Foreign missions : their relations and claims

Front matter

MITTS. 1S

I, 4) IAAT v4, d

AMA VVUA

Preface

Tue work now offered to the Christian public had its origin in a series of Lectures on Foreign Missions, delivered in the Theological Seminary at Andover, under appointment from the Trustees; and subsequently, by request, before the Theological Seminaries at Bangor, Hartford, Auburn, and Princeton, and the Union Seminary in New York City. It was fitting that the oldest of our theological seminaries, and the first to send missionaries into foreign heathen lands, should take the lead in establishing, for its students, a permanent Lectureship on Foreign Missions. ‘This was created by a vote of the Trustees early in the year 1866; and the needful pecuniary endowment was secured to the Seminary by Henry H. Hynes, Esq., a citizen of Boston. ‘The statutes of the endowment require the course to embrace as many as ten lectures; but it is left for the Trustees to decide, whether they shall be delivered annually, lv PREFACE.

to the Middle Class, or gecor before the entire Seminary.

In February, 1866, the author was appointed by the Trustees lecturer on this foundation, ‘and was requested to deliver, at his early convenience, a course of lectures on Foreign Missions. The appointment had reference to his intended retirement from official life; which was effected that year, at the age of threescore and ten, after a connection of more than forty years with the Foreign Correspondence of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. It was with the hope, however, of being enabled, through the divine blessing, to devote the residue of his life to embodying the results of his experience in forms that should be useful to the missionary cause.

The duty first in order was to select topics for the lectures, and to make the needful investigations, which required longer time and greater labor than had been expected. The aim was to embody practical views of the misslonary work in its largest sense, contemplated from the missionary stand-point, and to draw illustrations from every part of the great field where they seemed most appropriate.

PREFACE. Vv

The lectures were delivered to three successive Middle Classes in the Andover Seminary ; and the author takes pleasure in acknowledging his obligations to Dr. Epwarps A. Park, of the theological department, having special charge of that class, for his kind and efficient support, as also to the other Professors, and to the Students. At the five other seminaries, the Lectures were delivered before the body of Professors and Students. It may not be improper to say, that at Auburn the delivery was on nine successive evenings, and at Princeton on ten, and that this unbroken succession seemed to be with the happiest effect. The last six lectures of the course at Hartford were delivered on successive days, and with the like result.

The author thankfully acknowledges his obligations to the Trustees of the Andover Seminary, for the formal expression of their earnest desire for the publication of the lectures; and also to the Professors in the several institutions where he had the privilege of lecturing, for their very kind manner of communicating the same sentiment. -And he the more confidently appears before the Christian public by reason

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of the frequent expressions of this sentiment by students in the different seminaries. The present work is in compliance with these wishes ; though in a form that is deemed better adapted to the taste of the reading public. The text is unaltered, except so far as was rendered necessary by the change of form; and hence the reason why the writer is more prominently before the reader, than he is desirous of being.

As reference is occasionally made to the author’s personal intercourse with missions, it may be well to state, that he made an official visit to the missions of the American Board, bordering on the Mediterranean, in the years 1828 and 1829; again, in 1844 and 1845, when he had the friendly companionship of the late Dr. Joel. Hawes, of Hartford; and again, in 1855, on his way home from India. He visited the India missions, with Dr. Augustus C. Thompson as an associate, in 1854 and 1855; and in the year 1863, he spent four months, in an official visit, on the Sandwich Islands. Each of these visits involved much travel by land and sea; yet, under the protection of a kind Providence, not - a single accident was anywhere experienced.

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It will at once be seen what is the object of this work. It is to show the extent of the field that has been providentially opened for foreign missions; the providential preparation otherwise made for such missions; the .peculiar nature of the work of missions; the extent to which it has been carried; its success; the hindrances at home and abroad, and how they may be removed; and the claims of foreign’ missions upon the churches, and upon young ministers of the gospel.

The appeal is to those, who look upon the gospel as the only hope of this lost world. To ” this view the author’s experience has brought him with a power he is unable to resist. His theory of missions is substantially that of the Apostle to the Gentiles. And he has the more confidence in his exposition of it, because of the ample scope it allows for the exercise of discretion in the use of subordinate means. Whatever exalts the cross, whatever impressively _ sets forth the gospel, must be within the scope of the great commission given by our Lord.

But the use to be made of subordinate means, is a subject of much difficulty, on which the

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best and most intelligent men are not yet fully agreed. Should this volume have the effect to stimulate secretaries, missionaries, or others specially interested in the subject and conversant with it, to efforts for solving the yet unresolved problems, even should their opinions differ from his own, the author will greatly rejoice ; believing that, in so mighty an enter- ‘prise, entered upon so recently, we must yet be far from a complete apprehension of the agencies that ought to be employed.

While the value of local native churches as a _ prominent instrumentality for renovating the " heathen world, is set forth with earnestness, the word church is used only in the sense of an associated, local body of Christians, whether governed by the popular vote, by elders chosen for the purpose, or in some other way. The necessity of native pastors is mdeed insisted upon; and also of a pastorate confessedly modified from that of the apostolic churches, though in strict conformity with the present usage of all evangelical denominations. Into the minor details of church polity, the author has not deemed himself called to enter.

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Some may be ready to regard the theory of missions here described as being self-evident, seeing it isso very simple. But such an impression would betray much ignorance of the history of modern missions. It is even now a controverted point with not a few friends of missions, to say nothing of others, whether civilization must not precede Christianity, or, at any rate, what is the precise relation of the two. Recent publications show, also, that the relative place of preaching in the missionary work, as compared with education, is not quite settled, though the - difference is perhaps somewhat more theoreti- — cal than practical; and the question seems to have no great interest beyond the caste-regions of India. Scarcely fifteen years have elapsed since it was deemed advisable to send a Deputation to India, with one of its leading objects to persuade the missionaries of the American Board in that country to commence the practice of ordaining native pastors. There is printed evidence, much of which has not been published, that the theory of missions advocated by the Deputation when in India, was substantially the same which is embodied in this work ; and the unexpected discussion at the annual x PREFACE.

meeting of the American Board in 1855, as to the proceedings of that Deputation, and the holding of a special meeting to inquire into their proceedings, was in great measure the result of misapprehension ; as was abundantly shown, at the annual meeting in 1856, by the Report of the “Committee of Thirteen.” Yet the numerous columns of the religious newspapers, occupied with this subject previous to the report of that committee, would convince any one, that the theory of missions was then by no means determined. Seven years later, a Deputation was sent to the Sandwich Islands, largely to induce the missionaries on those islands to put the native church-members generally under a native pastorate, and to place the native pastorate of the islands on an independent footing, which there was an apparent backwardness to do. And so far as information is yet attainable, it is only a few years since the discovery was made, that native pastors form an essential element in native churches, to make them healthful, vigorous, selfsupporting, and aggressive.

In point of fact, the principles and methods of foreign missions embodied in the seventh

PREFACE. Xi chapter, were wrought out with painstaking, and through much conflict of opinion. ©

The author’s aim, throughout, has been to give an honest presentation of what may properly be called the science of missions, as it is understood by himself, and never in a controversial form; and he ventures the hope that this result of his labors may serve, in future times, for a landmark to those who shall perform the service for their generation, which he has endeavored to perform for his.

It is proper to say a word as to the clas-- sification and arrangement of topics. ‘The first chapter presents the field of the world, as it is opening to the foreign missions of our day, and the second the preparations for occupying it. The seven following chapters illustrate, in various forms, the nature of the work. The hindrances existing at home to the propagation of the gospel in heathen lands are next considered; and then there are two chapters setting forth the extent to which modern missions have been prosecuted, and the success which has attended them. It was natural to discuss the claims of the work on young ministers of the xi PREFACE.

gospel, which is the topic of the thirteenth chapter. Nor could the great subject of missions, avowedly for the conversion of the heathen world to the evangelical faith, be dismissed , without an inquiry into the strength of the opposing force there is in the Romish missions. The last chapter contains a résumé of the volume, with concluding reflections. Articles will be found in the Appendix, that are believed to add materially to the value of the work.

IV.

Contents

An OpenING WoRLD . “ : ‘ B 3 : An UPRISING CHURCH > x 3 p s é DEVELOPMENT OF THE IDEA OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

CHARACTERISTICS OF APOSTOLIC MISSIONS . ’ . : IrtsH Missions IN THE Earty AGES . -;- . . HIsTORICAL. DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN Missions. é PRINCIPLES AND MrerHopDs oF MopDERN Missions . ‘

Missionary LIFE ILLUSTRATED é HINDRANCES AT HoME . p - ; = : : A DIFFUSION OF MISSIONS . a“ A ‘ 2 : Success or Missions . ; “ . ° : CLAIMs oF Missions ON YOUNG MINISTERS . ; ° RomMisH MIssIoNs AS AN OPPOSING FORCE . 2 3 eet AGD CONCLUSION .7:>. =. «68 «@ APPENDIX.

Chapter I. An Opening World

Objects of Inquiry. — Why restricted to Asia. — Importance of India. Problems to be solved.— How the Possession of India by Great Britain opened the Way into Turkey. — How into China. — Combination of the Great Christian Powers for opening China to Commerce. — Remarkable Change in the Diplomatic World. — How India was opened. — Openings in other Parts of the World.

Ir is proper that I enter upon my subject by showing, in the first place, how the unevangelized world has of late been providentially opened to Christian missions; secondly, how Christendom, meanwhile, has been in a process of unconscious preparation for evangelizing it; and, thirdly, the consequent development, in the Evangelical Church, of a missionary spirit, and of missionary organizations, with the avowed expectation and purpose — for the first time since the apostolic age — of laboring for the conversion of the whole heathen world.

The first branch of the subject is too extended for an exhaustive discussion. I shall therefore attempt 1 only to show how the portions of the unevangelized world were opened that are most populous. I refer to Southern, Eastern, and Western Asia, containing a population of more than six hundred millions. It has for many years been my official duty to give attention to this process; and it has seemed to me to ~ be one of the most impressive indications of an all-embracing Providence, preparing the way for the great work now claiming the attention and efforts of the Christian Church. Preliminary to this, it will be necessary to state the great problems that were to be practically solved.

I begin with India, because that was the pivot on which the lever of Providence: (so to speak) seemed to move in opening so large a portion of the heathen world. Here, in a population of nearly two hundred millions, it was necessary, first, to break down the Mohammedan power, extending over most of the country; secondly, to break down the Brahminical power, resting upon caste, and having the sanction of ages; and, thirdly, when the East India Company had answered its purpose, it was needful to bring that great selfish corporation to an end. India was not fully prepared for the entrance of the gospel, until these results were all substantially attained. ;

In Western Asia, it was necessary, first, that England should secure a predominant influence in the governments of both Turkey and Persia; secondly, that the persecuting ecclesiastical rulers of the Oriental churches should somehow be so far restrained, as to secure a tolerable protection for Protestant converts ; thirdly, that the death-penalty in Mohammedan law should be practically nullified; and, fourthly, that Western and Central Asia should be protected against the encroachments of the late ambitious and bigoted autocrat of Russia.

In Eastern Asia it was necessary, that the great Christian powers of the world should combine to secure a free commercial and religious access to the vast population of China and the neighboring countries.

We at once see, that only the hand which moves the world could accomplish all this. Fifty years ago, no well-informed man would have said that any part of Western, Southern, or Eastern Asia was fairly opened to Christian missions; and ‘no well-informed man can doubt that these countries are now open, with only a few partial exceptions.

How was the opening for the gospel into these extended and populous regions effected ? _ The discovery of the way to India by the Cape of Good Hope, in 1498, was the first step. The second was the chartering of a small company of Englishmen by Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1600, for trading in India, which afterwards took the name of the East India Company. The next step was twelve years later, when the Grand Mogul was persuaded to authorize this Company to form a commercial post in India. This was the beginning of the British empire in the East. Then came the struggle, first with the Portuguese, and then with the French, which was to determine whether Popery or Protestantism should govern India; and the triumph of Protestantism. The Mohammedan powers of India were partially subdued by means of successive wars. The celebrated battle of Plassey, in 1757, with Clive in command, more than a hundred and fifty years after the chartering of the Company, first gave it dominion; and this dominion was constantly extended by similar measures, until it covered thirty degrees of latitude, and as many of longitude, embracing every variety of climate, scenery, and soil, and nearly two hundred millions of people, speaking twelve or fifteen polished languages.

The possession of this Indian empire by the English nation, —the opening of which to the gospel I shall illustrate after tracing its influence in the west and east of Asia, — made it necessary to keep open a highway between India and England, the mother country. Here is a point of special interest; for were it not for this, the whole political influence in © Turkey, if not the absolute dominion (so far as we can now see), would have been divided between — France and Russia, —the one Roman Catholic, the other of the Greek Church, and both hostile to Protestant missions.

The security of the English empire in India made it imperative with England to acquire and to exercise a paramount influence in the government of Turkey. For this purpose she kept her ablest diplomatist at the Porte. Her war with Egypt in 1840, with Russia in 1855, called the Crimean war (in which France found it for her interest to unite), and with Persia in 1856, -- from which the immortal Havelock returned just in time to act his important part in saving India to England and to the cause of missions, — all these wars grew more or less directly out of the necessity of keeping this great highway open; and also of restraining the progress of Russian power across Central Asia towards the Indian empire.

Moreover, as Russia was the acknowledged protector of the Greek Christians in Turkey, and France of the Roman Catholics, the question naturally arose with the enlightened English Ambassador at the Porte, and with English statesmen, whether England would not strengthen herself in Western Asia, by becoming the protector of the Protestant Christians, then multiplying in those regions through the labors of Protestant missionaries. A Parliamentary “ Blue Book” contains the proof of this. Thus it came about that the English embassies, both at Constantinople and in Persia, were providentially induced, if they were not really instructed, to extend that protection to the American missionaries, and their converts, among the Armenians and Nestorians, without which neither Turkey nor Persia would have been really open to the gospel. Through the influence of Lord Stratford de 3 Redcliffe, the British Ambassador at Constantinople, the death-penalty in Mohammedan law for abjuring the Moslem faith, was virtually abolished ; and the Protestant Christians of the empire were recognized by the Sultan as a distinct body, independent of all the other Christian sects, and entitled to the protection of the government in their persons and religious privileges. We owe all this, under God, to the providential fact, that England had gained an empire in India, and must needs preserve an unincumbered way to it.

Next, as to the great and vastly populous countries lying eastward of India. The East India Company had a trading-post in China, at Canton, and one of their most profitable articles for sale was opium. It was, and is now, a rich source of reyenue. As this was exerting a pernicious influence on the health and morals of the people, the Chinese government wisely sought to put a stop to the trade. Finding no other way to prevent the introduction of the poison into the empire, they destroyed a large quantity of it at Canton. The result was a war, — an iniquitous war, doubtless, on the part of the East India Company, — but still a war; and this was the beginning of a series of warlike aggressions, in which, ultimately, for the purpose of opening China to the commercial world, not only England, but France, Russia, and even the United States, became more or less involved; until, in 1858, treaties were made by the Chinese with each of the four great powers, — England, France, Russia, and America, engaging, among other things (I quote the words of the treaty), that ‘‘any person, either citizen of the country with which the treaty is made, or Chinese convert to the faith of the Protestant or Roman Catholie churches, who, according to these tenets, peaceably teaches and practices the principles of Christianity, shall in no case be interfered with, or molested.’ }

As this was a stipulation made with each and all of those powers, for not less than four hundred millions of pagans, it must be regarded as one of the most important transactions of modern times. Sub- Sequent events have shown that the treaty was not a vain form. Every important port of China is accessible, and so is almost every part of the interior, not in a state of rebellion; and China is now seeking, through an embassy, at the head of which is one of our own countrymen, to establish peaceful and honorable relations with the Christian world.

It should be added that, after China had been “made thus accessible to the commerce and religion 1 Report of Am. Board, 1859, p. 111; Miss. Herald, 1858, p. 338 of Christendom, it was not possible for its near neighbor, Japan, to be much longer in determined non-intercourse with other nations ; and Japan is now being opened, though reluctantly, to the light and influence of Christian truth, as well as to the commerce of the world. 3

The remarkable union of the plenipotentiaries of the four great Christian nations, in stipulating with the Chinese emperor for the entrance and protection of Christian missionaries, and for the protection also of their converts in every province of the empire, reveals an astonishing change in the public sentiment .of the diplomatic world, as regards the value of missionaries, and of Christian missions. Ota

It may be well to add, that these treaties were negotiated in 1858, a year memorable as the one in which the East India Company closed its existence.

We shall be more impressed with the magnitude of this revolution (for it was such, as regards religious toleration), if we now go back to the beginning of the century, and observe what indications of hostile feeling to missions existed in the high places, not of India alone, but even of England, and how the hostile feeling was at last overcome.

The well-known English Baptist missionaries, ” Carey, Marshman, and Ward, arrived at Calcutta in 1799, and were ordered by the East India gov ernment to leave India; but found a refuge, for a time, in the Danish town of Serampore, sixteen miles above Calcutta, which was not then subject to the East India Company. On a subsequent arrival of missionaries, orders were given by the authorities at Calcutta, not to preach to the natives, nor to allow their converts to preach, nor to distribute books or tracts, nor to take any step to induce the people to embrace Christianity.1 In 1812, the first American missionaries, — Hall, Judson, Newell, Nott, and Rice, — arrived at Calcutta, and were ordered away, though they somehow found means to evade the order. An English missionary, who accompanied them from America, was actually forced by the government to return to England.

How strangely the East India government was long in sympathy, and even partnership, with Hindu idolatry, is strikingly set forth by Dr. Mullens, now Foreign Secretary of the London Missionary Society, whose valuable acquaintance I formed while he was a missionary at Calcutta. He says: — ~ “There was a time when, through the extensive preaching of the gospel by the Tranquebar and Tanjore missionaries and other causes, the temples in the Madras Presidency. began to be deserted, and to fall into decay. Then it was that the government of Madras took them under its own protection,

1 Marshman’s Life and Times of Carey, etc., vol. i. p. 260.

appointed the officiating priests, received the offerings, disbursed the expenses, publicly presented gifts, and restored new vigor to the dying system! The government of Madras made itself trustee of the pagoda-lands. In times of drought, the Collector ordered the Brahmins to pray to the gods for rain, and paid money for their expenses. European officers joined in salutes to the idols. Some, of their own accord, would make their obeisance, and others would ride in front of the cars, shouting with the multitude, ‘Hari Bol!’ Villagers were summoned to draw the cars by order of the Collector, and were whipped by the native officials, if they refused. The temples were kept in repair by the government, and the illuminations at the festivals were paid for from the treasury.” !

Another authority states than more than eight thousand temples in the Madras Presidency, with all their estates, were entirely managed by the English officers of government. In 1852, they paid out $750,000 for repairs of temples, for making and consecrating new idols, and for priests, idol ears, musicians, painters, watchmen, and dancing women.?

«The same guilty course,” Dr. Mullens continues, “was adopted at the other Presidencies. In Ceylon, all the chief Buddhist priests were appointed by government, and expenses for ‘ devil

1 Result of Missionary Labor in India, p. 44. 2 Christian Work, July, 1864.

dancing, continued at Kandy for seven days, were paid, as per voucher, ‘ For Her Majesty’s service *! ”

There were members of the government, and some of the Governor Generals, to whom this heathenish policy was far from being acceptable; but such was the prevailing spirit of the ruling powers. Such, too, was the spirit of the “Old Indians,” as those were called who had retired to opulence and ease in England. A mutiny of native troops at Nellore, in 1806, occasioned the loss of five hundred English lives; and this mutiny the “ Old Indians” attributed — as indeed they afterwards did the larger one of 1857 — to the presence and influence of Christian missions. <A great — controversy arose at length in England, in which nearly thirty different publications were issued. This did something towards preparing the public mind for the question of a new charter for the Hast India Company, which came before Parliament in 1813, and which the friends of missions

re determined should be made to secure religious toleration in India. This was three years after the formation of the American Board, thirteen years after that of the Church Missionary Society, and eighteen after that of the London Missionary Society. There was then an energetic renewal of the controversy. And it is painful to see how indifferent, how hostile even, what was in fact the most Christian government in Europe then was to the diffusion of the glorious gospel of Christ among the millions of its subjects in the East. The great bulk of the Anglo-Indians insisted, that any attempt to evangelize India would cost England a loss of the Indian empire. Mr. Wilberforce believed that nine tenths of the members of the House of Commons would vote against any motion the friends of religion might make. The periodical press was almost universally opposed to introducing the gospel into India; and the high ministers of state were believed to be utterly devoid of sympathy with missionary efforts... Nothing could have overcome all this, and secured freedom to the missionaries in India, except such an unlooked-for development of interest in missions in the English churches, as was evinced by nine hundred _ petitions, from all parts of the country, which came in as the result of an appeal from Wilberforce, Grant, and others, together with the addition of two of Wilberforce’s eloquent speeches during the progress of the debate in Parliament. The eharter was finally made substantially conformable to the wishes of the friends of missions, and thus, in the good providence of God, India was thrown open to missionaries ; that is to say, English missionaries could no longer be debarred by the East India government from entering that country. i

But the connection of the government with the

1 Marshman’s Life and Times, etc., vol. ii. p. 3.

idolatry of that country continued to be active, and its spirit more or less hostile to missions, for nearly _ thirty years longer ; and the full preparation of India for the gospel was not before the year 1857, — the year of the great mutiny and rebellion, — and was the immediate consequence of that terrible convulsion. Caste was the last idol in India which the English rulers ceased to dread. Its terror lay mainly in the Sepoy army, of some two or three hundred thousands, which they could not trust, and did not know how to disband. At length this great native army rebelled, and made war alike upon English rulers and native Christians. Everywhere English dwellings were burned down, and the bodies of more than fifteen hundred English men and women, many of rank and culture, “ lay unburied upon the wastes, the food of dogs and jackals, and of foul birds of prey; and riot, plunder, and murder strode wildly over the land.”! Yet this storm, after it had passed, was found to have beén a rich blessing, though terribly disguised. The Sepoy army had been disbanded. Caste was no longer a terror. The Moslem power was broken. And, what was perhaps most important of all, it was ’ found that two thousand native converts had endured persecution firmly, some of them unto death ; and the missionaries thus learned to hold such converts in much higher estimation, and became more

1 Mullens’ Ten Years in India, p. 8.

ready to repose confidence in them when formed into churches, and to entrust to them the pastoral office. To crown all, the reign of the East India Company was brought to a most desirable close, and Sir John Lawrence, one of the ablest and best of the Christian men in India, was placed on the viceregal throne.

This opening of a population of more than six hundred millions in India and Western and Eastern Asia, to the missionaries of the gospel, may all be said to have occurred (excepting the earlier wars with the Mos!em aud Pagan powers) after the year 1812, or within the space of about fifty years, and since the formation of the American Board. I believe the change, for magnitude and importance, is without a parallel in the history of the world. And who can fail to see the hand of Him, who, with all power in heaven and earth, is preparing the way for His people to carry out the grand purpose of His redemption.