depravity; if I could bring all the opium traffic; I feel we must go down China is The collection having been made, the Rev. ROBERT ROBINSON said: I am happy to say that an esteemed friend, George Williams, Esq., has told me that as a thank-offering he will give £100 towards our new mission at Lake Tanganyika. Many friends will also be glad to hear that Miss Baxter promises £1,000 as soon as we are ready to receive it. A hymn was sung, after which the Rev. Dr. FALDING, of Rotherham, moved THE SECOND RESOLUTION : "That the members of this Society rejoice in the great opportunities furnished to them of evangelising the more ignorant and barbarous nations of the world; they heartily approve the establishment of the proposed mission in Central Africa, on Lake Tanyganyika, for which a sum of £10,000 is needed without delay; and they trust that both that enterprise and the mission in New Guinea will be prosecuted with energy, and be abundantly blessed. That J. Kemp Welch, Esq., be treasurer, that the Rev. Dr. Mullens be Foreign Secretary, the Rev. Robert Robinson be Home Secretary, and the Rev. Edward H. Jones be Deputation Secretary for the ensuing year. That the lists of Directors and of the Board Committee nominated by the annual meeting of Directors be approved, and that the gentlemen thercin named be appointed Directors for the year." "The duty assigned to me is a very plain and simple one, and I shall at once address myself to it. From this platform many convincing arguments on behalf of the missionary cause, and many eloquent appeals have been made, perhaps none more convincing or more eloquent than those to which we have listened to-day. I cannot follow in the wake, but perhaps the slight duty which has been enjoined upon me may be, in this way, useful. Our chairman has referred with great propriety and force to the power of public opinion, and especially in regard to the maintenance of the missionary cause. The first speaker, Mr. Barrett, with great wisdom and delicacy, as well as with great eloquence, has referred to the prevailing unbelief as sapping missionary enthusiasm, and if it should be maintained and spread, as sapping missionary enterprise. What I have to do to-day is simply to bear my testimony to the reality and value of missionary work as it has come under my own observation. I therefore shall make no attempt at either argument or appeal, but simply relate to you a plain, unvarnished tale. During the last year I had the privilege of taking a long journey. A good friend of this Society entrusted his son to my care, that we might together journey round the world. We went to Egypt; we saw a little of Palestine; but we hastened on to India, to China, to Japan, across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco, and so through America and Canada home. During the time that I was in India, and China, and Japan, I had such opportunites as I could obtain of becoming acquainted with the missionaries and observing their labours. One of the greatest attractions which the proposed journey presented to my mind before we started was this-now I shall have the opportunity of seeing with my own eyes that of which I have read so much, that of which I have frequently spoken, that concerning which the whole Christian Church at home is praying; I shall see heathenism, and I shall see mission work. Endeavouring to maintain calmness of judgment with what shrewdness of observation I could bring to bear, I visited the missionaries everywhere in the path. I know that travellers are sometimes charged with rushing hastily through a country, and then coming home and supposing that they know everything about it, and writing a book. Well, I visited the missionaries and the mission stations, especially in Madras, in Bellary, in Bombay, in Delhi, in Agra, in Allahabad, in Mirzapore, in Benares, and in Calcutta; in China, at Hong-Kong, Canton, and Shanghai, and at several of the more important stations of the American mission aries in Japan. I visited schools, churches, colleges, hospitals, and orphanages; and, not content with the amount of information which I could myself gather by sight and hearing, I conversed on all hands with persons of whom I was likely to get information -with captains of steamers, with officers of the army and in the Civil Service, with merchants and travellers, natives as well as Europeans; and not only did I see the missionaries and the stations of this Society, but I became acquainted also with the stations of the Baptist brethren, with some of the Presbyterian stations, with Wesleyan, and a number of stations connected with the Church of England Missionary Society, and also with the American missions. I will state to you, in the briefest possible terms to be clear, the impression which was produced upon my mind everywhere. THE MISSIONARIES AND THEIR WORK. As to the men, I found men whose names I might mention with the utmost respect-men of great abilty as well as of zeal, wisdom, and Christian courage. "Shall I mention Mr. Hall, of Madras, who is engaged in a most arduous and yet most important post in connection with education in that city? Shall I proceed to Bellary, and mention the name of Mr. Lewis, who, I believe, will be remembered here for his simple, earnest, attractive eloquence, and earnestness in relating what he himself has seen and done? In Mirzapore the Rev. John Hewlett is a missionary of great ability and varied talent. He is an efficient missionary, and, besides this, he is translating the Scriptures into Urdu. I believe he has the honour of translating the first portion of the patristic literature into the languages of India, for he has translated the Confessions of Augustine into Urdu. In Benares need I mention the name of Mr. Sherring, who has returned to this country, I am sorry to say, in feeble health? I had not the pleasure of meeting him-he was absent for the days I spent there; but I met Mr. Lambert and our young friend the junior missionary, Mr. Bullock. In Calcutta there are Mr. Ashton, Mr. Payne, and Mr. Johnston, and there is a good work going on at the institution at Bhowanipore. Then, if I turn to China, about which we have been so much interested, and in which I am sure your sympathies have been deeply enlisted to-day, in Hong Kong Dr. Eitel is labouring with wonderful ability and talent. His name is known in this country only through the pages, I believe, of the MISSIONARY CHRONICLE. He has never been in England himself; he is a German, but he speaks English with great fluency, and he is a man of extensive learning and wonderful zeal. Then there is Mr. Chalmers, of Canton, and Mr. William Muirhead, of Shanghai. These are great and valued namesmen who, if they had remained in this country, might have occupied a position of honour and usefulness. But they are not occupying a position of less honour and usefulness because they are labouring in China, and not in England. I should not omit to refer to such missionaries as the Rev. James Smith, of the Delhi Baptist Mission, and Mr. Gregson, at Agra, also of that Mission; nor should I omit to name with respect and honour Bishop Burdon, Bishop of Victoria, in Hong Kong, a truly able and evangelical man. Our brethren acquire the languages of that country in which they are labouring-I speak now of the missionaries as a class. It is acknowledged that they are, of all Europeans who live either in India or China, the best acquainted with the language and literature of the country. They have the most intimate acquaintance and the deepest sympathy with the natives of India; they know the people, their habits, and their characteristics, and they take a lively interest in their prosperity. With regard to the work itself, making no further reference to the men, I found the churches that have been gathered together manifesting varied signs of life and activity. They varied in number; but, as far as I could judge, the churches in India are as numerous, the members are as consistent, and as actively engaged in Christian work as can be expected, considering the length of time that the Mission has been at work and the circumstances of the Mission itself; and in many places I found the churches quite as numerous, active, and consistent, and as Christian as similar churches in our own country. I was received by the missionaries with the utmost kindThey concealed nothing from me. They wished to show the difficulties, and discouragements, and failures, as well as the successes, of all their enterprizes. There are, I ness. suppose, in India upwards of 600 European missionaries engaged in connection with the different societies. There are 550 native pastors, and upwards of 80,000 converts. In China there are upwards of 220 foreign missionaries, and 450 native pastors, with about 12,000 converts. But, then, the amount of good effected by the mission cause in India and China is not to be measured by the number of communicants, or by the number of attendants, or even of scholars. The work is of a much more extensive kind. INCIDENTS. I could relate some extremely interesting scenes in which I took a part in the course of my visit to the mission stations : "How, for instance, in Bellary, early one Sunday morning, I attended a native service. It was conducted by a native pastor, who preached with great gravity and fluency, and, though I understood not a word, evidently with a good impression. After the service the native church met together in communion, and judge of my emotions on that occasion when I for the first time met together with a number of Hindoo friends, to commemorate the dying of the Lord Jesus. Again, in Mirzapore I had an opportunity of speaking to the children in the Sunday-schools. Mr. Hewlett interpreted the little address which I gave, and the upturned eyes and interested faces of the children formed a picture which will long dwell in my mind. In Hong Kong Dr. Eitel took me to a native service at twelve o'clock midday. We went through one of the most crowded streets of the city. The mission chapel is placed in a most crowded thoroughfare. A native was beating a gong to summon to the meeting. We went in; and the first object visible in a Chinese mission chapel is a great blackboard on which the passage of Scripture that is to be the text for the day is painted conspicuously in white letters, so that anyone who comes in can read the passage, and, if he is late he can know what the subject of the discourse is. On that occasion Dr. Eitel spoke with great fluency and power. In Canton I was present at a similar service when a native preacher spoke, as I should suppose, not knowing a word of Chinese, with so much power, and energy, and feeling, that one felt he was speaking eloquently and with great effect upon his hearers. I would further say that this missionary work, despite the doubt of unbelief; despite all the literature, flippant or serious, of the present day; despite all the ignorance or the prejudice of the reports of travellers to the contrary--this cause deserves your highest confidence, your most earnest prayers, and your most liberal contributions." REV. DR. EDMOND. I will utter a few thoughts which have been suggested to me by the resolution, and chiefly from the love which I have to its principal object, the evangelisation of the continent of Africa, in connection with a noble scheme of going into the very heart of it, and sending forth from the centre, as the lakes send forth literally their waters, floods of the water of life to refresh the whole land. "The resolution affirms a general principle. It says that this Society is called upon to rejoice in a certain fact, which fact is that God has given it the hardest work to do; that it has had put into its hands tasks the most onerous; that it has been sent to lift up the most degraded specimens of the human family. Is that a thing to be thankful for? I say most emphatically it is, and for many reasons. It is more like God's own work, for it is very hard to stoop down to the very lowest. It it His prerogative to 'lift the poor from the dust, and the needy from the dunghill, and to set them with princes.' It is His to give power to the faint-ay, and to do more than that, 'to them that have no might to increase strength.' And, therefore, when He sets His Church to this kind of work, He honours them by asking them in their own sphere to be fellowworkers together with Him. There is another reason why I think we should rejoice when we get this sort of work in the field of missions. We find a note of time given in one of the Psalms that does somewhat, I think, enable us to calculate the approach of times and seasons which yet the Father keeps in His own hand. It is said, The time to favour Zion has come, even the set time'; and the proof is this, that Thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof.' When her absolute condition of ruin presses on the Church's heart, this Psalm seems to say that the time of favour is at hand; and if the Christian churches, by such work being given to them as this resolution refers to, are turning their attention to the lowest position of the human race, favouring the very dust thereof, then may we not hope that the time to favour us is come-the time that Thou hast set'? Then, further, in connection with this same thought, see how God honours His Church by giving her the opportunity to have faith in Him, and in His truth; not reckoning it effete and inept in these days, but as strong for the salvation of the human family as ever, and, therefore, we may apply it to-day to the lowest specimens that the world can furnish. If there are some who say, 'That is well enough for them, but we have outgrown the necessity; we have outgrown the applicability to us of that sort of Gospel '-I cannot concern myself much about any vaunt of that kind, while I remember that the only time when we read that our Lord was glad at heart, it is said that He rejoiced in spirit, and said, 'I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seems good in Thy sight.'" |
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