It has been already stated that missionaries
have an income, which enables them to live in a way
conducive to the health of themselves and families.
Things which would be luxuries at home are necessaries
in India, and all they can do is to alleviate the
suffering caused by the climate. As missionaries
are often more stationary than European officials,
both military and civil, and spend much less than they
do on horses, establishments, and entertainments,
their houses have an air of comfort which is surprising
to those who know their income, and has led to much
misrepresentation on the part of those who know not
and do not care to know what it is.
Not infrequently young men have gone
out to India as missionaries with the firm resolve
to live to a large extent in the native fashion, and
to eschew what they conceive the undue indulgence
of those who had preceded them, but the experience
of one hot season has generally brought them to another
mind. Individuals have adhered to their resolution,
and the result in one case I know was insanity, in
other cases utter failure of health, and in others
speedy death. A band of Germans determined to
live, if not in the native style, at least in the simple
style of the Fatherland, as to habitation, food, and
service, and with scarcely an exception the plan was
soon abandoned. The only successful case I have
heard of in our day has been that of Mr. Bowen, a devoted
American missionary in Bombay. We have had no
William Burns, in Northern India at least. I
can say for myself, that so far as the mere comfort
of living is concerned I should greatly prefer a humble
abode and simple fare in England, to the finest house
and the most sumptuous fare in the plains of Northern
India. It has been maintained by some that our
only hope of success lies in our becoming ascetics,
and outstripping by our austerities the Hindu saints.
In other words, by acting as if we accepted Hindu
principles of religion we are to overthrow Hinduism,
and win the people to Christ. The proposal calls
for no consideration.
Of late a good deal has been said
about the substance of missionary teaching. Missionaries
as a class maintain and teach the doctrinal views
of the Churches whose messengers and agents they are.
In these Churches a sifting process has been going
on for a considerable time, which has led in some
cases to a reversal of belief in matters of great moment,
and in a greater number to the modification and softening
of views hitherto entertained. Every one must
decide for himself how far the sifting has been wisely
done, how far chaff and only chaff has been given
to the wind, and precious grain gathered into the garner.
Missionaries have unquestionably been affected by doctrinal
discussion, in a few instances, I believe a very few,
to the reversal of some of their former views, in
all, perhaps, though in different degrees, to a readjustment
of their doctrinal position, to giving more prominence
to some aspects of truth and less prominence to others,
under the conviction that such is their relative position
in the Word of God.
However much imbued missionaries have
been with the views of their respective Churches,
their position among the heathen has always led them
to the constant and simple presentation of the great
facts and doctrines of the Bible. These have
been set forth in the manner deemed best fitted to
commend them to the understanding, conscience, and
heart of the people. Familiar illustrations have
been largely used, and elaborate doctrinal discussion
shunned. While the missionary finds much in the
narratives and teachings of the Old Testament which
is helpful to his object, he dwells chiefly on the
life of Christ, His deeds, words, living, and holy
example; death to redeem men; man’s urgent need
of such a Saviour, because guilty and depraved; the
claims of Christ on His love, trust, and service;
the blessedness of compliance with these claims on
character and state; the misery and doom incurred by
their persistent rejection. How often have I
seen the heathen greatly moved by the parable of the
Prodigal Son!
The missionary, like the home minister,
has to guard against one-sidedness, if he would keep
to the Book which he professes to be his standard.
The many-sidedness of the Bible, its appeal to man’s
whole nature, is one of the most marked proofs of
its superhuman origin. While it addresses itself
continually to man’s moral nature, to his sense
of right and wrong, while it appeals to his intellect
and heart, it also speaks to his fears and hopes.
These appeals are made to all, whatever may be their
diversity in character and condition. If we were
to follow the course of many in our day who condemn
appeals to fear, we should be ignoring a large part
of Scripture, including many of our Lord’s utterances,
and at the same time ignoring that fear of hurtful
consequences which the Author of our nature has implanted
in us as a great means of self-preservation.
To hope as well as to fear much is addressed in the
Bible, and the missionary who would approve himself
to his Master is bound to appeal to both principles,
while, like his Master, he makes his constant and
main appeal to the higher part of man’s nature.
While the missionary ought to strive
to understand the people among whom he labours, and
to discover the most promising avenue to their minds,
while he ought to commend himself to every man’s
conscience as in the sight of God, he is not to seek
acceptance for his message by accommodating it to
the views of his hearers. He knows that between
their views and his message there is not only a marked
discrepancy, but on many points radical opposition,
and the one must be displaced if the other is to be
accepted. We have here for our guidance the example
of our Lord and His apostles.
I have endeavoured to give a faithful
description of the tenor of missionary teaching.
It appears many are dissatisfied with it. We are
told we must part with our narrow traditional views
of doctrine, and become imbued with the larger and
more liberal views of our times, if we are to hope
for success. In the late Dr. Norman McLeod’s
“Life” we find him saying, “The
chief difficulty in the way of advancing Christianity
in India is unquestionably that almost all the missionaries
represent a narrow one-sided Christianity.”
I cannot conceive what could have been his ground
for this astounding statement, except his impression it
could not have been anything beyond an impression that
missionaries adhered to the doctrines of the Churches
that had sent them out, his own among the rest, and
had not followed him in his changes. Every one
who comes out with new views, or modification of old
views, assures us that success will speedily follow
the acceptance and preaching of his phase of
doctrine. Some tell us we must preach the moral
aspect of the atonement, and part with what has been
called the forensic aspect; we must only speak of
the love it shows to man, and say nothing of its bearing
on the Divine law and government; and then the great
cause of so-called failure will be removed. So
far as I know missionaries, they accept both aspects
of the atonement; they believe both aspects are taught
in Scripture, and they are convinced that instead of
enfeebling they strengthen each other, while the doctrine
thus presented meets man’s deepest wants.
Others, again, tell us we must preach what is called
Life in Christ the utter extinction of impenitent
sinners, while others say this is a shocking doctrine,
and we must preach universal restoration. This
is no place for discussing the teaching of the Bible
regarding the great Beyond, which is at present exercising
so many minds. All I will say is that neither
in the old views nor in the new is there anything
which a Hindu or a Buddhist will accept, while he remains
a Hindu or Buddhist. So far as I am aware, all
students of Hinduism and Buddhism are agreed that
eternal conscious existence, with identity of being
firmly maintained, is alien from both systems.
They do not hold the doctrine of either eternal happiness
or eternal misery. To be extinguished, in the
sense of being absorbed into Brahm and losing all
conscious personality, is the reward of high virtue,
while the wicked have to pass many miserable births
before they reach this longed-for goal. With
them salvation, liberation, is not deliverance from
sin, but from conscious existence. They have
both heavens and hells heavens supernatural
in their surroundings but intensely earthly in their
character, doings, and strifes, and hells full of everything
which is repulsive and painful; but both, after vast
lapses of time, will be emptied into the great ocean
of being, into the One without a Second. Cessation
of conscious existence is not with them the punishment
of wickedness, but the eagerly desired consummation
of their being, the goal which is quickly reached
by the eminently good.
Let missionaries by all means listen
to what is said in favour of new views, let them modify
or change their views if they think they see scriptural
authority for the change, but I am profoundly convinced
no shifting of our doctrinal position will secure
success. Looking over the whole field of foreign
missions since the end of last century, it is undeniable
that God has done great things by them, for which we
have abundant reason to be glad; and we know the teaching
by which the desert has in many places blossomed as
the rose. New phases of doctrine have yet to
win their triumph. We must look in another direction
for a greater degree of success to more
unreserved devotedness to Christ on the part of both
missionaries and those who send them out; closer communion
with Him; a higher degree of attainment in the mind
which is in Him; a more persuasive deliverance of
our message, and a larger effusion of God’s
Spirit.
The great obstruction at home and
abroad to the acceptance of Christ as the Saviour
is moral obtuseness, a dormant conscience. Our
Lord’s words throw a steady light on man’s
neglect of the great salvation, “They that
are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.”
Till men know they are sick, and recognize the deadly
nature of their sickness, there will be no application
to the Great Physician. In addition to the indurating
effects of sin everywhere, the people of India have
been for ages so drugged, I may say, with pantheistic
and polytheistic teaching, that if man’s moral
nature had been destructible it must have been destroyed
ages ago. Happily it can not be destroyed.
Perverted, stupefied, dormant, though it is, it still
exists, and to it we can therefore address the message
of Heaven, while we look up to God to make it effectual
by the teaching of His Spirit. When man knows
himself to be a sinner, when he knows what sin is,
then, and only then, whether in India or in England,
he casts himself with joy into the arms of the Saviour.
I am surprised when Christians speak
as if only a modification or a new statement of doctrine
was required in order to achieve full and immediate
success, as if they had never read such passages as
“The carnal mind is enmity against God;”
“The natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God;” as if they were ignorant
of the facts by which these statements are so amply
and mournfully attested; as if they had never heard
of One who appeared, as ancient sages longed to see,
clothed with perfect virtue and dwelt among men, and
was yet rejected and crucified by them; as if they
knew nothing of His apostles, who spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost, and yet had to lament over
many hearers to whom their message was the savour of
death unto death. Musing over the controversies
of the day, the wish has often arisen in my mind:
Would that the nature of sin was not kept so much in
the background! Would that it was seen in its
offensiveness to God and injuriousness to man persistently
daring high Heaven, while corrupting, degrading, disquieting,
and ruining man! Would that the scriptural view
of sin and sinfulness, which receives such ample confirmation
from human experience and history, was more considered
in the adjustment of doctrine! All readjustment
in which the nature and effect of sin is not kept
steadily in view must lead to serious error error
which misrepresents God’s character and government,
is inconsistent with facts meeting us on every side,
and must prove most hurtful to man. I am convinced
that while on some points there has been progress,
and wise modification of doctrine, on the subject
of sin the theology of former days was truer to Scripture
and fact than the theology of our time.
I cannot conclude these remarks about
the Indian missionary without mentioning and
I can do little more than mention the names
of loved fellow-labourers who rest from the toils
of earth, and have entered into the joy of their Lord
above. A feeling of sadness and yet of thankfulness
comes over me, as I see before my mind’s eye
brethren of our own Mission with whom I was associated Buyers,
with his intimate acquaintance with the native languages,
his large knowledge, and his kindly disposition; Shurman,
the keen, impetuous, plodding German scholar, whose
great monument is his translation of the Old Testament
into Hindustanee; Mather, first of Benares and afterwards
of Mirzapore, one of the most enterprising and devoted
missionaries ever sent to India, whose peculiarity
of temper and urgency with new plans led in his early
years to unpleasantness, but who, when well known,
was one of the truest and kindest of men, with whom
for many years we had an intimate friendship, and
whose memory and that of his excellent wife we shall
always revere; and Sherring, one of the most amiable
of men and most pleasant of colleagues, a man of marked
attainments, and an indefatigable worker. The
agents of other missions at Benares call for affectionate
mention. I have in an early part of my reminiscences
spoken of Smith, the founder and for many years the
sole agent of the Baptist Mission at Benares, a quiet,
diligent, Nathaniel-like man. This mission had
for years George Parsons, a man of large linguistic
attainments, of most amiable, meek, and devout character,
than whom it would be difficult to find a more conscientious
labourer. The Church Missionary Society was highly
favoured in having had for a long period at Benares
two men, Smith and Leupolt, who, in their respective
departments, had, I believe, no superiors in India.
For many years Smith, with resolute perseverance and
great efficiency, often with severe strain on both
body and mind, prosecuted evangelistic work in the
city and the surrounding neighbourhood. No man
was better known and more highly esteemed by the entire
community. He had success to cheer him in the
form of persons avowing themselves the followers of
Christ, but the number was so small that he was often
greatly depressed. I cannot doubt that by his
ministry seed was sown in many minds which will yet
bear fruit. During our later years in Benares,
Fuchs was one of the agents of this Mission, an excellent
biblical scholar, a diligent labourer, who required
only to be known to be loved and esteemed, with whom
we had much pleasant and profitable intercourse.
He was suddenly called away in the midst of his usefulness,
and in the prime of life. I have been confining
my remarks to the departed; but I must mention two
who survive warm-hearted Heinig, of the
Baptist Mission, now set aside by age and infirmity,
after a long life of great toil in the service of
Christ, and our greatly-loved friend Leupolt, of the
Church Mission, who is still doing good service now
in England, and was for many years the fellow-labourer
of his friend Smith. His name and work at Benares
will last for many a day.
Our departed brethren had their imperfections;
who of us are without them? But I can truly say
that in their general character, work, and bearing
they were the messengers of the Churches to the Gentiles
and the glory of Christ.
Looking beyond our Benares missions
we remember a number of faithful labourers, whom we
knew and loved, who have joined the majority, such
as the learned and kindly Owen, the venerable Morrison,
the apostolic Ziemann, and many others besides.
I do not use these terms in a conventional sense,
but as justly applicable to the men. Those I have
named laboured, and others have entered into their
labours, men worthy of all esteem, love, sympathy,
and help.