Fruits of Toil in the London Missionary Society | Page 6

seminary at Malua, training the Native Teachers; Mr. EDKINS and Mr. MUIRHEAD penetrate the Mongolian desert, to inquire into the place and prospects of a Mission among the Tartar tribes; while Mr. JOHN, after completing the new Hospital, is isolated within a vast sea, the overflowings of the mighty Yangtze, which has drowned half the streets of Hankow. We see Mr. ASHTON and Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. COLES and Mr. BLAKE, Mr. HALL and Mr. RICE, surrounded by the hundreds of their students and scholars, diligent in daily English studies. We see the TRAVANCORE brethren in the midst of their many agents; advising pastors, instructing catechists, reading evangelists' journals, examining candidates, and auditing accounts; while, in their midst, Dr. LOWE and his seven students administer to their crowd of patients in the hospital that medicine which shall relieve their pain. Dr. MATHER re-edits the Hindustani Scriptures. The brothers STRONACH, fellow-labourers indeed in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ; still watch over the prosperous churches of Amoy, which they were honoured to found. In the midst of barbarism, Mr. MOFFAT carefully revises that Sichuana Bible of which he was the first translator. In the midst of civilization, after reading the proofs of the Chinese New Testament, Dr. LEGGE, consulting his learned pundits, dives deep into the ancient Chinese classics, and strives, by an erudite commentary, to make plain the early history of China. While Mr. LAWES, who describes himself as the "poet laureate" of Savage Island, after completing the New Testament, prepares the first Christian hymn book, for the use of the converts he has brought to Christ. Mr. THOMPSON, visiting the Missions in Cape Colony, drives with hard toil across the fiery dust of the Karroo desert; Mr. JANSEN and Mr. MUNRO, in their long canoe, traverse the gorgeous and silent forests of Guiana, to visit the little Mission among the Indians below the rapids of the Berbice. Mr. MURRAY, opportunely arriving in a screw steamer, prevents war among the Christians of Manua; Mr. CHALMERS, voluntary leader of the band of converts who keep the John Williams afloat, sticks by the vessel to the last, and, with his brave wife, refuses to quit the ship till she is anchored safe in Sydney harbor. While Mr. PHILIP, pastor and schoolmaster, doctor and lawyer, engineer and magistrate, of the flourishing Hottentot Christians of Hankey, when overturned in a ravine on a visit to his out-station, preaches to his people with a broken arm, rather than deprive them of that bread of heaven which they had come many miles to hear. Who would not rejoice and thank God for such men? Of the ninety Protestant Missionaries labouring in China, the five who stand first in public estimation for character, scholarship, and zeal are missionaries of this Society. Among the five hundred missionaries of India, not a few of our brethren occupy a high and honoured place; while in all other of the older Missions the men who with fidelity and zeal have steadily maintained their posts for twenty-five and thirty years are numerous, and are all held in honour. A just consideration of toil like this will show that never in the Society's history had the Directors greater reason to thank God for the grace bestowed upon their missionaries, or stronger ground for holding them in esteem as workmen not needing to be ashamed.
[Illustration: NAGERCOIL SEMINARY.]
[Illustration: SCHOOL-HOUSE, CUDDAPAH.]

V.--MISSIONARY STUDENTS.
While discussing, amongst other matters, the expense of the Society's Seminary at Highgate, the Special Committee suggested an inquiry into the question of the training of the missionary students generally. It was felt by them that the advanced position attained by our Missions in all parts of the world, gives to the missionary brethren, as a body, very great opportunities of usefulness. A large number of them are called to be superintendents of several churches and many native agents, to be counsellors of native pastors and missionaries, and tutors in theological seminaries. All the brethren in India and China may hold intercourse with Native scholars and priests, and have to defend truth and assail error by argument, spreading over a wide range of thought and knowledge. Several of them have charge of educational institutions of a high order, and are associated with Native ministers who are themselves men of superior education and position.
It is an injustice to our missionary brethren themselves to place them in such positions of weight and influence without giving them the opportunity of acquiring a complete fitness for the important duties which those positions involve. It is an injustice to the Society that the training of its missionaries should be incomplete. And it is an injustice to the Missions generally, should they be placed in the hands of men who are unable, from defective education, rightly to comprehend their claims, and