The high and useful position attained by the Society is further
illustrated by the character and importance of the Native Churches.
These are our actual converts, the most striking, the most patent,
if not the most real among the fruits of our past labours. These
churches are unevenly distributed, but the explanation is easy. As
a rule, they are largest in fields of labour which have been longest
cultivated, and where converts are easily won. They appear,
therefore, in inverse ratio to time and difficulty. To the native
races of Polynesia, desolated by wars, torn in pieces by faction and
strife, Christianity came as the healer and peace-maker, and was
welcomed as soon as understood. To the native races of South Africa,
and to the people of the West Indies, to the weak who had been crushed
and enslaved by the strong, it came with loving smiles as deliverer
and friend. By the devil-worshipper of Travancore, ignorant,
degraded, friendless, afraid of malignant spirits, it was welcomed
for its kindness. To the caste-ridden people of the great cities and
towns, to the sudra of South India, to the Brahmins everywhere, it
came as an enemy, destroying their social life, breaking up the bonds
of Hindooism, smiting the gods, putting down the priesthood,
destroying the vested interest, and drying up the wealth produced
by centuries. Who can wonder that to the learned, the powerful, the
bigoted, it was "foolishness;" while to the despised and poor,
accepted in a child-like spirit, it became the power of God unto
salvation? As a rule, the converts, who were easy to win, have been
hard to raise; and in ordinary Christian life some of the most zealous,
the most consistent, the most liberal, the most missionary, have been
found among the few converts, drawn by hard struggles and heavy
penalties, from the caste population of our Indian towns. It is from
such came nearly all our first ordained Native Ministers.
[Illustration: THE GOD BEATER.]
But, whether easily or hardly won, we rejoice in the fact that at
this hour the three hundred Churches gathered through the ministry
of this Society contain thirty-five thousand members; and that round
them, looking to them for instruction, and influenced by their
example, lives a population of not less than one hundred and ninety
thousand souls, who have given up all idolatry, and call Christianity
their religion.
* * * * *
The GENERAL CHARACTER of these church members, their attainments in
knowledge, the amount of their moral strength, the enlightenment of
conscience, their peculiar deficiencies, are topics frequently
dwelt upon in missionaries' letters, and find a conspicuous place
in the annual reports. Who can doubt that, should occasion arise,
the converts of MADAGASCAR would still emulate the fidelity of the
brethren who gave themselves to clanging fetters and the fiery flame
rather than deny Christ? When bitterly persecuted by bigoted priests,
the Christians of UEA still possess their souls in patience, and with
their chapels burnt, their plantations desolated, and their
companions beaten, they hold on to the truth as it is in Jesus, and
refuse to bow the knee to the Baal of Rome. In the Calcutta Mission
last year, as heretofore, converts have been found to bear reproach
and shame for Christ rather than be numbered among idolaters. Still
do the tried Christians of POKLO show how grace reigns in China.
The great Christian virtues, the fruits of the Spirit, are developed
in these churches as in the older realms of Christendom. In them
enlightened conscience makes war with sin; Christian love casts out
fear; the eye of faith sees heaven in a dying hour. Scarcely a report
is written that does not illustrate these excellencies. We must not
undervalue what here we have gained. It is not only that so many
individual souls have been saved. We have rescued them from
heathenism, from false religion, from the advocacy of error, from
the practice of error, from open, unchecked vice and crime. We have
drawn them from the world's disorders and cruelty, from wrong and
misery. In the great warfare with vice, they have changed sides, and
are now valiant for the truth. We have drawn not only them but their
children; we have drawn them, not as isolated individuals, but as
families, as neighbours, as fellow citizens, as nations. We have
drawn into the church, for man's happiness, and the Lord's glory,
all the influences of their private, social, and public life. We have
won their intelligence, their moral life, their literature, their
material resources, their public law. Henceforth heathenism has lost
them, and Christ has placed His sanctifying hand on all they have
and all they are. These Christians are all His; their children His,
and generations as they succeed each other shall be more completely
His, to give Him all the glory of their growing love, and add their
contribution of immortal souls to His Millennial reign.
"For to His triumph soon,
He shall descend, who rules above,
And the pure language of His love
All tongues of men shall tune."
Our earliest mission in Polynesia is constantly offering evidence
of the power of the Gospel. The Rev. J. King of Savaii, gives the
following striking illustration:--
"PENIAMINA (Benjamin), was one of the first converts in Samoa, and
for thirty years he has maintained an unblemished character. A short
time ago I took down from his own lips the story of his life, or I
might rather say of his two lives; so great a contrast does the latter
half of his life present to the former. The one is the life of the
ignorant and corrupt Pagan, the other that of the humble follower
and devoted disciple of the Lord Jesus. All who know Peniamina would
concur in this testimony that he is one of the brightest gems that
has been won for Christ in Samoa. His praise is in all the churches.
As a pastor he has done good service. For a number of years he has
had the oversight of one of our churches in the out-stations, and
so beloved was he by his people, that when, through age, his eyesight
failed, and he could no longer read the Scriptures in public, they
begged that he would still preach to them, and asked that a young
man might be appointed to read the Scriptures for him. This he did
for some time, until he became so infirm, that he was compelled to
resign. But when he proposed to return to his native village, that
he might die amongst his kindred, according to the invariable custom
in Samoa, his people begged that he would not leave them; and that,
as he had devoted so much of his strength to their good, they might
be allowed to 'nurse' him in his old age, and to have the honour of
burying him in their own village. But the national custom prevailed
over their entreaties. A few days after he had taken farewell of his
Church, he called on me, and gave me a few steel pens, the remainder
of some I had given him for writing his sermons. As he gave them to
me, he said, 'I have finished my work: I shall write no more sermons;
and that nothing may be wasted that is useful in the work of God,
let these pens be given to a younger man, who is still able to write
sermons.' This incident is characteristic of the man, and will
illustrate his simple uprightness, and his concern for the work of
God. He is now very infirm, but strong in faith; he is calmly waiting
to be summoned to his reward."
Much more might be written on this topic, and these illustrations
of Christian experience might easily be multiplied. Our native
churches give proof in every direction of the soundness of the
teaching from which they have sprung, and of the Divine blessing by
which it has been followed. They differ greatly in the outer form
of their life from English churches: they differ scarcely less from
one another. They differ in their knowledge, in the character of
their excellencies, in the form of their defects. They differ in
their experience of the truth, as they have had a varied history.
But one heart and one mind are found within them all. It is the Bible
which touches their feelings most deeply, which quickens their
conscience, which inspires their richest joys. Everywhere the tribes,
once heathen and hard-hearted, now Christianized, care for the
orphan, show kindness and courtesy to women, and watch over the aged
and the sick. Everywhere they lead a pure life, they cultivate and
practise mutual kindness, they are brought under public law. These
things are not novelties in Christianity; but their daily recurrence
in all our Missions is the best testimony we can offer to the reality
of our work. They are seen in all our Churches; they are written on
every page of our reports. The heathen natives of Travancore and of
the Lagoon Islands, far distant from one another, get drunk with
toddy: their Christian fellow-countrymen of the same class in both
places abstain from it. Touched by the gospel, the negroes of Jamaica
came in hundreds to be married: the Bechuanas on the Vaal river have
done the same. Our new converts in the plains of Shantung try to
evangelize their stalwart neighbours. The same efforts of love are
put forth by the new Christians among the hills of Fokien. Our South
Sea Converts observe the Sabbath better than Englishmen. When
accompanying the Queen down to the sea-coast, our Church members held
Sabbath camp-meetings in the forests and jungles of Madagascar.
Would that the English churches realized more completely what they
are! Follow them in their daily life. Look at them on the Sabbath-day.
There, where once all seasons were alike, they gather on the first
day of the week in the house of prayer. From China eastward, round
to Lifu westward, in twenty-six languages, these Christian converts
gather for holy worship. In the broad streets of Peking; among the
green hills of Amoy; amid the tall roofs of Antananarivo, and the
well-watered gardens of Hankey; among the deep ferns of Raiatea and
in the cotton-fields of Samoa; in Calcutta and Benares, within the
shadows of the wealthy temples of Kali and Mahadeo; or where the
creamy surf in curling waves throws up the garnet sands of
Travancore,--each Sabbath-day rises the hymn of praise, the earnest
prayer; each month they break the bread and drink the cup in memory
of Him whom, not having seen, they love; in whom, though now they
see Him not, yet believing, they rejoice with joy unspeakable, and
full of glory; receiving the end of their faith, even the salvation
of their SOULS.
"Knowest thou the value of a soul immortal?
Behold the midnight glory, worlds on worlds!
Amazing pomp! Redouble the amaze.
Ten thousand add, and twice ten thousand more;
Then weigh the whole. ONE SOUL outweighs them all."