The very acknowledgment of missionaries about the imperfections of their communities, about the utter hollowness of some individuals, has been turned into adverse testimony. In the recent meeting at Exeter Hall to welcome the Madagascar missionaries, Messrs. Cousin and Shaw, Mr. Cousin, in the course of his very interesting address, said that much of the Christianity of the Malagash was "purely nominal and utterly worthless." I should not at all wonder if some day I found this brought forward as a missionary's acknowledgment that the Christianity of the Malagash is purely nominal and utterly worthless, and that missions in Madagascar, as elsewhere, had been a failure.
THE SUPPORT OF NATIVE CHRISTIANS.
The support of native Christians has sorely tried and perplexed missionaries. They have been desirous, on the one hand, of holding out no inducement to persons to join them from unworthy motives; and on the other they have felt that persons thrust out of their caste and employment, and not infrequently from their family, had claims on help, with which every Christian feeling bound them to comply. Persons able to work have never been allowed to live in idleness, but the difficulty has been to find suitable work. In some missions, when persons have shown an aptness for domestic service they have been trained to it. In a number of missions trades have been started, and have been carried on for a longer or shorter period, with more or less success; but, as a rule, the relation of employer and employed does not accord well with the relation of pastor and people. The difficulty continues, and will no doubt continue, but it is decreasing every year. When travelling down through Northern India in 1877 we found Christians in every place at which we stopped, and we learned they were supporting themselves in various modes, in printing offices, bookbinding establishments, railways, and public offices. A number were in domestic service. I wish fewer were thus employed. When anything goes wrong in a house the Hindu and Muhammadan servants are sure to blame the Christians; masters and mistresses look for more from them than can be reasonably expected, and they no doubt are apt to fall into the well-known and objectionable habits of the class. The more capable of the native Christians, the higher in character and education, are for the most part employed as teachers, catechists, and native preachers. A few have risen to responsible and lucrative positions in civil life. A native Christian from Bengal held for some years, to the great satisfaction of both Europeans and natives, the office of Postmaster of Benares. He and his wife were members of our native church. Another member of our church for a time was the Inspector of Post-offices in the Benares district.
I believe in every mission in the North-West native Christians contribute regularly to the support and diffusion of the Gospel, and, considering their means, their contributions are liberal. I remember hearing years ago of a native church in Calcutta agreeing, without a dissentient voice, to give a month's salary for the erection of their new church building—an act of liberality which has been seldom equalled in our country.
Much has been said about the compound system, as it has been called;—Christians living together apart from the heathen, and in most cases in the immediate neighbourhood of the missionary's residence. Much has been said, I think unjustly, in condemnation of this arrangement. It is not the hot-bed, which it has been called, in which robust Christian character cannot be produced. Native Christians, thus living together, hold constant intercourse with the heathen in the business of life, and are at the same time saved from the peculiar trials and temptations incident to living among Hindus and Muhammadans. So far as native Christians make their light to shine, it will be well seen by the heathen though their dwellings be apart. One great advantage of living in a mission compound, near the place of worship and the missionary's residence, is that wives and children can regularly attend public worship, and can come under the teaching of the missionary, and especially the missionary's wife, as otherwise they could not have come. For a time we had quite a number of native Christians in our compound at Benares, who paid a small rent for their houses, and went out every day to attend to their respective callings. If they had lived in the city I cannot conceive how mothers and children could have attended worship as they did, or how my wife could have taught the children and held constant intercourse with the women. Because living in the compound, it does not follow that they are dependent on the mission for support. There is nothing more desired by missionaries than that their people should maintain themselves, by their own exertions. Living among the heathen is often indispensable—it is so increasingly with our native Christians; but where circumstances admit, I think great advantages result from Christians living near each other and near the mission church. In our own country, are not favourable surroundings sought for the young and the inexperienced?
PROGRESS.
When I look back to the beginning of 1839, when I landed in Calcutta, and compare the native Christian community of that day with what it is now, I am struck with the great change which has taken place. If we confine the term to those connected with missions, they were then a mere handful. Now they are considerable in number, and they have become a recognized and appreciable portion of native society. They are increasing in number, though not so rapidly in the North as in the South, and are becoming rooted in the land. The largest native Christian community in the North-West is, I suppose, that connected with the missions of the American Episcopal Methodist Church in Rohilkund and Oude. It is largely composed of Muzbee Sikhs, a people much despised by both Muhammadans and Hindus. Of late the Salvation Army has entered on the campaign against Hinduism and Muhammadanism. Its organ boasts largely of success, but its statements have been strongly questioned by persons acquainted with the facts, on whose warm attachment to the cause of Christ full dependence can be placed. A well-known missionary of the Episcopal Methodist Church in Oude has been lately pursuing the tactics of the Salvation Army. Accompanied by a band of native Christians, he has been entering villages and towns with song and drum and tambourine. The people in crowds have gathered round him. He and his brethren have preached Christ to them, have urged them to accept Him as their Saviour, and have given on the spot baptism, chin—the mark of the Christian Church, to any avowing their readiness to become Christ's disciples. Time will show how far the work is genuine. Perhaps we old missionaries have been too slow in administering baptism. Of this I am sure, that nothing is more fallacious as the test of success than the number of persons baptized—so different is the opinion held by missionaries regarding the qualifications required in order to baptize. Native Christians are more self-dependent than they were, and are receiving a healthy impulse from feeling that they must push out for themselves. They have to contend against much which is adverse and hurtful, but without indulging too sanguine hopes we may firmly anticipate for them a brighter and better future than their past has been.
