love is the measure of his power. More intellectual men can doubtless expose error and refute falsehood, with great ability and great force of reasoning; but for purposes of convincing and winning an opposer in personal argument, the man with the large heart rather than the man with the large head is the one to win the day."* ITINERANCIES. Importance. It was the maxim of the veteran Missionary Bowley, "Unless we go to the heathen, they will not come to us." The Divine Missionary said, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." The Gospel message must be carried to the heathen, and in no way can it be more widely diffused than by a well-regulated system of itinerating. Errors Committed-Reference has already been made to the mistake of distributing effort over too wide a surface. It is distressing to think how many valuable labourers have thus been spending their strength almost in vain. A Missionary makes a long tour of several hundred miles, and then reports that he has preached in so many places where the glad tidings never were proclaimed before. In some such cases, it has been shrewdly remarked, he might have said the same thing after visiting a village not far from the Mission house. A Mission in North India passed a resolution to visit, if possible, during the next five years every village within certain limits. It is not surprising that, after a lapse of four years, the following confession should be made : "Could this class of our hearers be visited more frequently, some of them would in all probability be rescued eventually from heathenism. But when Mission Stations are at so great distances from each other as at present, and when the visits of the itinerant preacher are of necessity few and far between, * Report, p. 18. The whole of the Report on Hindu and Mahomedan Controversy should be carefully studied. Some remarks will be found in the Missionary Vade Mecum by Phillips, pp. 155-192. much of the ground, as yet but imperfectly prepared for the reception of the Gospel, is overgrown again with the weeds of prejudice and superstition, and much precious seed and labor, humanly speaking, appear to be lost.' The error of going over too much ground is so widespread and so injurious to the progress of Missions, that the compiler quotes a variety of testimony on the subject: "Long journeys of hundred of miles, which in this country must be hasty ones, have produced nothing that we know of, or next to nothing." Rev. W. Smith, Benares, Calcutta Conference Report, p. 174. "It was essential to observe, in regard to itinerating, that single visits were almost useless. It was by keeping up a steady succession of efforts through a district of country that the real good was done." Dr. Lockhart, Shanghai, Liverpool Conference Report, p. 39. "It is not a vagum ministerium we want, but a setting to the work of bringing the truth home to the conscience within a manageable compass; and the people of Scotland ought to know that a Missionary tour from the Himalaya to Cape Comorin, even if Rajah, Venka, and Ettiraje were the preachers, would not be so productive of results to the advancement of Christ's Kingdom as dreamers at home imagine. Of course, there would be romance, and probably stirring incidents, which would dazzle and arrest the minds of many who never uttered a prayer, or shed a tear over the myriads of lost souls in this idol-destroyed land. But to the men of faith, of prayer and discernment, the thing would wear the aspect of a sort of spiritual crusade, to lead the mind of the simple away from the real work of a Native Missionary, who is willing to be nothing, and yet to become all things to all men, if by any means he may save some of them, and in earnest to deny himself daily for Christ's sake." Rev. J. Anderson, Madras, True Yoke-Fellows, p. 499. "But to what substantial results could such itineracy, even if fully accomplished, be reasonably expected to lead? In some solitary instance the good seed of the Word so scattered might fall on some honest heart, and so bring forth fruit unto life eternal and would not one soul outweigh all the trouble and expense of the universal though almost profitless dispersion? True. That, however, is not the point;-the real question ought to be, what reasonable prospect of general ultimate success does that hold out; and what test of progress toward the reaping of a harvest of souls? In scattering handfuls of corn over the frozen crest and towering eminences of the Alps, or Himalaya a single grain might obtain a lodgment in the clift or crevice of a naked rock; and there exposed to the concentrated rays of a summer sun, it might rear its nodding form far aloft amid a region of sublime sterility ;-but what prospect would that hold out of reaping the bountiful returns of an autumnal increase? "The only itineracy worthy of the name, as contradistinguished from any modified form of the localizing system, is that which admits not only of universal extension, but of continual or frequent repetition of the same means in the same quarters. But an itineracy which would, in a given time, overtake every district of a country, leaving no town or village or hamlet unvisited, and no single individual unaroused by the Gospel Message; -an itineracy which would within brief stated periods, renew the process of infusing an active leaven into the sluggish man, till inquiries begin to be excited, and individuals here and there were discovered in whose souls the Lord had commenced work of Grace, and eventually whole districts found ready, at the sound of the Gospel summons powerfully proclaimed by the living voice, to awake and shake off the spiritual despotism which ages had confirmed-such an effectual itineracy would require the present number of Missionaries increased a hundred fold. Hence, again, the enhanc ed demand for Native labourers. "Our object is not to condemn the itinerating system, but to point out the necessity of perfecting it; till, by progressive advances, it may become identical with the localising system." Dr. Duff, India and India Missions, pp. 314,5. "Such itinerancies they reckon as of high value in spreading sound scriptural knowledge, and preparing the way for a future extension of the Mission by the establishment of new stations. But to be effective, they should be systematic, limited to a comparatively small district, carefully carried out, and repeated again and again." Resolution of Liverpool Conference, p. 57. North Tinnevelly Itinerancy. The deep piety and devotedness of the late Mr. Ragland, have led many to look with favor upon the system of itinerating which he originated. At the Lahore Conference it was held up in one of the papers read as the beau ideal of itinerating Missions. Unquestionably the holy life and self-denying zeal of Mr. Ragland exerted a most beneficial influence throughout Tinnevelly, and by the course taken, he probably did more good than he could have accomplished in any other way. But it is a very different question whether young Missionaries elsewhere should pursue the same plan. They cannot be expected to arouse the zeal of large Missions; the chief good they can hope to do is in their immediate field of labour. The point for each of them to consider is, how can I do most THERE? Mr. Ragland's system was certainly a great improvement upon a visit once in five years; but in several respects it is by no means to be imitated by others. Some of the errors may be noticed. 1. The want of a fixed base.-Mr. Ragland and his fellow-itinerants lived in tents throughout the whole year, except during the rainy season, when they spent a few weeks together in a bungalow. In consequence of this wandering life, a Hindu could never tell where any of them was to be found. He might naturally expect to suffer persecution if he embraced Christianity. If he knew where he had a friend to support him, he would much more readily place himself under instruction. One of the ablest and most successful Missionaries in Tinnevelly remarked to the compiler, that a base was as important in Missions as in war. The late Rev. P. P. Schaffter, of Tinnevelly, often told the Itinerating Missionaries, that until they had a "house and a door," a Tamil phrase for a fixed habitation, no one would join them. The Rev. D. Fenn, writing in 1862, says, that hardly any of the persons who placed themselves under Christian instruction applied in the first instance to the Itinerant Missionaries: they went to the Station Missionary and the settled Catechists. 2. The visits were not sufficiently frequent.-Mr. Ragland says, "We make a point of visiting every village throughout our district, at least once in each half-year."* Even Christians would not profit much from a sermon once in six months; far less could it be reasonably expected that short addresses at such distant intervals should impress ignorant heathen. 3. The Missionaries went over the ground in rotation.-Each one had not a portion of the district to which he particularly attended, but went over the whole. Hence personal influence, to which the Bishop of Calcutta justly attaches so much importance (See page 76), was almost entirely lost. The compiler accompanied on two or three occasions one of the Itinerating Missionaries in his visits to villages. He was struck by the effect produced by his warm affectionate manner. Had his labours been confined to a small field, humanly speaking, he would have "stolen the hearts of the people," and numbers would have come over. It may be objected, that this is trusting to an arm of flesh,-personal influence cannot convert the soul. This is true in a certain sense; but does religious instruction come home no more from a beloved parent or friend than from an entire stranger? It was observed at the Calcutta Conference, that although preaching to the heathen was followed by few conversions, it was different where the Gospel was proclaimed to a congregation, Sabbath after Sabbath.† The people require "line upon line." Personal influence, including that of a holy, consistent life, has great power to bring the people under the sound of the Gospel; the Spirit of God must change the heart. This great talent is thrown away, to a large extent, * Ootacamund Report, p. 145. Some, however, were visited more frequently. The average interval seen s to have been five months. Madras C. M. Record for 1857, p. 38, † Report, p. 46. |