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advert. There never yet has been a Synod of the English Church in India, nor do we much anticipate the prospect of one being held.

Again we are, and ever have been, completely at one with him on the question of tribal or linguistic bishops as superintendents of Native Churches. We are by no means insensible to the valuable help which has been rendered to Missions by the dignified officials who have gone from this country as Government or territorial bishops, holding office under the Crown in conformity with Acts of Parliament, and with Her Majesty's Letters Patent. Many of them have indeed been nursing fathers to Missions, and have bestowed a vast amount of labour in conferring on Missions the benefit of their Episcopal services. It would indeed be ingratitude not to acknowledge and not to be thankful for them. But still-we hope we shall not be misunderstood-they have of necessity been outsiders to the Native Church. With one highly honoured exception no independent Indian bishop, until the period of his appointment, has ever been a missionary. With very rare exceptions they have been English clergymen to whom, until they landed in India, all knowledge of the country was merely that possessed by ordinary wellinformed Englishmen. Until their selection, in most cases, their thoughts and interests have been in other channels, and have been absorbed in the details of English scholastic or parochial work. Several of them have nobly risen to the occasion with an energy deserving all praise, but Mr. Cunningham's theory remains untouched. The position of a bishop who is in the eyes of the people a Government Servant, like any other exalted official, is not and cannot be attractive to subject races. He may entertain theories, more or less well founded, that he is not after all what they esteem him to be; but such he is in their opinion.

Again, it is impossible successfully to controvert the strength of his forcible argument, that no one dropped in India at an age varying between thirty and fifty years, can be expected to acquire such mastery of difficult oriental languages and habits of thought, feeling, and expression totally novel to him, as to make him an efficient preacher, a fluent conversationist, or a thoroughly capable ruler, if familiarity with the modes of thought of the ruled is a chief element of success. He may get through a vast amount of official business mainly relating to the European community. He may acquire a certain amount of official phraseology, which enables him to discharge his official functions as bishop in the various Native tongues. He may even, with the help of Moonshees in certain cases, be able to produce a few written sermons, and, if favoured by nature, may possibly pronounce them without offence. But neither bishop nor missionary, nor European in any capacity at a somewhat advanced age, can expect, unless in most rare and exceptional cases, to do more than speak with stammering lips and with imperfect knowledge of those whom he is addressing. If he is wise he will only be, as far as he can, the mouth-piece of experienced missionaries, who in this department will think for him and supply him with what he retails. It is no argument that governors-general, commanders-in-chief, or even judges are sent out

from England. Their duties are completely different, and in the case of judges they are supplemented with competent assessors and officials.

For our own part, we hail Mr. Cunningham's theory as a fair solution of an acknowledged difficulty. There is no necessity for viewing tribal or linguistic Episcopacy as a permanent institution in India, more than it was in the early Church. It may serve a turn, and when it has served that turn, if it is deemed advisable it might disappear. If in India the conversion of our heathen subjects to Christianity had ever been a national concern it ought to have preceded territorial Episcopacy. But it is well known with what a struggle any kind of Episcopacy was forced upon old Indian indifferentism and prejudice. The last thing considered in Episcopacy, when it was extorted, was the evangelization of the heathen. The present system therefore naturally smacks of its origin. We do not say that it is impossible to render it available for missionary purposes to a certain extent, but there are complications connected with it which demonstrate the necessity of some such independent supplement as Mr. Cunningham suggests. We might, as an instance, take the case of Telingana. There is there to the north of Madras a whole race numbering millions, speaking a peculiar and highly cultivated language of their own. What possible obstacle could there be in the eyes of Christian men to there being set apart a bishop speaking the language of the Telugus, familiar with the people, and commanding their confidence? Why should he not go forth and evangelize, and rule independently of the trammels which hem in territorial Episcopacy? There are none that we can conceive, except that Telingana is an enclave in the Diocese of Madras. This difficulty in the case of Travancore was got over by the fact of its being an independent kingdom, and therefore not included in the territorial limits of any Indian diocese. So there is there a Malayalim-speaking bishop, who as a missionary has laboured among them, for a Malayalim people. If such bishops are an advantage, as has been also imperfectly and partially recognized by a sort of ecclesiastical artifice in Tinnevelly, for some part of the Tamil people, why should not the same benefit be extended to Telingana, the Canarese, and the Mahratta country, the Bengali and Hindi-speaking population? The only answer can be that there is an English-speaking territorial Episcopate, which by its pretentions curtails the privileges of these tribes. Whether this is a sufficient answer the Church must judge.

From the tenour of his publication it is sufficiently clear that Mr. Cunningham is, to a considerable extent at any rate, a High Churchman. He must therefore have surmounted a considerable quantity of the prejudices which influence such persons when they approach the consideration of a question of this kind. We hail, however, his advocacy as a symptom that the real necessities of Mission work are gradually making themselves felt among men of his school. It is a good omen for the future, even though it may be but the day of small things.

We can

aver that it has been the constant aim of the Church

Missionary Society to raise up in heathendom Native Churches not Anglicized, not denationalized, as has been most unfairly pretended often by those who might and ought to have been better informed, but evolving themselves spontaneously according to their sense of their own needs, having their Native catechists, their Native ministers, and, when practicable, their Native bishops. When these Churches can be defined territorially there may be no harm in it, but this is a very minor matter. Swaddling has long since been laid aside for infants; compression is not now recognized as calculated to cherish life and activity. The same principle should be extended to Churches. Our Indian bishops have hitherto most wisely conceded great freedom, and the result has been growth. But we are decided Episcopalians enough to wish that as soon as through missionary labour the nucleus has been formed of a Native Church, it should have its bishop conversant by his own antecedents with it, and not a stranger, however able, earnest, and zealous for its extension. Mr. Cunningham can hardly be considered as a person speaking with any amount of authority, even with the prestige of his University distinction and the University imprimatur on his Prize Essay, but it is by the ventilation of views in all quarters, and by gradual effort put forth by persons of all sorts, that public opinion is eventually formed. Bingham tells us that "the general rule was for every Church to make choice of one of her own clergy to be her bishop, and not a stranger." No rule has been more systematically and persistently violated in modern times, especially in Missions where it would naturally be of most value.

We are not therefore urging anything novel, or without precedent in the earliest times, when in special cases and for special ends we record our approval of a theory urging the restoration of tribal or linguistic Bishops where they are needed in nascent Missions; when we long for Tamil-speaking Bishops among Tamils, Bengalispeaking among Bengalis, and so on throughout the length and breadth of the Mission Field. We can see no inconvenience in there being, as there might be, at a Conference in the city of Madras, the Bishop of Madras preaching to the English, a Tamil Bishop preaching to the Tamils, a Telugu Bishop to the Telugus, a Malayalim Bishop to the Malayalims, a Canarese Bishop to the Canarese, and even a Portuguese Bishop to the Portuguese; nor, why each should not manage his own people in friendly communication with his brethren, exercising independent authority in his own sphere. This again would not be a novelty, but merely a reproduction of what for necessary, although it may be for temporary purposes, has in primitive times found sanction as favourable to the growth of the Church of Christ.

* Cf. Bingham, B. 2, chap. 13, § 3.

K.

REMINISCENCES OF MISSIONARY DEPUTATION WORK.

M

BY A "DEPUTATION."

ANY years ago, when I was a lad, I saw a placard on the street walls announcing that a missionary meeting would be held, and that the Rev. A. B- would "attend as a Deputation from the Parent Society." My youthful mind was somewhat puzzled at the word "Deputation," and still more with the expression "Parent Society." So I determined to go and see and hear for myself. The Deputation I found to be a clergyman very full of figures and statistics, who made an occasional effort to be funny, and who seemed to delight himself in hard unpronounceable words, only fit for geographies and dictionaries. The impression then left upon my mind was that a "Deputation" was an exceedingly dry and uninteresting specimen of humanity. But how little did I imagine that I should ever become a dry, dull, tedious, and uninteresting Deputation myself!

A few years ago, after many years of labour abroad, I visited England for a few months' change and rest, but I had scarcely put my feet upon the shores of dear old England when I found that I had already been advertised to speak at a missionary meeting. In fact, whether I liked it or not, I was "a Deputation." I submitted to the inevitable, and soon enrolled myself as a full-blown "Deputation from the Parent Society."

In order to properly carry out these important diplomatic functions, I invested in a Gladstone bag, a leathern satchel, and an Austrian rug: the first to contain my clerical suit, quite new, and other necessaries; the second for my Bible, my manuscripts, and copies of the Record, the Guardian, the Church Times, and the Rock (for the Deputation has a taste for ecclesiastical controversies); and the third to protect my legs from the Siberian climate of my native land. Such was my outfit*; and, thus equipped, I set out amidst the stern protestations of my friends and relatives, who had not seen me for years, and thus proceeded to enjoy my "well-earned rest" (the Committee, the Secretaries, and everybody else said it was "well earned") by rushing about from county to county and from parish to parish as a Missionary Deputation.

One of my first engagements was to preach in a rural parish on the south coast of England. The rector was away (rectors do sometimes avail themselves of the holiday), but I was kindly received by the curate. He had only been a few years in orders, and was many years my junior, but he was very kind! He seemed to take an interest in me! In fact, he did his best to encourage me. He was a good, earnest young soul, that curate, and I shall not soon forget the kind, loving way in which he took my arm, and, as we walked home from church, congratulated me upon "the ability" of my sermon, "for," said he, "to

*And, we hope, copies of the C.M.S. publications. Without these, both for his own guidance, and to recommend to his hosts and his auditors, no Deputation's "outfit" can be complete!-[ED.]

tell you the truth, I rather dread the arrival of a Missionary Deputation, for their tedious sermons are such a dreadful bore." I cannot tell exactly why, but I must confess I winced a little at first, but reflection brought me into a more grateful and amenable state of mind, and I went to bed that night full of hope and expectation. Possibly I should succeed in becoming an "interesting" Deputation? Yes, that is exactly what is required of a Deputation. He need not be eloquent; he need not be learned, nor even able; but he must be interesting.

One of my numerous and multifarious engagements was an address to one of the public schools of England, where I was hospitably entertained by one of the assistant masters, who spared no pains to get up a Missionary Association amongst the boys. Poor man! Upon my arrival, I found him in a state of anxiety as to the probable success of the Deputation. Missionary meetings were then seldom or ever held in public schools, and, moreover, a Colonial Bishop of high University distinction was expected to be present. There was time for a walk before dinner, and the assistant master availed himself of the opportunity for testing the efficiency of the Deputation. As we walked together through the shady coppice, how skilfully did my scholastic friend let me into the secret, step by step, of his anxiety! Would I be a miserable failure and make the Head Master disgusted with Missions, Missionaries, and Missionary Deputations; or would I be interesting? All I could do was to promise to do my best to be interesting-interesting at his hospitable table, interesting to his private pupils, interesting to the Colonial Bishop, interesting to the Head Master, interesting to everybody, and interesting at the meeting. Of course it is not for me to say how far I succeeded. But this public school still continues to support Missions, and the boys send their money to the Deputation who thus tried to do his best. He regards it as the reward of merit!

The Missionary Deputation is never off duty. This I soon began to realize. From the very moment I left my door-step until my return, I was never certain of a moment's freedom from deputational anxieties and cares. A missionary is public property, and every individual, from the newspaper editor who does not subscribe to Missions, down to the veriest country bumpkin who does, considers himself at liberty to discuss the missionary's merits. Even in the railway train (the Deputation usually travels second-class) he may be seated next to some celebrated authoress who does not believe in Missions, or to a member of Convocation who does not believe in Societies, or to some liberal supporter of the Society who is about to reduce his annual subscription because he sees so many returned missionaries and Colonial Bishops, or to some truly orthodox lady who cannot tolerate ecclesiasticallyshaped coats and clerical stocks, and he must order his conversation (whereby we mean both his deeds and his words) accordingly.

When travelling one Saturday by the "Flying Dutchman" from Paddington to Bath, an ecclesiastical lawyer engaged me in a discussion of some two hours' duration. It was virtually a missionary meeting, and I trust my legal fellow-traveller was enlightened. But I arrived

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