And yet the day when the pastoral work can be effectively and satisfactorily done by the natives themselves has hardly arrived. Few native pastors today, and much fewer catechists, are competent, both on the score of character and of independence, to wisely direct the affairs of their people and to efficiently preserve church discipline. This is a sad confession to make; but truth compels me to make it—a truth emphasized more than once by long experience among them. A few years ago a church within my jurisdiction wished to expel a leading member whom it knew to be a godless man. He had become a curse to the community, and nothing but excommunication seemed wise or possible. I visited the church for the purpose of assisting the pastor in the administration of the Lord's Supper and of studying the general condition of the church. And we attempted, congregationally, to discipline this member. The church was asked to vote, in case it thought wise, to excommunicate the man; but not a hand was raised. The matter was further explained to them, and all those who were in favour of his expulsion were requested to raise the hand. Again not a hand was raised! The pastor, thereupon, explained the situation by stating that the people were afraid of the man and dared not vote against him even though he was not present. The pastor was himself equally [pg 247] timid in the situation. Thereupon I asked those of them who desired that I should act in this matter for the church to raise the hand; whereupon every hand of pastor and people was immediately raised; and I fulfilled their wish by excommunicating, in their name, the evil member!
This may or may not be Congregationalism; but it illustrates the fact which I am now dwelling upon, viz.: that for the present, both pastor and people are unequal to the severe duties of church discipline. Every month the missionary is confronted with similar situations which reveal to him the necessity of his presence as a superintending pastor and the urgent need of his wisdom to direct the affairs of the church, his firmness to put an end to many impossible situations, and his inspiration to tone up and give backbone to pastors and other agents connected with him. It should not be forgotten that, while the infant community connected with each mission has many admirable traits of piety and of character, it is still the victim of great weakness in matters of purity, of fellowship and of Christian peace. So that if the Church is to be preserved from many intolerable evils and brought into the noble traits of a Christian character which will impress itself upon the non-Christian community there must be firm guidance, stern repression of evil and wise inspiration to good on the part of the native pastoral force under the bracing influence of missionary guidance. To those who are conversant with the condition of the native Church in India there is a supreme conviction that its greatest danger lies in the irregularity of the life of its members and in its want of firm discipline and the preservation [pg 248] of purity rather than in the fewness of accessions from heathenism. Hence the importance of the work of shepherding Christ's feeble flock in that land. The training of suitable native agents for this work is a duty of paramount importance; and the training must be continued through their life by the presence of the missionary to guide, restrain and inspire.
(c) The Educational Department.
In large, well-organized missions, the educational department is now perhaps the most important and all-pervasive. As a mission grows, this department usually develops more rapidly than any other of its organized activities. This work is divided into three classes:
Schools for Non-Christians.
These are especially established with a view to reaching and affecting the non-Christian community. They have developed wonderfully during the last half-century and hold an important place in the economy of missions. They represent the leaven of Christianity in India. They are preëminently an evangelistic agency. They furnish excellent opportunity to present Christ and His Gospel of salvation to a large host of young people under very favorable circumstances. These institutions are of two classes—primary schools in villages and high schools and colleges at centres of influence and culture.
They have been the object of attack from men of narrow missionary sympathy and of limited horizon. These men claim that money expended on such institutions [pg 249] is a waste of mission funds. But they have failed to recognize the significant fact, which I have already mentioned, that these institutions undoubtedly furnish the best opportunity for missionary evangelistic work. And I fearlessly maintain that more conversions take place, and more accessions are made, through these schools than through any other agency, apart from the Christian Church itself. Not a few of the village primary schools become nuclei to Christian congregations, which flourish and develop into Christian churches. And through the higher institutions some of the best and strongest members of the Christian community have been won from Hinduism. All this, apart from the fact that these institutions perform an unspeakably important function in the dissemination of light throughout the whole Hindu community and in the leavening of the whole mass of Hindu thought and institutions. The good done by this class of institutions is beyond computation in that land.