ns 3 
 
REPRINTS, 
 
 AS A CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORK OE TIIE 
 
 CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY’S SIMULTANEOUS MEETINGS 
 
 February, 1886 . 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Some of us in the Peesent. 5 
 
 II. Some Heroes of the Past.9 
 
 III. Some Heroines of the Future. 19 
 
 IY. Something that has been Done 
 
 29 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/cryformissionsanOOcust 
 
A CRY FOR MISSIONS 
 
 AND 
 
 A MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 
 
 i. 
 
 “SOME OF US IN THE PRESENT.” 
 
 “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
 ye have done it unto me.”—Matthew xxvi. 40 . 
 
 I. First comes the Idea “ Guilty Leisure*” Are there 
 no men and women in the Community, for whom God has 
 provided in his bounty an Abundance, or a Sufficiency, 
 and who pass through a long life of ease, and health, who 
 have unemployed gifts, who do nothing for the Lord, 
 who bought them P This is what is meant by “ Guilty 
 Leisure.” In France no substitutes are allowed to ex¬ 
 empt from Military Conscription. Personal Service is 
 required: there is something more valuable than Gold 
 and Silver, and every Christian is bound to render this 
 to the Home and Foreign Missions, or to both. How do 
 some of our acquaintances get through their long tedious 
 
6 
 
 days, sanctified by no labour, unenlightened by any in¬ 
 terest ? Have they done what they could ? 
 
 II. Next comes the Idea “ Inexcusable Ignorance.” And 
 yet this is an age of enlightenment, and the Missionaiy 
 Societies flood the world with interesting information, but 
 there are some who w T ill not read them. The Sunday 
 School is instructed in the details of St. Paul s Missionaiy 
 Journeys, but knows nothing, or next to nothing, of the 
 great work of the successors of St. Paul. And yet the 
 Peports of Missionary Societies, and their Peiiodicals, 
 are filled with greater interest than the most fascinating 
 Romance, and have the advantage, or perhaps disad¬ 
 vantage, of being true. Perils by Land, Perils by Sea, 
 Perils by Robbers, Perils by the Heathen, Perils in the 
 City, Perils in the Wilderness, Perils among False 
 Brethren: in weariness, in painfulness, in watchings 
 often, in hunger and thirst: in fastings often, in cold 
 and nakedness, besides the care of all the Churches . 
 moving accidents by flood and field ; disappointments and 
 successes: triumphs and abasements: all these and more 
 are to be found. As the narrative flows on in its sim¬ 
 plicity, the narrow walls of the room seem to expand, and 
 the reader is transported in thought, to the great cities of 
 Asia, the inhospitable Regions of North America, and the 
 vast deserts of Africa. There stands an honest God¬ 
 fearing man, one of the reader’s own race and kin and 
 language, sent out to preach the Gospel by his Church, 
 and is he not something in this cold, self-seeking, material 
 age to be proud of? He has given up the prospect of 
 wealth and honour, and ease, in his own country, and has 
 gone out to endure hardship for the sake of the suffering, 
 
7 
 
 the oppressed, and the ignorant: nor has he gone alone, 
 for by his side there moves a form, scattering sweet flowers 
 round his life in those God-forsaken regions, attracting to 
 herself hearts by the strange sight of the Beauty of 
 Holiness: they call her in their untutored accents an 
 angel: he calls her, wife , who like Ruth will not leave him. 
 Are such stories as these not worth reading ? Is not this 
 “Inexcusable Ignorance” as to the continuity of the Mis¬ 
 sionary Spirit from the time of St. Paul to the present 
 hour ? 
 
 Next come the words “ Culpable Niggardliness.” He 
 has given us all, all that we possess in this World, all that 
 we hope for in the next. Shall we not give something P 
 Do we value the privileges, which we possess, if we do 
 not assist to extend them to others. The free Anglo- 
 Saxon on both sides of the Atlantic is not content to 
 enjoy Freedom, but wishes to impart it to others. The 
 Christian wishes the message of Salvation to be conveyed 
 to the whole world. On the Clock of History the Hour 
 for Missions has sounded. The Church, the Family and 
 the Individual, who do not place the Duty of conquering 
 new kingdoms to the Lord in the first line of their obliga¬ 
 tions, abdicate their position. Those who are most liberal 
 to Home-requirements are not less forward in aiding 
 Foreign Missions. Nor is it money alone that the Lord 
 requires. What shall be said of those, who withhold 
 personal service, if the Message come to them, that the 
 Lord calls them to his Vineyard, if they find themselves 
 in possession of talents, and leisure, and means, and op¬ 
 portunities ? What shall be said of Parents, who with¬ 
 hold their children, when they are ready to go, and who 
 
8 
 
 Lave no field of usefulness at home ? Where that exists, 
 and they have unmistakeable domestic claims on their 
 services, or a vocation in Home-Missions among the poor 
 and suffering of their- own people, it is mere idle will- 
 worship, and a romantic desire of change, that tempts 
 them to new, and not necessarily better, things. But, 
 when they are sitting at home with folded hands, crushed 
 by the conventionalities of home family-life, or are 
 dragged along like slaves attached to the car of unprofit¬ 
 able Social Worldliness, Parents! Parents! if the Lord 
 calls them, let them go ! Early Death, Tedious Disease, 
 some kind of misfortune, may hereafter come upon you for 
 robbing the Master of his own. WPat happened to the 
 Servant who wrapped his talent in a napkin ? 
 
 The Missionary is undoubtedly the highest type of 
 human excellence in the Nineteenth Century. He has 
 the enterprize of the Merchant without the narrow desire 
 of gain, the dauntlessness of the Soldier without the oc¬ 
 casion for shedding blood, the zeal of the Geographical 
 Explorer, but for higher motive than the advancement of 
 Human Knowledge. The Missionary is the Salt of the 
 Earth. 
 
 London , 1885. 
 
9 
 
 II. 
 
 “SOME HEROES OF THE PAST.” 
 
 “ The Lord said unto me : Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all 
 that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou shalt 
 speak .”—Jeremiah i. 7. 
 
 My subject on this occasion is not so much Africa, its 
 people, its customs, and its misfortunes, as the Christian 
 pioneers and their work, and to this I restrict myself. 
 The missionaries cannot speak of themselves; it is the 
 last thing that they would wish to touch upon, except 
 to describe their shortcomings. The secretaries and 
 managers of societies cannot speak of the whole class 
 fairly, as of some they know too much, and of others 
 nothing at all. We see them in the committee-room, 
 when they are young and ardent for the fight, scarcely 
 knowing the difficulties, with which they have to con¬ 
 tend. We see them a few years on more thoughtful, 
 more subdued and chastened, yet not less earnest; we see 
 them still later on broken down, and unequal for further 
 service in the field, yet still longing to laugh at the 
 doctor and go back to their life’s work. Some we never 
 see again, for they remain where they fell. Many of 
 them are men of high talent, who in secular professions 
 might have achieved wealth and fame, or in the home 
 Church might have risen to dignity and influence, but, 
 smitten with the wondrous love of saving the souls of the 
 heathen, they have gone forth, and fresh candidates for 
 the holy office are never wanting. What is their motive ? 
 
10 
 
 A simple faith in the Word of the Lord who bought 
 them. Wishing that my readers may carry away some¬ 
 thing, that may cling to their memory, I ask them to 
 think of the famous eleventh chapter of St. Paul s 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, in which he traces back to Faith 
 all the great events in the history of Israel, and I ask 
 leave reverently to adapt his argument to the history 
 of the pioneers of African missions. 
 
 By Faith the United Moravian Brethren at Herrenhut 
 in Germany, more than a century and a half ago, were 
 stirred up to send out a missionary to the poor Hottentots, 
 who were treated as dogs by the Butch colonists. By 
 Faith George Schmidt at once offered himself to go out, 
 and suffered hardship with a persecuted race, and, having 
 been blessed by the conversion of a few, was forbidden to 
 baptize them, and summarily sent back to Europe by men, 
 who called themselves Protestants, and who were jealous 
 of their own liberty. By Faith, fifty years later (1792), 
 the United Brethren sent out three more missionaries, 
 who founded the illustrious Mission of Genadendal, or 
 Yale of Grace, on the very walls of the ruined house of 
 George Schmidt, seven years after the great patriarch 
 of African Missions had been called to his reward, dying— 
 like Livingstone and Krapf—on his knees. 
 
 By Faith the London and Wesleyan Societies, the Estab¬ 
 lished Church of England, the Free Church of Scotland, 
 and the American Board of Foreign Missions, took up 
 a share in the blessed work amidst other races of South 
 Africa, and out of their ranks by Faith Moffat under¬ 
 took to translate the Bible into the language of the 
 Be-Chuana, Wilder into the language of the Zulu, and 
 
11 
 
 Boyce, Appleyard, and others into the language of the 
 Ama-Xosa, or Kafir, languages deemed at the time to be 
 incapable of expressing simple ideas, but which, deftly 
 handled, proved to be apt exponents of every variety 
 of human thought, witb an unlimited copiousness of 
 vocabulary and an unsurpassed symmetry of structure. 
 
 By Faith Moffat’s son-in-law, Livingstone, abandoned 
 his home, his chapel, and bis school, and started off on 
 his great Missionary progress, which was destined to 
 illuminate all Africa south of the Equator. By Faith 
 he bore up under the perils, the fatigues, the opposition, 
 the bereavement of his dear wife, who sleeps on the 
 shore of the Zambesi. By Faith he worked his way to 
 Benguela, on the west coast, Kilimani on the east, and 
 Xyangwe on the Biver Kongo to the north, discovering 
 new rivers, new lakes, new tribes, and new languages. 
 From the drops of sweat, which fell from his limbs in 
 these great travels, have sprung up, like flowers, Christian 
 Missions, founded by men of different denominations, and 
 different views of Church government, but united in the 
 fear of God, the faith in Christ, love of Africa, and 
 veneration for Livingstone. To the impulse given by this 
 great apostle must be attributed the Missions of the 
 Established Church of Scotland at Blantyre, the Free 
 Church of Scotland at Livingstonia, the London Society 
 on Lake Tanganyika, and the Universities Mission at 
 Zanzibar. Add to these the gigantic enterprises of the 
 Church of Borne. In an interview which some years ago 
 I had at Tunis with Cardinal Lavigerie, to implore him 
 to locate his Equatorial Missions at a certain distance 
 from stations occupied by Protestants, to which he agreed, 
 
12 
 
 he spoke with admiration of Livingstone. But to this 
 servant of God it was not conceded to see one single fruit 
 of all his labours. He saw no Mission spring up ; like 
 Moses, he only beheld the promised land from Pisgah ; 
 he died without knowing of the secret of the source of the 
 Nile and the Kongo. But even after death he seemed 
 to have power to charm and to conquer, for by Faith his 
 bones were conveyed by his faithful Africans to the 
 sea-shore, from Ilala on Lake Bangweolo, where he died, 
 along a route never traversed before, as if the great 
 discoverer had power to add to geographical knowledge 
 after his death, and the great philanthropist wished 
 to leave a lasting proof that the natives of South Africa 
 can be faithful and loyal, and capable ot high enterprises, 
 if they are kindly treated. 
 
 By Faith Krapf and Bebman sat year after year at the 
 watch-tower of Mombasa, waiting till the day should dawn, 
 calling to each other, “ Watchman, what of the night P ” 
 writing home descriptions of vast lakes, and snow-capped 
 mountains on the Equator, causing themselves to be 
 derided both as missionaries and geographers ; yet they 
 lived to be honoured in both capacities, they lived to see 
 the day dawn at last, to hear of Frere Town being 
 established as a station for released slaves at Mombasa, 
 to hear of those internal seas being navigated, and that 
 snow-capped mountain being visited. In his old age 
 Krapf in tearful gratitude read Henry Stanley’s challenge, 
 which rang with trumpet-sound from the capital of 
 IJ-Ganda, and was gallantly answered by the Church 
 Missionary Society, and he lived to hear of the great 
 Apostle’s Street, which by Faith he had suggested, being 
 
13 
 
 carried out from Zanzibar to the Great Lakes, to be 
 extended westward down the Kongo, until bands are 
 shaken with the Baptist missionaries working up that 
 Liver from the west. 
 
 By Faith the good Baptist Society established them¬ 
 selves in the island of Fernando Po, and, driven thence 
 by the intolerance of the Spaniards, they crossed over to 
 the mainland, and found what seemed once, but alas! 
 is no longer, a more enduring inheritance in the Kamerun 
 Mountains. By Faith here Saker lived, laboured, and 
 died, translating the Holy Scriptures into the language 
 of the Dualla, but leaving his work to be revised by his 
 young daughter, opening out a new field for the talent 
 and zeal of women. Hence in fulness of time by Faith 
 Comber started to conquer new kingdoms on the Kongo, 
 making, alas! the heavy sacrifice of the life of his wife 
 at San Salvador, before he reached Stanley Pool with the 
 great heart of Africa open to his assault, for in their 
 hands the Baptist missionaries had carried gentle Peace, 
 and their vessel with that name still carries them onward 
 on their blessed and peaceful enterprise. 
 
 By Faith our good brethren in Horth America w r ere 
 among the first to send out their agents to West and South 
 Africa to pay back the debt which they owed, and to atone 
 for the wrong which their forefathers had inflicted. The 
 sun was thus taken back to the East to lighten those sitting* 
 in darkness. Each and every one of their Churches by 
 Faith have vied in the desire to found strong Missions, 
 translate the Holy Scriptures, and to press forward 
 education, civilization, and evangelization. 
 
 By Faith the holy and humble-hearted Protestant 
 
14 
 
 churches on the Continent of Europe, less amply en¬ 
 dowed in material resources, hut more richly in intellect, 
 industry, and self-consecration, have sent forth a golden 
 stream of missionaries from the centres of Basle and 
 Canton de Yaud, in Switzerland ; of Barmen, Bremen, 
 Berlin, Herrenhut and Hermansburg, in Germany ; fiom 
 Norway, Sweden, Finland and France, to hold the fort 
 in the most exposed situations, to suffer imprisonment, 
 to achieve great literary works, to found living churches, 
 and attract to themselves the affections of the African. 
 The names of the devoted men and women, who have died 
 at their post, may not be known in England, but are 
 
 written in the Book of Fife. 
 
 By Faith Samuel Crowther was rescued from the 
 
 captivity, into which he, like Joseph, had been sold 
 by his brethren, was restored to his country, to be no 
 longer a slave, but a teacher, a leader, a benefactor, and 
 an example j by Faith he was set apart to give the lie 
 to the enemies of the African, to stultify the idle taunt, 
 that a negro is incapable, by his nature, of cultuie, pieG, 
 honesty, and social virtues ; by Faith he was raised up to 
 mark an epoch in the sad chronicle of his persecuted race, 
 and to be the firstfruits of the coming harvest of African 
 pastors and evangelists. By Faith his son Dandeson 
 Crowther and Henry Johnson were blessed with the great 
 grace of being allowed to tread in his footsteps. 
 
 If any of my hearers desire to know the real worth 
 of the African missionary, let them read the lives of 
 Mrs. Hinderer at Ibadan, and Mrs. Wakefield at Bibe, 
 and of many other noble men and women, of whom this 
 self-seeking world is not worthy, who have left comforts 
 
15 
 
 at home to labour among the Africans; who, in spite of 
 overpowering- maladies, have been, like Ilannington, un¬ 
 willing to leave the country of their choice, and de¬ 
 termined to return in spite of the warning voice of their 
 doctor, or who have died as good confessors, counting not 
 their lives worthy, but to fill up what remains of the 
 sufferings of Christ. Such lives, in their simple eloquence, 
 cannot fail to chasten the proud heart, to drive out selfish 
 egotism, and to sustain the sinking spirit ; they leave 
 a ray of tender light behind them, showing that the age 
 of chivalry, and of self-abnegation, has not entirely passed 
 away; that the nineteenth century, in spite of its worldli¬ 
 ness and infidelity, is still able to supply crusaders to fight 
 the battle of our Master. 
 
 Hear some of the dying words of these soldiers of 
 Christ. In the hour of death all things are terribly real. 
 There is no room for deception or false enthusiasm there. 
 I have selected these words without distinction of country 
 or denomination, but their number might be multiplied 
 indefinitely. Arrhenius, the Swede, had only a few 
 months of labour in the Gfalla country after years of 
 preparation for his duties : his last words were, “ Jesus, 
 help me ! Jesus, help me ! Amen.” Prmtorius, the Swiss, 
 was sent out for a few months’ inspection of the Missions 
 on the Gold Coast: he called upon me on his way out, 
 and promised to call again on his return ; but after a few 
 weeks in Africa he fell. His last words were, “ Is it true 
 that I am going home to-day ? ” Among the smaller 
 English missions, the Livingstone-Kongo stands con¬ 
 spicuous for its overflowing of zeal, and life, and promise, 
 and of all its agents young McCall was the brightest; 
 but he was struck down in mid-work. His last words 
 
16 
 
 were recorded by a stranger who visited him. Let each 
 one of us lay them to our hearts. “ Lord, I gave myself, 
 
 “ body, mind, and soul, to Thee. I consecrated my whole 
 “life and being to Thy service, and now, if it please Thee 
 “ to take myself, instead of the work which I would do for 
 “Thee, what is that to me ? Thy will he done.” He had 
 hoped that his destined course might have been among 
 the brave and strong, to toil with high purpose in tne 
 service of the African ; but God had chosen another part 
 for him, and, as a true Christian, he recognized that God 
 had chosen it well, and no weak murmurs escaped the bps 
 of one who was ready to live or ready to die. Goiaz, 
 of the French Mission to Senegambia, as well as his young 
 wife, died within the year after their arrival: his fare¬ 
 well words were, “ Ho not be discouraged if the first 
 “ labourers fall in the field. Their graves will math the uag 
 (( for their successors, who will march past them with great 
 “strides.” Pinkerton, of the American Mission in Zululand, 
 was ordered to lead a new Mission into XJmzila s kingdom . 
 he conveyed his wife and children to North America,, and 
 returned joyfully to his task. He met with many obstacles 
 and rebuffs, but at length found himself well on the road. 
 His last written lines were to his wife, “ The future will 
 « bring its needed light, and work, and solace. My thoughts 
 “ turn sadly to you and our children. Adi well . Wc go 
 “ right onf It was to him indeed all well, for in a few 
 days he breathed his last sigh alone in the African jungle : 
 he had gone right on into Glory. With such men (and 
 these few are but types of many) Africa and the whole 
 world can be conquered. Such deaths are great victories. 
 Such words tell us that some portion of us is immortal. 
 These confessors saw the promises afar off, and were 
 
17 
 
 persuaded of them, confessing that they were strangers and 
 pilgrims, and desiring a better country, that is a heavenly. 
 
 Time would fail me to tell of Schlenker, and Reichardt, 
 and Schon; of Goldie and Edgerley; of Casalis, Mabille, 
 and Coillard; of James Stewart of Lovedale, and his 
 namesake on the Nyassa ; of Grant and Wilson ; of 
 Ramseyer and Christaller; of Mackenzie, the bishop who 
 died on the River Shire; and of Steere the bishop, who 
 sealed up the translation of the last chapter of Isaiah 
 ready for the printer, and then fell asleep at Zanzibar; 
 of Wakefield and Hew ; of Mayer and Flad ; of Southon, 
 the medical missionary, who died at TJ-Rambo; of dear 
 Mullens, who could not hold himself back from the fight, 
 and who sleeps in TT-Sagara; of many a gentle lady’s 
 grave, for women have never been found wanting to share 
 the honour and the danger of the Cross. 
 
 I have seen and known so many of them. A few weeks 
 before we were holding sweet converse, and then the 
 tidings of the death of some one of them came floating 
 back by letter or telegram. They had indeed all gone 
 into a far country, and to me they seem to be all there 
 still; and, when I am musing about Africa, or hunting up 
 some point connected with that country, and I look up from 
 my paper to my African library, the forms of departed 
 friends seem to enter at the open door, and I seem to see 
 their faces again, and to ask them their opinion. Young 
 Riviere, a Jesuit priest, who had been driven out of Algeria, 
 and taken refuge in North Wales, used to correspond with 
 me about Africa. One day he called upon me in London, 
 and told me that he had received his orders to start at 
 once to the Zambesi Mission-field, to take the place of a 
 dead colleague. He promised to write to me from Tete, 
 
18 
 
 and to clear up many questions for me ; but be never 
 reached his destination, for he sank under his first attack 
 of fever at the mouth of the Zambesi. Differing as I do 
 from the Church of Rome in every principle and detail of 
 their evil system, I can still recognize and thank God for 
 the zeal, and love of souls, and total abnegation of self, 
 which distinguishes her missionaries. Oh, when they are 
 such, would that they were ours ! 
 
 I often think of that famous scene in one of Walter 
 Scott’s romances, where the clansman and his seven sons 
 all fell for their chieftain, stepping forth gladly into the 
 gap, and crying, “ One more for Eachim.” So it is with 
 the reserve forces of missionaries. “ One more for Christ.” 
 And how much better to have young lives and treasure 
 spent by the Missions in trying to save African souls, 
 than wasted by the English nation in slaughtering the 
 unoffending and undaunted freemen of the Sudan, for the 
 purpose of maintaining an imaginary prestige of having 
 the strength of a giant without the grace of knowing how 
 to use that strength as a Christian. Wherefore, seeing that 
 we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, 
 let us lay aside every weight, and press forward more and 
 more upon our bounden duty and service to evangelize 
 Africa. We owe this debt to those who have gone before, 
 that they should not have died in vain. The missionary 
 is indeed the most glorious outcome of the nineteenth 
 century ; the honest God-fearing man in the darkest 
 corner of this earth, where he is most wanted, to represent 
 
 the highest type of Christian patience and morality— 
 
 Oh ! that we now had there 
 But one ten thousand of those men in England 
 Who do no work to-day ! 
 
 London , 1883. 
 
19 
 
 III. 
 
 SOME HEROINES IN THE FUTURE. 
 
 i 
 
 tl Male and Female created He them .”—Genesis i. 27. 
 
 “ The kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and 
 hid in three measures of meal, till the whole w T as leavened .”—Matthew xiii. 33. 
 
 Half the population of India, or about one hundred 
 and twenty-five millions, are women. There, as in other 
 parts of the world, the women are most easily influenced 
 by religious convictions, and to them is confided the 
 control of the tender years of the male population ; and, 
 though women in India do not appear in public, it is 
 a mistake to suppose, that within the walls of their home 
 their influence is not very great, for good or for evil. 
 From time immemorial, in Northern India, women have 
 been secluded either absolutely within brick walls or de¬ 
 barred by understood etiquette from holding conversation 
 with the other sex. I remember an old Native gentleman, 
 who had travelled much in India, remarking that it would 
 be better to lose one’s way on a journey than ask it of a 
 woman, as it might involve the traveller in trouble. Nor 
 do I think that it is either likely or desirable, that for 
 some generations the rule should be broken : it might 
 lead to greater evils. Women are exceedingly trouble¬ 
 some in courts of justice, when they break through the 
 barrier of custom, and appear either as plaintiffs or wit¬ 
 nesses. Until a great change comes over the structure of 
 Indian society in Northern India, it is as well that in 
 
20 
 
 railways, and in churches, as they are in schools and 
 hospitals, the sexes should be separated, and a decent 
 reserve maintained by men in alluding to their existence. 
 
 Noble efforts have been made during the last quarter of 
 a century by special Societies to approach the women in 
 cities and towns, where they are absolutely secluded. The 
 Female Medical Missionary has appeared, to the delight 
 and admiration of all. Female Teachers, and that blessed 
 combination of syllables, “ the Bible Woman/’ and the 
 Scripture Header, the house-to-house Visitor, the Com¬ 
 poser of Tracts and Stories specially for the use of women, 
 and other indirect channels of female influence, have come 
 into existence. A recognized component part of a fully- 
 equipped Mission is a “ Female Evangelist.” 
 
 Can Female Evangelists, gifted with power of utterance 
 and equipped with spiritual knowledge, be found, and, if 
 found, how can they be employed ? Let us consider these 
 points separately. 
 
 Now no one, who has attended religious meetings of 
 late, can fail to be aware that a new power has come into 
 existence, and a very sweet and healthy one. St. Paul 
 may have set his face against women speaking in churches, 
 but this scarcely comprises Prayer meetings, and village 
 itinerations; and the teaching of the Old Testament is 
 against such restrictions, as three of the most noble pas¬ 
 sages in the Old Testament proceeded from the lips of 
 three women, Miriam, Deborah, and Hannah; and just in. 
 the dawn of the New Covenant the Holy Spirit spoke 
 through the mouth of a woman, the Mother of our Lord, 
 in strains of unsurpassed beauty and eloquence, showing 
 unmistakably that God is no respecter of sexes. The 
 
21 
 
 Revisers of the Old Testament have done good service in 
 communicating to the public the right interpretation of 
 Psalm lxviii. 11 : “ The Lord giveth the Word: the 
 women that publish the tidings are a great host.” This 
 was long well known to Hebrew scholars, though the 
 Revisers of 1611, for reasons best known to themselves, 
 entirely lost sight of the correct interpretation. How¬ 
 ever, the fact is now made known most opportunely ; but 
 it presupposes the existence of natural gifts, and a careful 
 instruction. Female Evangelists can be found, natural 
 gifts can be developed, and suitable instruction can be 
 conveyed in such blessed centres of spiritual light as Mild- 
 may; and, further, the sooner this measure be adopted the 
 better. I summon into the field a new army of soldiers, 
 an auxiliary force, to supplement the regular forces in the 
 field. 
 
 Then comes the question, How can they be employed P 
 I have myself lived many years alone in the villages of 
 Upper India, and marked the habits of the people. To 
 the English ruler, in the midst of his subject-people, 
 all things are possible, if he evince sympathy and love 
 and respect for their customs, and a tolerance for their 
 religion. He may do pretty well what he likes, within 
 the limits of honour and virtue, if he does it in a 
 Christian way ; but he soon finds out that the people, 
 though they know him and confide in him, would rather 
 that he did not enter their homes, or talk to their women, 
 old or young, or even allude to them in conversation. 
 It is contrary to the etiquette of the country, and their 
 feelings would be hurt, if he did so. The bystanders 
 would titter, if he asked a friend after his wife’s health. 
 
22 
 
 In the villages there is no absolute seclusion; but a 
 decent woman would veil herself, or turn her face to 
 the wall, or beat a retreat, if, in the road or street, 
 she came suddenly upon men. The missionary must feel 
 the same difficulty, and perhaps more intensely, as he 
 is not so well known, and is not surrounded with the 
 prestige of authority. The Female Evangelist will find 
 her work in the villages all ready for her. 
 
 The attempt has already been made with wonderful 
 success in Northern India. In the Monthly Periodical 
 of the Church of England Zanana Society are most sweet 
 and encouraging letters. One from the pen of Miss Tucker 
 (A. L. 0. E.) speaks to the heart, as she expresses her own 
 feelings. As I read it, the same feeling comes over me, 
 a desire to be young again, and back again among my 
 own people, the inhabitants of the Pan jab, among whom 
 I lived so many years, alone and happy, in spite of war 
 and tumult. It was part of our system, that the district 
 officer should dwell in tents amidst his people, without 
 guards, ruling by moral influence and the feeling of 
 gratitude for benefits received. I can conceive no happier 
 life, when in the emploj^ment of an earthly ruler : how 
 much more so when in the service of our King! Memory 
 goes back gladly over the interval of thirty or forty 
 years to the white tent pitched in the outskirts of the 
 village in the mango-grove, where I have passed laborious 
 hours, devoted in sincerity and single-mindedness to the 
 benefit of the people, who crowded round their alien, 
 and yet beloved, ruler. I recall the evening-walk with 
 a long train of followers through the streets and the 
 gardens, down by the stream or over the heather. I 
 
23 
 
 hear again the cry of the peacock, the cooing of the 
 doves, and the barking of the dogs. I see again the 
 slanting rays of the sun shedding glory through the 
 grove, the white figures glancing through the shade, 
 the rows of elephants, horses, and camels. Oh, that I 
 could be young again, and go forth to he an evangelist, 
 where once I was ruler and judge, and earthly providence, 
 to contented millions ! I can at least encourage others 
 to go. 
 
 I do not admit for a moment, that the villagers of 
 Northern India, scores of whom I have known and loved, 
 are in a state of moral darkness beyond that of European 
 nations, who know not Christ. If this were the case, 
 the Courts of Law, Civil and Criminal, would have dis¬ 
 closed it. I have decided thousands of cases, and not 
 discovered it. But these villagers are in a moral twilight, 
 and the Sun of Righteousness has not risen before their 
 eyes. If the Holy Spirit speaks to their consciences (and 
 does it not speak P), it is with a muffled and half-audible 
 voice. Are they to blame ? No Evangelist or Prophet 
 has ever come to them : for long ages they have been 
 left outside the influences of any Soul-revival. 
 
 To the village-women the appearance of a Female 
 Evangelist must be as it were the vision of an Angel 
 from Heaven : to their untutored eyes she appears taller 
 in stature, fairer in face, fairer in speech, than anything 
 mortal that they had dreamt of before: bold and fear¬ 
 less, without immodesty: pure in word and action, 
 and yet with features unveiled : wise, yet condescending 
 to talk to the ignorant and the little children: 
 prudent, and self-constrained, yet still a woman, loving 
 
24 
 
 4 
 
 and tender. In Hindu Annals the Poets have written 
 about Sita and Damiyanti, and painted them with 
 the colour of every earthly virtue, showing that they 
 knew what a virtuous woman should be, yet such as they 
 never appeared to the sight of poor village women, even 
 in their dreams, until suddenly their eyes, their ears, and 
 their hearts seem to realize, faintly and confusedly, the 
 Beauty of Holiness, when they begin to hold converse, 
 only too brief, with their sweet and loving visitor, who, 
 smitten with the wondrous desire to save souls, has come 
 across the Sea from some unknown country to comfort and 
 help them. Short as is her stay, she has, as it were with 
 a magic wand, let loose a new fountain of hopes, of fears, 
 and desires : she has told them, perhaps in faltering accents, 
 of Righteousness and Judgment, of Sin, Repentance, and 
 a free Pardon, through the blessed merits of a Saviour. 
 This day has Salvation come to this Indian "V illage ! 
 
 It is notorious that the supply of male agents, both 
 spiritual and secular, falls far short of the demand. All 
 the Missions are below the normal and necessary strength. 
 What is to be done ? My suggestion is : “ Make a fuller 
 use of women. Call upon that sex, which no longer 
 deserves the conventional epithet of the weaker , or less 
 u'ise, to supply the vacuum and stand in the gap.” But 
 they must have precisely the same allowances, be provided 
 with similar accommodation, and placed on the same 
 footing as the male Missionary. The Missionary’s 
 wife is no doubt as much a Missionary in theory 
 and practice as her husband, but her hands are very 
 full already. The proposal to employ special medical 
 women, and special educational women, and special 
 
25 
 
 Bible-women, has been accepted, and is part of our 
 system. I rejoice that I was the fortunate suggestor 
 at the Bible House of the measure with regard to Bible- 
 women. It has been found most acceptable everywhere. 
 In some Missions, combinations have been made by the 
 Missionary Societies and the Bible Society, under which a 
 class of Bible-selling Evangelists, both male and female, 
 is cominor into existence. All the lines seem to be con- 
 verging in this direction. I am merely formularizing, 
 and bringing forward in a general and popular form of 
 description, a method which is already in practice, and 
 which harmonizes with the tendencies and the re¬ 
 quirements of the age, as well as the aspiration of godly 
 women, who desire to take their full share in the work 
 of their Lord. Hitherto they have been kept in the 
 second rank, or even left behind in the tents in charge 
 of the stuff. The order has gone forth, “Up, women, 
 and at them ! ” 
 
 For a great part of my life I have been in authority, 
 with scores of male agents, European and Native, under my 
 orders, and I have always insisted upon training as a con¬ 
 dition precedent. An untrained servant, however honest, 
 well-intentioned, and willing, is of comparatively little use. 
 A Woman’s Board of Management is essential to the selec¬ 
 tion, training, and control of female agents. Set a woman 
 to manage women. That Board must be strictly of the 
 Church of England, and no female agent should be 
 entertained without the approval of that Board. We 
 have a Medical Committee for our medical requirements ; a 
 Clerical Committee for selection of Missionaries; a Finan¬ 
 cial Committee for our Finance. The female agent is a 
 
26 
 
 speciality, tlie diagnosis of which exceeds the skill of 
 the surgeon, the clergyman, or the financier. The matter 
 is too high for the Lay Committee without professional 
 advice. The second step is that female agents must be 
 trained at Mildmay, or some establishment as efficient, 
 as blessed, as prolific in good fruit. We spend annual 
 thousands in our College at Islington, and no money 
 is spent to a better purpose : let us not grudge what is 
 required to refine, and place the mint-mark of training 
 and instruction, on that purity, and consecrated talent, 
 and that life-devotion, which is better than fine gold. 
 I am more and more convinced that the spiritual side 
 of a missionary’s duty depends as much upon training 
 and godly instruction, as it is admitted on all hands with 
 regard to the medical and educational side. I look with 
 misgiving upon the haphazard mode in which female 
 agents have hitherto been supplied. It is wonderful that 
 that they have been as good and efficient as they un¬ 
 doubtedly are. The epoch for the simple, God-fearing, 
 Scripture-loving, but otherwise uninstructed, Missionaries, 
 whether man or woman, is past. Arms of precision are 
 required to fight the Lord’s battles. 
 
 The disparity of the number of the sexes in this country 
 is notorious. In every town there is a sweet superfluity 
 of women, to whom a vocation is not marked out, or 
 sought for in vain, or at least not found. Endowed with 
 talents, education, and spirituality, they stand, as it were, 
 in the market-place of this great world, seeking employ¬ 
 ment. The brothers have gone forth in their prime to 
 fight the Queen’s battles, or carry on the great Life-war 
 in the ranks of their contemporaries. The sisters remain 
 
27 
 
 at home. The simple round, the common task may be 
 sufficient where there is a round, and there is a task. But 
 many even in early life have outlived the natural ties, 
 which held them to the spot where they were born, and 
 they stand wistfully, and with, weary spirit, looking out 
 into the dim and remote future, with the inaudible cry of 
 the heart: “ My life, what shall I do with it P Lord, 
 “what wilt Thou have me to do?” The dove, let loose 
 from the Ark, finds no place on which it can rest its foot, 
 and returns in despair. 
 
 In the middle ages, or in Homan Catholic countries, 
 such flowers would be left to bloom away, undesired and 
 unprofitable, in the sealed garden of the Convent: such 
 nobility of character, such fervency of devotion, such 
 capacity for God’s work, would be crushed b}^ an idle 
 ritual of Chapel-services, or be allowed to burn itself out 
 as foolishly, as vainly, as the waxen tapers on the Altar. 
 In Protestant Countries there is an opening for better 
 things. The tending of the sick bed in the Hospital, the 
 soul-introspection during the midnight watch betwixt the 
 dead and the dying, is a better chastisement of the proud 
 and egotistic spirit than the self-inflicted lash of the 
 Abbess and the Hun. The conveying of the Gospel- 
 blessings from village to village in India is more pleasing 
 and profitable than the cold, cheerless chaunt of the 
 midnight Mass, where Sanctity is only to be purchased 
 by Idleness. 
 
 Some may fall, and some have fallen by the Boadside, 
 as they enter the Vineyard, or before even they have 
 stretched out their hand to the tending the Vines. The 
 Lord considers the will, not the deed, and, if the Soul’s 
 
28 
 
 desire is to serve the Master, what matter whether He 
 recalls the servant in the morn, or at noon, or at sunset, 
 or whether He prefers the servant to the work which that 
 servant proposed to do ? And, if the summons comes in a 
 far country, what matter whence the enfranchised soul 
 takes its flight ? Some may die in the carefully guarded 
 home of their earthly parents: some in the solitary rest- 
 house in India : some in the round straw hut in Africa. 
 This is but the mode of transition. The object and end 
 of the Life's labour and journey is the same. 
 
 “ And the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps .”—Matthew xxv. 4. 
 
 “ I beseech thee also, good yokefellow, help these women, for they laboured 
 with me in the Gospel .... whose names are in the hook of life.”—* 
 I’hilippians iv. 3. 
 
 London , 1885. 
 
29 
 
 IV, 
 
 SOMETHING THAT HAS BEEN DONE. 
 
 Chance led my steps one Sunday evening to the door 
 of a Native Christian Church belonging to one of our 
 Missions at one of the largest towns in India. The bells 
 were chiming from the tower, that sweetest of sounds: 
 the hands of the clock pointed to the hour of five, and the 
 congregation were flocking in at the door, men, women, and 
 children. There was something soothing in the sight: 
 a dream of the past came over me, of the absent and of 
 home, associated with feelings of religion and purity. 
 My better spirit triumphed; my worldly vocations were 
 forgotten, and joining the simple crowd, with uncovered 
 head and reverential feelings, I entered. 
 
 It has been mine to sit in the Churches, and join in 
 the worship of many branches of the great family of 
 Christians, in far and distant countries, in divers and 
 sundry languages, in the cold and formal worship of 
 Northern, in the ardent and demonstrative adoration of 
 Southern Europe, in the evangelical devotions of the 
 Deformed Church of England, in the dark and unsightly 
 oratories of poor degraded Syria; but though many years 
 a resident in India, this was the first time that I had 
 joined in the prayers of the chosen few of those millions, 
 whose destinies we govern. 
 
 The building was handsome and appropriate. Art had 
 lent its assistance to the decoration of the House of God, 
 but with simplicity: there was that which was sufficiently 
 
30 
 
 distinctive from the ornaments of ordinary houses to 
 recall wandering thoughts to a recollection of the place : 
 but there was nothing calculated to transform the House 
 into a Temple, or to lead weak minds to suppose that the 
 dead walls constituted Christ’s Church, and not the living 
 persons of the congregation. Here at least no pride or 
 pomp of circumstance disfigured the equality of the 
 worshippers ; no shining emblems of ephemeral station 
 dishonoured the assembly ; the floor sounded to no clank 
 of martial tread; the sun, as it streamed through the 
 windows, lighted on no dazzling insignia or scarlet 
 trappings: in this assemblage, he that' was the least was 
 even as the greatest. 
 
 I looked down the nave with interest and heart-felt 
 pleasure. According to the custom of Oriental Churches, 
 the sexes were divided. On the one side the men and 
 boys of the congregation: on the other the matrons, 
 young women and children. Nearly all were clothed in 
 white ; the men were bareheaded as well as barefooted, 
 the reason for which I did not understand, such not being 
 the practice of Oriental Churches elsewhere, and mani¬ 
 festly inconvenient, and as such to be avoided. The 
 women had their heads decently covered in the folds of 
 their scarves. I saw many sweet expressive countenances, 
 not fearing, in the simple confidence of female virtue, to 
 look in the faces of their husbands, their parents, and their 
 acquaintances, proud of the conceded privilege of equality 
 with their helpmates, with hopes for the future dependent 
 on their own exertions ; shrinking from no recollec¬ 
 tions of a past stained by corruption and degradation. 
 Christianity, if thou hast done this alone, restoring the 
 
31 
 
 modest blush of innocence to conscious and fearless virtue, 
 thou art the Benefactor of our Race! 
 
 But the service has commenced ; a kind hand supplies 
 me with the Book of Life, and the Book of Prayer; and 
 that language, which had hitherto been familiar to me 
 only as an expression of the evil passions of the governed, 
 and the hard regulations of the Ruler, was now for the 
 first time the vehicle to my ears of praise and prayer. 
 Dissociated from their familiar words, which are merely 
 the outward tenements of the inward spirit, the moving 
 Admonition of the Minister, the humble Confession of the 
 People, the Absolution, complete, but conditional, came back 
 to my senses as an old strain of familiar music, long heard, 
 and often from the loved and revered lips of my Father ; 
 now first fully felt, when ringing from the chords of a new 
 and hitherto untried instrument. Many are the languages 
 of men, one the language of God. IIow is it, that the 
 voices of the children, responding in their deep and 
 ringing chorus (though the words are in a strange 
 tongue), bring back so truly, so vividly, forgotten 
 Sabbaths and distant Churches P Is it that there is but 
 one sound for prayer and praise, that human penitence 
 can be expressed but in one tone ? Is it thus that the 
 loud Hosannahs of the denizens of the earth will be 
 collected in one joyful chorus at the day of the Second 
 Coming ? Is this the cry of the Cherubim and Seraphim ? 
 I was struck and delighted by the devout and attentive 
 behaviour of the congregation : when two or three are 
 thus joined together, He will surely be in the midst of 
 them. 
 
 The Psalms and First Lesson were omitted, that the 
 
32 
 
 Service might not be too long, and at the close of the 
 Second Lesson followed the Sacrament of Infant Baptism; 
 and now I became aware of another feature of order in 
 this well-arranged congregation, which from the position 
 of my seat had hitherto escaped my observation. In front 
 of the Font, but with their backs turned towards, and 
 concealed from, the rest of the Church, sat with solemn, 
 thoughtful and reverent faces those in whom the Spirit of 
 God was working for their Salvation: they were in but 
 not of our body, they were candidates, awaiting Baptism 
 when they had passed their ordeal, and by their consistent 
 conduct in the past had given earnests for the future : 
 seated they were in front of the Font, the waters of which 
 were to them for a season denied, while they beheld the 
 new-born babe, unconscious of all taint, even that of 
 hereditary sin, admitted before their eyes into the 
 Covenant, w T hich they were commencing to appreciate. 
 Never till then had I fully recognized, or been sufficiently 
 thankful for, the blessing of being born of a Christian 
 stock, with no fiery ordeal to go through ; no parents, 
 friends and all to desert for His sake ; no sad, mournful, 
 but beloved and regretted associations of the past to look 
 lingeringly back upon; no doubtful, scorned and oppro¬ 
 brious future to anticipate. I felt that they had some¬ 
 thing to wish for, which I had already in possession ; 
 something, for which they paid a great price, but which 
 to me was a birthright, not the right of being an English¬ 
 man, but the privilege of being born a Christian. But 
 great will be their reward. Christian children of Christian 
 parents ! feel for them, and do not in your pride despise 
 the weak and failing brother ! 
 
33 
 
 Two infants were presented to be baptized ; their 
 swarthy little faces peeping out of their white garments, 
 and contrasting strangely with the fair hand and face of 
 the Minister. Here the white man appeared in his true 
 and proper dignity ! not the exterminator, the stranger, 
 the ruler by a strong arm, the enforcer by arbitrary laws, 
 the one that is bowed down to, and yet shunned in the 
 streets ; that is openly courted, yet secretly scoffed at and 
 despised as unclean: here I saw the race of the Anglo- 
 Saxon bestowing on their subject people a greater skill 
 than the science of arms, a greater miracle than the 
 triumph of manufactures. We are a mighty, strong, and 
 wise people : we have conquered countries unknown to 
 the Homans; we have measured the paths of the Heavens 
 with a far-distending radius denied to the Greeks : the 
 achievements of our present surpass the wonders of their 
 past; but here we spontaneously convey to our subjects 
 that treasure, of which they knew not, but which in the 
 midst of our wealth we value the most : that strength, to 
 which they never arrived, but which in the midst of our 
 pride is our greatest glory, the shame of the Cross, and 
 the sure Promise of Salvation. Who is the lowest in the 
 eyes of the world amidst the congregation P TJpon whom 
 have the doubtful gifts of fortune fallen with abundance ? 
 the Minister takes the child of either in his arms, and signs 
 him with that sign, of which he ought never to be ashamed. 
 
 The sponsors knelt reverently round, and made their 
 answers with feeling. I looked into the features of 
 these men, to see if any hidden sign would betray a 
 difference between him and his heathen brother, any flash 
 of intelligence sparkle from the eye of the mind which 
 
34 
 
 had comprehended such truths. There was none. He 
 that readeth the heart will judge what it is forbidden for 
 man to know. 
 
 Then followed the three Collects, the Prayer for the 
 Queen, the Royal Family, the Clergy, Parliament, and all 
 conditions of Men, and I wondered, as I saw the lips of 
 the women and girls articulating the words Victoria and 
 Albert, what idea they connected with the same, what 
 strange pictures they had drawn in their simple minds of 
 the Royal Couple, and the little Shazadah: I could almost 
 have wished that the prayer of native congregations were 
 reserved simply for those in authority over them. 
 
 After the Prayers followed a Hymn, sung by the con¬ 
 gregation to the accompaniment of a Harmonium: the 
 chaunt from the Hindustani Hymn-book possessed ap¬ 
 parently but slight poetical merit, but was well suited to 
 the place, and well sung, showing that the Natives of the 
 country have a full appreciation of the system of European 
 music : but while the Hosannah was swelling up to the 
 roof beams from these untutored lips, I beheld through 
 the windows, which open to the ground, the cortege of 
 a wealthy Raja sweeping by under the walls of the 
 Church. I heard the rattle of his equipage, as every 
 screw and bolt gave a music of its own : I could see from 
 where I stood the ignorant wretch, this bloated abomina¬ 
 tion of a man, contemptuously smiling, as the voices of 
 the congregation reached him : I saw the low truckling 
 flatterer leaning over from the back seat, and with finger 
 pointing to the building, and chuckling laugh, telling 
 what I knew to be some false scandal, his version of what 
 was going on in the interior. X saw the whole* at a 
 
35 
 
 glance, and comprehended it; but busy memory, roused 
 by the incident, bore me back many a century to the 
 “ upper chamber of Troas,” and to “ the school of 
 Tyrannus.” I thought of the early Christians at Athens, 
 at Corinth, at Ephesus, and at Rome : thus and thus, as 
 this debased Raja now, did the noble Roman, the philo¬ 
 sophic Greek, great in the power of science and arms, 
 once ride by lolling in their biga, perhaps talking flip¬ 
 pantly of, perhaps discussing seriously the manners and 
 customs of this new sect, these worshippers in the Cata¬ 
 combs. With them was the flatterer, and busy mocker, the 
 sarcastic stoic, the lively atheist, the sycophantic eunuch, 
 ready to tell ridiculous stories for these good easy men 
 to believe. I thought of these things, and God forgive 
 me, if I triumphed, when I dwelt on the triumphs of 
 God’s Revelations, and anticipated new victories. I have 
 seen standing erect the sign of the Cross in the place 
 where the early Christians fought after the manner of 
 men in the Roman Amphitheatre: I have stood on the 
 Areopagus to contemplate the ruins of the Parthenon, 
 wondering how it looked when St. Paul spoke of Christ 
 and the Resurrection: my voice has rung along the shores 
 of Ionia, “ Demetrius, surely thy craft is in danger: 
 where is thy Great Diana of the Ephesians?” No sound 
 is heard in reply but the splashing of the waves of the 
 Ocean. Returning from the past, in the full confidence 
 of Faith, I pondered on what would be the fate of the great 
 and Anti-Christ city around me. Will not a day arrive 
 when the gilded pinnacle of that Hindu Temple shining 
 in the sun will be torn down, when the tapering minarets 
 of that Mahomedan Mosque will be laid low ? Will it 
 
36 
 
 not be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day 
 of Judgment, than for this city, in which the Word of 
 God is daily preached in the streets, in whose ears the 
 bells of this Church are ringing weekly warnings for 
 repentance P Will not the men of Nineveh rise up in 
 judgment against them ? 
 
 But the Hymn has been finished, and the Sermon 
 commenced : no new-fangled theories, no polemical 
 discussions, no metaphysical distinctions, no suggestion 
 of Bitual observances, fell from the lips of the Beverend 
 Pastor, who himself was one the Natives of India 
 predestined to Salvation. I heard a father address¬ 
 ing his own children, expounding simple Scripture 
 narrative with simpler applications. I turned back, 
 and noticed the mouth opened in interest, the neck 
 outstretched to catch each word:'I saw children hang¬ 
 ing on the familiar notes of the father. “We are told 
 how Noah in obedience to divine authority built the 
 Ark, how he and his family entered into it, and closed 
 the door ; how the wicked scoffed and jeered at him: 
 how at length the rain did descend, the fountains of the 
 deep were opened, the wicked utterly destroyed, but 
 those few in the Ark saved. This Church, my brethren, 
 is the Ark ; over this city of unbelievers is impending the 
 Deluge : hasten ye in.” The page of Scripture further 
 on supplies new motives, and fresh consolations. “We 
 hear how Abraham, trusting in God, nothing doubting, 
 left his country and kindred, things the nearest and 
 dearest, to go he knew not whither : yet his Faith was 
 rewarded. And ye, my Brethren, who have sacrificed 
 the ties of home for His sake, if ye endure to the end, 
 will ye not have your reward also ? ” No wide gulf 
 
37 
 
 separates tlie Preacher from his hearers : if he propounds 
 a subject interrogatively, the answer appears to burst 
 from the lips of an eager listener, and receives no check. 
 We feel that one and all have derived instruction from 
 such expositions, and comfort from such counsels. 
 Sincerely we pray that the words may rest grafted in 
 our hearts, the peace of God on the congregation, as 
 as they meekly and reverently disperse to their homes. 
 
 And who are the good, the great, men, who have 
 wrought this wondrous work ? Whose hands have 
 offered this incense of sweet savour to the Most High ? 
 Who are those, who have taken the new Jerusalem from 
 the Jebusites, and planted this new Canaan in the land 
 of the Heathen P Who have kept together these ten 
 righteous, if peradventure for their sake the sinful city 
 may be spared ? There sit they, the shepherds among 
 their flock, the Christian warriors reposing with their 
 armour off after the combat. By their sides are their good 
 yoke-fellows, who have been their wives, their fellow- 
 labourers, who have shared in the toil, and the victory. 
 On their breasts are no proud insignia of battles that they 
 have fought, of victories that they have won : but with a 
 good fight they have carried the entrenchments of Sin and 
 Satan, and have the one Cross engraved on their hearts. 
 They have not sat on earthly judgment-seats, they have 
 not collected the tribute of nations, but they will hereafter 
 sit upon thrones judging the heathen, they will hereafter 
 offer as the fruit of their life-labour a full harvest of re¬ 
 deemed souls. They have no precedence given them in 
 mortal assemblies, but they will be reckoned among the 
 Angels of Heaven. They have not controlled in the 
 Courts of Human Justice the stormy struggles of man’s 
 
38 
 
 bad heart; but with the Gospel as their rule, they have 
 guided the economy of the soul. 
 
 I never see a Missionary, but I blame my fate, that 
 I am not of them. Are they not to be envied whose 
 duties in this world harmonize with those of the next; 
 zeal in their earthly vocations promoting, not, as with us, 
 retarding, the work of their own salvation ? They stand 
 among the Heathen, as an ensign of what each of us 
 values most: the General represents our victorious arms, 
 the Governor our triumphs of administration, but the 
 Missionary displays our virtues, our patience, our 
 Christian charity, and shall we not be proud of him? 
 I asked myself how is it that so few of England’s learned 
 and pious sons select this profession. The vision of 
 one man from Macedonia took St. Paul across the 
 Hellespont, and will no one cross the Indian Ocean 
 for the millions, not in vision, but in reality ? Will 
 no young Augustine spring up to repay the debt of the 
 Occident to the Orient, to bring back the Sun to the East ? 
 Had I life to begin again, this would be my choice: the 
 glories and profits of other professions are but as vanit}^. 
 We have fought battles: they are scarcely known beyond 
 the narrow limit of the echo of the cannon. We have 
 ruled over Provinces: our fame is as soon forgotten, 
 as we are gone. But should w r e have saved souls, 
 a long line of Christians will carry back the legends 
 of their family to our era, and entwine our names with 
 the golden thread of grateful thanksgiving! Who 
 remembers the Generals, the Proconsuls of the time of 
 the Caesars P Who remembers not the Apostles ? 
 
 Thence glanced my thoughts to the early converts, those 
 who had borne the heat of the day, on whose foreheads I 
 
39 
 
 could trace the lines of sorrow and early affliction (for the 
 chain of the world is still dear to us) softened, yet not 
 effaced, by the sweet smile of Faith and resignation. 
 Perhaps in the records of this Church will be handed 
 down, as household words, the names of these early saints, 
 who, when Christianity was young, forsook all things for 
 His sake. When far and wide over this beautiful, and to 
 me beloved, Indian land, in village and in town floats 
 the ensign of the Cross amidst a Christian people, then 
 on many a Sabbath evening, when young and old are 
 gathered together for reading and meditation, will their 
 tale be told: old. men will point to ruined temples, and 
 tell to wondering ears, how once Idolatry existed in this 
 land : soft, tender, womanly cheeks will be stained with 
 tears at the sufferings of these St. Stephens; young, 
 manly hearts will glow in sympathy with the intrepid 
 bravery of the Indian St. Pauls. 
 
 We are standing on the threshold of mighty events : 
 perhaps there may be some amongst us who will tarry till 
 He comes. In the early Christian Church we can trace 
 three stages; the first, when a few obscure men professed 
 an unknown and unappreciated Faith, persecuted by 
 fanaticism, and crushed by ignorance. Miracles had 
 long since ceased ; the gift of the Holy Ghost no longer 
 visibly descended, but the second stage was soon arrived 
 at, thriving congregations began to erect their heads 
 amidst their neighbours, and maintain their rights, with 
 the tacit allowance, if not the sanction, of the Govern¬ 
 ment. Within three hundred years the Temple was 
 hurled down, and the Cross erected in the Market-place. 
 
 A few months ago (1852) it was my fortunate lot to join 
 in the Protestant worship of a few sincere and sturdy 
 
40 
 
 Christians in an upper room at Nazareth : no preaching 
 was allowed in the streets, no edifices were then dedicated 
 to worship; all was fear, trembling, and the possibility 
 of oppression and outrage, but for the protection afforded 
 by the English Consul; here we have the first stage 
 before our eyes. In the Church in which I now stand, 
 
 I recognize the features of the second stage : the well- 
 ordered congregation, the voice of the Preacher in the 
 highways calling loudly to repentance, the modest tower 
 rising up in the outskirts of the town, the bell calling 
 cheerily to prayers, and this under the sceptre of England 
 in her Colonies. Thrice happy England ! the extent of 
 your conquests will be forgotten, for those of Gengis and 
 Timur have perished : but your Missions will never be 
 forgotten, for they will have given religion to thousands, 
 and the time will surely come, when the great idol of 
 
 Banaras will be thrown down. 
 
 Who would not then be a Missionary, the Great King’s 
 Messenger, whose treasure is laid up in Heaven P Those 
 who cannot attain this high office must give of their 
 wealth, must give of their pittance, must pray for them, as 
 I did, as I followed the last of the congregation out of 
 the door, thinking how sad would be the day, when, like 
 Alexander, we shall have'no more countries to conquer 
 and convert: how happy for us to see so rich a harvest 
 gladdening the heart of the Labourer in the Vineyard! 
 
 JSandras, August , 1852. 
 
 [P.S.—Thirty-four years have passed, and the work has 
 prospered beyond human expectations.J 
 
 STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS, PRINTERS, HERTFORD.