eee 
 
 RP z 
 
 $e 
 
 | MISSIONARY SCHOOLS. _ 
 
 ‘PRINTED BY PERKINS & 
 
 
 

 
 Ont Sy 
 ps aes 
 Sy 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
MISSIONARY PAPER, NO. 20. 
 
 MISSIONARY SCHOOLS. | 
 
 [By one of the Secretaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.) 
 
 Ir is thought by some, that modern missionaries among 
 the heathen give too much attention to schools, and that 
 they do this at the expense of time which ought to be 
 devoted to the preaching of the gospel. There may have 
 been something to justify this opinion in a few of the 
 missions, especially in their earlier stages. In general, 
 however, the impression is probably a mistaken one. 
 Missionaries among the heathen will bear comparison, in 
 respect to the frequency of their preaching, with the more 
 zealous among the pastors at home. 
 
 Still it is admitted, that schools constitute a prominent 
 part of the system of modern missions, and that there is 
 no evidence of their having formed any part of the mis- 
 sions prosecuted by the apostles. The inquiry therefore 
 is very natural and proper, Why this departure from 
 apostolical usage? ‘To this inquiry it is the object of 
 this paper to furnish a reply. 
 
 Our first inquiry will be into the extent of territory 
 embraced by the apostolical missions. 
 
 The inspired history gives no information that the 
 apostles and their companions extended their personal 
 labors beyond the Roman empire. Fabricius has col- 
 lected from the New ‘T'estament the names of all the 
 places there mentioned, at which they planted churches, 
 some forty or fifty in number; and also the names of the 
 different countries which they are said to have visited.* 
 These countries were Judea, Syria, Asia Minor, Macedo- 
 
 * Fabricii Lux Evan. exoriens, etc. p. 83. 
 
 No. 20. 1 
 
 
 
2 Missionary Schools. 
 
 nia, Illyricum, Greece, Italy, and the islands of Cyprus 
 and Crete, with several others of less note. Mesopotamia 
 should probably be added, on the strength of I Pet. v. 13. 
 All the principal districts or provinces of Asia Minor are 
 named in the Acts of the Apostles. The parts of Arabia 
 in which Paul spent several] years, are supposed to have 
 been adjacent to Damascus, and within the modern Syria; 
 and there is no evidence in Scripture that this apostle 
 actually made his contemplated journey into Spain. The 
 whole territory, therefore, traversed by the apostolical 
 missionaries, so far as the Scriptures inform us, was within 
 the Roman empire, and formed but a part of it; and, so 
 far as territory 1s concerned, but little more than was 
 afterwards governed by the eastern or Byzantine empe- 
 rors.* 
 
 If we inquire what further light ecclesiastical history 
 . throws on this subject, we shall not be able greatly to 
 extend the travels and labors of the apostles. Mosheim 
 gives it as the result of his researches, that ‘‘ the stories 
 often told respecting their travels among the Gauls, the 
 Britons, the Spaniards, the Germans, the Americans, the 
 Chinese, the Indians, and the Russians, are too recent 
 and fantastic to be received by an inquisitive lover of the 
 truth.” ‘‘A great part of these fabulous stories,” he con- 
 tinues, ‘were got up after the days of Charlemagne; 
 when most of the Christian churches contended as vehe- 
 mently about the antiquity of their origin, as ever the 
 Arcadians, Egyptians and Greeks did.” Dr. Murdock, 
 the American translator of Mosheim, believes—chiefly in 
 view of the authorities quoted by Fabricius—that Peter, 
 after preaching long in Judea and other parts of Syria, 
 probably visited Babylon, Asia Minor, and finally Rome : 
 that Paul, after his captivity, visited Judea, Asia Minor 
 and Greece, and returned to Rome, but did not proceed 
 further westward than Italy; that John, after remaining 
 many years in Judea, removed to Ephesus, where, except- 
 ing the time of his banishment to Patmos, he remained 
 till his death; that James the younger (the elder James 
 was put to death by Herod) spent his life in Judea; and 
 that Andrew probably labored on the shores of the Black 
 
 * The countries mentioned Acts ii. 9—11, add Media and Parthia 
 to the above named. 
 
Missionary Schools. 3 
 
 Sea near the modern Constantinople, and perhaps in 
 Greece. ‘Philip,’ he adds, “either the apostle or the 
 evangelist, is reported to have ended his days at Hierap- 
 olis, in Phrygia. Thomas seems to have travelled east- 
 ward, to Parthia, Media, Persia and India. Bartholomew 
 took perhaps a more southern course, and preached in 
 Arabia. Matthew is also reported to have travelled east, 
 in the Modern Persia. Of Simon the Canaanite, nothing 
 to be relied on can be said. Thaddeus, Lebbeus, or Jude 
 the brother of James, the author of an epistle, is reputed 
 to have preached at Edessa, in the north of Syria. Of 
 the companions of the apostles—Timothy, after accompa- 
 nying Paul many years, is said to have been stationed at 
 Ephesus, where he suffered martyrdom under Domitian or 
 Nerva. ‘Titus, another companion of Paul, is reported to 
 have been stationed in Crete, where he died. Mark, or 
 John surnamed Mark, attended Paul and afterwards Peter, 
 and probably preached the gospel in Egypt. Of Luke, 
 little can be said, except that he accompanied Paul, and 
 wrote the book of Acts and a Gospel. Of Barnabas, 
 nothing can be said worth relating, except what is learned 
 from the New Testament.—F rom this account, imperfect 
 as it is, we may conclude that the apostles and their 
 companions scarcely extended their labors beyond the 
 boundaries of the present Turkish empire.’’* 
 
 To the countries, then, which are mentioned in the 
 New Testament as favored with the missionary labors of 
 the apostles and their companions, ecclesiastical history 
 adds Egypt, Southern Arabia, Persia, Media, Parthia, and 
 India. But we have nothing that throws light on their 
 manner of proceeding in these countries. For information 
 of this kind, we must look solely to the missions described 
 in the New Testament, which were in Syria, Asia Minor, 
 Macedonia, Greece, Italy, and the islands of Cyprus and 
 Crete. I say Crete, for although we have no account of 
 the labors of the apostle Paul in that island, we have his 
 epistle to Titus, instructing him how to proceed in his 
 mission to the Cretans.—I omit Judea, as being the source 
 of the missions, and not a heathen country. 
 
 
 
 
 
 * Mosheim’s Eccl. Hist. vol. J. pp. 55, 56.— Note, 
 

 
 4 Missionary Schools. 
 
 Our next inquiry relates to the state of education in 
 these countries. 
 
 The mere mention of Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, 
 Greece and Italy, is enough for the reader of Istory. 
 What were they in those times but the very foci of civili- 
 zation ?. Where were other countries in the wide world, 
 to be compared with them im this respect? And the 
 time, too, in which the apostolical missions were per- 
 formed, was it not in the palmy age of Roman literature ? 
 But though the evidence of the high state of general 
 civilization and individual intelligence in those, countries 
 at that period, is unquestionable, it is not easy to show 
 precisely what means of education were possessed by the 
 people at large, nor to what extent the multitude was 
 actually educated. 
 
 Two events must have exerted a powerful influence on 
 _ the minds of men and on the tone of education throughout 
 the field traversed by the apostles;—viz. the general dis- 
 persion of the Greeks, with their language and philosophy ; 
 and the general dispersion of the Jews, with their inspired 
 books and their religion. 
 
 The Macedonians, upon the conquests of Alexander 
 the Great, planted their colonies every where. They 
 built Grecian cities even in Media. ‘On the Tigris, 
 Selucia was principally inhabited by Greeks: to the 
 southeast was the magnificent Ctesiphon; and to the 
 northwest was Sitace. Babylon imitated Macedonia; in 
 its neighborhood lived Greeks and Macedonians. From 
 thence along the Euphrates upwards lay Nicephorium, a 
 Grecian city, surrounded also by other Greek towns; and 
 further on in Mesopotamia was Charre, a settlement of 
 the Macedonians. But not to enter into details, we refer 
 (in Appian) to a large catalogue of cities in Further and 
 Hither Syria, which were reckoned to the Greeks. 'Ti- 
 granes, the Armenian, in his march to Phenicia by way 
 of Syria, destroyed no less than twelve Greek cities. 
 Between Syria and Babylonia we meet with the ruins of 
 Palmyra, on which are found more Greek than Palmyrene 
 inscriptions. Even some written in the Palmyrene char- 
 acter, are nevertheless in their language Greek. In 
 Hither Syria, on the boundaries of Palestine, and in Pal> \ 
 estine itself, the Greeks, as was natural from the situation ? 
 
 % 
 4 
 
Missionary Schools. 5 
 
 and neighborhood, made still greater intrusions.” Anti- 
 och, the capital of Syria, was peopled by its founder with 
 Greeks and Macedonians, and acquired a reputation for 
 Greek refinement and science. Tyre and Sidon adopted 
 the Greek language. Cesarea was peopled chiefly by 
 Greeks. Gadara and Hippos, on the east of the Jordan, 
 became Greek cities, and the former possessed men 
 learned in Greek science. So also did Gaza, a city on 
 the southwest border of Judea. Philadelphia, east of the 
 Jordan, is still majestic in its Grecian ruins. Indeed the 
 country east of the Jordan, was towards the north Greek, 
 and towards the south mostly in possession of the Greeks.* 
 
 In this manner were the Greek language, manners and 
 
 Institutions generally diffused. As early as the time of 
 
 Cato, that language was understood and spoken through- 
 out the civilized world. Homer was read in Persia, and 
 it is supposed even in India. In Carthage navigators 
 described their voyages of discovery, and Hannibal wrote 
 a history of his wars, in the language of the Greeks.t 
 ‘<The natives generally,” says Cicero, ‘read the Greek.” 
 During the reign of Augustus, the study of the Grecian 
 philosophy was so prevalent, that almost every statesman, 
 lawyer and man of letters was conversant with the 
 writings of the philosophers. ‘This philosophy originally 
 embraced all inquiries about the nature of God, the origin 
 and destiny of man, and the phenomena and powers of 
 
 the material world. Afterwards the consideration of. 
 
 physical topics was to a great extent excluded. It is no 
 doubt true, that comparatively few of the people knew 
 any thing of the different sects of Grecian philosophy, yet 
 the fact that their disciples were so generally dispersed, 
 must have had no small influence on the minds of men.t 
 A consideration of the schools and the public libraries 
 which are known to history, will assist our impressions as 
 
 
 
 * Hug on the prevalence of the Greek language in Palestine, ete. 
 Biblical Repository, vol. 1, pp. 336—550. Prof. Pfannkuche, in his 
 dissertation on the prevalence of the Aramean language in the same 
 country in the time of the apostles, restricts the use of the Greek to 
 narrower limits. Bib. Repos. vol. i. pp. 3)7—363. ‘Phe reader will 
 incline to the views taken by Prof. Hug. | 
 
 t Schlegel’s Hist. of Literature, vol. i. p. 111. 
 
 + Eschenburg’s Manual of Class. Lit. translated and. edited by 
 Prof. Fiske; and Enfield’s Hist. of Philosophy. 
 
 1 * 
 
 
 
 
 
6 Missionary Schools. 
 
 to the state of education in those large cities, in which 
 were the recorded |abors of the apostles and their asso- 
 ciates. Athens for many ages had been renowned for 
 her schools, which were resorted to from all quarters by 
 those who were eager for learning. In the period under 
 consideration they had rivals at Apollonia on the western 
 shore of Macedonia, where Augustus finished his educa- 
 tion, not far’south of Iyricum and Dalmatia; at Rhodes; 
 at Pergamus, where was one of the seven churches; at 
 Tarsus, the birth-place of Paul; and especially at Alex- 
 andria in Egypt. The law school at Berytus, in Syria, 
 was of a subsequent date; and the schools of Antioch, 
 Smyrna, Caesarea, Edessa and Seleucia, were of Christian 
 origin, and arose after the death of the apostles. The 
 Christian school at Alexandria was opened in the latter 
 part of the second century. But the school of pagan 
 philosophy in that city, at the era of our Saviour’s advent, 
 was thronged from. all quarters, and is said to have sent 
 forth eminent philosophers of every sect to distant 
 countries. ‘The celebrated library at Alexandria needs 
 no description. About one hundred and fifty years before 
 Christ, Pergamus contained a library of 200,000 volumes, 
 rivalling the collection of the Ptolemies. Before the era of 
 our missions, Mark Anthony had presented it to Cleopatra, 
 to replace the one in the Museum, which had been de- 
 stroyed by Julius Cesar during the siege of Alexandria. 
 
 Ass to the influence of the Jews in their dispersion, it 
 may be remarked, that as long ago as the reign of Ahas- 
 uerus, or Artaxerxes Longimanus, they were found in 
 considerable numbers in all the provinces of Persia. The 
 evidence of this is in the book of Esther. At the com- 
 mencement of the Christian missions, this people were 
 dispersed over the Roman empire. ‘The geographer 
 Strabo, quoted by Josephus, says, ‘The Jews have 
 already passed into every city; nor were it easy to find 
 any place in the world, which has not received this nation 
 and been occupied by it.” Strabo flourished in the Au- 
 gustan age. At that time the antiquities and sacred 
 books of the Jews began to attract the attention of pagan 
 scholars, and conversions from paganism to Judaism were 
 not uncommon. Synagogues composed in great measure 
 of proselytes, existed in many of the Grecian cities. 
 
 
 
 
 
Missionary Schools. 7 
 
 Schools are said to have been common among the Jews; 
 and no one can doubt that this dispersion of the Jews 
 must have had a great effect on the gentile mind.* 
 
 From all this it would seem, that education and 
 knowledge must have been considerably prevalent in the 
 countries where were. the missions described in the New 
 Testament. Especially is it almost certain that men of 
 education would be found in those cities generally, in 
 _which they gathered churches. Some of them would 
 already be among the proselytes to Judaism, and it is 
 highly probable that these would occasionally embrace the 
 Christian faith. The apostle Paul does indeed say, that 
 ‘‘not many wise men after the flesh” were called. It 
 was then no doubt much as it is now. In every city 
 where converts were multiplied, there were a few from the 
 less proud and ambitious classes of educated men. These 
 would be superior to most of the apostles in respect to 
 mere learning, and, it may be, quite equal to Paul himself, 
 the best educated among the apostolical missionaries. In 
 point of: fact, the standard of education among the Gen- 
 tiles, in Syria, Asia Minor, Greece and Rome, was at 
 that time higher, than it was among the Jews, and the 
 amount of education was greater. 
 
 I am now prepared ¢o state some facts, illustrative of 
 the apostolical missions, which are important to the main 
 object of this discussion. One of the most prominent of 
 these is, the small number of missionaries sent by the 
 Holy Ghost into the several heathen countries. The 
 New Testament gives no evidence that more than three 
 apostles visited Asia Minor. If we call in the aid of 
 ecclesiastical history, we have but four. ‘T’o these add 
 Barnabas, Luke, Mark, Silas and Apollos, and there are 
 but nine missionaries in all. Timothy was a native of 
 the country. So was Titus; at least he was a Greek. 
 The list of the seventy disciples now extant, which would 
 make nearly all the Christians named in the Epistles to 
 be missionaries sent from Judea, is rejected by ecclesias- 
 tical writers as fictitious. But even if this list were 
 authentic, it would then appear that not more than a 
 dozen missionaries were sent to the countries of Asia 
 
 
 
 * Eschenburg’s Manual, etc. p. 282. 
 
 
 
 
 
8 Missionary Schools, 
 
 Minor; and, excepting Syria, no other country appears 
 to have been so much favored in this respect. 
 
 Now we are told that Paul and Barnabas, in their 
 missionary tour through Asia Minor, ‘ordained elders — 
 in every church.” Whom did they ordain? Sixteen 
 cities are named where there were churches, and pas- 
 sages might be quoted from the Acts and Epistles, im- 
 plying that a far greater number of churches were planted. 
 Paul also informs Titus, that he had left him in Crete, 
 among other reasons, that he might ‘ordain elders in 
 every city.”’ Whom? Not men sent for the purpose 
 from the churches of Judea. Not missionaries. ‘The 
 elders thus ordained were chosen from among the native 
 converts themselves. 
 
 Now, in what manner did the apostles obtain, in every 
 city, men qualified for such a trust? 
 
 It appears that their missionary labors, so far as they 
 are recorded in the New Testament, were in the best 
 educated, and in some respects highly educated, portions 
 of the world; that they were chiefly in cities, and, ex- 
 cepting Rome and a few others, in Grecian cities, in- 
 cluding most of those which were distinguished for learn- 
 ing and general civilization in those times; that in most 
 places they must have preached more or less to educated 
 men, rendering it not improbable that some of these were 
 among their converts; and that these men, with some 
 special instructions in the knowledge of the gospel, would 
 be fitted to preach the gospel and take the pastoral 
 charge of churches. During the three years Paul spent 
 at Ephesus, and the year and a half he labored at 
 Corinth, he might have trained numerous candidates for 
 the ministry. Wherever the apostles went preaching the 
 gospel, they found mind in that erect, intelligent, reason- 
 ing posture, which is the result of civilization—a more 
 learned and refined civilization even, than existed in the 
 communities from which the missionaries themselves pro- 
 ceeded. 
 
 It would seem, however, that whatever was the amount 
 of education in the communities favored with the labors 
 of the apostles, it was impossible to supply the gentile 
 churches properly with teachers, without a miraculous 
 agency; for, in these churches, the Holy Ghost saw fit 
 
Missionary Schools. 9 
 
 to put forth a supernatural influence to raise up prophets, 
 teachers and governors, that they might the more speedily 
 and effectually be built up in the faith and order of the 
 gospel. 
 
 On this subject, Mosheim gives his opinion as follows: 
 “‘As there were but few among the first professors of 
 Christianity, who were learned men and competent to 
 instruct the rude and uninformed on religious subjects, 
 it became necessary that God should raise up in various 
 churches extraordinary teachers, who could discourse to 
 the people on religious subjects in their public assemblies, 
 and address them in the name of God. Such were the 
 persons, who in the New Testament are called prophets. 
 Rom. xu. 6: 1 Cor. xii. 28: xiv. 3, 29: Eph. iv. 11. 
 The functions of these men are limited too much by 
 those, who make it to have been their sole business to 
 expound the Old Testament Scriptures, and especially 
 the prophetic books. Whoever professed to be such a 
 herald of God, was allowed publicly to address the péo- 
 ple; but there were present among the hearers divinely 
 constituted judges, who could by infallible criteria  dis- 
 criminate between true and false prophets. ‘The order — 
 of prophets ceased, when the necessity for them was 
 
 gst=.” 
 
 The still more eminent ecclesiastical historian, Neander, 
 believes the gifts of teaching, prophecy, discerning of 
 spirits, governments, tongues, miracles, signs and won- 
 ders, all to have been supernatural. He understands 
 the teachers to be such persons as had been in some 
 measure prepared, by a previous culture of the under- 
 standing, to communicate what the Spirit revealed to 
 them, in a connected series of doctrinal instruction. The 
 prophet, on the contrary, spoke as he was impelled by the 
 might of a sudden inspiration at the moment, for the 
 awakening, exhortation, warning, and consolation of the 
 church; or else to rouse the conscience of the careless 
 sinner.t But self-possession was to accompany inspira- 
 tion, and the absence of this was to be decisive that it 
 was not genuine. No one was to speak alone and ex- 
 clusively; no one was to interrupt another.t To guard 
 
 * Mosheim Eccl. Hist. vol. i. p. 83. 
 + 1 Cor. xiv. 25. t 1 Cor. xiv. 30—32. 
 
10 Missionary Schools. 
 
 the churches against imposition, the power of infallibly 
 discerning the true supernatural gifts of prophecy and 
 teaching was conferred upon certain individuals.* The 
 word of knowledge he believes to have been the capacity 
 for unfolding the Christian doctrine theoretically; and 
 the word of wisdom the capacity for applying it prac- 
 tically to the particular relations and circumstances of 
 life: they were distinctions in the gift of teaching. 
 The gift of governments, or of church government, was 
 designed to qualify individuals for the station of officers 
 in the church. It was such the apostles ordained over 
 the churches they gathered among the gentiles. Neander 
 understands the gift of helps as having reference to the 
 various services required in administering the affairs of the 
 church, as the superintendence of alms and the care of 
 the sick ; ; and to this class probably belonged the gift of 
 miraculous cures.t 
 
 ‘The gift of foreign tongues,” says Mosheim, “ appears 
 to have gradually ceased as soon as many nations became 
 
 enlightened with the truth and numerous churches of, 
 
 Christians were every where established; for it became 
 less necessary than it was at first. But the other gifts, 
 with which God favored the rising church of Christ, 
 were, as we learn from numerous testimonies of the 
 ancients, still conferred [i. e. in the second century] 
 on particular persons here and there.’ { ‘There is reason 
 to think that they did not wholly cease until some time in 
 the third century. 
 
 Thus were the apostolical churches among the heathen 
 furnished with religious teachers and guides. The apostles 
 (excepting Paul) after spending three years in the most 
 intimate connection with one who spake as never man 
 spake—in a school for which any candidate for the min- 
 istry would gladly exchange the most favored of the halls 
 of science—were wondrously endowed by the Holy Ghost 
 with miraculous gifts and graces. Paul, pre-eminently 
 the apostle to the Gentiles, spent his youth, probably, 
 in the schools of Tarsus, but completed his education 
 at the feet of Gamaliel in Jerusalem. He received his 
 
 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiv. 29: 1 John iv. 1. 
 ¢ Bib. Repos. vol. iv. pp. 241—277, 
 t Mosheim, vol. i. p. 125. 
 
 i 
 
Missionary Schools. 1] 
 
 knowledge of the gospel by immediate revelation; ‘ for 
 I neither received it,” says he, ‘of man, neither was I 
 taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Next 
 were the evangelists, often companions of the apostles in 
 travels and labors, also endowed supernaturally for the 
 work of missions. Next came prophets, teachers, etc., 
 in the several churches. And these supernatural gifts 
 appear not to have been restricted to one or two members 
 of each church, but, sometimes at least, were bestowed, 
 for mutual edification, upon numerous members, if not 
 upon all.* 7 | 
 
 Now we must believe that the Holy Ghost would not 
 have exerted this supernatural agency upon the minds 
 of the first Christians, had it been unnecessary. And 
 whence the necessity? Why were their minds strength- 
 ened, made the subjects of a spiritual illumination, and 
 endowed with a facility and force of utterance beyond the 
 reach of their natural powers in their circumstances? 
 And why was this supernatural agency gradually with- 
 drawn, as the church became more enlightened by edu- 
 cation, and able to train up her own teachers in her 
 schools at Alexandria, Cesarea, Antioch, Edessa, and 
 elsewhere? It has been said that the church grieved 
 away the Spirit by her corruptions and follies. But it 
 is far more reasonable to suppose, that the agency was 
 withdrawn because the exigenéy which called for it had 
 ceased. 
 
 We now turn our attention to modern missions, and 
 contrast their circumstances with those of the missions 
 described in the New Testament. 
 
 Modern missions have been sent to the oriental churches, 
 to the Mohammedans, and—omitting some small districts 
 —to the pagan nations in Western and Southern Africa, 
 India, the Archipelago, Polynesia, and the territories 
 occupied by the native tribes of North America. The 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiv. 23, “ If therefore the whole church be come together 
 into one place, and all speak with tongues.” v. 24, “If all 
 prophecy.” v. 26, “When ye be come together, every one of you 
 hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation.” 
 v. 29—31, “ Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others 
 judge. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the 
 first hold his peace. For ye may all prophecy one by one.” 
 

 
 
 
 12 Missionary Schools. 
 
 oriental churches and the Mohammedans occupy most 
 of the countries that were the scene of the apostolical 
 missions. ‘hese I pass by at present, to contrast the 
 circumstances of the modern and ancient missions to 
 pagan nations. 
 
 One obvious and most important fact in modern mis- 
 sions to the heathen is, that they are prosecuted in the 
 less civilized, and to a great extent in uncivilized, portions 
 of the world. What heathen nation of these times will 
 compare with the nations visited by the apostles? India 
 is partially civilized; the rest are in a state of barbarism, 
 and most of them, except as they have been affected by 
 the gospel, are absolutely savage. On the score of edu- 
 cation and intelligence, they stand immeasurably below 
 the Greeks and Romans. ‘The aboriginal American, the 
 Polynesian, and the African nations were without an 
 alphabet until they received it from the missionaries. 
 The larger nations of the Indian Archipelago have long 
 had the use of letters, but scarcely one in forty of the 
 inhabitants can read, and books of every kind are rare. 
 Concerning India, the Abbé Dubois, who is good author- 
 ity, except where he speaks of Protestant missions, says 
 the Brahmins regard the sciences as their own exclusive 
 property, that they make a mystery of them to the vulgar, 
 and have always taken the greatest pains to prevent their 
 spread among other classes of men. At the same time 
 they have themselves made no progress in learning beyond 
 their ancestors of the era of Pythagoras, and stand, with 
 the whole body of the Hindoos, where they did two thou- 
 sand years ago. It is worth while to add, that the sciences 
 above referred to, which are the ones that in ancient times 
 gave so much celebrity to the Indian philosophers, are 
 astronomy, astrology and magic. ‘The native schools 
 now existing in India are so unlike those of Europe or 
 America, and so inferior to them, as not to bear a com- 
 parison. ‘The Abbé says they are in the larger towns, or 
 within the precincts of some large temple, and are without 
 method, or plan for study, or discipline, without excitement 
 for the student, or encouragement for the teacher.* 
 
 I hesitate not to advance the proposition, that mind, in 
 
 * Description of the people of India, vol. i. p. 354. 
 
 
 
Missionary Schools. 13 
 
 all the pagan nations, now open to missionaries, is in such 
 a state that the converts, without either the supernatural 
 gifts of early times, or the substitute for those gifts (im- 
 perfect as it may be) which is found in education, will 
 not be fitted for the offices and duties of the Christian 
 church, nor to..stand alone without the help of mission- 
 aries. ‘They need such extraneous influences far more 
 than did the early converts. This is true of the nations of 
 India; and it is pre-eminently true of the more barbarous 
 pagan nations in which the experiment of Protestant mis- 
 sions has been made. How it would be in China, I do 
 not know. A more thorough and practical discipline 
 appears there to be given to the mind in the class of 
 students called ‘ literati,” than is known to any class of 
 minds in India. But inthe large portions of the heathen 
 world just named, it is impossible, without either miracu- 
 lous gifts, or education, fairly and fully to introduce the 
 Christian church, in any one of its existing forms; or if in- 
 troduced, there is no reason to believe that such churches 
 could be sustained and flourish without the constant pres- 
 ence of missionaries. They could not on the plan of 
 Congregationalism ;—for want of that intelligence and 
 discretion among the members, which are so necessary 
 where every man has a vote and a direct agency in the 
 affairs of the church, and for want also of men qualified 
 to act as deacons and committees. Even now, afterall 
 that has yet been done in the way of education, Congrega- 
 tional missionaries (and the same is equally true of all 
 others) are obliged to exercise a governing influence in 
 the churches they have gathered very analogous to that 
 exercised by the apostles.—They could not on the plan 
 of Presbyterianism ;—for want of suitable men to be 
 intrusted, as ruling elders, with the government of the 
 church.—Neither could they on the plan of E:piscopacy ; 
 for want,of men qualified to perform the duties of priests 
 and bishops. Indeed, the want of well qualified teachers 
 and pastors would be equally felt, and equally fatal to 
 success, whatever form should be given to the ecclesias- 
 tical organization. 
 
 I repeat; without either miraculous gifts, or that in- 
 tellectual and moral discipline which is not ordinarily 
 attained without more education than is to be found in 
 
 No. 20. 2 
 
 
 
14 Missionary Schools. 
 
 the heathen world, the native churches, if left to them- 
 selves, would soon run into confusion, and the institutions 
 of the gospel would perish from among them. One has 
 but to study the writings of the apostolical Fathers to see, 
 that even in their times—in the centre of the civilized 
 world, and almost in the brightest period of ancient learn- 
 ing—the churches founded by the personal ministry of the 
 apostles, as soon as miraculous gifts ceased, and earlier, 
 were kept with the greatest difficulty in the doctrines of 
 the apostles.* And we know that it took the church 
 three long centuries to acquire even the ascendency in 
 the Roman empire, and that the hour of her triumph may 
 be regarded as the commencement of her decline. It 
 would be an interesting inquiry, how far this slow pro- 
 gress, (it must be regarded as slow, if we take only the 
 time into view,) and the early, rapid, and terrible decline 
 of the church, followed by ages of darkness, were owing 
 to the want of those very facilities for general education, 
 with which God, chiefly through the medium of the press, 
 has furnished his people in these latter days. 
 
 Not to pursue this subject, let us illustrate somewhat 
 more the intellectual degradation, into which the great 
 body of the present heathen world has fallen. 
 
 To how great an extent have all useful ideas perished 
 from the minds of pagan nations! In those which make 
 the greatest pretensions to learning, in India for instance, 
 the researches of Christian scholars have discovered that 
 there is but little of truth on any subject. Their history, 
 chronology, geography, astronomy, their philosophical 
 notions of matter and mind, and their views of creation 
 and providence, religion and morals, are exceedingly 
 destitute of truth. It is not, however, so much vacuity 
 of mind that we have here to contend with, as plenitude 
 of error; the mind being filled with theories and systems 
 of geography, astronomy, metaphysics and theology, all 
 mingled together—the accumulations and perversions of 
 three thousand years—and all claiming the same divine 
 origin, the same infallibility and authority. So that, 
 happily, even the simplest course of elementary instruc- 
 
 * See Osburn on the Doctrinal Errors of the Apostolical and Early 
 Fathers, passim. 
 
 
 
 
 
Missionary Schools. 15 
 
 tion in schools, could not be otherwise than a direct attack 
 upon their false religions. 
 
 But when we go beyond the limits of civilization, among 
 the wild children of paganism living on our western wilder- 
 ness, in Africa, and the islands of the sea, then it is vacuity 
 of mind, and not a plenitude, we have to operate upon. 
 The savage has few ideas, and those few relate to his 
 physical experience and wants. ‘The relations of things 
 escape his attention. He sees only the objects just about 
 him. He knows nothing of geography; nothing of astrono- 
 my; nothing of history; nothing of his own spiritual nature 
 and destiny; nothing of God. His mind, if it were possible 
 for it in these circumstances to be expanded, would still be 
 empty. It could not stand erect. It would have nothing 
 to support it. 
 
 The worst consequence of all this in connection with 
 the natural depravity of the savage, is that paralysis of 
 the thinking power, especially on spiritual subjects, so 
 often mentioned and Jamented by missionaries. 
 
 How very unlike our field among the heathen is, to that 
 cultivated by the apostles and their associates. Moreover, 
 we go forth to our work without their power of performing 
 miracles, and our converts must be built up in the faith 
 and order of the gospel, and qualified to stand alone and 
 extend the triumphs of the Redeemer of men, without 
 those gifts of teaching, prophecy and government, which 
 were supernaturally conferred on the first gentile converts. 
 
 Would any one, notwithstanding this vast difference of 
 circumstances, still restrict us to the single method of 
 oral preaching, because only that was employed by the 
 apostles? But why overlook the supernatural qualifica- 
 tions, the miraculous powers of the apostles! Why over- 
 look the supernatural gifts conferred upon their converts? 
 Why lose sight of the fact that the apostles did actually 
 press into the service a/l the natural powers they pos- 
 sessed, all their intellectual acquisitions, all their gifts 
 and graces, and all the providential facilities within their 
 reach, and brought these all to bear to the utmost upon 
 the people to whom they were sent? And would they not 
 have been grateful for more power, and greater means and 
 facilities? Would they not have used them if they could? 
 Would not the apostle Paul, for instance, in the prosecu- 
 
 
 

 
 16 Missionary Schools. 
 
 tion of his missions, have rejoiced in such providential 
 facilities, as rail-roads by land; steam-boats by water ; 
 paper instead of papyrus, or parchment; printed books 
 instead of manuscripts; bills of exchange, by means of 
 which to remit the contributions of the Macedonian and 
 Grecian churches to Jerusalem, rather than the necessity 
 of sending messengers all the way thither to carry the 
 money; and the log-line and compass, in that terrible 
 tempest when for many days neither sun nor stars ap- 
 peared? Would he not gladly have favored the whole 
 body of his converts with the reading, as well as the 
 hearing, of the word? And when laboring with his own 
 hands at Corinth and Ephesus, because he deemed it 
 inexpedient to be chargeable to the Christians of those 
 cities, would it not have been grateful to his feelings and 
 facilitated his missionary work, if some society in Judea 
 could have relieved him from this necessity ? 
 
 Nothing can be more illogical, than the objection 
 brought against missionary schools, because the apostles. 
 established none. How many things the apostles omitted 
 to do, which they would have done if they could. And 
 how absurd to restrict the church of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury to the means that were at its command in the first. 
 Must no use be made of the numberless providential gifts. 
 to the church since then? Must no notice be taken: of 
 the subsequent changes in her circumstances? Must no. 
 regard be had for the very different attitude and relations. 
 of the pagan world towards her? The heathen to whom. 
 the church then sent her missions, were as well instructed 
 in human science, as she was herself; now, the heathen 
 are as much lower on the scale of intelligence, as the 
 church is higher; and does this fact create no additional 
 obligation? Besides, where is the divine command to 
 restrict ourselves to one mode of propagating the Christian 
 religion? ‘The apostles certainly had two. They preach- 
 ed ; and then, by the laying on of hands, they instrumen- 
 tally conferred extraordinary gifts of teaching, prophecy, 
 government, tongues and miracles on certain of the. 
 eonverts.* The first we do as they did; the second, in 
 the only manner within our power, viz., by a course of 
 
 * Rom. i. 11, Acts viii. 17, 1 Tim. iv, 14. Acts xix. 6 
 
 
 
 
 
Missionary Schools. 17 
 
 instruction. And as the command to do a thing includes 
 the means which are necessary for its performance, this, 
 being essential to the accomplishment of the work en- 
 joined, is also commanded. Moreover, by what authority 
 do we limit the meaning of the Saviour’s last command 
 to the public, oral, formal proclamation of it to a congre- 
 gation? When has it been shown, that the apostles 
 delivered sermons in the manner of modern times ?—And 
 why make adults the only object contemplated by the 
 injunction? Should the gospel not also be proclaimed to 
 youth and children, and the manner of proclaiming it be 
 suited to their years?’ Why tie up this blessed command, 
 so full of good will for mankind, to one single method of 
 conferring the benefit?) Why limit its applicability to 
 one single combination of circumstances? Is the conse- 
 crated church the only place where the gospel can be, 
 where it ought to be preached? May the gospel not be 
 preached in an upper, private room? May it not be 
 preached, in conversational tones and manner, to a single 
 family? May it not be preached by the way-side toa 
 single traveller?’ May it not be preached in the Bible 
 class, and Sabbath school, and even in the week-day 
 school; and then may not the medza of truth, common 
 ia such circumstances, be employed to make it known to 
 the youthful mind? I would ask, too, if the writing of 
 Paul’s Epistles was not an act of obedience to the com- 
 mand under consideration? No one doubts that it was; 
 and if so, and if a copy of his Epistle to the Colossians 
 was made out for the church of the Laodiceans,* was not 
 the copying of the epistle in obedience both to the letter 
 and spirit of the Saviour’s command? And when we, 
 availing ourselves ‘of the manifold copying powers of the 
 press, print this epistle and the other portions of the word 
 of God, and distribute them by thousands, is not this 
 obeying the command? And when we teach the unlet- 
 tered to read the word of God for themselves, and thus 
 enable them to confer the same ability on others, and to 
 grow more in knowledge and grace than they otherwise 
 would, is not this also obeying the command? Yes verily; 
 it is intelligent obedience. For the printing of the word 
 
 
 
 * Col. iv. 16. 
 
 Q * 
 
 
 
18 Missionary Schools. 
 
 of God, and teaching men to read it, are not something 
 different from the work enjoined. ‘They are not designed 
 to open and smooth the way for the gospel. ‘They are not 
 preparatory work. ‘They are a part of the very work 
 itself—as much so as the conferring of miraculous gifts 
 of prophecy and teaching, or the writing of the Gospels 
 or the inspired Epistles anciently were. ‘The schools 
 are—if they are what they ought to be—nurseries of piety, 
 places and means for the direct inculcation of gospel truth 
 in youthful minds and hearts. ‘They are folds where the 
 lambs of the flock are to be fed. 
 
 It is time now to show the place which education should 
 hold in the system of modern missions. 
 
 ]. If we were to regard education simply as a conven- 
 rent method of inculcating a knowledge of the gospel on 
 minds of a certain class, it may still properly be used by 
 the missionary. So far as heathen youth are concerned, 
 it is found in practice to be the only method of getting 
 early access to their minds, the only method of preaching 
 the gospel to them. It is often the most direct and 
 effectual means of bringing others, and especially parents, 
 under the preached gospel.* The visitation and superin- 
 tendence of schools also gives a fine field of usefulness to 
 missionaries recently come upon the ground, and not 
 énough acquainted with the native language to preach 
 formally to the adults. It is almost the only thing they 
 can do; and in the larger missions there will almost 
 always be some missionaries in this condition. 
 
 2. In barbarous pagan countries, if we would make 
 any use of the press and the printed word of God, elemen- 
 tary schools are indispensable. If we withhold the Bible 
 from the pagan, no matter how, in what respect does our 
 policy differ from that of the church of Rome? I need 
 not say that books and the press are useless in a commu- 
 nity which cannot read. 
 
 3. Ages of experience in protestant Christendom have 
 shown, that connecting a small system of schools with the 
 stated and frequent preaching of the gospel, is wise as a 
 means of increasing the effect of preaching and the 
 
 * Acts xix. 9. 
 
Missionary Schools. 19 
 
 durability of its influence. And if it be so within the 
 bounds of Christendom, why not beyond? The ministry 
 throughout the world, acts under one and the same com- 
 mission, and is governed by one and the same code of 
 laws. The gospel they preach is the same. Human 
 mature, with which they have to deal, is the same. Ifthe 
 «circumstances differ, as they do very greatly, the differ- 
 ence only shows the greater need of connecting schools 
 with preaching among those who know not the gospel. 
 The ordained missionary will indeed engage no more 
 than is necessary in their elementary instruction. He 
 will commit this as soon as may be to native teachers. 
 But when occupying a fixed station, he will no more be 
 without such schools than the pastor at home, and no 
 more will he withhold from them his fostering care, and 
 watchful guardianship. The missionary who has these 
 schools around him, and the missionary who has them 
 not, will do well from year to year to compare their 
 respective congregations, and the results of their preach- 
 ing. Let their native churches also be compared, and 
 their prospects among the rising generation. 
 
 4. After all, we cannot undertake to educate the youth 
 of the whole heathen world, nor even any considerable 
 proportion of them. The labor and the expense are both 
 out of the question. Whatever it may be proper or de- 
 sirable for us to do, in a general point of view, the scanti- 
 ness of the means placed at the disposal of missionary 
 societies renders it expedient, yea unavoidably necessary, 
 that schools at the expense of such societies be established 
 on a limited scale. We can educate only the few, and 
 they must educate the many. Our pupils, as far as possi- 
 ble, should be select, and selected with some regard to 
 the ulterior employment of the most promising of them as 
 helpers in the mission. Our schools should be model 
 schools. They should be nurseries of teachers. They 
 should be introductory to the higher seminary, and pre- 
 paratory to it. The preached gospel must at all events 
 be sustained, and the number of schools should be regu- 
 lated by the means placed at the disposal of the society, 
 and the balance remaining of what is appropriated to the 
 mission, after providing for the support of its preaching 
 members. Still I must doubt,—if missionaries are not to 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 20 Missionary Schools. 
 
 be mere itinerants, if they are to have a fixed residence 
 and operate within the bounds of some one district,— 
 whether the church has any right to insist upon their 
 laboring wholly without schools; or, in other words, 
 without a system of means in operation around them for 
 rearing up native helpers and successors in their work. 
 Do the Scriptures confer any such right on the churches? 
 Do they impose any such obligation on the missionary ? 
 Had missionaries the power of conferring supernatural 
 gifts by the laying on of their hands, as the apostles and 
 some of their associates had, the case would be very 
 different. | 
 
 5. While I assert the legitimate use of schools as one 
 of the means of propagating the gospel in foreign missions, 
 and while I maintain the right of missionaries to be fur- 
 nished with them to a certain extent, I would suggest a 
 general rule in relation to their establishment; having. 
 respect in this rule to the average amount of funds which 
 experience has shown may be relied on by missionary 
 societies, and the proportionate demand which will be 
 made on these for sending forth and supporting preachers 
 of the gospel. The rule is this;—That the system of 
 education, in all its paris, so far as it is supported by. 
 the funds of the mission, should have a direct reference 
 to the training up of native teachers and preachers. To 
 this, in the smaller missions, and also in the less concen- 
 trated missions, there must be exceptions. . A liberal 
 construction should always be given to it. In some 
 missions, as among the Tamul people of Ceylon and 
 South India, the rule itself may require a considerable 
 number of schools ;—to awaken attention, give tone to 
 the public mind with respect to education, furnish a better 
 selection, give importance to the subject in the view of the 
 select pupils, open a field for the occasional trial of their 
 powers while pursuing their studies, and strengthen their 
 motives to arrive at high attainments. Still, whatever 
 scope is allowed for the exercise of discretion in arranging 
 and managing the details of the system, there will be a 
 great practical advantage in having the one definite 
 object proposed by this rule. And it is a question, 
 whether missions themselves ought not to be established, 
 organized, and prosecuted with more reference to the 
 
Missionary Schools. 21 
 
 same end. Are not many of our missions modeled as 
 
 ‘they should be, if our object and expectation were to 
 
 furnish a full supply of preachers from Christendom for 
 all the nations of the heathen world, now and for ages to 
 eome; and as they should not be, if our object be to 
 imitate the apostles by throwing the great amount of 
 permanent labor upon converted natives, and introducing 
 what the Holy Spirit may be expected to make a self- 
 sustaining, self-propagating Christianity? 
 
 The plan suggested would involve a seminary of a 
 higher order in each considerable mission, which would 
 receive pupils from the preparatory schools, and conduct 
 them through a course of liberal education more or less 
 protracted. These seminaries should be commenced on 
 a small scale, and enlarged no faster than shall be neces- 
 sary. They should combine the college and the school 
 of theology. ‘I'he notion that instruction in the principles 
 of human science must precede the study of theology, is 
 derived from the schools of philosophy, and is not counte- 
 nanced by the word of God. The plain, simple theology 
 of the Scriptures can be taught to youth, and even to 
 heathen youth, in every stage of their education. The 
 institutions should be eminently missionary institutions. 
 The whole course of education, from beginning to end, 
 should be Christian. It should be no part of the object 
 of these seminaries to educate natives for the law, nor for 
 medicine, nor for civil affairs, nor for trade, except so far 
 as this will directly promote the legitimate objects of the 
 missions with which they are connected. The course of 
 instruction should be planned with a view to raising up, 
 through the blessing of God, an efficient body of native 
 helpers in the several departments of missionary labor— 
 to be teachers of schools, catechists, tutors and professors 
 in the seminaries, and, above all, preachers of the gospel, 
 pastors of the native churches, and missionaries to the 
 neighboring heathen districts and countries. For this 
 purpose the seminaries should be furnished with compe- 
 tent teachers, and with all necessary books and apparatus, 
 and a press should generally be in their neighborhood.* 
 
 
 
 ~ * See a Statement of Principles, on which Missionary Seminaries 
 should be reared, in the Appendix to the 23th Annual Report of the 
 Board, pp. 151—}55. 
 
22 Missionary Schools. 
 
 These missionary seminaries will be as really subordi- 
 nate to the preaching of the gospel, as are the theological 
 seminaries of our own country. If we teach in them, and 
 in so doing turn aside in any degree from the formal 
 ministry of the word, it will be that we may multiply 
 teachers and ministers of the word. Our object will be 
 the more effectually to plant those instrumentalities, 
 which, with God’s blessing, will secure for the gospel a 
 permanent footing and constant increase in heathen 
 countries, 
 
 Our protracted discussion now draws to its conclusion. 
 We should not forget, however, to glance at the claims 
 of education among the oriental churches. ‘The oriental 
 churches are the Coptic, Syriac, Greek and Armenian, 
 and they number about six millions of souls. ‘The Copts 
 are found in Egypt; the Syrians, in Syria, Mesopotamia, 
 the mountains of Koordistan, and on the western shore of 
 Hindoostan; the Greeks, in Greece, European Turkey 
 and Asia Minor. Many of the Arabs in Syria are of the 
 Greek church; and so is the Georgian nation, living at 
 the northern base of Mount Caucasus, between the Black 
 and Caspian Seas. The country of the Armenians lies 
 between Asia Minor and Persia, but the Armenians are a 
 commercial people widely scattered. About a hundred 
 thousand Maronites on Mount Lebanon, and some thou- 
 gands from each of the sects above mentioned, are con- 
 verts to popery. ‘These are relics of the churches planted 
 by the apostles. ‘To them were first given the oracles of 
 God, and from them emanated the light of the glorious 
 gospel which shines upon us. ‘But in treading over 
 again the tracks of the apostles,” says the Rev. Mr. Smith, 
 **T have sought in vain for an individual that now breathes 
 the spirit of Jesus, unless he had borrowed it from a foreign 
 source.”* I shall content myself with affirming, that the 
 state of education and intelligence is much lower now, in 
 the countries where the oriental churches are found, than 
 it was in the apostolical times. But even if it were not, 
 regarding education as taking the place of miraculous 
 gifts, and as our only means of raising up teachers and 
 
 
 
 * Missionary Sermons and Addresses, p. 223. 
 
Missionary Schools. 23 
 
 | preachers, it is to be numbered among the legitimate 
 objects of modern missions to these churches. The 
 necessity for schools sustained by missionary societies, 1s, 
 however, less urgent among the oriental Christians, than 
 in heathen nations ; and recent indications encourage the 
 belief, that we may pretty easily and without great expense 
 ‘“‘provoke’”’ those churches to do far more than they are 
 now doing in the way of self-instruction. 
 
 Thus the case stands. Apostolical usage has been 
 urged upon us to exclude the use of education from our 
 missions, only because the immense difference in our 
 circumstances has been overlooked. It has been for- 
 gotten that their missions were to the most civilized 
 nations of the world, and that ours (I speak now only 
 of those to pagans) are to the least civilized; that theirs 
 were to a people comparatively educated and refined, and 
 ours are to a people uneducated, and to a great extent 
 barbarian, and even savage; that miraculous gifts were 
 conferred by the Holy Ghost upon their gentile converts, 
 so that the churches might be promptly and effectually 
 supplied with pastors and teachers, while, notwithstanding 
 the present intellectual degradation of heathen nations, 
 Infinite Wisdom no longer sees it best to bestow such 
 gifts. Thus far the comparison is against us; but now 
 the tables turn. We have a knowledge of the world such 
 as they had not; facilities for travelling far exceeding 
 theirs ; paper, printing-presses, printed books, where they 
 had only the papyrus, parchment, the written page, and 
 the voluminous and costly manuscript. In these circum- 
 stances, so diverse from those of the apostles, why demand 
 of us that we use no means for publishing the gospel except 
 what they used? Are not means and opportunities talents 
 to be employed—providential gifts bestowed upon us with 
 special reference to the advancement of God’s kingdom of 
 grace on earth? Why, when the Head of the church bids 
 us go into all the world, and has provided for us rail-roads, 
 and steamboats, and the thousand improvements in modern 
 navigation, should we go on foot, or venture out to sea, 
 without compass or quadrant, in some “ship of Alexan- 
 dria?” Why, when he bids us make known the gospel 
 to every creature, should we depend only on the living 
 
24 Missionary Schools. 
 
 voice and the manuscript? Why should we not avail 
 ourselves of the progress of mind, of art, of science? Is 
 it said, that means are nothing in themselves, that the 
 power which must accomplish the work is of God, and 
 that an extended array of instrumentalities has a tendency 
 to make us rely on them and forget his power? This is 
 all true. But did Paul do less because his planting was 
 nothing by itself, and God must give the increase? Did’ 
 he not exert all his strength, and plant and water, and 
 become all things to all men, and put into requisition 
 every possible means to save them? Unquestionably he 
 did; and so should we. Creation, education, grace, and 
 providence go to make up the degree of our accountability. 
 Still it is a precious truth, that we are no less dependent 
 on the influences of the Holy Spirit, than the apostles 
 were. None of our plans will succeed, none of our efforts 
 prosper, without his influences. Go where we will, if the 
 Holy Spirit go not with us, our missions, however vigo- 
 rously prosecuted, will fail. Missionaries and their direc- 
 tors and patrons have not felt this dependence enough. 
 There is no danger of feeling it too much. When weak 
 in ourselves, we are strong in God. But faith is not the 
 only grace we are to exercise. We must practice obedience. 
 We must act, as well as believe. Looking unto Jesus, we 
 must do with our might whatsoever our hand findeth to 
 do, for the honor of his name and the advancement of ’his 
 cause on earth.