Part 4 (1/2)
XII.--CHINA.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF PEKING AND MONGOLIA.]
In the Empire of China the London Missionary Society occupies seven princ.i.p.al stations and employs twenty-one English missionaries. By their efforts several churches have been founded, which have been blessed with true prosperity. No cases of earnest personal effort have been more striking in their character and results than those which have occurred among the prosperous churches of AMOY. Last year the Directors published, in the usual way, detailed information from the Rev. JOHN STRONACH, of the opening of new stations at BO-PIEN and TIO-CHHU, and showed from Mr. Stronach's journal the hearty reception which he met with on his visit to these villages in the interior of the province. In the REPORT of the Amoy mission further particulars were given, which indicated the progress of the movement, and the healthy manner in which it has been carried on. The Directors trust that from the outset these earnest Christians will understand that it is their privilege and their duty to sustain for themselves the ordinances of that faith which they have now received:--
”On the 2nd of December, Mr. JOHN STRONACH visited a large village still further distant, called San-io, and had, in the s.p.a.cious public school-room, a numerous and attentive audience for two hours. But the chief interest was displayed in the village of Tang-soa, distant from Bo-pien about twelve miles, the native place of the zealous, but as yet unbaptized convert, whose earnest efforts to instruct his numerous neighbours I referred to in my recent letter. In Tang-soa his efforts among his relatives have been so successful that many of the villagers not only gave up the school-room for us to give addresses in, but, after listening to them with an interest altogether new in that part of the country, begged me to gratify their desires for regular instruction in Christianity by establis.h.i.+ng services every Sunday. I asked what proof they could give of the sincerity of their desire, and fifteen replied by bringing in the evening all the idols they owned, and in the presence of about forty of their fellow villagers, placing them on the table and then decapitating them, breaking them in sundry pieces, trampling them frequently under their feet, and otherwise ignominiously treating them, to the great delight of the numerous boys who were present and who joined gleefully in the sport; and we were at once offered the village school-room as another chapel, with the hope of eventually being put in possession of the idol temple. One of the deacons at Bo-pien, who has often attended the examinations for the first literary degree, has been engaged as an a.s.sistant preacher. At Tio-chhu, the new station referred to in my last letter, I had the pleasure, on the 8th December, of baptizing four additional converts, making twelve in all.”
The Report further observes with respect to the general character of the churches in Amoy:--
”While lamenting the falls of some, we rejoice in the salvation of many. In the region of BO-PIEN there has been a decided awakening; not the least interesting feature of which is, that it was commenced by the preaching of an individual who belonged to a church the fewness of whose members has often been cause of regret; thus showing us that the Gospel, though producing apparently little impression in one place, may be productive of the highest results in another; and that, though a church may not increase in numbers, it yet may increase in the usefulness of its members.
”It is with unfeigned joy that we observe among our church members many whose endeavour to overcome their evil habits and customs, whose love for the Scriptures, habits of prayer, patient forbearance of injuries, and general Christian behaviour, convince us that their piety is such as the great Head of the Church will greatly approve.”
The city of HANKOW, far up the river Yangtse, in the centre of CHINA, has often been spoken of in the Society's periodicals as one of the most wonderful mission stations in the world. The Society's work commenced in HANKOW in 1861. It has steadily prospered from the first.
But during the past two years the Church has received unusual blessings; has doubled its numbers, and has received several remarkable accessions from the heathen. The Rev. G. JOHN thus describes these results:--
”Profound grat.i.tude to Almighty G.o.d for His presence and aid should be the predominant sentiment of our hearts. The numerical accession which the church has received this year is considerably in excess of that of any previous year. In 1862, ten adults were baptized; in 1863, twelve; in 1864, thirteen; in 1865, eleven; in 1866, twenty-two; in 1867, FIFTY-ONE have been added to our number. Thus, whilst year by year the work has been steadily though slowly advancing, this year its progress has been rapid and signal. But it is not in the mere number that we rejoice. We rejoice in these fifty-one converts princ.i.p.ally on account of their general character, their various stations in life, and the circ.u.mstances in which, and the means by which they have been brought into the fold of Christ.
In these respects they are to us a source of much consolation and encouragement.
”One interesting fact connected with these fifty-one members is, that thirteen of them are women, and that eleven of the thirteen are the wives of converts. The conversion of the female population of China is a subject which must weigh heavily and constantly on the heart of every earnest missionary. The obstacles are many and formidable. Both by preaching and private conversation, for nearly six years, I have been labouring to impress on the minds of the converts the duty and importance of bringing their wives under the direct influence of the Gospel. They would maintain that the custom of the country was against it. To attend chapel and join the men in public wors.h.i.+p, would bring not only the wife, but the whole family into contempt, and so on.
”Last, year there were evident signs of a movement in the right direction; and this year the result has exceeded my most sanguine expectations. Nineteen women have already been received into the church, several are now coming in, and we have every reason to hope that most of the wives of the converts who reside in and around Hankow will be identified with us before the end of next year. There are now several whole families in the church, and it is getting to be generally understood that it is the solemn duty of the Christian member of a family to make the salvation of every member of that family a matter of deep personal concern.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: GOLDEN ISLAND, ON THE YANG-TSE RIVER, CHINA.]
The great value of Hankow as a mission station, and the variety of persons which it brings into contact with the Gospel, are strikingly ill.u.s.trated by Mr. JOHN:--
”There is one more interesting fact connected with these fifty-one members, namely, that they represent SEVERAL DIFFERENT PROVINCES, and various ranks and grades of society. Only on Sunday week I baptized six men, who represent five distinct provinces. Of the 108 members still in communion, about seventy reside in and around the cities of Hankow, Wu-Chang, and Han-Yang. The rest are scattered over the country, and, we trust, are spreading abroad the knowledge of the truth. These facts tend to impress on our minds the importance of Hankow as a Mission station; and they prove an observation which I made in a former communication to be correct--namely, that the whole Empire may be influenced more or less from this grand centre.
”But these men not only represent different Provinces and Districts of the Empire; they represent also different grades of society. Some of them are scholars, and others are tradesmen; some are artizans, and others are peasants; some are poor, but none (with one exception) are helpless. We have in the church at present one who has obtained his M.A. degree, eight who have obtained their B.A. degree, and a large number of ordinary scholars who have pa.s.sed their matriculation examination. Among those who were admitted on Sunday week, there were a scholar, a merchant, and a barber. It was interesting to see representatives of the highest and lowest grades of Chinese society meet before the same font on Sunday; and then, on the following Wednesday, at the Christmas feast, occupying adjoining seats. Both are filling stations in life in which they may exercise a beneficial influence on many around them.”
XIII.--THE WEST INDIA MISSION.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A MAP OF PART OF BRITISH GUIANA.]
From the ample information recently furnished by the missionaries to the Directors, we learn that these two colonies of the British Crown contain together a population of Negro extraction amounting to half a million individuals; viz.: BRITISH GUIANA, 100,000; JAMAICA, 400,000. Besides these there are Indian Coolies, 28,800 in number, of whom GUIANA has 25,000. That province also contains 7,000 Indians, while Jamaica has its thousands of heathen Maroons. The ruling population of whites is 13,816 in Jamaica, and 2,000 in Guiana, or about 16,000 in all. This native population of half a million, just equal in number to the population of the single city of Calcutta or Canton, spread over an occupied territory of twelve thousand square miles, and situated only four thousand miles from England, enjoys the services of three hundred professed ministers of the Gospel; of whom a hundred and forty are supplied by Missionary Societies not connected with the established churches and supported by voluntary funds. The bulk of the population is nominally Christian, and has been for some years as well instructed in Christianity as an equal number of persons in the country parts of England. And doubtless it has been thus christianized the more fully because of the large supply of religious teachers furnished by the different sections of the Church of Christ.
It is evident that the converts in Jamaica occupy a much higher position of physical and social comfort than those in GUIANA, and that the latter are not so well off as they were five-and-twenty years ago. While wages have fallen and prices have increased, it is evident that the moral influence of the 25,000 Coolies from India, with all their heathen vices, on the 100,000 Creoles has been exceedingly injurious. In neither colony has there been that thorough spiritual growth, that self-control, that self-reliance among the christian converts generally, which their best friends hoped for and thought they were able to find. This cannot be deemed unnatural, when it is considered that only thirty years have pa.s.sed since the Act of Emanc.i.p.ation, and that ages of training will be needed before the moral taint of slavery is purified away.
[Ill.u.s.tration: RIDGEMOUNT, JAMAICA.]
The Directors therefore feel that it would be in every way a mistake to throw these young and imperfect churches at once upon their own resources. They have also not seriously entertained the suggestion made to commend them to the care of some other evangelical denomination seeking the same end as ourselves. Nevertheless the Board cannot think it right or wise to continue the present system unchanged. If unable completely to run alone, our churches are too large, the members too numerous, and their resources too great to justify any continuance of that complete dependence upon the Society which has prevailed with them hitherto. The Board desire to see the churches strong in themselves, managing completely their own affairs, providing the ministry by which they shall be instructed, and engaged heartily in missionary efforts for the conversion of their heathen neighbours. This is the end which, they trust, will henceforth be distinctly kept in view, and which should be sought by every means which practical experience finds suitable to promote it.