ART. VIII.-The Results of Missionary Labour in India. By the Rev. JOSEPH MULLENS. London: W. H. Dalton. How can Christianity be naturalised in India? from the Calcutta Christian Observer.

Reprinted

Proceedings of a General Conference of Bengal Protestant Missionaries. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press.

THE rising in India, calamitous as it has been, has at least produced one manifest good effect. It has awakened a real interest in the country which has been the theatre of it. And something of the kind was, as all must confess, most urgently needed; for although as members of the state we professed to govern India, and as members of the church we aspired to christianise it, it is very well known that neither in the one capacity nor in the other, have we shewn a remarkable amount of zeal or intelligence. As after the late peace, however, we found our knowledge of the shores of the Black Sea and the interior of the Russian Empire considerably increased, so we may hope that after the pacification of the north-western provinces, we shall find ourselves a good deal better acquainted than we have been with our fellow-subjects in Hindustan.

One of the subjects connected with India about which information much requires to be more extensively diffused, is that of Missions. While ministers and laymen may be found here and there who have kept themselves thoroughly up to the times on this matter, it is notoriously the fact that the great majority of both know little or nothing about it. They may read, indeed, the annual report published by the society or committee with which their own denomination is specially connected, and perhaps be able to tell the names and locations. of the individual labourers who have gone forth from among themselves; but as for giving you even a general view of the history and progress of the work in the country as a whole, they are no more fit to do that than to describe the status quo of the revolutionary movement in China. We speak advisedly when we bring this charge against the brethren; and if we thus talk aloud of a fact which we cannot help considering a disgraceful one, in place of passing it by in decorous silence, it is just that it may be seen how reasonably church and state may unite in a common confession of shortcoming, and how much need not only the one but the other also has to turn over a new leaf in regard to its policy in the East.

The present, all will allow, is a time when the friends of Missions in India ought to pause, and, after the manner of mercantile men, take a deliberate view of the state of their af

fairs. From the date of the suppression of the mutiny, the enterprise must, in many respects, take a fresh start. New stations will be opened. New plans will be tried. New men will be sent out; and as we have now the experience of a century and a half to go back upon, the minds of Christian men here ought to be turned, not merely to such isolated points as the relation of government to idolatry, the building of memorial churches, and the multiplication of bishops, but to the whole subject of the nett results and actual prospects of Indian missionary work, with the view of re-entering upon it with the hope of increased efficiency and success.

This paper is intended as a contribution towards a general review of the field. Other authorities will be freely referred to besides those named at the head of the article, but we make the three pamphlets, of which the titles are given above, the special text of our remarks, because they deal directly with the subjects of which we are about to treat. "The Results of Missionary Labour in India" by Mr Mullens, is an admirable summary of facts. The writer is neither so sanguine in his temperament as to make the work done seem greater than it is, nor yet is he so dark and desponding as unduly to depreciate its success. You feel in coming into contact with him that you have to do with a thoroughly sober, judicious, and trustworthy witness, who, having been gifted with a natural genius for statistics, has turned the talent to account and rendered a real service to the cause with which he is himself identified. The "Letter to the Christian Observer," discusses chiefly the subject of the future of Christianity in India. Its author has a decided opinion of his own, and states it in strong, fearless, and, one might almost say at times, violent language. He would differ very considerably from Mr Mullens, probably, as to the prospects of the enterprise, but he is, we suppose, a missionary himself, and as such has had his own opportunities for judging. As an independent witness, therefore, his testimony in a matter of such interest is not to be lightly rejected. The work, however, of most value in the list is the "Report of the Proceedings of the Calcutta Conference." This conference was held in September 1855, for four successive days, and was attended by fifty-five persons, all of whom were missionaries, with the exception of eight, and these eight were either themselves ministers, or were intimately connected in some way or other with the work of Christ in India. The plan adopted for conducting the business was a very excellent one. First, at the commencement of each sederunt a paper was read on some pre-arranged subject of practical importance, then followed a general conversation on the views advanced in the paper, and last of all, a resolution was passed embodying the deliberate

opinion of those present on the points which had been submitted to them. In this way we have the sentiments of a variety of men, qualified to give an opinion in regard to such matters, on "The progress made by Christian Missions in Bengal," "Preaching the Gospel in the Native Tongues," "English Missionary Education," "The Influence of the system of Indigoplanting on the spread of Christianity," &c. And the reader, in the view of this, may judge for himself as to the interest and value of the minutes. We cannot review the different sittings in detail, but throughout this paper we shall make constant use of the information furnished in the course of them.

In proceeding to speak of the effects produced in India by the labours of Christian missionaries, we are very well aware of the peculiar delicacy and difficulty attendant on the making of a proper estimate. Every one who gives himself to the study of the subject will soon become sensible that he has to deal with two distinct and widely differing sets of witnesses. One set, which we may call the over-sanguine, see every thing through the bright light of their own wishes, and, interpreting in the most favourable way, any encouraging symptoms which may present themselves, are disposed to take a manifestly exaggerated view of the progress which has been made; while another set, to which we may apply the epithet of over-suspicious, looking too exclusively at the duplicity of the Hindu character, and at the well-known fact that, as a consequence of that, profession means much less in India than it does anywhere else, shew an inclination as unduly to depreciate the results which have been achieved. It thus happens that the very same facts have a deep significance for some, while for others they have positively no significance at all. The Rev. J. Stubbins

of Cuttack for example, in his essay on vernacular preaching, supposes two missionaries to come to exactly opposite conclusions in view of exactly the same circumstances. "You will sometimes," says he, "find a congregation like so many statues, just as uninterested and unfeeling. They are silent, they do not oppose, and this to a novice might be very pleasing. He might go to his tent and write in his journal: Large congregation-very attentive-no opposition-may the impression left be deepened!" Whereas any one knowing how the matter really stood would more properly write: 'Dead! Dead! all dead; no feeling, no impression; when shall these dry bones live?" And we have ourselves heard very similar statements made in regard to the apparent willingness of the people to accept of tracts. In many reports this has been made much of, as if it indicated a decided design on their part to become

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acquainted with the gospel, while the truth of the matter is, that a miscellaneous crowd in a bazaar will accept any other thing, even a handful of valueless fruit, with equal eagerness. Remembering then, that there are extremes on either side into which we run a constant risk of falling, we wish, while stating with sufficient fulness the actual fruits of missionary effort, rather to keep within the truth than even seem to go beyond it.

Mr Mullens, as Secretary to the Calcutta Conference, opened the proceedings by reading an introductory paper on the Re sults of Missions in Bengal. There he adopts a very simple classification, which we shall take the liberty of applying to the larger subject of the results of Missions in India, and, first, we shall look at what he calls the final or complete effects, under which denomination he includes the conversions which have taken place, the native churches which have been founded, and the native agents who have been educated and ordained.

At the commencement of 1852, there were in communion with the native churches in India and Ceylon, 18,410 persons. In these churches, however, the terms of admission very decidedly varied. In many cases, nothing more was required as a condition of membership than renunciation of idolatry, and an outward conformity to the precepts of the Bible. Not more than 5400 of the entire body were received into the Church after they had given satisfactory evidence that they had undergone a radical change of heart. Still, it would not be correct to say that this last figure represents the whole number of true converts in Hindustan. Among the remaining thirteen thou sand there may be many as genuine Christians as in the narrower and more select communions; and even beyond the pale of the nominally Christian population altogether, there is reason to believe that not a few cherish the truth in their hearts, though the unparalleled difficulties lying in the way of an open profession of it prevent their being taken account of in missionary statistics. That this last class is, in all probability, a numerous one, we find members of the Conference asserting again and again. “Ought we not, in fairness," says the Rev. T. Smith, "to add a number, which he believes to be very large, who may have been savingly converted to God, but who have not had courage to profess their faith before men." "I feel," says Mr Ewart, "that Mr Smith was quite right in what he said at our meeting yesterday. Two remarkable instances of the kind were communicated to Mr Wylie by myself some years ago, and published by him in a pamphlet regarding the influence of the Bible. I have no manner of doubt that these two brothers died in the faith of Christ, and that they were accepted through him." "I have been asked," says the

Rev. B. Geidt of Burdwan, "by one of my scholars, a young Brahman, lying on his deathbed, to pray to Jesus for the salvation of his soul. His trust was only in him." These testimonies are very cheering. They give clear ground for the hope that even in this direction missions in India have been much more successful than from statistical reports they would appear to have been. Besides, another thing which ought to be taken account of in estimating the direct accessions to the Church of Christ, is that, since the Danish Mission was founded in the beginning of last century, success to a larger or less extent has constantly attended the efforts of every society, and the result has been the gathering together of a cloud of witnesses, which is even now compassing about those of their faithful fellow countrymen who are yet running the Christian race. The extraordinary progress made in southern India, for example, even from the very first, gives us reason to believe that from among the nations of Hindustan, not a few have already entered into eternal life. Thus the whole number baptized there from 1706 to 1756 amounted to 11,000; and although the announcement of such an amount of fruit does not convey quite so much satisfaction to our minds as would a similar statement coming, say, from the Scotch missionaries of Calcutta (the principles of admission to sealing ordinances being with Schwartz and his fellow-labourers a good deal more lax than we would consider legitimate), still there are various things which tend strongly to confirm the conviction that the success may, to a large extent, have been not only apparent but real. One circumstance which may, in part at least, be accepted as evidence of that, is the marked superiority of Madras in respect of Christian progress, over every other province of India, even at the present day. Leaving Ceylon out of the reckoning, fully two-thirds of the 18,000 church members of India are located within this district of the country. The contrast between Bombay and Madras is particularly striking. In the former, there were in 1852 only two hundred and eighty-nine communicants. In the latter, at the same time, there were as many as ten thousand six hundred and sixty-two. The missionary enterprise must have taken a strong hold upon a place to produce such a result. Making every allowance for the favourable character of the field, and for the swelling of the list with questionable names, the actual state of southern India abundantly proves that the Danish Mission was an eminently successful one, in the highest sense of the word; and larger, therefore, than many suppose, perhaps, was the number of souls saved through its instrumentality. The amount of direct fruit, however, the number of genuine conversions, the sum-total of souls saved, must remain