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plary Bishop of Melanesia, bad repeatedly denounced these practices, and predicted that this system of buccaneering would end in some great catastrophe, and he has himself fallen a victim to the hostile feelings of the islanders. On his last missionary tour he and his chaplain were inhumanly butchered. Most devoutly is it to be hoped that this tragic event will rouse the nation and the Ministry to immediate, resolute and successful action. There are colonial laws for the protection

of the labourers; but they are evaded, and the evasion is winked at, and the the new governor, the Marquis of Normanby, palliates these transactions by describing them as a system of "Polynesian emigration." It is necessary, therefore, to call for the most stringent imperial interference; and we are happy to hear it announced that Lord Kimberley has intimated his intention to bring in a Bill which shall attach the crime and penalty of felony to these acts.

Correspondence.

NATIVE PREACHERS IN INDIA. To the Editor of the BAPTIST MAGAZINE.

MY DEAR SIR,-The " Missionary Heralds" for July and August contain a paper from Mr. George Pearce, of Alipore, Calcutta, on the preparation of Native Christians for the ministry. Unwilling as I am to oppose a man of so much experience, yet I feel, with my strong convictions on the subject, that silence would be criminal. I therefore, with all deference, beg to offer the following remarks:

As to the desirableness of a properly qualified native ministry, there can be no two opinions. The point of difference is, as to the best means for procuring such a ministry. Nor can any valid objection be raised against the missionary putting within the reach of his converts instruction to any extent, provided that this instruction is imparted in such a manner as to save the independence and manliness of the converts. It has been proved by past experience that nothing is easier, and certainly nothing more mischievous, than the pauperizing

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system, as carried on (unintentionally of course) by our educational plans in India. I do not think Mr. Pearce has fully placed his scheme before the public. I will endeavour, as fairly as I can, to do so. The institution at " Alipur is called "The Vernacular Theological Institution." Young men are here received from different sources. Sometimes inquirers become students, and are, I suppose, baptized by the tutor; and sometimes missionaries send young men from their churches. I believe I am strictly within the limits of truth in saying that the students generally, as to mature Christian character and motive, cannot be at all compared with students received into our English Theological Colleges. And here is a danger against which I would warn the friends of Missions. It is that of judging Indian matters from an English stand-point. Young men thus received into the Training College at once come on the funds of the Mission to be fed, clothed, instructed, controlled, until death relieves them

from the connexion. Mr. Pearce states that fifty-four young men have been received as students during the past six years; twenty-nine, having finished their studies, are employed by the Mission, and all receive pay, of course, from England; fourteen are pursuing their studies; five have been dismissed for incompetency or immoral conduct; five have returned to secular callings; and four are deceased. Now in vain you look for one settled pastor sustained by his church, or one evangelist, except so far as he continues to draw his pay from the Missionary Society; and pay is not enough, for these evangelists will not travel ten miles without travelling allowance. Let it be remembered that, in a worldly point of view, the advantages of Native Preachers are great. Unlike the inspired Apostles whom Mr. Pearce quotes, who had to bear the loss of all things, these young men, mostly from lower castes and poverty, really gain all thingsregular wages, easy work, and a pension at last. They are not called upon to exercise faith or self-denial in the smallest degree, and hence they become, to a large extent, speaking machines, going when they are sent, and remaining when they are desired to remain; their only ambition being to get the highest pay they can, since that is the standard by which their respectability is judged by their countrymen. Is it at all surprising that, under such circumstances, almost all our converts should desire to become preachers-not in order to spread the Gospel, but for the sake of realising a good living on the easiest possible terms? Far more than it is possible for our young men to gain in Mr. Pearce's class, they lose in manly independence and self-sustaining power, and every step taken by our Society or others in this direction will have to be retraced. As the late Dr. Ogilvy said, "The number of Native Preachers need only be limited to the extent of your money." As things are at present, I will guarantee as many Native Preachers of Mr. Pearce's stamp as you will find money to pay, and men who shall go on for thirty or forty years, or for ever, if you like.

There is another matter intimately connected with this subject, and that is the poverty, or supposed poverty, of the natives, and hence their inability to pay their pastors. The fact is, that such payment of monthly wages to religious teachers is unknown among the natives of India. In their own way they are as liberal as any nation. I have sat hundreds of times in the little enclosures of the poor people, and seen fakhirs, one after another, enter with their bags, and all receive the little handful of meal. In Delhi there are hundreds of small mosques, each with its muallim or priest, and not one ever receives wages, but all are supported by their worshippers. We are carrying on our Anglicising processes to such an extent, in almost every department, as to produce hindrances rather than secure progress. Had we been satisfied with doing the work of evangelists, leaving the people to form their own plans, in accordance with their own peculiar national habits, guided only by inspired writings, the probability is that ere this India would have been studded over by indigenous, and hence independent, churches, each church forming a centre from which light would radiate around as surely as it does when the sun rises.

Our present system, instead of developing apostolic spirit and enterprise, only developes covetousness and dependence. I have no hesitation in saying that had Paul himself been passed through the manufacturing process at Alipore, the world would never have heard his name again. I have sought in vain in the New Testament for anything, in either example or command, that can be compared with the modern practice of Missionary Societies taking their converts into their pay, that they may help in spreading the Gospel; and my experience in India has forced me to the conclusion that so long as we seek literally to pay the "labourer his hire," he will look for no higher reward, and hence Christian heroism of apostolic character becomes impossible. Every native of India, taken out of his natural position, separated from his trade or means of support, and brought into dependence on a

Missionary Society, becomes (according to my judgment, and that is founded on no mean experience) not a helper in the Gospel, but a hindrance. In due time the Churches will want men able to elaborate thoughtful sermons; now we want men hot from God's anvil to shake and destroy old systems of error, and plant the germ of churches. Let us, then, give up anticipating history and growth, and give ourselves to the propagation of the great principles of Gospel truth, assured that apostolic results will follow.

I commend with all my heart the following extract from Wheeler's "Ten Years on the Euphrates," as worthy of the utmost attention of all Missionaries and Missionary Societies :

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"Two things need to be remembered by the missionary, at least, in Oriental lands. (1) That he is in danger of overrating the poverty of the people. To one fresh from the thrift, tidiness and comfort of the humblest English homes the best of those in Oriental lands appear poor and wretched enough. (2) While Orientals are generally ready to make almost any profession to secure the goodwill of those from

whom they expect any temporal ad
vantage, they at the same time look
upon the advantage bestowed as a
mere trap by which the giver hopes
in the end to secure some gain to him-
self; and are thereby prejudiced against
any instructions he may give.

"When the kind-hearted mission--
ary, instead of teaching his converts
the grace of Christian liberality, and
calling upon them from the first to
give of their substance to Christ, prac-
tically treats them as paupers, not only
giving them the Gospel free, but adding,
in one form or another, pecuniary help,
and thereby increasing the universal
Oriental greed for 'Bakshish,' he not
only harms the man, but inflicts a
greater wrong on the church of which
he is to be a member, by teaching it
also to sit and beg."

Let the money now spent on orphan-
ages, native preachers and schools, be
gathered up, and there will be no
difficulty in doubling our direct
European evangelising power, and
far more than doubling the real utility
of our noble Missionary Society.

JAMES SMITH,
Delhi, 25th October, 1871.

HOW IS "CHURCH" TO BE TRANSLATED?

To the Editor of the BAPTIST MAGAZINE.

MY DEAR SIR,-I am glad Dr. Lillie is discussing the renderings of ecclesiastical words in the New Testament. The subject is one of great importance; and the proposed Revision of the existing translation makes the discussion very timely and helpful.

In fairness to the Revisors, nothing should be taken as granted as to the renderings they may adopt. No one can tell, for a long time to come, what their final renderings will be. Any announcements to the contrary are premature; and the imputation of motives is specially needless and wrong.

The particular question of the rendering of the Greek word for "Church" deserves consideration; "Church," "Assembly," "Congregation," have all

"

been proposed at different times. "As-
sembly was a favourite word in the
last century. Congregation" is used
by Tyndale, and in part by Alford.
Neither is satisfactory. "Congrega-
tion" seems specially objectionable, be-
cause, in modern usage, the "Congre-
gation" is not the "Church." A meet-
ing-a member-of the congregation is
one thing: a meeting-a member-
of the Church is another.

Nor is this difference accidental.
Congregation is, etymologically, an
aggregation of men, a meeting; a
Church is a selection of men, a meet-
ing of specially qualified members.
This idea is in the word Kansia, and
is favoured by the law of the
gregation" under the Ancient Dis-
pensation. "Convocation" is etymo-

con

as

logically nearer the truth than “ sembly," and its selectness for usage is obvious. But I suppose none of your readers will prefer that name.

It is a mistake to say that “Church" comes from Rome. "L'Eglise" may. But the word "Church" existed in Anglo-Saxon before ecclesiastical

words were incorporated into our language through the Latin. Our AngloSaxon forefathers had, in fact, a complete set of religious terms of their own, showing at once the independent source of their religious teaching and the richness of their tongue. The word really comes from the Gothic.

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Reviews.

The Old Catholic Church, or, The History, Doctrine, Worship, and Polity of the Christians, traced from the Apostolic Age to the Establishment of the Pope as a Temporal Sovereign in A.D. 755. By W. KILLEN, D.D. Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark. 1871.

THE study of ecclesiastical history has, of late years, risen to an importance in England which it has never possessed at any previous time-a fact for which we are probably indebted to the Tractarian movement more than to any other cause. Dr. Killen's work is a valuable contribution to the subject, and, in common with his former volume on "The Ancient Church," gives the results of extensive, painstaking and original investigation.

The Ancient Church "illustrates the history of the first three centuries; "The Old Catholic Church" (after summarizing briefly the substance of its predecessor), discusses the periods in which the great doctrines of Christianity relative to the Godhead, the Incarnation, and the Fall of Man were defined and formulated by Councils; in which also the Church was taken under imperial patronage,

and its primitive worship shorn of its simple glory, by the meretricious adornments of pagan ceremonial. The development of the original apostolic polity into the Episcopal and Papal systems is also carefully traced, and the progress of the latter system narrated as far down as A.D. 755, when the temporal sovereignty of his holiness 66 was fully established, in the person of Stephen III. The chapter on the "Donatist Controversy" is worthy of especial attention, as it frees these ancient Nonconformists from the gross and unwarrantable imputations which have been so freely lavished upon them. In the chapter on Ireland, it is also conclusively shown that the evangelistic labours of Patrick preceded by many years the mission of Palladius, the emissary of the Pope, who was only sent to turn the success of the great evangelist to the aggrandizement of the Papal See. The Irish people refused to receive Palladius as their bishop, and were the last in Western Christendom to submit to the domination of Rome. Patrick, the evangelist, has been confused with Patrick, the monk of Armagh, as well as with Palladius, and the confusion has been singularly helpful to the l'apists.

Dr. Killen is a Presbyterian, and some of his assertions have a decidedly Presbyterian bias, but, on the whole, he writes with great candour, and we know of no other volume which occupies precisely the same ground as this. It ought to be widely known.

The Communion of Saints. By R. W. DALE, M.A. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row.

MR. DALE always rewards the attention of his reader. We think, however, that, notwithstanding his great political influence, he is happier and far more useful in efforts such as this. This address was received at the meeting of the Congregational Union at Swansea with great approbation, and it will well repay thoughtful perusal in its published form.

The Biblical Museum: Matthew and Mark. A Collection of Notes, Explanatory, Homiletic, and Illustrative. By J. COMPER GRAY. London Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row.

THIS is a most valuable aid to the Sunday-school teacher. It abounds with critical and analytical remarks. The criticism is not too profound for the ordinary reader, and the divisions will be found valuable by the village preacher. Many appropriate anecdotes and illustrations are scattered throughout the volume.

Flints, Fancies, and Facts; A Review of Sir C. Lyell's " Antiquity of Man," and similar Works. By W. ROBINSON, of Cambridge. London: Longmans, Green, & Co., Paternoster Row.

THIS admirable critique on the wild speculations of MM. Lyell, Lubbock, De Perthes, & Co., appeared recently in the London Quarterly Review, but in this separate form is increased in value by the pictorial illustration of some kelts. Mr. Robinson has thoroughly exposed the Abbeville frauds, and entered a caveat against the crude fancies of the palæolithists.

Intuitive Calculations. By DANIEL O'GORMAN. London : Lockwood & Co.

A BOOK of practical mental arithmetic. Nothing is more common in schools than the neglect of this important branch of elementary education, and this work is likely to rouse up schoolmasters to a sense of their duty, and assist the youngsters in following the uninviting path. A valuable companion to the black-board, and a useful class-book, from its copious tables of weights and measures. Every rule is briefly stated, and abundantly illustrated, and suggestive examples appended to each. Emphatically we can call the volume a useful one for schools of every grade.

An advanced form of this work, distinguishable in title only as edited by Professor Young, demands extra notice. The principle of simple explanation is herein applied to more difficult branches of arithmetical science, and decimal computation becomes, under Mr. O'Gorman's treatment, much less formidable than it was in our days of Walkinghame and Bonnycastle. A melancholy interest attaches to this work on account of the fact that its promising author perished in the "London."

A History of Greece. By the Rev.

FREDERICK ARNOLD, B.A., Oxon. London: Religious Tract Society. AN elementary history of Greece is rather a novelty in an age when scholarship is doing its utmost in fresh research of much learned abstruseness. This history is quite fit for an introductory book, and as such we Naturally such a work must be much venture to say will be very popular.

indebted to the labours of Grote and others, but there is much original matter, and that admirable in taste, and adapted to its object. In the simplifying process our author has not omitted the literary critiques, which ho has selected to our mind with great judgment. This little history has its type agreeably relieved by illustration, is thoroughly readable, and suitable for school use, and still more noticeably for private study or tuition.

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