Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

I was relieved of Morant Bay by Mr. Watson's settlement, I pushed on, at first into two, and, subsequently, into another portion. The first of these was what we may call the middle valley of the Yallahs River, from which a number of members had been gradually ga thered and temporarily united with Monklands. On the 6th April these; to the number of seventy-four members and twelve inquirers, were dismissed from Monklands, 'and, on the 20th, formed into a separate Church, under the name of "The Yallahs Valley Baptist Church." We are trying to get a site for a chapel which will be central to many villages and settlements, in which are many people calling themselves Baptists. With God's blessing this will become a large station in the

course of time.

"But there is a yet more elevated valley of the Yallahs River, with a large population; and in this I formed, last month, the nucleus of a Church, which I hope to Bee increase greatly. I have written to James Carson, Esq., proprietor of Green Valley, soliciting him to give or sell us a site for a chapel; and, should he grant our request, the Church will most likely take the name of Green Valley. Mr. Carson resides, I believe, at Great Marlow, Bucks, and is an extensive proprietor in Jamaica. Recently I have been visiting a third portion of the district on the Falls River, around which there is a population

NEWS OF THE

Ir is intended to hold the autumnal session of the Baptist Union at Manchester, in the second week of October,-from October 7-10.

The one hundred and third annual meeting of the Association of General Baptists has been recently held at Stoney Street, Nottingham, under the presidency of the Rev. J. Clifford,

of 4000, and where I hope to be en abled to establish a third central station. The three central stations thus in course of formation ought for the next two or three years to have the whole of my time and labour gratuitously bestowed. Monklands is fit, to have its own native pastor, and can give him £100 a year to begin with, and a prospect of considerable increase. My residence here is too low down, and I ought to reside some fourteen miles higher up, so as to be central to the heaviest part of the work. I hope the work will be done, and that our Society will have a share in doing it; for it will be a reproach to have made so successful a commencement, and then to abandon the field.

"I must not make this letter too

long, but I should like some day, if it will be agreeable to you, to give you some account of my missionary experiences, and of the characters I meet with in my missionary peregrinations. I have only mentioned some results, but you must not imagine that these results have been obtained without many difficulties and much labour. The work has been not unfrequently very trying, both physically and spiritually; but an old soldier like you will be quite aware of this.

"With Christian love,
I remain, my dear brother,
Ever very truly yours,
W. TEALL."

"MORANT BAY,
May 6th, 1872."

CHURCHES.

M.A. The meeting was very successful in all respects, though no large increase is reported. Last year, the Churches numbered 20,628; this year, 20,970.

A new Church has been formed at Maldon, Essex, under the pastorate of the Rev. J. Stockdale.

A new chapel has been opened at Great Staughton, Hunts, in connection with the Church at Huntingdon. -The memorial stone of a new chapel has been laid at Shoreham, Sussex, for the ministry of the Rev. J. W. Harrald.-A new chapel has been opened at Briercliffe, Lancashire, for the ministry of the Rev. R. Littlehales.-The chapel at Brayford, Devon, has been re-opened after alterations and improvements. -A new chapel has been opened at West Retford, Notts, for the ministry of the Rev. J. J. Dalton.-The foundation stone of a new chapel has been laid at Llanfair, Montgomeryshire. The chapel at Holt, Denbighshire, has been re-opened for the ministry of the Rev. R. Williams, late of Agra, after having been closed for upwards of twelve months. -The memorial stone of a chapel, schoolroom, and minister's residence, has been laid at Campden, Gloucestershire, for the ministry of the Rev. R. Irvine.

new

The Rev. J. F. Smyth, late of York, has been recognised as the pastor of the Church in St. George's chapel, Canterbury. The Rev. T. R. Evans, late of Countesthorpe, has been recognised as the pastor of the Church in Charley Way, Sheepshed. The Rev. J. Wilshire, late of Taunton, has been recognised as the pastor of the Church at St. Mary's Gate, Derby.-The Rev. M. Morris has been recognised as the pastor of the Church at Consett, Durham.The Rev. E. S. Ladbrook, B.A., late of Andover, has been recognised as the pastor of the Church at Edenbridge, Kent.-The Rev. F. G. Masters has been recognised as the pastor of the Church at Helston, Cornwall.

The following reports of MINISTERIAL CHANGES have reached us since our last issue:-The Rev. J.

Hanger, of Lifton, Devon, to Highbridge, Somerset; the Rev. J. Manning, of St. John's Hill, Shrewsbury, to Welshpool, Montgomery; the Rev. J. A. Wheeler to God. manchester, Hunts; the Rev. G. T. Ennals, of Leicester, to Tower Street, West Hartlepool; the Rev. G. Turner, of the Metropolitan Tabernacle College, to Tottenham, London; the Rev. R. Aikenhead, of Wantage, Berks, to King Street, Wigan; the Rev. G. H. Llewellyn, of Erwood and Ramah, to Maesyrberllan; the Rev. G. W. Bannister, of Amersham, Bucks, to Hope Street, Shipley, Yorkshire; the Rev. H. Phillips, B.A., of Evesham, to Blackfriars Road, Glasgow; the Rev. G. M. Bergin, late of Weston-super-Mare, to Sutton, Surrey; the Rev. G. Howe, of Ross, Herefordshire, to Countesthorpe, near Leicester; the Rev. J. T. Owens, of Loscoe, Derbyshire, to Burton-on-Trent. The Rev. W. W. Cantlow, has, on account of continued ill health, resigned his pastorate at Isleham, Cambridgeshire. The Rev. J. Duff has resigned his pastorate of the Church at Wellington Street, Stockton-onTees. The Rev. W. Fuller has intimated his intention to resign his pastorate at Studley, Warwickshire. The Rev. A. Ibberson has resigned his pastorate at Salem chapel, Dover. The Rev. A. Doel has resigned his pastorate at Enfield Highway, Middlesex. The Rev. G. Whitehead has, on account of continued ill health, resigned the pastorate of the Church at Rotherham. The Rev. A. Hamilton has resigned the pastorate of the Church at Aylsham, Norfolk, and intends shortly to go to New Zealand.

We regret to announce the death of the Řev. U. Foot, for twentyseven years pastor of the Church at Collumpton, Devon, at the age of sixty-three.

THE CHURCH.

"Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone."

SEPTEMBER, 1872.

MISSIONS IN INDIA.

BY THE REV. G. H. ROUSE, M.A.

III. AGENCIES AT WORK.

WE have briefly considered the difficulties which lie in the way of the evangelization of India-we proceed now to inquire what agencies we employ for the accomplishment of this great work.

In connection with all the Protestant societies of Europe and America, there are about five hundred missionaries and two thousand native preachers. It is, therefore, a mistake to suppose that native agency is neglected in the mission field. About one in seven of the male members of the native churches are statedly engaged either as preachers or schoolmasters-a much larger proportion than at home. Instead of having employed too few native Christians as preachers, we have really often, from the fewness of the native converts, engaged ill-qualified men because there were none others to engage. Our wisdom for the future will be to act with more caution, and to seek to engage only men who are better trained.

The work of all these missionaries and native agents is, in one way or another, directly or indirectly, the proclamation of "Christ cruci fied." With the Apostle, we believe that in all parts of the world, to men of every clime, of every tongue, of every faith, the one only means of pardon and sanctification is, not philosophy, nor education, nor civilization, nor the mere preaching of the unity of God and the duties of morality, but, the preaching of Christ crucified, whether in the bazar, or the school, or the home.

Of course the first place in the list of agencies at work is due to the simple preaching of the gospel. This is the missionary's great work, that to which by far the greatest amount of energy is directed, and which in all ages is the great instrument by which God" saves them that believe." And if we would try to picture to ourselves the ordinary work of the missionary, we cannot do so better than by remembering that he is abroad just what an open-air preacher is in England. Whether he be able to itinerate, or the climate compel him to remain for some months at his own home, yet his work is simply to go out

VOL. XIV. NO. IX.

S

into the public ways and preach Christ Jesus. During that period of the year when he cannot itinerate, he will live at home, it may be in a large city, it may be in a country town. If in the former, he will be always sure of having a good congregation in the bazar, or the part of the town where the shops are, and where, in the cool of the morning or evening, a large number of persons are always coming and going. If he is living in a country town, he will perhaps make it a rule in the morning to walk out to some adjacent village to preach, and in the evening to go and preach in the bazar of the town. A native preacher or two, it may be, are with him; or perhaps he goes to one part of the bazar and the preachers to another. An open-air preacher, as at home, may begin with a hymn or with reading a part of a chapter, till a few are gathered about him, or he may commence with talking to one man, and gradually others will come round to listen. He may take a text, or a parable, or a narrative in the Bible as his subject-sometimes he will lay hold of any incident that may take place, and make that his subject; just as his Master, looking on the fields said, "A sower went forth to sow." To the weaver he will speak of the robe of Christ's righteousness; to the passengers in the ferry. boat he will speak of Christ who will "ferry us" over from this world to the next. He meets some natives walking to the magistrate's court, and he speaks of their impending trial in the court of heaven for treason against its King and the murder of that King's Son; and tells them that there is but one Advocate who can clear them, and who will do so without money and without price. Whatever may be his mode of beginning his address, it will soon come round to the simple preaching of the gospel. This is his aim: not controversy, but conversion; to attack Hindooism, but to preach Christ. But sometimes he cannot avoid controversy. As at home the open-air preacher often has to meet the arguments of the Romanist or the infidel, so in India the missionary has to meet the arguments of the Hindoo and the Mohammedan. He does not court controversy-he rather avoids it, knowing that it will very likely draw off the attention of his hearers from the preaching of the cross; but if it is forced upon him he must take it

not

up.

Such is the missionary's daily work. Every morning or evening in the week, or at both times, he will go out into a village or into the bazar, preaching the gospel of the grace of God. In the daytime he may have other work-inspecting the schools, conversing with inquirers or with the native Christians; or, it may be, that with an hour or two's talking morning and evening in a crowded bazar, he feels little strength for any other kind of work in the mid-day temperature of an Indian summer, and therefore needs to spend the interval rather in rest than in work.

During the cold season, the missionary will devote all the time he can spare to itinerant evangelization. Accompanied by one or two native preachers, he will go from village to village, and town to town, preaching the gospel. Generally he will travel with a tent; in some parts of the country, as for instance in eastern Bengal, he will find it more

convenient to travel by boat; and in some parts he may be able to find accommodation as he goes along. He will generally, in Bengal at least, need to take most of his provisions with him, and he will take also a good supply of tracts and portions of Scripture. He will then travel about, sometimes preaching in two or three villages in the same day, sometimes staying several days in the same place, according as God's hand may lead him. Everywhere his work will be open-air preaching, such is that just described. The chief difference will be, that on his itineraney the people perhaps will be more attentive, it being such a strange thing to the villagers to hear a "Padre Sahib," and that the coolness of the season will enable the missionary to be preaching and talking to the people at greater length than when at home. In each case there will be the same preaching of the simple gospel, the same reluctance to enter upon mere controversy, and the same necessity, in spite of this reluctance, sometimes to enter upon it. The arguments he will from time to time have to meet will be of all kinds. The orthodox Hindoo will defend his Hindooism, though in many parts not so much as formerly, because the preaching of the gospel for so many years has tended largely to enlighten the minds of the people and to make them ashamed of the absurdities of Hindooism. The Mohammedan will defend the Koran, and assail with all the bitterness of his soul the Sonship and Deity of our Lord. Pantheistic and fatalistic excuses for sin will be pleaded; and the latest assaults on Christianity at home will be repeated in India. Hence we see how much of readiness is required in the missionary on his preaching tours to meet these varied objections, although, to a large extent, he has to encounter the same objections over and over again. At home there are special occasions, such as fairs, races, and so forth, when a large number of persons will be congregated together. These occasions the open-air preacher makes the most of. There are similar gatherings in India. There are a large number of holy places in that land, at each of which there is an annual religious fair, called a melá. these melás vast crowds congregate, sometimes tens or hundreds of thousands-in some cases even millions of people. It is considered a source of great religious merit to attend these melás, and therefore people come to them from all parts of India, sometimes from a distance of hundreds of miles. To the great Juggernaut festival in Orissa, for instance, pilgrims come from the utmost extremities of India, a thousand miles and more away. These gatherings thus present a great opportunity for the preaching of the gospel, because people come to them from towns and villages into which a missionary has never entered; and they may thus hear the news of salvation through Christ, which otherwise they could never have heard. Accordingly, when one of those melás is to be held, the missionaries in the neighbourhood unite to seize the opportunity. They go forth, one, two, three, together, and take with them some of the native preachers, station themselves on the outskirts of the crowd, and preach to all who will listen to them; and as so many come from parts of the country

or more

At

« AnteriorContinuar »