FOR MAY, 1849. nected themselves with their former pastor, but who is now no longer a missionary of the Society. At other stations, many members have been removed, in consequence of civil and military changes in India. In Haiti, the lace disturbances have scattered the church, and some of the members have permanently left the island. In the Bahamas, the poverty of the people has compelled many to retire to other places, and the churches have been consequently weakened. The business of the Society, however, is to sow the seed of the kingdom, not to keep the wheat that springs from it in one garner rather than in another; and whether those whom the grace of God converts are on earth or in heaven, in one department of the field or in another, is a matter of small concern. The great question is, whether they are truly called and faithful. These statements of the results of the labours of the year are but partial. In all spiritual enterprises it We can record at most those only that are seen. may probably be said with truth, that the results which are visible and appreciable are small compared with those that are concealed. Several hundreds have been baptized; several thousands have been taught. In India, especially, it is certain that there are many secret disciples, who fear to put on Christ in consequence of the penalties, both legal and conventional, which are still attached to the profession of the Christian name. Fifty thousand volumes of the scriptures have been distributed, and at least as many thousands of tracts. But four or five times fifty thousand persons have read them. The revelations of eternity cannot fail to be grander than those of time. So that, while there is enough to induce us to thank God and take courage, and our duty would have remained if there had been less, it becomes us to remember that our estimate of present success necessarily excludes results which will be seen one day to be among the most precious and important. IV. CLAIMS. It has long been one of the principles of the Society, that if we do the work God will supply the means; or, to express it in a more evangelical form, the grace which fosters devoted purposes will bring with it the funds needed for the accomplishment of them. It is the rule of God's dispensations to give grace to grace; to the grace of holy desire the grace of holy achievement; to the grace of labour, the grace of ampler means and of larger success. So that, if the Committee proceed to set forth what they deem the claims of the mission, it must not be supposed that they speak in the language of despondency on the one hand, nor yet, on the other, as if their reliance for the success of their appeals were placed on human wisdom, or on merely human exertion. They believe that, if God make them faithful to their work, He will be faithful to his promise. But they believe no less firmly, that they need to urge the claims of the Society upon its friends, through whom it is hoped that the promise so far as funds are concerned, will be fulfilled. They have to repeat, then, the statement made in previous years, that the income of the Society is not yet equal to the amount absolutely required to meet its unavoidable expenditure. For many years, the expenditure has been as low as is consistent with the continuance of the present number of agents; but, for the last eighteen months, the Committee have been compelled to con sider the question of reducing the number. European agents they have not been prepared to recall; from the fact that to recall them would effect no saving of expense for at least twelve months from the time of their recall, the cost involved in a passage to England often amounting to the salary of a whole year. Nor, if they had attempted this course, would they have found it practicable without abandoning important stations. From various causes, however, the entire number of agents has been gradually diminished. There is now one missionary less in Africa, and one less in India. Of native agents, not less than a dozen have been dismissed; and as many schools have been closed. These changes have involved the relinquishment of but one station, and the saving is rather prospective than immediate. Even if it were effected now, however, the Society would still need an income of £18,000 for the support of its missionaries, independently of all special contributions for particular objects. And when it is remembered that this sum, besides meeting the expenses of conducting the Society's business, and aiding in the support of the widows and orphans of those who once contended honourably in the high places of the field, has to be divided among upwards of two hundred agents (those agents living in expensive countries), the surprise will be, not that so much is required, but that so much is done at so small a cost. This sum of £18,000, it will be observed, admits of no curtailment, unless by a diminution of agency. No part of it is spent on buildings which might be left unfinished, or on an extension of the field of labour-a work which might be postponed; or on luxuries which might be abandoned; nor even in sending out additional missionaries who might, under peculiar pressure, be kept at home. It is all needed for supporting our present agents. If the income of the Society must be below this sum, the alternative is continued debt or diminished agency. Did the Committee know that the income would be less, they would feel bound to decide at once for diminished agency; for this course, however painful, is, in their estimation, the less unscriptural of the two. Strongly convinced of the propriety of this course, as compared with the other, the Committee wish nevertheless to impress upon their own minds, and to lay again before their constituency, the consequence of adopting it. It would itself be costly. Agents must be recalled or removed. In either case there will be necessarily some pecuniary sacrifice. We shall also lose, to a considerable extent, the labours of previous years; nor can any station be relinquished without leaving in the wilderness some little flock whom the Spirit of God has gathered from the world. He that gathered them can doubtless keep them; but to justify ourselves, the necessity of leaving them needs to be made unequivocably clear. It ought also to be recollected, that in no station is the amount spent by our Society all that is spent in connexion with our mission for evangelical purposes. In Ceylon, between two and three hundred pounds a year is contributed towards the labours of our brethren by those who would certainly give less, and would probably in some instances give nothing, if our brethren were removed. At Saugor, in Central India, where a station has recently been established, with a saving of expense to the Society, £150 is promised towards the support of local efforts. The Society gives part of the missionary's salary, one or two friends give the rest, and a considerable sum is raised besides. Wherever the Christian missionary goes, benevolent and educational effort is put forth, not by him only, but by others under the influence of his example: and all probably will cease if he remove. To prevent these grievous evils, a steady income of, at least, £18,000 is required; and even this sum makes no provision for supplying the place of brethren who may be removed, or for meeting the unforeseen expenses which missions in tropical climates especially involve. But, before the Committee can be satisfied even with the present amount of their agency, a grave question remains; whether it is adequate to the claims upon it, or to the extent and the necessities of the stations occupied by us? In India (our oldest field, and not the least promising), the extreme limits of the territory occupied by our missionaries are as distant as Gibraltar and the Shetland Islands, as Lisbon and Pesth; or, marking the distance by the time required in that country to travel it, they are as widely distant as Calcutta and London. Yet for the whole country we have but forty missionaries: fewer than the number of pastors of baptist churches in London. And of these the strength is so divided as to be almost lost. Mr. Thompson is still alone at Delhi; Mr. Phillips at Muttra. Chittagong is all but deserted, the ill health of one of our brethren there having compelled him to leave. Dacca is left vacant. Mr. Page at Barisal, and Mr. Parry in Jessore, with large churches under their care, and extensive districts requiring visitation, have been calling loudly for help. One missionary has been sent out during the year to this Indian field; and our brethren are asking whither they are to send him; to Barisal or to Jessore, to Patna or to Bow Bazar (Calcutta), to Delhi or to Chittagong ? Nor is the question of strengthening these stations one that refers merely to the comfort of the missionary. It is really one of life and death for the stations themselves. In nearly all the places we have mentioned the baptist missionary is the only one; and there is no brother within a week's journey. The members of the churches gathered from among the heathen are disowned by their friends a bigoted priesthood surrounds them. When the missionary is sick, the school is closed. If he visits the distant fairs and festivals, the churches suffer, and the adversaries blaspheme. "See! these missionaries" (say they, and we now quote language used within the last six months at more than one station)" are here to-day, and gone to-morrow. See what comes of their schools and preaching! But our temple stands where it did ages ago, and our priests will never fail." Add to all this, that the missionary, being alone, is left without advisers or friends. If discouraged, there is none to comfort him; if maligned, none to defend his character, or prove his innocence; if tempted, none to warn and counsel. This picture is in no part too darkly coloured, for even in the past year facts have occurred which furnish the originals from which it is taken. And if no such facts had occurred, there is enough in human nature, in common prudence, and in the example and precepts of our Lord, to justify the decision, that to maintaim important stations, so densely peopled and so widely scattered as ours, with only one missionary at each, is little better than to abandon them. Besides, ought we not to be ready to avail ourselves of the openings which Providence may present? At Saugor, Mr. Makepeace has within reach nearly two millions of people who are without the gospel. At Madras, Mr. Page has implored the Committee to send missionaries to the scores of thousands in his vicinity, who are waiting to receive the truth. Stations left vacant by death necessarily remain vacant for a year or more before new agents can be sent, and in the mean time the people are scattered, and years are required to regain what has been lost. This view of the inadequacy of our labours in India, is no less true of Africa. Each station in that unhealthy climate has but one European missionary, and each missionary is printer, translator, builder, and physician. Two missionaries at each station are required, both by the necessities of the case and by the very success with which God is beginning to crown our exertions. In Haiti, Mr. Webley is still alone, and has suffered much from ill health; while, of course, the station has suffered too. Is it saying too much to affirm, that the mission claims of the church ampler funds and additional agents, if only to occupy the posts which are already won? Let not these remarks be misunderstood. Our plea is not for aid to save a sinking cause from ruin, an exhausted treasury from bankruptcy; it is for means to meet the necessities of an enterprise that lives in the heart of Him who became poor that he might make rich the tens of thousands who support it; an enterprise which God has crowned with large success, and which is identified with the glory of Christ and the eternal interests of our race. The Committee cannot close these remarks on the claims of the mission without adverting to one topic more of paramount importance. They have spoken in previous years of the value of systematic effort in the work of missions, and they would speak no less decisively now. The co-operation of all our churches on behalf of the Society, and of all the members of our churches, the Committee would hail as a token for good, both to the heathen and to the churches themselves. They have also enlarged on the importance of prayer in this work of prayer proportioned to our exertions, and to the admitted urgency of the case; and upon this topic they are prepared to enlarge again. Discouragements and success alike point to it. It is our refuge and our safety in both. But, to these suggestions of systematic effort and of a prayerful spirit, the Committee would add another. We need deeper earnestness in our great work, and a spirit of deeper devotedness to it, especially in its spiritual aspects and bearings. The appeal on this point is of course to the friends of the Society, and the Committee make it no less earnestly to themselves and to their brethren abroad. We give and we pray for the conversion of a guilty world, for the extension of the Saviour's glory: but is the desire in which these gifts and prayers originate a ruling passion? We may have learning, and funds, and worldly respectability-a mighty host and a sound creed; but if there be wanting that ardour of mingled pity and love, that holy earnestness which agonizes before God and with men, the passion which Paul more than once expressed for the salvation of the Gentiles and of Israel, and which is required to concentrate all our influences upon the conversion of sinners, we shall fail. The effective force of a Christian church depends, after all, rather upon its spirit than upon its numbers. It is not the magnitude of the moving body, so much as its velocity, that gives it power. A few holy men, burning with apostolic zeal, will do more than millions of nominal, cold-hearted Christians. The little church at Jerusalem, formed by the Son of God, and richly endued with spiritual influence, struck more powerfully upon the conscience of a slumbering world than whole nations of Protestant Christendom in a later age. The legalized wickedness of various countries fell before it; nor could the world, though roused to opposition by unrighteous and adverse influences, resist the spirit and wisdom by which it spake. And is not the spirit of that early church needed among us, and needed now? This question, however, is rather for the friends and agents of the Society to consider before God. The Committee can but indicate their own feeling, and implore Him whose glory they seek to pour his Spirit first upon the thirsty, in preparation for yet richer effusions upon the dry ground. "God be merciful unto us and bless us, that thy way may be known upon the earth, thy saving health among ALL NATIONS." V.-FUNDS. The Committee refer to the state of the funds of the Society with much concern. The Society's year was commenced with a deficiency of £5234 5s. 5d., the accumulation of several years. Towards the liquidation of this deficiency, special donations have been received to the amount of £4094 6s. 9d., leaving a balance due on the old account of £1139 18s. 8d. The income of the Society for the year available for ordinary purposes has amounted to £15,828 13s. 10d., the smallest income for general purposes the Society has received since the Jubilee year, and a diminution, as compared with the average income of the last four years, of £2200; and as compared with last year, of nearly £2000. The expenditure for the support of missionaries and other purposes, as compared with 1847, shows a diminution of £2000; but as at least £18,000 is required for the support of the present agency of upwards of 200 missionaries and preachers, the whole of the deficiency in the income of the year, namely £2200, has to be added to the previous debt of the Society. In Africa the expenditure has been increased in consequence of the return to Africa of the "Dove," by about £600. Most of this amount, however, belongs to next year. In India, again, the expenditure is increased by a similar sum. The present debt of the Society is therefore explained as follows:- £1140 Diminution of income arising from legacies and donations Diminution of receipts from foreign auxiliaries and temporary increase of expenses in Africa 2500 1300 £4940 It is important to add, that the diminution of income is owing to a diminution in legacies and in donations. In legacies the diminution is about £800, and in donations about £1700; the diminution in the latter item being owing in part to the special effort on behalf of the debt. The Committee thankfully acknowledge the following donations of £50 and upwards, not inclusive of donations towards the Debt. |