(Continued from page 43.)

the money given to the Society had come from the rich and comparatively well-to-do people. By forming Associations, it was hoped, as has turned out to be the case, that the pence of the poor, as well as the pounds of the rich, might be obtained.

Ward. Do you think that right? It always seems to me a shame to ask poor people for money.

Mr. Story.-Our Lord did not seem to think so when He commended the widow who gave the two mites, nor when He said, " It is more blessed to give than to receive"; nor did St. Paul, when he praises the Churches of Macedonia, because “in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality." John. My experience shows that as a rule the poor give more freely than the rich. But about the Associations ?

Mr. Story. The first Association was in Bristol; and year after year the Reports take note of the founding of new Associations.

John.-How was that work carried on ?

Mr. Story. The London Secretary and other clergymen and laymen visited the different places, and told the people the objects of the Society, and what it was doing. They preached sermons, attended meetings, called on clergymen to ask them to form Associations, stirred up as far as possible an interest in the work.

Ward. Well, looking at the matter from a business point of view, it was a good plan.

Mr. Story. Certainly it was. But apart from the money raised, think how much good is done by the earnest addresses in pulpits and on platforms of men who have the cause of Missions at heart. I remember that the assembly room of the principal hotel at Penrith, in Cumberland, used to be given gratis by the landlady, because she said she had known so much good done to souls at missionary meetings. Many a thrilling story might be told of persons brought to the Saviour by means of sermons preached for C.M.S., and words spoken in private houses by the agents and friends of the Society.

Ward.-All this is very well if the work is worth doing at all. But what has been done to justify all this getting of money?

Mr. Story-What has been done? How can I tell you a hundredth part of what has been done?

Ward. If I remember right, Sydney Smith said one reason why it was no use to send out missionaries was that they had no success.

Mr. Story. Yes. In an article written in 1809 the reasons he gives against Missions in India are, (1) that they will endanger our position in India; (2) that they are unsuccessful. It was rather early then to judge of their success.

Wilson. Can you prove that Missions have been successful now? Mr. Story-Easily. Take New Zealand. When Bishop Selwyn first went out there forty years ago, he found the C.M S. missionaries had been so much blessed that, in his own words, he saw " a whole nation of pagans converted to the faith." Cannibalism has long since died out. I doubt much if Englishmen could ever have colonised those islands unless missionaries had prepared the way. Again: from the recent census taken in Sierra Leone it appears that nearly the entire population of 43,000 is nominally Christian. The few heathen and Mohammedans to be found there are persons who have come to the colony for purposes of trade. You have mentioned Sydney Smith. He wrote au article on Sierra Leone in 1804, and does not even mention the subject of Missions, for the simple reason that nothing had then been done there.

Ward. But in both these cases missionaries had to deal with savages. The case is very different when you come to India and China, where you come in contact with races held under the bondage of religions which have come down to them sanctified by the lapse of ages.

Mr. Story. But in India there has been great success. Sir Richard Temple, in his recent book on India, says that there are not less than 400,000 Christians there.

Ward. Yes, but what sort of men are they? I have been told that most of them have come over simply for the sake of gain.

John-I should think that could not be said of all, or nearly all, with truth. I have heard some thrilling anecdotes of men who have suffered much through becoming Christians.

Mr. Story.-Yes; I could tell you many such. Amongst the two hundred and thirty Native clergy are to be found men like Imad-ud-din and many others, who have given up all for Christ.

Ward. Two hundred and thirty Native clergy! Do you mean to tell me that so many really are clergymen of our Church?

Mr. Story. Of course I do. I wonder you did not know it. Take the Clergy List, and you will find most of their names. Look at the Diocese

of Travancore, for instance, and you will find the Rev. Koshi Koshi, the Rev. Oomen Mamen, the Rev. Kunengheri Korata, the Rev. Pulinekanatha Wirghese, and many others. Turn to the Diocese of Mid-China, and you will see the names of the Rev. Wong Yiu-Kwong, the Rev. Dzing Ts-Sing, and others.

Ward. But what sort of men are they?

John-I can answer that in some measure. I heard the Rev. Mr. Sat

thianadhan when he was in England. Such a fine man! Such a capital speaker!

Mr. Story-On the River Niger all the clergy are black men. At Sierra Leone, not only are the clergy black men, but they are supported by their own people.

Wilson.-Indeed! that is a good idea. I always fancied that the socalled converts depended on English subscriptions, not only for their teachers, but also for daily bread.

Mr. Story.-There could not be a greater mistake. No doubt there have been times when converts have had to be supported, because by leaving their own religion they have lost their means of livelihood; but this is not so when there are a good number of converts. It certainly is not so in West Africa, nor is it so now in any part of India. Travellers through Tinnevelly tell us that they know a Christian from a heathen village by its outward prosperity. The Tinnevelly Christians might put many English Christians to shame by their liberality. In 1880, the Native Christians contributed to the local church funds £2,500; remember that they are mostly poor, and that wages are very low, and you will see that this is a very large sum. The C.M.S. urges self-support in all its Missions, and not without effect. Indeed, were it not for the sums given by those who have become Christians, not half the work done could be accomplished.

Ward. I think I should have more confidence in the work if I felt sure that the men sent out to do it were the right sort. I have always had an idea that missionaries are, as I once read in the Times, "halfeducated, commonplace sort of men.'

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Mr. Story.-Well, no doubt they are not all heaven-born geniuses, nor all men of remarkable character, nor all men of deep learning; but, taken as a body, they would compare well with the home clergy.

John. I have heard speeches from some of them which I shall never forget.

Wilson. So have I; but I am afraid not quite as John means!

Mr. Story.--You cannot expect every missionary to be an orator. Do you know that up to 1880 the C.M.S. had sent out altogether 846 men? Of these 78 came from Cambridge, 38 from Oxford, and 35 from Dublin. Many of these had distinguished themselves much at their Universities. Fifty of them were graduates in honours. Some were double first class men; several were Fellows of their Colleges. John Tucker, French, Knott, Hooper, Shirreff, Fyson, are on the Oxford list; and at Cambridge, Jowett was 12th Wrangler, Haslam 9th Wrangler, Ragland 4th Wrangler, Frost 11th Wrangler, Batty 2nd Wrangler and 2nd Smith's Prizeman; Shackell 10th Wrangler, 2nd Class Classical Tripos, and 1st Class Theological.

Ward.-Where did the others come from?

Mr. Story.-89 came from the Basle Seminary; but of these 70 were for a time at the Islington College.

Ward.--The Islington College?

Mr. Story.-Yes. In 1825 this College, or Institution as it was called, was founded. To it we owe many of our best missionaries. Altogether it has given us 350 men, besides the 70 mentioned above. It has also been very useful in giving special instruction to University men, many of whom bear grateful testimony to the value of the time spent within its walls. Ward. Still, we have not quite got to my point. What sort are the men ?

Mr. Story.-Well, shall we take time of service as our test? Archdeacon Cockran was forty years in N.W. America, and never once came home; Dr. Pfander, the famous missionary to the Mohammedans, was over forty years in the Mission field; Rev. W. Smith, whose work should be much better known than it is, laboured forty-four and a half years; Rev. C. B. Leupolt, his colleague at Benares, nearly forty-two years. He, thank God, still lives, and many in various parts of the country have heard him plead the cause of Missions. Rev. W. Oakley went out to Ceylon in 1835, is still at work, and has never once been home.

Wilson. These are long spells of labour, and certainly seem to show that the men loved their work.

Mr. Story.-Yes, and there are others who have shown equal devotion. Rev. H. Townsend has given forty years to Africa; Rev. Joseph Peet was nearly thirty-three years at work in Travancore. Peet began his ministry in Mavelicara, the very focus of bigotry and opposition. There was not then one Protestant convert in the district. When the end came he was at the head of a noble band of Christians, 2,500 in number, the seals to his ministry, assembled in eleven substantial churches built by his exertions, and in numerous prayer-houses. Eight Native clergymen had been more or less under his training, and several of them were his spiritual children. He begged to be allowed to go back to India, whence he had returned home for medical treatment, to die amongst his people. His last days were spent in exhorting converts and workers to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.

John. I am thankful to hear that so many missionaries have been able to stay so long at their work.

Mr. Story. It is a cause for gratitude. But don't for a moment suppose that these are more really devoted than others who have not been

able to stay so long. Many a man longs to go back to his work, but is forbidden. The Rev. S. Hasell, who was so well known as the Home Secretary of the Society, offered again and again to return. There are missionaries in England now who would rejoice to return to their missionary work if the doctors would permit it. I know at this moment more than one whose great cross it is that he is forbidden to resume his work. "To wait" is often harder than "to labour."

John-But, Mr. Story, there are many men who have done noble work, for a long time too, whom you have not mentioned.

Mr. Story. Of course there are Bishops Sargent, Horden, Burdon, Moule, and a host of others, some of whom are dead, some still at work. The fact is, if we mentioned them all, our conversation would last till to-morrow morning at least.

Ward.--Well, Mr. Story, I am bound to say that in some degree my doubts are set aside. It really does seem as if God had called England

and England's Church to do a great work for Him.

Mr. Story. I am glad to hear you say that. Surely, now, you will try to help on so great a work. Never was there a time when the call to send Missions to the heathen was so great. China, Africa, Japan, and India are open, all needing far more men than we can give. It is almost heartbreaking to think of the earnest appeals for help which come to the C.M.S., and the many refusals which must be given to these appeals. Wilson. But what can we do? We have not much money; we can't go out ourselves; we seem very helpless.

Mr. Story. Remember the power of prayer. "Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth labourers into His harvest." Remember

that "the silver and gold are His," that He can move the minds of men who possess wealth to give of their wealth. Remember, too, how St. Paul prays men to pray that "the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified."

John.-Yes, we can pray; but I should like to do more than pray. Mr. Story. So you can. One heart on fire can do great things. It is astonishing how great is the effect of individual influence. If we could secure three young men in every parish in England with no more money and no more influence than you and Ward and Wilson possess, I will undertake to say that an immense amount of money could be raised, aye, and many men stimulated to go out into the Mission field. They would know the facts, and teach others. They would feel the duty of doing something, and make others feel it too. The longer I live the more I see that it is individual effort which does great things in the world. If you three young men will only retail what you have heard, and still more, so read the publications of the Society that you get to know more and more of the deeply interesting facts which are daily coming to our notice from all parts of the field, not only we but many whom none of us will ever see in this life will have cause to bless God that we have had this talk about the origin and progress of the Church Missionary Society.

OUR MISSIONS IN 1882.

UCH has been said in this number of the GLEANER

respecting the early history of the Church Missionary Society. But while it is good to look back to the Past, and remember all the way that the Lord our God hath led us, it is with the Present, after all, that we have most to do. Let us therefore take a rapid run round the world, and view the Society's Missions as they are to-day.

We will first take the steamer from Liverpool to West Africa. In about a fortnight we are landed at Sierra Leone, where the Society's first missionaries landed seventy-eight years ago. What do we see there? We see a peninsula about the size of the Isle of Wight inhabited by negroes of a hundred different tribes, the descendants of the slaves rescued in the early part of the century. Forty thousand of them are Christians, or nearly the whole population; and of these about half belong to the Church of England. We find twelve parishes, with churches and schools, all the ministers of which are Africans; and the only two white clergymen we meet are the Principal and Vice-Principal of the College at Fourah Bay, where African students earn the Durham B.A. degree without coming to England for it. We pay a visit also to the Grammar School, with its African Principal, which invests its profits in English funds; and to other institutions.

Not stopping to visit the out-lying Missions in the Sherbro, Bullom, Quiah, and Timneh countries, we go on by the steamer a thousand miles along the coast to Lagos, now a flourishing British possession, but formerly the great port for the embarka

tion of slaves. Here we find several more parishes with Native clergy, and congregations that raise large sums for church and mission and various Institutions similar to those at Sierra purposes; Leone. Taking canoes along the lagoons that line the coast, or up the rivers, we come to town after town with congregation and Native clergyman-Ebute Meta, Badagry, Leke, Ode Ondo, Abeokuta, Ibadan-6,000 or 7,000 Christians altogether.

Again steaming on eastward, we reach the mouths of the Niger, and, transferring ourselves to the Mission steamer Henry Venn we spend some weeks visiting the dozen stations established by Bishop Crowther, in the delta and 350 miles up the river-Bonny, Brass, Onitsha, Lokoja, &c.—not forgetting to shake hands warmly with the two African Archdeacons, Henry Johnson and Dandeson Crowther. We wonder at the Sunday congregations, in two or three of the churches above 1,000 people; and we do not wonder at the stories we hear of the devil's desperate efforts to mar the growing work.

We should now much like to make up a caravan, and march right away across the Dark Continent; but this is hardly feasible yet, so we make the best of our course round the Cape of Good Hope, passing many flourishing Missions of other societies, and, sailing up the East Coast, cast anchor off Zanzibar. For want of the Henry Wright, not yet at her post, we must suffer the miseries of a dhow to get to Mombasa; and there, close to the spot where Krapf laid his wife to rest forty years ago, we are astonished at the prosperous and peaceful village of Frere Town. Here, too, Satan has been busy; but here, too, the Stronger than he has caught away from him many precious souls. After a flying visit to Rabbai and Godoma, each with its little Christian community, we get back to Zanzibar, and crossing to the mainland, begin our long march into the far interior. Mamboia and Mpwapwa are reached in three or four weeks, and at each place an English lady welcomes us, who is winning the affection of all around her. Then we press on to Uyui, 550 miles inland; and then to the great Victoria Nyanza, across which we must sail for 200 miles to visit King Mtesa and bid God-speed to our brethren at his court.

How we are to get back again may be a perplexity; but let us suppose ourselves once more in the Mediterranean, being landed, through the surf, at the ancient port of Jaffa. It is a delight, indeed, to take our horses and ride through the Holy Land, down to Gaza, and then up to Jerusalem, and then across the Jordan to Salt, and then back to Nablous and Nazareth, and to see at all these places, and at many villages en route, how the Society is setting before the bigoted Moslems the truths of a pure Christianity-which, alas! the sadly-degraded Oriental churches make no attempt to do. We pass on to Persia, and find the infant Mission so bravely founded by Mr. Bruce holding forth the light of the Gospel in the midst of dense darkness; and then on to Bombay.

Now we are in India. How can we see all the work there? Even if we miss the noble Missions of other societies, those of C.M.S. alone perplex us with their number and variety, and fill us with thankfulness for their success. From Bombay we go to Nasik, with its Christian village of Sharanpur, and to Malegam, and to Aurungabad, each with its Native clergyman. Then we come back, and sail away to Kurrachee, the westernmost port of India, and up the Indus to Hydrabad, and find that Ceylon, the C.M.S. is entirely alone, with four missionaries. in the great province of Sindh, as large and as populous as Taking the new railway we go on northward to the Punjab, and, conducted perhaps by Bishop French and Robert Clark, visit Lahore with its great Divinity College, and Amritsar with its many noble missionary institutions, and Mr. Bateman's Christian village of Clarkabad, and Mr. Baring and Miss Tucker at Batala, and Multan, and the new Medical Mission on the Beluch frontier, and the older Medical Missions on the Afghan frontier

MAP like this, however carefully it may be done, cannot but be rather deceptive. First, the scale is too small to define the boundaries of the various religions with accuracy. Secondly, the same area frequently contains, as in the Turkish Empire, India, and North Africa, large populations professing different religions, which can only be roughly indicated by bars with different shading. Thirdly, it is not possible to have so many shadings in a wood engraving as we can have colours in a tinted map (as in the Church Missionary Atlas); so that all non-Protestant Christendom, whether Roman or Greek or Armenian, &c., has to appear with one shade, and Buddhism and Brahmanism cannot be distinguished, as they should be, from the simpler Paganism of Africa.

and in Kashmir, and the great Afghan Mission at Peshawar; rejoicing as we go to see both clergy and laity who were once Moslems or Sikhs or Hindu idolaters.

Turning eastward, and coming down into the great valley of the Ganges, we move on to Agra, and Lucknow, and Allahabad, and Benares, and Gorakpur, and many other places, with here a college and there an orphanage, here a Christian village and there a vigorous evangelistic agency, and schools of all sorts everywhere, and numerous Christian congregations. Then a tour southwards into Central India, to see the zealous young missionaries among the aboriginal Bheels at Khairwarra and the Gônds at Jubbulpore and Mandla; and back to see the similar work among the Santals of Bengal, where two thousand Christians and four Native clergymen, the fruit of scarcely twenty years work, are ready to welcome us. Then down into Lower Bengal, visiting village after village in Krishnagar; and so to Calcutta, where the vacant places of Welland and Vaughan remind us how short the time is, and how weak the C.M.S. is in the capital of India, despite its Divinity College and Boarding Schools and Christian congregations, and work among all castes and classes, from the Brahmin graduate of Calcutta University to the poor leper in the hospital. Another steamer now carries us across the Bay of Bengal to Southern India. Landing at Masulipatam, we visit the tomb of Robert Noble, and his School, and his Brahmin converts; and then by boat and bullock cart travel over the flat plains between the Kistna and the Godavery, everywhere received by faithful missionaries and humble Christian villagers; not forgetting good General Haig and his Koi Mission far up the latter river. Then on southward to Madras, to see Mr. Satthianadhan and

Fourthly, the density of population entirely fails to be shown. The Christianity of Australia and North-West America covers as large a space in the map as the heathenism of India or China, although the latter comprises as many millions of souls as the former does thousands.

The Map, therefore, affords no true idea of the "darkness that covers the earth, and gross darkness the people "-of the immense mass of ignorance and superstition yet untouched by missionary effort. Still it is interesting as far as it goes; and for the relative numbers of souls professing different forms of religion we must look rather to the Diagram of the Population of the World printed in the GLEANER of Feb., 1881, and in the Church Missionary Almanack for this year.

his new church, and the patient labours of our English brethren among the proud Mohammedans; and then to Tinnevelly, where we must remain a long while indeed if we are to accompany Bishop Sargent to all the 875 villages where the 53,000 C.M.S. Native Christians live (besides many more of S.P.G.), and say a kind word to all the sixty C.M.S. Native clergy, and worship in the great churches with their immense congregations, and visit all the girls' schools that Mr. Lash started, and go over the scene of Ragland's itinerant preachings, where the Rev. V. Vedhanayagam now works so admirably. We must not tarry; we must cross the Ghauts into Travancore and Cochin, and see Bishop Speechly in the midst of his sixteen Native clergy and 19,000 Christians, and thank God for the colleges and churches and widely extended missions that tell of the labours of those who are gone, Bailey and the Bakers and Peet and Hawksworth, and many others.

Leaping, like Hanuman, the monkey-god in the great Hindu epic, across the straits into Ceylon, we find our missionaries labouring among two classes of people, the Tamils and the Singhalese, in the central hill-country covered with the far-famed coffee plantations, in the low country at Colombo and Cotta and Baddegama, and in the northern peninsula of Jaffna; and we rejoice to see growing congregations and faithful Native clergy of both races, and to inspect the flourishing schools of all grades at Kandy and Cotta and Jaffna. And the sight of Christian coolies who are immigrants from India reminds us that we must pay a flying visit to the little island of Mauritius, 2,000 miles off in the Indian Ocean, to see a similar blessing upon a similar work.

We now go on eastward to China. First we touch at Hong Kong, and look in at the evening preaching in St. Stephen's