Bishop Augustus Selwyn, of the Episcopalian Church of New Zealand, proposed to secure children of the natives in the new fields, educate these children in schools of a Christian country, and send them as pioneer missionaries to their own peoples. He proposed, also, that, after these children had overcome the pagan opposition, white missionaries should be introduced for co-operating with them. “The white corks,” he said, “were for floating the black net.”
With this in view, in 1848, he made a voyage of exploration in H. M. S. Dido as far as to the Loyalty Islands. Observing that the Fijis, the Southern Hebrides, and several other groups were occupied by other religious denominations which were doing successful work, he chose for his field the groups not thus occupied. These were the Northern Hebrides, Banks, Santa Cruz, Torres, Reef, and Solomon Groups....
Over these islands the trail of the Serpent has extended. A wilder, more besotted, and fiercer people than their inhabitants it would be hard to find. With the exception of the natives of the Santa Cruz and Reef Islands, they all were formerly cannibals, and those of them in the Solomon Group were also head-hunters....
The work of procuring boys proved to be difficult and perilous. By great tact and a kind and courteous manner the Bishop secured in his first trip five. In process of time he was able to employ the boys, who had been some time in his school, to do the soliciting, and then he was more successful. Each succeeding year the natives received him with greater cordiality, and more readily supplied his vessel with stores of taro, yams, and fruit. The number of boys in the school has been one hundred and fifty to two hundred.
On Norfold Island a thousand acres of land were purchased for the school at a cost of ten thousand dollars. In this tract a beautiful chapel was built, and around it houses for the teachers and pupils. The land was very fertile, and was easily made to produce almost all the food the school needed. The boys were taught the gospel of work. They were trained in the mechanic trades, the cultivation of the ground, and the care of livestock; and to each of them was committed a small garden for him to cultivate for himself. They were kept in the school six to ten years, and then taken, as teachers, to their homes or to other islands.
In 1854 Rev. John Coleridge Patteson joined the mission. He had been moved when fourteen years of age, by a sermon of Bishop Selwyn, to devote himself to the missionary cause. In 1861 he was consecrated as the First Bishop of Milanesia....
The Milanesians who have embraced Christianity have ceased from their cannibalism, their head-hunting, and their warfare, and have become an humble, upright, and peace-loving people. In 1905 the number of baptized persons in the groups of the mission was 2,811, of white missionaries, 41, of native teachers, 689, of mission stations, 200.[110]
Children at work for Christ in Korea.
The Child at work for Christ! Would that it were possible to give to the women of our American Missionary Societies and to the young women of our schools and colleges a vision of the children of many lands who are today at work,—realizing as did the Christ Child that they must be about their Father’s business. In Korea, we shall find that a question asked of each man, woman, and child who wishes to become a church member is,—“Have you tried to win a soul for Jesus Christ?” Not long ago the children in one section of Korea demanded a half holiday, and in the leisure time thus obtained the five hundred children won eight hundred others into the church.[111]
In Burma.
Away up in the Karen Hills of Burma the first mission tour of exploration to a certain point was made with a company which included a number of school boys, among whom were some sweet singers. On associating with the Red Karen children, they quickly made acquaintance and were valuable workers. Great was the enthusiasm among the little Red Karens when classes were formed in reading and singing, and with surprising quickness they learned from their eager young teachers, who were glad to pass on to other children what they had so recently acquired themselves.[112]
Generous givers in Japan.
Not only are the children under missionary influence trained to work, but they are also taught the joy and privilege of giving. Here is the method employed by Mrs. McCauley of Japan.
The Sunday-School children in Keimo No. 1 and No. 2, Tokyo, under Mrs. McCauley, take up a collection every Sabbath.... The children coming from heathen homes cannot ask their parents for money to put into this collection, so must practice self-denial to be able to give. The money for a boiled sweet potato purchased near the school building from a vendor, two rin, is saved by taking a smaller potato, and the lunch is none the less palatable because the child has made a little sacrifice, and these two rin, as they rattle in the collection box, are music in his ears and joy—the joy of giving,—in his heart. I happen to be one of the Auditors of the accounts at the Leper Home, and this year we closed the books with deficit,—a debt of two hundred and sixteen yen,—and we were troubled, having no resources. I looked over the Sunday-School collections, and found we had in the treasury nearly twenty-five yen, and I told the scholars about the dear little girl just thirteen, who is a leper and can never again be well, but is the light of the Home. When the women get discouraged and cry, this little angel puts her arms about them and says, “Auntie, dear Auntie, don’t cry; we will soon, all of us, have new bodies.” Two boys of fifteen are there—their companions like themselves are lepers. “Now, children, we need money; you have some; will you give it there, all or some part of it? How many say all? Let us see the hands”: and every little hand, kindergarten and all, went up, and we made it twenty-five yen to send to the Treasurer of our Leper Home. I then told them to tell their parents of how we spend the money given by the little ones, and we reviewed the places we had helped from our mite: For five years an Ainu School; Red Cross Society, two years; Charity Hospital, two years; Okayama Orphanage, two years; destitute soldiers, one year; comfort bags during war; famine sufferers, one year; flood sufferers, one year; earthquake sufferers, one year; Lepers’ Home, this year; medicine for sick pupils, often; help at funerals for poor families of school.
These children when they grow up and enter the church will be systematic givers and know what benevolence is.[113]
Missionary gifts in mission lands.
It brings tears to the eyes and joy to the heart to see how eagerly children of one mission land devote their little gifts to sending the Gospel to children of some other land. It seems the most natural thing in the world to lead them into missionary giving, and many a children’s band in America might be put to shame by the joy and spontaneity of those who are themselves objects of missionary giving.