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 L I E) RA PlY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N I VLR^SITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS
 
 iak Hissbns to t^e $mt^m 
 htm u ^uxlmtt 
 
 BEING 
 
 A REPLY TO SOME CURREiNT 
 OBJECTIONS 
 
 SY 
 
 REV. A. R. SYMONDS 
 
 fORMERLY SECKETARY S.l'.G, MADRAS 
 
 LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS 
 
 YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN 
 iS73
 
 Note, — The following Paper was originally drawn np 
 with a view to its being read at a Meeting of friends and 
 supporters of the S. P.G. It is now printed and piiblished 
 in the hope that it may serve the Missionary Cause at largp.
 
 HAVE MISSIONS TO THE HEATHEN 
 BEEN A FAILURE? 
 
 IT cannot be disguised that at the present time 
 no little misgiving prevails as to the success 
 of Missions, even on the part of those M^ell affected 
 towards them ; while others are not only sceptical 
 as to their results, but question at the outset their 
 policy and propriety. Now this, I think, is not 
 altogether to be regretted. In the end it will work 
 for good. A state of controversy is a state of life 
 and interest : men do not debate what they have no 
 interest in, or what they deem of no value or im- 
 portance. Anything is better for a great cause than 
 dull apathy towards it ; it had far better be the 
 subject of keen and even hostile remark than be 
 regarded with indifference. So far, therefore, I am 
 glad to see Missions a subject of controversy, even 
 though we, who are practically connected with them, 
 may have to undergo some sharp and perhaps, occa- 
 sionally, not altogether just criticism or accurate re- 
 presentation. For let it be candidly acknowledged, 
 that there is, and has been, much in Missionary plans 
 and proceedings to provoke remark and question-; 
 
 a2
 
 Have Missions to the 
 
 that mistakes both of policy and practice have been 
 made ; that the work admits of improvement and in- 
 vigoration. It is to be hoped, then, that the discus- 
 sion which Missions are now undergoing will in the 
 end be to their furtherance, by bringing about greater 
 efficiency in the machinery employed. We all want 
 looking after, Missionaries and their managers as well 
 as other folks ; and the scrutiny they are now being 
 subjected to will do them no harm, but good. It 
 will put them on the qid vive, it will stimulate to 
 fresh effort, it will lead to the searching out and 
 setting right of what is erroneous and defective. More 
 than this, it will serve to bring out more vividly and 
 distinctly what Missions are doing and have done, 
 and to convince many that they have far too easily 
 taken it for granted that Missions are a failure. If 
 it causes the exposure of imperfections and defects, 
 it will tend also to the clearer demonstration of their 
 beneficent results. As one who has been for many 
 years intimately associated with Missionary work, 
 there is nothing I more desiderate than that it 
 should be closely and minutely scrutinized, because 
 I have ever found that those who make themselves 
 best acquainted with it become its truest friends. 
 The more our Missions are subjected to inspection 
 and their results examined, the more I feel assured 
 it will be made to appear that, notwithstanding in- 
 tirmities in the agents and imperfections in their 
 system, it is a work that has been followed by effects 
 beautiful and blessed ; in a word, that it has been 

 
 Heathen been a Failure'? 5 
 
 owned indeed of God, and lias been stamped with 
 the Divine seal of grand and gracious results. 
 
 I have at the outset spoken thus, because in 
 entering, as I now propose, upon some defence of 
 Missions, I wish it to be seen that I do so in no 
 blind zeal of mere partisanship, but in a spirit of 
 candour and fairness, and as one quite conscious of 
 and desiring to amend faults in our plans and pro- 
 ceedings. If, then, I do not dwell on those faults, 
 it is not because I ignore them, but because my 
 immediate object is to meet and to reply to certain 
 current objections, and to reassure the minds of those 
 who, while friendly to Missionary effort, entertain 
 misgivings as to what it has accomplished. 
 
 The impugners of Christian Missions may, perhaps, 
 be classed under three heads. First, there are those 
 who, ah initio^ take exception to Missions as need- 
 less, if not mischievous ; as mistaken both in prin- 
 ciple and purpose. Secondly, there are those who, 
 while not condemning Missions in the abstract, 
 regard them, under present circumstances, as mis- 
 directed benevolence; they deprecate the expendi- 
 ture of men and material abroad, while so much 
 remains to be done at home ; they point to tht) 
 immense amount of practical heathenism in England, 
 and they bid us concentrate our energies and means 
 upon the reclaiming of our own population from 
 ignorance and vice, before we attempt the evangeli- 
 zation of foreign lands. Then, thirdly, there are 
 those who, while thoroughly approving of Missions,
 
 6 Have Missions to the 
 
 and desiring their success, write bitter things against 
 the present system of Missions, complain of the 
 agents employed in them as inefficient, if not worse, 
 and either angrily denounce our Missions or mourn- 
 fully lament them as a failure. Now in regard to 
 the first class of impugners, it is enough to reply 
 that, as Christians — and we cannot argue the thing 
 from any other standpoint than that of Christianity 
 — that as Christians we have no option in the 
 matter. The command of the Great Head of the 
 Churcli is exj)ress and plain : " Go ye into all the 
 world, and preach the Gospel to every creature, 
 making disciples of all nations." And this, also, 
 were a sufficient answer to the second class of 
 objectors, who would have us restrict our Missionary 
 enthusiasm to the lost ones of our own country. 
 But apart from our Lord's direct command, which 
 leaves us, I submit, no alternative, we may appeal to 
 His own example and that of His Apostles. His 
 own personal ministry, it is true, was almost ex- 
 clusively exercised on behalf of the lost sheep of 
 the House of Israel, but in His visit to the regions 
 of Tyre and Sidon, and in His w^ork of might and 
 mercy there, He did not fail to indicate that His 
 saving grace and truth contemplated a wider range 
 than Israel. Surely, in that deliverance from a devil 
 of the daughter of a woman of Canaan, a child of 
 the old accursed race, surely in that touching fact, 
 there was gracious prelude of that mission of mercy 
 on which St. Paul was sent to the heathen, to open
 
 Heathen been a Failure f 
 
 their eyes, to turn them from darkness unto light 
 and from the power of Satan unto God, The 
 Apostles did, indeed, as their Master bade them, 
 preach repentance and remission of sins, beginning 
 at Jerusalem. But did they stay there 1 Behold, in 
 a few years the Word of the Lord had sounded forth, 
 from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum ; 
 yea, so far and wide, that St. Paul speaks of the 
 Gospel as present in all the world. And yet, be it re- 
 membered, while thus, to use an apostolic expression, 
 the Gospel was being preached, in all creation under 
 heaven, at that very time, when he was evangelizing 
 the heathen, there were but few converted of those 
 for whom his heart's desire and prayer were that 
 they might be saved. While he had such heavi- 
 ness and sorrow in his heart, that he could wish 
 himself accursed from Christ on behalf of his 
 brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, yet at 
 that very time was St. Paul expending his energies 
 and strength mainly in the conversion of the Gentiles, 
 though thousands upon thousands of the lost sheep 
 of the House of Israel had not been recovered and 
 brought into the fold. To be consistent, then, our 
 modern objectors to Missions must needs pronounce 
 St. Paul to have been in error in concerning himself 
 about the heathen at all while his own people 
 remained in unbelief. But the objection now under 
 view is in fact as futile as it is un scriptural. Truth 
 cannot but be aggressive and expansive ; it refuses 
 to be restricted within any territorial confines j it
 
 8 Have Missions to the 
 
 bursts forth beyond the limits of country, caste, 
 or kindred. That holds good of all truth ; how 
 eminently so of that which is associated with the 
 moral and spiritual welfare of man, now and here- 
 after, which has promise of the life that now is as 
 well as of that which is to come ! It is of the nature 
 of truth to be unselfish, but these objectors would 
 impose on us a j^olicy of intense selfishness, when 
 they denounce the propagation of the Gospel in 
 foreign parts as inconsistent with home demands ; a 
 selfishness the more monstrous and glaring when it 
 is remembered that England itself is so conspicuous 
 an instance of the benevolent operation of Missionary 
 zeal, being, as its Christianity is, the fruit of seed 
 sown by Missionaries from abroad. Shame, then, 
 upon those who grudge the men and the money 
 expended on Missionary enterprise ! Having as freely 
 received, shall we not as freely give % "Were it even 
 at some loss to home interests, yet could we not 
 stay our hands and our hearts from the work which 
 the Lord's command imposes on us. But it is not 
 at a loss. In the keeping of God's commandments 
 there is ever great reward, and in none more than in 
 acting out that great commandment, to preach the 
 Gospel to every creature. " He that watereth," is the 
 promise, " shall be watered also himself." Eminently 
 js the promise realized in connection with Missionary 
 benevolence ; such benevolence returns sevenfold 
 into our bosoms. So far from home work sufi'ering 
 by reason of foreign work, it ever the more prospers
 
 Heathen beeji a Failure. 
 
 as the other prospers. Let the one languish, the 
 other ■will languish. We do not hnd that they who 
 look coldly on Missions to the heathen feel the 
 more or do the more for Missions at home. On the 
 contrary, they who have most promoted the former 
 have ever been the most earnest, energetic, and 
 liberal supporters of the latter. Vitality at home 
 finds ever an outlet in effort abroad. Tlie energetic 
 exhibition, therefore, by the Church of a Mis- 
 sionary spirit is no mean proof of its own life and 
 vigour. 
 
 I come now to those who either angrily complain 
 of or sadly doubt the efficiency and success of Missions 
 to the heathen. In reply to these. I must call atten- 
 tion to the indirect influence and collateral effects of 
 Missionary enterprise, as well as to its more specific 
 achievements in the evangelization of the heathen. 
 Apart from their proper spiritual results in the way of 
 conversions, Christian Missions exert in various ways 
 a beneficent influence, and the one is often pre- 
 paratory to the other. It is fair that both should 
 be taken into account. 1 claim for Missionary enter- 
 prise that it has been most honourably associated 
 with human progress and improvement ; that it has 
 been to a large extent the pioneer of civilization ; 
 that it has been the initiator and promoter of educa- 
 tion and of other means of social amelioration ; that 
 its literary achievements have not been few or con- 
 temptible ; that it has contributed in no inconsider- 
 able degree to science, ethnological and philological.
 
 lo Have Missions to the 
 
 We are told that men of power as well as piety are 
 required for Missionary work. I fully admit it. 
 Would to God such men were multiplied a hundred- 
 fold ! But this outcry is sometimes raised as if the 
 Missionaries had only been a puny and a feeble race ; 
 as if there had been no men of mark and of might 
 among them. But who, I ask, have been more 
 assiduous and successful cultivators of foreign litera- 
 ture than the Missionaries 1 And is it not to their 
 researches that we owe much of what we do know 
 of Oriental systems of religion and philosophy 1 By 
 whom has the Bible, that great source of moral and 
 intellectual improvement, been translated into such 
 a multitude of languages ? Who are they that have 
 produced the grammars and lexicons of these 
 languages ? Let the names of Beschi and Martyn, 
 of Carey and Yates, of Medhurst and Morrison, of 
 Ellis and Winslow, of Caldwell and Bower, not to 
 mention many more, be some answer to this question. 
 The illustrious Max Mliller himself testifies to the 
 literary value of Missionary enterprise. By whom in 
 thousands of places has the first school been planted, 
 the first printing-press set on foot, the first book depot 
 opened ? Who is it that have led the way in educa- 
 tion % In India, many fields now cultivated by 
 Government agency were originally broken up by 
 Missionary labour. And not only have Missionaries 
 been yioneers of educational enterprise, but by them 
 is it still largely conducted and sustained. I refer 
 in proof of this to Duff, and Wilson, and Anderson, 
 
 I
 
 Heathen been a Failure ? 1 1 
 
 with their successors, to Marsh and Miller, to Marks 
 and H^ll, to the Jesuit Fathers at Negapatam, with 
 others now at work in the Mission field. Again, is 
 it not owing in some degree to the earnest representa- 
 tions and remonstrances of Missionaries and their 
 friends that many abominations of heathenism in India 
 have been put down, such as the burning of widows, 
 the hanging festivals, and the glaring obscenities that 
 used with impunity to be obtruded on the public eye ? 
 May not our Missionaries and their Societies take 
 some credit to themselves for the divorce that was at 
 last effected between Hindu Idolatry and Govern- 
 ment ? I know, indeed, it has been sometimes said, 
 on account of the agitation they raised on these and 
 other points, that the Missionaries are regarded by 
 Government olHcials as a meddlesome, mischievous, 
 and troublesome race. Eut so far from this being 
 the case, I feel assured that the Indian Government 
 and its officials would bear cheerful testimony to the 
 wholesome influence of the Missions in promoting 
 goodwill to our rule among the people. Indeed, I 
 should fearlessly advance this as one of the beneficial 
 results of Missions. Even the old Court of Directors, 
 with all its timidity on the subject, sanctioned a 
 grant of Es. 350 a month in aid of Mission schools 
 in the districts of Tanjore and Eamnad, partly in 
 honour of those venerable men Schwartz and Kohl- 
 hoff, and partly in recognition of the good influence 
 exercised by such schools in making the people well 
 afi"ected towards the Government. That grant con-
 
 12 Have Missions to the 
 
 tinues to this day, and is still known as the Schwartz 
 Grant. Well might the Court delight to honour the 
 man who, in a time of extreme peril, mediated be- 
 tween the Government and its formidable foe, Hyder 
 Ali. Once more, I claim for Missionary enterprise 
 in India that even where it has not resulted in the 
 direct open profession of Christianity, it has done 
 much to diminish the tyranny of caste, to loosen the 
 hold of Brahminism on the people, to shake the 
 fabric of idolatry, to set before the Hindus a higher 
 standard of truth and purity, to quicken the intellec- 
 tual activity of thousands and to give it a nobler 
 character, to evoke an admiration of the Gospel for 
 its moral beauty and benignity, and to inspire a 
 reverence for the character and teaching of Jesus 
 Christ on the part of many who have not been 
 brouQ^ht so far as to acknowled;2;e Him as the Divine 
 Saviour. I freely admit that in some of the facts 
 just specified, such as the loosening of caste and 
 idolatry, much must also be attributed to the opera- 
 tion of Government education, to railways, and the 
 like ; but on the whole, looking generally at the 
 effects of Missions, other than those of specific con- 
 versions to Christianity, I do confidently submit that 
 in number and extent they have not been few or 
 small ; that in character and quality they have not 
 been inconsiderable or contemptible. 
 
 And when we come to look at the direct re- 
 sults of Missions in the way of accessions to the 
 Church of Christ, I am bold to say, that so far
 
 Heathen been a Failure f 13 
 
 from Missions having been a failure, success has 
 largely attended them ; that though that success 
 might have been yet greater, with more zeal and 
 energy and wisdom and faith on our part, we have 
 still abundant reason to thank God and to take 
 courage. In speaking on this point I shall draw 
 my facts and illustrations from India, because that 
 is the country with which I am myself most familiar, 
 and partly because it is in respect of Indian Missions, 
 I believe, that scepticism and misgiving are chiefly 
 felt. And in speaking of Indian Missions I must 
 confine my attention to the results of Protestant 
 Missions- l^o± that for a moment I ignore or under- 
 value the work of the Mi-ssionaries of the Church of 
 Rome in India. On the contrary, I know that they 
 reckon their adherents by tens of thousands. I 
 know that very many of those Missionaries are most 
 devoted and earnest men, setting us all an example 
 of self-denying zeal, I know some of them per- 
 sonally, and esteem, them highly for their own sake 
 and for their work's sake. I regard the educational 
 efforts of the Jesuit Fathers at l!^egapatam with both 
 great interest and respect. If, therefore, I do not 
 quote facts from the Missions of the Church of 
 Kome, it is simply because I have not the statistics 
 at hand to ena.ble me to da so. Looking then to the 
 results of Protestant Missions, I ask, is it to be 
 regarded as a failure, when the S.P.G. alone can point 
 to nearly 24,000 baptized Christians as its own 
 adherents in the one Diocese of Madras (of whom
 
 14 Have Missions to the 
 
 about 6,000 are communicants), besides 7,600 
 catechumens % Have the Missions of the Church 
 of England in that Diocese been a failure, when, 
 putting together the adherents of the C.M.S. and 
 S.P.G., the members of our Church there number 
 more than 66,500 (16,500 being communicants), 
 together with 21,478 catechumens 1 Have Missions 
 generally in the Presidency of Madras been a failure, 
 when, as ascertained by the census recently taken, 
 the adherents of the several Societies in that Presi- 
 dency amount to 161,000 % Can Missions in India 
 at large be called a failure when, reckoning together 
 the adherents of the several Societies labouring there, 
 the number is found to be 224,000, 53,000 being 
 communicants % Including those in the adjacent 
 provinces of Ceylon and Burmah, the whole aggre- 
 gate mounts up to 318,000. 
 
 To the foregoing facts let me add that in 
 the Diocese of Madras there is now a native 
 ministry of about 100 Hindu pastors, and in India 
 at large of 230, these native ministers being to a 
 large extent sustained by the native Christians them- 
 selves. Add to this, that the contributions of the 
 native Christians of India for religious and chari- 
 table objects now exceed 8,000^. a year, and again 
 I ask, have Missions there been a failure % Then 
 look for a moment at the educational efforts of the 
 Missionary Societies. Look at the 9,008 pupils in 
 the S.P.G. schools of the Diocese of Madras; add 
 to these the 18,426 pupils in the C.M.S. schools,
 
 Heathen been a Failure? 15 
 
 and we see that in this one Diocese the Church 
 of England alone has under instruction 27,434 
 children of various ages. Add to these the pupils 
 in all the Mission schools throughout India, and 
 there are 123,000 pupils under Christian teaching. 
 In connection with the subject of education I must 
 remark, that not only was female education entirely 
 initiated by the Missionaries, but that it is still mainly 
 in their hands. ISTow, no one will question the impor- 
 tance of female education as an element in the moral 
 advance of a people. Whatever has been done there 
 in this way, and it has not been small, is to the 
 credit almost exclusively of Missionary enterprise. 
 
 The census, to which I just now referred, was 
 taken at the beginning of the year 1872 for the ten 
 previous years. Comparing the results of this cen- 
 sus with that taken at the beginning of 1862, 
 we find there has been most cheering progress ; 
 that in the last decade more than 100,000 souls 
 have been added to the Church of Christ in India, 
 Ceylon, and Burmah ; that the l^ative Ministry has 
 wonderfully grown both in numbers and in local 
 support; that the number of Communicants has 
 been more than doubled; that the Pupils under 
 instruction have been increased by more than a 
 third ; and that, whereas in the whole ten years 
 between 1851 and 1861 a sum of only about 93,000 
 Eupees was raised among the native Christians, 
 their contributions now exceed Eighty Thousand 
 Rwpees a year. In the face of these facts can it, I
 
 l6 Have Missions to the 
 
 once more ask, be with any fairness said that Mis- 
 sions in India have been a failure % 
 
 Bat here I shall, perhaps, be asked, " How is it, 
 if all this be true, that so many come home from 
 India, civilians and officers, and tell us that Missions 
 are doing nothing ? how is it, that the report of many 
 should be such as to embolden one notorious im- 
 pugner of Missions to declare that the Missionaries 
 in India are an idle and self-indulgent race of men ? " 
 Before I answer these questions, I will take the liberty 
 of asking one of my own. To say that Missions are 
 doing nothing, is to say that the Missionaries them- 
 selves are all fools and fanatics, or, still worse, shame- 
 less impostors, to be carrying on such a delusion 
 and a sham. But putting this aside, how is it, 
 I ask, that so many men in India, civilians, 
 officers, merchants, and others, take deep interest 
 in Missionary work, largely aiding it by their 
 contributions, and taking part in the practical direc- 
 tion of it by joining our Committees of Manage- 
 ment ] How, too, is it, if Missions are mere moon- 
 shine, that men of high moral worth and intelligence, 
 on coming home, bear distinct testimony to their 
 reahty and value, and become active supporters of 
 Missionary Societies %^\ place the positive testimony 
 of the one against the non-testimony of the other. 
 The latter say, " We did not see anything doing ; " 
 
 ^ aS'cc OKI this head the testimonies of Lord Lawrence, Lord 
 Napier and Ettrick^ and Sir BartU FrerCy lately published 
 hy the S.PXh
 
 H^dthmi been uFailufef ly 
 
 the others say, " We saw much being done." Which 
 testinaony, I ask, is to be most relied on 1 The posi- 
 tive testimony is the testimony of those who had 
 opportunities, or made themselves opportunities, of 
 seeing Mission work, wh-o took pains to inquire 
 into it and to assure themselves of its value, not- 
 withstanding all admitted defects and imperfections. 
 On the other hand, there are those who know 
 nothing of it- because they have not been brought 
 into contact with it, or have not concerned them- 
 selves to look into it. If a man may live in a -large 
 London parish and know little or nothing of the 
 religious work going on in it, if a man may liv€ all 
 his life in England and be ignorant as to its religious 
 organizations, their structure and practical results, 
 (and with how many is this the case), then is it any 
 strange thing that a man may live many years in a 
 country of such vast extent as India, with its Chris- 
 tian Missions dotted here and there upon its broad 
 surface, and know little or nothing of their existence 
 or working ? 
 
 In speaking of the many thousands of native 
 Christians I shall perhaps be asked, "And what 
 are these native Christians'? Are they worthy of 
 the name ; is their walk and conversation such as 
 becometh the Gospel of Christ? We have heard 
 persons from India say that some of the worst 
 specimens of Hindus they have known were 
 native Christians. Is this so ? " 
 
 In reply to this I might, perhaps, advert to the 
 
 •B
 
 1 8 Have Missions to the 
 
 painful fact, tliat if Europeans see such miserable 
 specimens of Hindu Christians as to provoke their 
 contempt and disgust, Hindus on their part see 
 too often such unhappy specimens of European 
 Christians as to make them doubt the superiority 
 of Christianity to Hinduism. I^ot unfrequently do 
 the Heathen use a taunt of this kind, " Why come 
 ye to convert us, when your own people are so 
 evil? We do not see that your religion secures 
 purity and truth on the part of its professors." 
 There is no Missionary but knows to his cost 
 what a stumbhng-block to the work of evange- 
 lization is the ungodliness of his own countrymen 
 in India. I say it boldly, that it is not for Euro- 
 pean Christians to speak contemptuously of Hindu 
 Christians. If there be vile ones among the latter, 
 there are also vile ones among the former. And 
 what is chiefly distressing is this, that nowhere is 
 seen so low a type of Hindu Christianity as in 
 cantonments and towns where it is brought into 
 near and constant contact with our own people. 
 There it is that they too often are to be met with, 
 who. Christians only in name, are a disgrace to 
 their profession, and bring awful reproach upon 
 native Christianity. It is from seeing only, or 
 chiefly, such as these that many in India imbibe a 
 prejudice against Missions, and speak contemptuously 
 of native Christians. But that these are fair speci- 
 mens of our Hindu Christians generally I utterly 
 deny. So far from this beiug the case, I fearlessly
 
 Heathen beert a Failure f 19 
 
 assert that, taken as a whole, we have not only no 
 reason to be ashamed of the Gpspel of Christ in 
 relation to them, but that, on the contrary, we have 
 much cause to be glad^ that by the grace of God 
 they are what they are, as converts from heathenism. 
 If there be much to deplore, there is also much to, 
 be thankful for. I candidly admit there is much 
 to deplore. But what then % Is this any real argUr 
 ment against Missionary effort? Will you take 
 advantage of this admission to infer that nothing, 
 or but little, has been gained by so many thousands 
 having embraced Christianity, and by their having 
 been brought within the pale of the Christian 
 Church % I ask you to look at your own England. 
 You call it a Christian country ; you say that, 
 its population is a Christian population. What 
 do you mean by that? Is it not a mournfulj 
 fact that some of the worst specimens of 
 humanity that] the world exhibits are Englisk 
 Christians? Do not drunkenness, debauchery, vio- 
 lence, commercial dishonesty, and other sins, stalk 
 through this Christian land in huge and hideous pro- 
 portions? What is your answer to that? Do you not 
 say that so it ever has been and will be ; that in the 
 Church the evil is mingled with the good ; that 
 as the wheat grows up the tares grow up also, and 
 that Christianity is not to be judged by the incon- 
 sistent lives of mere professors ? Is that in some 
 measure your apology for Christian England, and 
 are we not at liberty to apply it to the Christian 
 
 B 2
 
 '20 Have Missio7ts to the 
 
 population of India? Would you, as I take for 
 granted you would, earnestly protest, that notwith- 
 standing all the acknowledged vices that disgrace 
 England and shame her Christianity, still it is a price- 
 less blessing and advantage that the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ should be the recognized religion of a people ? 
 We insist upon the same in regard to our Christian 
 communities in India. Do you feel that where 
 Christianity is the acknowledged religion of a 
 country, there the distinctions between right and 
 wrong are sharpened and intensified ; there the 
 moral sense is quickened and informed, as is no- 
 where else so done ; that there you have a standard 
 of good to appeal to, vastly superior to anything 
 provided by heathen ethics ; that there the more 
 rampant the agencies for evil may be, the more will 
 the agencies for good be multiplied and developed 
 to counteract them ; do you feel and recognize all 
 this in relation to Christian England, then permit 
 us to feel and recognize the same in relation to our 
 Christians in India. We admit that among these 
 there be many weak and unworthy ones, many who 
 enfeeble our hands and sometimes almost break our 
 hearts ; but for all that we feel that as Christians 
 they are on a higher platform of truth and motive 
 than before \ that they have reached a better stand- 
 point j that a holier standard of right is recognized, 
 to w^hich we can appeal in dealing with their 
 consciences and directing their conduct ; that in- 
 fluences are at work among them, more potent and
 
 Heathen been a Failure f 2-1, 
 
 persuasive to deter from evil and to incite to good; 
 than any to be found outside of Christianity. There-, 
 fore, notwithstanding all that grieves and hinders, 
 we can stiU say, looking at our Hindu Christians, 
 we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. ^ If' 
 there are certain patent defects in Hindu Christianityj 
 there are also special excellences. They exhibit 
 a simplicity of faith, a quiet dependence on the 
 goodness and wisdom of God, an unquestioning 
 submission to His will, calm resignation under 
 trouble, and confidence in the efficacy of prayer, 
 which again and again I have felt to be both 
 touching and edifying. Anyhow I am quite sure 
 that we English Christians live in far too large 
 a glasshouse to make it prudent and proper for us 
 to throw stones at Hindu Christians. Of this, too, 
 I am sure, that were a number of our. native Chris-, 
 tians to visit England, and to be shown the wicked-, 
 ness to be seen in it, they would go back to their, 
 own land sorely pained and puzzled to understand, 
 how that country, from which their own Christianity 
 had been derived, could be as to thousands of its. 
 inhabitants so worldly and so wicked. 
 
 I conclude as I began. I acknowledge that there 
 is much in our plans and proceedings that requires, 
 invigoration and modification ; nevertheless, let the 
 results of Missions be fairly and candidly considered, 
 let them be looked at in the light of Scripture, of 
 
 1 In the Appendix will be found some valuable remarhs 
 by the Rev. Dr. Caldwell on this subject.
 
 Have Missions to the 
 
 Church history, and of our own experience, and 
 I am bold to say that so far from deeming Missions 
 a failure, we shall see that they have been greatly 
 owned of God, that through them He has, been 
 pleased to make known His way upon earth, His 
 saving health among the nations.
 
 Heathen been a Failure f 23 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The following extract from a sermon by the Rev. Dr. 
 Caldwell, on the text "I am not ashamed of the Gospel 6f 
 Christ," and entitled "Christianity in India and Indian 
 Christians," will be read with interest. The sermon was 
 preached to an English congregation at Palamcottah, Tin- 
 nevelly, in the year 1866. 
 
 " I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ or of its pro- 
 pagation in India, seeing that by its power of producing, 
 when truly received, the tone of mind and style of character 
 I have described, it proves itself to be able to supply those 
 very elements of character of which India stands most in 
 need. 
 
 Let it be remembered at the same time, however, that 
 everything which is indigenous to India is not evil, that 
 ' God has not left Himself without a witness ' in any part ) 
 the world, and that Christianity does not repudiate, but 
 adopts and consecrates, those characteristics of the Hindu 
 race which are good and laudable = in themselves. Thus it 
 adopts and consecrates their instinctive religiousness, their 
 habit of seeing God in all things and all things in God, and 
 of withdrawing no department of things from His will and 
 power, tlieir patience and temperance and 'geiitleness and 
 courtesy, their care for their relations to the furthest remove, 
 and the patriarchal framework of their social system. Only 
 let the still more important elements of individual and 
 national character which are produced by the Gospel and 
 the Gospel alone, be superadded to these and similar pecu- 
 liarities of race, and the result will be found to be a style of 
 character of which neither India nor the Gospel will have 
 need to be ashamed. 
 
 I proceed to say that I am not ashamed of the Gospel of 
 Christ or of its propagation in India, when I look at its 
 results.
 
 24 Have Missions to,, the 
 
 I freely admit, indeed, that what has been done in India, 
 as yet, is as nothing in comparison with what remains to be 
 done. We are only, as it were, putting on our armour for the 
 most momentous contest in which the Church of Christ has 
 ever been engaged, and it does not become him that putteth 
 on his armour to boast himself as he that putteth it otf. 
 Yet making all due admissions and deductions, it is my firm 
 persuasion notwithstanding, a persuasion that has not been 
 hastily arrived at, that looking at the results of the propa- 
 gation of the Gospel in India, amongst a people far mor(^ 
 <lifficult. to reach and move than either Greeks or Romans 
 ever were, we have no reason to be ashamed of the measure 
 of success that has been attained. 
 
 Apart from the direct efficacy of the Gospel in the sal- 
 vation of those who believe, C!hristianity has conferred upon 
 the most influential portion of the native community 
 intellectual and moral benefits of- the highest importance, 
 and won for itself in consequence a position as a power in the 
 country of which no thoughtful Christian need feel ashamed. 
 
 When I look at the large and rapidly increasing class of 
 educated, enlightened Hindus which has come into existence 
 during the last twenty or thirty years through the progress 
 of education, through Christian education in Christian 
 schools, and in a still larger degree from the education com- 
 municated in Government schools, an education which, 
 though it does not include distinctive Christian teaching, is 
 yet to a certain extent a Christian education. Christian in its 
 negations, its exclusion of everything opposed to Christianity, 
 and Christian in its morality and the principles of action 
 it teaches or encourages ; when I see idolatry and mythology 
 driven out of the field of argument, in so far as this educated 
 class is concerned, the mysticism and sensuality and Ioav 
 tricky morality of Hindu books disowned, as completely as 
 by ourselves, and the literature of a Christian nation, deeply 
 imbued as that literature is with Christian principles, adopted 
 and studied by them instead ; when I see the belief they 
 have acquired in a Supreme God, not a-belief, such as Hindu 
 philosophy taught, that the world was God or that God was 
 the world, but- a belief in a God who is the Creator of the 
 world, not again a belief, such as Hindu philosophy taught, 
 in a God who is an unconcerned spectator of the contest 
 going on between good and evil, but a belief in God who 
 is moral Governor of the world, a Being who is on the side 
 of- good and who makes all things work together eventually 
 for good : when I see the intellectual convictions of this
 
 Heathen been a Failure f 25 
 
 educated class, and in many cases their sympathies, arrayed 
 on the side of truth, honour, justice, public spirit, universal 
 benevolence, virtues which are part and parcel of the 
 Christian character, but which heathenism never had and 
 never even felt the want of ; when I see that above all they 
 have acquired a conscience, a conscience testifying in their 
 breasts, as in ours, in behalf of God and goodness, how little 
 soever at times it may make itself, heard and compel obedi- 
 ence in them or in ourselves ; when I see that people have 
 ceased to fear, as at one time they feared, and as T well re- 
 member their fearing, that we were raising up by our new 
 system of education a more dangerous class than any that 
 ever existed in the country before, a class whose faith in 
 their own religion was shaken or destroyed, but who had 
 not adopted any other religion instead, and that on the 
 contrary the members of this new class are admitted, as a 
 general rule, to be better men, better citizens, better servants 
 of the State than any other class of natives the country ever 
 knew ; Avhen I see, in consequence of all this, the difference 
 there is, I will not say between the India of a hundred years 
 ago, but between the India of thirty years ago and the India 
 of to-day, in the ideas, tone of mind and tendencies of its 
 most influential classes ; though I am aware that the vast 
 majority of this class have not become Christians and will 
 probably die, as they have been living, in nominal heathenism, 
 though I am aware also that some of them are unwilling 
 even to render Christianity its due by crediting it with the 
 Christian ideas and feelings they have adopted — yet, looking at 
 all that has been brought about, directly by Christian teach- 
 ing and indirectly by the Christian influences brought to 
 bear on public education, I hold that we have no reason to 
 be ashamed of the efforts that have been made for the pro- 
 pagation of the Gospel in India, efforts without which 
 neither the mental and moral enlightenment we see 
 spreading around us, nor any of the fruits of that enlighten- 
 ment, would have had any existence. 
 
 The special object aimed at by Christian men, the con- 
 version of individuals, may only partially have been accom- 
 plished ; yet the means they have used for the accomplish- 
 ment of this object have brought into existence, perhaps 
 without their intention or even contrary to their wish, a 
 whole class of agencies of a more or less decidedly Christian 
 character, by which national results of the greatest possible 
 importance have been produced. 
 
 The natives of this country, the educated no less than
 
 26 Have Missions to tJie 
 
 the uneducated, perhaps I might say the educated in a still 
 greater degree than even the uneducated, are slow in acting 
 on their convictions, timid in resisting popular prejudice, 
 and sensitive in an extraordinary degree to domestic in- 
 tiuences. Hence it may happen that the whole mind of 
 India will have to become leavened with Christian ideas, as 
 thoroughly as the mind of the educated class now is, before 
 any great movement of the masses towards the public adop- 
 tion of Christianity commences. We ought not to doubt, 
 however, we cannot doubt, of linal success. ' The vision is 
 yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and 
 not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely 
 come ; ' and when it does come, it will probably be found 
 that it is all the more complete and harmonious in conse- 
 quence of having been long deferred. 
 
 When we come to the direct results of the propagation 
 of the Gospel in India, I fear I must expect that some who 
 have accompanied me hitherto will now stop short or range 
 themselves on the other side. A mere statement of the 
 case, therefore, with respect to what has been done, though it 
 might suffice in England, will not suffice in this country. 
 If I do not reply to objections I might as well be silent. 
 
 The tirst objection ordinarily met with is, that the 
 number of converts that have been made, even supposing 
 them all to be real converts, is so small as to render it doubt- 
 ful whether it is really the will and intention of Divine 
 Providence that India should ever be Christianized, and 
 doubtful, in consequence, whether the Missionary cause in 
 India is really one which it is the duty of every person to 
 help forward to the utmost extent of his power. Are those 
 who make this objection to Missionary work in India aware 
 that in this District alone the native Christians connected 
 with the two Church Societies number 54,000 souls and are 
 constantly increasing in number ? And that the number in 
 the adjoining district of South Travancore, connected with 
 the London Missionary Society, now reaches 26,000 ? If 
 they are aware of these facts and adhere to their objection 
 notwithstanding, because the number is not still greater, 1 
 fall back upon a position which will be found to be impreg- 
 nable. That position is, that numbers are no test of the 
 goodness of any cause, much less of the cause of God in a 
 rebellious world, and that neither present success nor pre- 
 sent failure is any criterion of religious duty. The Gospel 
 pledges itself to save every one that believeth, and is willing 
 to stand or fall by that test, but refuses to pledge itself that
 
 Heathen been a Failure f 2^ 
 
 a given number of persons in any country shall become be- 
 lievers within a given time. It is no shame to the light that 
 it is preceded by darkness, and that the darkness gives place 
 to it slowly. When we find the majority anywhere of opinion 
 that dishonesty is the best policy, the only result is that we 
 think it all the worse for that majority, no matter how over- 
 whelming a majority it may be ; we pity that majority and 
 hope it will see its error in time ; we never think of feeling 
 ashamed of honesty, on account of the low estimate in which 
 it is held, but on the 'contrary are as firmly persuaded as ever 
 that it is the best policy, and that sooner or later it will gain 
 the day. .Just so, whilst I admit that we might be ashamed 
 of the Gospel if it did not confer what it promises, or if it 
 did not eff'ect what it undertakes, so long as the only objec- 
 tion to its claims is that they are admitted only by a minority, 
 so long as the only objection to its propagation is that it 
 does not spread as fast as we could wish, we may safely con- 
 tent ourselves with asserting that we believe it to be from 
 God all the same, and certain to triumph in the end all the 
 same. It is ours to labour with patience and faith, but not 
 ours to make ourselves responsible for success. It is Paul 
 that plants and Apollos that waters, but it is God that 
 giveth the increase; and though we may be in a hurry and 
 get disappointed, it .is never so with Him. 'His purpose 
 stands, and He will do all His pleasure. ' His word shall 
 not return unto Him void ; but though it may not accom- 
 plish all that we wish or expect in any given place within 
 any given time, it will accomplish that which He pleases 
 and prosper in the thing whereto He sent it. 
 
 It is a more common and still more serious objection to 
 the reality of Missionary work in India that the converts 
 that have been made, whether their number be large or 
 small, are represented as being Christians only in name. 
 This is an objection which one meets with or hears of very 
 frequently in this country ; and it may almost be represented 
 as a general rule that native Christians are regarded by the 
 English residents in India as people who are deserving only 
 of their contempt. I fully acquit those who take this view 
 of intentional injustice or misrepresentation ; but I believe 
 them to be mistaken, and I think I can point out the origin 
 of their mistake. Their direct acquaintance with native 
 Christians is very slight and superficial, and almost every 
 idea they entertain as to what Christians are or ought to be, 
 is founded on what they know or imagine they know of 
 Christians of their own race. They take it for granted that
 
 28 Have Missions to the 
 
 English Christianity is substantially faultless, and when 
 they happen to meet with any native Christians and proceed 
 to measure them by this standard, the Christianity of the 
 natives appears to them as something so inferior to English 
 Christianity, that they feel tempted, not only to be ashamed 
 of it, but also to be ashamed of the efforts which have 
 ended in producing only such results. 
 
 There was a time, I admit, when I was accustomed to 
 compare the two classes of Christians in something of this 
 spirit myself, and when, even in m)'^ endeavours to defend 
 the native Christians from unmeasured censure, I was ac- 
 customed to admit as a matter of course the vast inferiority 
 of their Christianity to that of Europe. I would ask that 
 allowance should be made for the infancy of the Native 
 Church and the natural inferiority of the Hindu, both in 
 mind and body, to the European. I would argue that we 
 could not reasonably expect a clay model, still in the hands 
 of the sculptor, to equal the beauty of a marble statue which 
 had received almost its last touch from the sculptor's hands. 
 I would plead for time, and ask that Ave should show to- 
 wards the weaknesses of Indian Christians the same charity 
 and forbearance which we claimed for the weaknesses ap- 
 parent at one time in our own nation, at the commencement 
 of its Christian history. 
 
 Since that time I have had, an opportunity of revisiting 
 England, and of getting much better acquainted than I ever 
 was or could be before with the real condition of all classes 
 of people in England, down to the lowest class. I have had 
 an opportunity of correcting the superficial impressions of 
 youth by the careful observations of riper years. The public 
 in general are also, I think, much better informed now with 
 respect to the real condition of the various classes that make 
 up the mass of English society, than it used to be in the days 
 that preceded Social Statistics. The consequence is that 
 now I feel at liberty to take higher ground ; and not only do 
 1 not feel disposed now to be ashamed of native Christianity, 
 but I declare that the longer I live and the more 1 see and 
 hear and read of what takes place in the world, I see the 
 less reason for being ashamed of it, even when placed in 
 comparison with the old Christianity of European nations. 
 
 ' To compare ourselves amongst ourselves ' may not be 
 ' wise,' but we cannot avoid dealing with a comparison, 
 however unwise or unpleasant it may be, which is forced 
 upon us. I therefore accept the issue, and only ask that the 
 comparison be fairly made : for it is the unfairness with
 
 Heathen been a Failnre? 29 
 
 which it is sometimes conducted, not the comparison itself, 
 that is fitted to mislead. 
 
 Let me here mention what appear to me to be the con- 
 ditions of a fair comparison. 
 
 The native Christian community in a mass should be 
 compared, not with particular individuals in the English 
 Christian community, but with an equal portion of the mass 
 of that community. Each community has its nominal 
 Christians, in a greater or less degree restrained and im- 
 proved by their knowledge of the truth ; and each has, or 
 professes to have, its real Christians, sanctified by the truth. 
 The mass should therefore be compared with the mass, the 
 select few with the select few. If we have been speaking of 
 ' Native Christians, ' and have been using the term in the 
 wide meaning it has in that connection, as denoting native 
 Christians in a body, without discrimination of class from 
 class, it will not be fair to employ the word in another sense, 
 as soon as we begin to speak of English Christians, denoting 
 then not the English community in a mass, which is com- 
 posed of Christians by profession in a mass, but only such 
 English people as we consider to be Christians indeed. If, 
 for instance, Ave wish to estimate fairly the 80,000 native 
 Christians in this and the neighbouring district, v/e must 
 compare them; not with the select few of the English religious 
 class, or with the larger but still limited number of the 
 English respectable well-principled class, but with any mass 
 of 80,000 English people taken indiscriminately, educated 
 and uneducated, religious and irreligious, reputable and 
 disreputable. It matters little whether we take the entire 
 mass of the inhabitants of an English town, with a popula- 
 tion of 80,000, or the whole of the inhabitants of a country 
 district in England containing a like population, or 80,000 
 of the English resident in India, including all classes, 
 gentlemen, artificers, and private soldiers. 
 
 Again, the classes that are to be compared should as far 
 as possible be classes that hold a corresponding position in 
 society. Thus the native Christian labourer should be com- 
 pared, not with the English farmer, but with the English 
 labourer ; the native Christian farmer, not with the English 
 s»piire, but with the English farmer ; '■ the native Christian 
 domestic servant, not with the English masters and mis- 
 tresses, but with the English domestic servant. 
 
 Again, we ought not to compare a real picture of native 
 Christianity with an ideal picture of English Christianity, 
 but should endeavour to keep to the reality in one case as
 
 30 Have Missions to the 
 
 carefully as in the other. In depicting native Christianity 
 the scene we paint is one that is spread out before our eyes, 
 or at least it is spread out distinctly enough before the eyes 
 of those of us who are Missionaries, so that we can hardly 
 fail to put in its shadows correctly. In depicting English 
 society, which is far off out of our sight, Ave are in danger 
 of drawing our colours from our imaginations or our patriotic 
 feelings. We are in danger of being misled even by our 
 memories, for the knowledge of the various classes of English 
 society most of us possessed before we came out to this 
 country was very slight, indeed, and posp.ibly extended little 
 if anything beyond our own family circles. We must take 
 care, therefore, that the England, we paint, and Avhich we 
 compare with the native Christian community of this 
 country, is not an ideal England of our own, all churches 
 and virtuous firesides, with no such places in it as gin-shops, 
 and haunts of vice, and prisons, and no such people in it as 
 drunkards, profligates, swindleis, murderers, l)lasphemers ; 
 liut, on the contrary, such a real England, with all its real 
 goodness and its not less real badness, as would be admitted 
 to be in accordance with the reality by those most com- 
 ])etent judges, the. English clergyman and the English 
 surgeon. 
 
 1 add that we shall come to no conclusion at all, or be 
 led into a wrong conclusion, if V/:e content ourselves with 
 comparing the two communities, with respect to the position 
 occupied in each of them respectively, by some particular 
 vice, without considering to what extent that vice is heredi- 
 tary, and to what extent each class has succeeded in over- 
 coming or modifying it. It may be admitted that the 
 special national vice of the people of India, as. of most 
 (iViental nations, is untruthfulness. It may also be admitted 
 that the special national vice of the English, as of most of 
 the Northern nations, is intemperance. In each case the 
 prevailing vice is an inheritance received from a loug succes- 
 sion of previous generations. It is not a thing of recent 
 origin or a local peculiarity, but is a national and hereditary 
 evil ; and in each case the development of the evil in 
 individuals is stimulated by the mental and constitutional 
 bias which they have brought into the world with them. 
 The real question, therefore, is not whether the English are 
 more truthful than the natives, nor whether the natives 
 are more temperate . than the English, but Avhether the 
 Anglo-Saxon race has made more progress. since it embraced 
 Christianity towards mastering their tra4itionary vice of
 
 Heathen been a Failure ? 31 
 
 intemperance than the Cliristians of this country have made, 
 in proportion to the shortness of the period in which they 
 have been Christians, towards mastering their traditionary 
 vice of untruthfulness. This is an intelligible issue, and 
 one which is fair to both sides ; but though it is a fair issue, 
 I fear the result would be found to be pretty nearly as un- 
 satisfactory in the one case as in the other. Christian prin- 
 ciples are at work in each community, but it is chiefly 
 individuals here and there that exemplify their power, and 
 tlieir influence on the masses is not very conspicuous. 
 Hence, whilst it would be necessary to admit, and every 
 Missionary does admit, that the native Christians of this 
 country have not made satisfactory progress in learning to 
 be truthful, on the other hand there are not wanting persons 
 who are ready to maintain that the heathen ancestors of the 
 English race were not more intern pei^ate than the mass of 
 their Christian descendants are at the present day. 
 
 There has been a great improvement within the last fifty 
 years amongst the u]3per and middle classes in England, but 
 it may fairly be questioned whether any improvement is 
 apparent, as yet, as regards the drinking usages of the 
 masses. 
 
 Again, if we claim the right of judging, we should concede 
 the right of being judged. With Avhatsoever measure we 
 mete, it is but fair that we should allow it to be measured to 
 us again. We are ready enough to judge other races, and 
 ready enough to proclaim our judgment to the world, but 
 we are apt to forget that those other races may be disposed 
 to judge us in return. When the lion in the fable was 
 shown the picture of a man vanquishing a lion, he observed 
 that the subject would have been treated dilferently if lions 
 had been the painters. Possibly we should find in like man- 
 ner, if we endeavoured to ascertain tlie opinion of native 
 Christians respecting our superiority to them in all moral 
 and religious qualities, that it differed considerably from 
 ours ; but whether it differs from ours or not, and whether 
 it is a correct opinion or not, it is an opinion which claims 
 to be heard and weighed equally with our opinion of them. 
 It is a fact well known, to persons who have lived long in 
 the country, that the natives are well acquainted with the 
 private haliits and real character of all the Europeans in 
 the neighbourhood, and we shall greatly err if we fancy 
 that when they hear of the language in which we sometimes 
 speak of them, they will, refrain from making, any remarks 
 to one another about ug in return, and from/, drawing in-
 
 32 Have Missions to the 
 
 ferences from what tliey know respecting our morals and 
 religious peculiarities as a nation. To my mind, indeed, the 
 wonder is that they should venerate Christianity, and respect 
 the European as a race, so much as they do. 
 
 When the comparison is conducted after this manner, it 
 will probably be found that they who were at first most 
 desirous of instituting a comparison between 'the people of 
 England and the native Christians, for the honour and 
 glory of their own race, will be the first to wish it to be 
 dropped. It is very desirable, indeed, that such compari- 
 sons should be dropped, especially if one of the races com- 
 pared should be found to insist on making itself a judge in 
 its own cause. Sweeping condemnations provoke only 
 sweeping retaliations. When any Christian race, how 
 highly soever it may be endowed, and how great soever may 
 have been its services to mankind, exalts itself above every 
 other race, in the fasliion in which the Jews exalted them- 
 selves over the Gentiles as described by St. Paul in the 
 second chapter of the Epistle to the Eomans, when it sets 
 itself up as a ' guide to the blind, a light to them that are in 
 darkness,' a standard of universal excellence, a universal 
 and infallible judge, it naturally draws upon itself the 
 Apostle's rebuke, ' Thou art inexcusable, man (0 people), 
 whosoever thou art, that judgest, for thou that judgest 
 doest the same things.' 
 
 It were much more becoming for each race to humble 
 itself in the dust before God on account of its deficiencies, 
 than for either to profess to be ashflmed of the other. It were 
 better for each to pray, with the Publican ir. the parable, 
 ' God be merciful to me a sinner,' than for either to thank 
 God, Avith the Pharisee, ' Lord, 1 thank thee that I am not 
 like this (Indian or that English) publican.' 
 
 Setting aside all prejudices of race and colour, the fol- 
 lowing may perhaps be accepted as a fair view of the relative 
 position of the two varieties of Christianity. 
 
 Indian Christianity neither rises so high nor sinks so low 
 as English. England is -a country of bright lights and of 
 deep shadows. In India, or rather in the Indian Christian 
 community, bright lights and deep shadows are almost un- 
 known, and we see generally instead the equable grey light 
 of a dull day. If there arc fewer specimens of great excel- 
 lence in the native community than in the Englisli, there 
 are also fewer specimens of great depravity. The great gifts 
 which God has bestowed upon the English race are often- 
 times turned by the devil into great crimes. The Indian
 
 Heathen been a Failure? 33 
 
 race, less highly gifted, possessing less to answer for, has a 
 smaller reward to expect and a lighter punishment to fear. 
 
 Hitherto I have been speaking of the Native Christian com- 
 munity as a whole, with the view of ascertaining whether we 
 have any reason to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, with 
 respect to the results it has produced in it as a community. 
 
 It remains that I should say something of a class included 
 within that class, the class of persons who really believe 
 what all profess to believe, and to whom the Gospel is * the 
 power of God unto salvation.' Here I expect to be met 
 with the expression of a doubt whether any such class of 
 persons is to be found in the native Christian community ; 
 and possibly this may be followed up by the expression of a 
 doubt, which is almost as common, whether any such class 
 of persons is to be found anywhere. 
 
 I admit that the native Christians who are to be regarded 
 as earnest consistent Christians form only a small minority 
 of the total ■ number ; and will not this have to be admitted 
 to be the case in every portion of the Christian Church ? But 
 if the existence of any real Christians whatever in the native 
 Christian community is doubted, it may safely be affirmed 
 that the doubt proceeds from persons who are unacquainted 
 with the interior of our Missions. If it be objected that the 
 existence of this class of persons depends on the testimony 
 of Missionaries alone, who are interested parties in the case, 
 and is not confirmed by the testimony of judges, magistrates, 
 and other official persons who are brought so largely into 
 contact with natives, I reply, how could it be otherwise 
 with respect to an entire half of this class, the women, who 
 are never seen or heard of by any Europeans but the Mis- 
 sionaries ? How could it be otherwise, also, with respect even 
 to the men belonging to this class, except under some very 
 extraordinary circumstances, seeing that it is of the very 
 essence of the character of such persons that they are not 
 litigious or quarrelsome, and that they do not ' strive or cry, 
 or cause their voice to be heard in the streets.' I may add 
 that if the judges and magistrates in England differed from 
 tlie people of the country in race, caste, modes of life and 
 language, and had no means of forming any opinion respect- 
 ing the existence or otherwise of real Christianity amongst 
 the mass of the people, except from the impression produced 
 in their minds by the parties who appeared before them in 
 their courts, the opinion they arrived at respecting English 
 ('hristians in general would probably be far from beinc a 
 favourable one.
 
 34 Have Missions to the 
 
 I can bear testimony from my own personal knowledge, and 
 711 y testimony is that of a person who has long had excellent 
 opportunities for ascertaining the truth of what he says, I 
 can bear testimony from my own personal knowledge to the 
 existence among the Christians of this country of a class of 
 persons, small in number, but ' precious in the sight of the 
 Lord,' who have a right to be regarded as real Christians. 
 They are a small, but an increasing class ; and I hold, that 
 taking fairly into consideration the educational disadvantages 
 and the comparatively low social status of most of their 
 number, they will bear a comparison with any Christians 
 belonging to a similar station in life in England or anywhere 
 else. Remembering that we never can know the private life 
 of any class of people in England so well as we know the 
 private life — if that can be called private which is perfectly 
 public — of native Christians in this country, I maintain 
 that the real earnest Christians of our Indian Missions have 
 no need to shrink from comparison with the real eaiTiest 
 Christians in a similar station in life and similarly circum- 
 stanced in England or in any other part of the world. The 
 style of character they exhibit is one which those who are 
 well acquainted with them cannot but like. 1 think I do 
 not exaggerate when I affirm that they appear to me in 
 general more teachable and tractable, more considerate of 
 the feelings of others and more respectful to sujieriors, more 
 uniformly temperate, more patient and gentle, more trustful 
 in Providence, better church-goers, yet freer from religious 
 bigotry, and in proportion to their means more liberal, than 
 Chrisdans in England holding a similar position in the social 
 scale. I do not for a moment pretend that they are free 
 from imperfections ; on the contrary, living amongst them 
 as I do from day to dav, I see their imperfections daily, and 
 daily do I 'reprove, rebuke, exhort,' as I see need ; but I am 
 bound to say that when I have gone anywhere, and look 
 back upon the Christians of this country from a distance, or 
 compare them with what T have seen and known of Chris- 
 tians in other countries, I find that their good qualities 
 have left a deeper impression in my mind than their imper- 
 fections. I do not know a perfect native Christian, and I 
 may add that I do not know a perfect English Christian ; 
 but this I see and know, that in both classes of Christians 
 may be traced distinct marks and proofs of the power of 
 the Gospel, new sympathies and virtues, and a new and 
 heavenward aim. 
 
 1 will add a fact, which must necessarily appear a very
 
 Heathen been a Failure? 35 
 
 convinciug one to myself. There lived a native Christian a 
 few years ago — rather I should say there lives, for he still 
 lives with God — with respect to whom I am ahle to say, and 
 I say it without any disparagement of Christian brethren of 
 my own nation, that I derived more benefit from my daily 
 intercourse in daily labour with that ever earnest, ever 
 humble, ever spiritually-minded man, than I did from any 
 other person whatever during the whole period of my labours 
 in these parts. I boldly say, therefore, that I am not 
 ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, or of the efforts that are 
 being made for its propagation in India. I see that here, as 
 elsewhere, ' it is the power of God unto salvation to every 
 one that believeth,' and my only anxiety is to see the number 
 of persons that really believe increased, 
 
 T admit that persons of the class I speak of are few at 
 present, sometimes only one or tAVO such persons can be 
 pointed out in a small country congregation, sometimes 
 scarcely even one, whilst four or five such persons in a con- 
 gregation containing a hundred souls of all ages would be 
 regarded in most cases as evincing a more than ordinarily 
 satisfactory state of things. But if this should be repre- 
 sented as a reason for holding that the Gospel, or the propa- 
 gation of the Gospel in India, does not produce the same 
 effects as in England, I cannot forget how often I have heard 
 clergymen at home, especially in the country districts, 
 lamenting the almost total absence of interest in religion, 
 the absence of spiritual life, the absence of anything like 
 real Christian piety in their own congregations, and in various 
 congregations that they knew. Many a place I visited at 
 home seemed a second Paradise to the outward eye, but on 
 becoming better acquainted with the moral and religious 
 condition of the people, I often found that its resemblance 
 to Paradise disappeared very completely. 
 
 It is lamentable that such a state of things should exist, 
 but it is lamentable wherever we find it, whether in England 
 or in India, perhaps still more in England than in India ; 
 and 1 comfort myself with believing that so long as the 
 results of the Gospel where it is really believed are in accord- 
 ance with its profession, so long as it saves everyone who 
 believes, how many or how few soever such persons may 
 be, though there may be reason for our being ashamed of 
 ourselves and of our nationalities, there is no reason why we 
 should be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ."
 
 LONDON : 
 
 It. Cr.AY, SONS, AND TAYLOH, PitlNTKRS 
 
 BREAD STRKE'l HIT,!..
 
 m