Lectures on the Tinnevelly Missions. Robert Granville Caldwell
of the Germans for the evangelization of India puts us to still greater shame. It is considered as a matter of course that the Germans should know more about the antiquities of India, as of every other country, than we do ; but if so " prac tical " a people as we are should be left behind by the Germans in so practical a work as the propagation of the Gospel in our own territories, it would justly be considered, not as a matter of course, but as a national disgrace.
What, then, are the facts 1 The small and poor Basle Mis sionary Society employs 27 Missionaries in India ; the smaller and poorer Leipsic and Berlin-Gossner Societies, 34 ; and 38 Germans are employed by English Societies, most of them by the Church Missionary Society. Thus, in all 99 Germans are labour ing as Missionaries in India ; and though nearly half of that number are supported by English funds, yet surely to give men, for such a cause, especially such men as many of them are, is a greater proof of interest in it than to give money. Leaving out of account whence their support is derived, leaving also out of account their present ecclesiastical connexion, and looking only at the country where they were born and bred, and where they received their first missionary impulse, I find that there is a larger number of Germans labouring as Missionaries in the British possessions in India than of English-born members of the Church of England. Can any member of the Church of England can any Englishman feel satisfied with this state of things?
It is a token for good that the funds of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, as those of her sister, the Church Mis sionary Society, are steadily increasing. Our income for the last year (1856) exceeded that of the previous year by 3,000?., and the previous year's income exceeded that of the one before by 15,0001. It is now possible, therefore, for the Society to do :nore for India. I arn aware that our ever-increasing colonies have the first claim upon its assistance ; but, notwithstanding that admis sion, I greatly regret that the number of its Missionaries and the amount of its expenditure in India have hitherto borne so very small a proportion to the work which is to be accomplished. Few of our friends are aware how far we have been left behind in the race by other Societies. In 1856, leaving out of account sums raised and expended in India, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel expended on Indian Missions 19,000?., of which 2,800?. were absorbed by Bishop's College, Calcutta. This is no doubt, a considerable sum, and it betokens the existence of a considerable degree of interest in the welfare of India ; but it shrinks into less imposing dimensions when compared with the amounts expended by other Societies. Leaving out, as before, sums raised in India, the Church Missionary Society expended during the same period on Indian Missions 44,000?., the London Missionary Society 20,500?., and even the American Board of Missions one of the two American Societies labouring in India 17,000?. May I not reasonably wish that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel the oldest of all our Societies stood higher in the scale ? The Society would be delighted to have it in its power to expend more ; but it can expend only what it receives. If its friends would open their hearts and hands, and promote its cause with a more affectionate zeal, and if the number of its friends should be increased, we should undoubtedly be enabled to move forward ; but if otherwise, in answer to the cry of India, " Come over, and help us," the Society will be obliged to send out, not Missionaries, but regrets.
I am happy to say that this fear has been dispelled, and that the aid I hoped for has been granted. Within a month after I gave expression in the Colonial Church Chronicle to these regrets and hopes, the Financial Committee of the /Society for the Pro pagation of the Gospel reported upon a plan for the expenditure of the Society's increased income, and an additional grant of 3,000?. a year, for three years, was voted for the extension of Indian Missions. Thus whilst Providence is so loudly calling upon us to go forward, whilst new openings for usefulness are daily pre senting themselves to us, we shall no longer be under the necessity of abandoning our outposts and narrowing the circle of our use fulness, as we had latterly been obliged to do in India, but will be enabled, I trust, to follow whither Providence leads.
I am truly thankful to record this improvement in the Society's position, and I trust that it is not only in itself a considerable step in advance, but a sign and pledge of progressive improve ment. All that has been accomplished as yet may be described as only a promising beginning. More has been done in Tinne- velly than in any other province in India, and yet very much remains to be done before all Tinnevelly is Christianized. 43,000 souls have been brought under Christian instruction in that one province, but more than 1,200,000 souls remain in darkness still ! It is frequently our duty still, in the ordinary course of our labours in Tinnevelly, within the limits even of our Missionary parishes, to pass through village after village, teeming with a busy population, in which all classes of society " old men and maidens, young men and children," vie with each other, not in praising and serving God, but in praising and serving devils. Much remains to be done atao before every Indian province, or even every province in the Madras Presidency, becomes a Tiune- velly ; for, with the exception of the three or four most southern provinces, Southern India has witnessed no greater Missionary progress than the Presidencies of Bengal and Bombay. Even in Southern India I could mention twelve or thirteen Zillahs or provinces, each with an average population of nearly a million of souls, in all which there is not a single Missionary of the Church of England. In most of those provinces there are one or two Missionaries of other societies ; but in the Hyderabad country, which is connected with Madras in ecclesiastical matters, though politically connected with Bengal, and in which there is a popu lation of ten millions, the great majority of them Telugu people and heathens, there is not a single European Missionary connected with any Protestant communion. There is an excellent native Missionary labouring there, a Missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel ; but lie can scarcely be regarded as a Missionary to the people of the country. Being himself a Tamil man, he was sent on a special mission to the Tamil people who have settled as domestic servants to the Europeans, and as camp followers in the principal military cantonment; yet the appoint ment of that solitary native Missionary is all that has been done for the propagation of Christianity in the territories of the Nizam. To hope to dispel the darkness of ten millions of heathens and Mahometans by an isolated effort like that, is surely little better than if we should hope to illuminate London by means of a single candle stuck upon the top of St. Paul's !
I trust, however, that more will soon be done for India in general, and more also for Tinnevelly, to which my own mind naturally reverts when I think of the future. Supposing the congregations already gathered in in Tinnevelly, able to stand alone without foreign aid, which I hope they will, ere long, be able to do, it will then become only more clearly our duty and a delightful duty it will be to lengthen our cords, and strengthen our stakes, and endeavour to gather in more and more of the surrounding heathenism. Hinduism, which wears a calm and tolerant face when it fears no danger, has recently shown, by its combination with Mahometan fanaticism, and its ebullitions of persecuting rage, that it feels the grasp, and fears the power and progress of its Divine foe. A crisis now appears in the history of our Missions in India, and surely the appearance of such a crisis should stimulate the friends of Missions, and all who are desirous of the enlightenment and improvement of India, to help us with all their might. The Church Missionary Society has every year of late been devoting more and more of its funds and energies to India ; and now that I am about to return to the scene of my own labours, I am truly thankful to carry with me the hope and belief that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has also commenced to move forward. The additional grant which the Society has recently been enabled to make for the extension of Indian Missions, provides us with funds sufficient for a considerable advance in each of the Presidencies ; and now all that we want is an adequate supply of men of the proper sort. " The harvest truly is great, and the labourers are few ; " and without the help of additional labourers, men of piety, de- votedness, and energy, the harvest cannot be gathered in. " Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields ; for they are white already unto harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal." The real work of Missions, the work of winning souls to Christ, is a spiritual work, and can only be done by spiritual men. Living men alone are competent to place " living stones " in the wall of the spiritual temple. But such men are not to be purchased by money ; no organization, however perfect no ordination, however valid, can confer life. If we wish Christian men, animated by the living, loving Spirit of Christ, to be raised up and sent forth to do Christ's work in India, such men must be sought for in Christ's Spirit, and in accordance with Christ's commands,