customs, than the more cold, though at the same time more practical importation from the West, the dropping of coppers into a tin plate. Moreover, in poor districts, the payment in kind is preferred and more practised; and at the end of harvest, an expenditure of some of the new grain in idolatrous services, is thought necessary, and hence the Jathra,' or annual village festival. Instead of offering a certain amount of grain in worship of an idol, which was their old custom, my endeavour is to substitute a truer form, by teaching the people to return thanks to the LORD of the Harvest,' and to remember Him who visits the earth and waters it, and who crowns the year with goodness.' 6 "On an appointed day, and before divine service, each family comes up in order before the Minister, the head of it bearing in his hands a vessel containing whatever amount of grain he thinks fit to offer. The vessels are gaily decorated, and as much as possible of a festal character is given to the day. The grain is poured out, and the man repeats that of what God has given him he has brought the first-fruits as an offering to Him; and when all have gone through the prescribed form, the Thanksgiving Collect for plenty is used, and the service proceeds as usual." Mission Field, July, 1863. WEEKLY SUNDAY COLLECTIONS.-Small sums are raised in this manner in many Churches. In Tinnevelly, produce is sometimes brought. It may be seen in a little heap in one of the corners of the Church at the conclusion of the service. OCCASIONAL SUNDAY COLLECTIONS.-Athome money is often obtained for special objects in this way. It affords a good method of raising funds when the amount required is not large. CHURCH BUILDING SOCIETIES.-Rhenius invited his people to give each one day's average gains a year to a Church Building Fund. This was found very useful. The plan is still kept up in some districts of Tinnevelly. MARRIAGE FEES.-The people are accustomed to spend freely at marriages. In some Missions fees are paid, graduated according to the circumstances of the parties. HANDFUL OF RICE.-It is the custom of Hindus in some parts of India whenever food is to be cooked for the family, to set aside one handful to be given in charity. This practice should be retained among converts. With the communion alms, it might form a sufficient fund to meet the wants of the poor of the congregation. LAY AGENCY AND CONGREGATIONAL ORGANIZATION. Unpaid Agency-The idea is still too prevalent among converts, that only those who are supported as Mission Agents are bound to make any efforts for the spread of the Gospel. The Rev. R. R. Meadows, North Tinnevelly, writes: "Something, it seems, had been said, previously at Vageikulam on the subject of their seeking out the women of the congregation, and then their conversation had been, but our wives get no salary, that is, they are not to act the part of Christian women, the part of wives of Christian teachers, unless they are paid for it!"* Importance. The late Archbishop of Canterbury, in a sermon on behalf of the Pastoral Aid Society, spoke as follows: 6 "The Scriptures enjoin all Christians to exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day,'-to edify one another,'-to 'speak to one another in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs,' to warn the unruly,'-to' comfort the feeble minded,'-to' assemble themselves together that they may provoke unto love and to good works,'-to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.' So speaks the word of God. And is man wiser than God? Is man to see danger when God prescribes duty? To forbid when God commands? "Thus Satan would have it, for thus his kingdom is maintained...Never, never, brethren, shall we be a Christian community till this error is dispelled; till it is with us, as it was with those first called Christians, when every one who has the knowledge of Christ in his own heart, believes it his duty to * Madras C. M. Record, March, 1862. bring to the same knowledge the individuals with whom he is connected his child, his servant, his dependent, his labourer, his neighbour. Then, and not before, may the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." The late Bishop of Calcutta remarked :— Lay Agency is of incalculable moment; a Minister cannot undertake every thing himself; he must not fritter away his time; he must not widen too much his field of personal effort; he must concentrate; he must influence; he must be the centre to a hundred hands and minds moving around him."* The late Dr. Hamilton, of the Scottish Establishment, says: "An apostle or evangelist seldom visited a city, or a town, without planting a congregation in it, and on his departure the faithful were so thoroughly embued with his spirit, that they carried on the work, and acted as Missionaries in the streets and villages where they resided. Every believer felt himself answerable for the interest and honour of our holy religion, and however low his rank, or slender his talents, gratitude to God, and compassion for men, compelled him to exert his best energies to make known the glad tidings of redeeming mercy, and to lead his perishing neighbours to attend to their everlasting safety. If the Churches were at rest, believers endeavoured to strengthen and establish each other in their attachment to the Gospel, and to augment their numbers by accessions from the ranks of idolaters. If the Churches were broken up and scattered by persecution, this extended the knowledge of the truth. and accelerated its triumphs; for the dispersed became heralds of the cross, and went everywhere preaching the word."* Such efforts are peculiarly needed in India. The present Bishop of Calcutta observes in his last Charge: "And yet more we must look to our Native Christians for active and aggressive warfare against heathenism. A convert's very first duty is to show forth the praises of Him who hath called him out of darkness into his marvellous light, and the way *Introductory Essay to Baxter's Reformed Pastor. + Life of Hamilton, vol. ii. p. 20, quoted by Dr. Campbell. : : to do this is to impart of this light to his friends and kinsfolk. For in his baptism he became a soldier of Christ, bound to fight manfully under His banner, and to add soldiers to His kingdom. I do not mean that he must necessarily become an ordained pastor God may have assigned to him a position in life inconsistent with the direct ministry of the word. But he must desire to make others partakers of the treasure which he himself has found, he must be a Missionary in spirit though not in name, he must preach the Gospel by persuasion and influence, though not openly in the church and the bazar. I thankfully acknowledge that there are among the Native Christians men who try worthily to fulfil these responsibilities: but we all long for their number to increase, and their influence to become more open and decided we wish them to feel that the duty of making their countrymen Christian falls, humanly speaking, essentially on them that this fair land of India is their native country, and not ours: that the time should be near when these episcopal sees, multiplied twenty fold, are occupied by Indian prelates, that we English bishops are only the foreign Augustines and Theodores, to be followed, I trust, by a goodly succession of native Stigands and Langtons; we desire in a word, that every convert in his own sphere and neighbourhood, should be conscious in some degree of that irrepressible longing which filled the whole mind of St. Paul: Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for India is, that they might be saved: necessity is laid upon me, yea woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel; I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, to whom,no less than to Israel of old, and to Europe and America now, pertaineth the adoption, and the covenant, and the promises." pp. 29, 30. : In modern times the Moravians and Wesleyans have perhaps best exemplified a working Church. Dr. Campbell says: "The Moravians are, up to this hour, the most thoroughly Missionary body in the world. Their achievements in Greenland and Labrador, and their primary movements in the West Indies, will be remembered with admiration to the latest times. Their plan is perfect; all they want is numbers and pecuniary means. The pivot on which their success has mainly turned, has been the skill with which they have worked and wielded the agency of their converts. They were the first Missionaries by whom it was reduced to a system. Their people are completely organised, and lay assistants, both males and females, constitute everywhere their principal and most efficient agency."* Watson says of John Wesley : "He encouraged the labours of the pious in every direction, in spreading the light through their respective neighbourhoods; and by this means, under the Divine blessing, he increased his own usefulness a thousand fold and, instead of operating individually, powerful as that individual operation was, he became the director of a vast system, which remained at work in his personal absence, and was continually pouring into the Church of Christ its contributions of conquest from the world."+ Safeguards against Abuses.—At home it cannot be denied, that lay agency has, in some cases, been attended with evils. Watson thus shows that connection with the Church and watchful oversight by its ministers, are the best preservatives : "We have a large subordinate agency at work in every part of the kingdom, and, in most cases, with the greatest benefit to the cause of true religion; but its lasting benefit and efficiency consist in its connection with the order, discipline, and direction of a Christian Church. Those powers are vested in its Ministers. They must rise with this auxiliary agency, and work with it. To them belong the careful cultivation of ministerial talent, and ministerial zeal, and devotion-learning, at least in a few, sound biblical knowledge and powerful and instructive preaching in all-and an ever-active and wakeful zeal prompting every subordinate agency, and, by the legitimate influence resulting from office, gifts, and graces, at once maintaining it in activity, and giving to it its right and safe direction." Classes of Agents.--Every convert is bound to labour in Christ's vineyard. The only question ought to be, for which department is he best qualified? One man, besides maintaining a consistent walk, is well ac * Jethro, p. 96. |