. 1 
 
 8. Equatorial Africa, it would seem, must be 
 evangelized by her own sable sons ; and our lately 
 emancipated millions should do the work. The loss 
 of life among white missionaries from the climate, 
 demonstrates this, but their labors have also demon- 
 strated the feasibility of the work. I may not repeat 
 the marvelous but well authenticated story already 
 related concerning the labors and successes of Mr. 
 Johnson at Sierra Leone.^ The most promising 
 mission now in Western Africa, is perhaps the purely 
 African mission of the Church Missionary Society on 
 the river Niger, under the guiding influence of that 
 highly respectable negro bishop, the Rev. Dr. Crow- 
 ther, who was taken from the hold of a slave-ship 
 when a boy, brought to Sierra Leone, and educated 
 there and in England. The missions along the 
 West African coast, are estimated to contain a 
 nominally Christian population of more than fifty 
 thousand ; thus forming an excellent base for future 
 missionary operations in the interior. 
 
 1 Christian World. 2 gee Chapter VIU. 
 
240 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Ill respect to South Africa, it should perhaps be 
 said that the grand result of the missions there has 
 been to save the Hottentot, Kaffir, and other tribes, 
 from being utterly destroyed by the Dutch and Eng- 
 lish colonists, who would fain have seized their lands, 
 and either massacred the people, or reduced them to 
 slavery. Were it not for the blessing of God on the 
 missions, such would doubtless have been the result 
 over the whole country, from Cape Town to Natal, 
 and far interior. 
 
 The first missionary was a Moravian, who com- 
 menced his labors in 1736. Visiting Europe after a 
 few years, the heartless Dutch India Company for- 
 bade his return, and a half century passed away, 
 with a benighted generation, ere the mission was 
 resumed. 
 
 Soon after the return of the Moravians, the cele- 
 brated Dr. Vanderkemp arrived, sent by the Lon- 
 don Missionary Society. He has been followed by 
 many other missionaries from various societies ; and 
 South Africa is now occupied through fourteen de- 
 grees of latitude, and nearly as many of longitude, 
 and the number of church-members connected with 
 the various missionary societies exceeds twenty thou- 
 sand. In a qualified sense, it may be regarded as a 
 Christian country. 
 
 In the early history of the missions in this part 
 of Africa, there is much to awaken both a painful 
 and a pleasing interest. The bloody raids, or " com- 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 241 
 
 mandoes," as they were called, sent forth by the 
 colonial governments for the avowed purpose of ex- 
 terminating the Bushmen, may well excite our hor- 
 ror. A missionary once knew a Dutch farmer, who 
 said he had been on nearly fifty commandoes, and 
 claimed to have himself killed hundreds of the 
 natives. Sometimes villages were surprised, the 
 men murdered, the cattle captured, and women and 
 children carried away to be bond- slaves of the mur- 
 derers of their husbands and fathers. Were we 
 seeking for evidences of total depravity, we might 
 find it there. The career of those wicked men was 
 arrested many years since by the bold appeals of 
 the Rev. Dr. Philip, of the London Missionary So- 
 ciety, to the Christian public of England. 
 
 On the other hand, some noted instances of the 
 transforming power of the gospel are furnished by 
 the South African missions. Who has not heard, 
 for instance, of Africaner, a Hottentot chief on the 
 western side of the continent? His native hills 
 were within a hundred miles of Cape Town. These 
 becoming occupied by Dutch invaders, Africaner and 
 his brothers were driven north. At length, taking 
 refuge beyond the Orange River, he became a daring 
 robber chief, and spread the terror of his name over 
 a wide region. The colonial governments oflfered 
 rewards for his capture, or death, and commandoes 
 were sent against him, but in vain. Berend, a Gri- 
 qua chief in his neighborhood, was hired to make 
 
 16 
 
242 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 war upon him, and between them there were many 
 bloody conflicts. Tribes fled at Africaner's approach. 
 The desert was afraid of him, and he was a terror 
 even to the English colony. In 1818, the well- 
 known missionary, Mr. Moifat, ventured to take up 
 his abode with Africaner, and from that time the 
 robber was a man of peace. He was a new man. 
 His temper, deportment, habits were changed. He 
 was the missionary's friend and helper, his nurse in 
 sickness, an indefatigable reader of the New Testa- 
 ment, and zealous for the propagation of the gospel. 
 Next year he accompanied Mr. Moffat to Cape Town, 
 but such was the dread of his name along the route, 
 and the incredulity as to his conversion, that it was 
 difficult to know how to convey him safely. When 
 at the Cape, men wondered at the mildness of the 
 outlaw, on whose head a price had been set, and the 
 good people were delighted with his piety and knowl- 
 edge of the Scriptures. 
 
 On his return homeward, Africaner met with 
 Berend, the Griqua chief, with whom he had had so 
 many deadly encounters. Both were now converts, 
 and they sat down together in the tent of the 
 missionary, and united in hymns of praise, and in 
 prayers to a common Father in heaven. Two years 
 later, Africaner entered into the joy of his Lord.^ 
 
 9. The triumphs of grace, contemplated thus far, 
 
 1 Moffat's Missionary Labors, etc., p. 182. 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 243 
 
 have all been among pagans. Coming into Western 
 Asia, we should find ourselves among the degenerate 
 churches of the East, and what we are now to con- 
 template, so far as space will allow, is the progress 
 of a reform among a people nominally Christian. 
 
 I must pass by the Arabs of Syria, the Turks, the 
 Bulgarians, and the Nestorians ; though of the Nes- 
 tor ians I ought to say, that more than six hundred 
 are recognized by the missionaries as worthy com- 
 municants, and nearly seventy of the Neatorian eccle- 
 siastics are evangelical preachers of the gospel. 
 
 I can only state some of the leading facts illus- 
 trating the blessing of God on the mission to the 
 Armenians, numbenng about two millions. 
 
 How much that people needed a republication of 
 the gospel, and a religious reformation, is evident 
 from their calling on the Virgin Mary as their 
 mediator, and not upon the Lord Jesus, and that 
 they hold to auricular confession, to absolution by 
 the priest, to penance, tran substantiation, baptismal 
 regeneration, intercession of saints and angels, to 
 the worship of the cross, relics, and pictures, and to 
 prayers for the dead.^ 
 
 The Bible Society was in the field as early as 1813, 
 with the version of the Bible in the ancient but un- 
 spoken language of the Armenian people. Editions 
 were afterwards circulated in the spoken languages, 
 and then it was that the priesthood commenced their 
 
 1 Dwight's Christianity in Turkey. 
 
244 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 opposition. The native Protestants were calumni- 
 ated, imprisoned, plundered, exiled, and all with the 
 concurrence of the Sultan Mahmoud. But God in- 
 terposed. The army of the Sultan was overthrown 
 by the Egyptians, on the plains of Nezib, and Mah- 
 moud's death in his own palace followed after a few 
 days. The exiles were then recalled, and the reform 
 gained in notoriety and public sympathy more than 
 it had lost. This was in 1839. 
 
 Four years later, the execution in Constantinople 
 of an Armenian, who had embraced Mohammedan- 
 ism and afterwards renounced it, led the Christian 
 powers of Europe to demand a pledge from the Sul- 
 tan, that no such insult to the religion of Christian 
 Europe should be repeated, and the pledge was 
 given. 
 
 At that time, some thousands in Constantinople 
 were intellectually convinced of the truth of the 
 evangelical doctrine, and there were many such in 
 the provinces. The first evangelical church was 
 organized at Constantinople in 1846, and the holy 
 influence extending across the Taurus Mountains, 
 a church was gathered at Aintab in Central Tur- 
 key, and one of the largest Protestant congregations 
 in the empire. 
 
 In 1847, the English ambassador procured an im- 
 perial decree constituting the native Protestants a 
 separate and independent community. And this 
 was soon placed beyond the possibility of a change. 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 245 
 
 by what is called a Hatti-Sherif, having the imperial 
 autograph, which was placed in the hands of the 
 Protestants. 
 
 I have already illustrated the remarkable progress 
 of the gospel at Aintab and Marash, in Central Tur- 
 key, and also at Harpoot, in the eastern section of 
 the empire.^ Suffice it now to say, concerning the 
 mission to the Armenians, that it numbers sixty- 
 three Protestant or evangelical churches, contain- 
 ing two thousand seven hundred and sixty-six mem- 
 bers. Of native pastors there are thirty-six, nearly 
 all supported by the people ; forty licensed preach- 
 ers, nearly three hundred native helpers, of pupils 
 in the schools six thousand ; and of acknowledged 
 Protestants about fourteen thousand, but the num- 
 ber of those who are really Protestant in opinion 
 and feeling must be far greater. 
 
 Behold now the camp-fires of Immanuel's army, 
 — extending over a large proportion of the Pacific 
 Islands, along the Chinese coast and into its in- 
 terior, over the greater part of India, over Western 
 Asia, on the great island of Madagascar, over almost 
 the whole of South Africa and along its western 
 coast for two thousand miles, in the frozen regions 
 of Labrador and Greenland, and among the Indians 
 of our own West and the British Northwest. 
 
 Does any one think that these fires will be suf- 
 
 1 See Chapter VIII. 
 
246 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 fered to die out ? that this army of Immanuel, giv- 
 ing up in shameful defeat, will retire before the 
 powers of darkness ? Will He, who gave his life to 
 ransom the world from sin, under whose banner and 
 in obedience to whose command this army has gone 
 forth, ever forsake it while loyal to his cause? 
 
 Should the army of invasion seem to any to be 
 a little flock, still it is the " little flock " to which 
 the Lord Jesus declares it is the Father's good pleas- 
 ure to give the kingdom. It is an army, of which 
 it is foretold, that " one shall chase a thousand, and 
 two put ten thousand to flight." It is further to 
 be considered, that every true convert becomes of 
 course a loyal soldier for life, and these loyal soldiers 
 are increasing by thousands every year. 
 
 The number of mission churches at present in 
 the unevangelized regions, is two thousand and five 
 hundred ; of church-members, more than two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand ; and the nominal Christians 
 may be reckoned at not less than a million. The 
 ordained missionaries, nearly two thousand in num- 
 ber, are ah-eady greatly outnumbered by the native 
 preachers, and the gospel is taking root in at least 
 four thousand places beyond the bounds of Chris- 
 tendom.^ 
 
 Persecution cannot arrest this work; it would 
 rather facilitate its progress. The Romish Church 
 cannot greatly retard it ; it will rather serve as an 
 
 1 See Appendix VIII. 
 
SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 247 
 
 incitement to the Protestant Church. Nor will the 
 wars of Christendom. The missions had their rise 
 when Christendom was in arms. In no way can the 
 progress of these missions he arrested, except hy a 
 general decline in the evangelical churches ; and it 
 is undouhtedly a fact that foreign missions, vigor- 
 ously prosecuted, will themselves almost ensure 
 against the possibility of such a decline. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CLAIMS OF MISSIONS ON YOUNG MINISTERS. 
 
 Excessive Claims of the Churches. — Unsafe to decide the Question 
 of Duty before Inquiry. — How many Missionaries the Churches will 
 support. — How many are needed. — The Sort of Men needed. 
 From whence they are to come. — How early the Question of Duty 
 should be decided. — Reflex Influence of Missionaries. — The Call 
 for Pastors to become Missionaries. — The Pastoral Office now, and 
 in Apostolic Times. — A Common Responsibility. 
 
 I PROPOSE to inquire what are the claims of 
 foreign missions upon young ministers of the gos- 
 pel. But before doing this, I must ask attention to 
 two preliminary inquiries. 
 
 The first is, Whether the claims assei-ted by the 
 churches at home upon the personal services of the 
 gospel ministry, are excessive. It is a well-known 
 fact, that eveiy local church feels itself entitled to 
 the best minister it can get. I hardly need to illus- 
 trate the force and extent of this sentiment in the 
 churches. It is the same in every denomination. In 
 a population not exceeding fifteen hundred souls, 
 with as many as three evangelical churches of differ- 
 ent denominations, each having a competent pastor, 
 with seats in the houses of worship enough to accom- 
 modate every family, and with a Sabbath-school for 
 
CLAIMS ON YOUNG MINISTERS. 249 
 
 every child ; yet if there be a number of evangelical 
 residents, who belong to neither of these denomina- 
 tions, they will feel it right to organize a fourth 
 church, and to bring a fourth evangelical minister 
 into the place, if they can, even though obliged to 
 ask aid from the Home Missionary Society ; and per- 
 haps they would not be restrained should the conse- 
 quence of this be, that one of the other churches will 
 also feel the need of asking home missionary aid. 
 
 The question I raise is this, — and I do it in the 
 interest of a perishing world, — Whether the funda- 
 mental law of benevolence in Christ's kingdom does 
 not make this an excessive and unauthorized demand 
 upon the ministry ; and whether, in all such cases, 
 the question of a right so to do, ought not to be 
 seriously entertained by the churches, and by can- 
 didates, councils, presbyteries, and the home mis- 
 sionary committees and societies. 
 
 My second preliminary inquiry is this : May a 
 candidate for the gospel ministry safely assume, be- 
 fore inquiry, that his appointed field of labor is in 
 his native land ? I do not think that he can. The 
 Head of the Church has certainly a specific work, 
 and a specific post, for each of us, for which he has 
 given us some special fitness, and which he will make 
 known to us, if we are willing to do his will, and 
 institute the proper inquiries. The kingdom of our 
 blessed Lord evidently has no national boundaries. 
 
250 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 "The field is the world ;" and the Redeemer will 
 not be " satisfied with the travail of his soul," until 
 his kingdom become coextensive with the earth. 
 The time has now evidently arrived, when the 
 churches and ministers of Christ are bound to aim 
 directly at that result. Were universal conquest the 
 leading object of our nation, then every student in 
 our military and naval schools would regard the field 
 of his duty as in some sense coextensive with the 
 world. In the naval service, indeed, it is scarcely 
 otherwise now. And are not candidates for the gos- 
 pel ministry in training for the world ? Can any 
 man, preparing to act under Christ's commission, 
 say, before inquiry, where will be his post of duty ? 
 When this is done, I have always felt that it is at 
 great peril. It is a self-evident truth, that we are 
 nowhere so likely to enjoy the presence of Christ, 
 and success to our labors consequent on the influ- 
 ences of the Holy Spirit, as in the path of our duty. 
 Is it not so ? Where else can we be assured of the 
 promise, " Lo, I am with you ? " I see not how to 
 escape from this conviction ; nor is it an unpleasant 
 one to entertain. Allow me to refer to my own ex- 
 perience. Few ministers of the gospel have been 
 providentially called to travel more over the world 
 than I have been, or have been placed where they 
 have more felt the need of the divine presence and 
 aid ; and there is no telling the sweet influence, at 
 such times, of au assurance, th^^t we ^re in the very 
 
CLAIMS ON YOUNG MINISTERS. 251 
 
 place and the very work God has assigned us. 
 Young ministers will feel this hereafter, as they can- 
 not now, especially in the great emergencies of life. 
 For a young minister to decide upon his post of duty 
 before a conscientious inquiry, is like an officer in the 
 army acting without having read the instructions of 
 his commander. 
 
 I now enter upon my main inquiry, namely — 
 The extent of the claim of foreign missions upon 
 young ministers of the gospel. The subject resolves 
 itself into several distinct inquiries. 
 
 1. How many missionaries may it be presumed 
 the churches will support ? Missionaries derive their 
 support from the churches at home ; there being the 
 same objection to their receiving it from churches 
 gathered among the heathen, that there was in the 
 days of the Apostle Paul. There are indeed few well 
 defined facts, on which to base a precise answer to 
 this inquiry. The American Board, for instance, 
 as I can bear testimony, has never, in a single 
 instance, deemed it wise to decline the proffered ser- 
 vices of a missionary for wan^ of funds ; nor am I 
 aware that the thought was ever really entertained 
 of recalling a missionary from the field for that 
 reason. We have no more certain means of know- 
 ing how far the churches may be induced to go in 
 supporting missionaries, than our government had, 
 in the year 1861, of knowing how far the nation 
 
262 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 would go in supporting an army for putting down 
 the great rebellion. The enthusiasm of young men 
 to enlist as soldiers, had everywhere the effect to 
 stimulate the patriotism and call forth the energies 
 of the country. So it is in missions. I have often 
 felt, that the pecuniary embarrassments of the Ameri- 
 can Board were owing more to the tardy accessions 
 of new missionaries, than to any other cause. The 
 declaration, " Here are we, send us," when heard by 
 the churches, has a wonderfully animating influence. 
 Nor would the ascertained disbelief of the churches 
 in their own ability to support double or quadruple 
 the number of missionaries now in the field, however 
 positive that disbelief might be, any more prove 
 their actual inability, than was their well-known 
 want of faith in their ability to support the six mis- 
 sionaries, who came forward in the year 1810. 
 
 I have long believed, and do now as confidently as 
 ever, that no man, fitted for the missionary service, 
 is justified in declining a mission from the apprehen- 
 sion that he will not be supported in the field. And 
 I should be greatly surprised if the man is living, 
 who will ever know of a well informed missionary 
 society declining, for that reason alone, the services 
 of a competent missionary candidate. 
 
 2. My second question is : How many missionaries 
 are needed? Recruits are in constant demand to 
 keep the number of missionaries good. But mis- 
 
CLAIMS ON YOUNG MINISTERS. 253 
 
 sionary conquests cannot be made, or even held, by 
 simply doing this. In missions we must advance, 
 or we shall lose ground. And with such prepara- 
 tions as now exist for diffusing Christianity, the idea 
 of an arrest of progress ought never to be enter- 
 tained. The existing system of missionary societies 
 is competent to superintend and carry forward a vastly 
 enlarged system of missions. In the business of the 
 world, large trading or manufacturing establish- 
 ments are found more economical than small ones, 
 and it is so in missions. It is not necessary to in- 
 crease the existing number of missionary societies. 
 Suppose the missions all to be organized for self- 
 government (as most of the American missions are), 
 then it is obvious, that an increase in the number of 
 well educated missionaries will add to the self-direct- 
 ing power of the missions, and so diminish the 
 responsibility resting upon committees at home. 
 Again, suppose that the churches among the heathen 
 are all formed on the self-governing, self-supporting, 
 self-propagating plan, as the churches founded by 
 St. Paul evidently were, then I see not why the ex- 
 isting missionary societies, enlarging their opera- 
 tions by a regular progression, would not suffice for 
 superintending missions all over the heathen world ; 
 embracing thousands of missionaries, and tens of 
 thousands of native pastors and preachers. There 
 would not necessarily be any insupportable weight 
 of responsibility resting on committees and exec- 
 
254 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 utive officers. Permit me again to illustrate by the 
 missions, with which I have long been connected. 
 With five hundred missionaries, instead of one hun- 
 dred and fifty, as at present, the weekly meetings 
 of the executive committee would only need to be 
 somewhat more prolonged occasionally, but I think 
 not to be multiplied. The home department might 
 require an additional secretary, and the foreign de- 
 partment an assistant secretary, and the treasurer 
 would need an assistant and some additional clerks. 
 But the increase of labor and cost, and the increase 
 of difficulty in the administration, would bear no pro- 
 portion to the increase in the magnitude and work- 
 ing power of the system. Indeed, the percentage of 
 cost would diminish with the increase of business. 
 The official correspondence would not keep pace with 
 the increase in the number of missionaries ; for the 
 larger the missions, the more will they be self- 
 reliant, and the less need will there be of writing often 
 to individuals. Nor am I able to perceive a limit to 
 possible discoveries in respect to the relations of 
 things, and the settling of principles and usages, and 
 the systematizing of labors. There has been an 
 immense advance in experience during the past fifty 
 years. Problems and processes of thought, that op- 
 pressed the minds of the early secretaries, have long 
 been embodied in maxims and usages ; and though 
 numerous problems remain to be resolved, and new 
 ones are constantly arising, the solutions are going 
 
CLAIMS ON YOUNG MINISTERS. 255 
 
 on, and the chaos of facts is coming into something 
 like order and beauty. This progress is constant, 
 under the laws of Christ's kingdom, nor is there 
 any apparent end to it. And the effect is continually 
 to enlarge the ability of the executive officers to 
 attend to the increasing business of their several 
 departments. 
 
 Though this reasoning does not give a definite re- 
 ply to the question, " How many missionaries are 
 needed ? " it shows that very many more would find 
 ample employment, than there is any present pros- 
 pect of obtaining. 
 
 3. What sort of men are needed? It is a well- 
 known fact that the military academy at West Point 
 furnished leaders for both of the contending armies 
 in the late war. And leaders of a similar grade are 
 required in the foreign missions, and for similar rea- 
 sons. The incipient work of planting, organizing, 
 and training churches, composed of converts from 
 heathenism, even in the most barbarous countries, 
 requires more talent, as I have already said, than is 
 ordinarily demanded for the pastoral office at home. 
 For you have to deal with a strange people, and a 
 strange language, with strange manners and cus- 
 toms, with consciences dead or altogether perverted, 
 with religions more depraved than human nature 
 itself, and with social life that is rotten to the core. 
 With anything but the gospel and the grace of God, 
 
256 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 oue would despair in such a field. But experience 
 shows that, with the gospel and the grace of God, 
 there is useful and ample scope here for sanctified 
 talent of the highest grade. Taking the average of 
 lahors and results in the heathen world, I do not 
 believe that the pastoral life of our own favored 
 country can show more abundant fruits. The elo- 
 quent preacher, when once he has acquired the lan- 
 guage, finds his talent not less effective there, than 
 here. And the demand for varied and cultivated 
 talent is nearly the same in all the fields, as well in 
 Polynesia and Africa, as in India and China. As the 
 mission advances, giving rise to churches, schools, a 
 native ministry, and a Christian community, there 
 arises also a demand for what is called the organiz- 
 ing and administrative talent, more varied and more 
 imperative than can often occur in our home pastoral 
 life. In my own intimate acquaintance with mis- 
 sionaries, I recollect no case where there was fitness 
 for the work, and time for development, where it 
 seemed probable there would have been a greater 
 usefulness at home. Passing by the immortal pio- 
 neers, I advert to two or three representative men, 
 whom it has been my happiness to know intimately. 
 My first is the late Dr. William Goodell, of blessed 
 memory, so long a missionary at Constantinople. 
 You may go to the utmost stretch of probable sup- 
 position of what would have been his usefulness as a 
 pastor anywhere in his native land, and you will see 
 
CLAIMS ON YOUNG MINISTERS. 251 
 
 ample reason to believe, that at home he would 
 have missed the sphere for which he was made, and 
 to which he was called of God. 
 
 It was so with Dr. Eli Smithy who died in Syria 
 in the year 1857. As a scholar, he excelled most of 
 his brethren; as an accurate observer, he equaled 
 the late Dr. Edward Robinson ; as a translator of 
 the Scriptures, he had no superior. He found his 
 field by yielding early to the impulses of grace on 
 his heart, and by following the leadings of Provi- 
 dence ; and the peculiar adaptedness of the field to 
 his tastes and talents, was an after-discovery. I 
 knew him while in the seminary, and had ample 
 opportunities to know him -before entering on his 
 mission, and through all his missionary life, and I 
 never doubted that his usefulness was greater as a 
 missionary, than it could have been anywhere in his 
 native land. ^ 
 
 It would be easy to draw other illustrations from 
 missions in Western Asia. But to my own mind, 
 there are cases quite as striking in the pagan world. 
 The late Henry Ballantine, of the Mahratta mis- 
 sion, had a more fruitful record in India, — in the 
 native churches, in the native ministry, in the hymns 
 and songs of the native worship, than he could have 
 had at home. And suppose the late Dr. Miron Wins- 
 low had settled as a pastor in Connecticut, or Dr. 
 Daniel Poor, in Massachusetts, or Dr. David Abeel 
 in the city of New York, or Dr. Culbertson, in one 
 
 17 
 
258 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 of the choicest stations at home in the gift of the 
 Presbyterian Church ; would they have been as use- 
 ful as they were in heathen lands ? I cannot believe 
 it. And I believe the same might be affirmed, with 
 even more evident truth, concerning many of their 
 associates of lesser fame, both living and dead. 
 
 With such scope for talent of all kinds, and with 
 such demand for it, the answer to the question, 
 " What sort of men are needed ? '' is obvious : We 
 need the ablest and the best. 
 
 4. From whence are they to come? My first 
 answer is, from the churches. The churches have 
 a responsibility here. *In very many of them there 
 are young men of talents and character, who need 
 only the advantages of education to go forth as 
 heralds of the cross. But few of them have the 
 means for obtaining an education, and, as a body, 
 they are therefore turning their attention to farm- 
 ing, trade, the mechanic arts, or scientific pursuits. 
 Ought not every church and every pastor to see, 
 that Christ's appointed ministry for the world's con- 
 version does not thus suffer loss ? Not that any one 
 church need assume the whole expense, except in 
 extraordinary cases ; but the young men should be 
 liberated from the thralldom of the world, and put 
 in the way of seeking an education, and a bountiful 
 Providence will do the rest. Were one fourth or 
 one sixth of the three thousand Congregational 
 
CLAIMS ON YOUNG MINISTERS. 259 
 
 churches, and one fourth or one sixth of the four 
 or five thousand Presbyterian churches to do this, 
 a few years would suffice to startle and electrify the 
 world. 
 
 But whatever the churches may see fit to do, we 
 shall have to look to the theological seminaries. 
 Missionaries, more than liouie pastors, as a class 
 need the training and discipline of the seminary. 
 We have no institutions in this country for the ex- 
 clusive training of missionaries, as they have in 
 England, and on continental Europe, nor do we 
 need or desire them. We require for our missiona- 
 ries, with occasional exceptions, an extended and 
 thorough education, and we expect them generally 
 to make equal attainments with the ministry at 
 home, and, at the same time, secure the great ad- 
 vantage of being fellow-students and companions of 
 those who are to become pastors of the churches 
 which must furnish the means of their support and 
 usefulness among the heathen. 
 
 There must be some way of approximating the 
 number of missionaries, which a theological institu- 
 tion may be expected to afiPord. Until within a few 
 years past, it has been my duty to visit the Seminary 
 at Andover officially, in quest of missionaries. I 
 distinctly remember one of these visits, made in the 
 year 1856, in which I had private interviews with as 
 many as thirty-four of the students from the different 
 classes, who called on me, separately, to confer in 
 
260 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 respect to their duty. My aim was, as usual, simply 
 to aid them in deciding the question of duty for 
 themselves. I made a private memorandum of each 
 case, which I preserved, and from which I learn, that 
 at least fifteen of those hrethren then appeared to me 
 to have a clear providential call to the missionary 
 work. The whole number then in the Seminary was 
 one hundred and fourteen ; and I was thus assured 
 that I had conferred with nearly a third part of the 
 students, and saw evidence in them of serious thought 
 on the subject ; and that they would become mis- 
 sionaries, or, if providentially hindered, would be 
 good missionary pastors. I did not see those who 
 had devoted themselves to the home missionary work, 
 because it was ever a set purpose with me not to 
 interfere with home missions; but I felt assured 
 that they too would at least be missionary pastors. 
 I also thought it right to assume, that others of the 
 two thirds whom I did not see, had already con- 
 sidered and decided the question, and did not feel 
 called upon to reconsider it. In point of fact, seven 
 of those whom I did not see, afterwards became 
 foreign missionaries. 
 
 From my personal knowledge of individual ex- 
 periences then and subsequently, I came to the con- 
 clusion, that as many as twenty-two members of the 
 Seminary, at that time, were called of God to publish 
 the gospel beyond the bounds of Christendom. And 
 I feel confident, that it would have been beneficial to 
 
CLAIMS ON YOUNG MINISTERS. 261 
 
 that institution, to New England, and to the West, 
 had each of the three classes sent forth as many as 
 seven of their number into the unevangelized world. 
 The number of those who actually went on foreign 
 missions, was ten, or about one in eleven. Of all who 
 have been connected with that institution from the 
 beginning, only one in sixteen has become a foreign 
 missionary. Yet there are few theological institu- 
 tions, from which the heathen world is authorized 
 to expect so large an annual contribution of well 
 educated, devoted missionaries, as from that Semi- 
 nary. From the semi-centennial catalogue of Prince- 
 ton Seminary, published in 1862, I learn that, up to 
 that time, its foreign missionaries were as one to 
 seventeen. From the Hartford Seminary I am in- 
 formed that fifteen, out of three hundred and fifteen, 
 have gone as foreign missionaries. Of the propor- 
 tion from other seminaries, I have not the means of 
 speaking confidently. 
 
 5. How early should the question of duty be de- 
 cided? The earlier the better, if it be with the 
 Scriptural condition, " If the Lord will." There will 
 be a better training for the work. The decision 
 can be reconsidered upon any considerable providen- 
 tial change in circumstances. A delay until near 
 the close of the preparatory studies, is almost sure 
 to prevent a thorough and impartial examination, 
 and so to keep the man at home. The reasons 
 
262 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 need not be specified.^ The best time for an offer of 
 service to a Missionary Board (as I view the matter), 
 is at the commencement of the senior year. The 
 theological studies are then generally completed, 
 the case is ripe for consideration, and the senior 
 year will give time enough for the needful mental 
 and social adjustments. 
 
 The effect on a seminary of having none in it 
 who are resolved and active in relation to missions, 
 both home and foreign, is unfavorable to the spiritual 
 interests of the institution. Such missionary stu- 
 dents as might easily be named, were great spiritual 
 blessings to their institutions. They raised the tone 
 of piety, and their influence upon those who remained 
 at home as pastors must have been good. 
 
 6. What is the influence of foreign missionanes 
 on the churches at home ? — I mean the reflex in- 
 fluence of their mission. The question is not as to 
 their usefulness on the whole, nor as to their useful- 
 ness in the foreign field, but as to their usefulness 
 in the churches of their native country, as a conse- 
 quence of their going abroad. This should have its 
 weight in deciding the question of duty. Mission- 
 aries exert this reflex influence by their example, by 
 their personal influence on the pastors of their 
 acquaintance, by their letters through the channels 
 
 1 See Quart. Register of the American Education Society for 1831, 
 pp. 245-253. 
 
CLAIMS ON YOUNG MINISTERS. 263 
 
 of their Missionary Boards, by their private corre- 
 spondence, by their visits to their native land, and 
 as being a constituent part of the great foreign mis- 
 sionary organization that is constantly reacting upon 
 their native land. Tell me if Aldin Grout, of the 
 Zulu mission in South Africa, could have exerted so 
 great and beneficial an influence as pastor of a church 
 at home, as he has done and is now doing, — I say 
 not among the Zulus of Africa, — but upon our 
 American churches. It may be that even his visit 
 home, in the year 1858, alone exerted a greater in- 
 fluence on our churches, than he could himself have 
 exerted upon them by a life-work as a home pastor. 
 Tell me, if Titus Coan, who for five and twenty years 
 has been, under God, the renovating, organizing, gov- 
 erning power along a hundred miles of the Hawaiian 
 shore, — whether he could have found such a scope 
 and reward for his labors in his own country ? This 
 great comparative usefulness he could not indeed 
 have foreseen, and it does not itself prove that any 
 other one would have been as useful abroad as he 
 has been, even if as enterprising and laborious. But 
 it shows what a field of usefulness he himself would 
 have missed, had he not listened to the call of God 
 when in the Auburn Seminary. 
 
 And in what ministerial field of usefulness, here 
 at home, could you have placed the late Dr. H. G. 0. 
 Dwight, where he could have exerted half the in- 
 fluence for good in the United States, that resulted 
 
264 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 in his native land from his missionary career in 
 Turkey ? 
 
 How many beloved names crowd upon our recol- 
 lection ! We think of Swartz, of Zieganbalg, of 
 Brainerd, of Henry Martyn, of Judson, of Gordon 
 Hall, of John Williams, of Lowrie, and scores of 
 others too numerous to enumerate. At the call 
 of God, they went forth to proclaim salvation to 
 the heathen ; and, by so doing, they not only ac- 
 complished more good abroad, than it is probable 
 they could have accomplished at home ; but in so 
 doing they seem to have duplicated their lives, 
 by the good they effected in their beloved native 
 land. 
 
 7. Is there a call on pastors to become mission- 
 aries ? It must be obvious, that if any, under mis- 
 taken impressions of duty, have settled as pastors, 
 who were really called of God to be missionaries, 
 they cannot be wholly at ease in that position ; for 
 they are not in that path of duty, where they are 
 most assured of the Saviour's presence, and of the 
 consolations and aids of the Holy Spirit. Such pas- 
 tors, when seasonably convinced of their error, will 
 seek to correct it ; and some such, relinquishing their 
 pastorates, have already gone into the foreign field, 
 and are happy in " doing their first works." One, 
 formerly a pastor, has lately written thus on the 
 subject from his distant field of labor : " Let a pas- 
 
CLAIMS ON YOUNG MINISTERS. 265 
 
 tor," he says, " whose attachments to his people are 
 very strong, and who has the confidence of his asso- 
 ciates in the ministry, and some acquaintance with 
 all the churches in the country, leave his people, 
 and, guided, as he helieves, by the Spirit and provi- 
 dence of God, enter heartily upon the work of foreign 
 missions ; and he carries with him the sympathies 
 and prayers, not only of his parish, but of his asso- 
 ciates in the ministry, and to some extent of their 
 parishes. Now they will look upon the missionary 
 work with a new interest. They know at least one 
 missionary, and they will watch for intelligence from 
 him. They will read concerning missions as they 
 have not read before ; and as the people read their 
 interest will increase, and with an increase of inter- 
 est will come an increase of prayer, and the more 
 they pray, the more they will give. The children will 
 catch something of this new interest ; the Sabbath- 
 school will feel it ; and no wonder if, in future years, 
 others come forward and offer themselves to the same 
 blessed work, tracing their convictions of duty to 
 impressions made in childhood by that pastor's con- 
 secration to the cause of missions." 
 
 The time is coming, I believe, when there will be 
 a special demand on pastors ; and the demand will be 
 on the more experienced and eminent ministers, 
 men of commanding presence and eloquence, skill- 
 ful organizers, and conversant with ecclesiastical 
 principles and usages. When churches have become 
 
266 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 very numerous in heathen lands, the visits of such 
 men to the missions for one, two or more years, will 
 be needed, to assist the missionaries by their coun- 
 sels, and to assure the community at home by their 
 reports. And the usefulness of such services will be 
 ample compensation for the sacrifice they will in- 
 volve. 
 
 I close with a few general remarks. 
 
 The pastoral office in Christendom is differently 
 related to foreign missions, from what it was in the 
 apostolic age. Then, pastors were all connected 
 with what we now call mission churches ; that is, 
 they were pastors of churches gathered among the 
 heathen as the result of apostolic missionary labor. 
 But pastors, in this countiy and in Great Britain, 
 are now the spiritual leaders of the evangelical 
 churches, which have assumed the responsibility of 
 sending forth and supporting Christian missionaries. 
 The responsibility of these Christian pastors is, 
 therefore, of the same nature with that of the mis- 
 sionaries. It is the common responsibility resting 
 on both the senders and the sent. All are acting 
 under the same commission, in obedience to the 
 same command, in view of the same promise, and 
 for the same great and glorious end ; namely, the 
 proclamation of the heaven-born salvation of the gos- 
 pel, and the establishment of the Redeemer's reign, in 
 all parts of the world. And the same responsibility 
 
CLAIMS ON YOUNG MINISTERS. 267 
 
 rests equally upon the churches. We are not of 
 those who look upon the clergy as a body distinct 
 and separate from the churches. Nor do we look 
 upon the churches as principals in this work of the 
 world's spiritual illumination. Pastors, mission- 
 aries, churches, all are mere agents, mere instru- 
 ments of the Almighty Redeemer, and together form 
 his great army for the subjugation of our rebellious 
 race. 
 
 But my present concern is with the gospel min- 
 istry. To me it is a self-evident truth, that ministers 
 at home are as much bound to do what they can, in 
 their circumstances, for the vigorous extension of 
 Christ's kingdom, as are those brother ministers, 
 whose sense of personal duty calls them to go abroad. 
 The ministers of Jesus Christ, wherever their post of 
 duty, stand related to the whole work on the broad 
 scale of the earth. Foreign missions have, there- 
 fore, a claim upon all Christian ministers, according 
 to their means of affording aid. Not the pastoral 
 work alone, not home missions alone, not foreign 
 missions alone, but laboring to make the gospel 
 known " to every creature," at home and abroad, is 
 our proper business as the ministers of Christ. 
 
 Every minister must of course use his discretion 
 in determining the proportionate attention he shall 
 give to the several departments of his calling ; and 
 there will be no harm, on the whole, should there 
 
268 FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 be a diversity of views on this subject. Only let the 
 fact be admitted of a common responsibility for the 
 world's spiritual illumination, and, looking from 
 that stand-point, we shall fall into no material error 
 as regards our personal duty. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE ROMISH MISSIONS AS AN OPPOSING POWER. 
 
 Leading Object of the Romish Church. — The Theme for Discussion. 
 Romish Missions since the Reformation. — Had the Heathen World 
 all to themselves, and reported Vast Successes. — Their Missions 
 a Failure- — The Statement not weakened by Recent Develop- 
 ments. — Principles underlying Protestant and Romish Missions 
 contrasted. — Superiority of Protestant Missions as a Converting 
 Power. — Romish Missions nevertheless formidable. — Best Manner 
 of working Protestant Missions in their Presence. — Grounds of 
 Hope for the Future. 
 
 The leading object of the Romish Church at the 
 present day, is probably the conquest of England 
 and the United States. To a secret, cunning, am- 
 bitious, and unscrupulous society, like the Jesuit 
 order, the all but universal suftVage of our country, 
 and the amount of popular education controlled by 
 that suifrage, must be specially attractive. They 
 will need much looking after, and should be met 
 with every proper effort to fortify the Protestant 
 community against them, and to acquaint the Roman 
 Catholic people with the knowledge of salvation 
 through Christ alone. 
 
 But papal missions in Protestant Christendom, 
 however important and interesting, come not within 
 the proper range of this work. 
 
270 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 My theme is the Romish Missions in Heathen 
 Lands, as opposed to Protestant Missions. I shall 
 not question their propagating power, as a conse- 
 quence of their acknowledged zeal, activity, and en- 
 terprise. That power they have in common with 
 Protestant missionaries. My object is rather to show 
 the inherent weakness of the Romish missions to the 
 heathen, as compared with Protestant missions, in 
 their lack of a transforming power upon the heart 
 and life of man, converting him from sin to holiness. 
 
 I shall first enumerate the principal Romish mis- 
 sions to the heathen, from the time of the Reforma- 
 tion to the opening of the present century, and 
 shall note the great success claimed for them, and 
 also their signal failure as they appeared at the 
 opening of the century. I propose then to contrast 
 the principles underlying the Protestant and Romish 
 missions, in order to show the inefficiency of the 
 latter as a converting agency. Nevertheless Rome 
 being a formidable antagonist as a self-propagating 
 body, I shall briefly illustrate that fact ; and then 
 offer some practical suggestions as to the best man- 
 ner of working Protestant missions in the presence 
 of those from the Romish Church. The extent and 
 variety of my subject-matter will require great con- 
 ciseness of statement. 
 
 I. I am to enumerate the principal Romish mis- 
 sions to the heathen, from the time of the Reforma- 
 tion to the opening of the present century. 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 271 
 
 The most remarkable period of these missions was 
 from the institution of the order of Jesuits, about 
 the middle of the sixteenth century, to the end ol 
 the seventeenth. The foreign missions of the Rom- 
 ish Church were, in some sense, a result of the Ref- 
 ormation. Their leading object was to oppose and 
 counteract the Reformation. In this period, besides 
 the order of Jesuits, there were founded at Rome, 
 the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, 
 and the Seminary for the Education of Missionaries, 
 both well endowed, which still exist. Several insti- 
 tutions for foreign missions were also formed in 
 France, embodying a large amount of enterprise. 
 Speaking of those institutions, Mosheim says : 
 " From these colleges and societies issued those 
 swarms of missionaries, who travelled over much of 
 the known world, and from among the most ferocious 
 nations gathered congregations that were, if not in 
 reality, yet in name, and in some of their usages, 
 Christians." " Among these missionaries," he says, 
 " the Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Capu- 
 chins, obtained the greater glory. Yet they mutually 
 assailed and accused each other, publicly, of disre- 
 garding and dishonoring the cause of Christ, and even 
 of corrupting his holy doctrines. The Jesuits, in par- 
 ticular, were the most spoken against, by the others, 
 who labored with them in the glorious cause of en- 
 larging the Saviour's empire, and by the great body of 
 their own church." ^ The testimony of Mosheim is 
 
 1 Mosheim's Hist, vol. iii. p. 245. 
 
272 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 corraborated by other testimony. How exceedingly 
 corrupt and mischievous the Jesuits were as casuists, 
 is set forth with marvelous wit and power, by Pas- 
 chal in his " Provincial Letters," written about the 
 middle of the seventeenth century. 
 
 The order of Jesuits was suppressed by Pope 
 Clement XIV. in 1773, two hundred and thirty-three 
 years after its establishment. This was done in 
 compliance with the demands of the papal kingdoms, 
 which could no longer endure its abuses. Yet the 
 Jesuit order was not thereby annihilated. The sup- 
 pression involved the confiscation of their immense 
 possessions, and the necessity of their assuming the 
 citizen's dress ; yet the spirit of the order remained, 
 and probably its organization, and they gradually 
 attained to influential employments in seminaries for 
 education, in governments, and in the church. In 
 1814, after Napoleon had abdicated the imperial 
 throne, and when the nations of Europe were be- 
 ginning to rejoice in their freedom, Pius VII. re- 
 constituted the order. 
 
 The Jesuit order is reported now to contain some- 
 what over eight thousand members; which is a 
 large number of such missionaries to be scattered 
 over the world.^ They confess, however, to a much 
 smaller number.^ 
 
 As they are believed to constitute the chief mis- 
 
 1 Boston Daily Advertiser, March, 1868. 
 
 2 See Appendix IX. 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 273 
 
 sioiiary power of the Romish Church, and have been 
 the principal means of the revival of its missions, I 
 must say somewhat more concerning them. 
 
 The General of the order resides at Rome, and no 
 Roman emperor, no despot of any age, had a more 
 absolute sway. Legislative, judicial, and executive 
 functions all are vested in him. He is to every 
 Jesuit the ruler of thought, conscience, and volition, 
 and from him there is no appeal. Every dignity 
 and emolument is at his disposal, and he holds his 
 office for life. 
 
 Ifc is difficult to ascertain what was the actual 
 Roman Catholic missionary force in the heathen 
 world, at any one period. The historian of the 
 Dutch missions in India estimated the number of 
 Romish missionaries in the East, in the year 1706, 
 at two thousand. Rome gives very little account of 
 her proceedings to the world, or even to her own 
 people. Cardinal Wiseman says " the Propaganda 
 publishes nothing." " No appeal," he adds, " is ever 
 made by it to the public. The Congregation meets 
 privately, and although persons who take pains may 
 procure information, there is nothing like an official 
 document put forth, to bring what is done by its 
 missionaries before the world." ^ This concealment 
 has ever characterized the missions of the Propa- 
 ganda.2 The Jesuits have had a somewhat different 
 
 1 Lectures, 1836, p. 219. 
 ^ Venn's Life of Xavier, Preface and p. 267. 
 18 
 
274 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 policy, especially as regards their favorite Xavier, 
 but it is not easy to know how much to believe. 
 
 There can be no reasonable doubt that during the 
 sixteenth, seventeenth, and some part of the eight- 
 eenth centuries, the Church of Rome prosecuted 
 missions in the pagan world beyond anything yet 
 witnessed in the Protestant Church. Their more im- 
 portant missions I will now enumerate. 
 
 They had one in India for three hundred years, 
 commencing with the sixteenth century. They had 
 one in Japan for the greater part of a hundred years, 
 commencing with 1549. They had one in China 
 without any serious obstruction, for one hundred 
 and forty-four years, commencing in 1579. They 
 had one in Paraguay, in South America, for one 
 hundred and seventeen years, which began soon 
 after the close of the mission in Japan. They had 
 one in South Africa, in the kingdom of Kongo, for 
 more than two hundred years, until about the middle 
 of the eighteenth century. 
 
 These great fields the Romish missionaries had all 
 to themselves. They had the sole occupation of them 
 during the space of from one to three centuries. 
 Not a Protestant came near them ; excepting a 
 few Danes in a small section of their India field, 
 near the close of their third century. Never had 
 missionaries a fairer opportunity to Christianize 
 whole nations. 
 
, ROMISH MISSIONS. 275 
 
 II. They reported great successes ; though my 
 impression of their magnitude is considerably modi- 
 fied, when I take into account the duration and 
 extent of the several missions. In Japan, the re- 
 ligion they proposed was adopted by great numbers 
 of all ranks and qualities. In China, the Tartar 
 Emperor, Kang-he, was educated by a Jesuit, and 
 proclaimed the Christian religion (meaning the 
 Romish) to be good and salutary, and that all his 
 subjects were at liberty to embrace it ; and his reign 
 of more than fifty years gave the Romish mission- 
 aries every possible advantage. Their Chinese con- 
 verts were reckoned by hundreds of thousands. In 
 Paraguay, the Jesuits estimated their baptized 
 Indians at one hundred and twenty thousand. In 
 Africa, the kingdom of Kongo, according to the 
 showing of the missionaries themselves, was, for 
 more than two centuries, completely under the in- 
 fiuence of Rome ; so that if the inhabitants are not 
 all in civilization and Christianity, that a pagan 
 people are capable of being made under the training 
 of Romish missions, the fault was their own. The 
 facilities they there enjoyed were such as Rome can 
 scarcely ever expect to have again. ^ " Nor was the 
 papacy established in Kongo," says the historian, 
 " in a hasty or superficial manner. It was a work, 
 at which successive companies of missionaries labored 
 with untiring assiduity for two centuries. Among 
 
 1 Wilson's Western Africa, p. 134. 
 
276 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 these were some of the most learned and able men 
 that Rome ever sent forth to the pagan world. It 
 was a cause, too, that always lay near the heart of 
 the King of Portugal, when that nation was at the 
 climax of its power and wealth. The royal sword 
 was ever ready to be unsheathed for its defense, and 
 her treasures were poured out without stint for its 
 support." 1 
 
 III. Yet every one of these protracted missions, 
 as they appeared at the opening of the present cen- 
 tury, was a failure.2 And I do not know how it can 
 be proved, that any one of them was a permanent 
 blessing to the nation in which it labored. 
 
 The Kongo mission perished entirely on the with- 
 drawal of Portuguese protection, and " left the un- 
 fortunate inhabitants of that country," as the his- 
 torian declares, " in as deep ignorance and supersti- 
 tion, and perhaps in greater poverty and degradation, 
 than they would have been, if Roman Catholicism 
 had never been proclaimed among them." ^ 
 
 After the expulsion of the Jesuits from Paraguay, 
 in 1767, " the greater number of the inhabitants re- 
 lapsed into a state of barbarism." * 
 
 As regards China, Father Ripa, a missionary from 
 
 1 Wilson, p. 329. 
 
 2 On the general subject of the failure of Romish missions, see 
 Venn's Life ofXavier, p. 262 and onward. 
 
 8 Wilson, p. 329. * Venn, p. 315. 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 277 
 
 the Propaganda, residing at Peking, and writing after 
 the Chinese mission ceased to exist as a public and 
 tolerated institution, makes the remarkable declara- 
 tion, that of the five hundred missionaries sent from 
 Europe to China during the hundred and forty years 
 of the mission, none of them so mastered the lan- 
 guage, as to be able to preach intelligibly to the 
 people at large. ^ He could not mean to say, that 
 some of them were not skilled in the written lan- 
 guage, but that they were not able to preach intelli- 
 gibly in the common spoken language of the people. 
 We credit, therefore, the testimony of Dr. Williams, 
 in his history of the Chinese Empire. " It is prob- 
 able," he says, " that there may have been true con- 
 verts among the myriads of adherents to Romanism ; 
 but what salutary effects has this large body of 
 Christians wrought in the vast population of China, 
 during the two hundred and fifty years since Ricci 
 established himself at Nanking? None, absolutely 
 none, that attract attention." After candidly ad- 
 mitting, that " many of their converts exhibited the 
 greatest constancy in their profession, suffering per- 
 secution, torture, imprisonment, banishment, and 
 death, rather than deny their faith," he adds : " but 
 the mass of Romish converts in China can hardly be 
 considered to have been much better than baptized 
 pagans." ^ 
 
 The Abbe Dubois, after having spent twenty-five 
 
 1 Venn, p. 301. Williams' Middle Kingdom, 4th ed., vol. ii. p. 314. 
 
 2 Williams' Middle Kingdom, vol. ii. p. 324. 
 
278 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 years in Southern India as a Jesuit missionary, 
 affirms, that the renowned Francis Xavier, who is 
 now^ attaining the rank of a patron saint to Romish 
 missions, " being disheartened by the invincible 
 obstacles he everywhere met in his apostolic career, 
 and by the apparent impossibility of making real 
 converts, left India in disgust." And this fully ap- 
 pears in Xavier's correspondence.^ 
 
 The course pursued by the Jesuits in their Madura 
 mission, and its results, should not be suffered to 
 fade from public recollection. It is thus described 
 by Dr. Mullens, in his excellent work on " Missions in 
 South India," published fourteen years since. After 
 stating what glowing accounts were given by the 
 Jesuits of their success, he says : " Such is their 
 own account ; but there is evidence of the clearest 
 kind, from their own pens and from papal records, 
 that the whole plan of their mission was a lie ; that 
 it began in lies and perjury, and was so maintained, 
 and by lying and deception was utterly ruined in the 
 end." This language is severe, but no more so than 
 the truth. " From the outset," Dr. Mullens says, 
 " Robert de Nobili and the others denied with oaths 
 that they were Europeans, asserting boldly that they 
 were real Brahmins. They dressed, bathed, and ate 
 like real Brahmins, wore the sacred thread, put ashes 
 on their breasts and foreheads, wore the native 
 wooden shoes, and slept upon a tiger's skin. Them- 
 
 1 Venn, p. 165 and elsewhere. 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 279 
 
 selves assert that their whole attention was given 
 to concealing the fact that they were Europeans, 
 since they augured the complete destruction of the 
 mission from its discovery. Yet after all they failed 
 with the Brahmin class, which it was their special 
 ohject to win." Thousands on thousands of the 
 Pariah class were baptized, but these Pariah adher- 
 ents were never elevated. They also baptized, by 
 stealth, thousands of dying heathen children. In 
 this way they were able to boast of immense num- 
 bers of converts. " In managing their converts, 
 they kept up the same system of deception and com- 
 promise. They allowed them the same cars and 
 idolatrous processions as before, the Virgin Mary 
 taking the place of the Hindu god. In their mar- 
 riages, the heathen emblems, the heathen rites and 
 customs as to food, were all kept up still. In their 
 bathing, they still repeated the same formulas as 
 before, uttering the name of some god as they 
 touched each successive limb." " In fact," he adds, 
 " their converts, except as to name, were exactly 
 and in every respect the same heathen Pariahs, as 
 they were before." ^ 
 
 The Jesuit mission to Abyssinia should be men- 
 tioned. It was commenced about the middle of the 
 sixteenth century, and its object was to bring the 
 country under the dominion of the Pope. For a 
 
 1 Missions in South India, p. 134. For ample illustrations, see Ccd' 
 cutta Review, 1844, vol. ii. pp. 73-120. 
 
280 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 time they had great success. In 1726, the emperor 
 acknowledged fealty to the " successor of St. Peter." 
 The Jesuits were received with favor, and had all 
 possible facilities granted them. But they lost all 
 prudence. The liturgy of Rome was introduced. 
 The doctrine of Christ's person, as held by that peo- 
 ple, was made an offense punishable with death, and 
 the Inquisition was introduced to carry out this 
 atrocious enactment. Five consecutive rebellions, 
 wdth fearful bloodshed, were the consequence. The 
 king finally relented, and in 1634 granted liberty of 
 conscience ; and the whole Roman structure fell in- 
 stantly to the ground. In the next reign, the Jesuits 
 were banished, and when more came, they were put 
 to death. ^ 
 
 Iri the Philippine Islands, which have been held 
 by the Spaniards, the Romish missionaries have 
 maintained their supremacy for about three cen- 
 turies. But the papal author of the " Voyage of the 
 Novara Frigate," sent out by the Austrian govern- 
 ment not long since on an exploring expedition, 
 states, that " little, if anything, has been done for the 
 prosperity and development of the country, or for the 
 intellectual and moral advancement of the people ; " 
 and that " there, apparently, as in the other earlier 
 dependencies of Spain, the Roman Catholic ritual 
 has become mingled, in the most extraordinary man- 
 ner, with ceremonies borrowed from paganism." ^ 
 
 1 Venn's Life ofXavier, p. 312. 
 
 2 Venn, p. 316. 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS, 281 
 
 I hope the reader is not wearied by this statement 
 of the efforts of the Romish Church to secure a foot- 
 ing in the heathen world, and of their failure to 
 exert a transforming religious influence upon the 
 benighted nations. 
 
 The force of this statement will not be materially 
 affected, should the dying out of the Romish mis- 
 sions be mainly attributed by Romish authors to the 
 suppression of the Jesuit order, nearly a hundred 
 years since, and to the paralyzing influence of the 
 revolutions and wars on continental Europe. If a 
 mission, after the lapse of a century, with all the 
 facilities they enjoyed, cannot retain its conquests 
 without keeping an army in the field, it is a failure. 
 And thus it was with the Romish missions. No 
 radical and permanent change has been effected in 
 the religious sentiments and habits of the people 
 among whom they had so long labored. Foreign 
 bishops and priests were — and they are to this day 
 — an essential condition of prosperity to the native 
 papal communities. 
 
 Nor would the case be materially altered, should 
 it appear, that some thousands and even many thou- 
 sands of adherents to the Papal Church have secretly 
 retained their allegiance to the Pope, both in China 
 and Japan, since the missions were forcibly sup- 
 pressed, and are now declaring themselves, upon an 
 assurance of safety under French protection. For 
 it has long been more than surmised, that Romish 
 
282 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 missionaries continued to enter China, after the sup- 
 pression of the missions, under disguises such as 
 Protestant missionaries would not deem allowable ; 
 and the same may yet prove to be true in Japan. I 
 do not deny the sincere and eminent devotion of the 
 Romish missionary to his church, and of the Jesuit 
 to his order, nor their activity and enterprise. Self- 
 righteousness may labor and suffer as remarkably, 
 perhaps, as the religion of the cross. In ancient 
 times, we know, it " compassed sea and land to make 
 one proselyte," even though the proselyte became (if 
 I may use the emphatic language of our Lord) " two- 
 fold more the child of hell."^ Pharisee, Stylite, 
 Jesuit, Fakir, we see in each the power of the self- 
 righteous principle, and we admit it. But on this 
 singular phenomenon in our human nature, I need 
 not enlarge. 
 
 The question before us is one of great interest. 
 We are to remember, that the Romish Church and 
 its missions are substantially the same to-day, in 
 their nature and objects, and the means they em- 
 ploy, as they were two or three hundred years ago. 
 The Jesuits may have learned more prudence, but 
 they are the same. 
 
 IV. I am now to illustrate the inefficiency of the 
 Romish missions as a converting agency, and this I 
 
 1 Matt, xxiii. 15. 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 283 
 
 do by contrasting the principles underlying the Prot- 
 estant and Romish missions. 
 
 1. It is a settled principle, in Protestant missions 
 of the present day, not to call in the aid of the civil 
 government, except merely for personal protection 
 where they have a legal right to be and to labor. 
 Whereas the Romish missions, from the Pope and 
 Francis Xavier down, have advanced their interests 
 by every possible use of the civil arm. Even since 
 the commencement of the present century, there is 
 said to have been no less than fifteen interventions 
 of the French army in Italy, at the instigation of 
 the Pope ; and since the year 734, there have been 
 forty-one such interventions at his call.^ This re- 
 liance on the secular power is inherent in the 
 Romish Church, and was one of Xavier's most mis- 
 chievous practical errors. In Africa, so heavily did 
 the Romish mission lean upon the king of Portugal, 
 that the Kongo mission declined with the decline of 
 Portuguese power.^ In China, they so leaned upon 
 the Emperor Kang-he, that their overthrow, so fai 
 as their tolerated existence in the empire was con- 
 cerned, followed speedily on his decease.^ Their sub- 
 sequent hold, until the late treaties with France, as 
 already intimated, has been through a concealed oper- 
 ation, that would not be deemed allowable by Prot- 
 estant missionaries. The destruction of the Japan- 
 
 1 See this illustrated in Venn's Life of Francis Xavier, pp. 277-316. 
 « Wilson, p. 346. » Venn, p, 306. 
 
284 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 ese mission was owing, as its immediate cause, to 
 the discovery of a political intrigue traceable to the 
 missionaries.^ In Paraguay, the fruits of the Jesuit 
 mission perished as soon as the Spaniards had over- 
 thrown their army of converts. And the reader will 
 remember how it was in Abyssinia.^ 
 
 2. The Holy Scriptures lie at the foundation of 
 every Protestant mission. But, whatever Romanists 
 may say as to their Scripture translations in former 
 ages, the Inspired Word has not been, and is not 
 now, a recognized agency in their missions. While 
 they freely expended money in erecting churches, 
 colleges, and convents in India, they made no ver- 
 sions of the Scriptures in any of the vernacular 
 languages.^ Let any one read the lectures of Car- 
 dinal Wiseman on the Catholic Church, or almost 
 any Romish accounts of Protestant missions, and he 
 will have no doubt that papal missions are designed 
 
 1 Venn, pp. 210, 300. 
 
 2 " The Jesuits," says Dr. Geddes, in his Church History of Ethiopia, 
 " were all to a man of the same opinion with that great apostle of the 
 Indies, Francis Xavier, whose maxim, as Ravaretta informs us, was, 
 that missionaries without muskets do never make converts to any pur- 
 pose. The truth of which maxim John Bolunte, a missionary Jesuit, 
 tells us is confirmed by universal experience ; for neither in the Bra- 
 zils, Peru, Mexico, Florida, the Philippines, or Molucca, have any con- 
 versions been made without the help of the secular power." — Quoted 
 in Venn's Life of Xavier, p. 528. Dr. Geddes was for many years Brit- 
 ish Chaplain at Lisbon, and there studied the Portuguese history of 
 missions. 
 
 8 Dr. Allen's Indian p. 559. 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 285 
 
 to be prosecuted with the least possible use of the 
 Inspired Volume.^ 
 
 3. The Protestant missions make great use of 
 preaching, and of course expect every missionary to 
 be able to proclaim the gospel in the language of the 
 people. But the Eomish missions, as a general 
 thing, can scarcely be said to do either. It should 
 be borne in mind that I am speaking only of their 
 missions among the heathen. If there are now 
 what may seem to be exceptions to this, it is because 
 of their immediate proximity to Protestant mission- 
 aries. I have already adduced testimony of the in- 
 competency of the former papal missionaries to 
 preach intelligibly to the Chinese people. Father 
 Kipa also affirms, that they made no attempt to in- 
 troduce an educated native ministry, and that his 
 own efforts in that direction at Peking, led only to 
 scandal and discord .^ 
 
 Dr. Wilson says, that but few of the missionaries 
 
 1 See Marshall's Christian Missions, their Agents and Results, vol. i. 
 pp. 1-.59. The opposition of the Romish Church to allowing the use 
 of the Scriptures by the people, is very ably set forth by Dr. William 
 Barrows, in the Bihliotheca Sacra and Biblical Repositoiy for 1860, vol. 
 xvii. pp. 323-355, Cardinal Wiseman, in his tract entitled The Catho- 
 lic Doctrine on the Use of the Bible, affirms of the principles held on this 
 subject by Romanists and Protestants : " They are antagonistic, and 
 we glory in avowing it." He says : " We answer, therefore, boldly, 
 that we give not the word of God indiscriminately to all, because God 
 himself has not so given it. We further say, that we do not permit 
 the indiscriminate and undirected use of the Bible, because God has 
 not given to his church the instinct to do so." 
 2 Venn, p. 301. 
 
286 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 in the African kingdom of Kongo made themselves 
 acquainted with the language of the people. Even 
 Francis Xavier, the most noted of the Romish mis- 
 sionaries, was never able to preach to the people in 
 the East except through interpreters, and these 
 often very imperfect. " Conceive," said he, in writ- 
 ing at one time to a friend, " what kind of sermons 
 I am able to preach, when they who should repeat 
 my address to the people, do not understand me, nor 
 I them." 1 
 
 4. Protestant missions are making more and more 
 use of an educated native ministry ; and, in the prog- 
 ress of experience, they are, to a certain extent, 
 acting on the conviction, that native pastors are 
 essential to the full development of native churches, 
 and this conviction will be sure to gain ground here- 
 after in the evangelical missions. Whereas, a the- 
 ologically educated native ministry, in our sense of 
 the phrase, is not an element in the Eomish mis- 
 
 1 Venn, p. 37 ; also, pp. 197, 208, 258. Pope Gregory VII. thus 
 states the sentiment of the Romish Church in favor of conducting its 
 worship, as far as possible, in an unknown tongue. " In our frequent 
 meditations upon the Holy Scriptures," he says, " we have discovered, 
 that it has been and still is pleasing to Almighty God, that his sacred 
 worship should be performed in an unknown language, in order that 
 the whole world, and especially the most simple, may not be able to 
 understand it. In a known language, the service would soon excite 
 contempt and disgust, or it would happen that the common people, by 
 repeating so often that which they could not comprehend, would fall 
 into many great errors, from which it would be difficult to withdraw 
 the heart of man." — Bibliotheca Sacra, 1860, p. 352. 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 287 
 
 sions ; and of the native pastorate, educated on the 
 ground, they know nothing.^ 
 
 5. The local, self-governed church, is an indispen- 
 sable element in Protestant missions. But the Rom- 
 ish missions have nothing of the kind. They have 
 no local, self-governed churches. The Romish 
 Church claims to be itself one and indivisible ; but 
 its unity, so far as it is real, is a terrible reality. It 
 is a vast ecclesiastical despotism, numbering only 
 those among its members, vrho submit implicitly to* 
 its authority. This is a chief reason of the well- 
 known perpetual pupilage of the Romish missions, 
 and of their decline as soon as their missionaries are 
 withdrawn. Then there cannot but be everywhere a 
 paralyzing influence in the generally prevailing be- 
 lief in the dogma of baptismal regeneration, as being 
 the onlj thing requisite to make a lieathen a mem- 
 ber of the church of Christ. The practice of bap- 
 tizing dying children of heathens, would seem to be 
 scarcely less prevalent in the Romish missions now, 
 than it was in the sixteenth century. The " Annals 
 of the Propagation of the Faith," published by 
 authority, contained, only a few years since, the 
 following statement by an apostolic vicar in one of 
 the China missions. " The mission," he says, " con- 
 tinues its work of baptizing children in danger of 
 death, and the Lord continues to bless it. Each 
 
 1 1 am aware that they now report some hundreds of native priests 
 and divinity students in China. Nevertheless, I leave the text as it is. 
 
288 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 year the number of those whom they regenerate, 
 goes on increasing. In 1839, it was 12,483 ; in 
 1840, 15,766 ; in 1841, 17,825 ; in 1842, 20,068 ; in 
 1843, 22,292 ; and in 1844, 24,381." Native Chris- 
 tians of both sexes were employed and paid to seek 
 out and baptize dying infants. The poor heathen 
 parents willingly allowed these agents to spill drops 
 of water on the forehead, declaring it to be good for 
 the child, pronouncing, at the same time, the sacra- 
 mental words. This was their baptism. According 
 to the statistics (which bear evident marks of no 
 small exaggeration), more than one hundred and* 
 twelve thousand infants were thus " regenerated " 
 (to use their term) in this one mission, and " pre- 
 pared for heaven," as they would say, in the space 
 of six years.^ Dr. Wilson, in his history of the 
 Kongo mission, illustrates the same usage. " Father 
 Garli states," he says, " that in two years he bap- 
 tized 2,700 children. Another missionary is re- 
 ported to have baptized 5,000 children in a few days. 
 Another baptized 12,000 in less than a year. Father 
 MeroUa claims, in less than five years to have bap- 
 tized more than 13,000, and he mentions the case of 
 a brother missionary, who baptized 50,000, and of 
 another, who, in twenty years, baptized more than 
 100,000." 2 Even Xavier was in the full belief of 
 this doctrine, and claimed to have baptized a thou- 
 sand infants in Ceylon, who died (as he says) before 
 
 1 Venn, p. 42. 2 Wilson's West Africa, p. 337. 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 289 
 
 they could commit sin, and consequently (as he be- 
 lieved) had gone to heaven to intercede on his 
 behalf. He regarded baptismal innocence as ex- 
 tending to the age of fourteen.^ 
 
 6. Protestant missions have in them the spiritual 
 life and power contained in the doctrines of regen- 
 eration by the Holy Spirit, justification by faith, and 
 sanctification through the truth. Instead of which, 
 the Romish missions have the doctrine of baptismal 
 regeneration, which they regard as a saving ordi- 
 nance, and they require of the baptized adult only 
 an outward profession, without insisting on a change 
 of heart, and often scarcely a reformation of life.^ 
 
 Once more, — 
 
 7. The Romanists are justly accused of compro- 
 mising with paganism in their modes of worship; 
 and no earnest objection was made to this in the 
 high places of the Romish Church, until the Jesuits 
 in India had well nigh substituted paganism for 
 Christianity. But such an accusation against a Prot- 
 estant mission, if sustained, would at once deprive 
 it of the confidence and support of the churches. 
 
 I think I have said enough to illustrate the im- 
 mense superiority of the Protestant missions over 
 those of the Romish Church, in their power to exert 
 an influence on the heart and life of the pagan 
 world. Whatever amount of true doctrine there 
 
 1 Venn, p. 156. * Dr. Medhurst, as quoted by Dr. Venn, p. 308. 
 19 
 
290 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 may be in the creeds of the Romish Church, for all 
 the purposes of our present discussion it is a re- 
 ligion of forms, and rites, and ceremonies, which 
 easily assimilate to the religious formalism of pagan 
 nations. Such is the concurrent testimony of Prot- 
 estant missionaries. The Romish missions with- 
 hold the Bible. Their school teaching rouses not, 
 nor is it intended to arouse, the intellectual and 
 moral powers. A select few are educated to govern, 
 but the great masses are educated to obey ; and we 
 see what is the education for the masses, in the 
 seventeen millions out of twenty-five in Italy, and 
 the nine tenths of the population in Spain, who can 
 neither read or write. Romish missionaries (at least 
 those remote from Protestant missions) seldom 
 preach ; and are believed rarely to inculcate the 
 doctrine of atonement through the blood of Christ 
 alone, or sanctification through the Holy Spirit ; and 
 the preparation they would make for death and the 
 judgment, is by means of baptismal regeneration, 
 aided by lifeless ceremonies, and priestly absolutions. 
 Surely the Lord Jesus Christ did not promise his 
 presence, nor the gift of his Spirit, to such missions 
 as these. 
 
 V. Neverthless, Rome is a formidable opponent, 
 and this I must briefly illustrate. Its numerical 
 force cannot be less now, than it was in the six- 
 teenth and seventeenth centuries, and its intellectual 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 291 
 
 and pecuniary resources must be greater. It shares 
 also with Protestants in whatever advantage results 
 from the immense increase of facilities afforded by 
 the progress of civilization. 
 
 Moreover, the Propaganda spirit of the Romish 
 Church is reviving once more. The Society for Mis- 
 sions at Lyons acknowledges the annual receipt from 
 the faithful of more than a million of dollars. Sev- 
 eral of the old missions have been revived, and Rom- 
 ish missionaries are now widely scattered in heathen 
 lands. The Reformation awoke the Papal Church to 
 those vast missionary efforts we have just now passed 
 in review ; and the missionary spirit and effort now 
 in the Protestant churches are rousing the Romish 
 Church to a second grand effort, and will doubtless, 
 for some time to come, exert that influence more and 
 more. Romish missionaries will eveiywhere be our 
 uncompromising antagonists. I am far from think- 
 ing, however, that this will be an unmitigated evil. 
 Our Protestant churches and missions need to have 
 a watchful and determined foe in the field. Our 
 missionaries will be more wakeful and active for 
 having the Roman legions encamped in their vicin- 
 ity, always ready for an assault. It has seemed to 
 me, from observing the working of the two systems 
 at the Sandwich Islands, that the Romish missions, 
 taking human nature as it is, have been hitherto an 
 advantage to the cause there, on the whole.^ 
 
 1 1 should not make this remark concerning the " Reformed Catho- 
 lic Mission " at those Islands. 
 
292 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Again, subservient as the Romish missionaries are 
 to the civil power, making use of it whenever they 
 can, and paying back in the same coin, we must ex- 
 pect the Catholic governments, and especially Catho- 
 lic France, to aid them wherever it has ambitious 
 ends to accomplish ; as it appears to have in China, 
 Corea, Japan, Madagascar, Northern Africa, and the 
 Isles of the Pacific, not to speak of Turkey and 
 Italy. 
 
 VI. I now oflPer some practical suggestions, though 
 with diffidence, as to the best manner of working 
 Protestant missions among the heathen, in the pres- 
 ence of missions from the Romish Church. 
 
 1. Not by using their weapons. If we do, we 
 shall be beaten in the use of them. A good while 
 since, missionaries at Constantinople wrote that the 
 Jesuits had attractive schools, teaching the modern 
 languages, the fine arts, and the accomplishments ; 
 and that they would be likely to draw away the best 
 youth, if the Protestant missionaries had no such 
 schools. The reply was, that Protestants cannot go 
 into that line of operation. Such schools are the 
 forte of the Jesuits, and, do what we may, they 
 would outdo us in that direction. A similar appeal 
 was also made in the matter of church edifices. The 
 reply was of the same import: if we undertake to 
 compete in those things, we shall be beaten. We 
 should not attempt it, either abroad, or at home. 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 293 
 
 Many persons seem to think that Romanists have 
 the advantage of Protestants among the heathen, 
 by a show and witchery in their forms of worship. 
 It may be so, after heathen men or women have 
 once been brought fully under the drill of their cere- 
 monies. But I have seen nothing, in my visits to 
 the missions, and learned nothing from my pro- 
 tracted and extended correspondence, to awaken a 
 suspicion, that the simplicity of our worship is not 
 far better for us, than all or any part of their 
 parade and show would be; it being our peculiar 
 object to make real, spiritual converts. 
 
 2. We should do just what the Romish missions 
 do not do, and what they will not do. They will do 
 nothing, intentionally, to rouse the intellect, and the 
 moral sense, nothing to create a thinking, inquiring, 
 reasoning habit of mind among their pupils and the 
 people at large. We have everything to hope from 
 this negative habit of theirs ; and our grand aim 
 should be to impart to our people a mental, moral. 
 Christian discipline, such as results from doctrinal, 
 practical, and experimental preaching, in plain, in- 
 telligent language. Mere conversation, even elo- 
 quent conversation, is not preaching, nor a substi- 
 tute for it. Plain, direct gospel preaching is better 
 for us than all the pretentious education and church 
 edifices of the Jesuits would be. In fact, costly 
 church buildings are a great drawback and hin- 
 drance in evangelical missions among the heathen. 
 
294 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 It is so even in the Oriental churches. The fewer 
 costly edifices we erect and have in missions to the 
 unevangelized, the better. The world is not to he 
 conquered or held by splendid church buildings, nor 
 by a gorgeous ceremonial, but by the plain, simple 
 preaching of Christ crucified, and by a worship 
 which recognizes God as a Spirit, to be worshipped 
 in spirit and in truth. 
 
 We should give the people the Scriptures, and 
 organize our converts into churches — native 
 throughout, self-governed, self-supported, self-prop- 
 agating ; with such a confederation of churches, in 
 due time, as tbeir multiplication and their advance 
 in Christian civilization shall demand. 
 
 All this will be doing just what the Romish mis- 
 sions never do, and what they never will do. It is 
 a method of operating, that differs radically from 
 theirs. It is the apostolic method, and will have the 
 divine blessing. 
 
 3. The Romish missions being so diverse from 
 our own, both in their object and methods, our wise 
 course is, to proceed in their presence very much as 
 we should do if they were not in the field. How 
 wonderfully, one would think, does their religion 
 meet the spirit and aspirations of the world, — by its 
 baptismal regeneration, its confessions and absolu- 
 tions, its opus operatum, its priesthood, its easy con- 
 formity to the world, its saintly intercessors, and its 
 queen of heaven. It being a grand compromise, it 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 295 
 
 would seem that its missions, viewed apart from the 
 teachings of their history, would carry all before 
 them. But they do not, even where no evangelical 
 missions are in the field to oppose them. And where 
 the gospel is present, with the appeal to the con- 
 science made by its doctrines of sin, ruin, and re- 
 demption, we may expect these weapons of the 
 Spirit to exert a converting influence on as many as 
 are " ordained to eternal life." Therefore we should 
 not anywhere be greatly disquieted by the presence 
 of Romish missions. In China, we might treat them 
 as a sect of Buddhists, in India, as we do the fol- 
 lowers of Brahma, and in Western Asia, as we do 
 the followers of Mohammed. 
 
 4. The strong feeling of many, that native pas- 
 tors, if left alone among heathen, even after proper 
 training, will be unable to withstand the Romish 
 missionaries, is not sustained by facts. I have here- 
 tofore stated how it was at Tahiti, for more than a 
 score of years. And how nobly did native converts 
 and pastors stand for a longer time, amid the ter- 
 rible persecutions in Madagascar ; and what a rec- 
 ord have we of the firmness of Christian converts 
 in the face of the India rebellion. 
 
 Let us, then, repose confidence in native churches 
 and pastors, or rather in the grace of God to be 
 manifested in their support, even under the trial 
 of Jesuit casuistry and art. 
 
 5. Let us keep in mind the two grand peculiari- 
 
296 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 ties of Protestant missions, namely: (1) That our 
 object is the conversion and regeneration of sinners, 
 their holiness in heart and life; and (2) That our 
 hope of effecting this is through the gospel and the 
 agency of the Holy Spirit. In these is our strength ; 
 and the want of these is the weakness of our adver- 
 saries. Even the earlier Jesuits, whatever may he 
 truthfully said of the purity of their characters, of 
 their sincerity, and their earnest desire for the sal- 
 vation of souls, did not proclaim the Scriptural 
 method of salvation. They were opposed to the 
 true doctrine, sincerely, heartily so, as the grand 
 heresy of the Reformation. They were, therefore, 
 blind leaders of the blind. A regard for historical 
 truth obliges me to say this even of Francis Xavier, 
 notwithstanding his deserved reputation for personal 
 piety in a dark age, and his marvelous zeal and en- 
 terprise in extending what seemed to him the king- 
 dom of Christ.^ 
 
 1 " It is melancholy to find throughout Xavier's writings, amidst 
 many noble religious sentiments, little which tends to exalt Christ, or 
 to honor the work of the Holy Spirit. The Virgin Mary and the 
 saints are obtruded into an idolatrous position. The religion which 
 he attempted to propagate, was not according to the gospel of Christ. 
 He has left on record his Manual of Instruction, and it proves to be a 
 mixture of legends with the truth of God. Hence the elements of a 
 great character were dwarfed and crippled by inferior motives, and 
 anti-Christian principles. Great natural endowments and precious 
 opportunities were wasted in the vain attempts to extend the kingdom 
 of Christ by unauthorized expedients, and by ' will- worship.' Hence 
 the contradiction between Xavier's natural force of character and his 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 297 
 
 VII. I close this chapter with a few hints at some 
 of our grounds for encouragement. We have a 
 vast advantage over the Romish Church, in not 
 being obliged to keep an army in the field in order 
 to hold it, when once the field has been conquered. 
 History amply proves that this necessity exists in 
 the Romish missions. With us there should be no 
 hesitation, after liberating from their thralldom the 
 slaves of sin, in clothing them with responsibilities. 
 The more free they are, and the more able and dis- 
 posed they are to think, feel, and act for themselves, 
 the better for us ; but it is not so with the papal 
 missions. I fully believe that the Protestant 
 churches are able to effect the conquest of the 
 heathen world against all the opposing force of Ro- 
 manism, if they will put forth determined efforts, 
 with a due reliance on Him, who has graciously 
 promised his presence. Rome, with all her numer- 
 ical strength, and with all her wealth, will be no 
 match for the Protestant churches, when the lat- 
 ter are fully aroused to the use of their spiritual 
 weapons. 
 
 There is more of active, reliable piety in the Prot- 
 estant Christian Church now, than there ever was. 
 But then, as we have already seen, it is yet but par- 
 spiritual inefficiency ; between the expectation which would be formed 
 of his success in any secular pursuit, and his utter failure in the mis- 
 sionary enterprise." — Venn's Life of Xavier, p. 259. Valuable ex- 
 tracts from this Life of Xavier will be found in the Appendix. 
 
298 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 tially enlisted in the work of missions. Therefore it 
 would seem that, until the arrival of the hlessed day 
 when the Spirit shall he poured more abundantly 
 upon our churches, Romanism, in some of its forms, 
 will divide the heathen world with the evangelical 
 religion. And how small the change required of a 
 Buddhist to be accepted as a true son of the Romish 
 Church ; how small in a Brahminist ; how small in 
 the wild African, and in the American Indian. 
 
 It would be presumptuous to predict what the 
 future will be in the struggle of the Evangelical 
 Church for the conquest of the heathen world, ex- 
 cept as regards the grand result. Much must de- 
 pend on the course of political events in Christen- 
 dom, but inconceivably more on the vigor, wisdom, 
 and piety with which the Evangelical Church shall 
 prosecute the missions. Portugal, once the grand 
 patron of Romish missions, has now scarcely a name 
 and a place in the world. Spain is in the process of 
 what may prove, in the end, an anti-papal revolu- 
 tion. Hungary stands once more, apparently, on 
 the verge of a Protestant reformation ; and Austria 
 is no longer, as heretofore, the obedient son of the 
 Romish Church. The main dependence of the papal 
 missions is now upon France ; not so much because 
 of a spirit of subserviency in that empire, as for the 
 promotion of its own ambitious ends. What France 
 stands ready to do, we see exemplified at Tahiti and 
 the Loyalty Islands of the South Sea, and at the 
 
ROMISH MISSIONS. 299 
 
 Sandwich Islands. We see it exemplified in China, 
 where the French not only demanded the free ad- 
 mission of papal missionaries into the country, but a 
 restoration of the property which in former ages 
 was held by the Jesuits. And we shall doubtless 
 see the same thing done in Japan. 
 
 The Pope may not much longer be able to sustain 
 his rank as a temporal sovereign ; but whether he 
 would be weakened or strengthened by the loss of 
 that, is what I think no one can tell. His diplomatic 
 relations would of course be changed, and he might 
 not continue to receive the customary secular sup- 
 port from the papal nations ; and his confidence in 
 the Jesuits, and their subserviency to him, might be 
 diminished. But his strongest hold upon his follow- 
 ers, after all, is spiritual ; and one cannot be assured 
 that he would not gain, if he were deprived of his 
 temporalities, and even if cut loose from Rome, 
 that sink of iniquity. 
 
 Either way, the Evangelical Church must expect 
 to have the " Man of Sin " to contend with in the 
 form of Romanism, for a long time to come, and we 
 must make up our minds to it. 
 
 I regard the Papacy as an enemy of the Church of 
 God, and to be opposed by all proper means. But 
 so is the great wicked world, of which the Papacy is 
 a part. And this particular form of the world's op- 
 position is perhaps the very best for arousing the 
 energies of the Evangelical Church. Even should 
 
300 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 every species of wickedness and enmity in the world 
 combine at length under this form, it might ulti- 
 mately prove to be a good thing for the true Church. 
 Suppose that Church were to meet it everywhere in 
 formidable phalanx, ready for a desperate conflict. 
 That is perhaps the very warfare, which will soonest 
 call forth the requisite Christian effort for subduing 
 the world to Christ ; not indeed without losses and 
 crosses, probably not without fire and the sword, 
 perhaps not without terrible exigencies which shall 
 compel the Church to look to that Almighty Arm, 
 in which alone is her strength. 
 
 When the conflict between the two great moral 
 powers reaches its height, and the noise thereof be- 
 comes great, and men's hearts fail them for fear, 
 then may be expected that divine, all-powerful inter- 
 vention, foretold by prophets and apostles, and now 
 the hope of the Church, which will give the victory 
 to truth and righteousness. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 EESUME AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 Before closing the volume, it may be well briefly 
 to review the ground we have gone over. Attention 
 was first called to the remarkable opening of the 
 heathen world to the gospel, such as was never seen 
 before ; and in the light of history we surveyed the 
 grand operations of Divine Providence, by which 
 this opening had been effected. We saw the leading 
 nations of Christendom moved, as in Old Testament 
 times, by the hand of the Almighty, all working to- 
 gether for this result ; though they meant not so, 
 neither did their heart think so. Hundreds of 
 millions were expended by them for their own power 
 and aggrandizement, but the results, or a large por- 
 tion of them, were just as needful for the extension 
 of the Redeemer's kingdom ; and thus was accom- 
 plished, under a wonder-working Providence, what 
 the Christian Church had not now, and perhaps 
 never would have, the wealth and physical power 
 to do. 
 
 The world becoming thus accessible to the gos- 
 pel, we beheld the drowsy churches of Christendom 
 slowly awaking to a consciousness of their duty. 
 
302 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 Moravian and Danish Christians were the first to 
 move ; then a few English brethren ; then a few in 
 our counti*y^ : and now there is scarcely a section of 
 the Evangelical Church, in which there is not a 
 response, and more or less of organized effort. 
 
 Seeing the heathen world so marvelously opening 
 to the gospel, and the Evangelical Church awak- 
 ing so extensively to the duty of Christian missions, 
 we inquired into the nature of the apostolic mis- 
 sions, as set forth in the Inspired Volume. We 
 there saw, with submissive wonder, how the apostles 
 were left, somewhat as we are, to grapple with the 
 difiicult problems of their day, and how hard it was 
 for them to disencumber their minds from long- 
 standing Jewish prejudices. This being accom- 
 plished, and the spiritual nature of the churches 
 they were to form among the heathen being settled, 
 we followed the Apostle to the Gentiles in his mis- 
 sion, and saw him relying for success on the cross 
 of Christ and the agency of the Holy Spirit. We 
 saw him hastening through the different provinces 
 of the Roman Empire, planting churches at central 
 stations, and leaving them when fully organized, in 
 the belief that the grace of God was sufficient to 
 guard, multiply, and clothe them with power and 
 glory, until the gospel should be everywhere tri- 
 umphant. We beheld the leaven thus cast into the 
 lump of heathenism gradually diffusing itself, until 
 the whole was so far leavened, that imperial Rome 
 
RI^SUME. 303 
 
 was constrained to bow to the supremacy of the gos- 
 pel, and assume the Christian name. 
 
 Looking" for developments of the spirit of mis- 
 sions in subsequent ages, our attention was drawn 
 unexpectedly to Ireland. In that remotest of the 
 European islands, safe from Huns and Goths, and 
 with Britain for a barrier against sea-roving North- 
 men, we found what proved to be a refuge for the 
 Church in the disordered and dangerous period of 
 the nominally Christian world following the downfall 
 of the Roman Empire. From thence, in successive 
 ages, we beheld evangelical missionaries going forth 
 into Scotland, England, and especially into Germany, 
 sowing the seeds, as it long afterwards appeared, of 
 the great Reformation which blessed Europe and 
 the world in the sixteenth century. 
 
 We next inquired into the nature of the modern 
 warfare incumbent on the churches for subduing the 
 world to Christ. We found it was spiritual ; just 
 such a warfare as the apostles waged, with precisely 
 their object, with precisely their weapons, and with 
 their dependence on divine aid. We found that the 
 churches of Christendom, and the missionaries sent 
 forth by them, had really the same responsibility in 
 respect to the nature of the work, as that which 
 rested on the apostles ; namely, to establish churches 
 in all places of influence, and to see that those 
 churches had competent native pastors, and were 
 trained to the three grand necessities of a Christian 
 
304 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 church, — self-government, self-support, and self- 
 propagation. 
 
 Having assumed it to he the leading ohject of mis- 
 sions among the heathen to plant and multiply local 
 churches composed of native converts, with a native 
 ministry of the same race, we hrought forward proofs, 
 in the eighth chapter, of the value of such churches. 
 This we did hy adducing some of the more striking 
 illustrations to he found among the native converts, 
 and in the native ministry ; and we saw reason to 
 helieve, that the spirit of Christ is in them, and that 
 no better army is needed for the conquest of the 
 world, than can he enlisted on the ground ; provided 
 there be a sufficient number of competent leaders 
 from our training institutions at home, and that 
 these be continued until the native army is suffi- 
 ciently enlarged and disciplined for the exigencies of 
 the war. 
 
 We then described the missionary life, as it had 
 fallen under our personal observation. After assert- 
 ing the high calling of the missionary as a minister 
 of the gospel and an ambassador of Christ, we con- 
 templated him in the various relations of his life, 
 and then the influence of that life upon his mental 
 development and his religious character and hap- 
 piness. 
 
 Our next inquiry was, how far the modern Evan- 
 gelical Church has actually obeyed the Saviour's 
 command, to go into all the world. Knowing that 
 
R^SUMi. 305 
 
 the number of ordained ministers of the gospel 
 sent into the field does not exceed two thousand, 
 it was with some surprise and no small pleasure that 
 we saw the extent to which the un evangelized world 
 had been explored, with a view to its occupation by 
 missionaries ; and still more, how many of the more 
 important and influential posts have been at least^ 
 partially occupied ; and that the work of translating 
 the Scriptures has been effected in nearly all the 
 more important languages of the heathen world. 
 
 Our attention was then directed to the fulfillment 
 of the promise, '' Lo, I am with you ; " and we saw, 
 almost everywhere in the missions, convincing evi- 
 dence of the faithfulness of the Great Captain, and of 
 his divine presence and blessing. We saw it among 
 the Cherokees, the Choctaws, the Dacotahs, and 
 still more on the Island-groups in the vast extent 
 of the Pacific Ocean. We saw it among the Karens 
 of Burmah, and the devil-worshippers of the Santhal, 
 Cole, and Shanar races of India. We saw it in the 
 mighty changes, that are being wrought in the 
 knowledge and convictions of the millions in that 
 country devoted to the worship of Brahma. We saw 
 it wonderfully illustrated on the island of Madagas- 
 car. We saw proofs of it over a large portion of 
 Southern Africa, and most signally displayed in the 
 apostolic successes of the admirable missionary 
 Johnson at Sierra Leone. We saw it in different 
 portions of Western Asia. 
 
306 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 It was natural to inquire, what it is that hinders 
 a more rapid advance; and the chief hindrance 
 seemed to be in the want of appropriate information 
 and training in the churches at home. The methods 
 of removing this, both providential and human, were 
 indicated. It was also shown what are the demands 
 of the cause of missions on the personal services of 
 the young ministers of the gospel. 
 
 An inquiry was then instituted, how far there is 
 power in the Romish missions to exert a renovating 
 influence on the heart and life of the pagan world. 
 We found little proof of the exercise of such power 
 in the history of those missions, nor in the prin- 
 ciples underlying them ; and contrasting these prin- 
 ciples with those of Protestant missions, we saw the 
 immense superiority of the latter as a converting 
 agency. Suggestions were then made, in the light 
 of this discussion, as to the best manner of working 
 the Protestant missions among the heathen, in the 
 presence of missions from the Romish Church. Our 
 first position was, that we should not use their 
 weapons ; and our second, that we should do just 
 what they do not do, and what they will not do. 
 For the world is not to be converted by costly 
 churches, nor by a gorgeous ritual, nor by a religion 
 of rites and forms, but by the plain, simple preach- 
 ing of Christ crucified, and a worship which recog- 
 nizes God as a Spirit, to be worshipped in spirit and in 
 truth. Nor should we be disquieted by the presence 
 
CONCLUSION. 307 
 
 of Romish missionaries, since that particular form 
 of the world's opposition is perhaps the very best for 
 arousing the energies of the true Church of God 
 in the discharge of its great duty to the heathen 
 world. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 There is no political movement in the world, that 
 is commensurate with the missionary movement ; 
 none that embraces so many nations, none covering 
 so large a portion of the globe. It is the Christian 
 Church going forth, under its Great Captain, for the 
 subjugation of the world. 
 
 The imperial warrior, who not many years since 
 convulsed the civilized world with his ambitious 
 schemes, used to make himself intimately acquainted 
 with the nations he designed to conquer. As a 
 means to his end, he studied their geography, num- 
 bers, government, and history, with the character- 
 istic ardor of his great mind. Facts were the lights 
 in which he marched through Europe, and none 
 were deemed unimportant, that might aifect the 
 issue of a campaign, or a battle. And in this mi- 
 nuteness and accuracy of information, with a capac- 
 ity to adapt the means at command to the ends in 
 view, was the secret of his success. 
 
 We, too, are warriors. And though our contest is 
 spiritual, of mind with mind, and heart with heart, 
 and though our weapons are spiritual, and are made 
 
308 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 effectual only by divine aid, there is the same de- 
 maud for inquiry and information, the same scope 
 and necessity for forethought, as in the military en- 
 terprise of Napoleon. Indeed, to a very great extent 
 our inquiries relate to the same classes of objects ; 
 only they are surveyed from other points of view, 
 and associated by different relations, and estimated 
 by another species of arithmetic and measurement. 
 
 The Evangelical Church of our day is laboring 
 more and more on system, with a constant advance 
 in her aggressive movements, and is more and more 
 actuated and sustained in her efforts by the powerful 
 principle of faith. The Evangelical Church is not 
 left, however, to faith alone. How much there is to 
 animate and strengthen her faith in beholding the 
 massive walls, at the very entrance of her promised 
 possession, which had so long shut her out from the 
 pagan world, overthrown at length, like those of 
 Jericho, by the unseen hand of the Almighty. And 
 also in beholding the same injfinite power creating 
 marvelous facilities for traversing the globe, and in 
 witnessing, in the uprising Church, what may prove 
 the beginning of that outpouring of the Spirit, — 
 sung by prophets, and longed for by apostles, — 
 which is to arouse every Christian land for the uni- 
 versal and decisive conflict. 
 
 The g^piritual war for the conquest of the world 
 has certainly begun, and in a manner never seen in 
 any former age. There is not yet, indeed, a popular 
 
CONCLUSION. 309 
 
 enthusiasm in the churches, but that will come. 
 What we most need, just now, is deep, calm, untir- 
 ing principle ; for the contest upon which we have 
 entered is vast, having for its object the reign of 
 Christ over all the earth. 
 
 And does any one believe that He, who has all 
 power in heaven and on earth, will stop, after so 
 marvelous an opening of the heathen world to the 
 gospel? Does any one believe that the churches, 
 after so many organizations for the spread of the 
 gospel, after so much exploring of the heathen tribes 
 and nations, and after occupying thousands of posts, 
 will ignominiously retire from the field ? Will Chris- 
 tian people, will the Christian ministry, will the 
 Christian churches never feel a stronger interest in 
 the triumphs of the Redeemer's kingdom through the 
 world, than they do now ? It cannot, it will not be. 
 The churches will not always be lukewarm in this 
 work, and they may not be so long. Who can tell 
 but that a vast revolution in the views and feelings 
 of God's people is near ? Who can tell but that the 
 outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh, foretold by the 
 prophet Joel, is at hand? God's people and his 
 ministers will then be made willing, beyond all they 
 now deem possible. They will delightfully awake to 
 the claims of Christ upon them. Vastly higher will 
 be their aims ; vastly broader their plans; and vastly 
 greater their ability to feel, pray, and consecrate 
 their all to him. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 COMPETENCE OF MISSIONARIES TO TESTIFY CONCERNING 
 MISSIONS. 
 
 [From a speech of Rev. Dr. Norman Macleod, of the Established 
 Church of Scotland, after returning from an official visit to the Mis- 
 sions of that Church in India.] 
 
 " But you may say, * You have come to tell us about 
 India ; how do you know your facts are correct ? ' I met a 
 man the other day at a dinner party, a man who had been 
 in India, and who told me the missionaries there had done 
 nothing. Now those mysterious men are always turning 
 up ; men who have been in India, and who tell you mission- 
 aries have done nothing. I have often met this remarkable 
 phenomenon. Well, in order to ascertain all we could, Dr. 
 Watson and myself put ourselves in communication with 
 men of all classes, and first of all with missionaries. And 
 with reference to the missionaries, I will maintain this : that 
 they know more of India, that their knowledge is more 
 correct, and their accounts are more fair regarding India, 
 than you can get from any other source. But we do not 
 confine ourselves to missionaries. We had letters, I 
 need not say, from government, which gave us access to 
 many sources of information among civilians, — men who 
 
314 APPENDIX. 
 
 had long been in the country, men who had intelligence 
 and knowledge. We did not confine ourselves to Chris- 
 tians, but went to natives also. We had access to what I 
 may call the representative men, and the kindness and 
 courtesy we met with from these gentlemen I shall never 
 forget. We heard all their opinions frankly and fully. We 
 did more than that ; we called two great meetings, one at 
 Madras, the other at Calcutta. They were attended by the 
 first men in the country: in Calcutta, by the viceroy, the 
 commander-in-chief, the governor of Bengal, and all the 
 heads of departments. The same in Madras. We asked 
 missionaries of all denominations to come upon the plat- 
 form and read a vidim'pis of their work ; what they had 
 done, each in their own department, what the Baptists had 
 done, what the Independents had done, what the Church 
 Missionary Society had done, the Society for the Propaga- 
 tion of the Gospel, the Free Church, and so on. And 
 upon the platform in Madras and Calcutta I stated this, 
 that one great reason why we requested the meeting was, 
 that after we had labored and worked, and thought we had 
 a thorough understanding of the state of matters, some 
 man, knowing no more about it than a European who had 
 been in India, might pass the claret at table, and say, ' I 
 assure you, missionaries are doing nothing. I know all 
 about it.' Yet this man might not know, perhaps, a single 
 mission in the parish in which he lived. I said that in the 
 presence of editors of European papers in India ; in the 
 presence of editors of native papers : in the presence of 
 intelligent Hindus : in a meeting as crowded as this, we 
 asked those reports, and challenged contradiction on the 
 spot. We challenged it in Madras and Calcutta, and if 
 
APPENDIX. 315 
 
 the missionaries were not true, we wished to have that 
 contradiction there, if we could have it. We did not go to 
 India to get up a fine story ; we did not go to gather facts 
 only agreeable to ourselves, and put them aside. In God's 
 name we wished to know the truth, and nothing but the 
 truth ; and could we do more than I have mentioned to 
 find out the facts ? Now, I ask you, is it not a very hard 
 thing, after we have gone, not to one spot, not to a civilian 
 who has stuck in one spot, not to a missionary who has 
 stuck in one spot — but after we have gone through all the 
 Presidencies, and met with a great many missionaries and 
 other people, trying to find out the real facts, and after, 
 too, we have called meetings and challenged contradiction, 
 that all this should be put aside as nothing, as the mere 
 talk of ministers ? Ask the man who says that missions in 
 India have done nothing, what mission station he ever 
 visited. Ask him if he ever spent an hour in his life 
 trying to understand missions. Ask him what interest he 
 takes in, or what knowledge he has, of missions at home. 
 You will invariably find that the man who lives in Glas- 
 gow, and talks in the manner I have indicated concerning 
 missions abroad, is just as ignorant about them as a man 
 at Calcutta is of what the Free Church, or the United 
 Presbyterian Church, or the Episcopal Church, or the 
 Established Church, are doing for the advancement of 
 religion in Glasgow. This, then, in answer to the heckling 
 question, * What have you done to ascertain facts, and on 
 what ground do you ask us to have any confidence in 
 you?'" 
 
31G APPENDIX. 
 
 n. 
 
 SECULAR NEWSPAPERS AND RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. 
 
 (See Chapter XL) 
 
 Since delivering his lectures, the author has seen a brief 
 memoir of the Rev. Austin Dickinson, from which the 
 following statement, by Mr. Dickinson himself, is ex- 
 tracted : — 
 
 " From my connection with the press, and intercourse 
 with editors of various classes, for some twenty years, the 
 desirableness of making common secular newspapers the 
 channels of a decided religious influence, often occurred to 
 my mind. But it was not till after a more particular in- 
 vestigation of their numbers and vast controlling influence, 
 that I felt urged by an imperative sense of duty to volun- 
 teer in a special effort for their improvement. Early in 
 1844 I ascertained, from minute inquiry, that there were 
 then printed in New York City alone nearly a million of 
 newspapers a week, and that some editors sent out weekly 
 from ten to sixteen hundred exchange papers to other 
 editors throughout the country, besides many to distant 
 countries ; and that there were then published in the 
 United States about four hundred million single news- 
 papers annually, which number has since been rapidly 
 increasing. So that, if a column only of interesting relig- 
 ious matter could be introduced into each of these papers, 
 it would be equivalent to the annual distribution of more 
 than sixteen hundred million tract pages ; and this in a 
 form most likely to be read by the whole community — by 
 
APPENDIX. 317 
 
 millions who never see a religious journal, and many of 
 whom would only despise a tract. Previous to this under- 
 taking, the editors of secular papers, generally, scarcely 
 noticed religious movements, or seemed to feel any interest 
 in them. Much delicacy and prudence were, therefore, 
 necessary, in any attempt so to change their views and 
 tastes, that political journals might, without exciting preju- 
 dice, be made the heralds of sacred truth and religious 
 instruction." 
 
 III. 
 
 ENGLISH MISSION SCHOOLS. 
 
 (See Chapter VII.) 
 
 Since the delivery of the lectures, a valuable work by 
 Dr. Mullens has been received, entitled, " London and 
 Calcutta, comparing their Heathenism, their Privileges, 
 and their Prospects ; showing the Claims of Foreign Mis- 
 sions upon the Christian Church." The following is an 
 extract bearing on the success of missions : — 
 
 "It was during this period that the English mission 
 schools in the great towns sprang into existence, and began 
 to form a prominent and most useful feature of Christian 
 usefulness. Nowhere more completely than in India has 
 the ingenuity of Christian men vigorously applied itself to 
 the production of forms of agency adapted to the work to 
 be accomplished. General schemes had been tried and 
 adopted, in order to overcome that most formidable oppo- 
 nent of Christianity, the caste system ; but the right thing 
 
818 APPENDIX 
 
 had not been discovered. Now it is evident, that nothing 
 will completely overthrow it but that large-hearted en- 
 lightenment which gives broad views of human life, of the 
 connection between man and man, between race and race, 
 and which tends to multiply the ties of sympathy between 
 one heart and all others. Many agencies are needed for 
 an end so vast. A just government for all ranks of society, 
 public law, union of separated provinces, railways, abundant 
 employment and abundant trade, and a true, large educa- 
 tion of the entire nature, of the intellect, the feelings, and 
 the conscience, — each and all have an important share in 
 the great service. Under these powerful influences, the 
 narrow social exclusiveness, which is the essence of caste, 
 must be swallowed up in broad convictions and generous 
 love. These influences, it may be added, are at the same 
 time the only true cure for the narrow and apparently 
 hopeless bigotry and exclusiveness of the Mohammedan 
 mind. As soon as the English schools were tried, they 
 were found at once to supply a great want, and to exercise 
 a powerful influence in this direction. Boys were seen 
 speedily to acquire a contempt for idolatry, fof temples, 
 and for legends, which long labors had with difficulty pro- 
 duced in grown men. What wonder, then, that, in spite of 
 warm controversies, the English mission schools have 
 multiplied, have tended to feed and strengthen the three 
 Indian universities, and have contributed a fair share 
 towards the development of that great school of educated 
 and enlightened native scholars, who, theists in religion, 
 have strongest sympathies with the elevation of their 
 country, and are the only native gentlemen who are striv- 
 ing to secure it. As suitable to this class, a system of 
 
APPENDIX. 319 
 
 Christian lectures in English has been largely adopted by 
 missionaries in the great cities, and a special literature has 
 been prepared for their use. From the men thus educated 
 have come forth many strong and steadfast converts, who 
 have added greatly to the strength and resources of native 
 churches, and several of whom have been ordained to the 
 ministry of the gospel." 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE BRAHMO SAMAJ. 
 
 (See Chapter Vn.) 
 
 A SOCIETY of educated natives has grown up in Calcutta, 
 called the Brahmo Samnj. It contained, a few years since, 
 about two thousand members ; and Dr. Duff regards it as 
 the result of English high schools, and, so far as the more 
 promising and better part of it is concerned, the result in 
 no small degree of the high schools sustained by the Free 
 Church of Scotland. Not long since, a party of progress, 
 desirous of acting out their anti-idolatrous convictions, and 
 relieving themselves from the anti-social trammels of caste, 
 separated and formed a distinct society, at the head of 
 which was a young man of remarkable powers of intellect, 
 named Babu Keshub Chandra Sen, a native gentleman of 
 independent means. Dr. Murray Mitchell, a venerable 
 missionary of the Scotch Free Church, writing from Cal- 
 cutta, represents the junior section of the Brahmo Samaj 
 as full of life and zeal. 
 
 " They have planted societies," he says, " churches, as 
 
320 APPENDIX. 
 
 they call them, throughout Bengal, in the Northwest 
 provinces, the Punjaub, Bombay, and Madras, in which, 
 as they say, hundreds congregate week after week to wor- 
 ship the holy God in spirit and truth. And theirs, they 
 think, is the church — at least the Indian Church — of the 
 future. They think that their own society will exhibit a 
 purified Christianity — the very essence of the gospel ; and 
 while they earnestly say that the future church of India 
 will not be an ti- Christian, they are equally strenuous in 
 declaring that it will not be Christian, as Christianity has 
 yet been understood." ^ 
 
 This Brahmist school of thought . may be said to have 
 originated with Rammohun Roy, fifty or sixty years ago, 
 who undertook to reform Hinduism on the basis of a pure 
 theism, which he held to be the religion of the Yedas. The 
 name by which they are now known appears to have been 
 adopted about the year 1830, when many had joined the 
 sect, who, in passing through the government schools, had 
 unlearned idolatry, without having the void filled by relig- 
 ious instruction. There has been a manifest intellectual 
 progress. They made the discovery, about the year 1846, 
 that the Vedas taught neither a personal God, nor the 
 grand distinctions between virtue and vice. The Vedas 
 were consequently rejected, and the Brahmos betook 
 themselves to External Nature. Not being able to find a 
 God there to suit them, they next turned to Internal Na- 
 ture — to Intuition ; and called in the aid of Francis New- 
 man and Theodore Parker. Here, too, they have found 
 the ground giving way under them ; and this discovery, it 
 probably was, that led to the recent division into two sects, 
 i Monthly Record of the Free Church of Scotland, 1868, p, 195 
 
APPENDIX. 321 
 
 A very few have found their way to the revealed Word, 
 and the incarnate Saviour, and his atonement ; and there 
 is hope for more." ^ 
 
 It is yet to be seen, how far there will be greater readi- 
 ness in young deistical India to bow to the cross of Christ, 
 than there is in pagan India. 
 
 PREACHING AND EDUCATION. 
 
 (See Chapter VII.) 
 
 Dr. Macleod, of the Established Church of Scotland, 
 in his recent report of his visit as a deputation to the mis- 
 sions of that church in India, referred to the experience of 
 the Rev. George Bowen, the excellent and long time self- 
 supported American missionary at Bombay, who had been 
 engaged in open-air preaching more than a score of years, 
 without the happiness of knowing that he had made any 
 converts. This was adduced as an illustration of what Dr. 
 Macleod regarded the paramount importance of schools 
 and education, as a means of evangelizing India. 
 
 The same point was also illustrated by the Rev. William 
 Miller, of the Free Church of Scotland mission at Madras, 
 in a paper lately published in Scotland, on the " Principles 
 of Missionary Work in India.'* Mr. Miller regards the 
 Hindus as bound together in a state of interdependence so 
 intimate as to form an organic unity ; so that the influence 
 exerted on individuals is largely determined by the corpo- 
 
 1 Eepwt of Chh. Miss. Soc., 1867-8, p. 80; Chk. Miss, Intd., 1868, 
 
 p. 222. 
 
 21 
 
322 APPENDIX. 
 
 rate life which each one shares. He regards the Shanars 
 and Mahars, among whom the great numerical success of 
 missions has hitherto been, as outside the real Hindu race, 
 and forming no part of it, so that nothing effected among 
 them reaches the inner life of the great Hindu community. 
 " Such," he says, " were the state and prospects of the 
 Christian cause in India, when the Scottish Church began 
 to plant her missions there." After describing the educa- 
 tional work of those missions, he declares that mode of 
 operation to be " the most hopeful way, if not the only one, 
 of reaching and affecting the inner life of the community." 
 Mr. Bowen's attention was naturally drawn to the refer- 
 ence made to his experience by Dr. Macleod, and the 
 " Bombay Guardian " of March 6, 1869, edited by him, 
 contains an editorial that is well deserving of thoughtful 
 attention. The editor writes thus : — 
 
 " There is an organic unity in society ; a corporate life 
 in which all participate ; we are members of one another ; 
 we are in our measure affected by whatever affects the 
 corporate whole ; influences that tell upon individuals, ter- 
 minate not with them, but radiate through the community. 
 Now we submit that this great fact constitutes just as 
 cogent a reason for addressing ourselves to individuals, in 
 the ministry of the gospel, as for seeking to work upon the 
 mass. The fact of the interdependence of men one upon 
 another, is just as much an encouragement in laboring 
 directly to bring one man to Christ, as it is in laboring to 
 pour Christianizing influences into the community at large. 
 For there is no mightier Christianizing influence, than that 
 which is brought to bear upon a community when a mem- 
 
APPENDIX. 323 
 
 ber of it is persuaded to consecrate himself, body, soul, 
 and spirit, to the service of Christ. Again, the educational 
 missionary is not laboring for the masses, more than the 
 open-air missionary, who, year after year, continues to 
 address the general population. Here in Bombay there 
 are, at any one time, say one thousand boys and young men 
 in mission schools, out of a population of eight hundred 
 thousand. We have no intention of denying the useful- 
 ness of those institutions. Their importance may be over- 
 estimated by Mr. Miller, when he intimates that they 
 afford probably the only hopeful way of affecting the 
 inner life of the community ; but we readily concede that 
 they occupy a very important place in the work of Indian 
 missions. Yet we do not agree that they are more cer- 
 tainly working upon the inner life of the community than 
 open-air preachers of the gospel are, or than are religious 
 tracts and books in the vernacular. Dr. Macleod, in his 
 recently published lecture on Indian missions, refers to a 
 missionary in Bombay, who has been preaching the gospel 
 for more than twenty years in the open air, without gather- 
 ing any converts. We were told, the other day, by a gen- 
 tleman at the head of one of the largest of our mission 
 educational institutions, one where a number of devoted 
 and able missionaries have successively labored, that, dur- 
 ing thirty years, there had been from it only two converts, 
 the institution being carried on at an average expense of 
 £1,000 a year. Now we believe that neither the mission- 
 ary first mentioned, nor the others, have spent their strength 
 for nought, or labored in vain ; and we believe, that when 
 the day of fruition comes, it will be found that the one 
 class of laborers told just as truly on the inner life of the 
 
324 APPENDIX. 
 
 community, as the other did. It is admitted that very 
 great changes have taken place, and are taking place, in 
 this community ; and God knows that we can very imper- 
 fectly conjecture what work has tended to bring about 
 those changes ; but we fail to see that the secular and re- 
 ligious instruction given in these schools, tends more effect- 
 ually to influence the common life of the community, than 
 other kinds of missionary work do. 
 
 " But let us consider what the New Testament has to tell 
 us of the methods of those who planted the first Chris- 
 tian churches. Our Lord Jesus Christ had before him the 
 problem of winning to himself, and to the service of God, 
 the people of Judea. He went about preaching the Word, 
 and doing good. In the open air, in the synagogues, every- 
 where, we find him setting forth the great truths of the 
 kingdom, and enduring the contradiction of sinners. We 
 also find him laboring with individuals, and gathering con- 
 verts. His disciples were not converted Pharisees or 
 Sadducees, scribes or elders, but chiefly men of the people, 
 fishermen, tax-gatherers ; and they were Galileans, whose 
 provincial speech was held in contempt by the higher 
 classes, just as Shanars and Mahars are despised by the 
 people of high caste here. Through these individuals he 
 wrought upon the body politic, and wrought effectually. 
 The nation, as a nation, was not converted, but many 
 myriads were. In this way, and by this despised instru- 
 mentality, he acted upon the Gentile world. The conver- 
 sion of one individual, Paul, proved to be like the conver- 
 sioH of a considerable community. Paul went everywhere, 
 seeking to save some — ' if by any means I might save 
 some,' he says. He and his associates believed that the 
 
APPENDIX. 325 
 
 most hopeful way of influencing the organic whole, the 
 community at large, was to show them what God could do 
 in the way of converting, redeeming, elevating individual 
 souls. 
 
 " We beg to dissent from what Mr. Miller says, regard- 
 ing the position of the classes from whom a large propor- 
 tion of the converts have been made. The Mahars, for 
 instance, are as truly a portion of the Hindu community 
 as the Brahmins are. They are the imtyuj, the lowest- 
 born, at the bottom of the scale ; but none the less do they 
 belong to the scale. We have seen Mahar converts, whose 
 maharism had so effectually disappeared with their cos- 
 tume, that people of all castes listened to them without 
 being able to discover that they had not been originally * of 
 good caste ; ' a fact which, in itself, goes far to dispose of 
 Mr. Miller's theory. And when we consider that the 
 grandest revolution the world has ever seen, was brought 
 about by ' foolish things of the world,' chosen of God to 
 confound the ' wise, ' * weak things of the world, to con- 
 found the mighty, and base things, and things despised, and 
 things which are not, to bring to naught things that are,' 
 we feel reluctant to acquiesce in Mr. Miller's proposition, 
 that the Scottish mission school work is * the most hopeful 
 way, perhaps the only one, of reaching and affecting the 
 inner life of the community.' " 
 
326 APPENDIX. 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 
 
 (See Chapter IX.) 
 
 The relations of the gospel ministry to the work of for- 
 eign missions, are of sufficient importance to justify the 
 author in appending a brief article on the subject, slightly 
 modified, which was communicated by him, in 1865, to one 
 of the religious newspapers. 
 
 " The writer's connection with missions and mission 
 churches, has led him to suppose there would be important 
 advantages gained in apprehending the ecclesiastical status 
 of the apostolic age, were we to contemplate it as an age of 
 missions (for such it was), to be illustrated by the missions 
 of the present age. Not being aware that such a thing has 
 been attempted in good earnest by the writers on ecclesias- 
 tical history, he makes the following suggestions. 
 
 " It will be conceded, that the basis of the Christian 
 nainistry is the commission, * Go ye into all the world and 
 preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost.' The ministry, thus constituted, was evidently 
 designed for the world, and for all time. This is the 
 generic view of that ministry. It was not until about 
 twelve years after the ascension, that we have any men- 
 tion of the ordination of pastors. Then Paul and Barna- 
 bas, two of the most eminent of the ' prophets and teachers ' 
 at Antioch, were, by direction of the Holy Ghost, set apart 
 
APPENDIX. 327 
 
 for a mission to unevangelized peoples. They were evi- 
 dently accredited ministers of the Word before this time, 
 and there is no conclusive evidence that their setting apart 
 as missionaries (or ordination, as it is improperly called), 
 involved any formal act of the church of Antioch as such ; 
 it seems rather to have been done by their fellow ' prophets 
 and teachers ; ' though it is stated that the two mission- 
 aries made report to the ' church ' on their return. (Acts 
 xiii. 1-3 ; xiv. 27.) 
 
 " These missionaries appointed pastors (presbyters) of 
 the churches which they had gathered in Lystra, Iconium, 
 and elsewhere, and those churches were what we now call 
 mission churches, and the pastors were what we call native 
 pastors. They were such churches and pastors as mis- 
 sionaries are now constituting in those same regions. 
 Later, we read of Titus, a convert of the Apostle Paul, and 
 employed by him in the missionary work, left in Crete to 
 set in order the churches planted in that island, and ap- 
 point pastors (presbyters) in them ; with instructions to 
 join the apostle at Nicopolis, as soon as he had completed 
 that work. Timothy, who was also a convert of the apostle 
 and a missionary under his direction, was employed in a 
 similar service in parts of Asia Minor. These ecclesias- 
 tical acts are neither more nor less than our missionary 
 brethren in Turkey are now performing in those regions. 
 
 " Such is the view we take of the Christian ministry and 
 Christian churches in the apostolic age. That ministry, as 
 ultimately developed in that age, was composed of both 
 missionaries and pastors, — the demand for pastors grow- 
 ing out of the successful labors of missionaries. The mis- 
 sionaries were for the planting of churches, and the pas- 
 
328 APPENDIX. 
 
 tors for the edification of those churches, and for securing 
 the conquests: A small number of the missionaries, called 
 apostles, were recognized by the rest, and by all the 
 churches, as having extraordinary revelations and author- 
 ity conferred upon them by the Head of the Church. 
 
 " Now if we restrict our attention to the churches planted 
 by the apostles, we have no difficulty in admitting that the 
 only officers in those churches were presbyters and dea- 
 cons. What other office-bearers could churches so situated 
 have needed? Those infantile churches were no more 
 able to institute foreign missions than were the churches 
 of our fathers in the seventeenth century. The church in 
 the great city of Antioch may have been an exception. 
 But the churches planted by the first missionaries, to which 
 their letters were addressed, were persecuted, impoverished, 
 and feeble, not very unlike the mission churches of our 
 age. Their strength was absorbed in maintaining an ex- 
 istence. They had no foreign missionaries, no missionary 
 societies, colleges, or theological schools, and consequently 
 no occasion for clerical secretaries, professors, and presi- 
 dents. In these respects they fell short of some of our 
 modern mission churches. 
 
 " The New Testament narrative closes in the midst of 
 the missionary age of the primitive churches ; and the best 
 illustration of its ecclesiastical development is probably to 
 be found in those modern Protestant missions, which have 
 for their object the raising up of self-governing, self-sup- 
 porting churches ; though, as might be expected, there 
 would seem to be somewhat more of ecclesiastical organ- 
 ization in the modern missions, than there was in the an- 
 cient. 
 
APPENDIX. 329 
 
 " The writers on Congregationalism of the seventeenth 
 century appear to have lost sight of what is certainly the 
 prominent object of the Christian ministry, as set forth by 
 our Lord in the great commission. The view they took of 
 the object and duty of the churches and ministry, is alto- 
 gether too limited. In their anxiety for the orderly devel- 
 opment of the churches, they seem almost to have forgotten 
 the unevangelized world. This was not strange considering 
 their circumstances. But such an oversight is impossible 
 with us, since the entire world, now become accessible, 
 appeals loudly to our Christian sensibilities. And it is 
 now admitted that ordained ministers of the gospel ought 
 to become missionaries, as well as pastors. Experience 
 has shown, too, that foreign missionaries (as in ancient 
 times) ought very seldom to become pastors of the churches 
 they gather from among the unevangelized, but should 
 ordain pastors for them from among the native converts. 
 Nor is it found to be possible to carry forward the work 
 of Christ's kingdom at home and abroad, on an extended 
 scale, without also setting apart clergymen to educate the 
 ministry, to correspond with the missionaries, and to per- 
 form the other needful agencies which none but clergy- 
 men can perform so well. Though missionaries, presidents, 
 professors, secretaries, and clerical editors are not officers 
 in local individual churches, they belong as really to the 
 ministry of the denomination as if they were, and are as 
 really office-bearers in the denomination. There can be 
 no other conclusion educed from the inspired record in the 
 i!^eyf Testament. 
 
 " Thus we have a ministry of the Word, meeting all the 
 exigencies of the case ; all on an ecclesiastical parity under 
 
330 APPENDIX. 
 
 the great commission ; but existing for different ministerial 
 services, — as missionaries, pastors, etc., etc., — members 
 of one and the same body, the head of which is Christ, and 
 alike claiming his promised presence. 
 
 " In this view of the subject, the Evangelists of the New 
 Testament, however gifted they may have been, were only 
 missionaries. The apostles were also missionaries, but 
 with an extraordinary inspiration and authority peculiar to 
 themselves. The eTrto-KOTroi, overseers, superintendents, 
 bishops, contemporaries with the apostles, were the same as 
 presbyters, elders, pastors. The ruling, spoken of in the 
 New Testament, is a thing understood in the mission 
 churches of our day (though perhaps not exactly in the 
 ancient form), where pastoral authority is just as needful 
 in the infancy of those churches, as parental authority is in 
 the early years of a family. Among the churches on the 
 Hawaiian Islands, for instance, the missionaries felt it 
 necessary to exercise authority in the native churches for 
 a course of years, and what of authority remained in the 
 year 1863, and was deemed to be still necessary, was then 
 transferred to the Associations and Presbyteries, — the 
 former intending to relinquish it to the local churches, as 
 soon as the native pastorate had made advances to render 
 it a safe deposit." 
 
APPENDIX. 331 
 
 vn. 
 
 SUCCESS OF MISSIONS. 
 
 (See Chapter Xn.) 
 
 Although enough has been said to demonstrate the 
 fact of God's blessing upon the missions of the Protestant 
 churches, in the unevangelized world, the following state- 
 ment, from the valuable new work of Dr. Mullens, entitled 
 " London and Calcutta," is too suggestive to be omitted. 
 
 " A mere description of the range of labor, the number 
 of agents, and of the annual sum expended in these foreign 
 missions, does little to indicate what the missionary efforts 
 of the churches in foreign lands really include. Around 
 each laborer cluster a variety of agencies, which contribute 
 greatly to the efficiency of his own. Missionary life has 
 its tools of trade, as well as other employments. Every- 
 where they have been secured with wonderful complete- 
 ness, in great variety, and have been wisely adapted both 
 to the place of work and to the duty to be done. To any 
 one who is well acquainted with many fields of mission- 
 ary effort, nothing appears so striking as the way in 
 which the frame-work of effort, the power of agency, and 
 the mode in which they are applied, have been fitted to the 
 varied spheres for which they have been required. Long 
 since, dwelling-houses, chapels, school-rooms, press-rooms, 
 have been provided, suited to climate, country, and people. 
 In some lands the chapel, in others the school, occupies 
 the most prominent place. Here boats have been secured 
 for island visiting ; there canoes for inland creeks ; in an- 
 
332 APPENDIX. 
 
 other station palankin chairs, or bullock carriages, are 
 most required. How much labor has been concentrated 
 on the translation of the Bible, on the small libraries of 
 Christian books, on the dictionaries, grammars, and vocab- 
 ularies of the many tongues employed ! Discussions for 
 the learned, simple papers for the villager, comments for 
 the native teachers, English lectures for the educated, 
 vernacular tracts for the plain reader, — all find their place 
 among these literary agencies. Arguments that have been 
 found effective, illustrations which strike attention, modes 
 of agency which draw hearers, plans that suit heathen 
 and Christian, — all have been noted, tested, and laid 
 up as experience for the use of others. And as years have 
 gone by, as younger missionaries have based their efforts 
 on the toil of their predecessors, what wonder that their 
 teachings have become more effective, and that the soil 
 previously prepared gives promise of early and abundant 
 harvests ! How steady, also, and patient the toil has been ! 
 " Yet, putting all together, — taking the sum of all the 
 men, and agencies, and funds employed at the present 
 time in foreign missions, — how small the total appears ! 
 It is for itself, for its intrinsic worth, for the enterprise 
 which it undertakes, and the prospects which it con- 
 templates, that missionary worth has excited so deep an 
 interest, and takes so prominent a place before the Chris- 
 tian world. It is not for the number either of the agencies 
 or of the men. Putting these all together, they are few 
 and small. The hundred missionaries in China, with their 
 wives and children, would not fill an ordinary lecture- 
 room. Yet they are all the Christian agency given to that 
 great empire by the Church of Christ. The whole band 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 333 
 
 of foreign missionaries sent forth by Europe and America 
 to other races than their own, Jewish, heathen, and Chris- 
 tian, numbers only two thousand and thirty-three indi- 
 viduals. And for the entire undertaking is expended 
 every year only the sum of one million sterling." 
 
 VIII. 
 
 tabular views. 
 
 (See Chapter XXL) 
 
 I. Benevolent Societies, as they were in the. Year 1820. 
 
 The view here presented was prepared by the author 
 for the first number of the " Christian Almanac," pub- 
 lished in the year 1821, of which he was the editor ; being 
 then a member of the Theological Seminary at Andover. 
 It indicates the development of benevolent enterprises in 
 the evangelical churches, as they were fifty years ago. 
 The " Christian Almanac " was soon afler adopted by the 
 American Tract Society, and immense numbers have been 
 published. Only two copies of the first number are now 
 known to the author. The tables are copied without alter- 
 ation. 
 
 1. — Principal Bible Societies in the World. 
 
 British and For. Bib. Soc. 
 Basle Bible Society . 
 Ratisbon Bible Society 
 Berlin Bible Society . 
 Swedish Bible Society 
 Zurich Bible Society . 
 
 EUROPE. 
 
 
 INSTITUTED 
 
 INSTITUTED 
 
 >c. . 1804 
 
 Hungarian Bible Society 
 
 1812 
 
 . . 1804 
 
 Wurtemburg Bible Society 
 
 1812 
 
 . . 1805 
 
 Koenigsberg Bible Society 
 
 1812 
 
 . . 1805 
 
 Finnish Bible Society . . 
 
 1812 
 
 . . 1809 
 
 Chur Bible Society . . 
 
 1813 
 
 . . 1812 
 
 SchaflFhausen Bible Society 
 
 1813 
 
334 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 INSTITUTKD 
 
 Russian Bible Society . . . 1813 
 
 St. Gall Bible Society . .1813 
 
 Bern Bible Society . . .1813 
 
 Lausanne Bible Society . . 1814 
 
 Geneva Bible Society . . .1814 
 
 Berg Bible Society . . .1814 
 
 Cologne Bible Society . .1814 
 
 Hanover Bible Society . . 1814 
 
 Hambro-Altona Bible Soc. . 1814 
 
 Lubeck Bible Society . . .1814 
 
 Prussian Bible Society . . 1814 
 
 Thuringian Bible Society . 1814 
 
 Saxon Bible Society . . .1814 
 
 Danish Bible Society . . .1814 
 
 Aargovian Bible Society . . 1815 
 
 Strasburg Bible Society . .1815 
 
 Bremen Bible Society . . .1815 
 
 Pomerania Bible Society . . 1815 
 
 Brunswick Bible Society . .1815 
 
 Eichsfield Bible Society . .1815 
 
 Icelandic Bible Society . . 1815 
 Sleswick-Hol stein Bib. Soc. 1815 
 
 Neufchatel Bible Society . .1816 
 
 Waldenses Bible Society .1816 
 
 Koenigsfeld Bible Society -. 1816 
 Hesse-Homburg Bible Soc. . 1816 
 
 Nassau Bible Society . . .1816 
 
 Frankfort Bible Society . 
 Kreutznach Bible Society 
 New Wied Bible Society . 
 Lippe-Detmold Bible Soc. 
 Lauenburg-Retzeburg B. S 
 Mecklenburg Schwerin B. S 
 Rostock Bible Society . 
 Norwegian Bible Society 
 Polish Bible Society . . 
 Netherlands Bible Society 
 Hesse-Darmstadt Bible Soc 
 Waldeck & Pyrmont Bib. S 
 Eutin Bible Society . . 
 Rendsburg Bible Society 
 Malta Bible Society . . 
 Hanau Bible Society . . 
 Hesse-Cassel Bible Society 
 Gottingen Bible Society . 
 Hildensheim Bible Society 
 Eisenach Bible Society . 
 Anhalt Bible Society . . 
 Paris Protestant Bible Soc 
 Glarus Bible Society . . 
 Montauban Bible Society 
 Ionian Bible Soc. at Corfu 
 Athens Bible Society . . 
 
 1816 
 1816 
 1816 
 1816 
 1816 
 1816 
 1816 
 1816 
 1816 
 1816 
 1817 
 1817 
 1817 
 1817 
 1817 
 1818 
 1818 
 1818 
 1818 
 1818 
 1818 
 1818 
 1819 
 1819 
 1819 
 1819 
 
 INSTITUTED 
 
 Calcutta Auxiliary Society . 1811 
 Columbo Auxiliary Society . 1812 
 Bombay Auxiliary Society . 1813 
 Java Bible Society . . . .1814 
 Amboyna Bible Society . .1815 
 
 INSTITPTED 
 
 Astrachan Bible Society . .1815 
 New South Wales Aux. Soc. 1817 
 Tobolsk Bible Society . .1817 
 Sumatra Bible Society . .1817 
 Smyrna Bible Society • .1817 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 INSTITUTED 
 
 Mauritius & Bourbon Aux- 
 iliary Society 
 
 1815 
 
 INSTITUTED 
 
 Caledon Auxiliary Society . 1815 
 Sierra Leone Auxiliary Soc. 1816 
 
APPENDIX. 835 
 
 AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 INSTITUTED 
 
 Nova Scotia Auxiliary Soc. 1813 
 Pictou Auxiliary Society . 1813 
 Quebec Auxiliary Society . 1813 
 Berbice Auxiliary Society . 1815 
 Antigua Auxiliary Society , 1815 
 American National Bib. Soc. 1816 
 Yarmouth and Argyle Aux- 
 iliary Society 1816 
 
 INSTITUTED 
 
 Niagara Auxiliaiy Society . 1816 
 Liverpool Auxiliary Society 1817 
 Prince Edward's Island Aux- 
 iliary Society 1817 
 
 Upper Canada Aux. Society 1817 
 Honduras Auxiliary Society 1818 
 Barbadoes Auxiliary Society 1818 
 Bermudas Auxiliary Soc. . 1819 
 
 A large proportion of these societies have branches ftid 
 auxiliaries. The British and Foreign Bible Society has 
 637 ; the Russian Bible Society, 120 ; the Prussian, 23 ; 
 the Sleswick-Holstein, 101 ; the American, 228, etc. The 
 whole number of Bible societies in the world exceeds one 
 thousand five hundred. These have all been instituted 
 since the year 1804. The British and Foreign Bible So- 
 ciety may be considered as the parent of all the others, 
 as it was the means, directly or indirectly, of establishing 
 them, and is the patron of most of them. Since its foun- 
 dation, it has assisted in printing the Bible in forty-nine 
 languages and dialects, in which it was never before 
 printed, and is now assisting in translating and printing it 
 in thirty-eight other languages and dialects, into which it 
 has never yet been translated. The whole number of lan- 
 guages and dialects, in which this noble institution has 
 aided in translating, printing, and distributing the Word of 
 God, is one hundred and twenty-seven ! Its income for 
 the year 1811, was four hundred and nineteen thousand 
 one hundred and forty -one dollars. During the first fif- 
 teen years of its existence, it expended three million one 
 hundred and thirty-two thousand six hundred and twenty- 
 two dollars for the simple purpose of disseminating the 
 Bible through the world. 
 
336 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 2. — Foreign Mission Societies. 
 
 Societies. 
 
 Countries. 
 
 Founded. 
 
 Mission- 
 aries. 
 
 Income in 
 1818-19. 
 
 Soc. Prop. Gos.i . . 
 
 England . . 
 
 1647 
 
 1 
 
 $61,.350 00 
 
 Soc. Prom. Chris- 
 
 
 
 
 
 tian Knowl.2 . . . 
 
 England . . 
 
 1701 
 
 8 
 
 247,250 00 
 
 Soc. Prop. Gos. N. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^m. Ind. . . . 
 
 Scotland . . 
 
 - 
 
 5 
 
 _ 
 
 Danish Mission Col. 
 
 Denmark . . 
 
 1715 
 
 2 
 
 
 United Brethren . . 
 
 - 
 
 1732 
 
 84 
 
 22,912 00 
 
 Methodist Miss. Soc. 
 
 England . . 
 
 1786 
 
 66 
 
 101,839 00 
 
 Baptist Miss. Soc. 
 
 England . . 
 
 1792 
 
 72 
 
 29,547 00 
 
 London Miss. Soc.^ . 
 
 England . . 
 
 1795 
 
 84 
 
 94,614 29 
 
 Scotch Miss. Soc. . . 
 
 Scotland . • 
 
 1796 
 
 12 
 
 32,703 93 
 
 Church Miss. Soc. . 
 
 England . • 
 
 1800 
 
 74 
 
 121,958 65 
 
 London Jews Soc* . 
 
 England . . 
 
 1809 
 
 1 
 
 40,871 26 
 
 Am. B. C. F. Miss. . 
 
 United States 
 
 1810 
 
 35 
 
 34,166 68 
 
 Baptist B. F. Miss. . 
 
 United States 
 
 1814 
 
 5 
 
 18,942 17 
 
 United F. Miss. Soc. 
 
 United States 
 
 1817 
 
 3 
 
 - 
 
 Negro Conver. Soc. . 
 
 England . . 
 
 
 6 
 
 - 
 
 Total .... 
 
 458 
 
 $806,154 08 
 
 1 The exertions of this society are confined chiefly to the British 
 Provinces in North America. 
 
 2 Of the income of this society, $172,573 was expended on the desti- 
 tute at home. Among other things, this society is engaged in giving a 
 religious education to more than 100,000 poor children. 
 
 ^ This society has several auxiliary societies among the converts 
 from heathenism in Africa, and three in the islands of the Pacific 
 Ocean. At the last annual meeting of one of these, nearly 6,000 
 natives were present, and voted. King Pomare is president. 
 
 * A Jews Society was some years since formed by ladies of Boston, 
 and another, more recently, by ladies in Portland. The former has 
 annually contributed $444 to the London Jews Society, and $100 for 
 i,he education of Jewish children at Bombay. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 337 
 
 3. — Geographical View of the Missionaries employed by each 
 Society, and of the Missionary Stations occupied by them. 
 
 Countries. 
 
 West Africa 
 
 South Africa 
 
 Mauritius Island 
 Madagascar . . 
 
 Malta 
 
 Ionian Islands . 
 Palestine . . . 
 Constantinople . 
 Polish Jews . . 
 
 Russia in Asia . 
 
 Thibet . . . 
 Farther India . 
 
 Hindostan . . 
 
 Ceylon . . 
 
 Asiatic Islands . 
 New Zealand . 
 
 Societies. 
 
 Church Miss. Soc. 
 Methodist Miss. Soc 
 Soc. for Prop. Gospel 
 London Miss. Soc. 
 United Brethren . 
 Methodist Miss. Soc. 
 London Miss. Soc. 
 London Miss. Soc. 
 Church Miss. Soc. 
 London Miss. Soc. 
 London Miss. Soc. 
 American Board . 
 Church Miss. Soc. 
 London Jewish Soc. 
 Scotch Miss. Soc. 
 United Brethren . 
 London Miss. Soc. 
 Church Miss. Soc. 
 London Miss. Soc. 
 American Baptists 
 English Baptists . 
 Church Miss. Soc. 
 London Miss. Soc. 
 Christian Knowl. Soc 
 American Board . 
 Methodist Miss. Soc 
 Danish Missions . 
 Methodist Miss. Soc. 
 American Board . 
 Church Miss. Soc. 
 English Baptists . 
 English Baptists . 
 London Miss. Soc. 
 Church Miss. Soc. 
 
 Mission- 
 aries. 
 
 Mission- 
 aries. 
 
 15^ 
 
 
 1 > 
 
 17 
 
 1 ^ 
 
 
 21^ 
 
 
 12 > 
 
 37 
 
 4) 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 l\ 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 12^ 
 
 
 3> 
 
 18 
 
 3) 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 l\ 
 
 9 
 
 64^ 
 
 
 43 
 
 
 26 
 
 
 8 [ 
 
 152 
 
 5 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 2J 
 
 
 14] 
 
 
 7 
 4 
 
 27 
 
 2 
 
 
 l\ 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 Stations. 
 
 10 
 
 46 
 
 12 
 
338 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Geographical View — Continued. 
 
 Countries. 
 
 Societies. 
 
 Mission- 
 aries. 
 
 Mission- 
 aries. 
 
 Stations. 
 
 Society Islands . . 
 
 London Miss. Soc. . 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 Sandwich Islands . . 
 
 American Board . . 
 United Brethren . . 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 Guiana . . . . ) 
 
 London Miss. Soc. . 
 Methodist Miss. Soc. 
 
 2) 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 r 
 
 Methodist Miss. Soc. 
 
 41^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 United Brethren . . 
 
 29 
 
 
 
 
 West Indies . . - 
 
 Conv. Negro SI. Soc. 
 Church Miss. Soc. . 
 English Baptists . . 
 
 6 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 81 
 
 38 
 
 I 
 
 London Miss. Soc. . 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 American Board . . 
 
 7 ^ 
 
 
 
 Cherokee Indians . \ 
 
 United Brethren . . 
 American Baptists . 
 
 l[ 
 
 1 ) 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 Choctaw Indians . . 
 
 American Board . . 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Arkansas Indians 
 
 American Board . . 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 Ind.tr.inN.Y.&N.J. 
 
 Soc. for Prop. Gospel 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 Osage Indians . . . 
 
 United For. Miss. Soc, 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 Illinois Indians . . . 
 
 American Baptists . 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 Delawares &Cliippewas 
 
 United Brethren . . 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Labrador 
 
 United Brethren . . 
 
 19 
 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 Greenland .... 
 
 United Brethren . . 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 455 
 
 156 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 839 
 
 4. — Religious Tract Societies. 
 
 Societies. 
 
 Instituted. 
 
 Income, 1819. 
 
 Whole No. issued. 
 
 London Relig. Tract Soc. 
 New England Tract Soc. 
 New York Tract Society 
 Church of Eng. Tract Soc. 
 
 1799 
 1813 
 
 1813 
 
 $27,477 00 
 2,006 00 
 
 $30,000,000 00 
 2,240,000 00 
 
 5. — Societies for Educating Pious Young Men for the Ministry. 
 
 Societies. 
 
 Instituted. 
 
 Income, 1820. 
 
 Maine Education Soc. aft. Aux. to Am. Ed. 
 Massachusetts Baptist Education Society- 
 American Education Society ^ . . . . 
 
 Soc. 
 
 1813 
 1814 
 1815 
 1818 
 1819 
 1819 
 
 $1,372 00 
 
 13,490 00 
 
 565 00 
 
 New York Baptist Education Society . 
 Maine Baptist Education Society . . 
 Presbyterian Board of Education . . 
 
 
 An association existed in Holland as early as 1633, for 
 educating pious men for the ministry. 
 
 1 The American Educational Society has assisted 277 students in 
 their preparatory studies. The income in 1819 was $21,291 00. 
 
340 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 6. — Other Societies for Improving the Rising Generation, 
 
 Societies. 
 
 Insti- 
 tuted. 
 
 Income. 
 
 No. of 
 Schools. 
 
 No. in 
 School. 
 
 National Education Soc. Eng. 
 British & Foreign School Soc. 
 Sunday School Union, Eng. . 
 Sabbath School Union, Scot. . 
 Sunday School Soc. for Ireland 
 N. Y. Sunday School Un. Soc. 
 Boston Soc. for Religious and 
 Moral Instruction of Poor . 
 
 1813 
 
 $21,099 00 
 10,269 00 
 
 ~ 
 _ 
 
 1467 
 
 2029 
 480 
 
 36 
 
 8 
 
 200,000 
 
 237,584 
 
 34,000 
 
 84,147 
 
 3,500 
 
 700 
 
 Total 
 
 4020 
 
 559,981 
 
 The British and Foreign School Society exerts a salutary 
 influence over schools in France, Spain, Russia, Germany, 
 Italy, Malta, the United States, Nova Scotia, Hayti, and 
 the East Indies. 
 
 7. — Institutions for Africans. 
 
 African Institution, Eng., instituted 1791. American 
 Colonization Society, instituted 1817. Benezet's African 
 School in Philadelphia, instituted 1782. School for edu- 
 cating young men of color for preachers and teachers to 
 the African race, instituted 1816. This school is estab- 
 lished in New Jersey. In 1819, seven young men of 
 color were there preparing for the ministry. It is under 
 the management of a Board of Directors annually ap- 
 pointed by the Synod of New York and New Jersey. In 
 
APPENDIX. 341 
 
 1792, the African Institution transported more than a 
 thousand blacks from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone. At 
 that colony there were " many thousand " negroes, liberated 
 from slave ships. The American Colonization Society has 
 planted a colony at Sherbro, east of Sierra Leone. 
 
 n. — Societies for Foreign Missions, at the Present Time. 
 
 The tabular views now to be given of the operations of 
 foreign missionary societies, as they exist at the present 
 time, may be found to differ somewhat from each other, 
 and not to correspond entirely with statements in the body 
 of the work. Perfect accuracy is not easily attainable. 
 
842 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 1. — Societies in the United States of America. 1868. 
 
 Insti- 
 tuted. 
 
 Societies. 
 
 Expenditures. 
 
 Mission- 
 aries. 
 
 Native 
 Agents. 
 
 Sta- 
 tions. 
 
 98 
 
 Commu- 
 nicants. 
 
 1810 
 
 A. B.C. For. Miss. 
 
 $530,885 00 
 
 140 
 
 965 
 
 25,538 
 
 1814 
 
 Am. Baptist Miss. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Union . . . 
 
 214,411 00 
 
 42 
 
 400 
 
 18 
 
 19,908 
 
 1819 
 
 Methodist Epis. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Miss. Society i . 
 
 275,866 00 
 
 130 
 
 256 
 
 50 
 
 7,468 
 
 1832 
 
 Bd. of Reformed 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (Dutch) Church 
 
 90,745 00 
 
 12 
 
 58 
 
 15 
 
 1,140 
 
 1833 
 
 Free Will Baptist 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 For. Miss. Soc. 
 
 69,955 00 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 134 
 
 1833 
 
 Presbyterian Bd. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Foreign Miss. . 
 
 312,828 00 
 
 79 
 
 101 
 
 49 
 
 1,616 
 
 1835 
 
 Epis. Bd. of Miss. 
 
 79,929 00 
 
 17 
 
 14 
 
 22 
 
 628 
 
 1837 
 
 Evang. Lutheran 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Missionary Soc. 
 
 15,509 00 
 
 - 
 
 30 
 
 4 
 
 633 
 
 1844 
 
 Bd. of Reformed 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pres. Church . 
 
 9,951 00 
 
 2 
 
 - 
 
 2 
 
 - 
 
 1844 
 
 Bd.of Associated " 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pres. Church 
 
 Merged in the 
 
 Board 
 
 ofUni 
 
 tedP 
 
 resb. 
 
 1844 
 
 Bd.of Associated 
 Ref. Church 
 
 
 Churc 
 
 h. 
 
 
 
 1845 
 
 Southern Baptist 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Convention . . 
 
 14,832 00 
 
 11 
 
 _ 
 
 11 
 
 1,500 
 
 1846 
 
 Am. Miss. Ass.i . 
 
 25,824 00 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 - 
 
 1849 
 
 Am. and Foreign 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Christ. Union i 
 
 Not known. 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1859 
 
 United Pres. Ch. 
 
 68,053 00 
 
 18 
 
 55 
 
 14 
 
 239 
 
 1861 
 
 Southern Pres. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bd. For. Miss. . 
 
 18,000 00 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 1,200 
 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 $1,726,788 00 
 
 481 
 
 1,895 
 
 310 
 
 60,004 
 
 1 Proportion for foreign missions. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 2. — Great Britain and Ireland. 1868. 
 
 343 
 
 Insti- 
 
 Societies. 
 
 Expenditures. I 
 
 mission- 
 
 Native 
 
 Sta- 
 
 Commu- 
 
 tuted. 
 
 
 
 aries. 
 
 Agents. 
 
 tions. 
 
 nicants. 
 
 1701 
 
 Soc. for Prop, the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gospel .... 
 
 $249,310 00 
 
 125 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1792 
 
 Baptist Missionary 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Society .... 
 
 163,970 00 
 
 62 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 1795 
 
 London Missionary 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Society .... 
 
 526,445 00 
 
 159 
 
 720 
 
 81 
 
 29,847 
 
 1800 
 
 Church Missionary 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Society .... 
 
 754,320 00 
 
 198 
 
 1987 
 
 155 
 
 15,523 
 
 1816 
 
 General Baptist Mis- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 sionary Society . 
 
 24,900 00 
 
 7 
 
 18 
 
 9 
 
 433 
 
 1817 
 
 Wesley an Missionary 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Society .... 
 
 584,260 00 
 
 175 
 
 104 
 
 157 
 
 47,480 
 
 1824 
 
 Church of Scotland . 
 
 26,185 00 
 
 7 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1840 
 
 Welsh Calvinistic 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Methodist Miss. . 
 
 14,865 00 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 1840 
 
 Irish Presb. Church 
 
 19,080 00 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 1841 
 
 Edinburgh Med. Miss. 
 
 5,400 00 
 
 3 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 1842 
 
 Reformed Presb. Ch. 
 
 10,000 00 
 
 7 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 1843 
 
 Free Church of Scot- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 land 
 
 159,145 00 
 
 24 
 
 146 
 
 36 
 
 1,674 
 
 1844 
 
 South Am. Mission 
 
 36,675 00 
 
 10 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 1847 
 
 United Presbyterian 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mission .... 
 
 110,805 00 
 
 38 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 - 
 
 1854 
 
 Turkish Missions 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Aid Society . . 
 
 8,295 00 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 1860 
 
 United ' Methodist 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Free Church . . 
 
 25,015 00 
 
 25 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 English Presb. Ch. . 
 
 36,780 00 
 
 10 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 Moravian, English 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Branch .... 
 
 24,275 00 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 
 Foreign Evangelist . 
 
 7,215 00 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 
 Garrow Mission . . 
 
 2,185 00 
 
 2 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 _ 
 
 
 Methodist New Con- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 nection .... 
 Total .... 
 
 9,020 00 
 
 4 
 
 - 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 $2,798,145 00 
 
 868 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
344 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 3. — Societies for Jewish Missions. 1867. 
 [From Dr. Mullens' " London and Calcutta."] 
 
 Societies. 
 
 Amount ex- 
 pended. 
 
 Missionaries, 
 
 Ordained and 
 
 Lay. 
 
 1. London Society for Promoting Chris- 
 
 tianity among Jews 
 
 2. British Society for Promoting Chris- 
 
 tianity among Jews 
 
 3. Church of Scotland Mission .... 
 
 4. Free Church Mission 
 
 5. Irish Protestant Mission 
 
 6. Jerusalem Society, Berlin 
 
 7. Basle Union 
 
 $173,415 
 
 37,395 
 17,225 
 
 20,795 
 8,995* 
 4,460 
 2,925 
 
 1,780 
 
 51 
 
 26 
 5 
 6 
 4 
 1 
 
 8. Netherlands Union 
 
 3 
 
 Total ...... 
 
 $266,990 
 
 96 
 
 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 345 
 
 4. — Continental Missionary Societies. 1867. 
 [From Dr. Mullens' " London and Calcutta."] 
 
 No 
 
 Societies. 
 
 Amount ex- 
 pended. 
 
 No. of Euro- 
 pean Mission- 
 arieH. 
 
 Countries. 
 
 1 
 
 United Brethren . . 
 
 $90,140 
 
 160 
 
 Various. 
 
 2 
 
 Berlin Missionary . 
 
 40,510 
 
 19 
 
 S. Africa. 
 
 3 
 
 Ehenish Missionary . 
 
 62,480 
 
 36 
 
 S. Africa. 
 
 4 
 
 Evangelical Mission- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ary (Berlin) . . . 
 
 21,450 
 
 22 
 
 Coles, Bengal. 
 
 5 
 
 N. German Mission- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ary (Bremen) . . 
 
 18,750 
 
 15 
 
 W. Africa. 
 
 6 
 
 Leipsic Lutheran Mis- 
 
 
 
 
 
 sionary .... 
 
 41,235 
 
 19 
 
 S. India. 
 
 7 
 
 Basle Mission . ; . 
 
 171,770 
 
 92 
 
 Various. 
 
 8 
 
 Paris Missionary . . 
 
 52,290 
 
 26 
 
 S. Africa. 
 
 9 
 
 Netherlands Mission- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ary Society . . . 
 
 35,000 
 
 12 
 
 Java. 
 
 10 
 
 Netherlands Mission- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ary Union . . . 
 
 11,860 
 
 5 
 
 - 
 
 11 
 
 Utrecht Miss. Soc. . 
 
 16,290 
 
 15 
 
 E. Islands. 
 
 12 
 
 Netherlands Reform'd 
 
 
 
 
 
 Miss. Society . . 
 
 5,000 
 
 3 
 
 Java. 
 
 13 
 
 Danish Miss. Soc. 
 Total .... 
 
 - 
 
 1 
 
 E. India. 
 
 
 $566,775 
 
 425 
 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 Societies in the United States 
 Societies in Great Britain and Ireland 
 Societies for Jewish Missions . 
 Continental Missionary Societies . 
 
 Grand Total .... 
 Number of Missionaries . 
 
 $1,723,788 
 
 2,798,145 
 
 266,990 
 
 566,775 
 
 $5,355,698 
 1.870 
 
346 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 5. — Summary View of Protestant Missions. 
 
 [From Dr. John C. Lowrie's " Manual of the Foreign Missions of 
 the Presbyterian Church/' 1868.] 
 
 In the different Mission Fields, 
 
 
 Ordained 
 
 Assistant 
 
 
 
 
 Missionaries. 
 
 Missionaries. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Commu- 
 nicants. 
 
 
 Mission Fields. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Scliolars. 
 
 
 For- 
 
 Na- 
 
 For- 
 
 Na- 
 
 
 
 
 eign. 
 
 tive. 
 
 eign. 
 
 tive. 
 
 
 
 American Indians . . 
 
 105 
 
 16 
 
 135 
 
 14 
 
 8,192 
 
 1,766 
 
 Spanish Amer. States . 
 
 32 
 
 1 
 
 39 
 
 2 
 
 928 
 
 483 
 
 Guiana & West Indies 
 
 217 
 
 81 
 
 250 
 
 _ 
 
 79,879 
 
 17,047 
 
 Africa — N. and E., and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Madagascar . . . 
 
 28 
 
 97 
 
 41 
 
 - 
 
 4,718 
 
 2,335 
 
 Western Africa . . 
 
 132 
 
 29 
 
 115 
 
 99 
 
 14,093 
 
 8,408 
 
 South Africa . . . 
 
 277 
 
 6 
 
 323 
 
 14 
 
 30,402 
 
 16,448 
 
 Asia — Western . . . 
 
 89 
 
 113 
 
 92 
 
 237 
 
 3,115 
 
 7,353 
 
 India and Ceylon . 
 
 533 
 
 203 
 
 563 
 
 2,769 
 
 35,440 
 
 92,476 
 
 Burmah and Siam . 
 
 35 
 
 106 
 
 37 
 
 250 
 
 9,237 
 
 1,516 
 
 China and Japan . 
 
 133 
 
 10 
 
 119 
 
 178 
 
 3,577 
 
 1,532 
 
 Islands — China Sea 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 and Pacific . . . 
 
 196 
 
 12 
 
 180 
 
 209 
 
 61,447 
 
 55,541 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 1,777 
 
 674 
 
 1,894 
 
 3,772 
 
 251,028 
 
 204,905 
 
APPENDIX, 347 
 
 By the different Ecclesiastical Bodies. 
 
 Congregational. — American Association, etc. ... lo 
 
 American Board 102 
 
 American Baptist Union 41 
 
 Southern Baptist 14 
 
 Free Will Baptist 4 
 
 Canadian 2 
 
 English Baptist 60 
 
 English General Baptist 9 
 
 English Independent London Missionary Society . 155 1 
 
 English Jews Society 1 
 
 — 399 
 Episcopal. — American 19 
 
 Canadian 2 
 
 English Church Missionary Society ..... 204 
 
 English Gospel Propagation Society 108 
 
 London Jews Society 7 
 
 — 340 
 Lutheran. — American 4 
 
 German 13 
 
 — 17 
 Methodist. — American 69 
 
 American, Southern 3 
 
 American United Brethren in Christ 2 
 
 English, Wesleyan 176 
 
 English, United Free 15 
 
 English, New Connection 4 
 
 English, Lady Huntington Connection .... 10 
 
 — 279 
 Moravian. — One half of " laborers of all classes " . . 153 
 Presbyterian. — Old School, Board of Foreign Miss. . 71 
 
 Old School, Southern 3 
 
 Old School, American Board 2 
 
 New School, American Board 43 
 
 New School, at Kolapore 1 
 
 Carried forward 125 1,193 
 
 1 The whole ntimber, but some of them axe Presbyterians 
 
348 APPENDIX. 
 
 Brought forward 125 1,193 
 
 United Presbyterian 14 
 
 Reformed Presbyterian, N. S., connected with 
 
 Presbyterian Board 4 
 
 Reformed Presbyterian, O. S 2 
 
 Reformed (Dutch) 14 
 
 Nova Scotia Church . Q 
 
 English 9 
 
 French 21 
 
 German 275 
 
 Irish 10 
 
 Scotch, Free 28 
 
 Scotch, Established 12 
 
 Scotch, United 46 
 
 Welsh, Calvinistic Methodist 6 
 
 — 571 
 
 Unknown. — American Association, Christian Union . 13 
 
 1,777 
 
 SUMMABT. 
 
 Congregational 399 
 
 Episcopal 340 
 
 Lutheran 17 
 
 Methodist 279 
 
 Moravian 158 
 
 Presbyterian 57I 
 
 Unknown 13 
 
 — 1 777 
 
APPENDIX. ^ 349 
 
 IX. 
 
 SUMMARY OF ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS. 
 
 (See Chapter XIV.) 
 
 [From Schem's " American and Educational Almanac." Condensed 
 from a theological journal published by the Jesuits in Paris.] 
 
 I. Missions of the Secular Clergy. — Under this head six 
 missionary seminaries are mentioned ; namely, the " Sem- 
 inaries for Foreign Missions," at Paris, Genoa, Milan, 
 All Hallows' (Ireland), Brussels, and the " Seminary for 
 African Missions," at Lyons. Statistics are given only of 
 the Seminary of Paris, which entertains two hundred and 
 sixty-four missionaries in East India, Farther India, China, 
 Thibet, Corea, and Japan. 
 
 II. Missions of ^^ Religious Congregations." — The fol- 
 lowing table gives the names of the Religious Congrega- 
 tions which send out missionaries, the countries in which 
 they work, and the aggregate number of missionaries sup- 
 ported by each : — 
 
 1. Lazarists have missions in Abyssinia, Turkey, Greece, 
 Persia, Tripoli, Egypt, China, United States, Brazil, Ar- 
 gentine Republic, Chili, Peru, Guatemala. Number of 
 missionaries, 340. 
 
 2. Picpus Society, in Polynesia, Chili, Peru; 130. 
 
 3. Ohlates of the Immaculate Conception, in British 
 America, United States, Mexico, Natal, Ceylon ; 236. 
 
 4. Marists, in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, 
 Polynesia; 128. 
 
350 ^ APPENDIX. 
 
 5. Congregation of the Holy Spirit and Holy Heart of 
 Mary, in Western Africa, East India, French Guiana, 
 Hayti; 125. 
 
 6. Congregation of the Holy Gross, in the United States, 
 British America, East India ; 187. 
 
 7. JRedemptorists, in the United States, St. Thomas ; 25. 
 
 8. MelchitaristSf in Turkey ; 65. 
 
 III. Missions of Monastic Orders. — 1 . Franciscans, in 
 Russia, Turkey, China, Egypt, Central Africa, Tripoli, 
 Morocco, United States, Mexico, United States of Colum- 
 bia, Bolivia, Peru, Chili, Argentine Republic, the Philip- 
 pine Islands, New Zealand, British America ; 1,384. 
 
 2. Dominicans, in Turkey, China, Philippine Islands, 
 and the United States ; 322. 
 
 3. Capuchins, in Turkey, India, Eastern and Central 
 Africa, Tunis ; 210. 
 
 4. Carmelites, in Turkey, Persia, East India ; 50. 
 
 5. Jesuits, in Turkey, Greece, India, China, British 
 America, United States, Mexico, French Guiana, Ecuador, 
 Guatemala, Chili, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentine Republic, 
 Philippine Islands, Australia ; 1,672. 
 
 Altogether there are 264 missionaries in the first class 
 of missions ; 1,236 in the second class ; and 3,639 in the 
 third class ; giving a total of 5,138 missionaries. 
 
 A recent Report of the Society for the Propagation of 
 the Faith, exhibits the following report of receipts and 
 expenditures for the year 1866 : — 
 
 Total receipts, 5,145,558 francs, or nearly $1,000,000. 
 
 Of this sum France furnished more than 3,500,000, Italy 
 not quite 450,000, Belgium nearly 100,000, Germany 
 
APPENDIX, 361 
 
 233,000, North America about 190,000, the British Isles 
 not quite 140,000, Holland only 80,000, Switzerland nearly 
 50,000, Portugal about 40,000, South America 27,000, and 
 Spain a little over 5,500. 
 
 Not quite 2,000,000 francs were appropriated to Asiatic 
 missions, more than 1,000,000 each to America and Europe 
 (America taking the precedence by a few thousand francs), 
 nearly 500,000 to Oceanica, and about 450,000 to Africa. 
 
 X. 
 
 FRANCIS XAVIER AND ROMISH MISSIONS. 
 
 (See Chapter XIV.) 
 
 One of the most valuable contributions to the mission- 
 ary literature of modern times, is a work by Rev. Henry 
 Venn, B. D., Honorary Secretary of the English Church 
 Missionary Society, entitled "Missionary Life and Labors 
 of Francis Xavier, taken from his own Correspondence, 
 with a Sketch of the General Results of Roman Catholic 
 Missions among the Heathen." London, 1862. It is to 
 this work so frequent reference is made in Chapter XIV. 
 As it has not yet been republished in this country, the 
 reader will be interested in a series of extracts, illustrating 
 the mission of the great Romish missionary, and going to 
 strengthen the positions taken in the chapter on the 
 Romish Missions. 
 
 Materials for the History of Romish Missions. — " Our 
 information of Roman Catholic missions is very meagre 
 and unsatisfactory. The sources of information are either 
 
352 APPENDIX. 
 
 various collections of letters of missionaries, or dry com- 
 pilations from those letters. But these sources of informa- 
 tion cannot satisfy any one who desires a clear knowledge 
 of this subject. He will seek for histories of missions 
 written from the field of labor by the laborers themselves, 
 or by those who have witnessed the work abroad ; or the 
 journals and collected letters of individual missionaries. 
 Since missions were taken up in earnest by the Protestant 
 Church, at the close of the eighteenth century, the press, in 
 England and America, has teemed with such missionary 
 histories and biographies. Numerous volumes have been 
 written by missionaries themselves, or by their relatives 
 and others. In such books we see the living man and his 
 real work. As soon, therefore, as my attention was turned 
 to the subject of Romish missions, I sought out for some 
 such authentic biographies, memoirs, or histories of Romish 
 missionaries. Wherever I inquired, the Life of Xavier was 
 presented to me, and no second work of that class could be 
 named. I searched public libraries and booksellers' shops 
 without success. I made inquiries personally at the head- 
 quarters of Romish missionaries in France, namely, the 
 Institute of the Faith at Lyons, but was assured that the 
 Life of Xavier was the only biography of any authority ; 
 the same answer was returned to a friend, who made the 
 inquiry at the College of the ' Propaganda ' at Rome ; and 
 my friend was further informed, that it was contrary to the 
 principles of the Romish Church to permit the unauthor- 
 ized publication of the personal history of its missionaries. 
 " I was hence led to study the Life of Xavier as the only 
 authentic source from which an internal view of the life 
 and labors of a Romish missionary can be obtained. 
 
APPENDIX. 353 
 
 " The Life of Xavier has another title to consideration. 
 Many prevailing sentiments of the present day, even in 
 Protestant countries, respecting missions, find their counter- 
 part in some of the most striking features in the history of 
 Francis Xavier, such as a craving for the romance of mis- 
 sions ; the notion that an autocratic power is wanted in a 
 mission, such as a missionary bishop might exercise ; a de- 
 mand for a degree of self-denial in a missionary bordering 
 on asceticism. These, and many such sentiments, are 
 often illustrated by a reference to the life and success of 
 Xavier. The delusive character of such sentiments cannot 
 fail to appear on a careful study of the truth of Xavier's 
 history." — Preface, pp. i.-iii. 
 
 Xavier's Converts. — "It will not escape the notice of 
 an intelligent Christian, that, in the elaborate description 
 which Xavier gives of his conversions, there is no reference 
 to the divine power on the hearts of individuals. Xavier's 
 favorite expression is, ' I have made so many Christians ' 
 ('Feci Christianas'), when he had baptized infants, or 
 taught adults to repeat the prescribed formulas. Even 
 when he introduces a notice of the divine power, it is often 
 in a way which exalts human agency, rather than the work 
 of the Holy Spirit." — Page 38. 
 
 " All his hopes of success rested upon the incessant in- 
 culcation of dry formularies, and in the strictness and 
 severity of external discipline. This was the whole of the 
 work, according to his limited views of true religion. But 
 such nominal and deficient Christianity can never bring 
 men out of heathenism, or, at least, enable them to stand 
 in the day of trial. Xavier had light enough to see this. 
 23 
 
354 APPENDIX. 
 
 His early acquaintance with Protestants seems to have left 
 on his mind traces of spiritual truth, which soon dissatisfied 
 him with the result of his teaching, and made him tremble 
 with apprehension for the house he had ' built on the 
 sand.' " — Page 39. 
 
 Xavier's Ideas of Expiation. — " He says to Mansilla : 
 * God give you patience, which is the first requisite in deal- 
 ing with this nation.^ Imagine to yourself that you are in 
 purgatory, and that you are washing away the guilt of your 
 evil deeds. Acknowledge the singular mercy of God in 
 granting you the opportunity for expiating the sins of your 
 youth while you live and breathe, which may now be ac- 
 complished by the merit of grace, and at a far less cost 
 of suffering than in the world to come.' This idea of the 
 efficacy of the sufferings in this life, when endured for 
 God's glory, to diminish the pains of purgatory in the next 
 life, strange as it appears to any one who takes his religion 
 from the Bible, is a favorite notion with Xavier, and with 
 Romish writers of his class." — Page 49. 
 
 Xavierh Use of the Civil Power. — "Severe and magis- 
 terial threats were not unusual in Xavier's correspond- 
 ence. In one of his letters, the Portuguese Governor of 
 Tuticorin, who had opposed Xavier himself, and oppressed 
 the native Christians, is threatened with the Inquisition. 
 ' Tell him that I will write to Prince Henry, the President 
 of the Inquisition at Lisbon, to put the utmost rigors of 
 that ecclesiastical court in force against him as a hinderer 
 of the gospel.' In the same letter he enjoins Mansilla to 
 
 1 He is speaking of India. 
 
APPENDIX. • 355 
 
 keep a sharp and careful watch over the native Malabar 
 teachers (clerici) associated with him, saying, ' If you detect 
 anything wrong in them, restrain them, for God's sake, and 
 punish them instantly and severely ; for we shall have to 
 bear a dreadful load of guilt, which many stripes will hardly 
 serve to expiate, if we neglect to use the plenary power 
 committed to us, carrying it like a sword in a scabbard, 
 instead of punishing oflfenses against God, especially such 
 as are a stumbling-block to the multitude.' " — Page 54. 
 
 He thus wrote to the King of Portugal from Cochin, 
 January 20, 1548 : "I very earnestly desire that you should 
 take an oath, invoking most solemnly the name of God, 
 that in case any governor thus neglects to spread the faith, 
 he shall, on his return to Portugal, be punished by close 
 imprisonment for many years, and all his goods and pos- 
 sessions shall be sold, and devoted to works of charity. In 
 order that none may flatter themselves that this is but an 
 idle threat, you must declare as plainly as possible that 
 you will accept no excuses that may be offered ; but that 
 the only way of escaping your wrath, and obtaining your 
 favor, is to make as many Christians as possible in the 
 countries over which they rule. 
 
 " I could give many instances to prove the necessity of 
 this, but I will not weary your Majesty by what would only 
 be the recital of my past and present anitieties, undergone 
 without any hope of reward. I will only assert this much : 
 if every viceroy and governor be fully persuaded that you 
 have bound yourself by oath to do this, and that you will 
 perform all that you have threatened, the whole island of 
 Ceylon, many kings of the Malabar coast, and the whole 
 promontory of Comorin, will embrace the religion of Christ 
 
356 • APPENDIX. 
 
 in a single year. But so long as the viceroys and gov- 
 ernors are not urged by the fear of disgrace and fine to 
 make many Christians, your Majesty must not hope that 
 the preaching of the gospel will meet with great success in 
 India ; or that many will be brought to baptism, or make 
 any progress in religion. The only reason why every man 
 in India does not acknowledge the divinity of Christ, and 
 profess his holy doctrine, is the fact, that the viceroy or 
 governor who neglects to make this his care receives no 
 punishment from your Majesty." — Page 161. 
 
 Xavier as a Christian Missionary, — "We have thus 
 brought to a close the first period of Xavier's labors in the 
 East, namely, the three years spent in South India. This 
 review cannot but leave upon the mind a strong conviction 
 of Xavier's inconsistency of character. He was a man of 
 strong impulses, of quick transitions of feeling, liable to 
 pass from extravagant hope to unreasonable despair. This 
 we conceive to be the solution of the contradictions in his 
 letters. He probably wrote from the impulse of the mo- 
 ment. He lacked, in fact, that stable confidence in the 
 enterprise he had taken in hand, which every true mission- 
 ary derives from a supreme regard to the word of God. It 
 is impossible otherwise to reconcile his sudden abandon- 
 ment of India, after so short and imperfect a trial, with his 
 previous professions of spiritual comfort and success in his 
 work, — or his sublime appeals to men of learning and 
 science in the universities of Europe to become his asso- 
 ciates, with the fact that his chief comfort was the baptism 
 of moribund infants, and the dumb show of a crowd of 
 adult worshippers. It is impossible also to reconcile, on 
 Christian principles, the various offices which he attempted 
 
APPENDIX. 357 
 
 to sustain. At one time he was the preacher of love and 
 peace ; at another the agent of the cruel and accursed In- 
 quisition ; at another the instigator of a crusade. Compare 
 the two pictures. See Xavier on the Fishery Coast, toiling 
 in the instruction of Christian neophytes, and professing to 
 find his chief joy in divine consolations ; he appears as an 
 apostle. See Xavier at Negapatam, on the look-out for 
 the earliest intelligence of a hostile and murderous expedi- 
 tion, which he himself had instigated, for the advancement 
 of true religion : in what did his spirit then differ from that 
 of a Mussulman ? 
 
 " It will not, indeed, be fair to judge Xavier altogether 
 by the standard of the primitive church, or of the mis- 
 sionary spirit of the present day. We must not forget that 
 he belonged to a church which canonized Charlemagne." 
 — Page 78. 
 
 " Upon reviewing Xavier's character, it will appear that 
 he possessed in a very high degree some of the essential 
 qualities of the leader of a great enterprise. He was of a 
 generous, noble, and loving disposition, calculated to gather 
 followers, and to attach them firmly to his leadership. But 
 in respect of missions, Xavier was little fitted to direct 
 others. Of the peculiar duties of an evangelist to the 
 heathen, he had no conception. His directions to his mis- 
 sionaries are wholly addressed to their conduct as pastors 
 of Christian communities. In his voluminous ' Instruc- 
 tions,' all that can be gathered of missionary directions 
 amounts to little beyond the general relations of the clergy 
 with their flocks, with each other, and with their ecclesias- 
 tical superiors. 
 
358 APPENDIX. 
 
 "Even if Xavier had better understood the work of 
 missions, there was one great fault in his system, which 
 would have proved fatal to success. He attempted to carry 
 everything by authority. He constantly inculcated the 
 supreme merit and advantage of implicit obedience to him- 
 self. The sequel of his history will show how completely 
 this system failed to form an efficient body of coadjutors. 
 Xavier's history will, therefore, afford a useful caution 
 against a notion, too much countenanced at the present 
 day, that an ecclesiastical head of a mission is needed to 
 secure efficiency by uniformity of action, and to counteract 
 the evils which may arise within a mission from the con- 
 trariety of individual opinions. Such absolute power may 
 consist with the government of a settled Christian church, 
 where the relation between ecclesiastical authority and the 
 pastoral function has been defined by canons, and by ex- 
 perience. But no canons or regulations have yet been laid 
 down for missions to the heathen. That work is so varied, 
 and its emergencies are so sudden, that the evangelist must 
 be left to act mainly on his own responsibility and judg- 
 ment. It preeminently requires independence of mind, 
 fertility of resource, a quick observance of the footsteps of 
 Divine Providence, a readiness to push forward in that 
 direction, an abiding sense in the mind of the missionary 
 of personal responsibility to extend the kingdom of Christ, 
 and a lively conviction that the Lord is at his • right hand.' 
 These qualifications are, like all the finer sentiments of 
 Christianity, of delicate texture ; they are oflen united 
 with a natural sensitiveness ; they are to be cherished and 
 counseled, rather than ruled ; they are easily checked and 
 discouraged, if * headed ' by authority. Yet these are the 
 
APPENDIX. 859 
 
 qualities which have ever distinguished the missionaries 
 who win the richest trophies, and advance the borders of 
 the Kedeemer's kingdom. Among such a body of work- 
 men no formidable difficulties will arise from the contrariety 
 of individual opinions ; and such as do arise will be easily 
 composed by aifectionate, Christian, and wise counsels, 
 whether offered on the spot, or transmitted from Europe." 
 — Page 145. 
 
 Xavier^s Estimate of his Success in India. — "In a letter 
 to a brother missionary in Travancore, he writes, Decem- 
 ber, 1548 : ' If you will, in imagination, search through India, 
 you will find, that few will reach heaven, either of whites or 
 blacks, except those who depart this life under fourteen 
 years of age, with their baptismal innocence still upon 
 them.'" — Pa^e 156. 
 
 " The confession of the failure of the work of Romish 
 missionaries in India is rendered still more manifest, by a 
 proposal which Xavier made to the King of Portugal. He 
 solemnly proposed that the conversion of India should be 
 taken out of the hands of missionaries, and put into the 
 hands of the civil authorities ! " — Page 157. 
 
 Xavier as compared with Protestant Missionaries. — " We 
 often hear the name of Xavier put forth as a great hero, to 
 the disparagement of Protestant missionaries. Reduce his 
 history to its true dimensions, and Protestant missions have 
 no need to shun a comparison. His pretensions fall short 
 of those of Samuel Marsden and his two European cate- 
 chists in New Zealand, spending their first Sunday amidst 
 
860 APPENDIX. 
 
 a crowd of warlike cannibals, upon a coast which had been 
 shunned for many previous years by every merchant ship ; 
 or of Henry Martyn, the solitary witness for the word of 
 Christ in Shiraz, disputing with the most learned Moham- 
 medans in their own tongue, and winning their admiration 
 for his person, notwithstanding their bitter enmity to his 
 religion ; or of Williams, in his visits to the islands of the 
 Pacific, where no European before himself had landed, 
 and persevering in his efforts to impart to them the gospel 
 of Christ, till his life was sacrificed at their hands ; or of 
 Judson in the prisons of Burmah ; or of many other names 
 which might be selected from the list of Protestant mis- 
 sionary heroes. And when this list shall be exhausted, we 
 have a reserve of heroic deeds in a class which has no ex- 
 istence in the Church of Rome. Let us compare Xavier 
 with the missionary's wife, Rosine Krapf, who accompanied 
 her husband. Dr. Krapf, into the heart of Abyssinia, 
 shared his flight when expelled through the intrigues of 
 Romanists, reentered with him the wilderness of Shoho 
 to regain the province of Tigr^, though with the prospect 
 before her of the birth of her first-born child in that wil- 
 derness. See her comforting her husband under the shade 
 of a wilderness tree, as he took the dying babe in his arms 
 to dedicate it to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Hear 
 her, while he hesitated for a name, pronounce the Amharic 
 term for * a tear ! ' And then she was forced by the sav- 
 age natives to pursue her journey after three days' rest. 
 See the same valiant lady accompanying her husband 
 through the perils of shipwreck in native boats, till they 
 reached the more civilized settlement of Mombas, an island 
 lying off the east coast of Africa, as Sancian lies off the 
 
APPENDIX. 361 
 
 coast of China, each island within sight of the land sought 
 to be evangelized. There listen to the last accents of this 
 genuine female missionary, while sinking into the arms of 
 death, enjoining her husband to carry her body to the op- 
 posite continent of Africa, and to bury her on the sea-shore, 
 that the pagan Wanikas, who passed by her tomb, might 
 be reminded of the object which had brought her to that 
 country; and that her grave might be the starting-point 
 for future missionaries to carry the light of the gospel 
 through the Galla country into inhospitable Abyssinia. 
 How does the romance of Xavier's last scene at Sancian, 
 off the coast of China, and of the transfer of his remains to 
 the chapel at Goa, sink in the presence of this parallel 
 story of a missionary's heroic wife ! " — Page 255. 
 
 Failure of the Romish Missions. — " The historical review 
 now given will establish the conclusion, that the brightest 
 prospects and the most confident hopes of Romish mis- 
 sions to the heathen have vanished sooner or later, by one 
 catastrophe or another ; that they have not contained with- 
 in themselves the principles of permanent vitality. Where 
 they are not upheld by the sword, they are overborne by 
 opposition. Their apparent success for a time has been 
 the result of favorable wordly circumstances ; and when 
 those circumstances have changed, the mission has come 
 to nothing. This conclusion is based upon the history of 
 three centuries ; during the greater part of which period 
 the Church of Rome had the fields to itself Rome put 
 forth missionary agencies to reap them far more numerous 
 than the Protestant Church has yet been able to command. 
 But Rome failed to gather in the harvest, and the fields 
 
362 APPENDIX. 
 
 are all now still iinreaped, and open for the entrance of 
 Protestant evangelists. Romanists boast of Francis Xavier 
 as the apostle of the Indies ; they erect altars and chapels 
 for his worship ; they invoke his aid in their missionary 
 efforts ; and * verily they have their reward.' The blight 
 of Xavier's missionary principles has rested upon them ever 
 since; and the disappointment which pursued Xavier to 
 his last breath has been the portion of many a sincere, 
 able, and zealous Romish missionary." — Page 319. 
 
 The Japanese Mission. — " The mission, after Xavier's 
 death, was carried on with great vigor, and was abundantly 
 supplied with laborers, other denominations besides the 
 Jesuits entering upon the field. Vast numbers of the 
 natives are reported to have professed the Christian faith, 
 but I have in vain sought for any reliable accounts of these 
 successes. No such contemporary history or biographies 
 exist of the Japanese mission as the letters of Xavier. I 
 have looked into various collections of Epistolae Japonicae, 
 but, like the Epistolae Indicae, they are filled with legends ; 
 and it is impossible, after reading Xavier's letters, to open 
 those pages without the conviction that we have passed out 
 of the regions of truth into those of exaggeration, supres- 
 sion, and fiction. At the close of the sixteenth century, a 
 fierce and bloody persecution commenced against Chris- 
 tianity, on the part of the political emperor, upon the old 
 plea of persecutors, that the peace of the state was endan- 
 gered. From the great number of influential persons said 
 to have been involved in this persecution, it may be in- 
 ferred that the profession of Christianity had been widely 
 extended ; and from the length of time, amounting to forty 
 
APPENDIX. 863 
 
 years, for which the struggle was continued, it is evident 
 that multitudes firmly held to their adopted faith. In the 
 year 1637, the reigning emperor discovered, as he affirmed, 
 a traitorous correspondence for dethroning him, between 
 the native Christians and the King of Portugal. He there 
 fore issued orders for the butchery of the remnant of Chris- 
 tians, estimated at 37,000. This order was barbarously 
 carried into effect. Thus the mission planted by Xavier 
 was extinguished in blood, afler existing for nearly ninety 
 years ; and this through the political power on which Xavier 
 had leaned in all his missionary enterprises." — Page 209, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abeel, David, mention of, 257. 
 
 Aboriginal Races, why receiving so 
 much attention, 232. 
 
 Abyssinia, Komish mission to, 279. 
 
 Africa, Western, how to be evangel- 
 ized, 216; successes in, 239. 
 Southern, missionary explorers in, 
 201; how far occupied by mis- 
 sionaries, 208; success of mis- 
 sions in, 240. 
 
 Africaner, a robber chief, 241; his 
 conversion, 242. 
 
 Agency, human and divine, as seen 
 in missions, 194. 
 
 Aintab, churches, 130 ; successes, 245. 
 
 America, North, explorations across, 
 199. 
 South, exploration of, 199. 
 
 American Board of Commissioners 
 for Foreign Missions, why it was 
 formed as it was, 26. 
 
 Anthropological Society, reference 
 to, 198. 
 
 Antioch, early importance of its 
 church, 38 ; ritualistic influences, 
 59 ; how counteracted, 40. 
 
 Apostles, they were missionaries, 29 ; 
 repositories of ecclesiastical au- 
 thority, 35 ; why so long in Je- 
 rusalem, 34 ; distribution of their 
 labors, 34 ; had no successors as 
 such, 116. 
 
 Apostolic Age, a missionary age, 30; 
 remarks upon, 41. 
 Missions, the model for missions, 
 29: characteristics, 45-60; ex- 
 
 tent, 44 ; compared with modem 
 missions, 94. 
 
 Armenians, success among, 245. 
 
 Asia, problems to be settled in, 3; 
 how opened to the gospel, 3- 
 14; how far explored by mis- 
 sionaries, 200 ; and occupied by 
 them, 203. 
 
 Associations, Ecclesiastical, not men- 
 tioned in the New Testament, 
 56. 
 
 Ballentine, Henry, mention of, 
 257. 
 
 Baptismal Regeneration, in Romish 
 missions, 287, 288. 
 
 Barrows, Dr. Wm., quoted, 285. 
 
 Bartimeus, native preacher at the 
 Sandwich Islands, 136. 
 
 Benevolent Societies, as they were in 
 1820, 333. 
 
 Bible, how far translated and pub- 
 lished, 211. 
 
 Bird, Isaac, mention of, 203. 
 
 Bishops, Irish, misapprehension con- 
 cerning, 75. 
 
 Boniface, mention of, 81. 
 
 Books and Tracts, in languages of 
 the unevangelized, 213. 
 
 Brahminism, success in the empire 
 of, 235. 
 
 Brahmo Samaj, description of, 319. 
 
 Brigham, John C, explorations of, 
 in South America, 199. 
 
 British Missions, error concerning 
 early, 66. 
 
366 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Burgundy, mission of Columbanus 
 in, 77. 
 
 California, how saved to the Unit- 
 ed States, 200. 
 
 Campbell, Rev. Mr., mention of, 201. 
 
 Carey, Rev. Dr., mention of, 8. 
 
 Cherokee Indians, success among, 
 220. 
 
 Children of the Church, how thej' 
 should be trained, 175. 
 
 Children of Missionaries, providen- 
 tial care of, 150-153. 
 
 China, how opened to the gospel, 6 ; 
 destruction of opium, 6 : remark- 
 able treaty, 7 ; progress of mis- 
 sions, 230. 
 
 Choctaw Indians, success among, 
 220. 
 
 Christendom, providential changes 
 in, 17. 
 
 Christian Character, proposed revis- 
 ion in treatises on, 191. 
 
 Christian Life, intellectual, slowly 
 developed in the Apostolic Age, 
 42. 
 
 Christian Powers, remarkable combi- 
 nation of the, 7. 
 
 Christians, nominal, number of, 246. 
 real, why no more interested in 
 Christ's kingdom, 172. 
 
 Church, an uprising, 16-28; great 
 changes, 16; developments of 
 missionary spirit and organiza- 
 tion, 18 ; will not retire ignomin- 
 iously from the field, 309. 
 Apostolic, its development, 30-33, 
 41; the idea of it lost, 17, 49; 
 its importance, 49 ; its recovery, 
 17. 
 the Christian, its tardy develop- 
 ment, 30-40, 55; true idea of, 
 31 ; when and how its constitu- 
 tion was settled, 41. 
 Edifices, why not compete with the 
 Jesuits in these, 292; costly, a 
 
 hindrance in evangelical mis- 
 sions, 293. 
 Members, number of, 246. 
 the Mission, its nature, 110. 
 
 Church of Scotland, discussion in its 
 General Assembly, 21. 
 
 Churches, the, will keep the field, 
 309. 
 how large a proportion contribute 
 to missions, 171 ; their claims on 
 the ministry, 248. 
 Local, among the chief agencies 
 in missions, 110; the only nu- 
 clei for permanent congrega- 
 tions, 110. See Preface. 
 Native, should engage in missions, 
 105; be self-governed, and self- 
 supported, 112; value of, 120- 
 144; number of, 246. 
 Primitive, character of, 57. 
 St. Paul's dealing with, 101. 
 
 Church-membership, extreme views 
 of, 39. 
 
 Civil Governments, reliance on, in 
 missions, 283. 
 
 Civilization, its influence on modern 
 missions, 94, 98, 101; whether 
 precede Christianity, 96 ; not the 
 proper test of success, 118. 
 
 Clive, Lord, mention of, 8. 
 
 Coan, Titus, mention of, 263. 
 
 Coles, success among the, 233. 
 
 Colleges, when a call for them in 
 missions, 100. 
 
 Columba, his mission to Scotland, 
 75, 76. 
 
 Columbanus, his mission to conti- 
 nental Europe, 75, 76-79. 
 
 Columbia River, how saved to the 
 United States, 200. 
 
 Commandoes, in South Africa, how 
 broken up, 241. 
 
 Conferences, Ecclesiastical, not men- 
 tioned in the N. T., 56. 
 
 Congregational Churches, as they 
 were sixty years ago, 26. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 36^ 
 
 Congregationalism, notion of, by 
 early writers, 147. 
 
 Connecticut, churches in, mention 
 of, 171. 
 
 Consociations, Ecclesiastical, not 
 mentioned in the N. T., 56. 
 
 Contributions for Foreign Missions, 
 progress in, 214. 
 
 Conversion of the World, never be- 
 fore aimed at, 1 ; why regarded 
 as practicable, 92. 
 
 Converts, native, their value illus- 
 trated, 121-131 ; resembling 
 those of ancient times, 128. 
 East Indian, their firmness, 13. 
 
 Council at Jerusalem, improperly so 
 called, 40. 
 
 Crowther, Dr., a negro missionary 
 and bishop, 239. 
 
 Culbertson, Dr., mention of, 257. 
 
 Culdees, why the name is not used, 
 75. 
 
 Dakota Indians, success among, 
 
 221. 
 Danish Mission, referred to, 19. 
 D'Aubigne, Dr., his error concerning 
 
 Irish missions, 64, 66. 
 Dickinson, Austin, influence of on 
 
 secular newspapers, 197, 316. 
 Diplomacy, change in, 8. 
 Dubois, Abbe, quoted, 278. 
 Dwight, H. G. O., explorations of, 
 
 200; influence of, 263. 
 
 East India Company, when char- 
 tered, 3; beginning and extent 
 of its empire, 4; needed a high- 
 way to England, 4 ; Turkey thus 
 opened to missions, 5; in part- 
 nership with idolatry, 9; con- 
 strained to admit missionaries, 
 12 ; its subversion, 8, 14. 
 
 Ebrard, quoted, 81. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Bodies, why give 
 
 more time to the benevolent op- 
 erations of the Church, 183. 
 
 Economy, its progress in missions. 
 208. 
 
 Education, its place in missions, 100, 
 113; its necessity, 113; unrea- 
 sonable claim for it, 160; view 
 of it from an East India stand- 
 point, 321-325. 
 
 England, missionary controversy, 11 ; 
 state of feeling in its government, 
 11 ; force of public opinion, 12. 
 
 English Language, use of in mis- 
 sions, 98. 
 
 English Mission Schools, reference 
 to, 117, 317. 
 
 Evangelical Church, missionary or- 
 ganizations in, 22, 24; not left to 
 faith alone, 308. 
 
 Evangelists, primitive, were mission- 
 aries, 30. 
 
 Facts and Lights, an inflow of 
 from heathen world upon the 
 churches, 172. 
 
 Faith in God, a grand desideratum, 
 95. 
 
 Fathers of New England, their faint 
 conception of duty to the hea- 
 then, 173. 
 
 Feejee Islands, success on, 228. 
 
 Females, influence of pious, 55. 
 
 Fisk, Pliny, mention of, 203. 
 
 Foreign Missions, their origin in 
 England, 19 ; in the United 
 States, 25; how rendered more 
 effective, 107. 
 
 France, struggle with in India, 4; 
 protector of Roman Catholics 
 in Turkey, 5. 
 
 France and Russia, their influence in 
 Turkey, 4. 
 
 Funds, why more effective now, 118. 
 
 Gallus, his mission in Switzerland, 
 79. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 General Assembly, singular discus- 
 sion in the Scottish, 21. 
 
 Gentile Christian Church, when and 
 how its constitution was settled, 
 41. 
 Converts, backwardness of the 
 Apostles to receive them as such, 
 33. 
 
 Germany, first Christianized by Irish 
 missionaries, 80. 
 
 Goodell, William, mention of, 203, 
 256. 
 
 Gospel, the, applicable to all false re- 
 ligions, 118 ; in how many places 
 taking root, 246. 
 Message, how brought home to the 
 people, 160. 
 
 Gregory VII., his ideas of worship, 
 286. 
 
 Grout, Aldin, mention of, 263. 
 
 Hall, Gordon, his method for con- 
 verting the world, 93 ; remarks 
 upon, 93. 
 
 Harpoot, value of a church in, 129. 
 
 Havelock, General, mention of, 5. 
 
 Heathen, not saved without the gos- 
 pel, 188; those of low position 
 reached most easily, 232. 
 
 Hindrances at Home, illustrated, 
 169-192. 
 
 Holy Scriptures, use of in missions, 
 284. 
 
 Home Missionarj'- Spirit, of the same 
 nature with the foreign, 18; 
 weak, standing alone as a mo- 
 tive power, 106. 
 
 Hume, misstatement concerning Ire- 
 land, 63. 
 
 Hyde, Henry H., endowment of lec- 
 tureship. See Preface. 
 
 Idea of a Christian Church, its early 
 
 development, 30. 
 India, its importance, 2; problems 
 
 in, 2; discovery of way to, 3; 
 
 how opened to the gospel, 8-14; 
 great mutiny in, 13; how far 
 occupied, 204; steadfastness of 
 native converts, 127. 
 
 Indians, North American, early mis- 
 sions to, 23 ; successful missions 
 among, 219, 223. 
 
 Infidel Philosophy, what it is doing, 
 192. 
 
 Inflow of Facts and Lights, from the 
 outer world, 172. 
 
 Information, want of, the great hin- 
 drance to foreign missions, 169 ; 
 how evil is to be removed, 172. 
 
 Intellectual Christian Life, slowly de- 
 veloped in the apostolic age, 42. 
 
 lona, convent of, founded b}' an Irish 
 missionary, 67, 76, 85. 
 
 Ireland, a refuge for the church, 68 ; 
 its schools, 74 ; characterized, 
 74 ; decline, 86 ; unconnected 
 with Eome until the 12th cen- 
 turj-, 87. 
 
 Irish Missionaries, number, 78, 80 ; 
 doctrines, 81, 82. 
 Missions in the Early Ages, an in- 
 teresting subject, 62; mistakes 
 concerning, 63 ; account of, 67- 
 90 ; connection with the German 
 Reformation, 68, 85 ; defects, 82 ; 
 important inferences, 89. 
 
 Islands of the Pacific, success on, 
 224 ; interest in the missions, 224. 
 
 Italy, reference to, 14. 
 
 Japan, opening to missions, 8; the 
 Romish mission to, 362. 
 
 Jerusalem, why the apostles so long 
 there, 34; important meeting 
 at, 40. 
 
 Jesuits, reference to, 199 ; their rise, 
 271; suppressed, 272; restored, 
 272 ; their government, 273. 
 
 Johnson, Rev. W. A. B., remarkable 
 success of in Sierra Leone, 121. 
 
 Jowett, Mr., researches of, 203. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 369 
 
 Jiljlaizing Christians, troublesome in 
 the early churches, 33, 39. 
 
 Karens, success among, 131, 231, 
 
 232. 
 Krapf, Mrs., example of, 360. 
 
 Laws of Social Life, how operating, 
 172. 
 
 Lectures on Foreign Missions, insti- 
 tution of at Andover. See Pref- 
 ace. 
 
 Livingstone, Dr., mention of, 201. 
 
 London Missionary Society, its suc- 
 cess in the South Pacific, 226. 
 
 Lowndes, Rev. Isaac, mention of, 
 203. 
 
 Lowrie, Dr. J. C, quoted, 346. 
 
 McLauchlan, Rev. Mr., his error 
 concerning Irish missions, 65. 
 
 Macleod, Dr. Norman, extract from 
 his speech, 313 ; referred to, 321. 
 
 Madagascar, success of mission in, 
 124-127, 238. 
 
 Marash, churches in, 130 ; success 
 at, 245. 
 
 Marriage of Missionaries, why de- 
 sirable, 149, 166. 
 
 Massachusetts, churches in, mention 
 of, 171. 
 
 Messiah's Reign, Jewish notion of, 
 31 ; as contemplated by St. Paul, 
 32; ideas underlying, 32. 
 
 Miller, Rev. William, quoted, 321. 
 
 Mind in India, breaking from an- 
 cient influences, 237. 
 
 Ministers, Gospel, object the same 
 in all departments of labor, 118 ; 
 responsible alike, 267. 
 Young, claims of missions on, 
 248-268. 
 
 Ministry, native, its value, 131-140. 
 
 Misapprehensions and Objections re- 
 lating to foreign missions, 185- 
 190. 
 
 Mission Churches, like those of the 
 apostolic age, 128 ; how far able 
 to stand alone, 140-142. 
 Missionary Children, providential 
 care of them, 152. 
 
 Life, illustrated, 145-168; funda- 
 mental principles, 145; essen- 
 tials, 167. 
 
 Movement, its comparative ex- 
 tent, 307. 
 
 Occupation of the heathen world, 
 progress in, 202-208; the cost 
 reduced, 208. 
 
 Publications, how pastors can pro- 
 mote their circulation, 182. 
 
 Societies and Missions, component 
 part of the general ecclesiastical 
 body, 17, 159, 184. 
 
 Societies organized in Europe, 22; 
 in the United States, 24; re- 
 ceipts of, 22, 27 ; tabular views 
 of, 336-338, 342-348. 
 
 Spirit defined, 18; its modern de- 
 velopment, 19; differing from 
 that of former ages, 19 ; develop- 
 ment in England, 19-20 ; on the 
 European continent, 22 ; in the 
 United States, 23; characteris- 
 tics, 19, 25. 
 
 Stations, number of, 215. 
 
 the, regarded as a son and brother, 
 147 ; a husband and father, 149 ; 
 in his relations to his Board, 
 153; his mission, 157; the people 
 among whom he labors, 160 ; as 
 a man, 161; his support com- 
 pared with that of ministers at 
 home, 165; his comparative 
 trials, 166; how far he should 
 be stationary, 104; should not 
 be a pastor, 112. 
 Missionaries, how many the churches 
 will support, 251; how many 
 are needed, 252 ; and what sort 
 of men, 255; from whence they 
 are to come, 258 ; how early de- 
 
370 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 cide as to their duty, 261 ; their 
 reflex influence, 262; pastors 
 becoming such, 264 ; how many 
 from difflerent seminaries, 259; 
 how far their support is pledged, 
 154; how far a certainty, 155; 
 number of, 246; competent wit- 
 nesses as to missions, 313. 
 English, ordered to leave India, 9. 
 first American, offer of service, 25 ; 
 
 ordered to leave India, 9. 
 and Pastors, alike called of God, 
 146. 
 
 Missions, apostolic, what they em- 
 braced, 61. 
 
 Missions, modem, rise of in England, 
 19, 22; Danish, 19; Moravian, 
 19; to American Indians, 23; 
 historical development of, 91- 
 118; object of, 92; diverse 
 modes of operating, 92; not a 
 hopeless work, 92 ; analogy with 
 apostoKc missions, 94; a work 
 of faith, 95, 154 ; principles and 
 methods of, 109-119; wherein 
 they differ from apostolic mis- 
 sions, 115; home and foreign 
 mutually dependent, 189; self- 
 governing, 157; essential prin- 
 ciple, 158 ; what has been learned 
 as to the working of, 158 ; ob- 
 jections to, 185; their cost, 187; 
 in the experimental stage, 215, 
 219; difi'usion of, 194-218,245; 
 success of, 219-247, 331 ; strength 
 of, 246 ; their illuminating pow- 
 er, 60 ; tabular views of, 333-348. 
 oflficial visits to. See Preface. 
 Romish. See Romish. 
 Theory of, not a self-evident mat- 
 ter. See Preface. 
 
 MofFatt, Rev. Mr., mention of, 201. 
 
 Mohammedan Law, death-penalty 
 abolished, 6. 
 
 Mohammedans, only partially acces- 
 sible, 217 
 
 Monasteries, Irish, described, 74. 
 
 Monthly Concert of Praj'er, what it 
 should be, 178; how to be re- 
 garded, 179; what is essential 
 to an interest in it, 179; best 
 time for its observance, 180; 
 best manner of observing it, 180. 
 
 Moravians, missionary pioneers, 19. 
 
 Mullens, Rev. Dr., quoted, 235, 236, 
 237, 278, 317, 331, 344, 345. 
 
 Napoleon, referred to, 307. 
 
 Native Helpers, number of, 215. 
 Ministry, value of, 131-140; num- 
 ber in the, 215. 
 Pastors, number of, 215. 
 
 Nestorians, how they became known, 
 201. 
 
 Newspapers, secular, remarkable 
 change in, 197, 316. 
 
 Northampton, singular occurrence 
 at, 20. 
 
 Objections and Misapprehensions, 
 185-190. 
 
 " Old Indians," their opposition to 
 missions, 11. 
 
 Oregon, how saved to the United 
 States, 200. 
 
 Oriental Churches, their need of mis- 
 sions, 243 ; success among, 244. 
 
 Owen, Rev. Dr., singular fact con- 
 perning, 147. 
 
 Pacific Islands, success on the, 224. 
 Papacy, the, an enemy, 299 ; fitted to 
 
 arouse the Evangelical Church, 
 
 299; result of conflict with, 300. 
 Parker, Rev. Samuel, penetrates the 
 
 Rocky Mountains, 200. 
 Parsons, Levi, mention of, 203. 
 Pastoral Duty, new conceptions of, 
 
 173. 
 Ofiice, its primitive and present 
 
 relations, 266. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 371 
 
 Pastorate, how differing from that of 
 the apostolic age, 116. 
 
 Pastors, how tliey may remove 
 the ignorance of their people, 
 174-183,191; their relations to 
 benevolent societies, 184; en- 
 couragements, 193. 
 Native, backwardness to ordain 
 such, 102; their value, 103; 
 their necessity to the native 
 church a recent discovery. 111; 
 their salaries, 112; able to with- 
 stand Romish missionaries, 295. 
 
 Patrick, his birth, 69; never con- 
 nected with Rome, 69, 70 ; cap- 
 tivity and conversion, 69; call 
 to Ireland, 70; labors and suc- 
 cess, 71-73; death, 74; succes- 
 sors, 74. 
 
 Paul, the Apostle, his idea of the 
 Christian Church, 32; unre- 
 corded years, 36; interview 
 with Peter and James, 37; 
 labors in Cilicia and Syria, 37; 
 mission to Cj'prus and Asia 
 Minor, 38; labors at Antioch, 
 38 ; second tour, 41 ; how far he 
 performed the foreign mission- 
 ary work of his age, 42 ; rela- 
 tion to the Lord Jesus, 45 ; re- 
 sponsibilities under Christ's 
 commission, 45 ; the instrumen- 
 tality he employed, 46; use of 
 local churches, 47,101; letters, 
 48; how regarded by his con- 
 temporaries, 49 ; how supported, 
 50; classes gathered into his 
 churches, 54; character of the 
 churches, 57; hi^ success, 59; 
 his career, 41 ; martyrdom, 41. 
 
 Peloponnesus, exploration of, 200. 
 
 Persecution, endurance of in Mada- 
 gascar, 125, 127, 141; in India, 
 127, 141 ; cannot arrest missions, 
 246. 
 
 Philanthropists, mere, not good mis- 
 sionaries, 167. 
 
 Philippine Islands, Romish mission 
 in, 280. 
 
 Philosophers, reference to, 167. 
 
 Plassey, battle of, referred to, 4. 
 
 Poor, Daniel, mention of, 257. 
 
 Portuguese, struggle with for India, 4. 
 
 Problems, great, for providential so- 
 lution, 2. 
 
 Preachers, native, number of, 246. 
 
 Preaching, as a means of grace, 285, 
 293, 324. 
 
 Preaching and Education, their rela- 
 tive importance, 231. 
 
 Pre-millenarianism, adverted to, 186. 
 
 Presbyterian Church, reference to, 
 171. 
 
 Presbyteries, not mentioned in the 
 New Testament, 56, 110. 
 
 Printing-press, necessity of, 115. 
 
 Protection of Missionaries, 195. 
 
 Protestantism, doctrinal strength of, 
 289. 
 and Popery, struggle of for India, 4. 
 
 Protestant Missions, their converting 
 power as compared with Romish 
 missions, 282-290 ; how to be 
 worked in the presence of Rom- 
 ish missions, 292 ; grand pe- 
 culiarities of, 295. 
 
 Protestants in Turkey, recognition 
 of, 6. 
 
 Providence, lesson taught by, 27. 
 
 Providential Inflow of missionary' in- 
 formation upon the churches, 
 173. 
 
 Providential Results, great, usually 
 exceed our calculations, 93. 
 
 QuALA, a remarkable Karen preach- 
 er, account of, 131-135. 
 
 Railway System in India, its im- 
 portance, 205. 
 
372 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 RedclifFe, Lord Stratford de, mention 
 of, 6. 
 
 "Reformed Catholic Mission," re- 
 ferred to, 291. 
 
 Religious Centres occupied, 200. 
 Toleration, opposition to, 9 ; how 
 
 secured for India, 12. 
 Results, 246. 
 
 Rdsume, 301. 
 
 Revivals of Religion, in foreign mis- 
 sions, 142. 
 
 Ripa, Father, quoted, 276. 
 
 Ritualists, troublesome members in 
 the apostolic churches, 35, 39. 
 
 Robinson, Dr. Edward, mention of, 
 257. 
 
 Rocky Mountains, wagon road 
 through, discovered by a mis- 
 sionary, 200. 
 
 Roman Catholic World, how far ac- 
 cessible, 217. 
 
 Roman Hierarchy, what it is doing, 
 192. 
 
 Rome, publishes little concerning her 
 missions, 273. 
 
 Romish Missions, as an opposing 
 power, 269-300; their present 
 leading object, 269 ; their former 
 extent, 270-274 ; had none to 
 oppose them, 274 ; great reported 
 successes, 275 ; were all a failure, 
 278, 361; principles underlying 
 them and Protestant missions, 
 283; their inefficiency as a con- 
 verting agency, 282; yet a for- 
 midable antagonist, 290 ; how 
 to labor in their presence, 292; 
 grounds of hope, 297 ; an incite- 
 ment to Protestants, 247; sum- 
 mary of, 349; materials for the 
 history of, 351. 
 
 Russia, protector of Greek Chris- 
 tians, 5. 
 and France, designs of on Tur 
 key, 4. 
 
 Sabbath-schools, defect in their 
 instruction, 175; in their text- 
 books, 175; in their libraries, 
 176 ; missionary societies in, 177. 
 
 Sanborn, Rev. Mr., mention of, 25. 
 
 Sandwich Islands, singular experi- 
 ence, 105 ; success in, 224. 
 
 Santhals, success among, 233. 
 
 Saviour's Command, extent of it, 
 and progress made in obeying 
 it, 195. 
 
 Schools, Jesuit, why not imitated by 
 Protestant missions, 292. 
 
 Scotia and Scots, true meaning of, 
 65, 66. 
 
 Scottish Missionary Societies, 21. 
 
 Self-righteousness, its ability to 
 labor and suffer, 282. 
 
 Shanars, success among, 233. 
 
 Sierra Leone, remarkable success, 
 121-124; its present condition, 
 124. 
 
 Skepticism, its paralyzing influence, 
 190. 
 
 Slaves, emancipated, leferred to, 14. 
 
 Smith, Dr. Eli, explorations of 200; 
 mention of, 257. 
 
 South America, exploration of, 199. 
 
 South Pacific Islands, success in, 
 226. 
 
 Spiritual Illumination, reserve in, 
 36, 41. 
 
 Supernatural, the, in the apostolic 
 age, 41. 
 
 Tahiti, mention of, 103, 140. 
 Thibet, but partially known, 217. 
 Thomas, Rev. John, account of an 
 
 eloquent native preacher, 135. 
 Timothy, charge to, meaning of, 
 
 101. 
 Toleration, religious, how secured in 
 
 India, 8-14. 
 Tucker, Rev. Mr., his success among 
 
 the Shanars, 234. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 373 
 
 Turkey, how opened to the gospel, 
 4-6; exploration of, 200, 201. 
 Eastern, value of native churches 
 in, 128. 
 
 Unevangelized World, opening to 
 the gospel, 1-15. 
 
 Venn, Rev. Henry, his " Life of 
 Xavier" quoted. 111, 296, 351- 
 363. 
 
 Vinton, Rev. Mr., his labors and 
 success, 231. 
 
 Wak, spiritual, begun as never be- 
 fore, for the conquest of the 
 world, 308. 
 
 Ward, Rev. Dr., mention of, 8. 
 
 W.ishington Territory, how saved to 
 the United State's, 200. 
 
 Widows of Missionaries, how cared 
 lor, 15G. 
 
 Williams, Dr. S. Wells, quoted, 277. 
 
 Wilson, Dr. J. L., quoted, 275. 
 
 Winfred. See Boniface. 
 
 Winslow, Miron, mention of, 257. 
 
 World, unevangelized, opening to the 
 gospel, 1-15 ; duty thence aris- 
 ing, 27; missionary survey of, 
 202; how far occupied, 218; how 
 to be subdued, 294. 
 
 Worship, forms of, value of simpli- 
 city in, 293. 
 
 Xavier, Francis, disheartened in 
 India, 278 ; use made of the civil 
 power, 284, 354 ; belief in baptis- 
 mal regeneration, 288; defective 
 views of the gospel, 296; his 
 converts, 353 ; his ideas of ex- 
 piation, 354; as a Christian mis- 
 sionary, 356 ; his estimate of his 
 success in India, 359; as com- 
 pared with Protestant mission- 
 aries, 359. 
 
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