In the last century there was very little done for the spread of the Gospel in India. There are a few remarkable names on record such as Schwartz and Martyn, and a few institutions such as the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, in connexion with which Schwartz laboured. But it was not till the beginning of this century that the missionary spirit sprang up with any vigour in the Church. The first half of the century was almost wholly lost. This might be explained partly by the opposition of Government. But since the year 1813 there has been no such impediment. There has been a great country with its teeming millions. There has been the most perfect personal safety. The missionaries could travel from north to south without a danger. There has been a peaceable population ready to discuss, and regarding with respect the British name. There has been, in short, for the last forty-four years the noblest and most magnificent opportunity for Christian Missions that the world has ever witnessed. There has been a vast opening before us, such as would have filled the Apostle’s mind with zeal and wonder. And now what have we done? Let the Church of God give an account of her stewardship!
We thankfully acknowledge that this stewardship has not been altogether neglected. Great and well conducted missionary institutions have been at work, and devoted men have been raised up for the service. Nor has God left us without tokens of his blessing. In 1853 the whole Bible had been translated into ten languages, the New Testament into five others, and separate Gospels into four more. There were also at that time as many as 2,015 missionary schools established; and, as far as could be calculated, there were then no less than 112,000 converts. We may, therefore, thank God most heartily for what has been done; but still it is nothing in proportion to the immensity of the demand. In that year the Church of God throughout the world—English, Scotch, American, and European, including all Dissenting bodies—supplied only 395 American or European labourers, not one for half a million of the Indian population. I have not the means of ascertaining the present total, but, as far as I can gather from the Reports, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel is now maintaining about forty-eight English clergymen in India, and the Church Missionary Society about ninety English clergymen, with about twenty English laymen. There are Germans and natives employed in addition, but the total, 158, very nearly represents the sum of England’s contribution of her own sons to this great work through these two Church of England Societies. And now, if we remember the eagerness with which parents seek for appointments either civil or military, and the steady stream of gallant young men that are every year going forth to India—when we contrast the difficulty of obtaining a single missionary with the eagerness to obtain a Company’s appointment, I fear that we must come to the conclusion that we are not yet awake to the responsibilities of our Stewardship, and not yet alive to the loud and solemn call with which the great Head of the Church is summoning us to the honour of his sacred service.
The same may be said with reference to funds. In 1853 the large sum of 190,000l. was contributed, of which no less than 33,500l. was subscribed in India itself, leaving 156,500l. to be collected from the rest of the world. I am again unable to give the statistics of other bodies at the present time, but the two Societies already mentioned appear to spend between them money collected in England to the amount of only 76,834l., of which 57,635l. is spent by the Church Missionary Society, and 19,199l. by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. There is doubtless some that passes through other channels, in addition to the large sums expended by other bodies of Christians. But we may regard 80,000l. as a near approximation to the whole sum now spent by the Church of England on Indian Missions. Now just contrast this sum with the large fortunes made in India, with the number of families altogether maintained from India, and, above all, with the fact that the Company is deriving a net profit of 5,000,000l. a-year from the opium traffic alone, and there is, I fear, most overwhelming evidence that we have utterly failed in our Stewardship; that we have received much, but given little; that we have been entrusted with great wealth and great opportunities, but have made a most poor and pitiful return, having been content to grow rich on India’s produce without fulfilling our sacred trust, or employing even a decent proportion of the income derived from India on the evangelization of her people.
And the result of this defective liberality is evident in the total spiritual destitution of vast districts, more especially amongst those which have been the scenes of the present outbreak.
Let us examine the state of some of these districts, now too well known by the sad events that have happened there.
In a district around Agra, containing a population of 3,500,000, there were in 1852 nineteen missionaries; and around Benares, for a population of 7,100,000, nineteen missionaries—a tolerable supply, it may be thought, but yet very little, when you reflect that around Benares there was little more than one man to nearly 400,000 heathen. But look at other cases. Take the case of Cawnpore, that place whose name should be written in tears. Around Cawnpore there is a district containing 3,200,000 persons, for which in 1852 there were only seven missionaries, one for nearly half a million. Around Meerut there is a district containing 3,300,000, for which there were four missionaries. Around Bareilly, a population of 4,400,000, for which there was not one. Around Delhi, a population of 1,500,000, and not one, although a Mission has since been established by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and another by the Baptists. But up to the year 1853 there was not one. And so again at Lucknow. The Government has for years been friendly to us, the whole kingdom of Oude has been open to us, and for the last two years it has been under our own dominion. But up to this day I believe I am correct in stating that not a single missionary has ever yet crossed its border. Such is the spiritual condition of vast regions in India at the present time. According to the language of an able writer, “Some of the finest and most populous parts of the country are altogether neglected, or, if not neglected, supplied at the rate of one missionary to a million or half a million of people, scattered in great districts! Let any one study the map of India, and allow his eye to affect his heart. He will find a district as large as Wales or Yorkshire, with a population probably larger, without a single missionary. He may go on and add to that another, and then another, and finally will discover a long range of fertile, populous countries, as much neglected as if they were districts in Japan.” So fearfully have we failed in the stewardship which God has given us.
But let us remember who are really the parties that have been thus deficient. In the acts of Government we may feel but little personal responsibility, for, as private individuals, we cannot control them. But it is not so with the stewardship of the Church, for the deficiency has arisen there not from any want of principle in the ruling body, but from want of interest in the private individuals composing the flock. We have had large and well-conducted Institutions doing their utmost: we have had appeal after appeal to our liberality, sometimes from the bishops, sometimes from military officers, sometimes from residents in the civil service, sometimes from the little band of missionaries, and sometimes even from the heathen themselves. They have appealed for money, and appealed for men, and appealed for prayers. They have urged upon us the awful necessities of millions of perishing heathen, and pressed on our attention the noble opportunities and most solemn responsibilities which we have received from God. The neglect has been with ourselves. The responsibility cannot be shifted upon others. We have not responded enough, either in men or money. There have been plenty of young men for the army and the civil service. There has been no difficulty in obtaining chaplains, but few have volunteered for Missions; and even of these few several have been deterred by their parents’ unwillingness to part with them for such a service. And so with funds: we have been content to give an annual guinea, or perhaps much less, and then leave the whole great work to others. There has been very little self-denial for God. How little have any of us ever given up for India’s good! How small have been the sacrifices which any of us have ever made for the evangelization of those many millions! I cannot but think that God is now awaking us by the rod to a sense of our responsibility. He is awaking the north wind to rouse us from our indifference. We have not listened sufficiently to India’s plea for help; so now He is shaking us from our slumber, and I trust that the result may be that we may “hear the rod, and who hath appointed it.” I do not believe that the stewardship is about to be taken from us, but I believe, on the contrary, that a new era is dawning on India. I can imagine it possible that after this experience of heathenism there will be any more deference paid to its horrid idolatry by Government; and I pray to God that his Church may rise an one man to the deep sense of its sacred trust; that we may all be brought to a deeper personal knowledge of the love of Christ, and each one act more conscientiously than he has ever yet done, under the steady recollection of India’s claims and England’s stewardship.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
The Scriptural Principles of our Protestant Church. Price 3s. Hatchard.
The Time of the End. Price 1s. 6d. Hatchard.