SHALL THEY BE 
 
 FROM THE PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY REVIEW, DEC. 1855 
 
 (BY PERMISSION.) 
 
 
 ROCHESTER: 
 
 STL AM ! LESS OF A. STRONG & CO. DAILY DEMOCRAT OFFICE. 
 
 1850. 
 

MISSION SCHOOLS. 
 
 (From the Presbyterian Quarterly Review for Dec. 1855.) 
 
 THE FOREIGN MISSION QUESTION. 
 
 The Church of Christ, in accordance with the last com¬ 
 mand of her all-glorious, and all-powerful Head, has under¬ 
 taken the work of converting all nations to the obedience of 
 the faith. Relying upon the promised aid of the Holy Spirit, 
 she has addressed herself to this task, nor does she falter in 
 her hopes of its full achievement. Great as the undertaking 
 confessedly is, final and entire success is the only issue which 
 she anticipates. 
 
 It may however be questioned, whether the hopes based 
 upon the word of God, are not, in part at least, sustained by 
 ignorance of the actual vastness of the undertaking, and of 
 the hinderances to its accomplishment. The conversion of 
 whole nations, with millions and tens of millions of subjects, 
 the displacement of idolatry, infidelity, and hatred of the 
 Gospel, the planting of the Church with its ordinances and 
 ministry upon a soil so lately hostile, the provision for a per¬ 
 petuation of these institutions of religion, is a work whose 
 greatness is rather conceded than understood, rather admit- 
 
2 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 ted than grasped or comprehended. We look upon it, there¬ 
 fore, as a matter of congratulation, that the Churches with 
 which we are associated in this work have, in the Providence 
 of God, been called at the present time, to scan more closely 
 the means relied upon for success by their representatives in 
 the foreign field. As lovers of the cause, we rejoice that it 
 is attracting the earnest scrutiny of those most competent to 
 deepen and widen, and speed onward anew, the efforts of 
 the people of God for the conversion of the heathen nations 
 to Christ. 
 
 This work in which we are engaged is no temporary one. 
 It is a life-long labor which God has laid upon us. A 
 spasmodic effort, a brilliant charge, the springing of a mine, 
 will not give the Church possession of lands now occupied 
 by idolatry and superstition. We must count upon hinder- 
 ances, delays, difficulties, and obstinate resistance. Counting 
 the cost, we must put on the harness, and, imitating the un¬ 
 conquerable obstinacy of mere earthly warriors, resolve to 
 dig, and sap, and mine, and ever to advance, assured that 
 when we fall, in trench, or breach, or camp, or assault, 
 others will come forward to fill our places, and hold the 
 ground we gain. It need occasion no surprise, that in an 
 effort so vast, so complicated and so long protracted, there 
 should be a call from time to time to examine our position 
 and our modes of procedure. , We should expect that the 
 teachings of experience, as well as the results of thoughtful 
 attention, would afford data for the correction of errors, or 
 suggest improvement in our use of means. God has in his 
 wisdom left us in many things to the exercise of judgment, 
 and it becomes us to learn from the history of the past, 
 lessons of wisdom for the future. Hence, as we have said, 
 we rejoice that attention has been called to the Theory and 
 Practice of Missions, and would contribute our mite to¬ 
 wards the elucidation of a subject in which, as a Church, we 
 have so deep an interest and so large a stake. 
 
 On the most cursory glance at the history of modern mis¬ 
 sions, we notice a peculiarity by which they are distinguish- 
 
3 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 ed from the missions of apostolic times ; we refer to the 
 establishment of schools as an aid, both direct and indirect, 
 in the work of evangelization. The apostles went from city 
 to city, tarrying according to circumstances and the divine 
 mandate, days, weeks, months, or years, preaching, strength* 
 ening, and ordaining; but so far as we can learn from the in¬ 
 spired page, not establishing schools for the young. On the 
 other hand, the missionaries of modern times, men often of 
 an undoubted apostolic spirit and life, have with remarkable 
 unanimity, in connection with the preaching of the word, 
 established schools for the Christian education of youth. To 
 glance at those Missions with which we are most familiar, 
 we find, for instance, that when, in 1734, Mr. John Sergeant 
 resigned his office as tutor in Yale College to commence a 
 mission among the Mohegans, he “ placed his chief hope of 
 success in the education of youth.” The heavenly minded 
 David Brainerd, whilst preaching to the Indians in Massachu¬ 
 setts, also superintended an English school taught by his in¬ 
 terpreter. On his removal to New Jersey in 1746, he there 
 also formed a school, a few months after his arrival. If we 
 turn our eyes from the early Missions in America to the be¬ 
 ginnings of labor among the Hindus, we find that Ziegenbalg 
 and Plutsche, men whose zeal and devotion have rarely been 
 exceeded, on their arrival at Tranquebar in Southern India, 
 being deeply convinced of the importance of early instruc¬ 
 tion, lost no time in establishing a school for the education of 
 such native Tamil children as they could collect for this pur¬ 
 pose, some of whom they contrived to feed and clothe at 
 their own expense. When, in 1728, a mission was com¬ 
 menced at Madras by Schultz, schools were a part of its ma¬ 
 chinery ; and the apostolic Schwartz, soon after landing and 
 reaching his field in Southern India, writes, “ I began a 
 catechetical hour in the Tamil school with the youngest lambs 
 and thus I learned to stammer with them.” Turn to another 
 continent, and there also the missionary Schmidt, sent by the 
 Moravians of Germany in 1736, to make known Christ to the 
 despised sons of Africa, soon founded the first Hottentot 
 
4 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 school. Passing to the date of the commencement of the 
 first mission of the American Board, that at Bombay, we find, 
 that in 1815 , the brethren made such efforts as their means 
 allowed for the education of heathen children. In the first 
 year of the Jaffna Mission, ( 1816 ) boys were brought under 
 the instruction of the missionaries and their assistants, and 
 soon after a few little girls were gathered, forming the germ 
 of the Oodooville boarding-school. In the same year the 
 mission among the Cherokees was commenced, and the 
 erection of a “ comfortable school-house/’ was one of their 
 earliest movements. In 1820 , a mission was begun in the 
 Sandwich Islands, and before the close of the year four 
 schools were established. This list might be indefinitely pro¬ 
 longed, with similar statements concerning missions in Asia, 
 Africa, America, and the Islands of the Pacific; but enough 
 has been adduced to show a remarkable agreement among 
 men of different generations, from various lands, and upon 
 widely separated fields, in the use of the school in conjunc¬ 
 tion with the preaching of the truth to adults, as an agency 
 for promoting the work of evangelization. In the wilds of 
 our own frontiers, among the Hottentots and Zulus of South 
 Africa, in the mountains of Kurdistan, on the torrid plains of 
 India, in the sea-ports of China and the retired islets of Poly¬ 
 nesia ; nay, wherever, almost without exception, the banner of 
 the cross has been raised, there do we find children and 
 youth gathered for instruction in the mission school. 
 
 The fact is a remarkable one. What does it mean \ It 
 would seem to be a missionary instinct. To say that this 
 course is not in accordance with piety, zeal and wisdom, that 
 it is not the fruit of apostolic devotedness, conflicts harshly 
 with the universality of its adoption by men whose lives are 
 regarded as the highest exemplifications of Christian charac¬ 
 ter, under circumstances so varied, and on fields so indepen¬ 
 dent, in all things one of another. Yet, that it is a departure 
 from the strict line of apostolic precedent, is undeniable. 
 
 If now we turn to the results of the efforts of the Churches 
 of the foreign field, during the past forty years, that we may 
 
The Foreign Mission Question, 
 
 5 
 
 in some sense test our modes by our progress, our theories 
 by their fruit, a two-fold answer will be returned, according 
 to the standard by which they are measured. Viewed posi¬ 
 tively, these results are glorious and cheering. Whole tribes 
 have been rescued from barbarism and raised to the rank of 
 Christian men; islands sunk in the depths of licentiousness, 
 idolatry, and even cannibalism, have taken their place among 
 civilized nations; the most degraded races of South Africa 
 have yielded brightest gems for our Saviour's crown ; nomi¬ 
 nal Christians have returned to the standard of truth and 
 abjured their false doctrines ; and even India and China, the 
 strongholds of heathenism in the East, have been the scenes 
 of outpourings of the Divine Spirit, and the birth place of 
 souls. Christian churches, even though at long intervals, 
 stud the world, twinkling like the stars of heaven in every 
 quarter of its sin-darkened hemispheres. 
 
 Viewed, however, not in their own worth, nor according to 
 what we had reason to anticipate with a full understanding ot 
 the obstacles to be overcome, but in comparison with the ex¬ 
 pectations of the sanguine, the results are less satisfactory. 
 It was the confident anticipation of many good men, at the 
 time of the inauguration of our present operations, that a few 
 years of missionary labor would overspread large portions of 
 the heathen world with Christianity. Idolaters were spoken 
 of as stretching forth their hands for the Gospel; true enough 
 as a figurative representation of their need, but quite false as 
 a statement of their desires. The victims of false religion 
 were represented as slaves to sin, waiting for the proclama¬ 
 tion of liberty through Christ; true enough as to their actual 
 bondage to Satan, but false as to their willingness to accept 
 the heaven-sent boon. With the sanguine, these figurative 
 statements passed for realities, and brilliant success was looked 
 for at an early day. To such views and expectations, the 
 results ot missionary labor seem most inadequate and dis¬ 
 heartening. After laboring for forty years, they find heathen¬ 
 ism and false religion still occupying the greater part of the 
 habitable globe. But it is forgotten that apostolic gifts and 
 
G 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question . 
 
 t 
 
 labors, followed up by the zeal of the evangelists of the 
 primitive Church, besieged the Roman empire for three centu¬ 
 ries before the Cross supplanted the Eagle upon her strong¬ 
 holds and banners. Undervaluing the work to be accom¬ 
 plished and the difficulties to be encountered, they are ready 
 to conclude, because every thing is not done, that nothing is 
 done, and to cry out—“ missions a failure.” Others there 
 are, and among them many missionaries, who, though not 
 thus cast down by the disappointment of hopes unwarranted 
 by the history of the Church, still feel that all has not been 
 done that might have been done. With souls yearning over 
 dying myriads, and longing for the more rapid spread of the 
 only remedy for sin, they are ready to exclaim, “ Why tarry 
 His chariot wheels so long! Oh! where is the promise of His 
 coming! ” Admitting that God has greatly blessed the labors 
 of his unworthy servants, and that in some fields the harvest 
 has been great even to astonishment, the same cannot be as¬ 
 serted of all missionary fields. In many a spot where sin 
 abounds, although the labors of many years have been there 
 expended, the missionary, looking about him, exclaims, 
 u Who hath believed our report! to whom is the arm of the 
 Lord revealed?” Ready to convict himself of error, with 
 a jealous eye the laborer scans his heart, his theory and his 
 practice, and asks, “Where is the fault! What better can 
 we do!” The new comer with warm desires and great ex¬ 
 pectations, unable to appreciate the advance that has actually 
 been made by his predecessors, is ready to imagine that pre¬ 
 vious modes are at fault, and suggests new measures. Anxious 
 directors and friends of missions at home, impatient of the 
 slow advances made, begin to inquire whether there be not 
 something wrong, and seek to show the remedy. Thus, be¬ 
 tween old missionaries and new, laborers at home and abroad, 
 and the host of lookers on, it is not surprising that we should 
 have more than one scheme laid down as the proper method 
 of missions. 
 
 Whilst the main current of Christian missions, from all 
 lands to all lands, has ever set steadily in favor of a combina- 
 

 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 7 
 
 tion of preaching, teaching and scattering the word of God, 
 as the true plan for evangelization in heathen countries, two 
 widely different courses have been struck out for the more 
 perfect and speedy attainment of the end proposed, by the 
 divergence in two opposite directions of some of the friends 
 of missions. These diverging theories may be characterised 
 as the educational system, and the system of exclusive oral 
 preaching. The one would correct the ordinarily accepted 
 theory of missions, by giving greater prominence to the 
 Christian education of youth ; the other by relying mainly, 
 if not entirely, upon the oral proclamation of the Gospel to 
 adults. We shall attempt fairly, and as fully as our space 
 will allow, to present the respective positions of the two 
 parties, turning our attention more particularly to India, per¬ 
 haps the most difficult of mission fields, as well as the most 
 familiar, and one to which the notice of the public is at 
 present particularly called. 
 
 The educational system has been adopted by the Presbyte¬ 
 rians both of the Kirk and the Free Church of Scotland, in 
 their India missions. It was introduced at Calcutta by Dr. 
 Duff, the deservedly eminent and admired senior of these 
 missions. It is now the system pursued by the Scotch mis¬ 
 sionaries at Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Nagpore and else¬ 
 where. As it has been much misunderstood, and the princi¬ 
 ples upon which it is advocated often decried, it is but an act 
 of justice to state the views of these unquestionably earnest 
 and godly men, as held by themselves, whilst to inquirers on 
 the u Theory of Missions ” it will be suggestive, and as we 
 may hope, interesting. Those desiring to study the subject 
 more thoroughly, will find in u Duff on India and India Mis¬ 
 sions,” (pages 284—423,) the arguments from which we 
 make the following brief : 
 
 The principle lying at the foundation of Hinduism, as a 
 religious system, is exclusive self-reliance—self-righteousness. 
 The remedy for this false doctrine is the unfolding of right¬ 
 eousness in Christ—the Gospel. The question that meets us 
 in our work is, How can we most effectually communicate a 
 
8 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 saving knowledge of Christ! How can we bring to pass the 
 intellectual, moral and spiritual regeneration of the universal 
 mind of India, and that in the speediest and most thorough 
 manner! By common consent there are three generic modes 
 of applying the Gospel to the people, viz: 
 
 1. Preaching the Gospel to adults. 
 
 2. Teaching it to the young. 
 
 3. The translation and circulation of the Scriptures and re¬ 
 ligious worksw 
 
 All these modes,—Dr. Duff argues,—have been blessed, and 
 should be used. They are not antagonists but allies; and to 
 pitch them against each other is folly and wrong. Christian 
 education and preaching differ in the subjects and in the modes 
 of application of the truth conveyed, but notin essence. We 
 should not therefore be influenced by names so as to imagine 
 them to be essentially different or antagonistic. “Go teach all 
 nations,” is parallel to “Go preach to every creature.” By 
 teaching, in its present connection, he understands communi¬ 
 cating the Gospel to the young; by preaching, communicating 
 it to those of riper years. Circumstances may decide which 
 of the different modes shall take precedence of the others. 
 Thus the savage, without an alphabet, whose language has not 
 been reduced to writing, must be preached to before he is offered 
 a Bible, or taught to read. The Chinese may be reached by 
 books or tracts before they can be approached by the preacher 
 or teacher. In India again, both modes may be used, and the 
 question will be on the relative prominence to be given to each 
 part of the work. 
 
 erian Church have chosen and stedfastly 
 adhered to what they denominate the Christian education 
 scheme. In former educational evangelistic efforts, Dr. D. 
 thinks too much was expected from schools of a low grade, and 
 too little attention paid to a thorough, long-continued course of 
 training. Elementary schools for a large number can only be 
 wisely used,—in present circumstances,—as a preparation for 
 higher educational institutions. Upon these last we must rely 
 for the true results of Christian education as a missionary effort. 
 
 The Scotch Presbyt 
 
The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 9 
 
 The Gospel must be preached to the adult population. The 
 question of questions is, Who are to be preachers! The church¬ 
 es at home have been hitherto looked to for those who shall 
 carry the word of life through heathen nations. But, viewing 
 the immense number of preachers needed, the difficulty of ob¬ 
 taining the men, their expensiveness, their reduction by ill¬ 
 ness and death, their want of acquaintance with the languages 
 and customs of the people, &c., he argues, that we must look 
 to the churches of Christendom for the original supply of labor¬ 
 ers to communicate the first impulse, and then let these give 
 that shape and direction to their operations which may most 
 speedily cause the field itself to send forth the continuous 
 supply. 
 
 The Gospel can only be said to flourish when it can live and 
 perpetuate itself independent of foreign aid. Up to this point 
 it is not truly a thing of the soil, but an exotic. A few real 
 propagators of Christianity are worth more than thousands of 
 converts unable to diffuse sound views of Christian truth, or to 
 hand them down to succeeding generations without the aid of 
 foreign teachers. As regards the interests of a realm, one 
 Knox is worth a thousand peasants, though his soul be no more 
 precious than one of theirs. Hence the rearing of native 
 preachers, well qualified to stand alone and diffuse the truth, 
 should be, not a secondary or subordinate, but a primary de¬ 
 partment of missionary labor in India. This view is strength¬ 
 ened by the extreme difficulty with which even the present 
 number of European laborers is maintained, and the extreme 
 disproportion between the force engaged and the land to be pos¬ 
 sessed. If Itinerancy he offered as a remedy, enabling one man 
 to pass over a large surface of territory, proclaiming the Gos¬ 
 pel, the question arises, * What propect of ultimate success is 
 held out by this plan!’ And the answer returned is, that with¬ 
 out the repetition of the same means in the same locality, we 
 can expect only a scattered and unsubstantial harvest from 
 this mode of sowing the soil. 
 
 “ In scattering handfuls of corn over the frozen crust and 
 towering eminences of the Himalaya, a single grain might 
 
10 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 obtain a lodgment it the crevice of a naked rock; and then, 
 exposed to the concentrated rays of a summer sun, it might 
 rear its nodding form far aloft, amid a region of sublime ster¬ 
 ility; but what prospect would that hold out of reaping the 
 bountiful returns of an autumnal increase!” Even for a cir¬ 
 cuit itinerancy, however, we cannot command a sufficiency ot 
 foreign laborers. The climate forbids this mode of labor in 
 
 <D 
 
 many districts during a great part of the year; the advantage 
 gained is lost for want of being steadily followed up; the 
 breached fort is repaired before the assault is renewed; a vo¬ 
 cabulary depraved by heathen associations nullifies much that 
 is said by the preachers. These evils can only be remedied 
 by patient reiteration, explanation, and illustration. On these 
 and other accounts, preaching must be not erratic but localiz¬ 
 ed; but, if localized, it must be largely multiplied to meet the 
 emergency. Hence, we must have native preachers to itiner¬ 
 ate widely, wisely, and well. They can live at a far less expense 
 than the European, labor more widely, reach the people more 
 fully, and command the language more perfectly. u The real 
 reformers of Hindustan must be Hindus.” Beside sending 
 men directly to preach the Gospel our societies must send others 
 to devote time, talents, and energies to raising up a native 
 ministry; and this can be best done by a long, thorough, per¬ 
 severing prosecution of the educational system, with the use 
 of the English language. It will not, we think, be an unfair 
 statement of this theory of missions to say that its chief tenet 
 is, that the foreign missionary should rather devote himself 
 to the raising up and training of native evangelists, than aim 
 himself to be the evangelist. 
 
 Whilst one portion of the missionary force has thus inclin¬ 
 ed to a divergence from the main body towards a more exclu¬ 
 sive use of educational agencies, another portion of the iorce> 
 with a kindred zeal for the speediest possible conquest of the 
 world by the Church, has, as we intimated, diverged in a dif¬ 
 ferent direction. It maintains that the foreign missionary 
 should be, in the fullest sense, an evangelist,—putting his trust 
 in the oral publication of the Gospel to adults, and repudiat- 
 
The Foreign Mission Question . 
 
 11 
 
 ing schools as a means of evangelization. This theory has 
 been more or less fully adopted by the controlling authorities 
 of the Baptist Missionary Union, with the warm concurrence 
 of President Way land; by the Arcot Mission of the American 
 Board, and by individual missionaries. 
 
 The annual meeting of the Baptist Missionary Union, held 
 in Philadelphia in May, 1854, was rendered memorable by a 
 highly exciting and very full discussion of the Report of the 
 Deputation commissioned to visit the missions of the Union 
 in the East Indies. This Deputation, consisting of the Rev. 
 Solomon Peck, D. D., Foreign Secretary, and the Rev. James 
 N. Grainger, met the missionaries of the Union laboring in Bur- 
 mah, in convention; and, after a six week’s discussion, decided, 
 with the concurrence of the majority of the missionaries pres¬ 
 ent, upon certain changes in the mode of conducting the missions 
 of the Union in the East. The grand principle laid down and 
 followed in these changes was, that “ oral preaching is the Di¬ 
 vinely app Anted and Divinely honored mode of evangelization. 
 To secure to the work of preaching its rightful position, it was 
 decided that every ordained missionary should give his strength 
 to this work, subordinating to it all other labors. With regard 
 to schools, two principles were laid down. These were,—first, 
 that u schools are not a wise or scripturally appointed agency 
 for propagating Christianity among a heathen people; ” second, 
 “ that, whatever be their value, it is subordinate to that of 
 preachipg the Gospel to the adult population ; that they are 
 in no respect to be regarded as a substitute for, or a mode of 
 preaching; and that the measure of demand for them is in pro¬ 
 portion to the success which attends the preaching of the 
 Gospel.” From these principles the deputation derived “ the 
 lule ,” that mission schools should be chiefly, if not exclusive¬ 
 ly, for the benefit of the Christian population, the converts and 
 their children. It was farther recommended that in the schools, 
 both primary, normal, and theological, established for training 
 Christian teachers, and preachers, the English language be 
 excluded. 
 
 These changes caused much feeling upon the part of some 
 
12 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 of the missionaries, and of the supporters of the Union, and 
 gave rise to a series of warm discussions. The principles laid 
 down by the Deputation were however sustained and adopted 
 by the meeting. 
 
 At the same convocation, a report, drawn up by the Rev. 
 Dr. Wayland, late of Brown University, was recommended as 
 “containing most important principles for the consideration 
 and guidance of our missionaries and of the Executive Com¬ 
 mittee. ” 
 
 In this report Dr. Wayland argues, that the special object 
 of Christian benevolence is to convert men to God. The 
 means to be used is the preaching of Christ and him crucified. 
 This is the only appointed means for producing this effect; and 
 by preaching, he understands, the oral communication of di¬ 
 vine truth by man to man. As to teaching, it is unnecessary 
 as a preparatory work; it has not apostolic precedent; nor is 
 it the lawful work of an ordained preacher under the Saviours 
 commission. If it be argued, that the aged are hardened, and 
 that the young should be imbued with scriptural truth and 
 led to Christ; he replies, that to the infinite power of the Holy 
 Spirit, u all things are equally easy;” that we cannot expect 
 the young, if converted, to bear the brunt of persecution; 
 that, in fact, children are not the first converts in missions; 
 and that teaching is an uneconomical use of men. In brief, 
 that schools are not to be regarded as a means preparatory to 
 preaching, nor as a scriptural instrument of evangelization. 
 In concluding the report he says, “ We can perceive no essen¬ 
 tial difference between the position of missionaries in a heathen 
 land at the present day, and the position of the apostles and 
 first preachers of Christianity. We learn the manner in which 
 they labored from the Acts of the Apostles. We can see no 
 good reason, therefore, for adopting any other method than 
 that pursued by those instructed by the Saviour himself.” 
 
 The Arcot Mission of the American Board, composed of 
 three brothers bearing a name honored in the annals of missions, 
 adopted, in 1853, a code of rules for the guidance and govern¬ 
 ment of the Mission. From that portion of those rules relating 
 
The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 13 
 
 to 44 preaching and education,” it will be seen, that the views 
 of this Mission on these topics are very nearly co-incident with 
 those of the Baptist Deputation. As this is the only Mission 
 of the American Board, which, so far as we are aware, has 
 taken this strong ground against the use of schools as a branch 
 of evangelistic effort, we give this part of the 11 rules” with¬ 
 out abridgment: 
 
 Preaching and Education. 
 
 “ Whereas , we believe that India,with its teeming population, 
 is accessible to the preaching of the Gospel from her lowliest 
 village to her most crowded city, and— 
 
 “ That God has endowed the Hindus with intellect peculiar¬ 
 ly capable of comprehending the truths which He has revealed, 
 and with conscience fitted to be awakened thereby, and— 
 
 44 That neither schools nor any other preparative human 
 instrumentalities are necessary in order to bring the masses 
 into a condition of fitness for hearing the Gospel, and— 
 
 “ That the way for the triumphs of Christianity is to be 
 prepared by its public proclamation, and— 
 
 44 That the vernacular languages of India furnish media ful¬ 
 ly adapted to the clear and forcible communication of divine 
 truth, and— 
 
 44 That missionaries can easily, with moderate diligence and 
 perseverance, acquire the vernaculars so as to become good 
 preachers, and— 
 
 44 That Christ’s commission recorded by the Evangelists en¬ 
 joins, as the definite plan of missionary labor, the promulga¬ 
 tion of the Gospel among the population in their own 
 tongues—the perseverance in the use of this means until in¬ 
 dividuals and communities are proselyted to the Christian 
 faith—and the education of proselytes and their children, 
 and— 
 
 44 That the wisdom of this or of any other age is incapable 
 of originating better modes of agency than that simple and 
 mighty one instituted by Christ; therefore 
 
14 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question . 
 
 « Resolved , 1. That the words of our Lord, ‘Preach the 
 Gospel,’ are recognized as the foundation stone of this Mis¬ 
 sion. 
 
 “2. That this Mission cannot encumber itself with educa¬ 
 tional establishments intended for heathen children and 
 youth. 
 
 “3. That this Mission cannot allow any educational insti¬ 
 tutions, except those which spring out of the necessities of 
 such communities as may be proselyted to the Christian faith. 
 
 “4. That all such institutions be strictly limited to baptized 
 children and children of proselytes. 
 
 “ 5. That the instruction given in all such institutions shall 
 be restricted to the classical and vernacular languages of 
 India.” 
 
 It will be at once perceived that the first point to be set¬ 
 tled in this discussion is, the truth of the promise upon which 
 the theory of missions last given is built. Ii it be true that 
 the position of the modern missionary to the heathen is so 
 essentially identical with that of the apostles, as is assumed 
 by the supporters of this view, then can a decision be most 
 
 easily reached. 
 
 If the end to be attained now is the same as in apostolic 
 times, and, also, if the circumstances attendant upon the at¬ 
 tainment of this end are the same, or substantially the same, 
 then must we pronounce any serious departure from the exam¬ 
 ple of inspired men, commissioned and prepared for this work 
 by Christ himself, to be wrong. No plea of expediency, or 
 of more mature wisdom, could justify the modern missionary 
 in leaving the path trodden by the apostles. Admitting that 
 the work to be done is substantially the same, that is, the 
 permanent planting of the Church in heathen or anti-Chris¬ 
 tian lands, we will inquire whether the circumstances ot the 
 work, now and then, are so essentially or so nearly the same, 
 as to shut us up to the letter of apostolic precedent. If the 
 facts render an affirmative answer, then the method of mis¬ 
 sions is a matter of interpretation—the apostolic history be¬ 
 ing our text—and theories or reasonings as to modes of pro- 
 
The Foreign Mission Question . 
 
 15 
 
 cedure, are treason against the simplicity of Christian confix 
 dence in the teachings of the Holy Ghost. Let us briefly but 
 fairly examine this point, as one of immense importance, de¬ 
 ciding, as it does, whether we shall or shall not reason as to 
 the best mode of conducting missions among the unevangel¬ 
 ized. 
 
 Are the circumstances under which modern missions are con¬ 
 ducted so identical with those under which they were conduct¬ 
 ed in the apostolic age as to shut us ujp to the letter of apostolic 
 precedent ? 
 
 The question regards two parties,—-the actors, and those 
 acted upon—the preacher and the hearers—the missionary 
 and the field. 
 
 And first, turning to the apostolic age, let us inquire as to 
 the agents for the accomplishment of the work of evangeliza¬ 
 tion. Who were they, and how r were they qualified and 
 equipped for their errand? 
 
 (1.) They were men fresh from the teachings of Him who 
 spake as never man spake; witnesses of his resistless power 
 over things animate and inanimate ; filled with the conscious¬ 
 ness of a divine mission to a world lying in darkness and sin; 
 burning with zeal for a crucified but risen Saviour, and ani¬ 
 mated by the fervor and freshness of enthusiasm to which a 
 new faith, when unhesitatingly received, ever gives birth. 
 They were, in fine, Apostles of Christ, the Lord of Glory. 
 
 (2.) The apostles, moreover, were endowed with the power 
 of working miracles, as an illustration of their divine mission. 
 They were thus furnished with a means of inestimable power 
 for arresting the thoughtless, attracting about them multitudes 
 of hearers, convincing them of the divineness of their mission, 
 and so leading them to consider and yield to the doctrines 
 brought with such sanctions to their notice. 
 
 (3.) They were also, by a special supernatural gift,—that 
 of tongues, or speaking various languages without previous 
 study,—enabled to address men freely in foreign lands, and to 
 enforce upon them the teachings to which the miraculous 
 powers already noticed, had given illustration. 
 
16 The Foreign Mission Question . 
 
 (4 ) It further appears from the inspired record that the 
 apostles had conferred upon them a supernatural discern¬ 
 ment, by which they were guided in the choice of men to fill 
 posts of responsibility in the infant churches which were un¬ 
 der their preaching. 
 
 (5.) And, finally, we see that'on passing from churches 
 thus instituted, to carry to new fields the Gospel banner, the 
 apostles left behind them men miraculously raised up, and 
 miraculously endowed with gifts for the edification, instruc¬ 
 tion, government, and extension of the churches. These offi¬ 
 cers of the apostolic age, and their gifts, are summarily 
 designated (1 Cor. xii. 28) as “prophets, teachers, miracles, 
 gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” 
 
 Such, in part, was the equipment of the apostles for their 
 work, as promulgators of the Gospel of Christ. Let us now 
 glance at the circumstances of the fields to which they were 
 sent, as far as they bear upon the present inquiry. The apos¬ 
 tles went from Judea, mainly to the cities of Greece, Asia 
 Minor and Macedonia ; to Rome, Alexandria, and other cities 
 of the Roman empire. The bare statement will, of itself, sug¬ 
 gest to the reader the point to which we wish to direct atten¬ 
 tion, namely, that the apostles went from less to more civil¬ 
 ized communities—from a land of comparatively low literary 
 culture to the high places of learning for the then known 
 world. Judea might shed moral, but not scientific or literary 
 light, upon the renowned cities of Greece. The very names 
 of Athens, Fergamos, Alexandria and Rome in the Augustan 
 age, so synonymous with memories of ancient learning and 
 science, preclude the necessity of enlarging upon this topic. 
 
 It should also be noted, that we learn from the inspired 
 record of the labors of the chief evangelist of the apostolic 
 company—what we gather also from profane history—that 
 almost into whatever city or town the preacher of that 
 generation entered, he there found, in the first place, a com¬ 
 pany collected in the synagogue, ready to admit everything 
 he claimed but the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth ; and 
 also a community more or less acquainted with the mono- 
 
The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 17 
 
 theistic faith of Judea, and prepared to appreciate the argu¬ 
 ments from the Old Testament, the sacred book of the Jews 
 who lived beside them, to the New Testament, which the 
 apostles maintained to be its complement and key. Finally, 
 the apostles had not the printing press, with its facilities, for 
 the multiplication of written volumes. 
 
 Let us glance now at the modern missionary and his field, 
 that we may see whether his position is in all things the same 
 as that of the apostle, or so nearly the same as to shut him 
 up to a use of the same means so far as he can command 
 them. Look at the man and his qualifications. The com¬ 
 mission directly conferred by Christ, the miraculous endow¬ 
 ments to attest his errand, the gift of tongues, supernatural 
 discernment, the miraculous provision of successors from the 
 native church, with which the apostles were furnished—are 
 those his] And, on the other hand, his field. Does he go 
 from less to more learned lands] from less to more cultivated 
 nations] Does he find the synagogue with its open Bible, 
 and an audience prepared by mental culture to appreciate his 
 words and arguments ] We need hardly say that the diversi¬ 
 ty, under both heads, is most striking ; nor need we occupy 
 our limited space by tracing out for the reader the lines of 
 difference which his own acquaintance with the subject will 
 supply. Omitting the mention of other very striking differ¬ 
 ences between the position of the Christian evangelist of that 
 day and this, it is enough for our present purpose if we can 
 assert, as we think that we safely may, that the circumstances 
 under which modern missions are conducted are not so identi¬ 
 cal with those under which they were conducted in apostolic 
 times , as to shut us up to the letter of apostolic precedent. 
 Hence, to show in the modes of conducting missions at the 
 present day a departure from apostolic precedent, is not of 
 itself a proof of error on the part of our missionaries, or of 
 the directors of our missionary boards. Error there may be, 
 and doubtless often is, but it is not proved by the fact that 
 means are used not found in apostolic precedents. 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact, that the advocates of a strict adhe- 
 2 
 
18 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 rence to apostolic example should limit their scruples to a 
 single point. In the matter of schools no exception can be 
 made, no variation be allowed. The apostles established no 
 schools; their example is our law of procedure; therefore 
 the modern missionary may not establish schools—a syllogism 
 from which they see no escape. Let circumstances be what 
 they may, the indications of Providence what they will, it 
 matters not, there is but one divinely appointed mode of 
 evangelization, and that is not the establishment of schools. 
 But why may we not insert “ printing press ” in the place of 
 “schools'?” Will not the syllogism be as true? Or if 
 “executive committee” or “ mission treasurer ” be inserted, 
 will not the argument be as sound ? Nay, if we are to dis¬ 
 regard the Providential changes which make the nineteenth 
 century to differ from the first, should we not abjure such 
 unapostolic machinery as boards, committees and secretaries? 
 Should we not turn from the steamboat and rail-road, and dis¬ 
 carding letters of credit, take our staff and scrip and set out 
 in truly primitive style for our field of labor ; and when there, 
 renouncing the use of those modern innovations the printed 
 Bible and tracts, should we not sit down to copy out, on 
 apostolic “parchments,” the Epistles and Gospels needed for 
 the churches \ 
 
 - It will be replied, doubtless, “ We do not deny the existence 
 of circumstantial differences of position of the two parties; it 
 is ‘ essential differences’ whose existence we deny.” If so, let 
 it be conceded that circumstantial differences of position will 
 call for circumstantial changes in the modes of procedure, and 
 on this point their need be no further controversy. All agree 
 as to the essential aim and scope of the missionary work; it is 
 to bring the glorious truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so 
 to bear upon men in heathen lands that the Church may, in the 
 speediest and best way possible, be built up over the whole 
 earth. In doing this, let us not ignore the existence of a state 
 ©f things which compels us to ask, not merely, how did the 
 apostles labor, but how far shall existing circumstances modi¬ 
 fy our imitation of their modes of labor. The apostles used 
 
The Foreign Mission Question . 
 
 every appliance fairly within their reach. To do the same 
 discriminatingly, prayerfully and zealously, is truly to follow 
 in their footsteps. They did not go from Judea to found 
 schools in Athens; but it by no means follows that, if to-day they 
 were to go, without miraculous endowments, from New Ena-- 
 land to South Africa, they would refuse to found schools there. 
 W e are willing to believe that now, as in the first century, they 
 would follow the leadings of Providence, and strive bv all wise 
 means to save some of those by whom they were surrounded. 
 
 But, says Dr. Wayland, in the report alluded to, “It is cer¬ 
 tainly wrong to ordain ministers and send them forth as preach¬ 
 ers of the gospel under the Saviour’s commission, when we 
 only mean them to be school teachers.” And again: “ Who 
 shall labor in the work of education ? (i. e. after Christianity 
 has been planted on a foreign soil.) If the views just express¬ 
 ed be correct, it will follow, that this is a work not to be de¬ 
 volved on the ministers of the Gospel. ” Truly this is a re¬ 
 markable proposition to emanate from a New England college. 
 The fathers of that favored portion of our country seemed to 
 have no such scruples, when they called ordained men to un¬ 
 dertake the training of youth in old Yale and Harvard. Nor, 
 in later times, have their successors withheld from these and 
 younger seminaries of learning their most gifted pulpit orators 
 and scholars. Certainly no such theory was held by our Pres¬ 
 byterian fathers, who hesitated not to place in educational 
 chairs, the most useful and eminent of their ordained pastors, 
 or even to call the great Edwards from his Mission to the In¬ 
 dians to preside in the College of Nassau Hall. And with the 
 highest admiration for the character, and most heartfelt esteem 
 for the services of the distinguished author of the sentiment 
 we have quoted, we cannot avoid an expression of surprise 
 that it should have come from the Reverend President of Brown 
 University. The very extent of the indebtedness of the cause 
 of education to the labors of his best years makes it the more 
 unaccountable. Will it be said that it is the Missionary of 
 whom we are talking—that circumstances are widely different 
 at home? And is it so, that apostolic precedent is outlawed 
 
20 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 from America? Is it only to be made an unbending rule for 
 the evangelist sent to heathen India? Is he to be shut up to 
 one way of reaching the heart and one mode of doing good, 
 whilst the Christian ministers of America may range over the 
 whole field of useful effort and adapt their powers to separate 
 spheres of action, as God and his people shall direct ? Must 
 the man who single handed and alone is to do every thing, un¬ 
 der God to raise a nation from the depths of a degraded idola¬ 
 try to Christian life and light, be restricted to a single instru¬ 
 ment, whilst we at home may bend every agency and apply 
 every new power to the accomplishment of a lighter task ? 
 No ! This were a monstrous wrong ! In the name of justice, 
 we demand, that if restriction be laid any where, it be not up¬ 
 on the man who, with the least assistance, has the greatest and 
 hardest work to do. We say not now what it is wisest for 
 him to do, but we protest against this laying down of restrict¬ 
 ions for the missionary, whilst leaving to his brother in Christian 
 lands a margin of the widest liberty. 
 
 Many important topics suggest themselves in this conection; 
 but we may not linger here, lest we exceed the limits to which 
 we can lay claim. With a few remarks on the Rules of the 
 Arcot Mission, given on a proceeding page, we pass to another 
 part of our subject. With the Preamble we, in the main, heart- 
 i] y agree. The acessibility of India; the ability of the Hindus to 
 comprehend Gospel truths; their fitness to hear them proclaim¬ 
 ed, and the prime importance of the preaching of these truths 
 to the masses in their own tongue, are points we have no desire 
 to dispute. We know of no American mission in which they 
 would not be heartly endorsed. The se venth section, however, 
 records a more “ definite plan of missionary labor,” as enjoin¬ 
 ed by Christ’s commission to the Apostles than we have been 
 wont to find in those simple yet comprehensive words. With 
 this, however, we shall not quarrel, as it merely expresses the 
 belief of the members of the Arcot Mission in the year 1853 
 as to the teachings of the Redeemer’s last command. Neither 
 shall we dispute the right of these brethren to lay down rules 
 for their guidance in the prosecution of their work in accord- 
 
21 
 
 The Foreign Mission . Question. 
 
 ance with their views of the true theory of missions. Rather 
 would we wish them God speed in their labors, and rejoice in 
 their success. 
 
 So long as the Mission is fully agreed in this matter, we 
 should have no disposition to compel it “ to encumber itself with 
 educational establishments for heathen youth.” (See Resolu¬ 
 tions on a former page.) Nor if, when a Christian commun¬ 
 ity, by the blessing of God upon the preaching of his Word, 
 had grown up, and educational institutions had been establish¬ 
 ed for it, a child of heathen parents should knock at the door 
 and implore admittance, the reply should be, “We have no 
 place in our scheme for the instruction of heathen youth—all 
 such institutions in this Mission are c strictly limited to baptiz¬ 
 ed children and to children of proselytes,’ ” should we wish 
 to dispute their right to decide this question thus, so far as the 
 Arcot Mission is concerned. But if the demand be made that 
 the spirit of these rules be subscribed to by the Missions at 
 Madras, Madura, Jaffna, Bombay; nay, by all missions in the 
 whole world, as the only divinely appointed made of evangel - 
 ization , then we must protest against so unwarranted an as¬ 
 sumption of exclusive apostolicity. 
 
 The merits of the question, as to the wisdom or otherwise 
 of the use of educational establishments in our missions, will 
 be involved in some remarks to be made before we close. 
 
 That which most practically interests us in this matter is the 
 course pursued by the American Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions. It is through this organization that we have 
 for many years done all that we have done for the evangeliza¬ 
 tion of heathen lands. It is to its discretion that we now en¬ 
 trust our contributions of money. It is for its missions especi¬ 
 ally that our prayers are offered up; and it is to its care that 
 we commit our brethren who devote themselves to this work. 
 Hence, the views and policy of the American Board are to us 
 matters of the weightiest interest. They should receive our 
 closest attention, if we would do our duty to the cause of mis¬ 
 sions, and to those whom we send forth in this glorious work. 
 To which then of the two differing theories which have been 
 
22 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 sketched does this Board incline. What views as to modes of 
 missionary action are held by its controlling powers? In reply, 
 it may be said, that the course pursued by the Board from its 
 organization has been a mean between these two extremes. 
 Rejecting no instrumentality that gave promise of doing good 
 service to the cause, it has used them all. Its object, as defin¬ 
 ed by its published laws and regulations, is, “ to propagate the 
 gospel among the unevangelized nations and communities, by 
 means of preachers, catechists, school-masters, and the press.” 
 The missionaries have had a reasonable liberty to make use of all 
 of these modes of reaching and influencing the people to whom 
 they have been sent, and this liberty they have used, although 
 with a varying amount of attention to the several branches of 
 effort in different lands and missions. The propriety of the 
 use of schools in connection with preaching, as a branch of 
 evangelic effort, was ably advocated in an Article written by 
 the Rev. Dr. Anderson, Senior Secretary of the Board, and 
 published in the Biblical Repository of the year 1838. The 
 views there devoloped are those upon which the missions of 
 the American Board were conducted from their incipiency. 
 Schools for heathen youth formed a part of the equipment of 
 almost every station, and the hopes of success cherished by 
 the friends of the cause at home were partly based upon the 
 fruits anticipated from the Christian training of the young. 
 
 With the increase of experience in the work, and under the 
 incentives to inquiry as to the modes already adverted to, it 
 was to be expected that the guiding spirits of this great Mis¬ 
 sionary society, should be led to examine the principles upon 
 which its operations were based. That old views should be 
 modified, or new views embraced, need be no matter of won¬ 
 der. But it will be as little matter for wonder, that the Church¬ 
 es acting through their Board, should claim the right to know 
 the changes proposed or effected, to discuss the grounds upon 
 which such changes are founded, and to decide whether the 
 principles involved shall be adopted as the policy of their mis* 
 sions to the heathen. It is not our privilege only, it is our 
 sacred duty to understand the theories and the practice of our 
 
The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 23 
 
 foreign missionaries, to be fully in sympathy with them and 
 their work, and to supervise their labors as truly as we do that 
 of the home missionary—a duty, it must be said, which has 
 been most shamefully neglected by our church judicatories. 
 
 For several years past it has been evident to those suffici¬ 
 ently interested to observe the course of things, that the views 
 of the Prudential Committee have been inclining to what may 
 be, for brevity, styled the anti-educational side of the question. 
 This was particularly noticeable in the instructions of the Com¬ 
 mittee, given by Dr. Anderson, in December, 1848, to the first 
 missionaries to the Jews of Salonica. The missionaries were 
 distinctly instructed, that the Committee were not prepared 
 to institute schools of any sort in the new mission. In the 
 management of other missions of the Board also, the influence 
 of the Committee has been decidedly adverse to any exten¬ 
 sion of the educational system, as a means of evangelization, 
 and more particularly so to the use of the English language 
 as a medium of instruction. For many years, if we are cor¬ 
 rectly informed, the school system has been a subject of cor¬ 
 respondence between the Missions and the Committee. Espe¬ 
 cially is this true of our Indian Missions. In that particular¬ 
 ly difficult and interesting field of effort, with a population so 
 vast, so strangely bound by caste, so subtle, so full of pride 
 in a venerable system of false religion and false science ; the 
 literary and scientific, as well as religious superiority of 
 Christianity, has been largely brought to bear upon the peo¬ 
 ple. The Committee, year by year, have seemed to place 
 less and less confidence in educational means, and to be more 
 and more disposed to confine missionary labor, as a part of a 
 system of evangelization, to the preaching of the Gospel to 
 adults. The great majority, we believe, of the missionaries 
 of all Societies in India, have felt themselves unable to see 
 the wisdom of this position. Whilst maintaining that the 
 public oral proclamation of the truth was the first thing in 
 missions, they have not felt that it was every thing or the 
 only thing. Hence, there has been a reluctance on the part 
 of the missionaries of the American Board, to adopt measures 
 
24 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 entirely in accordance with the views of the Committee. 
 Nor do we know that the Committee have demanded this. 
 Whilst seeking to keep educational operations within what 
 seem to them proper limits, and perhaps depressing it below 
 what some of the missions have deemed the truest policy and 
 economy, we do not know that they have demanded an entire 
 change of policy in any mission. 
 
 So great was the difficulty of deciding and adjusting this 
 and other matters by correspondence alone, that it seemed 
 advisable to the Prudential Committee to send out a deputa¬ 
 tion to visit and confer with their missionaries in Hindustan. 
 Accordingly the Rev. Dr. Anderson, Secretary, and the Rev. 
 Augustus C. Thompson, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, a mem¬ 
 ber of the Committee, sailed for India, by the way of Eng¬ 
 land, in August, 1854. 
 
 The objects of the Deputation are thus stated in the An¬ 
 nual Report for 1854: “This measure is regarded by the 
 Prudential Committee as being every way economical and 
 w T ise ; there being many questions, connected with consider¬ 
 able outlay of funds, which it is desirable to hasten to an 
 earlier and more satisfactory adjustment than can be effected 
 through the medium of written correspondence, or of con¬ 
 verse with individual missionaries returning from their fields; 
 such as the place which schools and education should hold 
 among the means for evangelizing the people of India ; the 
 comparative use that should be made of the English and of 
 the vernacular languages in education ; the most economical 
 and effectual method of training native preachers, pastors, 
 and helpers ; the inquiry as to the expediency of a more 
 rapid and extensive institution of a native pastorate, with 
 the whole subject of the support of native evangelical 
 laborers ; the providing of houses for preaching and public 
 worship together with the provision to be made for 
 Christian communities ; the use of the press ; relations to 
 other societies, and the comparative importance of different 
 fields of labor. 
 
 Here, it will be seen, is a schedule of topics of the highest 
 
The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 25 
 
 importance, and of topics upon which it is of great moment 
 that the Committee should have a personal intelligence. It 
 is so utterly impossible to obtain a satisfactory understanding 
 of these matters without a personal acquaintance with the 
 fields and people, without looking the thing itself in the face, 
 that the sending of their Senior Secretary, with a member of 
 the Committee to visit the Indian Missions, is an act at once 
 natural and wise. A personal interview with the men who 
 have been spending their lives in the work, upon the ground 
 and among the people, it might be expected, would give to a 
 Secretary more real information than volumes of correspon¬ 
 dence, whilst it would also afford him an opportunity for more 
 fully unfolding to the Missionaries his own views. After 
 such a visit, the letters written would come with an apprecia¬ 
 ble reality and instructiveness not before possessed. At the 
 same time, a sympathy between the patrons and officers of 
 the Society at home, and the laborious agents abroad, would 
 be engendered, that would do much to hold up the hands 
 ready to fail, and to cheer the weary heart of the oft anxious 
 and care-worn missionary. 
 
 When, however, at the annual meeting of the Board, held 
 at Hartford, in September, 1854, a few weeks after the de¬ 
 parture of the Deputation for India, a special Report on the 
 “ Div;ne Instrumentality for the World’s Conversion,” was 
 read by one of the Secretaries of the Board on behalf of the 
 Prudential Committee, it was appehended by those conver¬ 
 sant with the state of things, that the Deputation had not gone 
 out so much to learn, as to teach—so much to consult as to 
 act. Although the spirit of the Report is most excellent, and 
 ' its positions, in the main, such as few would dissent from, yet, 
 discussing as it did the question in debate between the Mis¬ 
 sions and the Committee, and coming, as it did, immediately 
 upon the departure of the Deputation, it appeared to be de¬ 
 signed to prepare the public mind for action already decided 
 upon. This apprehension, whether well or ill-founded, would 
 seem to be justified by the reports of the movements of the 
 Deputation so far as received. At the late meeting of the 
 
20 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question . 
 
 Board, in Utica the belief that changes had been effected in 
 the policy of the India Missions, in accordance with pre-con- 
 ceived theories of the Committee and its Secretaries, rather 
 than as the result of a change of views on the part of its 
 missionaries, was manifest. Regret was felt and expressed 
 that the matter had not been communicated to the Board be¬ 
 fore action was had. Although it appeared to be too late to 
 arrest such action, in part, at least, it having been already 
 taken, it was manifestly the will of the meeting that, so far 
 as possible, all of the proposed alterations should be suspended 
 until the decision of the Board could be had upon them. 
 From the special meeting to be called upon the return of the 
 Deputation, we hope for good results. A kindly discussion of 
 the principles upon which our missions are conducted and 
 should be conducted, must lead to the happiest results. The 
 Churches supporting the missions of the American Board, 
 claim the right both of understanding these principles and of 
 expressing their views upon any questions involving a just and 
 wise management of the affairs of the Board, with the ex¬ 
 pectation that their wishes will be respected. They can only 
 be led suitably to sympathize with the work of foreign mis¬ 
 sions, and properly to contribute men and means wherewith 
 to carry it forward, by being made intelligently familiar with 
 the subject, and by being satisfied of the wisdom of the policy 
 pursued by those to whom it is more immediately committed. 
 The churches must feel that these missions are their missions, 
 if we would have them give to the cause the attention and 
 support it merits. Therefore it is, that as friends of the noble 
 cause of missions to the heathen, w T e rejoice that the whole 
 subject is to be so prominently brought before the constituency 
 of the American Board. We trust that the promotion of the 
 cause of Christ, and no lower aim, will be in the eye of the 
 Board at its special meeting. We have no desire to prejudge 
 the matter, nor to censure the Committee or its excellent 
 officers, but we sincerely desire that an intelligent review of 
 this subject may be had, both as a matter of justice to the 
 cause of foreign missions, and to those devoted to its advance¬ 
 ment at home and abroad. 
 
The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 27 
 
 The changes brought about by the visit of the Deputation 
 have not been confined to the Ceylon mission, as has been sup¬ 
 posed by many; changes analogous in character have been 
 found desirable in missions on both sides of India. In the 
 Mahratta missions of the Bombay presidency, and in the Tamil 
 mission of the district ot Madura, unless we are misinformed, 
 an essential reduction has been determined upon in the educa¬ 
 tional department of the missionary work. Instruction in Eng¬ 
 lish is to cease, the number of the schools to be diminished, 
 and the reception of pupils in the remaining schools to be con¬ 
 fined as soon as possible to the children of real or nominal 
 Christians. The school is to follow, not precede, evangelization. 
 The printing of English by mission presses is to be discontinu¬ 
 ed, and the management of these presses to be given to natives. 
 The churches are to be committed to the care of native pastors 
 as soon as possible, and the missionary to become an Evan¬ 
 gelist with an episcopal charge of the Churches. In the pre¬ 
 paration of young men for the ministry, if any are instructed in 
 the English language, it is to be as an exceptional rather than 
 a normal feature of the work. 
 
 Since the educational system has been most steadily, exten¬ 
 sively, and we may add successfully, used in the Jaffna Mission, 
 the greatest amount of change was needed there to bring the 
 Mission to the shape deemed most desirable by the Deputation. 
 We learn from the Missionary Herald for September last, that 
 the conference of the Mission with the Deputation resulted in 
 a complete conversion of the Jaffna brethren to the views of 
 the Deputation, a result equally surprising to those engagedin 
 the conference and to the more distant friends of the Mission 
 at home. A brief sketch of the history of this Mission is 
 essential to an understanding either of the necessity or nature 
 of the changes thus effected. 
 
 The Jaffna Mission was commenced in March, 1816, by 
 Messrs. Warren, Richards, Poor and Meigs, of whom the last 
 named only survives. The Mission has of late years had from 
 seven to nine ordained missionaries, a physican and printer. 
 The field of labor assigned to these brethren and their success 
 
28 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 sors,—the northern Province of Ceylon,—is in several respects 
 a peculiar one, differing in important particulars from mission 
 fields upon the continent of India. These peculiarities have 
 had an influence in modifying the means used in the work of 
 evangelization. From the outset the Mission has made use of 
 preaching, the press and education, as mutual aids in prose¬ 
 cuting its enterprise. Although education in schools of dif¬ 
 ferent grades has been a more prominent agency in this than 
 in some other of our Indian Missions, it is the assertion of our 
 brethren that the preaching of the Gospel has ever been their 
 chief instrumentality. Thus, in their report published at the 
 close of the year 1846, they say, under the head of “ Preach¬ 
 ing”—“By this is to be understood the oral declaration of the 
 Gospel to one or more auditors, but not necessarily in the ordi¬ 
 nary form of sermonizing. The missionaries regard their 
 churches, school bungalows, rest houses and dwelling houses, 
 the wayside and bazars, as proper places in which to preach 
 the Gospel, and accordingly they have from the beginning ex¬ 
 ercised their ministry in all these places as they had opportu¬ 
 nity.” Again, in the report of 1852, they say—“The preach¬ 
 ing of the Gospel in the Churches and in the villages, by the 
 wayside and from house to house, has always been considered 
 our great instrumentality for the spread of the truth, and edu¬ 
 cational and other means only as auxiliary to this.” 
 
 The accounts of extended tours found in the reports of other 
 missions cannot be looked for here from the insular nature of 
 the field. The compactness of its population, whilst preventing 
 the necessity for such tours, taken in connection with the state 
 of preparation for receiving the truth, produced by the preach¬ 
 ing and teaching of past years, says this report, “ creates a de¬ 
 mand for daily excursions in the villages, the results of which 
 are not to be estimated by the distance traveled. Thus, at 
 Manepy, there are ten thousand inhabitants within the limits 
 of the station, and yet so compact, that the most distant are 
 within an half hour’s ride from the station. Every house :s 
 open to the missionaries, and every family an audience.” Dr. 
 Poor, then in charge of that station, visited, during the last six 
 
The Foreign Mission Question • 
 
 29 
 
 months preceding the report, two hundred houses, nearly in 
 the order of their location. Those familiar with the difficulty 
 of getting access to houses of the Hindus elsewhere, wall re¬ 
 cognize in this fact a remarkable proof of progress. Mr. 
 Meigs, the surviving founder of the mission, says—“During 
 good weather we hold meetings, usually in the evenings, at our 
 school bungalows, and sometimes at the houses of respectable 
 natives in the villages.” Tours upon the neighboring islands 
 also are made both by the missionaries and native preachers. 
 
 The Christian education of the rising generation, though re¬ 
 garded only as an auxiliary to the great work of preaching 
 the Gospel, has ever been a prominent feature in the operation 
 of the Jaffna mission. The Schools are of three grades. In 
 the lowest, or common schools, Tamil only is taught; the 
 branches studied being simple and elementary, with a large 
 proportion of religious instruction from the Scriptures and 
 Catechisms. These are taught entirely by natives, who bring 
 their pupils for examination and instruction weekly to the 
 missionary, and on the Sabbath to the station church. Next 
 above these schools, are those in which English, as well as 
 Tamil, is taught, of which there is one at each station. 
 These are designed to be feeders to the Seminary. The 
 best boys from the village school enter the English school, and 
 of these a select number are admitted to the Seminary. The 
 expense of these schools is mostly borne by an appropriation 
 of £200 per annum from the British Government, and the in¬ 
 struction is given almost entirely by native teachers. It is 
 the aim of these schools to confer a thorough biblical educa¬ 
 tion, as well as one that will be useful to the pupil in any 
 position in life, should he fail to enter the Seminary. The 
 female Boarding School at Oodooville, and the male Seminary 
 at Batticotta, complete the educational system of the mission. 
 The Boarding school was commenced in 1824. At that time 
 there could hardly be found a native female in the Jaffna dis¬ 
 trict who knew the Tamil alphabet. So great was the 
 prejudice against female education, that it was with the 
 greatest difficulty, and with the promise of a marriage dowry, 
 
30 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 that a few little girls could be induced to encounter the odium 
 of learning to read, and their parents be persuaded to allow 
 them to be under instruction. Now, so great is the pressure 
 of candidates for admittance to the Oodooville school, that in 
 place of receiving a dower the pupils pay a portion of the 
 expenses, and many who apply must be rejected to keep the 
 school within the prescribed limits. From this school are 
 furnished wives of native preachers, catechists, teachers, 
 and educated young men. It is a fact that speaks most loudly 
 in favor of this institution, that of two hundred and four fe¬ 
 males who have gone out from it, one hundred and thirty-six 
 were church members when they left the school, and, up to 
 1852, thirteen others had united with the church, giving as 
 the result of this training mainly of heathen girls, about three- 
 fourths of the whole number as making a profession of faith. 
 Of these but ten have gone back to heathenism, though almost 
 all live among heathen friends, exposed to constant ridicule 
 and annoyance. 
 
 The Batticotta Seminary was commenced in 1823, as a 
 central high school for lads who, at the several stations, were 
 prepared for a course of instruction which w r ould call for 
 more of the missionaries’ time than could be afforded from 
 their other duties. That they might not lose these youth, nor 
 uneconomically withdraw labor from other parts of the work, 
 forty-eight of the most promising pupils were consolidated 
 into one seminary, under the care of the late Dr. Poor. 
 u The main design of the Seminary,” say the mission, “ has 
 been to bring forward competent native agents for the mis¬ 
 sionary work. The pupils are required to attend public 
 worship on the Sabbath, and such other religious services as 
 may be appointed for their benefit. Attendance on idolatrous 
 ceremonies is a disciplinable offence. The great object of 
 the institution being the propagation of Christianity, the 
 Bible has always been a prominent object of study, and is 
 regarded as the text-book on morals and religion. Science is 
 taught, principally, as an auxiliary to this object.” The 
 course embraces eight years, the studies being quite extended 
 
31 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 and embracing instruction both in English and Tamil. The 
 former is considered as an eminently desirable feature in the 
 culture of Hindu youth,—as opening a store-house of thought, 
 of mental, moral, civil and religious material, without a par- 
 as only effectual means of bringing these minds in¬ 
 to contact and practical acquaintance with the energy, the 
 enterprise and the benevolence of Protestant Christendom— 
 as an invaluable stimulant, awakening the mind to the pursuit 
 of every branch of learning, and as a means of lifting the 
 mind out of the pits of heathen associations, especially in 
 reading the (-Cmglish) Bible. As in the Oodooville school, so 
 in the seminary, a most remarkable index is furnished of the 
 change that has taken place in the popular mind of the 
 Province. Whereas, at first, pupils could be obtained only 
 with the greatest difficulty, at an examination in 1852, for the 
 admission of thirty lads, who were to pay the whole or a part 
 of their expenses for board, there were eighty candidates for 
 the privilege of entering this Christian school. The instruc¬ 
 tion given in this Seminary has resulted in the education, 
 full or partial, of 670 pupils. Excluding 100 connected with 
 the Seminary when it was broken up, and 75 dismissed early 
 in their course for misconduct or deficient scholarship, we have 
 495, of whom 340 are or have been church members. Of 
 the 366 young men who remained in the Seminary for five 
 years or more, 256 were admitted to the church. Of the 
 whole number 270 have been in mission service at some time, 
 of whom 50 have died, and in 1854 as many as 134 of the 
 pupils of this institution were engaged in labors connected 
 with missionary effort. 
 
 Though this, bare statement is far from showing what has 
 been actually effected by the Seminary, it is a most significant 
 index to the spirit in which its affairs have been conducted. 
 The Oodooville School for girls, 1 * and the Batticotta Seminary 
 
 * This is not strictly correct, since the Missionary in charge of the Oodooville 
 station, the hev. Mr. Spaulding, whilst exercising a religious supervision of the 
 school, in no degree tails short of any of his brethren in preaching, translating 
 and pastoral labors. The temporal cares of the school and even the keeping of 
 accounts devolve upon Mrs. Spaulding and her coadjutor. Miss Agnew. 
 
32 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 for young men, have each demanded the services of a mis¬ 
 sionary family. For a while the latter was thought worthy 
 of more ministerial labor, but generally it has had but one or¬ 
 dained missionary. The other ordained members of the mis¬ 
 sion have had the charge each of a station witli its church, 
 out-door preaching, visitation, and the superintendence of 
 schools for the children of Christians and heathen. With re¬ 
 gard to schools, it should be borne in mind, that of lete yeais 
 very little of the secular instruction in the seminaries has been 
 given by the missionaries. Native teachers are now qualified 
 for these departments, and the missionary can lay out his 
 strength in the inculcation of moral and religious studies, 
 which are taught in these institutions to a far greater extent 
 than in any American college, we might perhaps say than in 
 any American school. In the station, or day schools, the 
 missionary does not think of teaching. Eeiigious instruction 
 and examination are the only errands that take him to the 
 school, or bring the school to him. It is a remarkable fact, 
 that more persons have embraced Cnristianity from the two 
 Seminaries than as the result of all the other labors of the 
 Mission. In fact, not one-third of the converts in this Mis¬ 
 sion are the fruits of preaching alone* Undoubtedly it is to 
 the early instruction received in Christianity by those enter¬ 
 ing the Seminaries, that this must be attributed. Having 
 been brought in the village and higher schools to a state re¬ 
 sembling somewhat that of youth in a Christian community, 
 the preaching of the word, when rejected by adult lieaiers, 
 has proved, under God, effectual with them. 
 
 The changes made by the joint action of the Deputation 
 and the Mission seem to have been of a sweeping nature : 
 
 (1.) The ecclesiastical body, called the “Jaffna Consocia¬ 
 tion or Presbytery,” by which the purely ecclesiastical mat¬ 
 ters of the Mission had been managed, is dissolved, and the 
 
 * Of 825 admitted to the Jaffna churches up to the year 1854, 352 were from 
 the Batticotta Seminary, and 185 from Oodooville. Of the remaining ~8 
 church members, 80 had been teachers, and at least GO pupils in the \illage or 
 station schools. 
 
The Foreign Mission Question. 33 
 
 missionaries organized into a separate churcli. The ecclesi¬ 
 astical functions necessary to the work, will be assumed by 
 the Mission as such. The churches are as rapidly as possible 
 to be put under the pastoral care of natives, the missionaries 
 devoting their time to preaching to unconverted adults, who 
 are to be organized into churches as fast as six or more 
 Christians shall be found in one place, and then given to the 
 charge of native preachers and catechists. 
 
 (2.) All education is to be hereafter in the vernacular of 
 the district, (Tamil,) and confined mainly to the children of 
 Christians. Heretofore the village schools have been taught 
 by natives, and, except in special cases, in the vernacular. 
 At first, from lack of Christians, heathen men were thus em¬ 
 ployed by the Mission to gain a foot-hold in the villages, and 
 to reach the young by schools as well as adults by preaching. 
 By degrees Christian teachers had replaced the former class 
 in most places, and schools were established into which the 
 children of Christians and heathen were both admitted freely. 
 Now these schools are to be mainly confined to villages in 
 which there are converts, nominal or real, and to be tor the 
 instruction of their children. In the second grade of schools, 
 one at each station, of late years supported by a grant of 
 £200 annually from the British Government, English is no 
 longer to be taught, and the Government grant of course re¬ 
 linquished. An effort is to be made to raise the standard ot 
 vernacular scholarship in these schools. The Oodooville 
 Female Boarding School, now numbering seventy pupils, is 
 to be reduced by the graduation of the present classes to 
 thirty or thirty-five, the course shortened, English discon¬ 
 tinued, and the children of Christians only admitted. In the 
 Batticotta Seminarv, it was decided to reduce the number of 
 pupils from one hundred to twenty-five or thirty, and to 
 shorten the term of study ; to give instruction only in Tamil, 
 and that to Christians or the children of Christians only, with 
 a view to their preparation for mission service. The Mission 
 not being able at present to organize the Seminary on this 
 basis,—as was suggested in the September Missionary Herald, 
 
 —have decided to disband it altogether. 
 
 3 
 
34 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 (3.) As printing in English is to be discontinued, the mis¬ 
 sion press has been transferred to natives. The missionary 
 printer is to be ordained and transferred to the Madura mis¬ 
 sion. 
 
 The wisdom of these measures it is not our present purpose 
 to discuss. The return of the Deputation and the publication 
 of their Report will afford the proper occasion for hearing 
 what may be said on either hand. We have no doubt that a 
 just measure of attention will be bestowed upon the subject, 
 and both the experience of the past, and the wisdom of the 
 present, be fairly weighed by the Board. We would depre¬ 
 cate a censorious pre-judgment of the acts of the Deputation, 
 or a captious criticism of the course of the Prudential Com¬ 
 mittee. A large confidence must necessarily be reposed in 
 the executive officers of our benevolent societies, if we would 
 have them efficient. This confidence is due to the Committee 
 who have so ably managed the affairs of the American 
 Board, and to the distinguished Christian gentleman who has 
 for so many years devoted his whole powers to its cause, as 
 the Secretary for Foreign Correspondence. A thorough dis¬ 
 cussion of the subject we desire to see ; but not in a spirit of 
 needless fault finding, or intermeddling with the measures of 
 those who have been entrusted by the Churches with a re¬ 
 sponsibility so great—a responsibility which has been well 
 and nobly met. 
 
 It may, in passing, be remarked, that these changes were 
 not called for by the convictions of the older missionaries. 
 There can be no doubt, we think, that some of them concurred 
 in the alterations proposed from an unwillingness to appear 
 contumacious, and from a willingness to yield their own prefer¬ 
 ences, rather than from a conviction of the wisdom of the new 
 measures proposed and inaugurated. It will create no aston¬ 
 ishment if we learn that aged hearts are sore, and venerable 
 eyes suffused with tears at the prospect of the reduction or 
 abandonment of the institutions over which they have wept, 
 and prayed and yearned. Nor will such yearnings of heart be 
 deemed inconsistent with a graceful acquiescence in the will 
 
The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 35 
 
 of the Deputation, and of the majority of the Mission. Nor 
 were the changes caused by an increase of educational labors 
 on the part of the Jaffna mission. For ten years past the 
 process has been one of reduction. The maximum was in 
 1842, not in 1855. Batticotta Seminary had been reduced 
 from 180 to 100 pupils, and its expenses lessened two thirds; 
 Oodooville Boarding School from 100 girls to 75; the village 
 schools from 6000 to less than 4000 children. It may also be 
 remarked, that the system of educational effort so long pursued 
 in the Province of Ceylon, but now repudiated by some asun- 
 scriptural and unwise, has indisputably prepared the way for 
 the more hopeful prosecution of the present plan. It is not as 
 in Arcot, an experiment on its own foundation, but upon the 
 labors of the fathers of the Mission, passed or passing away. 
 Many of the hearers of the Word now have their minds in¬ 
 formed and their consciences enlightened, by contact with 
 scripture truth in mission schools. These will be found by 
 the evangelist to be his most intelligent auditors, and we may 
 hope that the teachings of the past will not be wholly thrown 
 away. The prayers and tears that have consecrated the soil 
 of Jaffna; the precious dust that is there awaiting the archan¬ 
 gel’s trump; the toils and trials there endured, will not, cannot 
 be forgotten of God. . Our wisdom and our folly are the toss¬ 
 ings of the wind-driven wave—His purposes, and His mercy 
 are as the ocean depths unchangeable. The day will yet dawn, 
 when, in spile of our folly, or irrespective of our wisdom, He 
 shall reign over the inhabitants of now besotted India. 
 
 We conclude with a few of the many thoughts that crowd 
 upon us and claim an utterance, choosing rather to seem to 
 overlook many important points than to exhaust the patience 
 of our readers by undue length. 
 
 (1.) Tet a comprehensive view of the subject be taken. It is 
 no petty effort of which we treat, no small undertaking that 
 we discuss. Vast as is the importance, unutterable as is the 
 preciousness of the salvation of a single soul, and still more 
 of many souls, even this is an object far outweighed in magni¬ 
 tude, by the issue of our efforts for the conversion of a world 
 
36 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 lying in wickedness. Our aim is not to run over so many 
 provinces, to address so many assemblies, to scatter so many 
 Scriptures and tracts, to educate so many children, nor even 
 to save so many souls, in themselves considered. It is deeper, 
 broader, more far-reaching than this —it is to plant the Church 
 of Christ in heathen lands . To plant it, not as an exotic, to 
 be fostered by the appliances of foreign skill and culture, but 
 to plant it so that it shall live and propagate itself, and band 
 down to coming generations the ordinances of the house of 
 God. Until we reach this point we have not done our work. 
 To save souls is a high aim, but beyond this to plant a self- 
 propagative church is that which we proposed to ourselves in 
 our Foreign Missions. 
 
 (2.) Let thorough worh he made as far as we go. It is no 
 uncommon thing that efforts to save the perishing from tempo¬ 
 ral death are defeated by the attempt to rescue too many at 
 once. To save all is the ultimate aim; but to do that we must 
 take from the wreck, at one time, no more than our life-boat 
 can sustain. It seems hard-hearted to refuse to admit any 
 poor wretch trembling in the jaws of death, but it is the part 
 of true mercy only to undertake what we can carry through 
 successfully. Let us therefore take our position, undertake a 
 given field, or a given number of fields, and in the name of 
 our God determine to do our duty to those fields. Let not the 
 invitingness of another and another call, lead us so to encumb¬ 
 er ourselves with new enterprises, that old ones shall not be 
 properly prosecuted. A concentrated effort is essential, when 
 the disposable forces are so small. 
 
 (3.) Let our missionaries he amply furnished with instru¬ 
 ments for the prosecution of their enterprise. The missionary 
 is a costly article. lie is obtained with difficulty, fitted for 
 his work by a long course of training, sent out at a large ex¬ 
 pense, maintained in a hostile climate, with a constant struggle 
 against debility and disease, and liable to be removed by ill¬ 
 ness, or suddenly cut off by death. Hence it is wisdom to 
 give him all the tools he needs. It is economy. This is true 
 of the home pastor, but pre-eminently true of the foreign mis- 
 
The Foreign Mission Question, 
 
 37 
 
 sionary, who labors without the aid of intelligent church offi¬ 
 cers, church members, and Sabbath-school teachers, who at 
 home surround and sustain the minister of the Gospel. 
 
 The foreign missionary must do every thing without these 
 aids. Hence he needs all the appliances that can be afforded 
 him for the performance of his task. To send out men and 
 then say we cannot furnish them with weapons, is to enact 
 the folly of sending forth to reduce an empire, an army with¬ 
 out artillery, or a general without troops. To deprive the 
 laborer of his tools, the soldier of his weapons, is the poorest 
 of all modes of retrenchment. 
 
 (4.) Having chosen our field and obtained our men, let us 
 use the wisest means. The Gospel is our weapon. To bring 
 it in all respects most effectually to bear upon men, is our 
 object. The public oral proclamation of the truth is undoubt¬ 
 edly the first great means for the conversion of men. Its 
 simplicity, its unworldliness, its inefficiency, without the bless¬ 
 ing of God, its apostolicity, its direct obedience to the com¬ 
 mand of Christ, all combine to render it a God-honoring means, 
 and a glorious privilege of the man of God in every land. 
 God forbid that we or our missionaries should decry or dispar¬ 
 age it. We do not believe that they do disparage it. We 
 have yet to learn of a mission of the American Board, in which 
 the preaching of Christ publicly and privately, in the village 
 and the city, in the street and from house to house, is not re¬ 
 garded as the chief means for the conversion of rebellious men 
 to God. Deeply should we regret any departure from this 
 cardinal truth. But let us not be so carried away with a passion 
 for a supposed apostolic method, as to reject the means for 
 reaching the consciences of men put into our hands by the 
 Providence of God. True apostolicity is to do all that we 
 can, and look to God for his blessing. 
 
 The missionary, it must be borne in mind, cannot do what 
 we can. He has no prescriptive rights like those with which 
 the American pastor is invested. He has not the avenues for 
 usefulness and ministerial effort all opened before him. He 
 is a stranger, a foreigner, in spiritual things a foe to the poo- 
 
38 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. • 
 
 pie among whom he dwells. lie must watch the indications 
 of Providence. He must enter every open door. He must 
 avail himself of every means of access to the minds and 
 hearts of the people. Hence, let him, in the exercise of a 
 wise discretion, in connection with the public preaching of the 
 word, use all means for bringing the truth to bear upon those 
 among whom he has chosen to pitch his tent. Let him make 
 use of the press, of schools, of medicine, of any thing lawful, 
 for the advancement of his cause. 
 
 Schools are a lawful and may he an important branch of 
 the machinery of missions , both as one of the appliances of 
 a well balanced system of evangelistic operations, and as a 
 means of training native teachers, preachers, and pastors. A 
 system of missions which ignores the younger half of the 
 human race, appears to us to involve an error of no slight 
 magnitude. To confine our efforts to adults, is to turn from 
 that half of the population of any land which is most impres¬ 
 sible, least under the power of sin and idolatry, and which is 
 in a few short years to be the acting, ruling generation. To 
 say that young converts are not the ones to withstand the 
 outbursts of persecuting rage, or that children and youth are 
 not in fact the persons converted in missions, seems not to us 
 to correspond with the voice of history. If the young are 
 not converted, it is because we do not seek; their conveision 
 aright, and with faith in the power of God. Who does not 
 know, that when efforts are put forth for their benefit, it is 
 from the ranks of the young that we reap our richest har¬ 
 vests ! 
 
 To say that youth, instructed in the Scriptures, are not 
 more hopeful subjects for the preacher than those utterly 
 ignorant of the principles and facts of Christianity, is to con¬ 
 tradict experience and common sense. A et a distinguished 
 advocate of another system of missions, already quoted,* 
 says, “If we instruct them, they remain estranged from God, 
 just as they were before. We have, therefore, approached 
 
 * Rev. Dr. Way land. 
 
The Foreign Mission Question , 
 
 39 
 
 no nearer to the end which we have in view than when we 
 commenced.” And is it so 1 Is instruction thrown away, 
 that does not result in immediate conversion I Is the harden¬ 
 ed idolator of threescore years as near to the kingdom of 
 heaven, as the youth whose conscience has been awakened, 
 and whose mind has been enlightened by years of contact 
 with the Christian Scriptures 1 And shall our mouths be 
 closed because we are told in reply, “ Yes, for, to infinite 
 power, all things are equally easy !” Who pretends that God 
 cannot abrogate his own laws, reverse the plan in which he 
 has regulated the affairs of this world for six thousand years, 
 and ordain that the present relations of cause and effect shall 
 cease I Who denies the power of God to do this if he will 1 
 But, because God is an Almighty Sovereign, shall we neglect 
 the teachings of reason and experience as to his modes of 
 acting 1 To do so were to abandon His guidance, and to open 
 the door for every extravagance of a wild fanaticism. How 
 is it in this land! Do we not recognize the vantage ground 
 gained, when we can reach and affect the young 1 Do we 
 not find the Sabbath school, and especially the mission Sab¬ 
 bath school, an agency for invading the ranks of the ungodly 
 in their most vulnerable parti Our schools and colleges, our 
 female seminaries and institutions, do they not present most 
 hopeful audiences to the preacher of the truth? To argue 
 the point would seem superfluous. Let any man visit a well- 
 trained Sunday school, with three hundred children, gathered 
 largely from the homes of the irreligious, in any of our cities, 
 and he will feel it impossible to deny the wisdom of the effort. 
 And then let him go with us to the Bhowanipoor schools of 
 the London Mission in Calcutta, and look upon six hundred 
 boys and youth from the homes of Hindu idolatry, engaged 
 in Christian study, orderly, attentive, with intelligence and 
 joy in the consciousness of mental enlargement beaming in 
 every face, and his heart will have some strange idiosyncrasy 
 of structure, if it does not beat with glad emotion and swell 
 with gratitude to God for giving his servants access to these 
 tender minds. Let him then go to the Scotch Assembly s 
 
40 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question . 
 
 school, on Cornwallis Square, and look on a thousand youth 
 thus engaged ; and then to the iNeemtollah school of the 
 Free Church, and see twelve hundred more, gathered in one 
 building, from the highest castes, the proudest tribes, the 
 most bigoted families, to sit for years under the teachings of 
 Duff and his colleagues ; and then let him pray, if he will, 
 that these assemblages may be broken up as a useless waste 
 of effort. For ourselves, we must decline to cry “Amcn^ 
 to such a petition. 
 
 Schools give the missionary access to the young, who are 
 one-half the population of the globe; they prepare for him 
 intelligent hearers, they create appreciative readers, they give 
 access directly and indirectly to parents, they exercise the 
 young missionary in the languages, and they bring souls to 
 Christ. Hence we deem them a proper part of a wise and 
 comprehensive system of evangelistic effort. A mission may 
 devote too large a proportion of its strength to schools, but 
 that would not justify us in rejecting their judicious use. 
 
 Aside from these general advantages, arising from a proper 
 use of schools in our missionary operations, they subserve a 
 specifie end of the highest importance; we refer to the raising 
 up of a native ministry, teachers, preachers and pastors. To 
 preserve and hand down the Gospel, with its ordinances and 
 institutions, is the highest function of the infant church raised 
 up by the preaching of the foreign evangelist. For this an 
 educated ministry is needful. It may please God occasional¬ 
 ly to introduce a man to this work suddenly; and after a life 
 spent in circumstances unfavorable to the mental and moral 
 training adapted to prepare him for it, He may make him 
 abundantly useful. As a general thing, however, we are not 
 warranted in expecting such results. The experience of the 
 Church abundantly demonstrates the necessity of a thorough 
 training for those to whom this responsible charge is to be 
 committed. If this be true in Christian lands, much more is it 
 true among the heathen. Whilst all in such a land as ours 
 receive insensibly and inevitably a diffused moral training, the 
 result of past ages of Christian faith and practice handed 
 
The Foreign Mission Question. 41 
 
 down to the present,the heathen inhales with his first breath an 
 atmosphere of mental and moral debasement, in which he ever 
 after lives and moves. It is thus rendered doubly desirable 
 that those who are to be the pillars of the church in heathen lands, 
 should, at as early an age as possible, be brought under the 
 influence of a Christian training. We cannot undertake to 
 educate a nation, but by a wise system of educational efforts 
 we may hope to train a considerable number, of whom a por¬ 
 tion may be selected for farther instruction, and some be led 
 by the Spirit of God to give themselves to the work of the 
 ministry. Without being able to state as a fact, what could 
 not be embraced in ordinary statistics, it is our impression that 
 almost all of the fifty or more ordained natives of Hindustan 
 are the fruits of a long course of scholastic training. 
 
 Whether or not the English language should be taught in 
 mission schools, is a question much debated, but one upon which 
 we cannot now enter. It may be said, in passing, that, aside 
 from the merits of the discussion on the abstract question, 
 there is a state of things now existing in India which, so far 
 as that country is concerned, must be taken into the account. 
 Among the higher classes, and those almost inaccessible to the 
 missionary, more especially in the cities, there exists a passion 
 for the acquisition of the English language. It is the language 
 of their rulers, of the courts, and of almost all proceedings 
 in which they come in contact with Government. It is the 
 language of Western science and of the road to wealth. Hence 
 the most bigoted, even Brahmins, will gladly send their sons 
 to any school in which this coveted accomplishment may be 
 gained. If the Christian missionary opens a school in w T hich 
 English is taught, it will be crowded with young Hindus, 
 whose fathers are willing to run the risk of their conversion 
 that they may make the acquisition of this passport to station, 
 wealth, and influence. The missionary may avow his object, 
 make Christianity the first and last thing in his instructions, 
 require attendance upon public worship, and the study of the 
 Scriptures every day, and yet his rooms will be filled with lads 
 of all castes, from the Brahmin down to the Pariah. This re- 
 
42 
 
 The Foreign Mission Question. 
 
 markable fact cannot be overlooked by men upon the field. 
 
 It has led to the establishment of mission schools in Calcutta, 
 Madras, Bombay, and other large cities, in which, by the attrac¬ 
 tion of English, thousands of Hindu youth are brought under 
 the direct influence of missionaries. These schools have been 
 most largely used by the Scotch missionaries, in accordance 
 with their chosen theory of missions. Others, partly lrom 
 sympathy with these views, and partly from a desire to enter 
 an open door of usefulness, have also engaged in this enter¬ 
 prise. At present, the representatives of all the great English, 
 Scotch, and Continental Societies in the large cities are mak¬ 
 ing use of these English schools as a means of reaching and 
 affecting the popular mind. The influence of these efforts is 
 most manifest. Nothing has struck a more deadly blow at 
 Hinduism than the teaching thus imparted. It is not a work 
 of unmixed good in its results, for some cast off heathenism 
 for infidelity, and others are hardened by appeals to which 
 they will not yield. If, however, these results be urged as 
 fatal objections to this mode of effort, then may we show the 
 inexpediency of all labors which prove “ to some a savor of 
 death unto death/” The truth is, English they will have. If 
 the missionary will not give it to them, others will. If they 
 do not get it from us, they will from the heathen schools es¬ 
 tablished by Hindus, and the godless universities sustained by 
 Government. 
 
 In conclusion, we would say, let us have , if possible , a sys¬ 
 tem of well-balanced missions . By this we mean missions com¬ 
 prehending in their scope the different parts of a wise system 
 of effort for the conversion of men, the training of a native 
 ministry, and the establishment of a self-perpetuating Church. 
 We cannot coincide with Dr. Duff in his views, for he seems 
 to confine the labors of the foreign missionary to one poition 
 of his calling to the neglect of others; nor can we agree with 
 those who pass to the opposite extreme. The school system 
 of Dr. Duff, if chosen by a given mission on the principle of 
 a division of labor,— they offering to do that part of the whole 
 wor l {) _ rn ay be very w r ell; but if it be claimed as a complete 
 
The Foreign Mission Question . 
 
 43 
 
 system of Foreign Missions, then we must feel that the first 
 work of the missionary is left undone. If, on the other hand, 
 itinerancy is made the sum and substance of our duty, we 
 think that a similar mistake is made. We therefore advocate 
 the formation of well-balanced and comprehensive missions, 
 in which every department of labor shall receive its due . 
 proportion of attention. Thus will we combine in one har¬ 
 monious effort, those modes of labor which, when isolated and 
 magnified so as to cover the whole ground of duty, seem an¬ 
 tagonistic, but when united, are found to be mutually helpful 
 allies. God has not given to all men one gift, nor cast all men 
 in one mould. The attempt to confine all to one mode of labor 
 will always result in discontent and often in defeat. As gifts are 
 diverse, so are the parts of the great word to be done. Let 
 us, then, seek to give each man his place, and each place its 
 man; using the talent of each to its utmost, and turning from 
 no lawful agency for the accomplishment of our high end. In 
 so doing, we may humbly imitate the great Giver of gifts unto 
 men, who “gave some apostles ; and some prophets; and some 
 evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting 
 of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of 
 the body of Christ.” 
 

 
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