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Various >> Fruits of Toil in the London Missionary Society
[Frontispiece: TAHITI.]
Fruits of Toil
IN THE
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS AND SKETCHES
[Illustration: POINT VENUS LIGHTHOUSE, TAHITI.]
LONDON:
JOHN SNOW & CO., IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1869.
"Sow in the morn thy seed,
At eve hold not thine hand;
To doubt and fear give thou no heed,
Broad-cast it o'er the land.
"Beside all waters sow;
The highway furrows stock;
Drop it where thorns and thistles grow;
Scatter it on the rock.
"Thou canst not toil in vain;
Cold, heat, and moist and dry,
Shall foster and mature the grain
For garners in the sky."
Fruits of Toil
IN THE
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
When our fathers established this Society they were met by a
formidable array of difficulties of which we know nothing. Gathered
in fellowship when the infidel principles of the French Revolution
were doing deadly work, and soon involved in the national struggle
of the great war, they found little to encourage them in the outward
aspects of their position. Christian men were few; Christian
churches were small and scattered; money was scarce; Christian
benevolence was little understood. The wide world of Christian
effort opened to us was almost wholly closed against them. They could
enter the South Seas; though their islands were almost unknown. But
the West Indies were close shut. "If you preach to the slaves," said
the Governor of Demerara to a missionary, "I cannot let you stay
here." They were excluded from South Africa and from India. China
was sealed, and remained so for forty years. Passages were expensive;
voyages were full of discomfort; letters were few. They knew little
of the manners and systems of heathen nations; they knew less of their
literature; they knew nothing of their languages. Dictionaries,
literature, buildings, converts, everything had to be produced.
Their fields of labour were unprepared. Their message and their
aims were little understood.
In all these elements of usefulness we occupy at this hour a position
of usefulness, in marked contrast to that of our predecessors. With
a mighty advance in practical freedom, in intelligence and education,
in social comfort, in material resources, the entire religious life
of England has secured a solidity, an elevation, and a general
influence of the most marvellous kind. In the number and wealth of
our churches, in the character and position of the ministry, the
Society ought to find supporters immeasurably in advance of the few
but earnest friends of seventy years ago. Our missions have made
indescribable progress. Our agencies continue to grow more complete.
Churches have been gathered; the members of which are no longer
novices in Christian truth and Christian life. The time has come for
a native ministry; and a larger number appear on our lists than ever
before. And last, but not least, the full and faithful preaching of
the gospel, for which our missionary brethren have ever been
distinguished, and the employment of Christian education, have made
a marked impression upon heathenism; have broken its prestige, have
silenced its objections, and have prepared the way for future
victories, more triumphant in their grandeur than anything the
Society has yet seen.
But this advanced and noble position, which is the proof of success
in the past, and the guarantee and instrument of larger results in
days to come, is precisely that attainment and possession of our
Society, which the friends of the Society appear least to appreciate.
It seems to be thought that now, as ever, missionaries just preach
to the heathen and give away books; they teach a few boys and girls;
win a few souls; and send a few teachers into the districts around.
All that is true. But the high and solid work beyond it--all that
superior influence which the Society and its missionaries are
exercising, in Christianizing communities, in sanctifying all the
great elements of their public and social life, in destroying the
very roots of their heathenism, and in preparing the way for
enlightened, disciplined, independent churches, sound in faith and
full of life--all this has been little understood. Had it been duly
realised, it is incredible that the ministers and churches which
sustain the Society should quietly continue to give for its
maintenance the same narrow income which they gave to it thirty years
ago.
I.--RECENT DIFFICULTIES.
The result of this irrepressible growth, fostered by the kind
providence and loving care of the Master for whom the service has
been done, was for the Directors, in their management of the
Society's affairs, embarrassment, difficulty, and debt. That
embarrassment commenced with the year 1866, when the accounts were
closed with a balance of 7450 pounds against the Society, which was
paid from the legacy fund reserved for such a contingency. During
the entire year the Directors had the difficulty in view, and adopted
a series of measures to meet it. Special Meetings were held with the
London ministers and officers of churches, to lay before them the
growing needs of our Foreign Missions. Papers were published by the
Home Secretary, showing the growth of those missions, with the
increased claims they present for agency and help; and urging that
an addition of at least 10,000 pounds a year is needed to the
Society's permanent income. In the autumn Auxiliary meetings the
missionary Deputations were urged specially to make the facts known.
In February a solemn and impressive meeting for prayer was held by
a hundred and twenty of the London ministers and Directors.
But these measures did not at once remove the difficulty. In numerous
instances old friends of the Society, and churches which have ever
been its chief supporters, not only expressed hearty sympathy with
these efforts, but increased their contributions and rendered
substantial help. Various consultations ensued, and a Special
Committee was requested, to indicate the course which, in their calm
judgment, the Directors ought to take, to meet the difficulties of
their position.
Their Report pointed out various defects in the Society's system of
account, and in the audit of details in the expenditure which is
incurred abroad. It noted especially that since--on the system till
then in force--the initiative in that expenditure had been placed
to a large extent in the hands of the missionaries themselves, the
Board did not possess sufficient and effective control over its
growth and its specific application. And it recommended that, as in
some other Societies, a system of annual appropriations should be
adopted, by which the available income of each year might be made
to sustain existing schemes of usefulness, without bringing the
Society into debt. Further, the Committee recommended that, as the
expenditure had greatly increased in recent years, on the one hand,
in consultation with the missionaries, that expenditure should be
carefully revised; and, on the other, all available efforts should
be made to increase the Society's income. After full and earnest
consideration of this truly valuable Report, the Board adopted the
following RESOLUTIONS, which gave special satisfaction to the
Delegates and country Directors, and met with the marked approval
of all the Society's friends:--
"1. THAT, this Board approve the proceedings of the Special Finance
Committee, in securing the services of a competent Accountant to
examine the system on which the SOCIETY'S ACCOUNTS are kept, with
a view to the introduction of all practicable improvements; and in
instructing their own Accountant to give the details of the principal
Stations, and show the items on which the outlay has taken place.
"2. THAT, with a view to secure a more complete control over the
Society's funds, an ANNUAL ESTIMATE be desired in advance from every
Station and Treasurer abroad, as well as from the Home Secretary,
of all the expenses anticipated for the coming year; that the Board
may sanction, for that year only, such amount as its probable income
may enable it to meet; and THAT all payments be strictly forbidden
unless that definite sanction has been first accorded.
"3. THAT the ACCOUNTS be kept, at home and abroad, on a COMMON SYSTEM;
and that each of the Foreign Committees in the Mission House be
requested to appoint a small AUDIT BOARD, whose duty it shall be to
audit the accounts of the Stations under its charge, and to see that
the expenditure is strictly confined to the sums which the Board have
sanctioned.
"4. THAT all the efforts already carried on for some time to increase
the knowledge, the interest, the contributions, and the prayers of
the Society's friends throughout the country, be continued, and,
where practicable, increased.
"5. THAT the Board regard with the most serious concern the rapid
increase in the expenditure of the various Missions; and, desiring
to see that expenditure not only placed under firm control, but
applied in all respects in the wisest way, they instruct all their
Committees most carefully to REVISE THE ENTIRE EXPENDITURE under
their superintendence, and, in accordance with the Resolution passed
on May 6th, specially to keep in view a judicious reduction of that
expenditure in the case of prosperous churches in districts largely
Christianized."
II.--REVISION OF THE MISSIONS ABROAD.
In considering the state of the Society's finances, the Special
Committee recommended, in strong terms, not only that some reduction
should be made in the expenditure, but that the character of that
expenditure should be carefully examined. They recommended that the
Board should take full advantage of the opportunity furnished by the
present crisis, for placing the entire system of payments in their
Foreign Missions upon the soundest footing, and for determining the
principles by which those payments shall be regulated. The Directors
accepted these suggestions, and since then the three Foreign
Committees, into which the London Board is divided, have devoted much
attention to the system of their Foreign Missions.
In the case of each of the Missions examined, they carefully laid
down the principles applicable to the condition of the Native
churches; the forms of missionary labour among the heathen; the
number and work of the Society's missionaries; the number and labours
of Native agents engaged in purely mission work; and the state of
education. The present scale and details of expenditure were
examined; and then, to every element of the system an APPROPRIATION
for the year was made of that amount of money which, in the judgment
of the Directors, the Society could justly spare from the funds which
they have at their command. A Schedule of these allowances in every
group of Missions was next drawn out, exhibiting the sums available
for the expenditure of the year, and was forwarded to the Mission
concerned. And finally, a special DESPATCH which accompanied the
Warrants, was written to the members of every Mission, in order to
explain in the fullest manner the views of the Directors respecting
that Mission, and the form which, in their judgment, the aid of the
Society should for the future assume. Again, while the Society enjoys
the services of a large number of able, conscientious, and spiritual
men, as devoted as ever their predecessors were to missionary work,
it was seen to be essential to their fullest efficiency, that they
should be brought into closer union with each other abroad, and with
the system of the Society at home; that the personal comfort of the
mission families should be more fully secured under the changed
circumstances of modern days; and that the experience of each field
of labour should be so wrought into the general system as to prove
a helper to all the rest.
The result of the system to the Society's finances has been economy,
compactness, and strength. While in several cases the personal
income of the missionaries has been increased, yet, by limiting the
amount of the Native agency to be employed in evangelistic work; by
reducing the help hitherto granted to the Native Christians for their
incidental expenditure; and by enforcing economy in all minor
matters at home as well as abroad; the Board have been able to bring
down the total expenditure of the Society to a point much nearer the
range of the Society's ordinary income than it has for several years
past. They have provided, however, only for the necessities of their
present operations. They need a larger income still, if the friends
of the Society would wish them to undertake that extension of their
Missions into new fields which the world needs, for which the
missionaries earnestly plead, and which they themselves are most
anxious to secure. The effect of the system on certain of the Native
churches has been a most healthy one. As hoped for, it is beginning
to stimulate them to manliness, and to a more earnest consecration,
not only of their means, but of their personal service to the
Saviour's work.
III.--THE SOCIETY'S PRESENT OPERATIONS.
The revision now described has furnished materials for exhibiting,
in a more complete form than usual, the present agencies of the
Society, and some of the results with which its labours have been
blessed. In a few of the older Missions of the Society, the duty of
instructing the heathen has been almost complete; the population are
nominally Christian, and in most of these communities there is a
strong nucleus of spiritual life in a valuable body of Church members.
This is the case in Polynesia, in the West Indies, and in many
stations in South Africa. Around many strong churches in Madagascar,
in India, and in China, the sphere of heathenism is still very large.
Several stations in those Missions--well planted for the influence
required of them--may now be occupied by the Native minister instead
of the English missionary. The number of chief stations in all the
Missions is 130.
The NATIVE CHURCHES of the Society are 150 in number. They contain
35,400 members: in a community of nominal Christians, young and old,
amounting to 191,700 persons. Of these, nearly 13,000 are in
Polynesia; nearly 5,000 in the West Indies; over 5,000 in South
Africa; and 3,400 in India. The converts under the Society's care
speak altogether twenty-six languages.
The general scope of the Society's efforts, so far as figures can
show it, is set forth in the following Table:--
GENERAL SUMMARY.
+----------------+--------+---------+---------+--------+---------+
| |English | Native | Native | Church | Native |
| MISSIONS. |Mission-| Ordained| Preach- | Mem- | Adher- |
| |aries. | Pastors.| ers. | bers. | ents. |
+----------------+--------+---------+---------+--------+---------+
|1. CHINA | 21 | 4 | 40 | 1265 | 2367 |
| | | | | | |
|2. NORTH INDIA | 18 | 6 | 20 | 284 | 1374 |
| | | | | | |
|3. SOUTH INDIA | 22 | 11 | 65 | 882 | 3408 |
| | | | | | |
|4. TRAVANCORE | 8 | 11 | 190 | 2228 | 32,362 |
| | | | | | |
| (MADAGASCAR | 12 | 20 | 532 | 7066 | 37,112 |
|5.( AND | | | | | |
| (MAURITIUS | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| | | | | | |
|6. SOUTH AFRICA | 33 | 1 | 30 | 5866 | 31,197 |
| | | | | | |
|7. WEST INDIES | 13 | 2 | 14 | 4972 | 14,240 |
| | | | | | |
|8. POLYNESIA | 28 | 26 | 249 | 12,924 | 69,738 |
+----------------+--------+---------+---------+--------+---------+
| TOTALS | 156 | 81 | 1140 | 35,487 | 191,798 |
+----------------+--------+---------+---------+--------+---------+
+----------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| | SCHOOLS. |
| +-----------------------+-----------------------+
| | BOYS. | GIRLS. |
| +-----+------+----------+-----+------+----------+
| MISSIONS. |Sch- |Schol-| Fees. |Sch- |Schol-| Fees. |
| |00ls.| ars. |pnd. s. d.|ools.| ars. |pnd. s. d.|
+----------------+-----+------+----------+-----+------+----------+
|1. CHINA | 16 | 354| 0 13 6| 7 | 103| 26 0 0|
| | | | | | | |
|2. NORTH INDIA | 15 | 2076|1036 3 1| 16 | 375| 12 10 0|
| | | | | | | |
|3. SOUTH INDIA | 47 | 2858| 706 2 10| 31 | 1494| 9 2 8|
| | | | | | | |
|4. TRAVANCORE | 180 | 6646| ... ... | 30 | 1595| ... ... |
| | | Boys and Girls. | | | |
| (MADAGASCAR | 28 | 1735| 9 7 6| ... | ...| ... ... |
|5.( AND | | | | | | |
| (MAURITIUS | ... | ... | ... ... | ... | ...| ... ... |
| | | | | | | |
|6. SOUTH AFRICA | 39 | 1332| 32 10 11| 25 | 1473| 19 2 0|
| | | | | | | |
|7. WEST INDIES | 35 | 2040| 317 0 10| 35 | 1691| 269 11 1|
| | | | | | | |
|8. POLYNESIA | 229 | 6715| ... ... | 212 | 6695| ... ... |
+----------------+-----+------+----------+-----+------+----------+
| TOTALS | 589 |23,756|2101 18 8| 356 |13,426| 336 5 9|
+----------------+-----+------+----------+-----+------+----------+
+----------------+----------------+
| | LOCAL |
| | CONTRIBUTIONS, |
| MISSIONS. | &c. |
| | pound. s. d. |
+----------------+----------------+
|1. CHINA | 374 1 4 |
| | |
|2. NORTH INDIA | 1435 14 9 |
| | | pound. s. d.
|3. SOUTH INDIA | 1793 13 6 | *From English Friends
| | | 4,200 0 0
|4. TRAVANCORE | 1220 0 0 | From Native Converts
| | | 11,647 2 3
| (MADAGASCAR | 479 17 7 | ------------
|5.( AND | | 15,847 2 3
| (MAURITIUS | ... ... |
| | | Fees--Boys
|6. SOUTH AFRICA | 2125 3 10 | 2,101 18 8
| | | Fees--Girls
|7. WEST INDIES | 4730 16 8 | 336 5 9
| | | ------------
|8. POLYNESIA | 3687 14 7 | 2,438 4 5
+----------------+----------------+ ------------
| TOTALS | 15,847 2 3* | 18,285 6 8
+----------------+----------------+
IV.--THE SOCIETY'S MISSIONARIES.
But Statistical Tables cannot show the real character of the
Society's work, or the breadth of influence which that work has
attained. The hundred and fifty-six English missionaries of the
Society in foreign lands constitute the central force and stimulus
of a wider agency, numbering twelve hundred persons, gathered among
people once heathen, now Christian; an agency adopting the same aims,
ruled by the same Christian spirit, and fulfilling the same Divine
command. This body of true and devoted men were never rendering to
the Society a nobler service than at the present time; and were never
more worthy of our highest esteem. It is, therefore, with indignation
and regret that Christian men have seen the recent attacks made on
the whole missionary body, and the contemptuous terms in which their
labours have been described. Looking away from all that is temporary
and special, and contemplating that which springs from their
ordinary duties, the Directors would never forget what a noble
position missionaries occupy, and how truly great, from its very
nature, their work is. They have gone forth from home and country
as ambassadors of God, to preach His message of forgiveness; to bring
the Saviour in His human life to those who have never understood Him;
to save the perishing, and bind them as with golden chains to the
feet of God. They are battling with error, and breaking up the iron
systems of priestcraft, inhumanity, and wrong, which have enslaved
men for ages, and have shut off from them the light and love of their
Heavenly Father. They are staying the progress of crime; they lay
the hand of law on the slaveholder; they appeal to the drunkard; they
clear out the dens of vice; and to the hopeless and despairing they
open up long vistas of light and gladness, which terminate only in
Heaven. Everywhere they are preaching with power. Their Divine
message is quickening the dead conscience of nations: it is
converting the wicked, and saving souls from death; it is lifting
women from the dust; it is purifying family life; it is putting trade
under rules of honesty, and teaching humanity where cruelty was the
universal rule. Its principles are going down to the very roots of
national life; it is substituting law for force; and is moulding
young communities for a higher life in all their people, a closer
union to their fellow-men, because they are gaining a holier and
truer union with God.
[Illustration: MR. VIVIAN'S HOUSE, RAIATEA.]
They are doing this among great varieties of place and people; amid
many forms of outer life; amid many grades of human comfort and human
resources. Some labour among the most glorious manifestations of
creative might; others upon scorched and barren plains; others in
the busy life of cities; others in lonely isles. In labours abundant,
in perils oft, by example, by preaching, by prayers, everywhere they
seek to approve themselves unto God, and serve their generation
according to His will. Politicians may lecture them: men of science
may undervalue them. Time-serving editors may pour on them their
scorn; they may be called enthusiasts, or be socially despised; but
steadfast in duty, unmoved by reproach or praise, they will reply:
"Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober,
it is for your cause." Our "meat is to do the will of Him that sent
us, and to finish His work."
[Illustration: BENGALI GIRLS' SCHOOL, CALCUTTA.]
[Illustration: CAPTAIN COOK'S TREE, TAHITI.]
It is impossible for any Report to describe in detail, and with full
justice, the varied labours in which these brethren are engaged. Like
ministers at home, our Missionaries preach the Gospel; instruct,
govern, and build up churches; watch over the young, and stir up their
people's zeal. But they do a great deal more. Placed in many cases
in simple states of society, on a low level of education and social
connection, as well as of religion; in states of society saturated
with heathen vices and heathen beliefs, our missionaries have not
only to Christianize individual souls, but to Christianize
literature, to Christianize public law, to form a healthy public
opinion, to sanctify public taste. Forms of agency, therefore,
unneeded at home, are required on every hand; varied in character,
at times expensive, all carefully adapted to the case with which they
deal. And it is in the employment, the adaptation of these means to
their appointed ends, that missionaries specially prove themselves
"wise to win souls."
[Illustration: INSTITUTION AT MALUA, SAMOA.]
Thus it is that not only on the Sabbath but through the week, not
only in the pulpit but in the school, the market, the private house,
in a boat, under a spreading tree, our brethren expound and enforce
that Gospel which shall sanctify and govern the hearts of many
nations. Thus it is in the cities of China and India, in the villages
of Africa, among the swamps of Guiana, beneath the palm groves of
Samoa, they seek to be instant in season and out of season. Some are
pastors of churches, others preach almost entirely to the heathen.
Some are training students in seminaries. Some superintend a range
of simple schools; others, in Indian cities, give large time and
effort to the important Institutions taught in the English and Native
languages. A few are revising translations of the Bible; others are
preparing commentaries, school-books, and other Christian
literature. All have to share in building; and, besides the Medical
missionaries, a great number constantly give medicine to the sick.
Here we see Dr. TURNER, in the admirable seminary at Malua, training
the Native Teachers; Mr. EDKINS and Mr. MUIRHEAD penetrate the
Mongolian desert, to inquire into the place and prospects of a
Mission among the Tartar tribes; while Mr. JOHN, after completing
the new Hospital, is isolated within a vast sea, the overflowings
of the mighty Yangtze, which has drowned half the streets of Hankow.
We see Mr. ASHTON and Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. COLES and Mr. BLAKE, Mr. HALL
and Mr. RICE, surrounded by the hundreds of their students and
scholars, diligent in daily English studies. We see the TRAVANCORE
brethren in the midst of their many agents; advising pastors,
instructing catechists, reading evangelists' journals, examining
candidates, and auditing accounts; while, in their midst, Dr. LOWE
and his seven students administer to their crowd of patients in the
hospital that medicine which shall relieve their pain. Dr. MATHER
re-edits the Hindustani Scriptures. The brothers STRONACH,
fellow-labourers indeed in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ;
still watch over the prosperous churches of Amoy, which they were
honoured to found. In the midst of barbarism, Mr. MOFFAT carefully
revises that Sichuana Bible of which he was the first translator.
In the midst of civilization, after reading the proofs of the Chinese
New Testament, Dr. LEGGE, consulting his learned pundits, dives deep
into the ancient Chinese classics, and strives, by an erudite
commentary, to make plain the early history of China. While Mr. LAWES,
who describes himself as the "poet laureate" of Savage Island, after
completing the New Testament, prepares the first Christian hymn book,
for the use of the converts he has brought to Christ. Mr. THOMPSON,
visiting the Missions in Cape Colony, drives with hard toil across
the fiery dust of the Karroo desert; Mr. JANSEN and Mr. MUNRO, in
their long canoe, traverse the gorgeous and silent forests of Guiana,
to visit the little Mission among the Indians below the rapids of
the Berbice. Mr. MURRAY, opportunely arriving in a screw steamer,
prevents war among the Christians of Manua; Mr. CHALMERS, voluntary
leader of the band of converts who keep the _John Williams_ afloat,
sticks by the vessel to the last, and, with his brave wife, refuses
to quit the ship till she is anchored safe in Sydney harbor. While
Mr. PHILIP, pastor and schoolmaster, doctor and lawyer, engineer and
magistrate, of the flourishing Hottentot Christians of Hankey, when
overturned in a ravine on a visit to his out-station, preaches to
his people with a broken arm, rather than deprive them of that bread
of heaven which they had come many miles to hear. Who would not
rejoice and thank God for such men? Of the ninety Protestant
Missionaries labouring in China, the five who stand first in public
estimation for character, scholarship, and zeal are missionaries of
this Society. Among the five hundred missionaries of India, not a
few of our brethren occupy a high and honoured place; while in all
other of the older Missions the men who with fidelity and zeal have
steadily maintained their posts for twenty-five and thirty years are
numerous, and are all held in honour. A just consideration of toil
like this will show that never in the Society's history had the
Directors greater reason to thank God for the grace bestowed upon
their missionaries, or stronger ground for holding them in esteem
as workmen not needing to be ashamed.