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.
[Illustration: NAGERCOIL SEMINARY.]
[Illustration: SCHOOL-HOUSE, CUDDAPAH.]