Fruits of Toil in the London Missionary Society | Page 3

the state of the Society's finances, the Special Committee recommended, in strong terms, not only that some reduction should be made in the expenditure, but that the character of that expenditure should be carefully examined. They recommended that the Board should take full advantage of the opportunity furnished by the present crisis, for placing the entire system of payments in their Foreign Missions upon the soundest footing, and for determining the principles by which those payments shall be regulated. The Directors accepted these suggestions, and since then the three Foreign Committees, into which the London Board is divided, have devoted much attention to the system of their Foreign Missions.
In the case of each of the Missions examined, they carefully laid down the principles applicable to the condition of the Native churches; the forms of missionary labour among the heathen; the number and work of the Society's missionaries; the number and labours of Native agents engaged in purely mission work; and the state of education. The present scale and details of expenditure were examined; and then, to every element of the system an APPROPRIATION for the year was made of that amount of money which, in the judgment of the Directors, the Society could justly spare from the funds which they have at their command. A Schedule of these allowances in every group of Missions was next drawn out, exhibiting the sums available for the expenditure of the year, and was forwarded to the Mission concerned. And finally, a special DESPATCH which accompanied the Warrants, was written to the members of every Mission, in order to explain in the fullest manner the views of the Directors respecting that Mission, and the form which, in their judgment, the aid of the Society should for the future assume. Again, while the Society enjoys the services of a large number of able, conscientious, and spiritual men, as devoted as ever their predecessors were to missionary work, it was seen to be essential to their fullest efficiency, that they should be brought into closer union with each other abroad, and with the system of the Society at home; that the personal comfort of the mission families should be more fully secured under the changed circumstances of modern days; and that the experience of each field of labour should be so wrought into the general system as to prove a helper to all the rest.
The result of the system to the Society's finances has been economy, compactness, and strength. While in several cases the personal income of the missionaries has been increased, yet, by limiting the amount of the Native agency to be employed in evangelistic work; by reducing the help hitherto granted to the Native Christians for their incidental expenditure; and by enforcing economy in all minor matters at home as well as abroad; the Board have been able to bring down the total expenditure of the Society to a point much nearer the range of the Society's ordinary income than it has for several years past. They have provided, however, only for the necessities of their present operations. They need a larger income still, if the friends of the Society would wish them to undertake that extension of their Missions into new fields which the world needs, for which the missionaries earnestly plead, and which they themselves are most anxious to secure. The effect of the system on certain of the Native churches has been a most healthy one. As hoped for, it is beginning to stimulate them to manliness, and to a more earnest consecration, not only of their means, but of their personal service to the Saviour's work.

III.--THE SOCIETY'S PRESENT OPERATIONS.
The revision now described has furnished materials for exhibiting, in a more complete form than usual, the present agencies of the Society, and some of the results with which its labours have been blessed. In a few of the older Missions of the Society, the duty of instructing the heathen has been almost complete; the population are nominally Christian, and in most of these communities there is a strong nucleus of spiritual life in a valuable body of Church members. This is the case in Polynesia, in the West Indies, and in many stations in South Africa. Around many strong churches in Madagascar, in India, and in China, the sphere of heathenism is still very large. Several stations in those Missions--well planted for the influence required of them--may now be occupied by the Native minister instead of the English missionary. The number of chief stations in all the Missions is 130.
The NATIVE CHURCHES of the Society are 150 in number. They contain 35,400 members: in a community of nominal Christians, young and old, amounting to 191,700 persons. Of these, nearly 13,000 are in Polynesia; nearly 5,000 in the West Indies; over 5,000