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THE ECCLESIASTICAL EXPANSION OF ENGLAND
THE
ECCLESIASTICAL EXPANSION OF ENGLAND
IN THE GROWTH OF
THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION
THE HULSEAN LECTURES FOR 1894-95
BY
ALFRED BARRY, D.D., D.C.L.
FORMERLY BISHOP OF SYDNEY AND PRIMATE OF AUSTRALIA AND TASMANIA
ILontion
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1895
All rights reserved
PREFACE
The one object of these Lectures — delivered on the Hulsean Foundation in 1894-95 — is to make some sHght contribution to that awakening of interest in the extraordinary reHgious mission of England, which seems happily characteristic of the present time.
The first thing needful is certainly to bring before our people some plain historical account of the actual facts and conditions of the case, — of the wonderful opportunities opened by God's Providence to our English Christianity, — of the extent to which, in various methods and degrees, they have been used for the propagation of His Gospel. There has been, and still is, a singular ignorance on these points, even among earnest and educated Christian men — corresponding, perhaps, to that ignorance of the world-wide scope of English influence and responsi- bility in the political sphere, which it has been of late the object of some of our most statesmanlike
VI HULSEAN LECTURES
writers to dispel. Even where there is knowledge of the subject, it is mostly of some one special development of missionary enterprise, without any comprehensive view of our mission as a whole, in the mutual relation of its various parts, and in their relation to Church life and thought at home.
In this volume I have therefore attempted to give some general outline of the threefold mission, which appears to me to be laid upon us. In the Lectures themselves I could only attempt to bring out some salient and characteristic features of the great subject ; and I have ventured accordingly — at the cost of some repetition — to subjoin three Appendices, giving in greater detail a continuous account of the growth of the work — first in the Colonial Expansion, next in our Indian and Oriental Mission, lastly in our relation to the uncivilized races, brought within our sphere of dominion or of influence.^ It seemed to me that the simple record was sufficient to bring home to our minds and our consciences some necessary lessons, both of warning and of encouragement.
The Lectures are addressed properly to my fellow - Churchmen, and therefore deal with the
^ An interesting sketch of the subject, on a somewhat difterent method, will be found in the Rev. Prebendary Tucker's English Chuvih in Other Lands, or the Spiritual Expansion of England.
PREFACE vii
religious expansion of England, mainl)- as it is exemplified in the growth of our own Church, now becoming the great Anglican Communion. For the study of the subject has forced upon me more and more a strong and even painful sense of the inadequacy of our efforts, to rise to the height of our great voca- tion, to use, as we should use, the spiritual leadership which belongs to us as the Church of England, and to bring to bear upon the work the almost inex- haustible resources, material and spiritual, which God has given us. Yet the time is acknowledged to be in every way a critical time, on which the welfare, and even the existence, of our Church as a National Church may depend. As in the lesser Britain at home, so in the Greater Britain of our world-wide Empire, the one thing needful for the Church at such a time is to prove the spiritual vitality and capacity of development, which are the signs of an authori- tative mission. Every day shows us more plainly that the two aspects of our work cannot be separate, perhaps can hardly be distinct from each other.
Now in the missionary sphere almost all has hitherto been left to our great voluntary Societies, and they have proved themselves nobly worthy of the charge. But we are beginning to see that, if the work
viii HULSEAN LECTURES
is to be worthily carried out, there must be some practical acknowledgment of the duty which lies upon the Church as a whole, and, as following from this, the missionary responsibility of all her members, as an integral part of their Church membership. How this is to be carried out without injury or discourage- ment to our existing agencies is a problem not yet solved, perhaps not yet ripe for solution. But it is much that the true ideal should be, as it has been of late, brought forcibly before the minds of Church- men. If it could be in any great degree realized, the missionary work of the Church would no longer be treated with indifference, as an extraneous and more or less fanciful enterprise, which it is a matter of option to take up or to ignore, or even viewed with some impatience, as likely to interfere with more urgent and more solid work at home.
It is in the hope of suggesting some serious thought on these subjects that these Lectures have been written. If that hope shall be in any degree fulfilled, it will be to me a cause of the deepest
thankfulness.
A. B.
The Cloisters,
Windsor Castle.
CONTENTS
LECTURE I
THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND
Spiritual Vitality a test of Spiritual Truth. — I. The Religious Expansion also Ecclesiastical — Its Analogies to the National Expansion — Its close connection with it — Its relation to our Religious Divisions — The Function in it of our own Church. — II. The three great Missions of the Church of Christ in the Past : the Conversion of the Empire ; the Conversion of the Barbarians ; the Building up of Christian Nations. — III. The three present Missions of our Church : in the Sphere of Colonial Expansion ; in the Mission to India and the East ; in the Conversion of the Lower Races. — IV. The Impulse to Missions given by Church Revivals at home — The Evangelical Revival — The High Church Movement — The Broad Church School. — V. Plea for missionary thought and sympathy in University Life . . . Page i
LECTURE II
THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE
I. The Colonial Expansion — Its free diversity and unity, both Civil and Ecclesiastical — The Impulse to Church Expansion due to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, both for the Colonists and the Subject Races. — II. The old North American Colonies — The growth under difficulties of the Colonial Church — The Dis- ruption— The Development of the Sister Church of America. —
HULSEAN LECTURES
III. The Colonies of British North America— The pecuUar condi- tions of growth of the Colonial Church — Its present condition and promise.— IV. The West Indian Settlements— Negro Evangeliza- tion and Emancipation — The present condition, Civil and Ecclesiastical. — V. The Australasian Colonies — Early conditions of settlement in Australia and marvellous subsequent growth — Similar History of Church Development — Different History of New Zealand — Present position and progress. — VI. The South African Colonies — Their peculiar difficulties in State and Church — The present position in both. — VII. The Lessons of Colonial Church Extension — Expansiveness of Anglicanism — Relation of Establishment to Church Life — Synodical Government and Lay Rights — Ideal of Church Unity in Federation — The Solidarity of the Work abroad and at home . . . Page 49
LECTURE III
OUR MISSION TO INDIA AND THE EAST
I. The fundamental difference of our Oriental from our Colonial Mission — Its relation to Native Religions — Its dependence on our Idea of Christianity. — II. (A) The earlier Forms of Christianity in India — (B) The Attitude of our Civil Power: first, in the early Days of Settlement ; next, during the first Period of Struggle for Empire; thirdly, from the Charter of 1813 to the close of the Dominion of the Company ; lastly, from the Imperial Proclamation of 1858 — (C) The early deadness of Missionary Spirit in the Church — The Evangelical Revival and Church Missionary Society — The rapid growth of Church Organization and Missionary Enterprise generally — The many hindrances — The undoubted advance and promise — The direct and indirect educational Work — The Overflow to the Straits, Burmah, and Borneo. — III. The relations to China and Japan, and our responsibilities to each — The earlier Christianity in Both — The later opportunities and action — The different P^unctions to be discharged in the two cases — The present position and prospect. — IV. The Relations in Western Asia to Persia and Turkey — Our Function of Aid and Brotherhood to the Ancient Churches, as in Palestine and Syria. — V. The true character of our Oriental Mission, and its Lessons to our Church Life at Home . . . . ■ lOi
CONTENTS XI
LECTURE IV
THE MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES
I. The Message of universal Brotherhood — Initiated and sustained by Christianity — ReaUzed under the P'atherhood of God — Harmonizing under itself all Influences of Civilization, and using all develop- ments of Natural Religion. — II. The Expansion from Colonial Centres — (A) To Indians and Negroes in North America and the West Indies— (B) To Aborigines, Chinese, and Pacific Islanders, from Australasia — (C) To the Native Tribes in and around the South African Colonies— (D) To the Native Races in and near our Indian Empire and its Dependencies. — III. The Independent Mission beyond the Sphere of our Dominion — Africa, its Paganism and Mohammedanism — The Slave-Trade and Liquor-Traffic — (A) In Western Africa — Sierra Leone, Yoruba, the Niger — (B) In Eastern Africa— The Church Missionary Society at Mombasa — The Universities' Mission — The Mission to Uganda — (C) The Melanesian Mission of the South Pacific. — IV. General Summary — The present condition and future promise of the Work, and its inestimable Importance to true Humanity. — V. The Position of the Church of England in it — Signs of Awakening — The right leader- ship of a University ..... Page i6i
APPENDIX I
OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE GROWTH OF THE
COLONIAL CHURCHES . . . . 213
APPENDIX II
THE EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST . 272
APPENDIX III
OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES . . 336
LECTURE I
THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND
Spiritual Vitality a Test of Spiritual Truth.— I. The Religious Expansion also Ecclesiastical — Its Analogies TO THE National Expansion— Its close Connection with it —Its Relation to our Religious Divisions— The Function IN it of our own Church.— IL The three great Missions of the Church of Christ in the Past : the Conversion of the Empire ; the Conversion of the Barbarians ; the Building Up of Christian Nations.— III. The three present Missions of our Church : in the Sphere of Colonial Expansion ; in the Mission to India and the East; in the Conversion of the Lower Races. — IV. The Impulse to Missions given by Church Revivals at Home— The Evangelical Revival— The High Church Movement —The Broad Church School.— V. Plea for Missionary Thought and Sympathy in University Life.
^
Lo ! i}iy brook became a river^ and my river became a sea.
EccLus. xxiv. 31.
In these words I find a vivid picture of that Eccle- siastical Expansion of England, of which in the Hulsean Lectures of this year I desire to speak — venturing to adopt with modification the title of that most striking work, proceeding from the historical Chair of this University, which has given to so many of us a new and grander view of the mission and destiny of our race/ In so doing I have no fear of departing from the original purpose of the Hulsean foundation — devoted as it is to the maintenance of Christian truth. For all spiritual truth expresses itself in spiritual vitality ; and of such vitality what
^ I had little idea, when I made this reference to Sir John Seeley's famous book, how soon its distinguished author would pass away, to the infinite loss, not only of the University, but of the whole English- speaking race, whom he had certainly roused to a more thoughtful and enthusiastic appreciation of their splendid inheritance.
4 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
can be a surer sign, than the capacity of the world- wide expansion which we have to trace — an expan- sion not only in length and breadth, but in depth and height ? As in the grand vision of Ezekiel,^ it is only the stream of living water, flowing from beneath the altar of God, which goes out, widening and deepening at once, so that "the brook becomes a river, and the river becomes a sea," which washes every shore of humanity.
I. I speak of ecclesiastical, not merely of religious expansion. For we need to remember, both theoretically and practically, that the Divine order of evangelization, which the Lord Jesus Christ was pleased to choose, has been, from the Day of Pentecost downwards, not merely the manifestation of a Divine truth, but the embodiment of that truth in the faith of a living society — living naturally, because it is a society of living men — living supernaturally, because these men are drawn together into the Indwelling Presence of a living Christ. This convic- tion is, of course, no new truth ; for it is written on every page of the New Testament. But — in singular
^ Ezekiel xlvii. 3-5 : " He measured a thousand cubits, . . . the waters were to the ancles. Again he measured a thousand, . . . the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, . . . the waters were to the loins. Afterward he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass over ; for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over."
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 5
accordance with that tendency of modern thought, which along all its lines pursues the historical method of study, and realizes accordingly through all ages the unity of a growing human society — it has been brought home with fresh emphasis to the religious thought of our own days. In relation both to the light of Christian truth and the indwelling life of Christian grace, it is not in the free energy of a simple individuality alone with God, but in the harmony of this sacred individuality with a no less sacred unity, that we have been taught to recognise the true force of evangelization of the world.
There are, it will be observed, many points of striking analogy between the expansion of our nation, and the expansion through English hands of the Church of Christ.
We note that in both the forward steps of advance are mostly due to some bold individual enterprise, throwing itself absolutely on the strength of a personal vocation ; or perhaps to some voluntary association of men, who, in respect of such enterprise, are of one mind and one soul. For this voluntary agency is the natural spring of free growth ; it is because of its special development in the English-speaking race that its dominion has extended in an unexampled degree over the world. But in either case it is the society — the nation or the Church — which, moving
6 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
more slowly and more strongly, organizes and establishes the conquests won. Hence, as the expansion in the civil sphere assumes the form of a great national federation, so the spiritual expansion is not a mere aggregation of individual souls or little religious communities, but the expansion which gradually absorbs these in the growth of one Church — a spiritual federation — Catholic in idea and pro- mise, and gradually advancing towards Catholicity in fact.
It follows naturally from this order of growth, that the advance in both expansions has been often all but unconscious — gradually moving on, perhaps half- reluctantly, under the sense of some immediate need and opportunity — not without anomalies and vicissi- tudes, and with but inadequate idea (except in some lucid intervals of statesman-like foresight) of the grandeur and comprehensiveness of its mission. What Sir John Seeley says of our national expansion, that " we seem, as it were, to have conquered and peopled half the world in a fit of absence of mind," has its application also to our Church progress. Its growth has not only been gradual and tentative ; but has been liable to constant intervals of apathy or timidity, and has sometimes been an almost uncon- scious yielding to an irresistible tendency. But these irregularities, although we look back upon them with
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 7
some excusable wonder and impatience, are really signs of a natural and living growth. Our action has been, not the creation of an artificial building, which is conceived as a whole, and which therefore stands out in a dead symmetry incapable of continued develop- ment, but the planting of a tree, which is always striking its root deeper in the soil of humanity, always spreading out its branches in picturesque irregularity, always rising higher towards the light and air of heaven.
We note, once more, that in both cases we seem only now to be awaking to any adequate conception of the solidarity of life and work, which belongs to us as a race, at home and abroad. The early stages of growth are perhaps naturally unconscious ; the period of maturity, although it is not incapable of further development, is the time of a more reflective self-consciousness. At such a period we have now certainly arrived. We are accordingly beginning to understand that the colonies and dependencies of the nation, and the colonial and missionary branches of the Church, are not excrescences, possessions, aggregations, but integral parts of the national and ecclesiastical life — to realize the truth already referred to, that extension is not the mere juxtaposition and connection of a congeries of separate communities, but a real, continuous, inevitable expansion of one
8 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
pervading unity. Many members there are, yet but one body, in which the life-blood, diffused from the central heart, is returned to stimulate and strengthen it again. It has been shown brilliantly, in the book to which I have referred, how true this is in respect of the nation and the race. Not less true, and (as I trust) increasingly recognised, is this same law of expansion in respect of the spiritual life of the Church. Nay, as in the lesser Britain of old, so in the Greater Britain of the present, there are, as we shall see, cases, in which the recognition of unity through the Church has preceded and aided its recognition in the life of the whole commonwealth.
Nor is the closeness of this analogy strange ; for it depends on a close actual connection between the two developments. The expansion of the Church of Christ through English hands has been, in most cases, simply the following up of the unexampled expansion of commerce, dominion, intellectual and moral civilization, which has been granted to Eng- land, and which has made the English-speaking race one of the great ruling factors in the present and future history of the world. We know that at home our English Christianity has been inseparably bound up with all our higher English life ; history tells us that the Church has been here a chief factor in the building up of our national unity, even while she has
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 9
witnessed for the higher and grander unity, in which all peoples and languages are one. So we have felt that it must be in the greater Britain of our world- wide expansion. True it is that, as Tertullian once showed how the Cross of Christ had outstripped even the eagles of Roman dominion, so now we rejoice to see that the forlorn hopes of the army of the Lord have planted His banner beyond even the wide circle of English influence. But, as a rule, the mission of the Church has been to interpenetrate with a diviner life and unity the ever -widening sphere of English power and responsibility. So in the splendid vision to which I have already referred, the divine stream from the altar of God mingles with the great river of Israel, so that the combined waters become a life-giving flood, filling with luxuriance of vegetable and animal life what else would be but a dead and barren sea.^
It is, indeed, only too clear, that this principle of a right harmony or coincidence in national and ecclesiastical expansion is greatly marred, as to its full development, by the religious divisions which break up our English Christianity. If, even in the main, there could have been a practical realization of that old Anglican ideal, which made the nation and the Church coextensive — recognising, indeed, the
^ Ezekiel xlvii. 7-12.
lo HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
unity of the one as natural and of the other as spiritual, but taking it for granted that, as all Englishmen were born into the one, so they would be, as a matter of course, born again into the other — then the religious expansion of England would have gone on without difficulty or complication. The nation, as a nation, would have avowed, and practically expressed, its Christianity. The Church would have embodied the truth of the Gospel in the growth of a spiritual society, covering the whole area of English dominion.
To some extent, as we shall see, this was so in the earliest ages of extension. But now, of course, the division of our English Christianity into separate religious Communions, as it is one chief hindrance to the reality of its national influence at home, so necessarily, by impairing the unity, checks the natural progress, of expansion abroad. The nation is afraid or reluctant to take any decided religious action. The Church, although she can never ignore her universal responsibility, finds herself practically but one of many " denominations," each of which pursues its own separate method of evangelization, with the certainty of a waste of spiritual strength, and the danger of mutual interference and even collision. Abroad she has nothing, or next to nothing, of that " Establishment " which recognises
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND ii
in her a certain spiritual leadership ; and, although something of this leadership may devolve upon her by force of circumstances, or may be freely conceded to her, yet any claim of it as matter of right would be jealously resisted.
It may be asked whether, under these con- ditions, there can be ecclesiastical expansion, pro- perly so called. The answer must be that, in spite of these unhappy divisions, the old and true idea is so far preserved, that everywhere the progress of the Gospel is inseparably connected with the growth of some religious Communion. From time to time, indeed, efforts have been made to obliterate these religious divisions in an " undenominational " evangelization ; but, except for a time, and under some special circumstances, these efforts have naturally borne but little fruit. For an " undenominational Christianity " — although it is not an unreal and lifeless thing — although, indeed, there are conditions, under which we may have to accept it and use it — is clearly not accord- ant with the ideal of the New Testament, and is not the Christianity which conquered the world. It is one thing to recognise that, when our unhappily divided Communions do God's work freely, each in its own way, there results by a " natural (or super- natural) selection " a large measure of common
12 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
teaching on the essentials of the faith ; it is another to attempt to bring out that common element artificially, by cutting off on every side whatever this denomina- tion or that would reject, and either disconnecting that which remains from the life of any religious Com- munion, or making it, almost inevitably, the nucleus of a new " undenominational Church." We come nearer to the true ideal by recognising the spiritual importance even of our divided religious Communions, and trusting, on the great essentials of the faith, to a spiritual unity underlying these divisions, than by disconnecting Gospel teaching and Church com- munion, and so, in respect of corporate Christian life, " making a solitude and calling it peace." Mean- while we have to mitigate, as far as possible, the disintegrating effect of our divisions now, and to strive and pray for some fuller reunion hereafter.
Now, in these lectures, I must be content to speak in the main of the ecclesiastical expansion, simply as it is exemplified in the growth of what we have learnt to call the Church of the Anglican Communion.
It is not because I forget or ignore for a moment the extension of our English Christianity through other religious Communions. There are departments of the work for God, in which they have un- doubtedly taken the lead. In celerity and energy
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 13
of work, in liberality and earnestness of devotion, in the actual fruitfulness of their labours under God's blessing, they have often put the Church to shame. Nor can we fail to see that, on the one hand, the strong organization and government of the great Roman Communion, and, on the other, the free un- trammelled energy of Nonconformity, have some advantages for rapid progress, which cannot attach to our more complex and comprehensive system. In such progress, however and by whomsoever it is made, we rejoice. We thank God that, in spite of this waste of spiritual force and development of spiritual friction — in spite, moreover, of the perplexity and scandal caused by the unhappy manifestation of the religious divisions of Christendom before the won- dering or scoffing heathen — He has been pleased to bless all our separated and disintegrated efforts with abundant blessing, beyond what we either desire or deserve. But, even if it were not a hopeless task to attempt any survey of the whole missionary work of our English Christianity, I should still feel that it is the work of our own Church, which calls for our special thought, simply because it belongs to our special responsibility. That responsibility is great and obvious. As the Branch of the Catholic Church, which for more than twelve centuries has had its mission in this land.
14 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
and has accordingly rooted itself deep in the spiritual soil, — as the National Church, which has been closely bound up with our whole history, and has been in it the chief representative of a national Christianity, — it is clear that the Church of England has a vocation of responsibility here, which can attach to no other religious Communion. She can- not ignore it, or devolve it upon others. When, as in our great colonies, the vast area of territory is mapped out into her ecclesiastical parishes, there is in this not a claim of spiritual dominion, but an acknowledgment of her duty of universal service. We shall, indeed, be forced to see how in many branches of this work she has risen but slowly and inadequately to her vocation ; but we may fairly hope that in this matter, as in others, she is at last beginning to assert something of her proper leader- ship, and to show the peculiar power, which she un- doubtedly has, of moving, not one class or section, but the whole of English society. Nor can I doubt — what, indeed, loyalty to our own principles must suggest — that in the long run it is in the extension of her Communion — with its harmony of evangelical truth and apostolical order — with its unequalled comprehensiveness of opinion and faith — with its acknowledgment of freedom and divergence in detail, upon the old lines of the Catholic faith and
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 15
organization — that there is the surest hope of a right ecclesiastical expansion of England over the length and breadth of the earth. For in all these things we may trace, in a higher sphere, the very same characteristics, which, in respect of political and social progress, have made the English - speaking race — even beyond other races not inferior in char- acter and civilization — the great conquerors and colonizers of the world.
II. But before we consider this expansion in any detail, it is beyond all else necessary to realize, more clearly and vividly than we are wont to do, the extraordinary scope of that duty of Evangel- ization, which by God's Providence has been laid upon our English Christianity, and (as I have said) especially upon our English Church. It has always seemed to me to combine in one comprehensive duty the three chief phases of mission, laid succes- sively upon the ancient Church, each of which wrought itself out through centuries of gradual progress.
The first phase was what we know as the Con- version of the Empire — the growth of the Divine Seed, as sown in the soil of an ancient civilization, to become the great tree overshadowing the earth. The three main threads of that ancient civilization — the intellectual and artistic culture of Greece, the
i6 IIULSEAN LECTURES lect.
Splendid order of Roman law and dominion, the strong and luxuriant vitality of Oriental religion, seeking everywhere earnestly after God, and finding Him, clearly if imperfectly, in the revelation to Israel — were laid hold of, and bound firmly round the Cross of Christ, as the Revealer of truth, the King of men, the Saviour of the soul. For all in various ways, although they knew it not, were pre- paring for Him, and were thirsting for that which He alone could give. The task of Christianity here was not to create, but to regenerate, human society. It had accordingly, first, to breathe a new vitality into philosophies and organizations and religions which were decaying or dead, to regenerate to a higher life all the natural ties which bind society together, and so to assimilate, while it exalted and purified, all the elements of true civilization. It had next to create a new and diviner unity in the Catholic Church, bound together and living by spiritual ties — one in essence, yet capable of manifold development in faith and life and organ- ization— gradually expanding till it became coex- tensive with the whole community, not without a struggle with the old order, which it thus inter- penetrated, but a struggle which after some four centuries ended in harmony.
Hardly was this task accomplished, the vision of
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 17
Constantine fulfilled, the bitter enmity of the Empire changed into submission or alliance ; hardly was the truth of the Gospel asserted in the age of the Councils, against wild Gnostic theories, and rationalisms of heresy denying one side or the other of the Divine Mystery ; when a new phase of missionary duty dawned upon the Church in the conversion of those whom we roughly call the barbarian races — by their continual incursions breaking up in the West the fabric of Roman Empire, and yet in most cases capable of receiving from it the germs of a new civilization. Of that civilization the old Roman law and order, no doubt, supplied the frame- work ; but the spirit, which gave life to this organ- ization, was unquestionably the spirit of Christianity. The kingdom which St. Augustine in the very agony of the dying Empire saw rising out of its ruins — the kingdom which confronted Alaric, which was impersonated in Leo and Gregory, which con- verted the Goths and Franks, and moulded the new Western Empire of Charles the Great — was the Church as the Kingdom of God. The conquerors of the old kingdom bowed their proud necks, and became subjects of the new. To win the victory over these unconquerable races, and to infuse through them fresh blood into the effete body of
C
i8 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
Roman civilization, was not only a tremendous task, on the whole splendidly performed, but it was altogether a new one. It was at once to civilize and to Christianize ; to create written lan- guages and literatures, in order to speak in and through them the Divine truth ; to draw those who, like all barbarians, were isolated and mutu- ally antagonistic, into the Catholic unity of a Christendom ; to confront and temper material force by a spiritual power, which at least claimed to be the power of righteousness and love and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was again a task which occupied centuries in its accomplish- ment.^ But, just in proportion as that task was successfully performed, just in proportion as these so-called barbarian races were raised by it out of real barbarism, they united with the old Latin races, to become the parents of that European civilization, which is the dominant power of the world, and which bears, as in our own land, the Cross as its standard.
Then succeeded for the Christianity thus victorious a third great task — again the task of many ccn-
^ The conversion of the Goths began in the latter half of the fourth century. Ulfilas, the apostle of the Goths, laboured from about A.D. 340-381. The conversion of the Teutonic races can hardly be considered as complete, till the conversion of Germany in 754, and the consolidation of the new Christian Empire of the West in 800,
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 19
turies. It was the task of gradually forming and inspiring in each European country the develop- ment of civilized national life, growing up, as it seemed, naturally and irresistibly within the unity of Christendom, which might have been thought likely to overbear and to absorb it. In fact, the idea that it should be thus absorbed was expressed historically, in the efforts made from time to time to fuse all its diversities in a Holy Roman Empire, and, more successfully, in the assertion by the Papacy of an universal dominion, claiming to be temporal as well as spiritual, and interfering with the freedom and independence of national action. But, in spite of both efforts at an universal autocracy, the nation asserted itself as the true unit of human society. Under the One Divine Fatherhood, under the One Kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ, it was laid upon Christianity to secure some approach at least to the right ideal of the future. For the ideal Christendom is not an universal Empire, but a free brotherhood of nations — each having its own language and thought, each its own constitution and history, each its own development of character and destiny.
How wonderfully, under God's blessing, that last task was gradually performed, we can see perhaps best in the history of our own country. It was the conversion of England, which really began that
20 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
history. We trace the widening- and deepening course of the river of evangelization, flowing from the combination of two distinct sources in the south and the north, and mingling, not without some cross-currents of roughness and antagonism, with the weaker stream of the earlier British Christianity. We see how, as it flowed on, it raised out of the stagnation of barbarism all the races which mingle in our national life — Saxons and Danes on our own soil, Normans in their home on the other side of the Channel — how it gradually fused isolated and antagonistic tribes into something of a national unity, and through the synods of the one Church gave birth to the parliaments of the one Realm. We note how in the early days the Nation and the Church were in material, although not in principle of life, identical, and how the higher and more spiritual life interpenetrated the lower, both growing together into the Christian civilization of the future. Even when the older conception of identity gave place to that of an alliance between Church and State, the effect still was to Christianize to an almost unexampled extent all the higher life of the country. The characteristic tone of our literature in all its growth shows us the living impress of the English Bible and the English Prayer-Book, from which it may be almost said to have taken its rise ; the character and
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 21
history of our institutions bear witness to the truth of the old saying that " Christianity is a part " — and a leading part — " of the law of the land." Everywhere it was certainly English Christianity, which was the inspiring and moulding force in our national growth.
Nor is ours an isolated experience. Perhaps, through our very insularity, the principle of that national growth was here most clearly visible, and least interrupted by foreign invasion or internal revolution. But our history is but a type of an universal process — affecting all the European nations alike, although having its special development in each — which has gradually formed an European Christen- dom, and through it dominated the civilization and history of the world.
III. Now I cannot but think, that the threefold sphere of our present mission of Church expansion combines, very remarkably, phases in the extension of the Kingdom of God, which correspond sub- stantially to these three chief missionary achieve- ments of the past, but which have grown upon us in a somewhat different order, and coexist at this moment in one great duty and responsibility.
Thus to the last of these ancient missionary developments corresponds what is to us the first and closest circle of expansion, over those great colonies which are, or are to be, the New Englands of the
22 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
future — leading, if not dominant, elements in its progress and civilization.
We are only now beginning to realize the great- ness of that field, unexampled, so far as I know, in the history of the world. There is the vast Con- tinent of North America, all but completely occu- pied by our English-speaking race — in those oldest colonies, which have now grown into the great American Republic, and in the Dominion of Canada and the West Indian Islands, which are still our own. There is the Australian Continent, with New Zea- land and the islands of the Pacific, itself only less vast than the other, more than four-fifths of the size of Europe, evidently destined to be the dominant power of the Southern Ocean. There is the third great group of the South African colonies, with the " spheres " (to use the common phrase) " of influence " extending far beyond the limits of our actual dominion, and in all human probability likely to extend much farther still, if there is any force in the analogy of the history of the past. These — to say nothing of lesser outlying colonies and dependencies — fairly girdle the world. Familiar as the fact is to us, this vastness comes upon us as a new revelation, when we find it possible to sail literally round the globe, and at each halting-place to hear the English language and to be under the British flag.
I THE THREEFOLD AHSSION OF ENGLAND 23
These are all young and vigorous communities — living offshoots of the old English tree — strong in material resources, which are capable of almost infinite development — strong in fulness, almost ex- uberance, of enterprise, of independence, of aggres- sive energy. How shall they grow, so far as they have not yet grown, to the true greatness, for which mere bigness is no security, and show themselves worthy of the noble vocation which clearly lies before them ?
We have given them our commerce and our wealth ; we have given them the nobler treasures of our institutions, our language, and our litera- ture ; we are recognising more and more, in con- tradistinction to an earlier and narrower policy, that the colonies, which are still bound to us freely by the living bond of loyalty and sympathy, are really integral parts of what has been happily called the Greater Britain. We speak popularly, and yet, I think, inaccurately, of our Colonial Empire. For it is really not an empire, but a commonwealth of free communities — like (to use a well-known comparison) the Eastern tree, whose branches, fully grown, root themselves afresh in the soil, till the whole becomes a wide-spreading grove, yet all indissolubly united to the parent stem, and all pervaded by the sap of a common life.
24 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
It is well. But beyond this lies the yet higher duty of ministering to them the Christianity which is the life of our life — that it may be the moulding and inspiring force in the growth of these new nations, as it was in the growth of the old European nations in the days of their youth — and of embracing all, without overbearing the inde- pendent rights and character of each, in the world- wide unity of the Church of Christ. The sense of this duty was not unfamiliar to the first colonizers of the sixteenth century — to a Frobisher, a Gilbert, a Raleigh. " To discover and to plant Christian inhabitants in places convenient " was the leading idea of the charters, which were granted to these early pioneers of our colonization. As time went on, the better organization ^ of the Christianity thus planted was the desire alike of the Laudian ascend- ency, the Commonwealth, and the Restoration. In the old days of identity of Church and State, and
^ In the reign of Charles I. an Order in Council appears to have been made to commit to the Bishop of London for the time being the care and pastoral charge of our " British Foreign Plantations." Under the Long Parliament — on the representations of John Eliot, "the Apostle of the Red Men" — a corporation was formed "for Promoting and Propagating the Gospel in New England," and a collection of ;i^i2,ooo for it made in England and Wales by Cromwell's order, and invested in land. The corporation was reconstituted in 1662, and generally known as the "New England Company." Its work was first in New England, then, after the disruption, in New Brunswick, and in various parts of British North America and the West Indies.
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 25
even in those of the sole recognition of the Church as the organ of a national Christianity, it would have seemed to England impossible to neglect the duty of a Christian nation.
Even when these older conditions passed away, that same duty was the guiding principle of our great Church societies — the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the Society for the Pro- pagation of the Gospel — in days when the State hesitated to support English Christianity, and the Church, as a body, had not yet taken up the work. Gradually, as the division of that Christianity into many religious Communions became an accomplished fact, all these Communions in different degrees recog- nised the duty which belonged to the whole, and, in spite of their unhappy divisions, laboured to carry it out. Never, therefore, was the evangelistic duty altogether neglected ; never was any English colony altogether unblessed, by the planting of the seed of Christianity, and by some connection with the Church life of the old home.
But yet it must be confessed that only in the present century have we been awakened to any adequate conception of a true expansion of the Church over these growing communities, with such freedom and completeness, as shall enable it to flourish and strike independent root in the new soil.
26 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
Looking back as we do in the light of experience, it is hard for us to understand how, in spite of the remonstrances of thoughtful and earnest men, the Church generally should have acquiesced so long in ideas plainly inadequate, and a policy both narrow and timid. Probably the general tone of opinion on the relation of the colonies to the mother-country reflected itself in this poor concep- tion of the duty of the Church to her children scattered abroad. Hardly more than a hundred years ago, after the great disruption of our American colonies, was this right principle of Church expan- sion recognised by the foundation of the first bishoprics of our Anglican Communion, planted in them, and in the North American colonies which still remained. Only within the reign of our Queen — the Victorian era, of which men now begin to speak, as they used to speak of the Eliza- bethan — has the work then begun been rapidly developed, till the colonial area of expansion has been adequately filled ; and daughter Churches have been planted there in full completeness of organization, with fuller development, through their Synods, of representative institutions than we know at home — often in their federation anticipating (as in Australia and New Zealand) the action of the civil communities — substantially, with variation to suit
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 27
variety of circumstance and need, reproductions of the old Church, and in all cases by loyal adhesion freely united to her. Nay, tentatively at least, the Church has realized in consultation and determina- tion the " Imperial Federation," which in civil matters is yet only an aspiration and a hope, and even gathered the representatives of the Church — at once a daughter and a sister Church — of the great Transatlantic Republic round the ancient chair of St. Augustine. The insularity of our Church, as of our nation, has thus given place to an irresistible expansion. But yet that expansion has not been on the principle of absolutism on the one side and dependence on the other. The ideal of the Roman Church may be spiritual Empire ; ours is free spiritual Federation. It is the desire of the Church of England, true to her ancient spirit and traditions, to sit, not as a queen over spiritual dependencies, but as a mother among her daughter Churches. *' Lo ! here am I, and the children which God has given me."
But, although even this task might well tax all our missionaryenergy, there is clearly laid upon us another, which corresponds in great degree to that first ex- pansion of the ancient Church within the limits of the Roman Empire.
It comes upon us mainly by the marvellous
28 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
growth of our Indian Empire, swaying through a few thousands of Englishmen the destinies of nearly 300 millions of subjects, of all races, all characters, all de- grees of civilization, and implying, moreover, necessary relations with great Asiatic powers, China and Japan in the far East, the Turkish and Persian Empires in Western Asia and Egypt. That extraordinary Em- pire is clearly a trust committed to us, for the benefit of humanity and for fellow-working with the dis- pensation of God. It brings us into contact with civilizations older than our own, with political and social organizations of far-reaching power, with great religions, counting their adherents by tens and hundreds of millions. What are we doing with this momentous trust ? Clearly we have here not to de- stroy or supersede, but to infuse new life into what is in different degrees decaying or dead — to rule, to educate, to inspire the races, which are to us as subject-races, and yet brethren still, already in the family of humanity, potentially in the household of God.
How shall we discharge that mission ? It has its material aspect, in the protection by a strong hand of peaceful industry, in the diffusion through commerce of the treasures of the world, in the development of the immense resources of our Empire, in the enhst- ment of our growing physical science and art for the
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 29
mastery of Nature, and the material civilization of humanity. It has its intellectual aspect, in the ad- vance of the knowledge of all truth which God has taught us, by the introduction of our language and literature, our science and philosophy, and by the education w^hich diffuses that knowledge through the masses of the people. It has its moral and social aspect, in the estabhshment among conflicting races of the Pax Britannica ; in the maintenance — I had almost said the creation — of truth and justice in the government of the Empire, and in its dealings with external powers ; in the moral influence of example of manliness and purity, of honesty, truth, and benefi- cence. And in all these aspects — in spite of many errors, many failures, many sins — it is beyond doubt that substantially our mission is accomplishing itself, and our Empire is proving itself a priceless benefit to humanity.
But, if there be any truth in the claims of Christian- ity— if any lesson from its history in past ages — that mission must be crowned by some religious ministra- tion. For the right relation of men to nature and to humanity cannot but depend on the reality, and the knowledge, of the relation to the Supreme Power, in which all " live and move and have their being." We are face to face in India, not only with strange and barbaric superstitions, but with great religions, which
30 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
seek to realize intelligently that supreme relation — the vast, complex, heterogeneous system which we call vaguely Hinduism, the reaction of negation against it in Buddhism, the grand but hard and barren Monotheism of Islam. On the vitality of all these religions — still strong in the minds and hearts of the great mass of the people — the very introduction of our civilization is telling, primarily on the educated classes, ultimately on the people, of whom they are the natural leaders, for disintegration and destruction. If we believe, with St. Paul at Athens, that in all these religions there is the feeling after, and in measure finding, God, and yet that in the Lord Jesus Christ alone there is the power to reveal the true relation to the Father, of which they have but dim and imperfect glimpses — if we feel, as we must feel, that to have simply undermined or destroyed these religions, without supplying some higher faith which may fill up the religious void, is a cruel injury to the spiritual character of the people — then it ought to be clear beyond contradiction, that we cannot be content to have rendered these lower services, great as they are, to civilization, but that a spiritual " necessity is laid upon us to preach the Gospel," and to extend the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yet here again we cannot but confess that only in this century have we been awakened — and still
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 31
but imperfectly — to this tremendous obligation, this unspeakable privilege. Only of late has the civil power, at times bitterly hostile, still oftener cold and discouraging, assumed (as in the grand Imperial Proclamation of 1858) that position for which alone we can ask — the position of a just and yet gracious neutrality. Only within the last sixty years has any real progress been made towards the evangelization of these Asiatic lands, and the extension in them of the Church of God. Now in India itself, in spite of some legal difficulty and jealousy — in Burmah, in Borneo, in China, in Japan, as in each access was opened to English influence — we see new churches planted everywhere, new missions opened, new sees created, the Holy Scriptures translated and circulated by thousands in native tongues, and a native Ministry formed for native service. Partly by extension of Church organization, partly through individual effort and the energy of our great missionary societies, the work, one yet in many forms, is advancing with ever-increasing rapidity, although as yet it has but occupied the mere fringe of the great territory which lies before it.
But the extension here has necessarily a different ideal from that which suits the growth of the colonial Church. It is to be a diffusion, not of spiritual dominion^ but of spiritual influence. It cannot and must not
32 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
aim at reproduction of the English Church itself, with
local variation but substantial identity. If ever these
Eastern races are to be won to Christ, it will surely
be by the service of men and Churches of their own
blood and thought and character. For a time here,
as in all else, they will need guidance and inspiration
from English Christianity. But these native Churches
— in full harmony with our own on all essentials of
Catholic truth and order — in full communion with
what is the Mother-Church of their first conversion —
must yet develop themselves after their own way,
and assume by degrees, and not always by slow
degrees, a spiritual independence. We have, indeed,
necessarily to bear our witness for God in our own
way, through that development of doctrine and
organization and worship, which is our priceless
inheritance from the centuries of the past. For if
we are to " propagate the Gospel," it must be by the
communication of our own Christian life in all its
fulness ; if we are to do the duty of an elder
brotherhood in Christ, we must not shrink from the
responsibility of teaching and leadership. But still
our real work is not to transplant the full-grown
English tree, but simply to sow the living seed of
Christianity, and leave it to grow — from the one root
indeed, but according to all the varieties of spiritual
atmosphere and soil. It is a work of infinite glory,
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND s^
hardly less infinite difficulty. How shall we have sufficient energy and wisdom and love to fulfil it ?
But yet beyond these two spheres of missionary expansion, and in great measure from the very fact that these are occupied, there is added a third work, corresponding, although with much difference, to the conversion of the barbarian races in days gone by. Within our Oriental Empire and our West Indian Settlements — in close connection with our Colonies — even beyond these, in the world-wide extension of our commerce — we are brought into relation with what we must call the inferior races, more or less barbaric. No true humanity can be content to make this simply a commercial and political relation ; it must be a relation of moral duty. We cannot consent merely to use them, and perhaps use them up, for our own gain ; merely to make them our slaves or our subjects. They are brought under our influence that we may at once civilize and Christianize them — enrolling them in the family of humanity, as the family of God.
That sphere of influence we are by our own act continually extending. Every year new tribes are drawn within it — now in the islands of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific — now in the various regions of that dark African Continent, of which the nations of Europe are calmly distributing the dominion, actual
D
34 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
or virtual, among themselves — now in the aboriginal races of our Indian Empire, or those which are included, sometimes, as in South Africa, for their preservation, too often, as in North America and Australasia, for their gradual extinction, within our Colonies. How shall that expanding sphere be rightly filled ?
Our commercial intercourse and the introduction of our material civilization should tend — in measure I trust that they do tend — to the improvement and enrichment of all the conditions of outward life. But at the best they cannot go to the root of the matter ; for they alter rather the environment of man's life than his true humanity. In practice, moreover, we know but too well that, unless tempered by some higher principle, they are apt to be stained by fraud and rapacity and cruelty, and to spread, among ignorant or reluctant tribes, the things which are to them an infinite curse.
The extension of our dominion should tend — in the main I cannot doubt that it does tend — to peace and order, to justice and truth, even to beneficence. But we have seen how, not so much through the policy of our government as through the selfish and lawless action of individuals, it may bring in cruelty and oppression. Nay, it may even assume something of the form of the dread struggle for existence, in which the strong simply overbear and extirpate the
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 35
weak, and the black or red man perishes before the white — not, indeed, by the white man's presence, but by the white man's sin. The days were — thank God they are no longer — when it brought with it the oppressive yoke of actual slavery. We have to watch with some jealousy, lest, in covert form, it should still involve anything of the principle of that accursed thing.
To these forces we cannot wholly trust. Nor, again, greatly as we prize the extension of know- ledge and intellectual culture, can we for a moment believe that in this is the inner secret of true brotherhood. No ! if this influence of England is to be an elder brotherhood of protection and guid- ance— if it is to realize the higher humanity, which, rising above the mere animal struggle, shall sub- ordinate self-interest to self-sacrifice — it must be by the religious acknowledgment of brotherhood under our common Father in Heaven, and of the glory of self-sacrifice in the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. There must be an inclusion in the Church of Christ of those who to the mere trader may be simply instruments of gain, to the thirst for dominion mere slaves or subjects, but to the true Christian potentially " fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God."
Of this branch of missionary duty our English
36 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
Christianity has never been wholly neglectful ; but in this also our present century has been a century of new awakening, both in respect of an energy of service and sacrifice, which has been glorified again and again by martyrdom, and of a wise discrimination, which studies more deeply the conditions of a right evangelization. For the very planting of Christianity we have to prepare this virgin soil ; we have to educate intelligence by teaching and character by work ; we have often to create written language, and invent new phrases to convey new conceptions. And the Christianity which is thus planted must evidently be of a simple kind, addressing itself primarily to the heart rather than the mind, appeal- ing to the universal instinct of God, drawing men to a living Christ, and gradually advancing to the thoughtful realization of the whole Gospel. It will need and accept more of the guidance and discipline, which are appropriate for childlike and childish character ; for a time — perhaps for a long time — it must depend largely on English teaching and authority and inspiration. But it must still aim at being a native Christianity — gradually building up a native Ministry and the independence of native Churches. We must be (as Bishop Selwyn ex- pressed it) simply " the white corks to float the black net " ; and it is certainly this net, which must be cast
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 37
into the tropical sea, if we would " gather of every kind " to draw them to the eternal shore. As yet the work is most imperfect, both in visible expan- sion, and in the depth and solidity of the Christianity which it spreads. But it is a real and effective work, advancing rapidly under God's blessing. We thank God that in every dialect of Africa and Polynesia, in every aboriginal tongue of India and Australasia, the voice of Christ Himself speaks to those whom He has made His brethren, and, in answer, the voice of praise goes up to our Father from Churches of the Lord who died for all, which by His grace it has been given to us to plant in His Name.
IV. So these three great missionary works for God go on continually with a great and even formidable expansion, in which necessarily each achievement of to-day only opens out to us some greater opportunity and call for the morrow. The history of the past must lead us to expect that it can only work itself out gradually, through generations and even centuries. " History" (said Bishop Lightfoot in 1873, in his remarkable "Comparison of Ancient and Modern Missions " ^) " is an excellent cordial for drooping courage." ... To histor}^ I appeal. . . .
^ Address to the Meeting of S.P.G. in 1S73, published by the Society.
38 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
" It will be found, if I mistake not, that the resemblances of early and recent missions are far greater than their contrasts ; that both alike have had to surmount the same difficulties, and been chequered by the same vicissitudes ; that both alike exhibit the same inequalities of progress, the same alternations of success and failure, periods of accelera- tion followed by periods of retardation, when the surging wave has been sucked back in the retiring current, while yet the flood has been rising steadily all along, though the unobservant eye might fail to mark it, advancing towards that final consummation, when the earth shall be covered with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."
Be it remembered, moreover, that though we may rightly distinguish these phases of our mission, they cannot for a moment be separated ; they not only coexist, but ultimately they are really one. Every colonial Church becomes in due course, as I know by experience, a new centre of its own missionary expansion to the heathen races with which it is brought into contact. Every development of our mission to the civilizations of the East has to include in the universal brotherhood of Christianity those outlying races, hardly above barbarism, for which, as a rule, the older religions found no place of regard or inclusion. Nor should it be forgotten
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 39
that every advance of our Christianity abroad reacts, both for instruction and for inspiration, on our own Church at home, and so accounts for the well-known fact that the eras of most rapid expansion are also the eras of the intensest central life. Our brook may have grown into a river, and our river into a sea ; but the waters are still one in their widest expansion, moved not only by earthly currents, but by the great tide of an attraction from above.
This solidarity in spiritual life is to my mind remarkably illustrated by the significant fact, that this century, of which I have had to speak again and again, as a new era of missionary expansion, is, by no mere coincidence, the era of great Church revivals here. Each of these revivals has overflowed (so to speak) beyond the home sphere in a new impulse of our missionary energy.
The great Evangelical Revival of personal Chris- tianity which marked the opening of the century — realizing above all else Christ as the head of each individual soul, expressing itself accordingly both in the glow of individual enthusiasm and in the voluntary association of those whose hearts God had touched — this revival certainly by His blessing kindled, out of some previous languor, a new and aggressive life in missionary enterprise. That impulse naturally reproduced the characteristics of the home move-
40 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
ment. It is true that, for example, in respect of India, it told through such men as William Wilber- force upon th"^ whole community ; it altered and improved the attitude of the civil power towards the work of moral and religious improvement of its subjects ; it wrung from a half- reluctant govern- ment the provision for a fuller organization of the Church in that great empire, in spite of the sturdy opposition of the old school of East India Directors. But its real force abroad, as at home, was in strong religious individualism. It showed itself in the new growth of individual missionary fervour ; as, for example, in the noble band of Cambridge men — all of that school of Charles Simeon, which stirred here the academical waters to a new spiritual energy — who, going beyond the strict limits of their official duty as chaplains in India, were precursors of the great expansion of our evangelization of the native races. It showed itself in the spirit of religious association, which created nearly a hundred years ago the great Church Missionary Society, not with- out (as has been shown lately) a reviving influence by reflex action on the older Society for the Pro- pagation of the Gospel. It outran, as usual, the slower extension of Church organization. Each individual servant of the Lord laboured in his own way, and as he seemed to find his special vocation.
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 41
The Society at home by necessity assumed in the vacant ecclesiastical field, where a hundred years ago there were but few colonial or missionary bishops, an authority, without which there must have been disintegration and anarchy. So the movement went on, throwing out (so to speak) its swift irregular forces, to lead the way of enterprise, and to prepare for the advance of the army of th« Lord.
Then, some thirty years later, there followed, under changed need and circumstance, that great Church movement, which, as its leaders expressly declared, was designed, not to supersede, but to supplement, the work of the earlier revival. Its faith — how could it be otherwise ? — was equally in the Headship of the Lord Jesus Christ, yet not so much now of the individual soul, as of the whole Church which is His body, the fulness of Him who filleth all in all. We know how, without sacrificing the priceless, blessing of the earlier movement, it has by this leading conception transformed, within the memory of us older men, the whole tenour and spirit of our Church life at home. But, like the other, it could not but overflow into the vast missionary sphere. There its peculiar vocation was not only to diffuse the light of the Gospel — not only to plant isolated missionary centres — but to extend every- where the spiritual organization of the Church itself.
42 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
that the life of the IndwelHng Presence of Christ might thrill through it. Everywhere new Sees have been planted, xiew branches of the Church formed, in all completeness of independent life and government. In less than sixty years these have been multiplied more than tenfold even in our own dominion — to say nothing of the equally rapid growth of the sister Church in America. So a vast ecclesiastical federation (so to speak) has been created of the mother and the daughter or sister churches, by which the insularity of days gone by has been exchanged for a world-wide extension. And happily, abroad as at home, the growth of organization has proved itself to be the medium of a brighter and larger spiritual extension. The serried ranks of our host have moved on, where their precursors had everywhere shown the way ; and, as in the armies of this world, the massive order of discipline has been a help, and not a hindrance, to the enthusiasm of personal bravery and devotion.
Nor, my brethren, is this all. There has spread among us a third religious influence, having a necessary relation to these great movements— a relation, sometimes of apparent antagonism, but ultimately of real harmony. It is not so much the rise of a party or a school, as a diffusive wave of opinion and feeling, affecting all sections of the
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 43
Church in different degrees, tending at once to broaden, and yet, so far as it grasps firmly the supreme truth of Christ, to deepen our conceptions of the function of the Gospel and the Church. Its motto is the harmony of the natural and the supernatural ; the Headship of Christ, on which it fixes our eyes, is not merely over the soul and over the Church, but (as St. Paul describes it in his Ephesian and Colossian Epistles) over all humanity as made after His likeness — nay, all created being gathered up in Him. No one can doubt that this influence has so interpenetrated those earlier movements here, that the strongest assertions of supernatural grace in the soul and the Church hold now a new relation to the acknowledgment of the natural light and gifts of God to humanity, and express themselves in tones unknown to the corresponding witness of days gone by.
But how far and in what way has it so over- flowed as to tell in the mission sphere ? Not (I think) so much to kindle there fresh enthusiasm, either of individual service or of Church expansion. There have been times, when it has perhaps tended, if not to chill, at least to throw over " the native hue of resolution " something of " the pale cast of thought." But its work has rather been to bring home to us the greatness and complexity of the
44 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
work itself, and so to suggest a thoughtful inquiry into what should be its guiding principles. We have learnt more of the right connection of the Gospel and the grace of Christ with all the lower elements of civilization — commercial, political, intel- lectual, moral — which God has given us to use for humanity. We have learnt more of wise adap- tation in method and degree to the varieties of race, of cultivation, of capacity, that the seed sown may have none of the failures of the parable, but may strike root deep and bear abundant fruit. Above all, we have come to appreciate better the relation in which we are to stand to the religions of the world, in their crudest forms and in their most imposing developments — at once (with St. Paul at Athens) recognising everywhere searchings after God, not unblessed with gleams of light from above, and yet declaring with decision and confidence the Christ, in whom the Unknown God is revealed without doubt or imperfection.
Thus it seems to me that all these three influ- ences of revival, as they coexist now in our whole Church life, and give it greater fervour, larger com- prehensiveness, deeper thought, so have told power- fully upon its expansion over the races of the earth. I trace their combined effect everywhere, not only in missionary work and literature, but in the organs
1 THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 45
of public opinion and statesmanship. Yet perhaps most strikingly of all in the remarkable utterances of the great Missionary Conference of this year (i 894) — marking, to my mind, an epoch in the work, both because it could speak in the name, not of this or that Society, to which it is but optional to belong, but of our whole Church, in the glory and responsi- bility of whose action we must have our part ; and because, with singular candour and comprehensive- ness, it has given us for the first time a survey of the whole of this great subject.
V. But, as we proceed with this survey, there is more and more forced upon us the conviction that our English Christianity in general is far from rising to its great call, and that our own Church in particular is far from taking her right leadership in its work for God. For there has not been as yet any ade- quate realization by the great body of English Churchmen of the true condition of our missionary call and responsibility. The work is still far too much regarded as a merely subsidiary and extrane- ous work, which it is a matter of option to take up or to pass by. Therefore those, to whom a truer estimate has been brought home, must plead earnestly for what is now, under God's blessing, the one thing needful — that all men should consider, far more than has yet been done, the greatness of this our
46 HULSEAN LFXTURES lect.
Mission, as at once a spiritual necessity and a spiritual glory, its indissoluble connection with our Church life here, and che moral impossibility for any one of us rightly to stand aloof from it, giving it no aid of labour, of contribution, of sympathy, of prayer.
Where, I thought, could I more fitly make appeal for such thought and interest than in this place ? It is more than forty years since a great servant of God ^ pleaded the cause to which his life was given before this University, as the home at once " of mature learn- ing and youthful energy." His call to his hearers was that they would help to " fill up the void, till there shall be no spot of earth which has not been trodden by the messengers of salvation." His en- treaty was — " Let it be no longer a reproach to the Universities that they have sent so few missionaries to the heathen." His words were memorable in themselves, still more memorable in their fruit. There were those who took up his concluding words in the cry " Here am I ; send me." The first direct answer was our share in the Universities' Mission in Central Africa, to which we have given our best — not least certainly, that first noble Bishop Mackenzie, whom it was my privilege to know and love as a leading spirit here, and whose example of a willing
^ I allude to the four memorable sermons on " The Work of Christ in the World," preached by Bishop Sclwyn in 1S54.
I THE THREEFOLD MISSION OF ENGLAND 47
sacrifice of the highest intellectual gifts, and of the choicest blessings of academic life, lived on and lives still in its power, though his work was cut short by an early death. For a new era has been opened in our University thought and life. We thank God for the higher conceptions of duty embodied in the Mission of our sister University at Calcutta, in our own Delhi Mission, of which not long ago I saw the splendid work, perhaps in other unknown impulses of devotion and self-sacrifice, which have found for each his own vocation and ministry. Now that half a century of this fruitfulness has passed by, is it not well to survey what, by God's grace, has been done, to estimate the urgency of our present call, to fore- cast, so far as we may, the yet greater capacities of the future ? Such survey, in the three great fields, to which I have called your attention, I shall attempt to make.
Meanwhile, my brethren, I leave the general subject to your thoughts. If our Church is to rise to her great opportunity, we must pray for the light as well as the grace of God ; we must yield the service of the mind as well as the heart. For the time de- mands, not only the motive power of strong enthusiasm, but the directive guidance of a wisdom, thoughtful and patient — able to discern the needs and oppor- tunities of our warfare over the whole field of our
48 HULSEAN LECTURES lect. i
vocation — able to give to each movement its right time and its right proportion — able at once to fight against evil and falsehood, and to discern and foster all that is good and true — able to estimate what must be wrought by our own English Christianity, and where we must be content to sow the Divine Seed, and leave it to grow in independent growth, in other ways and by other forces than our own. Where, I ask again, can we look for that great combination more fully than in our old Universities — old in the inherited and developed wisdom of centuries, young in the unceasing influx of those who have the privilege and responsibility of higher education, and on whom life is just opening, in all its free variety of vocation and capacity ?
In this, as in all else which touches the higher life of England, may God grant us grace here to meet His call ! Surely it will be an infinite blessing to add our contribution, great or small, to the slight beginnings which have so great an end — to the brook, which through all time is continually swelling to a river great and deep, and sweeping on to lose itself in that boundless eternal sea, which reflects the glory of the great white Throne.
LECTURE II
THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE
I. The Colonial Expansion— Its free Diversity and Unity, BOTH Civil and Ecclesiastical— The Impulse to Church Expansion due to the Society for the Propagation OF the Gospel, both for the Colonists and the Subject Races.— II. The old North American Colonies— The Growth under Difficulties of the Colonial Church —The Disruption— The Development of the Sister Church of America. — III. The Colonies of British North America— The peculiar Conditions of Growth OF the Colonial Church— Its present Condition and Promise. — IV. The West Indian Settlements— Negro Evangelization and Emancipation— The present Con- dition, Civil and Ecclesiastical.— V. The Australasian Colonies— Early Conditions of Settlement in Aus- tralia and marvellous subsequent Growth— Similar History of Church Dev elopment— Different History OF New Zealand— Present Position and Progress.— VI. The South African Colonies— Their peculiar Diffi- culties in State and Church— The present Position in Both.— VII. The L^ssoNS of Colonial Church Extension
— EXPANSIVENESS OF ANGLICANISM— ReLATK -N OF ESTABLISH- MENT TO Church Life— Synodical Government and Lay Rights— Ideal of Church Unity in Federation— The Solidarity of the Work Abroad and at Home.
The children which thou shalt have . . . sJiall say
. . . in thine ears^ The place is too strait for me :
give place to me that I may divell.
Isaiah xlix. 20.
The promise, addressed originally to the Jewish realm and Church of the Restoration — in itself nar- rowed and humbled from its high estate, yet great, as the cradle of the great Jewish dispersion, which was the appointed preparation for the universal kingdom of the future — certainly comes home w^ith a special emphasis, both of past fulfilment and of future pro- mise, to the English nation and the English Church. It is the beacon-light of our course of expansion, under the leading of God's Providence, in that vast colonial sphere of which I am to speak especially to- day— so marvellously filled with those who are not subjects, but children of the old mother-country, and who, in almost all cases, have gone forth, simply because these little islands are far too strait for their irresistible growth. We are told on authority that
52 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
some 350,000 of our people on the average leave these shores every year, to settle in some part of the territory given to the English-speaking race. Far above other nations — as strong and highly civilized as ourselves — we are by universal consent acknow- ledged as the great colonizing race of the world. By free propagation of our national life, we have planted everywhere new scions of the old tree. At this moment our language is more widely spoken than any tongue of man in the world's history, and bids fair at no distant period to girdle the globe. To those who cry so urgently " Give me place that I may dwell," our answer has been to open, for dominion or settlement, no inconsiderable portion of the whole earth.
I. Now in this remarkable progress we observe what seems at first sight a paradox. Both the centri- fugal and centripetal forces — the force of expan- sion and the force of concentration — appear on the whole to grow equally, and by this combined growth to sustain the right balance of variety and unity. In this we have, indeed, only an exemplifi- cation of what shows itself as a general law in the advance of civilization in all its phases. Thus, in its material aspect, we see that every day dispersion peoples more of the outlying regions of the world, and yet improved rapidity of communication
II THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE 53
of body and of thought draws these closer together, and, as men say, makes the inhabited world smaller. So it is, again, in respect of intellectual progress. The various developments of knowledge grow upon us in an almost bewildering abundance ; and yet the correlation of all, diverse as they are in place, in time, and in character, is the last word of modern philosophy. So is it, once more, in the higher social and moral civilization. Each day brings out to us here new varieties of free development, new diver- gences from older and simpler standards ; yet more and more we come to see that human society moves as a whole, and to feel the moral ties to all, which bind humanity in one.
But certainly there can be no more striking ex- hibition of this general law than in the remarkable colonial expansion, at which we have now to glance, both in the civil and in the ecclesiastical sphere.
These great colonies have in increasing degree their independence of development, their variety of condition and character, their freedom of original and peculiar enterprise. The strong government from the old centre, which suited well their dependent infancy, would now simply snap, like an iron band round a growing tree, with the result of a terrible disruption. They must take their own way ; they must be in the main self-governed and self-reliant.
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But yet — in contradistinction to a passing phase of political opinion on both sides, which was a reaction from the older coercive condition of things — we find a growing sense that for the sake of all there must be some strong elastic unity, to keep together the widely-scattered limbs in pne body. The bond will, of course, be rather a moral than a legal bond, not knit by compulsion, but growing in free loyalty. The ideal rising before us is that of a Federation, not really " Imperial " in the true sense of the word, but of free communities in one great Commonwealth — daughter-nations gathered round the Motherland. It may need to be cemented by commercial relations ; it must express itself hereafter in some form of representative institutions ; but in its essence it is the living unity of the one blood, one tongue, one flag. It is but an ideal, as yet imperfectly realized ; but to have a right and noble ideal is the secret of true progress. How to realize it more perfectly is one of the most difficult and yet urgent problems of British statesmanship.
Now what is true of the national is true also of the ecclesiastical expansion. The day is happily gone by, when the colonial Churches were left im- perfect, mere dependencies on the distant Church at home. Everywhere they strike independent root, growing to self-support and self-government, and to
11 THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE 55
an ecclesiastical organization more fully developed than among ourselves. We have seen how gradually the stiff bonds of our formal ecclesiastical law, once thought to bind them, have been broken off or have dropped away. But yet at the same time the desire and realization of unity are so strong, especi- ally among the intelligent lay -members of these Churches, that they may at times seem to us ex- cessive, arguing timidity as to free and independent development. Still there is a true instinct in them. These Churches, practically independent as they are, yet by free adhesion bind themselves to the doctrine, the government, the liturgical forms, of the old Church at home. Nay, while they are completing their own organization, uniting dioceses in provinces, and expressing that union in larger synodical action, still they gladly concede to the See of Canterbury a kind of free patriarchal authority, both of advice and of guidance, and in the Lambeth Conference are moving, tentatively but steadily, towards some true synodical unity in the future.
So in both its aspects this great colonial expan- sion advances, without, so far as we can see, any breach of continuity, or tendency to disintegration. For the policy, which led to the great civil disruption of the eighteenth century, is now a thing of the past. But certainly it is in the ecclesiastical aspect that
56 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
the unity is most complete and safest from danger. Even now it is one most important influence bearing upon the more difficult problem of civil unity ; and it may be that history will repeat itself, and that the initiative of the Church may prepare the way for the " Imperial Federation," which as yet exists only in idea.
In tracing this expansion of the Church, we see that, of course, the first impulse came from the old centre. But it is perhaps characteristic of our Eng- lish method, that it did not come in the first instance from Church authority as such. As in our commercial and political expansion, so in this, the first moving force has been voluntary action, in part of individuals, mainlyof great Societies within the Church itself. Some two hundred years ago — when the corporate action of the Church fell into abeyance, and when voluntary association in all directions strove to fill up the void, untrammelled by legal difficulties and official timidity — was formed the old Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which embraced within the scope of its operation the whole English community, abroad as well as at home. Out of it, for the discharge of the foreign duty of the Church, there sprang in 1701 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which took the whole world of foreign parts as its field of labour — assuming as its device a
II THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE 57
ship bearing to our settlers and our heathen subjects the Gospel in the hand of the Ministry, and as its motto the old cry from Macedonia, '' Come over and help us." It has been so constituted as to seek work rather than power, to claim no independent authority, but to move along true Church lines, and to be literally the handmaid of the Church herself. It leaves the choice of its missionaries to a Board appointed by the chief authorities of the Church at home ; it subordinates them in their work not to itself, but to the authorities of the Church abroad.
So, continually advancing, as fresh needs called for fresh enterprise, it has been, at first almost alone, afterwards far above all other agencies, the main instrument of our Colonial Church Expansion — wisely determining to give freely support and encourage- ment to each new branch of our Church in its early days of weakness and struggle, gradually to educate each to independence, and, as soon as the new plant had rooted itself, and grown to strength and fruitful- ness, to pass on, and sow the good seed elsewhere in virgin soil. Certainly the record of its work, which it has recently given to the world, is a glorious record. The testimony borne again and again by the Assembly of the American Church might be taken up from all quarters of the colonial sphere — that the Hand of God " planted and nurtured through
58 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
the Society the Church " in every land — that the Society furnished for many generations " the only point of contact, the only bond of sympathy, between the Church of England and her children scattered over the waste places of the New World " — that " whatever the Church abroad has been in the past, is now, and shall be in the future, is largely due under God to the long-continued nursing, care, and protection of the venerable Society."^
The time is probably at hand, when, like other branches of the Church of Christ, our Church as such, through its authorities at home and abroad, must enter more determinately on the work, to harmonize and organize, if not to originate, effort But meanwhile this Society is in some sense a " Board of Missions " to the Church itself Thanks to its original principles, it has no difficulty in adapting itself to the fuller developments of Church organiza- tion ; and so, without interference or assumption, it aids, alike by support and by encouragement, the growth of our Anglican Communion in this all but world-wide sphere.
Nor should it be forgotten that this expansion of our Church to her own children — the children of the dispersion — is indissolubly connected with that missionary work to the heathen races, of which we
^ See the Digest of S. P. G. AWon/s, pp. 84, 85.
II THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE 59
shall speak more hereafter. Partly because in many cases, where our colonists are mingled with heathen fellow-subjects or immigrants, the two missions from home go on side by side, and more or less inter- penetrate each other. Partly because, as we shall see, every colonial Church, so soon as it is firmly established, becomes itself a centre of independent missionary enterprise, carrying on to others that Christianity, which is a trust for all mankind, and obeying the moral logic of the Divine command, " Freely ye have received ; freely give." And, indeed, while there is perhaps more of Christian enthusiasm, more of chivalrous romance, in the greater daring of those forlorn hopes of the great army of God, which throw themselves, isolated and unsupported, upon the territories of barbaric or civilized heathenism, yet perhaps this gradual spread of the Gospel and the Church of God from the spheres which it already fills, keeping touch (so to speak) at every point with its base of operation, may yield more solid and permanent results of conquest, and certainly must better tend to weld together the Christian races, and those whom we fain would Christianize, in the great brotherhood of Christ.
Let me briefly indicate the successive advances of our English Christianity over the widening area of EngHsh dominion and colonization.
6o HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
II. The first field of our enterprise was naturally in those oldest North American colonies, which now form the great American Republic.
In the earliest days of her colonization (as the charters of Sir Humphry Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh plainly show) England w^as not unmindful of her Christianizing mission ; for " to discover and to plant Christian inhabitants in places convenient " was the declared purpose of every expedition. Nor was it otherwise when, in the Stuart period and under the Commonw^ealth, the advance of colonization con- tinued. But the distracting effect of religious divisions at home reproduced itself on the other side of the Atlantic. In Virginia the Church was well founded and strong ; but in the vigorous and advancing colony of New England the influence of the old Puritan settlement was not only dominant but singularly intolerant ; and in Maryland and Pennsyl- vania, although with an avowed toleration, the leading influences were those of the Roman Catholic and Quaker Communions. Still there was everywhere an earnest desire for the expansion in some form ot our English Christianity. It is notable that, as we have already seen, the first Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was directed to New England, formed under the sanction of the Long Parliament in the opening year of the Republic, and constituted afresh
II THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE 6i
immediately after the Restoration. But, so far as our own Church was concerned, the missionary work was slow and greatly hindered. For it had to be carried on under obvious material difficulty over a vast and thinly-peopled territory ; it had to contend against the far more formidable moral and social difficulties, entailed by conflict with the native people and by the existence of negro slavery. In many of the provinces, especially in New England, it met with discouragement and antagonism, partly at home and even more abroad, from those who had departed, or had been driven, from her Communion to be the ancestors of modern Nonconformity. In 1675 the Bishop ■ of London (Bishop Compton), urging greater vigour and completeness in the work, declared that there were " scarce four ministers of our Church in the vast tract of North America." Even when in 1701 the rise of our Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel gave the new impulse so greatly desired, and from the first directed its energies, not only to the care of our own people, but to the con- version of the native races, still its resources, both in men and in money, were far from adequate to its gigantic task.
The State itself, indeed, in various ways aided, es- tablished, and endowed the Church for its evaneeliz- ing work ; for in those days it had not learnt to shrink
62 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
from the plain recognition of a national Christianity, as the supreme factor in the growing national life. But the fatal error — perhaps in part through this State connection — was made of refusing to the Church in America that independence and complete- ness of organization, which on its own principles implied the creation of an indigenous Episcopate. Not that the more thoughtful and earnest Churchmen were blind to this preposterous error. Laud had proposed to send a bishop to New England ; after the Restoration a bishop was actually nominated for Virginia, but never sent.^ The old Missionary Society in Queen Anne's reign pressed for some appointments under the ancient Suffragan Act, if no other way could be found ; and provision was actually made for the creation of four bishoprics, two for the North American Continent and two for the West Indian Islands. But the Queen's death unhappily frustrated the project. Under the Hanoverian dynasty still more urgent pleas and even entreaties were used by such men as Archbishop Seeker (sup- porting earnest petitions from America, as from the clergy of Connecticut in 1771), and were used utterly fj-j vain — defeated (so we read) by the indifference or
^ It would appear that llic nonjuiing bishops in 1722 consecrated Dr. Welton and Mr. Talbot for ministration in America ; but their Episcopate was necessarily covert in action and seems to have died out.
II THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE 63
hostility of the Government, and a professed fear of exciting Nonconformist jealousy. The result, of course, was that, while other Christian communities naturalized themselves (so to speak) without difficulty on the American soil, the Church never took its right lead, because it remained in some degree an exotic, dependent on the Church in England, and in the eyes of the people identified with the English connection.^
Still, under all discouragement the work of its extension went on — not only for the colonists, but, in spite of much jealousy and some opposition, for the negroes and Indians. Independently of all that was done by local exertions and State aid, we find that in 1783 the old Society had nearly eighty missionaries at work ; and it is especially to be noted that now, as always, our Church cared much for education, as one important means of extending the light of the Gospel. Primary schools arose everywhere, a Cate- chizing School for negroes and Indians in New York,, and a " King's College " of higher education there, which is the parent of a great American University (Columbia College) in our own time.
^ In 1 76 1 it appears by a return made to the Bishop of London to have numbered less than one-fourth of the whole population of about 1,000,000. It was only in Virginia and in North and South Carolina that the Church included the bulk of the population (see Wilberforce's Histoiy of the American Chtcrch).
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Then came in 1783 the great storm of the Disruption, and, naturally, it fell heavily on our Church — largely loyalist in sentiment, and looked upon commonly as an emblem of that English dominion which had been shaken off. Almost all the missionaries from the old country were driven away to England, or over the border to the colonies, which still remained faithful ; many thousands of the loyalists, under violent pressure, had to take the same course. More than ever now, in its enforced separation, the Church cried out for its own native Episcopate. Still to England it appealed in vain ; the authorities of the Church hesitated ; the Govern- ment of the day discouraged or forbade. It was by this most unfortunate hesitation that John Wesley, who had himself been a missionary of the old Society in former days, was induced, with much misgiving, and against the strong protest of his brother Charles, to set apart, with the title of bishops, the chief of his ministers, on the express ground that, as there were ''no bishops with legal juris- diction," his action "violated no order and in\'aded no man's right." The effect was unhappily to determine the separate existence of the body of " Episcopal Methodists " — now, I believe, one of the largest Christian Communions in the whole Republic. At last, by aid of the proscribed and persecuted Episcopal
II THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE 65
Church in Scotland, the long-needed step was taken in the consecration of Bishop Seabury for Con- necticut in 1784; and, three years after, the authorities of the Church of England, in answer to a more general request from a Church Convention, ventured to follow up that action by sending forth two more bishops (Bishops White and Proovost) from the ancient chapel at Lambeth.
From that time onwards the Church became at last an independent branch — at once a daughter and a sister Church, in full and yet free communion with the old Church — one substantially in doctrine, wor- ship, discipline, and yet claiming full liberty of revision and variation in details. Very clearly is this relation brought out by the comparison of the American Prayer-Book in its present form with the old Prayer-Book of the Church of England, from which it is derived.
Under most serious disadvantage its independent life began : long imperfection of system had brought about ignorance and disorganization ; there hung over it the shadow of natural, although undeserved, doubt of its native character and loyalty. The loss of the Episcopal Methodists took from it the mass of the great middle class, which should have been its backbone of strength. The fatal effect of these drawbacks is visible still ; for it is very far from
F
66 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
being — what perhaps it might have been — the leading Communion, in numbers, of American Christianity.
Still, under God's blessing it has greatly pros- pered. A hundred years have passed ; and now it has its seventy bishoprics at home, more than four thousand clergy, some three millions and a quarter of professed members, besides many others to whom it ministers. It has even its missions to the heathen, at home and abroad, under six missionary bishops. By universal testimony, moreover, its leadership in education and culture, and its influence over the higher life of the people — intellectual, social, re- ligious— are far beyond its relative proportion of members, and are advancing day by day. No one who has any knowledge of the subject can fail to be struck with the boldness and ability of its leaders, or with its own strong religious activity and enterprise. Its correspondence with the cosmo- politan character of American society is singularly illustrated by the fact, that in the grand cathedral now begun in New York there are to be seven chapels, clustering round the apsidal east-end, and that in each of these there will be celebration of our service of Holy Communion in a different tongue. Its hopeful confidence in its future is shown in the lead, which, beyond all other branches of the Anglican Communion, it has taken in pre-
II THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE 67
paring for the Home Reunion of our English-speak- ing Christianity, as yet but a hope and aspiration, yet surely not destined to be wholly unfruitful. But, while this Independent life is thus manifesting itself on every side, the tie of spiritual unity with the Mother -Church is drawn closer and closer. No branch of our Anglican Communion is more vigor- ously and loyally represented in the great Lambeth Conference. It represents our first field of Church expansion ; in spite of our own errors, failures, mis- fortunes, we can look upon it with pride and thank- fulness to God who gave the increase.
III. Glance next with me across the border to the vast area, which still remains as British In North America — even now but thinly peopled in com- parison with the great Republic, yet with nearly five millions already of Inhabitants, and growing rapidly with a steady and vigorous growth.^ It Is now a grand Federation, uniting under the one Dominion Government a group of colonies, varying in age of settlement, in social condition and occupation. In race and climate and internal govern- ment— from the old colonies of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Canada, which have belonged to us since
^ In 1871 the population was 3,695,002; in 1881, 4,324,8'io ; in 1891, 4,833,239. The greatest increase is in Manitoba, British Columbia, and the Territories, which from 1881 to 1891 grew from 163,165 to 349,646.
68 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
the beginning of the eighteenth century, to the later colonies of Manitoba and British Columbia, which, as well -inhabited territories, are but of yesterday. Overshadowed in some sense by the colossal Re- public of the United States, the Dominion still keeps its distinctive character, its vigorous independence, its loyal attachment to the old home, its confidence in its own future. Clearly it is a singularly hopeful and interesting sphere of our national expansion. What is the history there of the corresponding expansion of our Church ?
In general outline it is not unlike that which has been already traced. But it has its characteristic differences.
The first, and most important, is that, from a far earlier period in this history, the Church there had that independence and completeness, which were so long lacking to the older settlements. The Episcopate was founded there at much the same time as in the United States — in the Bishopric of Nova Scotia in 1787, and Quebec in 1793.
Then, again, the continuance of the civil tie to England has naturally led to the continuance in different degrees of aid from the Mother- Church, through both her great Societies, for the ecclesi- astical settlement of the newer lands. The Church, moreover, in these lands, if it has had to face the
II THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE 69
difficult task of civilizing and Christianizing the old Indian races, yet has at least been free from the tremendous moral and social difficulties, which in the United States were the consequence and the judgment of negro slavery.
Yet it has had hindrances of its own. In the old province of Quebec — where the mass of the population is French in origin ^ — the Roman Catholic Church, strong in numbers, and in endow- ments secured by English law, has an overshadowing predominance ; and our own Church, stripped by confiscation of the support designed in old times for the maintenance of its work, labours on with difficulty, hardly receiving from the State in reli- gious and ecclesiastical matters even the imparti- ality, which alone it claims. Meanwhile there have been opened to us that wonderful North - West country, once but a vast hunting-ground, inhabited by scattered Indian hunters, now one of the finest of rich agricultural districts, and the chief home of English immigration ; and, far away on the Pacific coast, the settlements and ports of British Columbia, carrying onwards the full stream of English com- merce to Japan and China, and to the great Austral-
^ In this province, out of 1,488,535 inhabitants, 1,186,346 were returned in 1 89 1 as French-speaking, and 1,291,708 as Roman Catholic. The old city of Quebec, and the newer and more flourishing city of Montreal, are virtually French towns.
70 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
asian colonies. To these, as so often, the creation of a great artery of material communication in the Pacific Railway has been the bearer of prosperity and civilization and of the Gospel itself; and they present to the Canadian Church a task of absorbing interest, of tremendous difficulty, of glorious oppor- tunity. Curiously enough, her work there, invert- ing the usual order, began in missions to the Indians, of whom, there and in Canada, some 120,000 still remain, well cared for, and not, it is said, diminishing, and among whom a native Church has grown up. Afterwards, as the English population poured in with overwhelming rapidity, and cities sprang up where only a few native huts had been, an ever-growing work to our own people followed, and every nerve has been strained to meet it. The Church organization has been spread over the whole country — the advance belonging entirely to the last fifty years — alike in the French-speaking people of Montreal, in the prosperous and growing English province of Ontario, in the great expanse of Manitoba and the Territories, and in the new settle- ments of British Columbia. In most cases the Episco- pate has been, as it should be, not so much the latest completion of the Church system, as the organ of independent Church advance ; and each fresh See has been a centre of new spiritual life. Still re-
II THE EXPANSION IN THE COLONIAL SPHERE 71
ceiving, and having a right to receive, some aid from the old country, which pours in every year at least 40,000 of poor and struggling immigrants, the Church is becoming more and more independ- ent, organized, under synodical government, to be an ecclesiastical federation, corresponding to the federation of the civil community. First, indeed, it has been of all colonial Churches to assume for its Metropolitan the archiepiscopal title, which implies co - ordination with the highest dignities here. It has created its own Church Society for sustentation, and its Board of Missions for evangel- ization. Every way, like the great Dominion in which it is rooted, it seems to me one of the most vigorous and growing offshoots of the , Anglican Communion. Not as yet having so entirely sur- mounted difficulty and discouragement as to have attained its right dimensions, for in its twenty-one dioceses it has less than a million of professed members, and only some fifteen hundred clergy ; but it has clearly in it a far larger promise, and it has been singularly distinguished by hard and earnest work, simplicity of purpose, readiness for sacrifice. May God fulfil the one, and bless the other !
IV. Side by side with these extensions over what is substantially an English-speaking race, there went on in the West Indian Islands, gradually added
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to the dominion of England at various periods during nearly three centuries, a more distinctly- missionary work. In relation to the comparatively few English settlers, the work to be done was not unlike that which had to be carried out on the mainland ; but the mission to the heathen races, there subordinate, assumed here a primary import- ance. It had to do not only with the remnant of the aboriginal inhabitants of the islands, but far more with the negro race, imported under the slave trade, which has superseded them, and which now, set free from its bondage, and multiplying under our rule, assumes a larger influence and a greater spirit of independence day by day.
In that expansion, far more than, I think, in any other, support and aid have been naturally and rightly given by the State. When Barbados, pos- sessed in 1605, was granted to Lord Carlisle in 1627, it was (so said the Charter) for "propagating the Christian faith" as well as "for enlarging His Majesty's dominions." Probably the very fact of exercising here for the first time dominion over a lower race, held under the absolute power and tutelage of slavery, brought home to our rulers some strong sense of a national responsibility to God for them. Certain it is that in every island, as it was gained, the Church was established and
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endowed for a work, in which it obviously needed both material support and the countenance of authority. Only in late times — and that even now incompletely — has the contrary policy been adopted, rather, it would seem, in deference to the supposed fashion of the times in England, than by any spontaneous demand from the islands themselves. Happily, as it has been thus adopted, the need and hardship which it, of course, brought with it, have — largely by the aid of our old Missionary Societies — been boldly met.
Here obviously the great and abnormal difficulty was presented by the contact with slavery. How should it be dealt with by those who could not preach a servile insurrection, and yet could not relinquish the principle of the Christian faith, as to the unity of all men in Christ ? Clearly there is a flagrant theoretical inconsistency in treating the slave, now as a living chattel to be bought and sold, having no right to freedom, or to the ties of domestic purity and love, and now as a true man, made in the image of God, and redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a strong inhuman logic in that old slave-holding law, which made it a crime to teach a slave even to read and write, lest he should be educated into consciousness of his rights. But the Church was content to follow the
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Apostolic precedent. She dealt with slavery as St. Paul dealt with it in the case of Onesimus — not to overthrow it by violence, but to proclaim the great principle, " no longer a slave, but a brother beloved in the Lord " ; and to leave it to work by its own power on the public mind and conscience of England. Meanwhile, in the case of slaves committed to her charge by trust, her hands were clean ; she antici- pated the gradual emancipation, which was wrought out afterwards by the law of the State.^ For at last the power of Christian principle did work victoriously, against a tremendous force of prejudice, of vested interest, of supposed expediency. By an unexampled sacrifice the slaves were redeemed to freedom. Wisely, the tremendous change was prepared for by degrees ; and at last (to use the words of an eye-witness) on the great day, ist August 1838, when "eight hundred thousand human beings lay down at night as slaves, and rose in the morning as free,"
^ Such a trust was held by the S.P.G. in respect of the estates of Codrington College. At all times it seems to have been discharged with a wise humanity, and the condition of the slaves became mainly that of serfs attached to the soil, under conditions of increasing inde- pendence and privilege. But, when the question of slavery began to force itself on the Christian consciousness, the Society, feeling that it could neither relinquish its trust, nor venture on an immediate en- franchisement, set itself to work to "make provision for their gradual emancipation, and set an example, which may lead to the abolition of slavery without danger to life or property" (see Digest of S.P.G. Records f p. 202),
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thousands joined as brethren with brethren " in offering up prayers and thanksgivings to the Father, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of all," and the momentous day of a vast social revolution " passed over in perfect peace."
Then instantly began a new energy of work. By the Negro Education Fund, aided by parlia- mentary grants from the State, but in at least two- thirds a bounty of free gift, the Church entered upon the duty of training the new freemen for the grave responsibilities of liberty, by intellectual and moral and spiritual agencies. Schools and churches were built ; clergy and schoolmasters and catechists were set to work. In some fifteen years, from 1835 to 1850, more than ;^ 170,000 was spent on this most important work. It is on record that "few missionary efforts have ever produced such great results in a short time, as were effected by this movement."
There is much of striking interest, very im- perfectly known, in the early history of our Church in the West Indies. Take but one specimen in the noble foundation, as early as 1703, of Codrington College, as a society of men devoted under unusual conditions to the conversion of the heathen. How strikingly it anticipates some of the ideas or aspira- tions of our own day — when it creates a kind of missionary brotherhood " under vows of poverty.
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chastity, and obedience," and bids them " study and practise Medicine and Surgery as well as Divinity"!^
The moral and social problems, which emancipa- tion opened, are far from being completely solved, either in Church or in State. Perhaps we understand better now, than in the first enthusiasm of deliverance, how hard it is, in dealing with a negro race, to harmonize rightly freedom and authority, to stimu- late work without compulsion, to unite them socially and politically with the European races, to give to their native Christianity thought as well as emotion, solidity as well as enthusiasm. But to the greatness of these problems the Church is clearly alive, and doing all she may, under God, to solve what on any other than Christian principle is surely hopeless of solution.
Meanwhile we may note that here also, after too long a delay, the full Church organization is rapidly developing itself Not till 1824 was the Episcopate initiated at Barbados, after some 200 years of occupation. Not till the next year was it planted in the great island of Jamaica, full 170 years after it was conquered for England by the sword of Cromwell. Now we have there in the various
^ More than half the clergy in Barbados have been educated in the College, and coloured missionaries have been sent from it to the heathen in West Africa.
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islands nine bishops, more than 400 clergy, aided by a great band of lay workers for God ; and at least 600,000 professed members of our Church are gathered at her altars, and in many languages send up the same worship to the Throne of Grace. There have been troubles and disappointments; disestablish- ment and spoliation have tried the Church by hardship ; but it has grown, as usual, in a close yet independent communion with the Church at home, with its own synodical self-government, and its own provisions of self-support. Whatever difficulties and dangers wait upon the future of these fair, luxuriant islands, at least she will try, seriously and hopefully, to face them in the strength of God.
Other phases of Christian teaching may appeal more easily, and with more vivid excitement, to the emo- tional character of the negro race. But the Christian action of our Church, just because it is marked by a characteristic sobriety and solidity, by a right har- mony of order and liberty, of thought and work and emotion, should supply that influence, which seems to be most necessary for the steady development of a higher life in the negro race — free as it is now from all legal bondage, and yet subject still to the inherent European ascendency.
V. And now we have to pass in thought from these regions of the North-West far away to the
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Southern Hemisphere. There is here also a splendid inheritance of our English race — first in the vast con- tinent of Australia, stretching from the tropical heat through all varieties of sub-tropical climate into the temperate zone ; next in the great islands of New Zealand, reproducing in the Antipodes a glorified English climate, fittest of all cradles of a new English race ; lastly, close at hand, within the sphere partly of dominion, partly of influence, in the many islands which stud the waters of the Pacific.
The seed of what is clearly destined to be the dominant power of the South was sown, as you will remember, under strangely adverse and dangerous conditions. It is hardly more than a century ago — just three years after the loss of our old North American colonies — that, on the shores of one of the noblest of all harbours, which is now one of the great emporiums of the world's commerce, there landed, to settle in a corner of that vast territory, about a thousand Englishmen — convicts sentenced to trans- portation, soldiers to guard, and authorities to rule them with a rod of iron. Hardly more than fifty years ago, after the discovery of gold, did the great tide of free immigration pour in, to swamp (so to speak) the older tainted source by its purer waters. Swiftly in these later days has that Australian community grown in numbers and in power. It has learnt how to draw
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out material treasures of the land, often richer far than the gold ; to call into existence great and even splendid cities ; to follow up material wealth with higher intellectual, social, and moral civilization ; to create new Englands, free in self-government and virtual independence, yet after the old pattern. There are men yet living, who can remember in Australia a few huts, where now a city of nearly half a million of people stands; who made or watched the first English settlement in the Maori land of New Zealand, and who have seen within their own memory the whole of that marvellous growth of a great community. There are youths living now, who in all human probability will see that growth immensely increased ; for as yet there are hardly more than three human beings for every two square miles of Aus- tralia. The little settlement of 1787 has grown into a group of six great colonies, all now under inde- pendent self-government, with little more than the link of loyalty to the old country, which every Australasian still calls " home," destined evidently, like the North American colonies, to form a great confederation at no distant time. It is an extra- ordinary inheritance. Unlike our other chief colonies, but like the mother-country, it has no frontier except the sea ; it has vast resources, as yet but little drawn out ; it has already a population of some four
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millions, almost entirely of British origin ; it has a material future (I think) assured, with capacity, if it will, of advancing to the greatness, which needs more than material influences of development.
But what of the Christianization of this new continent ? What of the expansion of our own Church, to follow up the rapid growth of this great community ?
It was an unhappy time, when, in 1787, the first inauspicious beginning was made. It is all but in- credible, and yet but too certain, that the Government of that day, sending out its wretched convicts and its soldiers, made no provision whatever for religious ministration to their moral and spiritual welfare. Only two days before the ships sailed, through the urgency of William Wilberforce and the Bishop of London, permission was granted to a volunteer, the Rev. R. Johnson, to join the expedition as Chaplain, not only without endowment, but without any sanction or authority. His was a splendid enterprise indeed ; his name surely deserves to be remembered with honour in the roll of our history, as we cannot but believe that it is written in the Book of God. On landing, where our old Elizabethan settlers would have knelt down like Columbus, and prayed, not without thanksgiving, for God's blessing, it was thought enough that the British flag should be run up amidst cheers, and
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rations of rum served out to the troops. Under infinite discouragement, with a patience and earnest- ness, as noble surely as the noblest martyrdom, that one minister of Christ still bore his witness, gathering a half-reluctant congregation in the open air, wherever he could find shade from the fierce Australian sun ; till after six years he succeeded in building a rough church, out of his own means and almost with his own hands. But the light so kindled seemed almost to be swallowed up in the encompassing darkness. Who can wonder that there grew up there a society of which competent observers declared that it was immoral beyond any known immorality, — that, even long after, there were in two years 400 capital convictions in a population of less than 40,000 people, — that the condition of the convicts in New South Wales and Tasmania, and still more in Norfolk Island, whither the worst were sent, is described as a " Hell upon earth," — that towards the aboriginal inhabitants there was so much among the early settlers of cruelty, violence, bloodshed, that we turn away with shame from many pages of their history ? Yet even so, thank God ! the seed sown faithfully and loyally did strike root and so grew up as gradually to overshadow the land — nay, by the hand of Samuel Marsden, one of the ablest and most earnest of workers, to spread to the then heathen land
G
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of New Zealand, and prepare for its future evangeliza- tion. By the labour, not only of the ministers of Christ, but of some noble laymen in high places of authority, the Church began to make head against these adverse currents of worldliness and sin. Slow, indeed, was the advance, and marked by the same timidity as to its completeness and independence. For some forty years a few scattered servants of God worked without organization and guidance ; then it sounds almost ludicrous to tell how this vast continent was made an Archdeaconry of Calcutta, some 6000 miles away; at last in 1836, under the auspices of the great Duke of Wellington, then Prime Minister, the first bishop was sent out, to rule over some score perhaps of clergy, ministering in churches, simple even to rudeness, planted here and there as best might be done. Fifty years had passed, and yet how slow had the expansion been !
Then, as usual, a new impulse was given to the work of the Church — aided again by the unfailing energy of our old missionary societies — meeting not unworthily the rapid civil growth of Australia. Look only at the period of about another fifty years, and how marvellous the change ! The one See has grown to fourteen in Australia, and six in New Zealand ; the few scattered clergy to at least 1 1 00 ; the members of the Church to more than a million
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and a half. Hard, indeed, the work is, with none of the romance and enthusiasm of missions to the heathen. Hard it is to cope with the material difficulty of an ever- advancing colonization, always occupying new ground ; hard, in the absence of all endowment, to secure the material resources for this extension ; harder still to strive against the disintegrating and bewildering influence of our wretched religious divisions ; hardest of all to over- come— what are perhaps not unconnected with these — the fear in civil authorities of any identification with ecclesiastical policy, and the secularizing forces of indifference, worldliness, sin, presenting themselves there in cruder and more obvious forms than in our more complex society here. Hard in all these ways the work has been, and is still, to an extent here but little understood ; and they who know it best most feel its actual imperfections. But yet, by God's grace, it has been, and is being, done, not only to meet the continual advance of our own English people over the great Continent, but to deal with the aboriginal inhabitants, the remnant who still are left, and with the Chinese immigrants, whom, against all natural jealousies, it embraces in the Christian brotherhood ; to aid the Melanesian Mission, which carries the banner of Christ to the islands of the Pacific, and to undertake the New
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Guinea Mission, which is the especial enterprise of the AustraHan Church as such.
There are many fruits, visible and invisible, of this progress, for which we may well thank God. But I can hardly conceive a more striking sign of its influence, than the vast difference in tone and method, which distinguished our settlement in New Zealand from that earlier colonization of Australia itself There the first Christianization of the native races preceded our civil occupation of the country ; and in that occupation the expansion of the Church of Christ kept fair pace with the rapid national growth. Is it a mere coincidence that in this case the principles of a right colonization, carrying with it in true harmony all the influences which have made England great, were not inadequately realized in practice, — that our relations with the native races, if they could not be free from warlike anta- gonism, yet at least, so far as our authorities were concerned, were unstained by fraud and cruelty and wanton bloodshed, — that the possessions and rights of these races, dwindling in spite of all care through the contact with English habits, English diseases, English intemperance, English sin, are preserved to this day under the British flag, — that the tone and character of the whole colonial society are singu- larly full of a wholesome and vigorous promise ?
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There, happily, from early days our Church was planted in all its integrity, under the strong and noble leadership of the first great Bishop of New Zealand. He found there already a vigorous native Christianity — the fruit after many failures of the seed sown by the earlier pioneers of the kingdom of God, long before our English settlement began. It was his task to make the Church from the first the mother of Englishmen and Maories alike, even in times of struggle and war. In it — perhaps more wisely and completely than in any other branch of the Church — were the lines of Church organiza- tion laid down. On the impulse, as I believe, of the same great worker for God, the first be- ginning was made in Australia and New Zealand of the full synodical action, which has now spread over the whole colonial Church. Under the same impulse, almost from the beginning, the missionary duty of the Church in the islands of the Pacific was carried out — with generous aid, indeed, from home, but with continually increasing dependence on the resources of the Australasian Churches. True, in- deed, it is that, to the infinite sorrow of its first planters, there passed over the native Maori Christi- anity the blight of a partial apostasy to a strange hybrid religion, due, not to distrust or alienation from the Gospel in itself, but to jealousy of its sup-
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posed identification with the encroaching dominion and influence of the English race. But that bhght (thank God !) is gradually passing away : in Church membership and in Church ministry English and Maories are one, in the name of the one Lord who died for all.
VI. Finally, we have to turn to the last great field of our colonial growth — far away in the group of South African colonies, with the yet larger and vaguer sphere of influence, extending beyond them, and bringing them almost into touch with the purely missionary work, at which we must glance hereafter. It is the same growth in essence which goes on here, but under widely different circumstances. For here the Europeans are but a few — a ruling few — among a swarming population of native tribes, varying in race and character, in warlike power and in civiliza- tion, and continually increasing in number under the comparative peacefulness of our sway. Even in the European race there is a marked and serious divi- sion between the children of the English conquerors, and those descendants of the Dutch from whom the first colonies were taken, who still form a strong element in their population,^ and have their inde-
1 Even in the Cape Colony the European and white inhabitants are about a fifth of the whole, and of these — some 377,000 in 1891 — it is calculated that 230,000 are of Dutch origin. In Natal the white popu-
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pendent territories upon the frontier. Our colonial power there, ever since the old Cape Colony was ceded to us some eighty years ago, has had, and is having still, a stormy growth — with many an- tagonisms of the Dutch within our borders, who have often gone out to be the first colonizers beyond them, — with many wars, at once of aggression and self-defence, such as always mark the advance of a civilized power amidst comparatively barbarous tribes. In spite of singular errors and vacillations in our policy, bringing with them much disaster and some disgrace, that advance is continuous, and, on the whole, irresistible ; its last development, curi- ously characteristic in its origin and its course, is but of yesterday. But its very success brings with it problems of special difficulty, which as yet have been most inadequately dealt with, and which will tax all our enterprise and statesmanship, if they are to be righteously and wisely solved.
Nor can we fail equally to trace some special features of difficulty and conflict in the advance in these regions of our colonial Church. There was, indeed, from early times much missionary activity. Our own old Missionary Society entered upon the work but six years after the first beginning of
lation is not a tenth of the whole, and in the outlying provinces — Zululand, Bechuanaland, Basutoland, Mashonaland — it is but a handful.
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English dominion, and that work was supported and encouraged by the civil power. Other Communions of our English Christianity were at least as zealous and active in the service of the one Master. But from the beginning there was a somewhat unusual development of religious diversity, with the usual results of disintegration and even collision. When, some thirty years after the original settlement, our first bishop (Bishop Gray) — a most earnest and able servant of God — was sent out, he was appalled by finding twenty different forms of Christianity being taught, and some two hundred ministers of religion working with but little organization or unity of effort. Strong Churchman as he was, he felt it a primary duty to do what might be done to mitigate these unhappy divisions, and to establish relations of sympathy, if not of union, with other missions than our own. That his attempt was not quite in vain was witnessed by the universal mourning of " all classes, ranks, and denominations " over his grave.
Then when, under his splendid leadership, the work of our own Church, as usual, showed at once a stronger and more rapid growth, there came upon it, as we know but too well, the distracting and paralyzing influence of most unhappy division. It has been a division, deep-seated and obstinate, in- volving collision between ecclesiastical and civil law,
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raising constitutional questions of infinite importance and difficulty. In its origin, moreover, it is more complicated than is ordinarily known in this country. Beginning in the conflict of the Colenso controversy ■ — between freedom of thought and criticism, on the one side, and zeal for the old historic faith against all which seemed to menace it, on the other — it passed first into a distinct antagonism between the exercise of metropolitan authority and the resistance to it in the name of diocesan independence and of individual freedom; and then into a conflict, which all colonial Churchmen know well, between the assertion of a quasi-independence for a Church of South Africa in full communion with the Mother- Church, and the desire to remain an integral part of the Church of England itself, not only in its essential doctrine and discipline, but also in respect of its law, its jurisdiction, its connection with the national life. The first phases of the controversy have in great measure passed — buried in the graves of its early champions ; but the last still remains. Brighter hopes of reconciliation are at last dawning, yet even now not wholly free from cloud. Need it be said how greatly it has hindered the expansion of our Church, both over our own people and the heathen tribes around ? If it has brought out in the first champions on both sides some singular
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greatness and nobility of character, — if it has forced colonial Churchmen generally to study first prin- ciples, to anticipate the consideration of inevitable problems, to throw themselves with some intelligent earnestness into the vocation which they believe that God has given them, — yet all these forces have been too much wasted by internal friction, by that want of due sense of proportion which is the in- evitable curse of controversy, by the breach of unity, which, even if it be only of external unity, must be a sore hindrance to the advance of the army of God.
Yet still, although these unhappy causes have kept back the Church from leadership in the progress of the kingdom of God, we can see that her walls are being built up, " even in troublous times." Some quarter of a million of members she has gathered in, in ten dioceses, served by four hundred clergy, with, as usual, large help of lay workers. Her influence has spread beyond our own borders to Zululand and Mashonaland, and has even ventured to enter the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. As yet it has embraced but a small part of the whole popula- tion, in the grasp of what is largely a missionary work. But, if only (which God grant !) intestine division can be healed, there seems to be diffused there a spirit of enterprise, not without some origin-
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ality and strong Church feeHng, from which, if it please God, we may look for far more abundant fruit hereafter.
VII. Such is, my brethren, a survey, necessarily but imperfect, of this first great phase of Church expansion — the nearest to our interest and to our hearts — the most important of all in numbers and in power/ Already it numbers more than three millions of English Churchmen in our colonies — more than three millions and a quarter in the American Church, which has grown out of our oldest colonial settlements. Already it is a great and vigorous organization, with more than 160 bishops and 7000 clergy, and growing under full synodical government. Yet, great as it is, it would have been far greater under a wiser and bolder action in the past, and it evidently has capacity of far larger greatness in the future.
It has been, be it remembered, almost entirely the work of the last half-century. When the present reign began, there were in the whole of this Greater Britain only five colonial Sees, where there are now eighty-seven ; while in the sister Church of America the same period has seen an increase from sixteen to seventy-five. I can myself well recall a memorable
^ A more detailed historical outline of this expansion of the colonial Empire and colonial Church will be found in Appendix I.
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day, marking the first chief epoch in this rapid expansion, when in i 847 four colonial bishops were consecrated at one great service in Westminster Abbey — the first Bishop of Cape Town, and the three who began the ecclesiastical division of the Aus- tralian Continent, — and when those who consecrated them, and those who thronged the Abbey as wor- shippers and communicants, felt that the Church of England was entering on a new phase of glorious duty as a nursing mother of churches. Marvellously since that day has the work been blessed and prospered. As Bishop Lightfoot truly said in 1888, every new See " means the completion of the framework of settled Church government ; it means the establish- ment of an Apostolic Ministry. ... It is the enrol- ment, as a corporate unity, of one other member of the great Anglican Communion."
This extension, moreover, has been not simply an enlargement, but an advance of the true idea, and a deepening of the spiritual power, of our Church life. We cannot but see that, like the extension of our colonial Empire itself, it has had its lessons of instruction, warning, encouragement, to our Church as a whole.
Certainly, it shows how much real adaptability there is, in what has been often thought to be an over-rigid system of doctrine and organization and
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worship, to meet an extraordinary variety of need and circumstance. The reproach of insularity against the Anglican Communion is acknowledged to be a thing of the past. Yet the colonial Churches are essentially reproductions, with variation, of the old Church at home, one with it in spirit and traditions, and in the great principles of doctrine and organization. They only need more plainly, and, as being free in their legislation and govern- ment, they can secure more easily, what we require here — some larger elasticity of thinking and work- ing, within, and not against, the law of the Church. It is a vivid symbol of that adaptability that (as I once heard it eloquently set forth) as the sun rises on the Easter morning on each successive section of the globe, his rise is greeted everywhere in lands which girdle the whole earth by the free glad offer- ing of the same Eucharistic worship — the same " Glory to God in the highest " of our own English rite.
Nor is it less instructive — in view especially of our present conditions — to examine the position, which our Church holds in the lands where it is not now under the condition of Establishment.
Let me, indeed, candidly say that my own experience of that position has taught me to prize, not less but more, the spiritual advantage which
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comes, not so much to the Church as to the com- munity, from that simplest and most obvious witness for a national Christianity and a national religious unity. I see it in its effect on collective action, on national education, and on public opinion, — in the value to the State of an unquestioned spiritual leadership in the Church, always ready, through an organization coextensive with the nation, to serve what concerns its highest interests, — in the value to the Church both of the Establishment, which gives her that leadership, and by connection with the national life strengthens her comprehensiveness, and of the Endow- ment which secures to her clergy an unequalled measure of independence, and enables her to venture on work for good, lying beyond the sphere of obvious and pressing need. I cannot think that the principle of absolute dissociation of the State from all religious effort, especially in new and struggling communities, is wiser and more righteous than the old policy, which held it a part of national duty and interest to give material support to what certainly concerns the highest element of national life. Nor is it difficult to see that, if even the moral value of Christianity is believed in at all, it runs directly counter to the obvious tendency of our own days, which is to call upon the community, as such, to supply to its poorer members what belongs to
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their higher Hfe. On many points of our present grave controversies, a flood of Hght would be thrown by a few years of colonial Church experience.
But yet, that experience has also taught us, in regard to these advantages, great as they are, that — even if they could be kept free from the drawbacks which we feel here, although, indeed, these drawbacks are largely of the abuse, and not the essence of Establishment — they do not really belong to the central and inherent life of our Church. With- out them she is the old Church of England still, retaining much of her sense of universal mission, something at least of the spiritual leadership, gladly conceded, when it is not claimed, and above all, the strength of that harmony of authority and freedom, of truth and order, of the old and the new, which by God's grace has been given to her so signally among the churches of Christendom.
Not unconnected with this is the lesson in free and representative self-government, which the colonial Churches have read to the Mother-Church at home. There are few more interesting ecclesi- astical studies, than to trace the growth of this .synodical government from small beginnings, and within no great space of time, till it has become fully organized, with as true a reality of dignity and power as in the parliaments of the rising nations
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themselves. Of course, this synodical government, as it had its difficulties and imperfections and scandals in the Church history of the past, so, while human nature, even in the Church, has its elements of vv^eakness and sinfulness, will still fail in some respects of the true ideal. But no one who has experience can doubt that, in Church as in State, it is a condition of vigorous and growing life. And in that system there is one leading feature above all, which is absolutely universal in all the daughter Churches of our Anglican Communion. I mean the resolute co-ordination of the laity with the clergy, under the constitutional presidency of the Episcopate, in the government of the Church in all its phases. It is a principle, which, as the whole course of our Church history, especially in the great Reformation period, plainly shows, is thoroughly consonant with our old English tradition ; although it has long fallen here into a comparative abeyance, and has only been revived, vaguely and tentatively, in our own time. Even these imperfect revivals I hail with infinite satisfaction. They carry with them no legal authority ; but they bring to bear that power of idea and of strong moral influence, which gradually expresses itself in institutions : they prepare and educate Churchmen for a firmer and more definite policy in the future. Still they are as yet too vague
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and unpractical ; they cannot claim the character of a real synodical action of the whole Church. Believing, as I have always believed, and as now after experience I believe more than ever, that under any contingency, whether of Establishment or of Disestablishment, this representative government of the whole body is the one thing most needful, for the vigorous internal life of the Church itself, and for its rightful influence over the public mind, I cannot but hold that here the experience of the colonial Church is of priceless value. It shows how, on our own Anglican principles, it can work safely and effectively, without trenching on the sacredness of the Ministry or of the Episcopal authority, without danger of dis- ruption or confusion, and how by its very existence it takes away the necessity, and even the excuse, for crude, irresponsible, and one-sided assertions of lay power, whether of individuals or of party associations. Yet perhaps even fuller of instruction and en- couragement is the lesson read to us as to the nature of true Church unity. Of a Catholic unity, there are but two ideals — the one of submission of all Churches to one central autocracy, which for such pretension has naturally to claim infallibility — the other of free federation of Churches, mother and daughter and sister Churches alike, in those " orders and degrees " which " jar not with liberty
H
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but well consist," under the one sole Headship of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. May it not be given to the Anglican Communion, in spite of all its weaknesses, its anomalies, its shortcomings, to approach at least to the realization of that second and truer ideal — primitive, as we believe, in its essential idea, and yet surely the unity, to which the future must belong, and in which lies the best hope of some reunion of our divided Christendom ? The growth of that unity, if it is to be natural and vigorous, must be gradual, not without vicissitudes and irregularities. But the increase in numbers and in interest of each decennial Lambeth Conference shows that it is real, in present vitality and in future promise.
As it grows, moreover, it must, as a secondary consequence, supply, as Church unity supplied of old, a wonderful building and sustaining force to the national unity; which, in spite of the many influences of complication and disruption, shall, we trust, still hold together the world-wide Commonwealth of our Greater Britain.
Is it asked, " What is now the one thing need- ful ? " I should answer that in Church, as in State, our crying need is a larger general knowledge of the main course of this vast expansion, and, as resulting from this, a far clearer conception of the solidarity
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of the whole work, both abroad and at home — per- haps a freer interchange of workers over the whole area of our Anglican Communion ^ — certainly the removal of all idea of separation, even of superiority and inferiority, in the two fields of service. That need is, I trust, being in some measure supplied already. The last half-century has been a period of rapid enlargement both of knowledge and concep- tion. But there is much yet to be desired. Between the old Church at home and the young colonial Churches there should be a maternal and filial relation — of sympathy, appreciation, sacrifice on the one side, of loyalty and even reverence on the other. But it should be a relation — all of duty and all of love — in which the mature wisdom and dignity of age and the fresher enterprise of youth may blend together in one common unity of the Church, in one common service of the Lord, who is its Head. May that relation, as it is our ideal, so be realized in actuality more and more !
^ I see with much satisfaction that some approach is being made to the realization of what I myself urged long ago — an interchange of young clergy, after some short service in the Ministry, between English and colonial dioceses, under which they shall go out for a term of years (unless they choose to remain altogether) and find their places still kept for them in the Church at home. It would, I know, be an infinite help to the colonial Church. It would, I believe, be of in- finite value and instruction to these clergy themselves, and through them to the service of the Church here.
LECTURE III
OUR MISSION TO INDIA AND THE EAST
The fundamental Difference of our Oriental from our Colonial Mission — Its Relation to Native ReliCxIons— Its Dependence on our Idea of Christianity. — II. (A) The earlier Forms of Christianity in India — (B) The Attitude of our Civil Power : first, in the early Days of Settlement ; next, during the First Period of Struggle for Empire ; thirdly, from the Charter of 1813 TO the Close of the Dominion of the Company ; lastly, from the Imperial Proclamation of 1858 — (C) The early Deadness of Missionary Spirit in the Church — The Evangelical Revival and Church Missionary Society — The rapid Growth of Church Organization AND Missionary Enterprise generally — The many Hin- drances— The undoubted Advance and Promise — The direct and indirect Educational Work — The Overflow to the Straits, Burmah, and Borneo. — III. The Rela- tions TO China and Japan, and our Responsibilities to Each — The earlier Christianity in Both — The later Opportunities and Action — The different Functions
TO BE discharged IN THE TWO CaSES — THE PRESENT
Position and Prospect. — IV. The Relations in Western Asia to Persia and Turkey — Our Function of Aid and Brotherhood to the Ancient Churches, as in Palestine and Syria. —V. The true Character of our Oriental Mission, and its Lessons to our Church Life at Home.
As I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar zvith this inscription, " To the Unknowfi God.'' Whom therefore ye ignorantly worsJiip, him declare I unto you. ^^^3 ^^ii_ ^3^
In the spirit of these great words our English Christianity has to enter upon the second phase of that threefold work of Church expansion, which God has especially laid upon it — to be to us at once a spiritual necessity and a spiritual glory. It is (as we have seen) brought home to us mainly by the growth under His Providence of our extraordinary Indian Empire, and by the relations which it entails with other Asiatic powers — with the great Empires of China and Japan in the far East, and with the Mohammedan Empires of Turkey and Persia in Western Asia and in Egypt.
Before we attempt any examination of it in detail, it is well to understand clearly what is the general character of the great sphere of influence
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thus opened to us, and what are the principles which must be our guides in entering upon it.
I. It is, in the first place, wholly different in character from the sphere of that first expansion at which we have already glanced — over our vast colonial Empire in America and the West Indies, in Australia and New Zealand, and South Africa. There our main duty is to our own fellow-country- men— to keep these " children of the dispersion " true and living members of the spiritual Israel. Only out of this has there grown up, as we shall see hereafter, a mission to the subject-races; and although, in relation to the negro race, this mission had con- siderable importance from the beginning, yet it has at all times held a secondary place, and has of late years been largely undertaken by the colonial Churches themselves. There we had simply to Chris- tianize the free development of colonization for our own people ; even for the heathen we had to cover a spiritual ground, previously all but unoccupied, and never had to displace any strong and organized religious system. There accordingly the expansion aimed at, and largely achieved, has been mainly a literal expansion of our own Anglican Church, under some difference of conditions — with greater need of variety and freedom of development — with a greater predominance of extension, as distinct from
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edification, of evangelistic rather than pastoral duty — but still substantially the same in all essentials of doctrine, worship, and ministry. Even when, as in the case of the great American Republic, the tie of civil unity has snapped asunder, the spiritual bond of Church unity holds still. It was because of this virtual unity, that we ventured to read from colonial experience some not unimportant lessons for our whole Church life.
Here all these conditions are changed, if not reversed. Here we are brought into contact with vast populations of other races, in which our fellow- countrymen are but a handful, although in spite of this fewness they sway a dominant and pervading power. While we have to care still, and that deeply, for the Christianity ot our fellow-countrymen — both for their own sakes, and in order to Christianize this dominant influence — yet the duty to the native races, especially within the borders of our own Empire, assumes a direct and urgent importance. Here we are face to face with great and highly -organized religions, shaken indeed and undermined by our Western civilization, but still strong in vitality and authority over countless millions of the people. Here it follows that the expansion, with which we are charged, is an extension of spiritual influence, rather than of spiritual territory — handing on the torch of
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light and grace to a native Christianity of the future, to which we can give, and are bound to give, teach- ing, inspiration, and guidance, but which must de- velop itself in its own way, as God shall direct it, in harmony, as we trust, but not in identity, with our own Church of England. As in the spheres of political government, of intellectual education, of moral and social development, so in the higher religious sphere, it would be worse than folly to ignore or destroy all that is old, even for the creation of a new and higher life ; or to act as if we supposed that conditions of secular and religious life, which have been to us a natural growth through centuries, can be in their completeness universally applicable to wholly different circumstances and antecedents.
Therefore it is with us here as with St. Paul at Athens. We stand in the presence of a vast and complex human society, of races, civilizations, characters, wholly different from our own ; we discern there, as an universal and a dominant force, the acknowledgment and worship of a Supreme Power ; we see, on the one side, great masses of the people " wholly given to idolatry " of many visible repre- sentations of many gods, and, on the other, philoso- phies of a subtle and transcendental sort, which either seek vaguely for something underlying these idolatries, or pass into negation or agnosticism in
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regard to ultimate truth. How and on what prin- ciples shall we act ?
We know that all these alien races are yet children of God in the one blood of a common humanity, and that for all, although they know it not, the one Saviour lived and died ; we know that under His Providence all these various developments of that humanity have been ordered ; we believe that He through His Spirit has awakened all "to feel after Him and find Him," as the life in whom " they live and move and have their being " ; we conclude, therefore, that the resulting worship, how- ever it may err and fail, is still the ignorant worship of a God unknown, yet not unfelt, and that, as such, it is of the essence of the higher life of the people, embodying their true humanity and rising above material and visible things. So far as this all serious contemplation of the facts of the case agrees. Even the thoughtful agnostic has come to recognise the reality and the transcendent force of the religious element in human life and history. If among earnest believers in Christ, jealous for the honour of their Master, there has been anything of contempt and alienation of spirit towards all other religions, this has long passed away.
But then comes the great division of thought, depending on the conception of what Christianity
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itself is. If it is merely one, perhaps the best, of these searchings after God, differing from others not in kind, but in degree, — if, in the spirit of the old philosophic paganism, we regard all religious systems as simply local developments of the universal instinct of God, each rooting itself like a native plant in its own spiritual soil, and growing by adaptation to its human environment, — if we hold that to all alike, however they may differ in degree of enlightenment, the Supreme Being is unknown and unknowable, as regards any definite and certain knowledge, — then we cannot heartily follow St Paul to the end, which he had so definitely and so constantly before him. No ! we shall stand still, or go on, if we do go on, in per- plexity and with hesitation. Perhaps we shall keep our Christianity to ourselves, and let all other religions go their own way, content to guard them from inter- necine conflict with one another, and to purge them from dangerous or immoral accretions. Perhaps, if we do seek to introduce our Christianity at all, wc shall advance it with reserve and bated breath, as a thing simply better in degree than what it would displace, and likely therefore to do spiritual good, if only it can prove itself suitable to its new conditions. Perhaps we shall attempt the impossible task of separating its enlightenment and its morality from the doctrine, which it asserts as a supernatural revela-
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tion, and try to introduce these into other religious behefs — possibly to be assimilated by them, possibly to act as a solvent of them in a distant future. Nay, we may even attempt the still more impossible enterprise of fusing together Christianity and the religions with which it comes in contact — glorifying the Protean adaptability, by which Hinduism finds room for all beliefs, from the highest monotheism to the lowest superstitions — accepting, and even exag- gerating, what is true and good in the religion of Islam, and going so far as to hold that its stern and arid simplicity may be the best thing attainable by races of little spiritual advancement — adopting a strangely metamorphosed Buddhism, as a new theo- sophy, half mystic and half agnostic — and endeavour- ing, like the Gnostics of old days, to weave Christianity into a fantastic harmony with these alien systems.
It is clear that we must go far, very far, beyond this conception of Christianity, if we are to take up the witness of St. Paul — not as a student in the Hellenizing school of Tarsus, or a disciple of the tolerance of Gamaliel, but as one who was, and knew that he was, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, and who could say accordingly with full confidence, " Whom ye ignorantly worship. Him declare I unto you." We must hold Christianity to be the absolute religion ; we must see in it the promised treasure.
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not of this or that race or age, but of all races and all ages of the world ; we must acknowledge it to be the complete manifestation of God, as one with all humanity, in which the scattered and broken lights of other religions are brought together in divine harmony, and in which what was otherwise seen only by glimpses, in the twilight of speculation and hope, shines out in the noonday brightness of cer- tainty. And this conception, at once thoughtful and enthusiastic, can only come, as of necessity it must come, from the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ — not as a teacher, somewhat more enlightened than Gautama, — not as a master in morality, somewhat more living and less formal than Confucius, — not as a prophet, somewhat wiser and more spiritual than Mohammed, — not even as one, perhaps the greatest, of many incar- nations of Deity, — but, in the light in which He is set forth in Holy Scripture and the Catholic creeds, as the Eternal Son of God, the one Incarnation of Deity in a true humanity, living, dying, rising again and ascending into Heaven, in order that He might draw all men to Himself, and to the Godhead in Him.
Then, and then only, can we feel that " necessity is laid upon us to preach the Gospel," and extend the Church of Christ. Only the true disciples of Christ, who have come to know Him as He is, can
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be His apostles, and by the very charge of apostle- ship become His disciples more deeply and more truly. As the summons to the field in warfare is the test of loyalty and courage, so the call to missionary enterprise at once supplies the touchstone of the reality of our faith, and, when obeyed, perfects that faith in clearness of conception, in enthusiasm of love, in consciousness of a strength made perfect in weakness. Better, far better, the narrowest and most intolerant exhibition of that faith, if it be living and powerful, than the lukewarm hesitation which is closely akin to indifference or uncertainty. But why should we be content with either alternative ? Why should we not, with St. Paul, acknowledge and even reverence the gleams of truth, which show us that in all these searchings for God He left Himself not without a witness, and yet walk, and call all men to walk, in that full light of life, which only He can give, who is the Light of the World, because He is the Word of God ?
Such then is the task which presents itself to us — surely one of a splendid complexity and difficulty. Such is the one spirit, in which we have either duty or right to undertake it. Let us examine, necessarily in the briefest outline, how far it has been actually attempted by England as in profession a Christian nation, and by our Church as the national Church,
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and so a foremost representative of the national Christianity.
II. First, and infinitely most important, is the aspect of this great question, which concerns the Indian Empire, as most within our power, and therefore closest to the heart of our responsibility. Although our first entrance upon India goes back nearly three hundred years, to the close of the reign of Elizabeth, yet it is only about one hundred and thirty years, since, out of what was but a commercial settlement, we began to build up the fabric of this vast Empire of nearly three hundred millions of people, swayed by a mere handful — less than one in two thousand — of our English countrymen. For the civilization of that Empire — material, intellectual, social — we have un- doubtedly laboured with unwearied energy, and with a not unchequered but magnificent success. Under our sway the material well-being of India has advanced by leaps and bounds ; intellectual culture has been inspired with a new life and diffused by general education ; the moral influence of strong and righteous government, and of some noble individual example, has told powerfully upon the native mind and character. How far, meanwhile, have we carried out there — what certainly the course of history in our own land should have taught us — the belief that Christianity is the inspiring and dominant force of
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true civilization, and that the expansion of the Church of Christ is essential to the unity and moral life of Empire?
(A) Let it be remembered that there is very much of Christianity in India, with which we have had nothing to do. It had flourished long before we set foot in India ; and it exists now, with support indeed of respect and sympathy, but without other aid from us.
The old Church of St. Thomas on the Malabar coast traces its origin very far back — by its own not impossible tradition to Apostolic times, certainly to early Christian centuries. We know that about two centuries after Christ, Pantaenus, the renowned head of the Catechetical School at Alexandria, went out to preach " among the Brahmans," and it was most probably in this ancient Christian church that he laboured. For we know not how many centuries it was the one representative of Christianity, strong, but still isolated and undiffused, among the millions of India.
Then under the Portuguese dominion came in the great Roman Catholic Missions, overspreading, and by force absorbing, the older Church at the close of the sixteenth century ; and, now that it has been set free, still drawing from it to the Roman obedience nearly as many converts as remain in the old independence. That work was, indeed, backed
I
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by the temporal power, even to compulsion and per- secution ; but its real glory was in the splendid labours of the saintly Xavier and the strong Jesuit Missions, with their monasteries, schools, colleges, and stations, scattered over the South. It was a vigorous and flourishing work ; it went perhaps to an excess in the adaptation of Christianity to native ideas and customs, even to native superstitions ; it certainly relied too much on the secular arm, and accordingly it may have been tempted to be content with nominal and external conversions ; but it has left its deep trace in the existence of a strong native Christianity, sustained and extended by a wealth of resource and energy, which often puts our own work to shame. Of some two millions and a half of Christians in India, two -thirds at least are included in the Roman Catholic Com- munion.
Under the Dutch ascendency, again, which suc- ceeded the Portuguese in South India, an effort was made for evangelization, strongly backed by the secular power ; and this also has left some fruits, especially in Ceylon, although since the loss of that secular pressure it has greatly languished.
On these works of conversion we look with deep respect and thankfulness ; but they bear in no respect on the fulfilment of our own religious mission to
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India. We have still to ask two questions — What religious attitude has been assumed by the civil power of the Empire ? What has been done by the free missionary energy of English Christianity ?
(B) The civil power, unlike in this respect the Por- tuguese, the French, and the Dutch, which preceded it, has from the beginning refused to bring material force to bear, directly or indirectly, on the Christian- ization of the people. God forbid that it should have been otherwise ! The weapons of the true Christian warfare are not carnal, but spiritual. Political admixture and the use of temporal power have been the secret of the decay in many regions of the East of what was once a flourishing native Christianity. But still there is necessarily some duty in this respect laid upon a nation pro- fessedly Christian, which has planted in India a ruling English population, and has assumed the responsibility of empire over hundreds of millions of natives, whom Christianity must look upon as God's children committed to our charge. How far has this twofold duty been recognised and carried out ?
In considering the first aspect of this duty, we find that, under the long rule of the East India Company, some religious provision was made from the beginning for the Englishmen who were engaged
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in the military and civil service. Naturally, per- haps inevitably, this was inadequate at first ; it was some eighty years from the grant of the first Charter before the first church was built (in 1681) ; it was a century before the services of chaplains and schoolmasters were regularly organized. Only by degrees, and against much discouragement and opposition, has this religious establishment been developed into its present fuller organization. Even now we are told that it is hardly sufficient for its own proper work, and that it cannot adequately reach the non-ofificial English population, which is now considerable, and still less the Eurasians, who are in many cases poor and even indigent, ex- posed to special difficulties and temptations, and cared for neither by Government authority nor direct missionary agency. It must be added that, as an Establishment, supported out of Indian revenue, it is not unfrequently attacked. But clearly, at any rate for the Englishmen in the public service, it represents the most obvious national duty.
In relation to the Christianization of the natives, the attitude of the civil power has varied. In the first instance — in the days when the Church and the nation were held to be coextensive — there was, at least in theory, a recognition of Christian duty
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towards them. The chaplains were directed to learn the vernacular language, that they might be able " to instruct the Gentoos, who shall be servants or slaves of the Company, in the Protestant reli- gion." Even when this old conception gave way — when the duty of the chaplains was thought to be virtually confined to ministration to the European population, and when all evangelization was left to voluntary religious agency — the civil authorities in the early part of the eighteenth century were at least not unfavourable to the religious work, and at times were inclined to help it. The great mis- sionary Schwartz, who laboured in South India with splendid success from 1750 to 1798, was held in the highest respect and honour, perhaps in some degree because of his unequalled influence over native princes.
But, as the British power in India advanced, and began to assume the character of political ascend- ency, the civil authority passed from a not unfriendly neutrality to an attitude of discouragement, opposi- tion, even persecution, towards any attempt at Christianization of the native races. In the eyes of the governing authorities — for the sake both of their increasing commercial interest and of the rapid growth of political power — the one thing needful was the avoidance of anything which
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might rouse hostility, or even impair friendship, in the native powers around them. To advance Christianity in face of the strong religious forces of Hinduism and Mohammedanism was, therefore, from their point of view, an act of political madness or political treason. Hence the period of the most rapid advance of our dominion was the darkest time of difficulty and persecution, in relation to any work of Christianization. We cannot wonder that there grew up in the native mind a conviction that the English had no religion of their own, and paid homage indiscriminately to all the varying and antagonistic forms of native religion, provided only that they were strong enough to command respect. In 1774 we find Warren Hastings — one of the chief founders of our Empire — laying it down as a fundamental rule of policy " to discourage mis- sionary effort." Nor was this suggestion allowed to be a dead letter. After the death of Schwartz in 1798, any such effort was met by prohibition and even deportation. In that year some agents of the London Missionary Society were expelled ; in 1799 the famous Baptist Mission of Marshman and Carey, which marked a new departure in the Christianity of South India, had actually to take refuge under the Danish flag at Serampore. When, on the renewal of the East India Company's Charter
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in 1793, Wilberforce carried a resolution in the House of Commons, that it is the duty of our Government towards " the inhabitants of the British dominions " to " adopt such measures as may gradu- ally tend to their advancement in knowledge, and to their religious and moral improvement," the clauses embodying this resolution in the renewed Charter were sneered at as " the pious clauses," and dropped by the timidity of the Government. The opposition of the adherents of the policy of Warren Hastings was then too strong to be overcome.
Even when better times began, every step in advance was bitterly opposed by them. The very extension of the Episcopate to India, plainly neces- sary even for our English ministrations, was only carried against resolute antagonism and ominous warning. Still stronger was the opposition to any- thing which looked like even an indirect attack upon heathenism. When it was resolved to abolish flagrant immoralities, based on native superstitions, — to prohibit Sttttee, religious infanticide, human sacrifice, voluntary or compulsory religious torture, — when Christian officials were relieved from com- pulsory attendance and indirect homage to idolatrous ceremonies, — when caste was no longer supported by law or regarded in Government appointments, — when to some extent the civil rights of Christian
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converts were protected, — at every point a hard struggle had to be waged against the adherents of the old policy.
Still, in spite of this opposition, there was a continual advance won by the growing strength of a higher public opinion, to which the main impulse was given by the great Evangelical Revival. When in 1 8 1 3 another opportunity was given by renewal of the Company's Charter, the cause, which had been ridiculed and baffled twenty years before, was strong enough to advance to a position far beyond what it had then hoped for. Through the untiring energy of Wilberforce and his friends, clauses were inserted, ensuring absolute toleration by the Government of all missionary work, and at the same time completing the organization of our Church in India by the creation of its first Bishopric at Calcutta. The Act marked the in- auguration of a new era. It was only necessary that the civil power should assume, or resume, a position of friendly and sympathetic neutrality, to meet the rise of a new enthusiasm of missionary enterprise, which then showed itself on all sides. Towards that position, through the remaining period — nearly half a century — of the rule of the East India Company, more and more controlled by the imperial power, it continually advanced. But there
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is reason to think that the old spirit of opposition or disHke still remained, stimulated from time to time by symptoms of religious fanaticism and alarm among the natives, and manifesting itself to some degree at headquarters, and still more through the local authorities, especially of the older school.
The great storm of the Indian Mutiny here, as in many other points, did much to clear the air. It shook the confidence of men in the old system ; it showed that scrupulous timidity, in face of native religion and superstition, had not disarmed the religious fanaticism shown in the incident of the " greased cartridges," or prevented Hindu and Mo- hammedan from uniting against us ; it induced, at least, some question whether a bolder policy, pro- moting rather than hindering the growth of a strong native Christianity, might not have been even politically a safer one. The grand Proclamation, in which the direct dominion of the Crown was announced from the steps of Government House, Calcutta, at the close of 1858, inaugurated another new era. It is not a little remarkable that, as it was first drawn by the Secretary of State, it was intended simply to assure the natives, still uneasy and apprehensive, that no compulsion or authori- tative interference should be used against their religions. Accordingly it merely " disclaimed the
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right, or the desire, to impose rch'gious convictions on any of Her Majesty's subjects " ; it promised absolute reh'gious toleration, and sternly prohibited all infringement of it ; it acknowledged it as " a duty to do all tor the welfare of the whole people." But when it was submitted to the Queen, she with her own hand prefixed to this disclaimer the words : " Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity and acknowledging the solace of religion," and added a conclusion of prayer : " May the God of all power grant to us, and to those in authority under us, strength to carry out these our wishes for the good of our people." ^ In the Proclamation, so wisely and nobly completed, all is done which the imperial power has a right to do ; the open confession of Christian faith is of priceless significance to the native mind, and commands the respect of races, in whom a strong religiousness of tone is dominant ; the reliance on the Divine strength, to be sought in prayer, stamps still further with a religious im- press the power, which has to rely primarily not on material force, but on moral ascendency, and the confidence which it creates. If only it be carried out in spirit as well as in letter, if the State passes from suspicion and hostility to a fair and friendly neutrality, no Christian man can claim or
^ See Life of Priiice Consort, vol. iv. pp. 2S1-335.
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desire more. There were, indeed, some great servants of the Crown in India, who, not only by their own fervent reh'gious faith, but by their view of what was our true poHcy, and even duty to the Indian people, were led to go beyond this position, and would have desired virtually to extend Chris- tianity, especially in the schools, by governmental authority. But happily the wiser counsels of men, not less enlightened as politicians, and not less earnest as Christians, prevailed ; and the civil power, as such, preserves that true impartiality which was promised in the Proclamation of 1858.^
(C) But the second and far graver inquiry remains : " How far has the free action of English Christianity — especially in our own Church — taken up, with or without encouragement, our religious mission to the millions of our Indian fellow - subjects ? " If to commerce they supply simply one of the great markets and granaries of the world, — if to our dominion they are but subject-races, to be ruled by a benevolent and tempered despotism, — yet has the Church of Christ cared for them as potentially " fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God " ? The answer to this question is for the past a sad and humiliating answer. As for our own
^ See an interesting account of the discussions on this subject in the Li-^e of Sir Bartle Frere, vol. i. pp. 255-265.
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Church, she was satisfied with the ministration of the chaplains to the EngHshmen ; and this, when they were earnest in their service, could not but overflow in some slight degree to the natives dependent upon them. But as to direct Christianization of the natives, the missionary spirit in our Church was so dead, that our old societies — the Society for Promot- ing Christian Knowledge and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel — representing the strongest religious earnestness of the times, had to be content to give aid to the Danish Lutheran Missions in 1705, and to support and direct the splendid missionary energy of the great German Schwartz from 1750 till his death in 1798. The first English missionary enterprise came from outside the Church's pale. In 1799 began the famous Baptist Mission of Carey, Marshman, and Ward at Serampore, which trans- lated the Bible into thirty native languages, and entered on the work of higher native education ; in 1798 the London Missionary Society ventured to enter upon the field, although in the first instance its efforts were checked by the same opposition which had banished the Baptist Mission. It is, of course, true that the Nonconformist Communions were less impeded by legal difficulties, and by responsi- bility for the English population in India, than our own Church. Still, had there been in her then any
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true missionary enthusiasm, the will would surely have found the way.
It was undoubtedly (as has been said) the great Evangelical Revival which roused the Church of England from this spiritual torpor, and from this miserable narrowness of conception of her charge in India. It was to such men as William Wilberforce, Charles Simeon, and Charles Grant that the impulse was due, which at once forced the nation through Parliament to recognise its moral and spiritual duty, and stirred the Church to enter with some energy upon this greatest of all missionary fields. It was by men trained in this University, in the school of Simeon, and sent forth to chaplaincies in India — Brown, Buchanan, Currie, Thomason, Henry Martyn — that the conventional bonds of limitation to the English ministry were broken ; and that, in the darkest period of discouragement and opposition by the civil authority, the public opinion of Englishmen in India was educated to a truer idea of our Christian responsi- bility, and direct support given to the effort to bring to the clear revelation of God in Christ the ignorant worship of His Indian children.
But, above all, the rise of the great Church Missionary Society in 1799 for "Africa and the East " marked the preparation for a new epoch of evangelization. From the beginning it was, unlike
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the older Missionary Society, the creation of one school of opinion in the Church, and designed to work on the principles which were to that school most dear ; as such it is perhaps but natural that it should have claimed a larger share of self-government, not only at its origin, when there was no Church organization to cover the field of mission work abroad, but even when, as in our own times, that organization is fully developed. It may be permitted to us to wish that those who founded it had been content simply to revive and strengthen the older missionary agencies — so to concentrate, instead of dividing, the missionary interest, and to fuse voluntary enterprise gradually in the expansion of the Church itself But yet we thankfully acknowledge that it has done, and is doing, a magnificent work, not least in India. More perhaps than any other Society, it has kindled to activity in the cause a great body of our laity, especially in the middle class, and has evoked accordingly a strong spirit of enthusiasm and splendid sacrifices, both of money and of men ; it has thrown itself mainly, almost exclusively, not into the work of colonial expansion, of which I have already spoken, but into direct aggression under the banner of the Cross on the strongholds of heathenism. There have been critical times, when, as of late in the case of Uganda, it has been the one agency, which has for-
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bidden retrogression, and bidden men go forward, even through a sea of difficulty, in the way of God.
The revived missionary spirit had now free scope by the victory gained over the old spirit of opposition in the Charter of 181 3. From that memorable time we may date the beginning of that continuous progress, which has (thank God !) gone on with constantly accelerated rapidity down to our own time.
The first fruit of that victory was the creation of the See of Calcutta in 18 14. It was the first step towards completeness of Church organization, followed naturally by assistant Bishoprics of the same type at Madras in 1835 and Bombay in 1837. Probably in the first instance the idea of their estabHshment was mainly the strengthening and right ordering of the ministrations of the chaplains to the English people ; but it was happily impossible to limit the spiritual effect, which told, as usual, powerfully on the whole work of the Church, pastoral and missionary alike. Then came a long interval in the extension of the Episcopate, due mainly to legal difficulties ; but it was succeeded by a rapid erection of other bishoprics, founded with but secondary aid from the civil power,^ and all marked more distinctly with a
^ The new bishops in most cases, if not in all, received the recognition and support of appointment to senior chaplaincies.
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missionary character. On our occupation of Burmah followed the creation in 1877 of the See of Rangoon ; in the same year the See of Lahore in the old Sikh kingdom; in 1879 the purely missionary Bishopric of Travancore, in friendly relation with the old Church of St. Thomas ; in 1890 the See of Chota-Nagpore, crowning the remarkable work of conversion of the Kols ; in 1893 ^^e See of Lucknow, relieving the vast dioceses of Calcutta and Lahore ; and this year, as I trust, the Bishopric of Tinnevelly, succeeding the earnest episcopal labours of Bishops Caldwell and Sargent in the most interesting and vigorous of all our missionary works in India.
The expansion so marked is here again not one merely of form and organization, but at once a result and a stimulus of increased spiritual vitality. The charge committed to our Indian bishops is, indeed, a complex charge, half-aided and half-impeded by Church Establishment. It has to do with the building up through the chaplains of our English Christianity, so infinitely important not only to our own spiritual life, but for its moral influence over the subject-races ; it has to care for the poorer English- men, unconnected with the public service, and with the mixed Eurasian race, placed in a position of peculiar difficulty and peculiar temptation ; it has to direct, inspire, and control, as far as possible, the
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growing missionary work, carried on mainly by our great Church Societies.
For this is indeed (thank God !) a work growing, and that rapidly. It was only in 18 14 — the year of the first Bishopric — that the Church Missionary Society entered upon it, followed in 1820 by the older Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Now out of small beginnings great things have grown. Mainly through the action of the two great Societies, and such missions as those of our Universities at Calcutta, at Delhi, and in Chota- Nagpore, we see British India studded with evangelizing centres of Christian light and grace — stations, churches, schools, colleges, Zenana and medical missions — ministering to various classes and races in various languages — with a large body both of English and of native clergy, with a far larger army of native lay workers, and, gathered in by these, some hundreds of thousands of native Christians. It needs a right organization to weld together all these various works, to unite the pastoral and missionary agencies, the English and native Christianity. But, although the full synodical action which we have in the colonial Churches is not yet developed in India, still it is gradually but surely growing up ; and the ten bishops, some 800 clergy, and the laity, English and native, are gathered
K
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as one Church round the Metropolitan See of Calcutta.
Meanwhile, let it be remembered that this work of our Church is but a part of the whole evangelistic effort, which is being made by English Christianity. We must, I think, confess with shame that in this field she has not retained, as fully as she ought to have retained, her spiritual leadership of energy and sacrifice. Side by side with ourselves, the Baptist, Congregationalist, Methodist, and Presbyterian Com- munions from Great Britain, and various missions from the corresponding bodies in the United States, throwing into the work the characteristic American energy, are labouring with an earnestness and success under God's manifest blessing, at least equal, in some points superior, to our own.^ We thank God that it is so. There is, indeed, a serious scandal and hindrance to Christian progress in the divisions, by which the forces of the great army are broken up into inde- pendent and isolated groups of combatants ; there is a bewilderment to the heathen in this endless multiplication of different forms, methods, even
^ The Report of the Board of Missions (p. 28) says : — "A most note- worthy fact is the prominence of America as an evangelizing force. . . . Of the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist groups of Missions, un- questionably the most important are the American." The same Report shows (p. 30) that the native Christians belonging to other Comnumions (excluding the Roman Catholic and the Syrian) are more than twice the number of those connected with our own Church.
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creeds, of what should be one Christianity ; even within our own Church the division between our two great Societies has been known to give rise to distinction in the native mind between "S.P.G. and C.M.S. Christians." But yet "notwithstanding every way Christ is preached," both in His word and in His grace ; and, except, perhaps, on the part of the Roman Catholic Missions, it is found that, in the face of the dark forces of idolatry and error and infidelity, there is developed an underlying sense of unity and fellowship, which does much to mitigate, although it never can remove, the evil of our unhappy divisions. In the spirit of some well-known words of Lord Macaulay, we may well confess that it is hard to think much of our internal differences, in a land where the question is whether men shall bow down to idols and worship cows.
But what fruit is there of these labours for Christ — so tardily begun, and even now so inadequate in resource and power?
In estimating the results as yet achieved, it is well first to gain some conception of the extra- ordinary greatness and difficulty of the task. The ground is not clear for rapid and easy progress. Against the advancing banner of the Cross there stand out colossal forces of antagonism. Far the greatest, and widest in power, is the vast and hetero-
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geneous system which we call roughly Hinduism, strengthened by the iron force of caste, throwing out, like one of its own many-armed idols, all forms of attraction, from gross idolatry to transcendental theo- sophy. In Ceylon and Burmah, in reaction from this, we find the strange ascetic negation in Buddhism of personality divine and human, with only an iron law of Kharma as its rule, and unconsciousness, if not extinction, as its goal ; and yet carrying with it, to meet the spiritual hunger which it denies, many strange forms of the grossest superstition. In the North of India we see the power of the strong, though sterile, Monotheism of Islam, with its bare simplicity of belief and worship and life, powerful over ignorant and uneducated minds, incapable of adapting itself to culture and civilization. Last, yet not least in its opposing force, there is, where our Western education has spread, a blank Ag- nosticism, or a vague Deism, at times gliding into Pantheism, which holds itself to be the highest wisdom ; while at the other end of the scale, among the non- Aryan races, base superstition and devil- worship utterly degrade humanity. It is against this complex formidable antagonism that Christianity has to win its way, and prove itself mighty to pull down, one after another, ancient strongholds of evil. Yet, were this all, the advance were comparatively
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easy. Christianity could recognise and welcome whatever in all these beliefs was true, as a broken light from God ; and by its own Divine brightness scatter the darkness of their errors and corruptions, and throw light on the ultimate mysteries, which they cannot pretend to solve. But on our own side there is the disintegration which splinters up our Christianity — with its waste of spiritual force, with its friction always in danger of passing into antagonism, with its scandal in the eyes of the bewildered or scoff- ing heathen. There is the offence which comes from the un-Christian lives of those who call themselves Christians, whether of English or of native blood. There has been, among those who are in earnest — although, I trust, it is diminishing — some narrow- mindedness, intolerant and denunciatory, of native thought and faith, and some want of wisdom and insight into the true methods and opportunities of our missionary work. There is, on the other hand, the paralysing influence of sceptical or anti-Christian thought among ourselves, which is well known and eagerly taken up against our missionary work in India. There is still a terrible inadequacy in our own resources material and spiritual — the result of com- parative ignorance or apathy of the mass of our own people at home ; while there comes back to us everywhere a bitter cry, from those who see a great
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door and effectual opened, and who long, in spite of the many adversaries, to enter in. Can we wonder that, as yet, we are still but on the fringe of the immense work, with perhaps one in a hundred of even professing Christians ?
But that, in spite of all these hindrances, Christi- anity is at last making swift headway, is happily beyond a doubt. What Bishop Lightfoot said some twenty years ago, in the light of a careful comparison of ancient and modern missions, as to the present achievement and the coming " advent of a more glorious future " in the whole mission-field, is cer- tainly and obviously true in India. The testimony comes not merely from the missionaries at home or abroad. Great leaders of our Indian Govern- ment— such men as Lord Lawrence, Sir Bartle Frere, Lord Napier, Sir Richard Temple, Sir William Hunter — witness unhesitatingly to great present achievements, far greater future prospects. Even the Government Bluebook tells the same story in more prosaic language. The fact, moreover, speaks for itself, that in the last twenty years the number of native Christians in British India has increased by 66 per cent, against all the force of prejudice, and the social ostracism, which is almost a martyrdom, inflicted on those who avow themselves Christians.
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But this is far from giving an adequate idea of the real position. The large conversions have, as yet, been mainly among the non-Aryan races, especially in the South. No one can doubt the reality and vigour of this portion of the work here, who sees it, as I myself have seen it, close at hand. We can visit, on the one hand, as at Palamcottah, strong central missionary stations, with their churches, crowded with devout worshippers and communicants, their colleges and schools, orphanages and hospitals, and round these in the villages native congregations under native Ministry, reckoned by tens of thousands, steadily advancing to self-government and self-sup- port. We may go far out in the wilderness, as to Nazareth, and find there a bright vigorous Christian community, with its church as the centre, and gathered round it, under the patriarchal sway of one English missionary, all the appliances of civilization : schools — elementary and industrial and art schools — which stand high in the education of the country ; a dispensary, which is the blessing of all the neighbour- hood for miles round, heathen as well as Christian ; even the opportunities of athletic exercise and sport, which give to the life there a brightness, curiously in contrast with the impassive and sombre aspect of the native population around, devil-worshippers for the most part and half-barbarian. Allowing to the full
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for all imperfections, — acknowledging vicissitudes of advance and stagnation, of success and failure, — recognising the formidable difficulty now pressing upon us, in relation to the tremendous and complex force of caste, — we may feel confident that, under God's blessing, we are founding and building up a vigorous native Christianity, and that naturally and inevitably its diffusive influence must spread rapidly in the future.
All this bears (thank God !) its visible fruit in the present. But there is another work going on — to my mind at least equally important — which is simply preparing for that future. It addresses itself to the higher races, and especially to the educated classes, who throng our high schools and universities ; for them it establishes schools and colleges of higher education, in which, under avowedly Christian auspices, there is imparted to all, as an integral part of that education, instruction from Holy Scripture in Christian truth. Christian morality. Christian devotion. This educational work is not in itself new. From the first it has formed an integral part of all Christian mission. The foundation of Bishop's College, for training of Christian students and ministers, and for education of non-Christians, dates from the first creation of the Indian Episcopate. From that day to this educational institutions of
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various grades have been found in every mission station. But under the development of the Univer- sity system in India, this work of higher general education has assumed a new prominence, in the various Christian colleges, rising everywhere side by side with Government institutions purely secular? and Hindu or Mohammedan colleges. Originated, I believe, by leaders in the Presbyterian mission work, and still having under their auspices some of its most magnificent institutions, it has been taken up with all earnestness by our own Church. I have seen it in splendid energy at the S.P.G. Colleges at Trichinopoly and Tanjore, the C.M.S. College at Agra, under the Oxford Mission at Calcutta, and the Cambridge Mission at Delhi.
It is a work, indeed, not without serious draw- backs, which have led some thoughtful minds to doubt the soundness of its principle, and its right to claim a place in missionary work. Against ancient tradition and practice, it opens the mysteries of our faith, not only to Christians or Catechumens, but to heathens who are not even inquirers ; it may seem to dissociate the light from the grace of Christ, and acceptance of Christian truth from open Christian profession ; it may suggest the idea, only too con- genial to the Hindu mind, that Christianity is only a philosophy to be intellectually learnt, or a morality
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which can be dissociated from its doctrines. It does not, of course, aim at direct proselytism, and in its indirect results it has yielded little fruit of con- version— hardly as much as we might have hoped for.
But its effect for good largely, I believe, out- weighs these objections. It is a twofold effect. It has already pervaded the higher thought and culture of India — drifting away from its old moorings in search of a religion — with Christian ideas of God and man, Christian morality, Christian promise of salva- tion ; and, if there be a Divine vitality in all these, it must surely prepare the minds and souls of these leaders of Indian society for some greater future movement of conversion. It begins and carries on, again, for the native Christians in these colleges — sometimes having halls or hostels of their own — the work, beyond all others necessary, of preparation for that educated native Ministry, from which, as many believe, the future impulse of con- version must come ; and in this leads up to the work of those other colleges, which are devoting them- selves especially to the training of Christian students for that Ministry itself. This latter effect, moreover, is growing every day. In one great southern college — the splendid " Christian College " at Madras — the number of Christians amonc!" the students is
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nine times what it was twenty years ago, and at this moment nearly one -sixth of its graduates are Christians in profession. It must be added that this effect tells also upon the efficiency of that more general Christianizing influence, by making it pos- sible to officer our colleges, mainly or wholly, with Christian teachers.
The work itself, moreover, is constantly associated with direct Christian witness — as notably in the Oxford Mission, united with the old Bishop's College at Calcutta, and carrying out mission work in some of the villages, in which an overwhelming majority of the real people of India still dwell ; as at Delhi in the preaching of our own University Mission in the streets and the great mosques of that stronghold of Mohammedanism. And that its witness falls on minds eminently receptive I saw by my own ex- perience ; when I was allowed again and again to speak on just those distinctively Christian subjects which seemed to meet the greatest Indian needs — the thirst for God, satisfied in Christ ; the witness of sin, righteousness, and judgment ; the inseparability of Christian morality from Christian faith — to hundreds of attentive and intelligent hearers, students or graduates of our Indian Universities.
Clearly it is a great seed-time, not unlike, as it seems to me, the early centuries, when Christianity
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had already made its way among the poor and simple, the hard workers and patient sufferers who form the great body of human society, and when the wise and the great in this world were passing from contempt or indifference, first to attention — now of antagonism, now of sympathy — and then to an adhesion, which prepared for the great and sudden change which we call the Conversion of the Empire. God grant that our seed-time also may yield — it may be suddenly — a like harvest! How that harvest shall come, how we shall be able to give full scope and independence to the native Christianity under the native Ministry, which we are raising up, so that it may take — as, if it is to be vigorous, it must take — its own free development on the lines of essential truth and Church order, we cannot tell. Meanwhile we have simply to bear our witness for Him in our own way. He has blessed, and is blessing, our poor efforts in the cause. We have only to pray for a larger outpouring of His Spirit upon ourselves, and on those to whom we minister.
Such is the expansion of the Church in our great Indian Empire — only the beginning of what by God's blessing is visibly approaching. It has necessarily overflowed beyond the limits of India itself, as a purely missionary and largely educational work into Burmah, under the guidance of the Bishopric of
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Rangoon/ as yet numbering but a few thousands of native converts, but advancing with steadiness and promise — through the mission stations of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Singapore and the Straits Settlements — into the great island of Borneo, so strangely and romantically opened through Sarawak and Labuan to Western civilization and Christianity ; where, again, we have as yet but a few thousand con- verts, but where the mission stations are rising every- where as centres of light and grace. But in these outlying agencies the phase of work is rather of that enlightenment and elevation of uncivilized races, of which I shall have to speak hereafter.
III. It is far otherwise in relation to the great Empires of China and Japan, to which our position in the East has opened the way, as in commercial and political, so in religious opportunity. To both these countries, moreover, we have contracted a grave self-made responsibility — not as in India from assumption of dominion, but from our resolution to force on them an intercourse, which against their will has brought them within the dominant force of Western influence. Mainly, I suppose, for the sake of our commerce — partly because it was held that no country has a right to isolate itself completely
^ A far greater work is being done there by the Roman Catholic and Baptist Missions.
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from the commonwealth of nations — we insisted on piercing the wall of separation which both Empires had deliberately set up ; and, curiously enough, we have thereby made the Chinese race a rival of our own in the colonization of the world, and have raised up in Japan what is clearly to become one of the dominant powers of the far East.
All this, indeed, is but of yesterday. It is little more than fifty years since China was thus opened to a measure of communication with Europe through certain ports, hardly extending even now far into the interior, and where it does extend, liable to violent interruptions. It is but thirty years ago that first the United States, and then Great Britain, insisted on treaties for an admission by Japan of an inter- course, which there has been welcomed without limitation or hindrance. The effect, indeed, has been in the two cases strangely different. The vast Chinese Empire has remained all but untouched, except in commercial relations ; wrapped up in the pride of its own elaborate, but mechanical and un- progressive, civilization, and in the stolid tenacity of its inherited customs ; still looking, or affecting to look, on the Western nations as barbarians ; and if it borrows their mechanical inventions, showing itself incapable of rightly understanding and using them. The lesser Japanese Empire — in size, position, and, as
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it believes, in destiny, the Great Britain of the Pacific — has assimilated with marvellous rapidity the Western civilization, not merely in mechanical externals, but in much of its idea and spirit ; it has passed from a kind of theocracy under a deified Emperor, too sacred really to rule, and superseded by the chief, of a feudal aristocracy, to an Imperial Government of constitutional type ; it has reorganized its whole society, both for peace and for war, on a modern basis ; it has, or believes that it has, learnt rapidly all that the West has to teach, and then made all its own, and developed it through its own people. The result of that contrast has been shown to an astonished world in the unexpected course of a war, which makes an epoch in the history of the far East.
But in both cases equally we have brought on ourselves the responsibility of rightly dealing with these remarkable peoples — with the proud unpro- gressive deadness of the one, and with the ambitious and exuberant life which we have stimulated in the other. And to deal rightly is freely to give what we have freely received, not merely of material, social, intellectual, but of moral and spiritual treasure. Christianity ought surely to be at least as expansive and self-communicative, as commerce and enlighten- ment, dominion and dominant influence. At the
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present time all material hindrances to its advance have been in great degree taken away. How far has it entered in at the door, which God's Providence has opened ?
It is not a little remarkable, that in centuries long past Christianity had made its way into both these Empires. We find from plain monumental evidence that in China more than a thousand years ago the missions of the 'Syrian Church, which we know as Nestorian, had diffused, under imperial toleration or favour, a vigorous Christianity, preaching all the great doctrines of the faith, and yet rooting itself firmly in indigenous habit and thought. But yet, we know not why, it seems to have died out, or to have been extinguished. Then, again, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, long before China was legally open to Europeans, the enthusiasm of the Jesuit Missions ventured in, adopting the dress and habits and ideas, and perhaps some of the super- stitions of the country, and succeeding in planting a Roman Catholic Church. That Church remains to this day, although, as so often in the East, its Christianity was discredited by admixture of political and aggressive influences. It numbers its hundreds of European and native priests, has its colleges and monasteries, and claims above a million of converts. But as for England's part in the work of Christ,
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it has been as yet singularly small. Such as it is, it belongs only to this century, and mainly to the last half of it, since the cession of Hong-Kong and opening of the ports in 1841. More even than usual, as it seems to me, it is hindered by disin- tegration and division. We find no less than twenty- five distinct missionary Societies, represent- ing all the various Communions, English and American, into which we are so unhappily divided ; and from all these as yet scarcely 200,000 souls, out of the hundreds of millions in China, brought to acknowledge God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our own Church has only made a beginning in the work, in which she ought rightly to have led. But gradually, and not slowly, there is advance, where- ever there is enterprise and self-sacrifice. From three Episcopal centres already — Victoria in Hong- Kong, North China, and Mid -China — the Church is making way, working through both her great Mission Societies ; translating Holy Scripture and the Prayer-Book into the written Chinese and the many vernaculars ; pushing on the work of Christian education ; doing all that may be done to deal with Chinese religions in the spirit of the text ; anxiously considering how transition shall be made from our own Anglican system and organization to some growth of an independent native Christianity.
L
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Here, as elsewhere, the half- century has been but a time of sowing the seed — against most formidable difficulties — in spite of negative impassiveness and bursts of positive hostility from without, and weak- ness of resource and division w^ithin. But the teaching of all experience will be falsified, if the next half-century shall not, by God's blessing, yield a rapid harvest.
Perhaps in Japan the history is even more re- markable. It was not till the sixteenth century that European commerce — Portuguese, Dutch, and Spanish — reached Japan. Then, once more, the great Jesuit Missions nobly used the opportunity. Under Xavier for a short time, and far more under his successors, a strong Christianity sprang up, with hundreds of churches, and some two millions of adherents. Unhappily, in this case even more than in China, it mixed itself up with political struggles, and even invoked, in the time of its power, the support of the secular arm. The hour of retri- bution came. By terrible persecution, often nobly borne, by civil war and massacre, the Christianit}-, which had seemed to show such promise, was all but rooted out ; at every city gate edicts of per- petual proscription were posted, as against a pestilent superstition, seditious and dangerous to righteousness and peace. Then for more than
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two hundred years Japan was deliberately closed to the outer world. When it was reopened, some relics of the old Christian community were still found, to form the nucleus of the Roman Church as it now exists.
Then, shortly after the great political revolution, the anti-Christian edict was repealed, and free course given to Christian missions. The opportunity has been eagerly seized, but with even more, as it would seem, of divided and disorganized effort than in China. Roman, Russo- Greek, Anglican, Presby- terian, various Protestant missions from England and America, all are at work with much earnestness, not without influence on the inquiring Japanese mind, but yet by their bewildering variety neces- sarily discrediting their message to its acute intelli- gence. Our own Church Mission, in union with the Mission from our sister Church in America, seems to be developing what calls itself a " Church of Japan," dealing freely, as some may think rashly, with standards of faith and government ; but to my mind having in it promise, because it has the germs of independent action. It is a young Mission, work- ing largely through educational agencies, making use of religious communities of men and women for evangelistic work, thoughtful at once and enthusiastic. It has already overflowed into the Korean Mission ;
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and it has clearly promise of no inconsiderable progress.
On both these great regions we may enter in the spirit of the text. There are, indeed, religions everywhere occupying the ground, but they have but little of strong grasp and vitality ; they cry out for some higher guidance and inspiration. In China the remarkable and dominant system of Confucianism is not a religion ; it may rather be said to have superseded the ancient conception of a supreme God, much debased into polytheistic idolatries, by what is simply a code of morality, agnostic as to any living God, hardly inquiring even into man's future destiny, utterly unconscious of any intrinsic power of evil in humanity, and therefore of any need of salvation. Taouism, with its vague Nature-worship, and its devotion to astrology and magic ; Buddhism, with its religious negations and the revulsion of superstition and demon-worship, can hardly fill this religious void. Nor is there much hope in that which underlies all these, and is especially sanctioned by much of the Confucian system — that strange and bigoted ancestral worship, which opposes a dull dead weight to all progress and enlightenment.
The one strong religious force is that of Moham- medanism, rooted in China since the seventh century,
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and said to include some thirty millions of adherents ; and we know by experience that this can never supply the impulse of life, enlightenment, enthusi- asm, which the vast inert mass of the Chinese race so greatly needs. If this is to come from any power, it must be from the Divine force of Christianity. Now, at last, that force has learnt to rely on . its own spiritual weapons alone, free from the admixtures which have ruined it in days gone by. Who shall tell what God will yet work through it ?
But Japan, for another reason, yet perhaps even more than China, cries out for some true and vital re- ligion, not here to rouse, but rather to meet the rising inquiry, to direct and mould the vigorous national life, to give to advancing civilization that moralizing and spiritualizing influence of which we in Europe know well the need. Shintoism — which seems to be in essence a deification of the long line of the Mikados, as being, like the Pharaohs, children of the sun — though it be still a State religion, can hardly consist with the modern ideas of government and au- thority. Buddhism, in a less negative form than else- where, with large developments of ritual, ceremonial, leligious observance, has more than usual of strength ; but it cannot adapt itself to a rapidly progressive energy and aspiration. Here, again, a Christianity truly spiritual should be able to lay hold of the mind
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of the people, which is clearly in search of some true religion. The old Christianity of Japan would never have been destroyed but for the occasion which it gave for regarding it as a dangerous political and social force. Let the Christianity of our day only keep itself clear from baser admixtures, and, I may add, from the suspicion of desire to Europeanize a community proud of its own native life, and for it here also there should be " a great door and effectual opened," in spite of " many adversaries " from with- out and from within.
IV. It is a vast and difficult sphere of influence which is open to us here in the far East. But, even now, our view of English duty and opportunity in Asia would not be complete, without a glance at those regions of Western Asia — Persia and Armenia, Syria and Palestine, Egypt and Abyssinia, once mainly a great Christian Empire, now under the heavy blight of Mohammedan domination. Here also, as I need hardly remind you, there lies on England a self-assumed responsibility, created by the policy which, for our own national and commercial interests, and especially for the sake of our Indian Empire, we have been led to pursue towards the Mohammedan power itself What we shall do as a nation — by diplomatic force or, as in Egypt, by direct interfer- ence— I do not inquire ; only I would urge that the
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welfare, in the material and moral sense, of the sub- ject-races in these Empires should be very close to our hearts and consciences. Who can doubt that in the terrible Armenian crisis of this moment our responsibility is assuming a most critical and urgent phase ?
But to us, as a Church, the right course is clear. We are bound, indeed, to minister to our own English people in these regions ; we may sustain, as at Jerusalem and elsewhere, agencies for conversion of Jews and Mohammedans. But our main duty is to the ancient Christian Churches — Greek, Armenian, Assyrian, Coptic — which, with whatever defects and drawbacks, have yet under centuries of oppression and persecution retained a tenacious and earnest Christian faith, and exercise over their people a strong religious power. And that duty is twofold. First, to help them in a true spirit of Christian brother- hood towards reform, education, enlightenment in their own Christian life and their Church system — asking in return no concession of authority, no adoption of what is purely Anglican, but only increased faithfulness to Catholic truth, freed, if it may be, gradually from accretions and corruptions which have gathered round it. Next, if possible, to form some bond of unity and of mutual sympathy between the various Christian Churches of the East
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— now, even in the face of the common enemy, so jealous and antagonistic to one another. Where can the misery and scandal of the divisions of Christianity be so painfully felt, as when we stand in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, see it cut up into various portions, assigned to the sections of the Church, separated in all things but a common violent hostility to the Jews, and watch the Turkish guard in the central area round the Sepulchre itself, contemptu- ously securing it for the common access of all, and keeping the rival Churches from strife and blood- shed ?
More and more, as it seems to me, is the true nature of this twofold duty being discerned by our Church, and in some slight measure being done. Certainly it is in this spirit that under the Anglican Bishopric at Jerusalem, extending its influence over Egypt and Cyprus, the work is now going on, gladly welcomed and accepted by the heads of the Oriental Churches. Certainly the same spirit is manifested in the Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrian Churches, and the action of the Eastern Church Association. It is not our business to proselytize, except from Judaism and Mohammedanism. Hard as it may be in some cases to decline receiving those who come to us, yet in general we resolutely leave proselytism from the Eastern Churches, to Rome on the one hand, and
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ultra-Protestantism on the other. It has been the opinion of some serious thinkers, not of our own Communion, that our Church might one day form a Hnk for the reunion of Christendom on the basis of Scriptural truth and Apostolical order. Nowhere, as it seems to me, does this function more plainly force itself upon us, than in those regions of Western Asia, even as they are now, much more as they may be one day, when the Mohammedan yoke is broken. Overtaxed as our missionary energy is with what seem nearer and more urgent claims, may some larger measure of it still be found for quiet and un- aggressive ministration here !
V, Such then, in brief outline, is our manifold vocation ; such the extraordinary duty which lies before us.^ Absolutely impossible would its fulfil- ment be, if we thought that it obliged us to aim at a literal expansion of our own Anglican system, to destroy all existing religions in a spiritual Nihilism, with a view to building our own fabric on their ruins, or even to take upon ourselves the task of sustaining from this little centre the rule and the direction of a world-wide Evangelism. But now, at least, we see plainly that this is not our ideal. Never, as I think,
^ In Appendix II. will be found a somewhat more detailed historical sketch of what is being done by ourselves and by others, in the various spheres of this Oriental Mission.
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SO wisely and comprehensively as in the great Mis- sionary Conference of the last year were the true conditions of the great problem realized.
The name of our oldest Missionary Society contains the very kernel of the truth. We have simply to propagate the Divine life, which by God's mercy has been engrafted on our own, by the com- munication at once of His light and His grace, and then to leave these to develop themselves, as He wills, in all the variety of native Christianity. We may, indeed, not only plant, but train and prune and water — so it be done modestly and wisely. But the increase, for which we pray, is in God's hand ; and His appointed way, as we see in Nature, is not a dead artificial symmetry, but a free and exuberant irregularity of growth.
Surely, if we understand what the Divine life of Christianity is, we shall see how by such propaga- tion it can be made to take up into itself what is good and true in these great alien religions ; while yet it supplies from its own inexhaustible fulness the new impulse, which shall throw off the encrustations of superstition and corruption, and fill up the fatal voids of spiritual defect. Face to face with the strange heterogeneous system which we call Hindu- ism, it is surely possible to cherish and develop that pervading religiousness of idea and practice, which
Ill OUR MISSION TO INDIA AND THE EAST 155
recognises the Divine everywhere, breathing Hfe into nature, and stooping to incarnations in humanity. But how infinite the refreshment and bris^htness, in contrast with the oppressive and grotesque complication of Hindu mythology, when we can set forth the Divine simplicity of the one living God, immanent in Nature, and yet infinitely transcendent in true Personality, and of the one Incarnation of Godhead in a true humanity, to draw all peoples and nations and languages to Himself! So in the presence of the great reaction of Buddhism, we can acknowledge the beauty of its teaching of self- sacrifice, of purity, of love, of holiness, in its perfect man ; we can hail its declaration of the equality of all men without respect of persons, breaking the iron bondage of caste ; we can see the moral value of its recognition of an eternal law, though it be an iron law, of retribution. But yet what a change it is from death to life, when on the void of its dreary agnosticism as to any personal God, and even any true personality in man, there dawns the living reality of both, as manifested in the Christ, satisfying worthily the deep instinct of worship, which from the gloom of this agnosticism takes refuge in the wildest and basest superstitions ! Once more, when we try to estimate the wonderful system of Confucianism, we can honour its firm grasp of morality, as of the
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very essence of our human nature, and as the only basis of human society ; its reverence for the fatherly authority, which is the most sacred of earthly things, and for the time-honoured ancestral teachings, which are the gradually accumulating trea- sures of human wisdom. But yet how can we help feeling that the very condition of the Chinese Empire, so mechanical and so unprogressive, so inert and so corrupt, is a witness of the deadness of the most complete moral system, if it be not inspired with that life of a true religion of God and of man, which we can give it in the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ ? More truly still, in the contemplation of the grand simple Monotheism of Islam, we can reverence its strong and pervading conception of a Divine w^ill, a Divine law, a Divine self-revelation, which exercises over the masses of its people so true and so strong an influence for self-abnegation and self-sacrifice, for bravery and, in some things, for temperance. But yet, in its absence of all recognition of something Divine in humanity, capable of freedom and responsi- bility, and of any real unity between the infinite majesty of God and the finiteness of His creatures, we see the fatal defect, which makes its existence incompatible with enlightenment and progress, w^ith true spirituality of aspiration, with the right hatred of sensuality and slavery ; and we seem to hear how
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its bare sterility cries out for the truth of God as one with man, and of man as being, not a slave or tool, but a son of the Divine Fatherhood.
To carry onward this life-giving light of Christ is indeed an arduous work. " Who (cries St. Paul himself) is sufficient for these things ? " But it is a work, which by His blessing can be done, if only not the few, but all, the members of our Church will but understand its glory, and the necessity laid upon all to rise to their grand vocation. As yet it is only in its beginning. The harvest hitherto gathered in is but scanty, for the labourers have been few ; and in respect of it our own Church has certainly not risen adequately to her vocation and her oppor- tunities. But there can happily be no doubt that the preparatory work is telling, and that with rapid increase of power, over Oriental society, wherever the Western influence prevails. There can be as little doubt, that, although still inadequately, there is a most remarkable and auspicious growth in our own understanding and enthusiasm of Mission. The next half-century should, under God's blessing, see a mighty change, if only we have faith and wisdom to use its opportunities. Nor will it really overtask or dissipate our strength. On the contrary, it is a work which reacts in blessing on our own Church life here.
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It has its lesson of wisdom. For it will un- doubtedly teach us more and more what is the real essence of our Christianity, as distinct from the secondary developments of thought and organization, which may often be temporary and local in their scope, — what is its relation to the philosophies, the religions, the civilizations, which at once express and mould the progress of humanity, and which often have their analogues in our own life here, — what it may learn and assimilate from them, while it still asserts its own inherent power of spiritual dominion over all humanity, and its own revelation of the mysteries of God and man, into which nothing else can enter. Just as the wandering through all the regions of the earth brings us home to understand our own country better, and to love it more, so the com- parison and contrast of these many philosophies and religions should show us so clearly what our Christianity really is, that we may ourselves enter more fully into its Divine truth and life.
It has its lesson of enterprise and of encourage- ment. For, in spite of all the failures due to our own error and unfaithfulness, it is impossible not to see in the mission-field everywhere, more plainly than in our own complex condition of society, the rcalit}' of tlic power of Christianity over all races and classes of men, and its unquestionable leadership over all
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other civilizing influences which strive to reahze the brotherhood of mankind.
It has its lesson to us of self-sacrifice, ennobling our present Christianity with the light of true martyrdom for Christ, alike in the sharpness of death and the quiet endurance of life, and perhaps dis- closing to us the need of forms of Christian service, which plainly embody such self-devotion as a rule of life, detached from the complications of our more ordinary vocations.
It has, and should have in fuller completeness, its lesson of unity, drawing us out of our miserable divisions by the very enthusiasm of common service, and teaching us the right proportion of the faith, by the comparison, in the face of heathenism, of the great essentials of our Christianity, in which we are still at one, with the lesser elements of truth and order, in which we are unhappily separate from each other.
These lessons we are, I think, in some sense learning. But the growing understanding of our mission, of which we seem to see many traces, will impress them more and more upon us, alike through thankfulness for what has been done, and the prayer which we cannot but utter for advance, un- hasting and unresting, into the almost infinite possibilities which open before us. Through them
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we shall come to see that the mission of England to the earth is not merely to enrich it by her commerce, and girdle it with her dominion, but to hold up the Lord Jesus Christ to all the nations, that He may draw them out of darkness and deadness into the light of life.
LECTURE IV
THE MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES
I. The Message of Universal Brotherhood — Initiated and
SUSTAINED BY CHRISTIANITY — REALIZED UNDER THE FATHER- HOOD OF God — Harmonizing under Itself all Influences OF Civilization, and using all Developments of Natural Religion. — II. The Expansion from Colonial Centres — (A) To Indians and Negroes in North America and the West Indies — (B) To Aborigines, Chinese, and Pacific Islanders, from Australasia— (C) To the Native Tribes IN and around the South African Colonies — (D) To the Native Races in and near our Indian Empire and its Dependencies. — HI. The Independent Mission beyond THE Sphere of our Dominion — Africa, its Paganism and Mohammedanism — The Slave Trade and Liquor Traffic — (A) In Western Africa — Sierra Leone, Yoruba, the Niger — (B) In Eastern Africa — The Church Missionary Society at Mombasa— The Universities' Mission — The Mission to Uganda — (C) The Melanesian Mission of the South Pacific. — IV. General Summary — The Present Condition and Future Promise of the Work, and its In- estimable Importance to True Humanity. — V. The Posi- tion OF THE Church of England in it — Signs of Awakening — The Right Leadership of a University.
M
There is neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but CJirist is all, and in all.
Col. iii. ii.
I. It has been strikingly said by a foremost writer of our day on that science of language, which is virtually a science of humanity — " Not till the word barbarian was struck out of the dictionary of man- kind and replaced by brother . . . can we look for even the first beginnings of our science. This change was effected by Christianity. The idea of mankind as one family, as the children of one God, is an idea of Christian growth. . . . The science of mankind is a science, which without Christianity would never have sprung into life." ^ The passage is quoted by Bishop Lightfoot as a comment^ — the more striking because it comes not from a professed theologian — on St. Paul's great declaration in the text, which is in itself a splendid interpretation of
^ See the quotation from Max Muller's '' Lectures on the Science of Language," in Lightfoot's Colossians, p. 284.
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the symbolic gift of Pentecost. It is not enough for him here (as in the Epistle to the Galatians) ^ to break down the barrier between Greek and Jew, and to assert the right of the bond -slave to an equality with the freeman. Writing to an essentially Greek community, representative of Greek culture, and in face of an incipient Gnosticism, proud of its peculiar and hidden wisdom, he claims for the " barbarian," whom this cultured and philosophic world despised, and even for the " Scythian," whom it looked upon as one of the most savage types of barbarism, that since " Christ is all in all," obliterat- ing all distinctions by uniting humanity in Himself, they are brethren in Him, on the basis of a complete spiritual equality before the common Father of all.
It is with some special emphasis on this universal message of Brotherhood in Christ, that our English Christianity enters on the third great sphere of its missionary expansion ; in which it is called to minister to the uncivilized peoples of the world — " subject - races," as they naturally are to the dominant European race, and, most of all, to its English-speaking section.
Never, indeed, can it forget, or let others forget, that this message, grand as it is, yet is not its primary message. The true Gospel, which is the
1 Gal. iii. 28.
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same under all phases of Evangelism, is the declara- tion, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, of the Fatherhood of God. The Christian idea of unity is, first, the unity of each soul with God, drawn by Christ to Himself in the twofold grace of salvation and regeneration, and through Himself to the God- head, into whose name each is individually bap- tized ; and next, as an inevitable consequence of this, an indirect but most powerful unity of all men in one communion and fellowship. As in the material, so in the spiritual universe, it is primarily the attraction of each to the one centre, which makes all one, and even gives opportunity and scope to the purely secondary attractions of one upon another. It is a strange error of some modern criticism, which looks upon Christianity from without, to suppose it to be primarily a grand idea and scheme of human unity, which may be identified, or compared, with those other modern schemes of which the air is full. If ever in any degree that same error is entertained from within, the result must always be, as it has been, dis- astrous to the true life of the Church. In the New Testament it is the Headship of Christ which is really all in all, whether over the individual life, or over the Church, as His Body, or over the whole created being gathered up in Him.
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But Still in its right place this truth of Brother- hood is, because it needs to be, strongly emphasized in this phase of our great Evangelism. It is not merely proclaimed as an idea ; it is embodied in the creation of that world-wide spiritual society, into which all races and all sections of humanity are born again, in a perfect equality of right and blessing. In the Church of Christ there may be (so to speak) an elder brotherhood of guidance, protection, instruction, leadership ; and a younger brotherhood of trust, submission, discipleship, obedi- ence ; for this belongs to differences of gift and opportunity and mission. But it will be a brother- hood still, always tending in desire, and gradually in fact, to a removal or mitigation of those in- equalities, which must be little indeed, when viewed from the standpoint of the Supreme Fatherhood of God.
The great conception, thus proclaimed and thus realized, is not only, as Max Miiller has testified. Christian in its origin. For its maintenance as a reality, it still depends on the sanctions of Christi- anity. It is true that the idea of civilization itself approaches to its meaning ; for what is civilization but the preparing men and races to take their place in the free commonwealth of humanity ? But this phase of the idea is vague and abstract in com-
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parison with its Christian fulness and vitality. The "Divine Republic" after all, like its modern antitypes, w^as but a dream ; the well-centred Kingdom of God is a reality. It is true, again, that the progress of democracy professes to realize it through its own famous motto. But — while the two first elements of that motto are defective, because they are but half-truths — the crowning Fraternity is in itself but a grand phrase, because it does not recognise one Supreme Fatherhood ; and it is this which our Lord revealed, and stamped on the forefront of the daily prayer of Christendom.
Other bonds, therefore, of human unity there are ; but no other goes to the very root of the matter. The commerce, which unites men by the bond of material interest, may make them fellow- traders — partners in a world-wide association for gain ; the knowledge, which awakens in all a nobler intellectual sympathy, may make them fellow- students in one great school of thought and experience ; the law of order and peace, which helps to the formation of a true human society, may hold them together as fellow -subjects ; but the real Brotherhood, which touches not only the body and the mind, but the heart and the spirit, is a living thing only to those, to whom Christianity, as a truth and a life, is the universal and absolute
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religion — not for this or that race, but for all — not for one age, but for all generations.
Again and again it has to bear its witness in these days for this unity, against the revival of the old forces of separation under new names, in a civiliza- tion which calls itself Christian. There is still the intellectual contempt for the barbarian, as incapable of high religious idea and aspiration, reviving under philosophic guise the old pagan theory of religions, adapted to certain races, and limited by certain latitudes. There is, most formidable in practical effect, the pride in civilized strength, which would make him a tool, to be used and broken by the higher races — sometimes avowing, directly or indirectly, a policy of extermination, as inevitable in the struggle for existence, — sometimes expressing itself flagrantly and unblushingly in the extreme horror of slavery, — more often in these days tending to assume subtler and more specious forms of selfish domination. There is the gross and rapacious selfishness of the merely commercial spirit, which, in the scramble for the markets of the world, is simply anxious to make merchandise of barbarian ignorance or distress, and ready, as in the deadly traffic in strong liquor and arms, to sell for gain to these lower races, ignorant and at times unwilling, what is simply their destruction in body and soul. The old witness of Christianity
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for real human brotherhood is as necessary now as it was in days past ; that witness, in season and out of season, whether the world frowns at it or sneers, it will still bear unflinchingly.
It will bear it, moreover, not in mere theory, but by the object-lessons of experience, showing that these barbarian races, even the lowest in the human scale, can be educated, humanized and Christianized at once, and brought out of what has been thought a hopeless darkness and bondage into liberty and light. I know that this is true of the Australian aborigines, who have passed with the world into a byword of contempt, and on whom it has done its cruel best to fulfil its predictions of hopelessness. The world at large knows well how Charles Darwin, with the noble candour characteristic of his nature, bore testimony to the unexpected success, with which the work of the South American Mission had raised out of the merest savagery the tribes of Terra del Fuego, of whom he had himself despaired, and how he supported that work with help and sympathy to his dying day.^ We have here but another instance of the truth of the wisdom of God revealed to babes, and of the strength of God made perfect in the veriest weakness. The Church of Christ has but to go on in the path
^ See a letter from Admiral Sir James Sulivan, quoted in Danvins Life, vol. iii. pp. 127, 128.
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which the Master has appointed — knowing that His Gospel is sent Hterally to every creature, and that He has promised to draw all men without exception to Himself.
It is true that, in dealing with barbarian races, the Church is learning better how to use and to harmonize those lower influences of unity — commercial, intellec- tual, social — under its own supreme spiritual influence, and to acknowledge that all are in various ways working together with God for the Kingdom of Heaven, because they develop the true humanity, in work and thought, in duty and social affection. More and more, again, from the very objections which it combats, it is learning needful lessons of patience, discrimination, wisdom, adaptation, in the delivery of its message. But the essence of its twofold work must be unchanged and unchangeable, because it is inspired by the central truth of our Christianity that " Christ Himself is all in all." As St. Paul elsewhere draws out the meaning of these words,i ^^ jg » ^yjsdom " to the mind, even of the simplest and most ignorant ; He is " righteousness " to the moral sense, be it ever so rudimentary and overlaid ; He is " sanctification " to the spirit, even if it be debased by superstition and carnalized by idolatry. For in all He is " re- demption " from blindness and sin and godlessness.
^ See I Cor. i. 30.
IV THE MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 171
It is, moreover, a part of this acknowledgment of brotherhood, that, in this sphere also of evangeliza- tion, our Christianity should recognise everywhere among these races some growth of that true humanity, rising above the merely animal life and its instincts, which is the image of God in them, and should shrink from any endeavour to stamp upon them an absolutely new and European impress. We have been emphatically warned, by those who have the wisdom of experience, against the temptation to enforce upon the docility of these weaker races the acceptance of our whole English life, with all the habits, institutions, ideas, which are to us through the natural growth of ages a part of our very selves, but which there would be only like an artificial mask over the true nature/ The warning is wise and far from needless in the material, the intellectual, and the social spheres. There are, indeed, some leading principles of truth and righteousness and purity and love, which we are bound to infuse into the native life, and which must carry with them some visible expression in custom and regulation. But these should be left free, as far as possible, for a natural development in adaptation to race and climate, to
^ At the Missionary Conference of 1894 the "undue introduction of Western ways " was held up as a danger to be avoided, and the warning was enforced by some remarkable illustrations.
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needs and opportunities. It is a fatal pedantry, unreasonably and unwarrantably presumptuous, which would overbear such freedom. It is like the attempt to translate literally into these simpler languages ideas of our own, which they are incapable of ex- pressing. But in the religious sphere, above all, we have still, as before, to learn from St. Paul at Athens how to recognise everywhere the rudiments of an ignorant worship of God, and guide it out of its dimness into the full light of the Gospel. It is true that here we have not, as in that work of which I spoke in the last lecture, to deal with great historical religions, having coherence and organization, literatures and philosophies. Among these barbaric races there is an infinite variety of religions, but all crude and undeveloped ; like heaps of sand (as it has been said), they cumber, rather than occupy, the ground. But one who has devoted to this work of Evangelism a long period of singu- larly thoughtful and sagacious, as well as earnest service, has lately reminded us that our object cannot be the mere " destruction of false and im- perfect religions ; none are wholly false ; none are without materials at least, which must be retained," " I venture to say," he adds, " that there will be found in the backward races generally, first, a sense of difference between right and wrong ; next, belief
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in a life not bodily and in a life after death ; lastly, belief in a power around men and above them, greater and higher than human, to which in the consciousness of their own weakness they can appeal." ^
All these are at once reachings out of the soul after God, and revelations of the Spirit of God to the soul. Rough-hewn though they may be, they must be treated reverently, and built into the walls of the great fabric of the Church. It is, indeed, very true that the work of absolute construction, out of new material as well as old, will here occupy a more principal place ; in greater degree it will have not only to be carried out in the first instance, but con- tinued, certainly for generations, by our own hands ; gradually, but only gradually, can we hope that in it these, our younger and less civilized brethren, will take their share. But yet we have to keep this hope always steadily before us ; to educate those whom we have drawn into the brotherhood, that they may grow up out of their own rude conceptions into the full Christian life ; and hereafter to build up through native Christianity and native Ministry the spiritual temple. The style of such building may not be the
1 See the Rev. Dr. Codrington's paper on dealing with " Various Forms of Paganism," in the Report of the Missionary Conference of 1894 (pp. 113, 114).
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style which we most love, or that which is absolutely the most perfect ; but, as in respect of the material fabric, it will be that which best suits the actual needs and conditions, and, whatever its form may be, it will rest on the one foundation, and will have the one Presence, which alone can consecrate. It is because in this respect we are learning (as I hope) the right lesson — in part from larger and humbler thought, in part from our past errors and failures — that there is now so much of hopefulness in this important sphere of our ministry.
It is a sphere, so large and so varied, that it is more impossible than ever to survey it as a whole. But we can see that it falls naturally into two divisions — distinct rather than separate.
II. On the one hand, there is brought home to us most obviously and most closely the ministration to these lower races, as subject -races in our own colonies and possessions, to whom only too often we owe, over and above the general spiritual obligation of our Christianity, a debt of atonement for wrongs done to them in the past. Glance only at the chief groups of our colonies in this light, as inevitable centres of civilization and Christianization.
(A) First, this ministration began with our colo- nization of North America. There it came home to us in two chief relations — to the native Indian
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tribes, gradually dispossessed or subjected to English sway, and to the imported negro population of slaves. Far different was its effect in these two distinct spheres of work — in the one scarcely holding its own — in the other winning the most famous of moral victories.
For the Indians never, indeed, even from the beginning, has it been altogether forgotten or neglected. It was taken up, as an integral element of duty, by our oldest Missionary Society. But yet it has never held its right place of control, in the name of true humanity, over the strong forces of conquest and self-aggrandizement, which bring into human history the fierce struggle for existence, and which, gradually or swiftly, have destroyed the weaker. Not, indeed, that even here it has been without fruit. To speak only of our own Church and the sister Church of the United States, there has been a very earnest and not unsuccessful ministration to the remnant of those ancient tribes.
In British North America alone — in Canada, in Manitoba, and British Columbia — there are still more than 120,000 Indians, of whom 75,000 are settled on Government reserves ; and among these races, not deficient in vigour and intelligence, there has grown up a native Church with a native Ministry.^
^ Both] ourJ^Missionary Societies are at work, but the Church
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At last we are realizing our brotherhood. The civil authority strives to protect them from wrong and distress, and to arrest the process of decay ; the Church aids by her freer and more spiritual agencies, and welcomes them into the family of Christ^
But far more important here, both in the Southern mainland colonies and in the West Indian Settle- ments, was the relation to the negro race, brought in from the sixteenth century by the slave trade, to supersede the dwindling native inhabitants in the service of the white man. How that relation was dealt with by our English Christianity we have already considered in part. But we look at it now as an element in our general mission to the bar- barian races. Strange and monstrous it seems to us, that for so many generations the Church of Christ in all its branches should have excused or condoned that flagrant wrong, virtually denying the true humanity of the oppressed race, and yet salving the conscience by the plea, that those who were torn violently from their barbarian homes were thus brought within the scope of those forces which pre-
Missionary Society with greater power. It has aheady at work thirty- two European and twenty-seven native clergy, a large number of lay readers and catechists, chiefly native, and nearly 13,000 baptized Indians, besides Catechumens. Its ministrations are in more than twenty Indian languages, some of which are dying out.
^ The majority of the Indians in Manitoba are now Christian ; it is otherwise in British Columbia.
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serve such humanity — the force of civilization and the higher force of Christianity. Yet, by a noble inconsistency, it did labour earnestly for their edu- cation and Christianization — through other English Communions often more successfully than through our own. And by these labours — not without defect and lingering superstition, not without an excess of the emotional element, in comparison with the intellectual and the moral, which seems natural to the African temperament — the negroes under our dominion were won from heathen darkness to Christ ; in the eye of the law mere bondsmen and human chattels, they were baptized spiritually into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Between the two principles there was a hopeless contradiction ; for centuries there went on, now a struggle for the mastery, now vain attempts at compromise and mitigation. But at last the great truth of the text — the truth of human brotherhood in Christ — prevailed. The cry, now hackneyed and commonplace, " Am I not a man and a brother ? " pierced through the thick folds of prejudice and self-interest to the heart and con- science of England. By an unexampled sacrifice at the moment — at the cost of far greater unknown sacrifices in the future — the great wrong was at last undone, not by the unaided strength of the sense of justice and philanthropy, but by these inspired into
N
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a diviner glow through Christian faith. Not, indeed, without heavy penalty — for no sin ever quite escapes penalty — in the present condition, moral as well as material, of our own West Indian Settlements. But the penalty has to be borne patiently. The wrong will not be quite undone, till, by the necessarily slow process of regeneration, the race now set free can be educated to a stronger and nobler life.
But all this in our own experience was as nothing, compared with the fatal legacy of this internecine conflict, left to the colonies which revolted from England to become the great American Republic. Far deeper seated was the evil there ; far longer and far fiercer the conflict, before it could be cast out ; far higher the price of atonement to be paid, in the threatened disruption of the Republic itself, in the gigantic civil war which followed, and the torrents of blood of the dominant race which it shed ; far heavier the permanent penalty of internal disunion and conflict, and of the present infinite perplexity of the coexistence of the two unequal races on a theoretical equality of right and privilege. But here, again, it was the Christian enthusiasm, raising and ennobling the strong sense of patriotism, which pre- vailed. Against much fancied wisdom of the world, mighty vested interests, religious hypocrisies and inconsistencies, the truth of the Brotherhood broke
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here also the yoke of oppression. Whatever be the issue, we thank God for the proof of its supreme moral power to conquer the world — not only to protect the weak against the strong, but to teach the strong the lesson of self-sacrifice in the light of the Cross.
(B) Not wholly dissimilar, although on a lesser scale, has been our experience in the later group of our Australasian colonies. In x'\ustralia itself the aboriginal inhabitants are but a poor remnant. They have almost perished, not, as men will have it, by the white man's presence, but by the white man's crime. Nor will those who know the facts ever accept the plea of excuse put forward, that they are incapable of civilization or religious brotherhood. Wherever the attempt has been honestly made, it is found that they can hold a place, though not a high place, in the family of true humanity. Now at last — almost too late except in the North and West — this ministration is being taken up, and has been blessed. I have seen their settlements flourish- ing under civil protection and religious guardianship. In Western Australia, for example, it is a strange reproduction of history to come across a great Bene- dictine monastery, with its large pastoral and agri- cultural estate, cultivated peacefully and happily by hundreds of native Christian helpers. Meanwhile, in
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New Zealand — dealing, it is true, with a higher race, but dealing with it on far higher principles — we have by this ministration created a vigorous Maori Christianity, with its native congregations, sometimes shaming our own, and its native clergy, working and consulting side by side with their English brethren. It is true that there has been struggle, and that the association of Christianity with the aggressive English influence once produced a strange apostasy. But this is now rapidly passing away. The one fear now is the gradual dwindling away of this fine and hardly barbarian race. Yet this also is mainly in our own hands. If only our English laws for their protection can be loyally observed and en- forced— if only strong drink and English disease can be kept from them — there is no reason why here the two races should not live together, not in equality indeed, but in that Christian brotherhood, for which noble servants of God have laboured and prayed.
But the Australasian Church has other forms of this same ministration. It has to deal with the Chinese immigration — rightly limited by statesman- ship, less excusably resisted by trade jealousy ; and, whatever the civil community may do, the Church cannot but welcome these immj'grants — mostly poor and industrious workers — and try to draw them to
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Christ. It has its Chinese catechists and workers ; its Chinese Bibles and Prayer-Books and Services ; it has made some beginning towards the ordaining of a Chinese Ministry. Year by year, as I know, it has its adult baptisms, after careful examination ; far beyond the circle of actual discipleship, it is exer- cising over the Chinese population a strong moral influence for good. It reaches out the hand to that evangelizing work in China itself, of which I have spoken. Through those who return to their own land, who knows whether it may not help to sow there the seed of a native Christianity ?
But this is not all. The Church of Christ there is brought in contact with a modified and mitigated form of the great American question. Thank God ! there are here no avowed slavery and slave - trade to deal with. But the labour traffic of tropical Australia with the Pacific Islands (into the whole merits of which I do not desire to enter ^) is here also introducing for work in the
^ Following the guidance of those whose judgment is infinitely more valuable, I venture still to deprecate this trafific altogether ; first, because the population of the islands is insufficient to bear the drain ; next, be- cause of the great difficulty of enforcing laws, however excellent, against fraud and violence in the traffic. It would be, I think, infinitely better to draw the coloured labourers required from South India, where the population is superabundant, and where the supervision of the British Government would check all abuses. But there is on this matter much conflict of opinion ; and at any rate I rejoice to see that the Church in
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tropical North, under the white man's mastership, one of those lower and weaker races. No one can doubt, who looks at the history of the past, that it has to be most carefully watched, lest it should be stained by oppression and cruelty, or degenerate into bondage. Who can ever forget how through its abuse the blood of Bishop Patteson was shed ? It is the plain duty of our Christianity to raise and educate public opinion, and to support the efforts, now honestly made, for the prevention of all abuse and oppression by law. But meanwhile, by its very existence, there is laid upon the Australian Church a new missionary duty and opportunity, towards those who are thus brought within the reach of its ministration — to care for their material and social welfare ; to draw them into the Christian brotherhood, not for their own sakes only, but that, when they go back to their homes, they may carry their Christianity with them, and take up the great principle of our Melanesian Mission, by becoming centres of converting influence to their heathen countrymen. That duty is now (thank God !) being earnestly attempted by the Church, not only in direct religious ministration, but by a beneficent influence over the whole condition of these imported labourers.
Queensland is using much exertion for the care, temporal and spiritual, of the imported labourers.
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Out of this work for God, under His Providence, it may be that great things will grow.
(C) Once more round the third great group of our colonies in South Africa — so rapidly developing in the older settlements to civilized prosperity and self- government — so constantly, and almost inevitably, extending, as at this moment, the area of new dominion over barbarian peoples — there is growing up another most important phase of this same ministration ; and this, moreover, a work of wider scope, and under more favourable conditions, than those which have started from the other two colonial centres. It has a larger, a more varied, and, on the whole, a nobler material to deal with. For here the native peoples are in many cases of higher vigour and capacity ; here, moreover, they are not dwindling away, but by the peace which we enforce, and the greater material prosperity which we diffuse, are increasing in number and in strength day by day ; here, in spite of some painful inconsistencies and vacilla- tions in our policy, they are learning to trust more and more implicitly in the beneficence of English rule. And these regions, again, unlike many other parts of Africa, have great tracts of inland country, at high levels, and in climates where our English settlers have no difficulty in living among the native tribes. Nowhere, perhaps, in the world is there so wonderful
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a meeting-ground of races. By the very provision, which the Church strains every nerve to make for the true Christianity of her own people, she is affecting for good the swarming native population ; and direct evangelization of these tribes has invariably followed. There is no barrier of race or character, which can stop the expansive force of Christianity, or break up the communion of all races in the one great brother- hood. Even in the older dioceses there has always been ministration to the coloured races. But every new bishopric founded — in Kaffraria, Zululand, Mashonaland, Lebombo — is stamped more and more distinctly with the sense of our mission, to civilize and Christianize at once these dark races committed to our charge. The work is still in its beginning, struggling on everywhere, as a pioneer for future advance ; but already in some ten languages at least the gospel of Christ is preached, and in answer to its preaching the same prayers go up to the one God and Father of all. Overtasked the energies of the Church, indeed, are, and beset with some peculiar difficulties, from without and from within. But here also (thank God !) the ministration is continually enlarging and deepening its power. It is a hopeful work, among these races of various degrees of civilization, but, in many cases at least, undoubtedly having desire and capacity of advance.
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It is a work imperatively needed. Amidst an almost bewildering diversity of conditions, increased by the constant necessity of assimilation of new material, and in face of many forces of complication and disintegration, the message of a real unity of all in Christ will sound with a peculiar emphasis of promise.
These, and such as these, are the works of this evangelism, forced upon us by a spiritual necessity in the New Englands which are now striking deep root, and so growing as to cover vast regions over the length and breadth of the world. If there is not in them the same heroic and romantic interest, which attaches to incursions, far from all material support, into the darker regions of the world, it may be well thought that they represent the most solid and hope- ful form of the discharge of our great missionary duty. By the Church at home — by the stronger colonial Churches themselves — there is an ever- increasing effort to fill with the light and grace of Christ these nearest circles of human neighbourhood.
(D) Nor is this vocation wanting to us in our more scattered colonies and dependencies. We have seen especially how it grows upon us in our great Indian dependency, in relation to its uncivilized tribes, and how it has extended itself naturally by the annexation of Burmah, by the establishment of
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the Straits Settlements, by the occupation of Labuan, and the protectorate of North Borneo.^ Time fails me to sketch, even in outline, these advances from our base of operation in India of the army of God. But such advance there must always be. Wherever we have assumed authority, and rooted our settle- ments in new soil, a Christian responsibility must be created for us by our own act. We cannot forget that the flag, which we raise, bears the double blazonry of the Cross.
IV. But the banner of the Cross itself goes further than the British flag. Over and above this, our natural sphere of expansion, there comes to us the call to enterprise and sacrifice — perhaps even more impressive and more romantic in its spiritual interest — that we may extend the bright unity of the kingdom of God over the tribes beyond our borders — still only on the outskirts of humanity, still wan- dering in the darkness and division of barbarism. Although beyond European dominion, they are not untouched by the expanding influence of European commerce and intercourse. On us, to whom falls far the greatest share in this intercommunication, there lies the greatest responsibility, to see that it is tempered and exalted by the sense of brotherhood in Christ.
^ For a fuller account of these various works of Evangelization, see Appendix III.
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There are two great spheres of this more enter- prising Christian ministration, at which alone time permits us to glance — the great Dark Continent of Africa and the islands of the South Pacific. It has been the work of the last eventful half-century to open — I may almost say to discover — the vast inland area of Africa, with its 170 millions of people of many races and many languages, of many degrees of civilization and capacity. The old blanks in its map are being filled up day by day. From the earliest times it has been in various ways under the dominion, often the oppression, of stronger races. To say nothing of the great Mohammedan power, once dominant and still very strong, we have seen but lately how the nations of Europe — English, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish — are arro- gating to themselves the right of dividing it into spheres of influence — mainly, it must be confessed, for their own aggrandizement in commerce and in power, yet partly also from the irresistible tendency of civilization to draw the barbarian races to itself for some participation in its blessings. Of its vast population nearly three-fifths are already thus brought directly within the European sphere, and of this sphere about one-half falls to our English responsi- bility. Even over the rest, through free states and outlying settlements, the indirect influence of the
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European civilization spreads, till hardly a portion of it remains quite untouched.
In this very fact our Christianity must recognise a spiritual necessity laid upon us to carry to these backward and barbarian races, by word and deed, the glad tidings of the human brotherhood in Christ. Africa has been called pre-eminently " the Pagan Continent." Some three -fourths of its people lie outside the great religions of the world. They are not without that instinct of God, and ultimately of One Supreme God, which seems all but universal ; but this instinct is in them overlaid by superstitious fear of demons — by the gross idolatry which men call Fetichism — by an abject terror of witchcraft and magic — by a proneness to the horror of human sacrifice, according with, and stimulating, the barbaric thirst for blood. Over nearly one-fourth reigns the religion of Islam — somewhat degraded and corrupted perhaps by contact with Paganism. In itself it is, of course, a far higher form of belief, strong in its sim- plicity of faith and in its laws of devotion and of temperance, in old time propagated from the North by the sword, now rather making its way by its in- trinsic religious power. There are those, even of our own people, who are inclined to exalt its influence for good over the lower races above the higher and more complex power of Christianity. They believe
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in the Law rather than the Spirit. But over and above its universal defects, it is self-condemned in Africa by two fatal hindrances. It is the strong- hold of the slavery which destroys humanity, and of the polygamy which condones sensuality and degrades womanhood. Who can really hope that out of it the regeneration and deliverance of Africa will come ?
Clearly, under the marvellous order of God's Providence, there is an urgent call to our Christianity to enter upon this vast and absorbing field of religi- ous interest. As yet there are in all but some three and a half millions who call themselves Christian. What wonder that the mission to " the Dark Con- tinent " has always stirred the souls of those who love Christ, and know that in Him is the one life and unity of human-kind ?
There rise up, indeed, against us in the way for- midable difficulties and offences from the sins of our own people. It was — we remember it with shame and sorrow — through the slave-trade that, in days gone by, this great Continent was subjected to the cruel yoke of oppression from without. There was from the beginning of the sixteenth century the horrible European slave-trade, condoned for ages by Christi- anity, in which England bore a chief share of profit and disgrace, till after long struggle, as we have seen, the sense of Christian brotherhood broke down
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the inhumanity of slavery. Now (thank God !) through her tardy but earnest repentance — abohsh- ing the trade for herself — endeavouring by treaties to draw other European nations into the same crusade against it — putting it down by force, not without much sacrifice of treasure and of blood — it may be said to have received its deathblow, and to be rapidly passing away. But there are still, be it remembered, two forms of this accursed traffic, for which Mohammedanism is mainl}- responsible. There is the slave-trade by sea in East Africa, mainly from Zanzibar, to Persia, Arabia, and Egypt, which it is now our effort to destroy. Revealed to us by Livingstone and Stanley, so as to stir the heart and conscience of England, it is (we believe) gradually giving way before that effort. If only our resolution be bold and whole-hearted, we must win here again the battle of humanity. There is a third form of slave-trade — the interior slave-trade, with its accompaniments of man -hunting and bloodshed — mainly again in Arab hands — partly from the inland to the coast, but worst of all through the Soudan to Mohammedan lands. Against this the African career of Charles Gordon was a perpetual, and for a time a victorious, struggle ; but since the disasters in the Soudan, it has sprung again to life, and once more it must be our mission to destrov it.
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But this is not the only wrong inflicted on the African races. If the slave-trade abomination is mainly of the past, there is now a less outrageous, but hardly less fatal, cruelty in the unscrupulous European traffic, sacrificing humanity for the sake of reckless gain — by the sale of fire-arms, helping and stimulating that internecine war between rival tribes, which is the natural curse of barbarism, — by the introduction of fiery and poisonous strong liquor, of which it has been said that it may make civilized men brutes, but that it turns barbarians into devils. And this great wrong is done, not by Mohammedans, but by nations calling themselves Christian — not mainly (I rejoice to know) through England, although our hands are not clean in the matter. It must be checked in the name of common humanity, in the higher name of Christian brotherhood. Better, men say sometimes, that the African should have been left to his barbarism, than that a new poison and madness should have been brought in by civilization. But it can only be checked by consent of civilized nations ; and we may thank God that — roused, as usual, mainly by Christian witness — the public opinion of Europe has been stirred to interference, and something has been done by international con- ference to wipe out this reproach to Europe.
Still, against all discouragement and enmity our
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English Christianity has gone out on its mission, at once of brotherhood and atonement. The course of that mission has been singularly chequered in its results — now of swift success, now of what seems weary failure. But it has been almost always full of nobleness, because full of labour and sacrifice even to death. There have been martyrdoms by the hands of men ; there has been the foreseen lay- ing down of earnest and saintly lives in the land, which is the black man's home, but too often the white man's grave. But the blood so shed for Christ has been the seed of His Church. Over the bodies of the fallen new soldiers of Christ have pressed on. I well remember, after Bishop Hanning- ton's martyrdom, how, while easier posts in the Church abroad were long vacant, many volunteers were found immediately in our Church at home, praying to be allowed to follow in his steps.
Glance with me at only three salient positions of our own Church in this advancing warfare.
(A) The first is in Western Africa. It arose out of the resolution to put down the slave-trade, and the need of provision in the region of Sierra Leone of a home for the rescued slaves — a strange heterogeneous people from many tribes, speaking many languages, and a people, moreover, naturally bewildered and degraded by slavery. Some eighty years ago, mainly
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through the great Church Missionary Society, the work — a difficult and often deadly work — began. Again and again the European missionaries suc- cumbed ; after the establishment of the Episcopate in 1852, bishop after bishop went out to labour for a brief time and to die. So the need of a native Ministry was forced on the mind of the Church ; schools and a college for its education and training were founded, from which a long succession of native servants of God has been sent forth to labour under His blessing. Now a native church has grown up, " self-governing, self-supporting, self- extending," having its own Missionary Association for the heathen and the Mohammedans round, numbering in our own Communion nearly 20,000 souls, while almost an equal number belong to the Wesleyans. It is a position won for Christ in the very citadel of heathen darkness. God grant that from it His soldiers may go out to gain fresh victories for the Cross !
Then in the same region two other Missions have succeeded. First, the Yoruba Mission on the Bight of Benin, long vexed by slavery at Lagos and bloody raids from Dahomey ; till Lagos, the very centre of the Western slave-trade, was annexed by England, and the Dahomey savages were awed into peace. There also the city of God has been built, although
O
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in troublous times ; an almost wholly native Church has grown up — with but a few English missionaries to guide and inspire its work — numbering some thousands of people, and gradually raising them up through many difficulties and imperfections to the true Christian life. Next the Niger Mission, penetrating into the interior up that great river, against immense hindrance of disease and savage violence, gradually advancing, as the Royal Niger Company developed a great trade, and as the sphere of English influence ex- tended far inland to touch heathen and Mohammedan powers. There is a special interest here in the fact that an almost wholly native Ministry was first crowned in 1 864 by a native Episcopate in the person of Bishop Crowther. Striking and eminently suggestive is the story of his life — first a slave-boy, brought down to Lagos, and rescued by an English cruiser ; then educated at the Sierra Leone native college, baptized, ordained, consecrated as a bishop ; labouring for more than thirty years as at once a chief Pastor and a chief Evangelist ; and at the last Lam- beth Conference raising his gray head in special re- spect and honour among the bishops of the Anglican Communion. Here also gradually and steadily the work of Christ is growing, and some thousands of converts are drawn into His sacred Brotherhood. (B) Turn now to the opposite region of Eastern
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Africa, from Cape Gardafui to the Zambesi, with a large mixed population of many tribes and languages — in older times the seat of Arab power — next a Portuguese settlement and the region of the Eastern Mohammedan slave-trade — now gradually absorbed by the English and German and Italian spheres of influence. From Zanzibar, the seat of the Arab Sultanate, now under our protectorate and virtual government, the lines of our own advance radiate inwards, first under the East Africa Company, now by assumption, gradually and half-reluctantly, of imperial power and responsibility. In this region the first pioneers of discovery and of linguistic labour some fifty years ago were the devoted missionaries Krapf and Rebmann, under the Church Missionary Society. On it somewhat later the attention of Europe was riveted by the expeditions of Livingstone and Stanley. The country — till then unknown, now full of promise for settlement and commerce, especially in the high- lands of the interior — was opened up. At once Christian missions of all the English-speaking Com- munions poured in, working side by side, often with limitation of territory by mutual agreement, studying native languages, creating by translation of Holy Scripture native literatures, carrying with them, as far as possible, all the forces of civilization under the banner of the Cross. As on the Western coast, the
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war against the slave-trade, and the settlement of the rescued slaves, formed the first nucleus of the native Church. It is not a little significant that the old slave-market at Zanzibar is now the site of a noble church — an omen, as we trust, of the full triumph of Christian brotherhood over this last stronghold of slavery. Those who have the knowledge and re- sponsibility of authority, there and at home, are at times forced to meet the eager urgency of anti-slavery enthusiasts by pleas for some caution and graduality in advance. But no one doubts that, swiftly or slowly, the desired end will come ; no one questions that to bring it about is the imperative duty of England.
In the work of our own Church here our thought is concentrated on three chief missions — at Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Uganda — each having in its own way a thrilling interest — all ennobled by sacrifice and martyrdom.
The work at Mombasa was inherited from those first missionaries, who were content for some thirty years to labour patiently, sowing the seed but seeing no harvest. Now, there and at Frere Town, the memorial of Sir Bartle Frere's^ mission for the suppression of the slave-trade, there has grown up a flourishing station of the Church Missionary Society, the Sierra Leone of the East, sending out its pioneers to the country round, reaping already a harvest, which
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Is, we believe, only an earnest of a greater ingather- ing to come.
Of deeper interest still in this place is the Universities' Mission, founded in answer to the stirring appeal of Livingstone : " I return to Africa, and shall die there. But I leave it with you to sec that the door, which I have opened for Christianity and civilization, shall never be closed." It began with bright hope and strong enthusiasm. It has been ennobled (from the days of my dear friend. Bishop Mackenzie, downwards) by the free offering of our best lives to the service of God. I hardly know of a nobler and more Apostolical succession than in the list of the bishops of Central Africa. It has been in God's mysterious Providence visited with almost un- exampled trials of delay and disappointment ; but now at last it is emerging into vigour and promise — first, under Livingstone's guidance, making its way to the Shire highlands near Lake Nyassa, up the valley of the great Zambesi, where its first bishop found his early grave ; then under Bishop Tozer transferring its headquarters to Zanzibar ; and thence first under his guidance, then by the splendid labours of Bishop Steere and Bishop Smythies, diffusing in all directions the influence of the gospel of Christ, with (as was natural) some special devotion to the educa- tion of a native Ministry, and the translation into
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various native languages of the Word of God. At this moment it is working at Zanzibar itself among the liberated slaves, educating the youths for Christian work and the native Ministry ; on Lake Nyassa, under the new bishop of that land, it has pene- trated to the very centre of the slave trade, at the spot to which at first the steps of Bishop Mackenzie were led ; on the mainland it has founded various mission stations, each forming a little centre of Christian light and grace. Two points it presents of special interest — the one, that the main work is done through a kind of Christian brotherhood, with community of living and gratuitous service, preaching Christ (as has been well said) by a Christlike life ; the other, that already there are developed the rudi- ments of synodical action and consultation for the advance of this infant Church. Already it has its thousands of converts ; but its leading principle is simply to sow everywhere the seed of what shall, by God's grace, be hereafter the wide-spreading and fruit- bearing tree.
Yet perhaps of even greater, and certainly fresher, interest is the story of Uganda — far inland in a fine fertile region on the high plateau of the great Victoria Nyanza Lake — among a people fierce, indeed, and turbulent, but of some unusual vigour and promise — inaugurating a victorious conflict of
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Christianity with the slave-holding power of Islam. It was a challenge of Stanley, nobly and promptly answered by the Church Missionary Society, which led to its first initiation — a bold hazardous advance into the interior, far from the base of operation on the coast. Some twenty years ago the first pioneer expedition started, not without the usual willing sacrifice of devoted lives. From that day to this, in spite of losses and apparent failures, it has never relaxed its grasp on this far outpost of the Gospel. Gradually, and (as events have shown) wisely and solidly, have the foundations of a native Christianity been laid. Hardly more than ten years ago the advancing work was organized under the bishopric of Eastern Equa- torial Africa. The Mission has gone through the strangest possible vicissitudes ; under the capricious favour and enmity .of the native kings ; in conflict with the deadly antagonism of Arab Mohammedan- ism ; through — we confess it with sorrow — internal struggle, which took, indeed, the form of conflict of Roman and Protestant Christianity, but which was at bottom a rivalry of the influences of France and England in the scramble for Africa.
It has been tried by the fiery ordeal of persecu- tion, in which the strong simple devotion of Bishop Hannington was swiftly closed by martyrdom, and a yet more cruel martyrdom was borne with extra-
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ordinary heroism by many of the native converts. There was a time, when the East Africa Company, overtasked and unsupported, spoke of relinquishment of Uganda. Then, to its immortal honour, our Church Missionary Society stood boldly in the gap, appealed successfully for a great offering to the service of Christ, and initiated the movement, which has led, not without the usual hesitation and reluc- tance, to the assumption of Protectorate by the im- perial power, and which is now to be crowned by the establishment of rapid communication between the coast and this splendid inland outpost of Christianity and of civilization. The whole history is one of the most striking examples of the ever-recurring experi- ence of the mission work. It tells the old, old story — which our own early Christian forefathers knew so well — of the indestructible inherent power of the faith of Christ, to triumph over apparent hopeless- ness, and of His grace, to work out what the world calls impossibilities.
So on every side of this African continent are being kindled the first beacons of Christian light — beams in darkness, of which we pray that they may grow.
(C) Now, as to the last and one of the noblest specimens of this ministration, we turn our eyes far away to the archipelago of the Pacific ; where the
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tropical ocean, in the close neighbourhood of our great Australasian settlements, is studded with islands, fertile and beautiful as the garden of the Lord. With these the enterprise of our commerce, the interest of inquiry and research, the extension of our power of protectorate or dominion, have brought us into contact. For good and for evil they lie now within the scope of our English civilization ; their brotherhood with us must be cemented by our English Christianity. From that Christianity there has gone forth a strong wave of evangelization. Our own action is but a part of that beneficent impulse ; it goes on side by side with great work which has been done by the London Missionary Society and by the Wesleyan and Presbyterian Com- munions— securing, so far as may be, by territorial arrangements, that these various currents of Christian influence shall not cross and disturb each other.
The original impulse was given to it by a famous son of this University — the first great Bishop of New Zealand — some fifty years ago ; when his unsatisfied missionary energy, ashamed of being outstripped by commercial enterprise, overflowed from his vast diocese to the still untouched islands of the Melanesian group. In his little twenty-ton schooner, by voyages in the aggregate of 20,000 miles, he visited these scattered islands ; and saw at
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once, from the babel of different tongues which sounded in his ears, that there was but one means of reaching them with the great tidings of the Gospel — by persuading the natives to entrust to him, for education and instruction, boys and youths, who might go back to be the mission teachers of their countrymen — by thus weaving (as he expressed it), and floating by the white corks, the black draw- net of the Church of Christ. Difficult and gradual in any case this work must have been ; for by the barbarian all strange intercourse is suspected. But it was hindered and encompassed with danger by our own evil doings — the fraud, the violence, the treachery, which had disgraced the European trade and the colonial labour-traffic. Still, against all diffi- culty and danger, it has been carried out patiently and resolutely to a great success. First at Auck- land, afterwards at Norfolk Island, these native lads, often sons of chiefs, were gathered by scores and hundreds to a centre of light and brotherhood — an lona of the South Pacific — trained there not only by teaching but by love, inspired not only by Christian truth but by Christian grace. Then in due course they were sent back to their islands, to give to their own people the new life with which God had blessed them. The Bishop and his English fellow-workers from the headquarters were
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always going out on their island voyages in the mission ship of the Southern Cross, to visit, to superintend, to encourage the little native con- gregations growing up ; and then returning to study the native languages, to translate into them our Scripture and our prayers, and to renew their own Christianity by the refreshment of a com- munity of life and worship. So first under Bishop Selwyn, then, as the work grew and needed un- divided superintendence, under Bishop Patteson, this wise and earnest course of evangelization went on ; and, but for those hindrances from the white man's sin, it would probably have gone on rapidly without check or opposition. Btit there came a day, when all England, as I well remember, was thrilled with one impulse of sorrow and indignation, by the sad tidings that the priceless life of our noble Missionary Bishop — so singularly rich in wisdom and devotion and love — had been sacri- ficed, in the blind fury of revenge for outrage done by white hands, by the people whom he loved so well. When his body came back, floating alone in the native canoe, and with the palm branch over the deadly wounds, it was impossible not to see how the martyr bore " the marks of the Lord Jesus " Himself, as dying for those who set at nought and slew him ; and the sense of his likeness to his Master
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was deepened, when we heard how, anticipating the future, he had entreated — with an entreaty, I fear, disregarded — that no vengeance for his death should be taken on those who knew not what they did.
Yet tliat martyrdom — infinite as was the loss that it entailed — gave a new strength to the Mission, by the outburst of reverence and sympathy which it evoked, and by the halo of glory which it cast over the work. The beautiful Memorial Church at Norfolk Island, like all Christian memorials, has been (to use the old phrase) at once " for remembrance of the dead, for the advance of the Church, and for the glory of God." You know how the banner of the Cross was grasped by the strong hand of the son of the first great founder of the Mission, and we can never forget — what for obvious reasons I cannot here dwell upon — at what cost of sacrifice his unwearied and undaunted service was given. So nobly started — so bravely and wisely carried on, not by the leaders only, but by the whole body of English and native workers — so thoroughly per- vaded by the spirit of the Brotherhood of Christ — who can doubt that this its seed-time shall yield hereafter, perhaps at no distant date, a harvest thirty or a hundred-fold ? Who can fail to trace to it the inspiration, which has stirred the whole
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Australasian Church to become a Missionary Church, and, as at this moment in the great island of New Guinea, to follow up our English Protectorate by the higher and holier unity of the Kingdom of Christ ?
I have been able to touch only on a few salient points of this mission to the " barbarian races " — to give some characteristic specimens of an all but world-wide work, great in difficulty, but great in promise. It will have been seen that everywhere it has been largely the work of this eventful half- century ; that everywhere it is as yet only an imperfect development, a seed-time rather than a time of spiritual harvest ; yet that everywhere it puts to shame, and contradicts by fact, despondent or cynical prophecies of impossibility, and shows itself able to educate even the lowest races in the true Brotherhood of Christ. It has but its thousands as yet out of the millions of heathenism. But the experience of the Church in the past tells us that it is through the few, each becoming a new centre of diffusion, that the many are won. Who can over-estimate its importance to the higher life and progress of humanity ? If, as some believe, there is to be a future of independence or dominance for the black and yellow man, it is surely of infinite consequence that this future should be humanized
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by the Christian brotherhood. If we rather believe that the dominion of the white man is still to remain and grow through the ages, we must hold, as an indispensable condition of that permanence, that it must be not a selfish and despotic power, but one which acknowledges itself a trust from God, and which, therefore, by self-restraint and self-sacrifice, labours for the benefit of these His weaker children.
The work is almost overwhelming in its greatness, and bewildering in its variety of circumstance and opportunity. But that by God's grace it has to be done, and done in great degree by England, is clear to all who have even the slightest knowledge of the subject. Certainly it is doubly blessed — to those who give, as well as to those who receive. Like our national expansion, it does not exhaust, but rather stimulates, vitality at home. For expan- siveness is in itself a condition of healthy Church life ; and there are lessons here also of boldness of enterprise and sacrifice, simplicity of teaching in the essentials of faith, confidence in the inde- structible power of Christian progress, which the Church has learnt and embodied in her home life.
V. My tale, so far as I can tell it, is now told.^ In brief and necessarily imperfect outline, I
^ For a more detailed account see Appendix III.
IV THE MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 207
have tried to give you some idea of that great threefold mission of expansion which God has laid upon us. There is much reason why we should ponder it very seriously. For not only have we to acknowledge that our English Christianity, as a whole, is still far, very far, from adequacy of resolu- tion and sacrifice in this great work ; but, as the story has gone on, it must have forced on us the conviction, that — except perhaps in the first sphere of the colonial expansion — the great Church of England, so richly endowed by God's goodness with wealth, material and spiritual, has failed to rise adequately to the call which God's Providence has so plainly and solemnly uttered ; nay, that she has not maintained the spiritual leadership, which ought to belong to her in the general advance of English Christianity.
What, we ask anxiously, is the reason of this shortcoming ? Not certainly any inherent defect in her own faith ; for that rests on the living Word o( God. Not defect in her constitution ; for this is, we believe. Apostolical in its great essential lines, and unfettered by irrevocable decisions and claims, in respect of practical variety and development. Not (I think) any want of confidence in our own principles and our o\vn mission ; for never, I suppose, were these more fully studied and grasped, than in our own
2o8 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
time. Not defect in energy and enthusiasm for the kingdom of God ; for, in defiance of many adverse influences of the age, this century, under God's blessing, has been eminently an age of Church revivals, which have to some extent (as we have seen) overflowed with the missionary work. Not want of the materials for knowledge and study of the opportunities, difficulties, conditions, of our right relation to the various races of the world ; for never did so great a flood of information on this subject, in its general and in its religious aspect, pour upon us from all quarters. No ! the real cause lies for the Church, as for the nation, in the failure of the great mass of our people even to understand the extraordinary greatness and complexity, difficulty and glory, of the work laid upon us, and to feel adequately that the duty and privilege of taking some part in it, by thought and labour, by offering and prayer, are integral parts of living Christianity for us all, and that only by universal energy can it possibly be done. Here, as so often, it is want of thought, rather than want of heart, which is at the root of failure.
There arc, I trust, some signs of awakening in our Church to a truer idea of that solidarity of the world-wide Anglican Communion, to which allusion has so often been made. Each successive meeting
IV THE MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 209
of the Lambeth Conference indicates at once the growth of that Communion in extent, and the stronger sense of the Hving unity which binds it together, and brings an infinite variety of thought and character and experience to bear upon its counsels and its corporate action.^ Less than thirty years ago, the Conference began with much appre- hension and hesitation ; now we can hardly imagine how Church unity could exist without it ; in the future I can hardly doubt that it will develop more and more of a true Synodical character. As in the nation, so in the Church, the extension in length and breadth has brought with it the better extension in depth and height — in depth of fundamental principle, and height of noble aspiration.
With this there comes naturally a larger concep- tion of missionary duty. I see, if I mistake not, a growing strength and thoughtfulness and far- sightedness in the work of our existing missionary agencies, especially of those University missions, which most deeply interest us in this place. I trace everywhere a fuller reliance on native Christianity and native Ministry, and therefore a truer idea of
^ In 1867 there were but 144 bishops to invite ; of these 76 attended, and in England one archbishop and several bishops held aloof. In 1877 there were no English abstentions ; 173 bishops were invited, and 100 attended. In 1888, invitations were issued to 209 bishops, and of these nearly 150 attended.
P
210 HULSEAN LECTURES lect.
what our own function is in the work of God. I see, as notably in the great Missionary Conference of last year, not merely a fuller and franker pro- clamation to the world of the whole scope of the missionary work, in all its latest developments of extension and opportunity, of difficulty and failure, in its relation to extraneous forces of help or an- tagonism ; but the growth of a conviction that, in some way, the Church, as a body, must take up the work, using and harmonizing and supplementing the voluntary agencies, which have laboured so long and with such abundant blessing. I trace, if I mistake not, in the leaders of public opinion, a growing respect for missionary work, and a far clearer idea of its dominant influence on the advance of true civilization, and even of the national power, which subserves it. All these signs induce a confident hope that, as the beginning of this century was our great era of missionary revival, so its close may herald an even greater and more general advance. It is well, for how else can our Church have the blessing of Him who has given her this great mission ? How else can she vindicate, even before the world, the position of national leadership, which she is bound to claim ?
But if this is to be so, suffer me to urge that there should be some leadership of idea and of
IV THE MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 211
practical sympathy here. First, because a great University is one chief power in that higher edu- cation of public opinion, which is the one thing needful. Next, because it is the academic home of those who should be, and will be, among the future leaders of our English Church and nation in these critical times, which, because they are critical, are times of glorious opportunity. It is, as I have already reminded you, from this pulpit that some of the noblest missionary appeals have been uttered in this century. It is from the Chair of History in Cambridge — by the voice of one whose loss the University is at this very time deploring — that lessons on the true expansion of England have been read to this generation, which are acknow- ledged to have made a new epoch in our conception of national glory and responsibility. I have but attempted to enforce and apply these lessons, as best I may, to the growth of our national Christianity through our national Church ; which, like England herself, certainly occupies an unique position of mission for the extension of the kingdom of God. It is the glory of our ancient Universities that through all the ages they have stamped with a Christian impress, and animated by a Christian spirit, all the highest and boldest thought of England. Amidst all changes — themselves changes
212 HULSEAN LECTURES lect. iv
of expansion in every aspect of academic life — I cannot for a moment believe that they have lost any- thing of that ancient glory, I only wish that I could bring home to you anything of the sense of urgency in this great matter, and of the longing to see our Church awakened to it, which some experience has wrought into my own mind.
To that spirit here, at once old and new, my appeal has been very earnestly, if very imperfectly, made. And now, what shall I more say ? What can be added to the silent eloquence of that record of fact, which is the most conclusive argument and the most stirring exhortation ? If it shall contribute, however slightly, to inform and rouse public opinion on this great subject, which is thought to be hackneyed, just because it is really unknown, — if it shall stir in any one soul here the spirit of inquiry, sympathy, resolu- tion, sacrifice, — then, by God's blessing, and through the strength made perfect in human weakness, it will not have been set forth altogether in vain.
APPENDIX I
(To Lecture II)
OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF THE GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES
It may be well — at the cost of some repetition — to subjoin a somewhat more detailed outline of this remarkable growth, which is mainly the work of the last hundred years. For, while abundant materials exist for its study, it is not known, as it should be known, to English Churchmen ; and, where it is known, it is seldom viewed as a whole, in the relation of its various parts to one another, and in the rela- tion of the whole to the corresponding growth in vitality and influence of the Church at home.
The history of this growth for the last two cen- turies is substantially written in the Records of the old Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, of which an invaluable Digest has recently been given to the world.^ For, although from the beginning of
^ For certain portions of this sphere information may be found in the admirable Church Missionary Atlas ; but the main work of that Society is in the other two fields. The Reports of the Board of Missions are also most valuable, as looking at the subject from a more independent and comprehensive point of view.
214 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
our colonization our religious duty, both to our own colonists, and to the races with which they came in contact, had been to some degree recognised by both Church and State, and although it was under the Commonwealth that the first Society was formed for " the Propagation of the Gospel in New England," yet the steady and continuous extension of the colonial Church dates from the time ( 1 6th June 1 70 1 ) when the Charter of our own Society was granted by William III., after earnest consideration of the subject by a Committee of the Lower House of Convocation, and by the authorities of the still older Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge. In it the Crown acknowledged its duty " to promote the glory of God by the instruction of our people " (English and heathen) " in the Christian religion " ; and the Church, acting by the voluntary energy of its clergy and people, expressed in the seal and motto of the Society the sense of its mission, like that of St. Paul, to " come over and help " both the English settlers and the native races. Beginning gradually and under many difficulties, the Society was able by God's blessing to record at the end of its first forty years that " near a hundred churches had been built," " many congregations set up," " great multitudes of negroes and Indians brought over to the Christian faith," and *' seventy missionaries con- stantly employed in the further service of the Gospel." Since that time its resources have increased about thirty-fold, and its operations have extended over the world-wide field of English dominion and influence.
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 215
Many other Societies have since followed its lead, chiefly those of the various Nonconformist |Com- munions ; and although the work of our own Church Missionary Society is properly directed to the con- version of the heathen, its operations have naturally overflowed in some degree into the colonial sphere.
Still it is mainly through the work of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, that in this sphere the Church of England has put forth her evangelistic energy towards her own scattered children, and as she has " freely received," is ready " freely to give." But this voluntary agency has, of course, been but one element, although, indeed, the most active and aggressive element, in the advance of the kingdom of God. For in various methods and degrees, as will be seen, the State in the early times of colonization always recognised, by some kind of " Establishment," a religious duty of the nation as such, at any rate to the English settlers, especially those engaged in the civil and military service of the Crown. Of that material support but little now re- mains. In deference to the cry for religious equality, it has been gradually withdrawn, often, in the first instance at any rate, to the great hardship of these young and struggling communities. But its influence for good upon the earlier times of growth still re- mains in effect. As the colonies, moreover, gained strength and resource, and advanced towards self- government, they began to do much for their own spiritual needs. Here also there was at first a similar aid given by the colonial governments.
2i6 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
either to the Church of England alone, or to it in conjunction with other chief denominations. This also has mostly passed away. But the colonial Churches have now been able to draw upon the resources of more settled and richer communities through voluntary contribution ; and, though with continual strain, to be not only self-sustaining, but able to take up the work of evangelization to the faces around them. As in civil, so in ecclesiastical life, the problems which are before us, and the energies by which they have to be solved, are repro- duced in simpler and more vivid reality in these younger communities.
I. The work in the first instance began in the North American colonies and the West Indian Settlements.
The North American colonies differed greatly in their origin and religious condition. The old colony of Virginia was founded under distinctly Church auspices; and by 1612 it was laid out in parishes, churches were built, and maintenance for the clergy assured. A similar condition of things prevailed to some extent in North and South Caro- lina, founded in 1662 under a charter, alike "for the enlargement of His Majesty's dominions," and for " the Propagation of the Christian faith." On the other hand, the colony of New England, which soon took the lead in population and energy, was essentially Puritan and Independent in its origin, and showed itself absolutely intolerant towards all other religious communions. Maryland, settled under
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 217
Lord Baltimore in 1634, was mainly Roman Catholic, and in Pennsylvania Quakerism was predominant, although in both toleration was from the beginning extended to all. In New York, taken from Holland in 1664, the Dutch element (swelled by influx of persecuted Protestants from France, Belgium, and Germany) was Calvinistic ; the English settlers were of all sects ; and no establishment of the Church was in the first instance attempted. Thus from the beginning the religious diversity, still characteristic of the great Republic, was impressed on these grow- ing and vigorous English societies, gradually occupy- ing a vast territory, and subjugating, or dispossessing and destroying, the native races. Necessarily it intensified the natural and inevitable difficulties of evangelization, which in themselves were sufficiently serious — the scattering of the English population, always pushing out new outposts of colonization far away from existing religious ministration ; the hindrances of frequent Indian wars and massacres ; the complications and inconsistencies incident to negro slavery ; the constant jealousy and frequent opposition to any Christian work of ministration and education among the lower races ; the tendency to lawlessness and demoralization, inevitable in the early stages of irregular growth.
It will be obvious that the problem of Church extension presented itself in these different spheres under greatly different conditions. But, except in Virginia and the Carolinas, the work of our own Church was carried on under serious difficulties.
2l8
HULSEAN LECTURES
material and social, and great discouragement. It was (so to speak) on a foreign soil, and had little or nothing of the spiritual leadership which belonged to it at home. In 1761 a return made to the Bishop of London ^ showed in —
New England
New York
New Jersey .
Pennsylvania
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina and Georgia
Population.
435,000
100,000
100,000
280, 000
60,000
80,000
36,000
28,000
Church People.
40,000 25,000 16,000 65,000 36,000 60,000 18,000 20,000
280,000
Still, however, the Records of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel show that the work went steadily on, in both its pastoral and evangelistic aspects ; and it was true to the traditions of the Church of England in its devotion to the extension of education, not only in primary schools, but in higher schools and colleges, such as " King's College," founded and endowed with land in New York in 1754, which is now, as "Columbia College," one of the great University Institutions of the United States,
From the first, moreover, there was an earnest effort made to deal not only with the English settlers, but with the subject -races, the Indian aborigines,
^ Quoted in Wilberforce's History of the American Churchy p. 154.
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 219
and the negro slaves. It had to reckon with strong forces of antagonism in the secular life. It was hard to witness for Christian brotherhood in the constant struggle of aggression and warfare, through which the Indian tribes were dying out before the white man, and dying hard, with a savage resistance. It was hard to witness for Christian equality in face of the legal relation of master to slave, always inhuman in idea, often inhuman in practice. Even in American Christianity generally there was much tendency to commit the spiritual anachronism of justifying slavery under the Christian dispensation by Old Testament precedents, and to excuse the inherent wrong of slavery by real or supposed results of advantage to the slave. On the whole, however, it would seem that the witness was faithfully and not ineffectually borne ; although its noble inconsistency with the institutions of secular life necessarily created jealousy, even when it was not met by direct antagonism and persecution. In our Church the religious difficulty of slavery was especially felt, because the chief centres of her influence were in the slave-states of the South.
Still, in face of all hindrances, some real advance was made. Even among the Indian tribes a native Christianity sprang up, although it could hardly be said to have flourished, except in some special localities. The negro population was substantially Christianized ; and its Christianity, if it was not free from superstition and exclusive fanaticism, had certainly more fervour and reality. The time when,
220 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
not without terrible penalty, the force of Christian principle was to wipe out the sin of the past by destroying slavery was yet in the distant future.
But besides these difficulties, which attached to all forms of English Christianity, there was one which was peculiar to our Church, and which it brought upon itself The fatal error was made of keeping our Church in America a mere dependency, refusing it an Episcopate of its own, and so not only obliging all its ministers to seek ordination 3000 miles away, but preventing it from striking root as an indigenous and independent Church. Efforts were indeed made against this unhappy and inde- fensible policy, by those who saw that " an Episcopal Church without Episcopacy was a contradiction in terms." Archbishop Laud first secured in 1634 the extension to America of the authority of the Bishop of London ; but, unsatisfied with this, proposed in 1638 a Bishop for New England. After the Restoration, a Bishop of Virginia, with authority over all the American provinces, was actually nominated, but never sent. In 1703, in view of supposed legal difficulties in the way of more direct action, it was proposed, on petition from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to pro- ceed under the old Suffragan Act, and " dispose of the Bishops of Colchester, Dover, Nottingham, and Hull for service in foreign parts " ; and after much discussion, the proposal was so far virtually accepted, that provision was made in 1 7 1 i for the erection of two bishoprics for the mainland and two for the
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 221
West Indian Islands. But the death of Queen Anne stopped the whole scheme, and, in spite of the most earnest representations at home, and memorials from the American clergy, the advisers of the new Hanoverian dynasty utterly refused to entertain it. In despair of action by authority, some of the American clergy had recourse to the nonjuring Bishops; and in 1723 the Rev. J. Talbot and the Rev. R. Welton appear to have been consecrated by them as Bishops for America, but to have exercised hardly any Episcopal functions. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel bore its continual witness against an anomalous position, which Archbishop Seeker described as " without parallel in the Christian world." In vain Bishop Sherlock protested against the intolerant opposition of New England Nonconformity ; in vain the great Bishop Butler drew out a scheme of extreme modera- tion, pointing out that no coercive power, no inter- ference with civil authority, no maintenance at the expense of the colonies, were claimed ; in vain Archbishop Seeker declared that nothing was desired but what was virtually " a complete toleration for the Church of England in the country," and Bishop Lowth that the Church was deprived of " the common benefit, which all Christian Churches in all ages, and in every part of the world, have freely enjoyed." Indifference or timidity in the Government, and vehement Nonconformist opposition to the very idea that " Episcopacy should rear her mitred front among the children" of the Pilgrim Fathers, carried the day
222 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
against manifest reason and justice through all the period of the English connection.
Then came the great storm of the Disruption. It fell heavily on the English Church in America, partly, indeed, because its members were largely loyalist, but mainly because this fatal policy caused it to be looked upon as a mere English dependency, and, as such, incapable of a patriotic acceptance of American independence. Almost all the missionary clergy of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (seventy -seven in number) had to retire, or were driven out ; many of the clergy and thousands of the laity of the Church were forced to take refuge in the provinces which still remained British. Thus in Virginia itself, which had been the strongest centre of our Church life, there were at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War 164 churches and 91 clergy; at its close only 28 clergy remained, 95 parishes were totally, and 34 partially forsaken, and only 38 in working order. It was indeed a dark and troubled time ; but it was " the darkness before the dawn " of its independent life.
For, as soon as the tie to England was severed, the Church was driven by the very force of circum- stances to complete its independent organization. But the anomalous position, in which it had been so long placed, had told dangerously on the opinion and feeling of Churchmen as to Episcopacy itself.^ There
^ An interesting sketch of this troubled period of transition will be found in Bishop Perry's History of the Constitution of the American Church (the Bohlen Lectures for 1890), published by Whittaker, New York, in 1891.
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 223
were some who were inclined to depreciate it, if claiming to be anything more than a superintendency for convenience and good order. Even among those who held firmly to it on principle, there was difference of opinion, whether the Church should first reorganize itself by free Convention, and then seek the Episcopal succession from England, or whether it should first obtain its Bishops, and then under their guidance proceed to reorganization. There was, moreover, some conflict between the assertion of a large measure of independence for the Church in each State, if not in each diocese, and the sense that the whole Church should bind itself together and proceed as one body. In some important points there was an even more serious conflict between the growth of a spirit of innovation and latitudinarianism, and the attachment to the old Catholic principles of faith and Church order. Everywhere men were anxiously considering what ought to be done, and what could be done.
Finally the clergy of Connecticut cut the Gordian knot by taking the first step for themselves, electing the Rev. Samuel Seabury as their first Bishop, and sending him to seek consecration, first from the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, and then, on failing in this application, from the Episcopal Church of Scotland. By the Scottish Bishops he was consecrated on 14th November 1784. Meanwhile, the advocates of more cautious and united action had met in General Convention at Philadelphia in 1785, taken steps for Church organization and revision of the Prayer-Book, and, choosing Dr. White of Philadelphia and Dr.
224 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
Proovost of New York as future Bishops, requested consecration for them from the Archbishop of Canterbury. After some correspondence, and the withdrawal at the request of the Enghsh Bishops of certain proposals for serious alteration of the Prayer- Book, the request was granted ; and with formal per- mission from the Crown and under Act of Parliament the two were consecrated at Lambeth on 4th February 1787.
All this delay and hesitation had had one most disastrous effect. In 1784 John Wesley, who had been in former days a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Georgia, resolved, not without misgiving, and against the serious remonstrance of his brother Charles, to ordain Dr. Coke to be a " Bishop " in America, on the express though insufficient ground, that, as there were there " no Bishops with legal jurisdiction," he " violated no order, and invaded no man's right." The step so taken at once showed how the Methodist body in England was drifting into that position of separation which it at first so earnestly disclaimed, and in America it determined the separate existence of the great " Episcopal Methodist " Communion.
There was, moreover, not inconsiderable danger of disunion, and even conflict, between the repre- sentatives of the Scottish and English Episcopate, aggravated by some antagonism of ecclesiastical opinion and party. But at last — largely by the wisdom and conciliatory spirit of Bishop White — all were brought together. By the General Conven-
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 225
tion of 1789 the lines of Church organization were laid down ; the American Prayer- Book established, in substantial agreement with the English, but with important variations ; a complete Synodical system established ; and the Church launched on its career of independent life, at once a daughter and a sister Church to the Church of England.
It does not belong properly to our subject to trace its further history in detail. It is sufficient to note that from that moment a steady progress began, at first slow and difficult, but soon passing into a continuous and remarkable growth, fairly corresponding to that marvellous increase of the great Republic itself, which, from some four millions at the time of the Disruption, has brought it to more than sixty millions at the last census. That growth, moreover, belongs mainly to the last half-century. In the first fifty years the bishoprics of the Church only rose to sixteen, and belonged almost entirely to the older Eastern States, from New York to Chicago ; in the next, the sixteen had increased to seventy-five, the Church organization following the extension of population to the West, and, not content with filling the whole of the great territory at home, sending out six missionary bishops, to meet and work in harmony with our own Missionary Episcopate.^ At the present moment the Church has some 4300 clergy, and about three millions and a half of professed mem- bers. The adverse circumstances of its origin and 1 The full list is given in the S.P.G. Digest at p. 757, Q
226 HULSEAN LECTURES aIt.
development have indeed told seriously upon it, and the loss of the Episcopal Methodists — now one of the largest of the religious Communions in America — has robbed it of those, especially of the great middle class, who should be its members. In point of numbers, accordingly, it is far from equal, either to the Roman Catholic or to the greater Protestant Communions. But its influence over the education and thought and culture of the country, as also over its wealth and power, is far beyond its proportionate numbers, and is, indeed, one of the dominant forces in public opinion and Christian faith — growing of late, moreover, by common acknowledgment, with great rapidity. Its Synodical government is singu- larly full and vigorous,^ and it has shown in respect of Church policy (as notably on the great question of Home Reunion) a remarkable spirit of enterprise and large-heartedness, which give it a leading place in the Anglican Communion.
At the same time it seems clear, that the sense of unity between it and the Mother-Church has tended continually to increase in strength and fervour. The revision of its Prayer-Book in i 892 has in many points indicated a reversion to the old English forms, from which it had previously diverged. The free loyalty towards what is rapidly becoming the Patriarchal authority of the See of Canterbury is strongly
^ It only seems to need some lesser aggregations of the dioceses into provinces, with Provincial Synods, under the General Convention, which — including more than sixty Bishops and a very large body of clerical and lay representatives — must be somewhat unwieldy for any detailed work.
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 227
shown at the great Lambeth Conferences. To the old Missionary Society it has deh'ghted to testify its affectionate respect and gratitude. At a Missionary Conference in 1878 the Bishop of Long Island, speaking as a representative of the Church, greeted " the venerable Society as the first builder of our ecclesiastical foundations," and " laid at her feet the golden sheaves of the harvest from her planting " ; and in 1884, at the Centenary of the American Episcopate, the General Convention repeated the acknowledgment of its service, in making " the Church of England the mother of Churches, as England herself has become the mother of nations."
Certainly in this — the first and greatest offshoot from the parent tree — there is much of present vitality and of future promise. If ever the Anglican Communion is to become, as has been prophesied, a future link of greater unity in Christendom, it may well be that one chief advance towards this " consum- mation, devoutly to be wished," may find its place in the extraordinary religious diversity of the great Republic.
II. The next field of this Church expansion is to be found in the great territory of British North America ; and here also the political and religious condition of the different colonies has greatly varied.
The possession of the oldest colonies, Newfound- land and Nova Scotia (discovered by Cabot in 1497), was long disputed between England and
228 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
France, and became ours finally at the Peace of Utrecht in 17 13. Subsequently Prince Edward's Island, Cape Breton, and New Brunswick were united with them. The population was naturally a mixed one, although the English element soon pre- dominated. The province of Quebec or " Lower Canada " was substantially French in origin and population, and in it Roman Catholicism was strongly established. Conquered by England in 1763, it had at first few English inhabitants;^ but the number was greatly increased in 1784 by immigration of loyalists from the revolted colonies, and in 1789 formed a not inconsiderable minorit}^, about one - fifth of the whole. Still the French population and character are strongly predominant, and the Roman Catholic Church, protected in its endowments and privileges by British law, is com- pletely in the ascendant. On the other hand, the rival province of Ontario or " Upper Canada " is distinctly English, and, although later in origin, is rapidly outstripping the older province in population and prosperity.
These are the old colonies, which have been settled, and in various degrees prospering, for many generations. But the growth of the new colonies of the North-West belongs almost entirely to the last half- century. The vast territory, once called Rupert's Land, and now " Manitoba and the North- West Territory," was granted to Prince Rupert and
' It was estimated that in 17S3 only "746 English Protestant families " were to be found in the province of Canada.
1 GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 229
the Hudson Bay Company in 1670 ; but for some two centuries it was but a great hunting-ground, with only a few EngHsh traders and a scattered Indian population. Now, opened out by the Canadian Pacific Railway, it has become a great agricultural country, and the chief home of English immigration — having already at least a quarter of a million of inhabitants, and increasing rapidly every day. Farther away still to the west, British Columbia, which only became a Crown Colony in I 849 — thanks, first, to a rapid increase of popula- tion through the discovery of gold, and next, to its remarkable position as the terminus of the Canadian Pacific, and as a natural emporium of trade with China, Japan, and Australasia, — has now more than 100,000 people, and is increasing fast in prosperity and strength. In both these new colonies, although they contain settlers of all nations, the English element is absolutely supreme. In them and in Canada there is still a native Indian population of about 120,000 — a remnant of the old inhabitants — now well cared for by the Government, and (it is said) loyal and prosperous, and not any longer dwindling in numbers.
The Colonies, thus differing in history and char- acter, and growing each in its own way, have since 1840 been formed into a great federation (the " Dominion "), with the exception of Newfoundland — an exception which in all probability will soon be done away ; and material intercommunication by the Canadian Pacific Railway, which made such
230 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
federation possible, is welding it more and more closely together. Without the extraordinary energy and wealth, the vast population and cosmopolitan character, of the United States, the Dominion has evidently a sturdy and vigorous life, and a promise of far larger growth in the future. The population is far less mixed, and, except in the province of Quebec, it is substantially British. It is now nearly 5,000,000, and increasing every day.^ Accordingly the British character is more thoroughly preserved, under perhaps simpler and more elastic social condi- tions, than in the old country, and in spite of the attractive force of the great Republic, free loyalty to the British flag is a dominant force in it.
In this new and vigorous community it is obvious that the problem of Church expansion presents itself again under very many different aspects. In
^ The Census returns for the Dominion of Canada show an increase from 3,695,002 in 1871 to 4,324,810 in 1881, and to 4,833,239 in 1S91. The distribution is as follows : —
|
i83i. |
1891. |
||
|
Ontario |
1,926,862 |
2,114,321 |
|
|
Quebec . |
1,359,027 |
1,488,535 |
|
|
Nova Scotia |
440,572 |
450,396 |
|
|
New Brunswick |
321,233 |
321,263 |
|
|
Manitoba |
62,260 |
152,506 |
|
|
British Columbia |
49,456 |
98,173 |
|
|
Prince Edward's Island |
108,891 |
109,078 |
|
|
The Territories (in the N. W. ) . |
56,446 |
98,967 |
The P'rench-speaking population was in 1891, 1,404,974, of which 1,186,246 were in the province of Quebec.
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 231
all, almost from their first beginning, the missionary energy of the Church, chiefly represented by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, has been at work. In most cases some support was at first given by the civil power in the older colonies, and " Clergy and School Reserves " of land set apart for the maintenance of religion and education, which have now been mostly confiscated for secular uses. The history has in many points much resembled that of the first colonies. But it has features of its own. On the one hand, the progress of Christianity has not been complicated by the necessity of dealing with the negro race, except to a small extent, and under little difficulty, in Bermuda ; and the relations to the Indian population have been more friendly and peaceful. On the other hand, the dominance of Roman Catholicism in the province of Quebec, and in less degree in some of the other provinces originally French, causes great internal division and religious antagonism ; and under it the progress of our own Church suffers much dis- couragement and hindrance. In the newer colonies of the North -West, moreover, the comparatively sparse population, scattered over a vast territory, is singularly hard to reach, and the Church there still needs and receives not inconsiderable aid from home.
In this sphere, happily, the completion of the Church organization by the Episcopate came earlier in the history. In answer to a memorial from the clergy of Nova Scotia, the first bishopric was there
2Z2 IIULSEAN LECTURES app.
established in 1787 (the year of the first con- secration from Lambeth for the United States), in the person of Bishop Inglis, himself a sturdy- American loyalist, driven by persecution from Trinity Church in New York ; and his charge for a time extended, not merely in name, but in a very real activity, over the whole of British North America. As usual, the introduction of the Episco- pate marked a new epoch of progress, in spite of the discouragement of the withdrawal of material support by the civil power. The first extension of the Episcopate was to the struggling Church of Quebec in 1793, in the midst of the French Roman Catholic population, with but six clergy ministering to a comparatively few English people. Then there was, strangely enough, a pause for more than forty years ; till in 1839 the old colony of Newfoundland, needing for many reasons special superintendence, received its first bishop, and the See of Toronto was planted in the rapidly growing and thoroughly English colony of Upper Canada. From this time onward the advance has been rapid. The dioceses of the old provinces have been divided ; the growth of the new provinces was met by the creation of the See of Rupert's Land in i 849, and of British Columbia in 1859 ; and these dioceses also have been divided again and again, till at the present time there are twenty-one Sees in British North America. The creation of each is at once a sign and a means of Church advance — in the Eastern and more settled provinces more pastoral, in the new provinces of
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 233
the West more distinctly evangelistic, both to the European population and to the still remaining Indian tribes, and to a mixed population of foreign immigrants. Its ministrations are carried on in seventeen languages, and have to deal with five European colonial races, and twenty-seven Indian races, besides negroes and Chinese.
In the Church thus advancing, full Synodical action of clergy and laity under Episcopal presi- dency has everywhere grown up with a very real and vigorous power. Naturally it began as diocesan, but by degrees the precedent of civil federation was followed in the Church ; most of the dioceses are now united in the two provinces of Canada and Rupert's Land, and the few which as yet lie outside these provinces, form a part with them of a General Synod of the whole Dominion, formed in 1893.^ It is notable that this branch of the Colonial Church has been the first to assume for its metropolitan the title of " Archbishop," implying its independence and self-government, although pre- serving a loyal deference to the Patriarchal See of Canterbury. Like others, it has its own Board of Missions to the Indians, working in harmony with
^ The ecclesiastical province of Canada includes the dioceses of Nova Scotia, Quebec, Toronto, Fredericton. Montreal, Huron, Ontario, Algoma, and Niagara. The province of Rupert's Land, the dioceses of Rupert's Land, Moosonee, Saskatchewan, ^L^ckenzie River, Qu'Appelle, Athabasca, Calgary, and Selkirk. Outside these the dioceses of British Columbia, Caledonia, and New Westminster join with them in the General Synod. Newfoundland alone follows the civil community in holding a position of isolation, which is most anomalous and can hardly be permanent.
234 IIULSEAN LECTURES app.
both the great Enghsh Missionary Societies, which in different ways assist in the work.
The strength of the Church varies greatly in the different colonies — highest in Newfoundland and the province of Ontario, lowest in the province of Quebec/ But, taking it as a whole, it cannot be said to hold its right place of spiritual leadership. It is out- stripped, not only by the Roman Catholic, but by some Protestant Communions. Of 5,000,000 in- habitants the professed Church members are but little above 730,000, ministered to by about 1450 ordained clergy in the twenty-one dioceses.^ Why this has been so, it is hard to say. The difficulties are not unlike those which have been encountered in the United States ; in less degree, delay in ade- quately completing an indigenous Episcopate has kept back the growth of independent life ; the presence of the strong French and Roman Catholic element has added a peculiar difficulty. Certainly there has been, and still is, much energy shown by our own great Missionary Societies, mainly the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which employs even now more than 200 missionaries, and has expended a million and a half on the evangelistic work. The character of the
^ In Newfoundland about 40 per cent, in Ontario about 20 per cent, in Quebec only 6 per cent of the whole population.
" The Census of 1891 for the Dominion, excluding Newfoundland, gives for the Roman Catholic Church 1,992,067 (of whom 1,291,708 are in the province of Quebec) ; for the Church of England 646,059 (of whom only 75,472 are in that province) ; for the Presbyterians 754,193 ; and f(jr the jNlcthodists 839,815.
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 235
Canadian Church, Hke that of the Dominion itself, has been marked in a high degree by strong earnestness, a spirit of hard work and self-sacrifice, and much practical vigour and endurance under difficulty. It has in it what should be the elements of much future progress. While we recognise it as a sturdy and vigorous offshoot, we cannot but earnestly desire for it a far larger growth.
III. The work of Church extension in our West Indian Settlements began at nearly the same time as in North America, but of course under very different conditions ; for it had to deal with a comparatively few English settlers, and a large negro slave population.
The islands came into our possession at very different periods, and under different conditions, from the beginning of the seventeenth century onward. Mostly discovered by Columbus in 1498, becoming our own, partly by conquest from Spain, partly by settlement, they were made for generations a battlefield between France and England, taken and retaken again and again, and finally became our undisputed possession at various periods in the eighteenth century. The area of all together is not great ; but their fertility and beauty are extra- ordinary, and the population dense. Barbados and the other Windward Islands, with Tobago and Trinidad, have now a population of about 550,000 ; Antig-ua and the other Leeward Islands about I 28,000 ; the great island of Jamaica (conquered by Cromwell in 1655) about 640,000 ; and the Bahamas
236 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
about 52,000. Closely connected with them are our settlements on the mainland, in British Honduras and Panama, having about 67,000 people, and British Guiana having 300,000. All the islands — from which the native inhabitants died out, or were deported to South America under the Spaniards — are now densely populated by the negro race, imported by the slave-trade,^ and having rapidly increased, both under slavery and since the Eman- cipation. On the mainland the population is more mixed, including, besides the Europeans, both the negro and the native Indian elements.
The mission of our English Christianity there was not, therefore, as in the North American colonies, to great masses of our own people, with only a small remnant of the native races ; but it represented our first effort for the evangelization of a large heathen population, over whom a comparatively few Europeans held absolute sway. The slave-trade, while it flourished largely in English hands, always excused itself, with more or less sincerity, by the plea that through it a race, in itself barbarian and heathen, was brought within the range of civilization and Christianity. Accordingly, from the beginning of our dominion, provision was made by the civil authority for the extension of the Church by a system of " Establishment," which still in part remains, though it has been gradually diminished, and in many regions abolished. The Church, so
'^ In Trinidad there has been some importation of coolies from India, and some Chinese immigration.
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 237
established, recognised the education and conversion of the negroes as its primary charge, and in spite both of some jealousy from their white masters and of the obvious inconsistency between the legal view of the slaves as mere chattels, and the recognition of them as " men and brothers " in the Gospel, laboured with no small success on their behalf, and un- doubtedly implanted in them a Christianity, perhaps too largely emotional, and not free from lingering superstition, but nevertheless showing much vitality and strength. Meanwhile the free missionary energy of our Church in England, chiefly represented by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, was ready to aid the Church there, especially in the great crisis of Emancipation, and to give it support, when in some quarters the withdrawal of State aid brought upon it a time of struggle and difficulty. The result of these labours is seen in the fact that the negro race as a whole has been Christianized, and that at this moment, of some 1,400,000 souls, 600,000 are returned as members of our own Church alone.
The work was greatly aided by the establishment of what was the first strictly missionary college of the Church of England. Codrington College was founded by the will of General Codrington in 1703, under the charge of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel — " as a nursery for the Propagation of the Gospel, providing a never- failing supply of labourers for the harvest of God." It was, especially for the time, a remarkable foundation
238 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
— anticipating much of what we now see to be needed for evangelization of the lower races. For it provided for " a convenient number of Professors and Scholars to be maintained, all under vows of poverty and chastity and obedience, who shall be obliged to practise Phisick and Chirurgery as well as Divinity," " that they may minister both to body and soul." In 17 14, after some legal delays and difficulties, it was opened, and from that day to this has done invaluable work as a school and a training college for white and coloured students. It may be noted that the first objects of its care were the negroes, some hundreds in number, attached to the estates, who were soon educated and Christianized, " treated with much humanity and tenderness," and gradually emancipated, before the general law of Emancipation was passed in 1838, with a view "to afford an example which may lead to the abolition of slavery without danger to life and property." It is on record that in 1 840, while the emancipated " labouring population was on many estates wayward and refractory," the Codrington negroes " were steady, manageable, cheerful and industrious."
The same error was here also unhappily com- mitted in withholding far too long an indigenous Episcopate. The bishoprics of Jamaica and Bar- bados were not created till 1824; and after this there was a delay of nearly twenty years, before any further extension took place. Subsequently, as in other fields of the colonial Church, but somewhat more slowly, the full development of Church organiza-
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 239
tion has been carried out. Out of the diocese of Barbados were formed the dioceses of Antigua and Guiana in 1842, Trinidad in 1872, and Windward Islands in 1878; out of the diocese of Jamaica those of Nassau in 1861 and British Honduras in 1883, and, in some connection with these, the Mis- sionary Bishopric of Falkland Islands — the home of the " South American Mission" — in 1869. All these, except the last, are united in the " Province of the West Indies " under a Primate, and all have their diocesan and provincial Synodical action.
The great question, of course, which here met and troubled the work of evangelization, was the question of negro slavery. That slavery as such is flagrantly inconsistent with the fundamental prin- ciples of Christian brotherhood, is clear to us now. But in itself, or in modified form of serfship, it has run through all the earlier stages of human civiliza- tion ; for it is simply an extreme form of the sacrifice of the weak to the strong, which is the survival in humanity of the " struggle for existence " ; and there are even cases — of which the African slave-trade furnished an example — in which it superseded the yet extremer form of slaughter and extermination. Nor is it difficult to see that, especially where it was tempered by noble inconsistencies of humanity and Christian sympathy, it might have in practice some apparent compensations of good, even to the subject- race, which misled good and thoughtful men. In the West Indies, moreover, it could put forward the plea, not only of apparent necessity, but of a pre-
240 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
scription of some three hundred years, from the days when Hawkins first opened the EngHsh slave-trade in the Ehzabethan era. It was obvious that only by the progress of the true "humanity" of self- sacrifice of the strong for the weak, which has to fight against the lower spirit of selfishness, and of the faith in right principle, which steadily refuses to " do evil that good may come," could an institu- tion, so deep-rooted and engrained in social life, be gradually cast out. It was the task of Christianity to create and foster that higher humanity, under the sense of a common Fatherhood of God and a common salvation in Christ — to enunciate the great principle, " No longer a slave, but a brother beloved in the Lord," and leave it to work on the minds and hearts of the people. So had the slavery of serf- ship been gradually destroyed in Europe ; so now the question, " Am not I a man and a brother?" which is to us somewhat obsolete, was to be asked in relation to a wider brotherhood of all humanity.
The real battle had, of course, to be fought at home ; the Church in the West Indies had simply to act as an auxiliary, and meanwhile prepare both masters and slaves for the coming change. It was fought enthusiastically, perseveringl}^, and at last victoriously by English Christianity, alike in the Church and in the ranks of Nonconformit\', in the fervour of the great Evangelical Revival. By an un- exampled sacrifice of some twenty millions from the national Treasury — in spite of difficulties, commercial and social, in part foreseen — in the face of a mani-
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 241
fold opposition, both of vested interest and of mis- taken social principle — the great Emancipation Act was passed, providing for a period of compulsory apprenticeship, and for complete liberty in 1838.
Meanwhile, from the year 1835 onwards, the Church, mainly through the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel, with the aid of parliamentary grant and a " King's Letter," made a fresh effort, by the " Negro Education Fund," to erect negro churches and schools, and to support missionaries, clerical and lay, and so to prepare the slaves for the responsibilities of freedom. So complete was the preparation that — to quote the words of the first bishop of Barbados (Bishop Coleridge) — "eight hundred thousand human beings lay down at night as slaves, and rose in the morning as free as our- selves. It might have been expected that on such an occasion there would have been some outburst of public feeling. I was present, but there was no gathering that affected the public peace. There was a gathering, but it was a gathering of young and old together in the House of a common Father. It was my peculiar happiness on that memorable day to address a congregation of nearly 4000 persons, of whom more than 3000 were negroes, just emanci- pated. . . . There were thousands of my African brethren joining with their European brother in offering up their prayers and thanksgivings to the Father, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of all." ^ The task so nobly begun, of welding together the two
1 See the S.P.G. Digest, p. 203.
242 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
races in the development of a true Christian civiHza- tion, is still far from complete. It has involved difficulties and disasters, then but imperfectly antici- pated, which are the inevitable penalty of past misdoings, and which have been in part increased by our own mistakes of subsequent policy. But still to have undertaken it is one of our greatest national glories, and, at whatever cost, it has to be carried out.
In these colonial settlements it may be said that the evangelistic work is mainly over, and has passed into a pastoral care of the English and native races side by side. In British Guiana we see the same process at an earlier stage. The work of evangel- ization is still prominent and advancing year by year. The country (the '' El Dorado " of Sir Walter Raleigh) was first colonized in 1663, and after passing successively through English, Dutch, and French hands, it became ours in i 8 1 4. The work began there, with some aid from the civil power, by our two great Missionary Societies, both to the Eng- lish colonists and to a singularly mixed population of native Indians, negroes, coolies from India, and Chinese immigrants. It received, as usual, a new impulse on the creation of a bishopric in 1842, and the first bishop (Bishop Austen), in an Episcopate of more than fifty years, was permitted to see the growth of a vigorous native Church, ministering in six languages to the heathen races, and, out of a population of 300,000, showing more than half as members of our own Communion.
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 243
In Central America, again, British Honduras, discovered by Columbus, and for a time disputed between Spanish and English seekers of its mahogany and logwood, passed into our possession in 1798, It became a part of the colony of Jamaica in 1824, and was under the charge of the Bishop of Jamaica, till a separate bishopric was established there in I 89 1. It has a mixed population of English and coloured races of about 3 1,000 ; and among these a few clergy are at work under the Bishop. At Panama the great works for the Canal have drawn together a mixed and disorganized population of about i 5,000 ; and here a body of some 2000 Church members has been gathered by clergy, working under the See of Jamaica.
Beyond these Churches — still colonial, although having a strong missionary element in their religious work — there are, as usual, outlying missions, which arise out of colonial settlement — on the Moskito and in the diocese of the Falkland Islands, which will be noticed hereafter in connection with our mission to the barbarian races.
Such is the third sphere of this extension of the Church — the first typical example of the evangeliza- tion, at once of our own brethren, scattered as a colonizing and dominant race over the world, and of the heathen races brought by God's Providence under their dominion and influence. It has cer- tainly been blessed with no inconsiderable success. P'or besides the English settlers and the great negro population, it ministers to Indians, Chinese, and
244 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
Hindus in at least eight languages, and numbers some 600,000 members of our Church, with a body of nearly 300 clergy under nine bishops. It will have before it a work of great interest and difficulty, in helping to solve for the West India Islands the great social problems of unity between the white and coloured races, and of progress in civilization under the conditions of emancipation.
IV. The next is the great continent of Australia in the Southern Hemisphere, with New Zealand and the islands of the Pacific. It is a vast and magnificent inheritance, not less in area than the whole continent of Europe. It has almost every variety of climate and of material resource, of splendid pasturage and singularly rich mineral treasure. Perhaps of all our settlements it is most like the mother-country, in having no frontier but the sea ; and having been won, not by conquest, but by settlement, it is almost entirely British, with but a slight admixture of any foreign element in its growing population. Its material greatness in the future seems to be assured, in spite of the serious disadvantage of frequently- recurring droughts, the effects of which can be, and will be, mitigated, but cannot be removed. Allow- ing for all drawbacks, it could support a far larger population ; for, as yet there are on the average less than three white inhabitants to every two square miles.
Yet this great inheritance, discovered by Captain Cook in 1770, was for generations greatly misused. Australia itself had its first occupation under most
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 245
inauspicious conditions as a convict settlement in 1788. Had the civil authorities designed to make it — what in its worst phases, on the mainland and in Norfolk Island, it was called — a " hell upon earth," they could hardly have done so more effectually than by sending out some 800 convicts and 200 soldiers to guard and coerce them, without any pro- vision whatever for their moral and religious welfare, and so beginning our occupation of this great future colony without the faintest recognition of the Christi- anity, which was the very heart of our own greatness. It was only at the last moment, on the earnest appeal of William Wilberforce, and the remonstrance of the Bishop of London, that — with the ever- ready aid of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel — one minister of Christ, the Rev. R. Johnson, was grudgingly allowed to join as a volunteer, and do what he could, unaided and unrecognised, for those outcast children of England and of its Church. No missionary in the most barbarian country could have met with greater discouragement and difficulty. No church was provided for some years, and then a rude building, raised by his own exertion and almost by his own hands. The first schoolhouse was burnt down intentionally. The authorities were obliged for very shame to compel a Sunday attendance of the convicts and their guards at public worship ; but beyond this no effort whatever seems to have been made to help forward that ministration of light and grace, which a community of this kind, more than any other, required. The natural result followed in
246 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
the corruption and demoralization of the rising settlement beyond — so men said at the time — any- thing ever known in an English society. It was kept down in its more criminal forms by a severity necessarily stern, and at times cruel ; but, both in the unhappy convicts themselves — many of whom, trans- ported for slight offences, were capable of better things — and in those who had charge of them, it festered under the surface with the deadliest effect. It can hardly be called less than a crime, against humanity and against God, to have founded a New England under such almost incredible conditions.
Nor can it be forgotten that the baneful influence of this condition of things told upon the relations of the new settlers to the native tribes — a sparse nomad population, certainly of one of the lower types of race, but by no means incapable of civilization, and amenable to influence for good, had there been any disposition to exercise it. But in too many cases the blacks were treated as little better than wild beasts ; their natural hostility to the intruders was aggravated by cruelty and oppression, and met by a war of extermination. There is no chapter in the history of the extension of our empire from which we turn with deeper sorrow and shame. It is simply a marvel, that from such an origin there should have grown up in about a century a great community, rich in wealth, in civilization, and in promise, evidently destined to be a strong English empire of the South.
The first stages of this growth were compara-
GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 247
tively slow and difficult. Free immigration, indeed, soon began to mingle its purer waters with the stream of continued convict settlement. In i 8 i 7, of a population of i 7,000, only 7000 were convicts, chiefly males ; in 1833, of males above twelve there were 21,843 convicts, and 17,578 free. The con- vict system had its better side in the* country at large, where the convicts were " assigned " to service, under a mastership almost absolutely arbitrary, which might, however, be kindly and reformatory in effect ; and the convict labour on public works was of so much value to a thinly -peopled colony, that even those who disliked it came to look upon it as almost indispensable. The convict population itself was of very mixed character. It included, indeed, hardened and abandoned criminals ; but it included also those who had never been deeply criminal, or who by good conduct had done much to wipe out the past, and had become after a time useful and prosperous citizens. But it was difficult, if not impossible, to weld together the free and convict elements of society. Some of the governors who attempted to do so met with failure and disaster. Gradually, after much strife and controversy, there grew up a desire, which soon became a demand, for the aboli- tion of convict settlement, with the substitution (if possible) of free immigration, assisted from public funds. In 1 840 the demand was granted : trans- portation was abolished for New South Wales, and the colonies developed from it, forming the bulk of the community; although it lingered till 1853 in
248 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
Tasmania, where Port Arthur had exhibited it in one of its worst forms; and till 1864 in the sparsely- peopled colony of Western Australia. The popula- tion in 1840 had risen to about 150,000 on the mainland, and 50,000 in Tasmania — still, after more than fifty years, a mere handful in a territory of some 4,000,000 square miles — and the cessation of the convict-labour was a serious material loss and a serious anxiety.
It was the discovery of gold in 1851 — first in New South Wales, then, in far greater richness, in Victoria — which caused a vast influx of population, and began the course of Australian prosperity. From that time onwards advance has been swift and un- broken ; assistance for immigrants, once the rule in all colonies, has been found unnecessary, and has almost entirely disappeared. The average immigra- tion is still about 20,000 a year, and the settled population increases rapidly. In the last fifty years it has grown from some 200,000 to more than 4,000,000, and the increase of wealth, diffused in a remarkable degree through the great mass of the people, has kept pace with it. The century which has elapsed since the first settlement has developed six considerable colonies — Victoria in 185 1, and Queensland in 1859, out of New South Wales, and, independently, Tasmania, first colonized in 1803, Western Australia in 1829, and South Australia in 1836; while New Zealand, only settled in 1839, has become an independent colony with nearly 700,000 people. Great cities have sprung up — too
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 249
large, indeed, in comparison with the whole popula- tion— with all the appliances of civilization ; schools, colleges, and universities, museums and galleries of art have been created and liberally supported ; the constitutional government of the old country has been reproduced in a somewhat more democratic type. In spite of the inevitable vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity, rapidity and slowness of advance, everything indicates an undoubted promise of far greater growth in the future.
It remains now to inquire as to the parallel pro- gress of English Christianity, and especially of our own Church of England.
It has been seen that, without aid or even recog- nition from the civil power, the first planting of the Church of Christ in the colony was due to the voluntary energy of a few devoted men — Richard Johnson, Samuel Marsden, William Cowper, and others, aided by support from the Church at home through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. But by degrees — partly through the growth of a higher public opinion in England, under the influence of religious revival — mainly, however, through the urgent representations of some of the early governors, appalled at the consequences of moral and religious neglect — the State, through the Home Government, and subsequently through the colonial legislatures, was induced to give some establishment and endowment. It aided the Church, at first alone, then with the larger denominations — the Roman Catholic (mainly Irish), the Presby-
2SO HULSEAN LECTURES app.
terian, Methodist, and Congregationalist bodies. From the beginning the Church took and has retained the lead, far more than in any other group of colonies. It is significant that, although without any claim of territorial authority by law, the whole land was divided into " parishes," which in the country were often great missionary districts ; churches were built, mostly simple and homely structures ; and clergy and catechists sent out as the area of colonization extended. Gradually, as the colonies became self-governing and self-supporting, this material support — which under the conditions of colonial life was then, and in some measure would still be, of infinite value — was withdrawn, leaving behind it some few remains of endowment ; and the Churches were thrown entirely upon their own resources, under a recognition of their corporate existence and govern- ment, on the whole friendly, from the colonial legislatures.
The early steps of religious, as of civil, progress were comparatively slow, not only under the obvious difficulties, material and moral, of the position, but because here also, although for a shorter period, the Church was left without its independent Episcopate. For some forty years there was apparently no ecclesiastical organization, beyond the parochial. In 1829 the first step was taken, under the great Duke of Wellington as Prime Minister, by the appointment of the Rev. R. Broughton to have jurisdiction as Archdeacon over the few Australian clergy — an im- portant step, although it is ludicrous enough to find
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 251
that his archdeaconry was supposed to belong to the diocese of Calcutta, some 6000 miles away ; and a step, moreover, which by this very absurdity necessi- tated a further advance. In a few years, after visiting in all quarters, he returned to England with his report, and was consecrated the first Bishop of Australia in 1836. A new epoch, as usual, opened upon the Church. The Bishop was then backed by the power both of Church and State, and he was a man of such earnestness, statesmanlike ability, and strong character, as to use it to the utmost. The great societies of S.P.C.K. and S.P.G. at home gave valuable and timely aid, under the first withdrawal of support from the colonial Treasury. By their aid not only were new churches built in the country dis- tricts, but great progress made in Church education in colleges and schools, both for clergy and laity. In Sydney itself the foundation was laid in 1837 of the first Australian cathedral,^ the erection of which went on at intervals for about thirty years, till it was completed and consecrated on St. Andrew's Day in 1868, on what was then thought to be an ample scale, although, in the extraordinary growth of the city since that time, it is now found plainly insufficient. Enormous as Bishop Broughton's diocese was, and in spite of the difficulty of com- munication in those early days, his influence —
^ It is not a little curious that in 1819 — long before a bishopric was contemplated — Governor Macquarie planned a "cathedral" on the same site, of dimensions, moreover, far greater than those after- wards thought sufficient, and actually laid a first stone of it, which was renewed and laid again in 1837.
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both a stimulating and direct influence — was felt everywhere; and when he died in 1853, "carrying with him the veneration and respect of his fellow- colonists ... of all classes and of all sects," the great impulse had been given, and the era of rapid progress had begun.
It was the time of the vast influx of population through the gold discoveries. Happily the Church was in some degree prepared to meet it. In 1841, by the suggestion of Bishop Blomfield, the " Colonial Bishoprics' Fund " was formed, to be under God's blessing the greatest agency for the extension in the colonial Church of the full ecclesiastical organiza- tion.^ The effort was aided by munificent private benefactions at home, and met, as far as possible, by contributions in the colonies themselves. The Church seemed to awake suddenly to the greatness of her colonial call and opportunity.
Of that awakened earnestness the Australian Church had the fullest benefit. In 1842 the Bishopric of Tasmania was founded. At a memorable service in Westminster Abbey, on St. Peter's Day 1847, which again marked an epoch in colonial Church history, three bishops were con- secrated at once (with the first great Bishop of Cape Town) — for the rising diocese of Melbourne, for the new settlement of Adelaide, and for the great
^ Between 1841 and 1892 it had collected and expended a sum of nearly ;^840,ooo — which has been the means of drawing out far larger resources abroad and at home — and had aided the foundation of Hfty- five new bishoprics.
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 253
coal district of New South Wales at Newcastle. After what seems a long delay, the old colony of Western Australia received a Bishop of Perth for its scattered white and black population in 1857. In Queensland — made a distinct colony in 1859 — the Bishopric of Brisbane was at once founded. The diocese of Sydney, still great, was subdivided further by the Bishoprics of Goulburn in 1863, of Grafton and Armidale (formed from Newcastle) in 1867, and Bathurst in 1869, and, after a considerable interval, Riverina ^ in 1884. In Victoria, then the most rapidly advancing of all the colonies, the Bishopric of Ballarat, in the gold district, was founded in 1875, to relieve the diocese of Melbourne. Finally, the vast diocese of Brisbane was similarly subdivided by the creation of the Sees of North Queensland in 1878, and Rockhampton in 1892. Nor should it be forgotten that from the Australian Episcopate was derived in 1841 the Bishopric of New Zealand, with the six Sees which have sub- sequently grown out of it. It was nearly half a century from the first colonization before the one See of Australia was founded in 1836; but it had developed into twenty-two when the next half-century had elapsed. Churches and clergy had multiplied at least tenfold, and the change from the rough, homel}' wooden church to cathedrals, of various degrees of dignity and even of splendour, in all the dioceses was
^ This bishopric is notable as having been founded by the munifi- cence of a single colonist (the Hon. John Campbell), who had already largely contributed to some of the earlier Sees of New South Wales.
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but a visible symbol of the extraordinary growth of the Church itself.
It was, moreover, the glory of the Australasian Church that through it the foundation of Synodical government in the colonial Church generally was laid. There was, indeed, the precedent of such government, both diocesan and general, established in the American Church since 1785. But in the various colonial Churches, although there were Church Committees and diocesan Societies, acting as councils to the bishops, the beginning of true Synodical representation and government dates from an Episcopal Conference at Sydney in 1850, of the Bishops of Sydney, New Zealand, Tasmania, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Newcastle — declaring the necessity of such government, and preparing for its intro- duction. It can hardly be doubted that in this most important matter the initiative came from the great Bishop of New Zealand (Selwyn), and is one of the greatest of the debts which the Church owes to him. The idea was at once, and all but universally, taken up ; and the result has been " the establishment in all parts of the world of fully representative and legally constituted synods, consisting of bishops, clergy, and laity — each having a voice in all matters considered. In most cases the synods have received the recog- nition of the legislatures." ^ The Australian Church
^ The dioceses of Sydney, Newcastle, Goulburn, Grafton and Armi- dale, Bathurst, Riverina, form the province of New South Wales, under the Bishop of Sydney as MetropoUtan. These dioceses, with those of Tasmania, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Ballarat, North
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 255
has its diocesan synods everywhere ; in New South Wales its Provincial Synod ; and a General Synod embracing all the dioceses of Australia and Tasmania.^ New Zealand has its diocesan and General synods. In the former case there is some irregularity in the position of quasi-independence held by the lower to the higher synods ; " in New Zealand the system was laid down from the first on sounder Church lines. But in both cases it has become a great working reality, of priceless value to Church life and progress.
The extension of the Church in Australia, from the singularly inauspicious beginnings of 1788, has been, under God's blessing, a marvellous growth. It has now its fifteen bishops, more than eight hundred clergy, and at least a million and a quarter of pro- fessed members. More than in any other colonial group, it retains much of spiritual leadership — readily conceded, if not claimed as a right, by all religious Communions except the Roman Catholic. Largely aided by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in its earlier stages, it is now not only self- supporting, but able, as will be seen hereafter, to
Queensland, and Rockhampton, meet in the General Synod every five years, under the Bishop of Sydney as Primate.
^ See the interesting sketch of "The American, Colonial, and Missionary Episcopate Church Organization" in the S.P.G. Digest, pp.
743-767-
- The Provincial Synod of New South Wales is recognised by law ; the General Synod, embracing various colonies not yet united by federation, can have no such recognition, and has only a supreme moral authority.
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venture on independent missionary work to the heathen races within and near its borders.
It remains now to notice the great offshoot from Australia in the group of islands which form New Zea- land. This possession also, although but of yesterday, is already one of the finest of our New Englands — with a long coast-line and fine harbours, a splendid climate, well fitted to receive and preserve the Eng- lish type of humanity, considerable wealth and variety of natural resources, and a singular beauty and grandeur of scenery. Its history, civil and ecclesiastic, has many points of striking and instruc- tive difference from that of the Australian continent ; and it cannot be doubted that this difference is mainly due to the fact that in this case Christianity preceded, and largely moulded, the process of colonization.
Discovered by Tasman in 1642, and rediscovered by Captain Cook in 1770, it was not colonized till 1839 by the New Zealand Company, and it was made a British colony in 1 840. Meanwhile, as early as 18 14, Samuel Marsden from Australia, with the aid of the Church Missionary Society, became the " Apostle of New Zealand," labouring himself in the North Island among the Maori people at inter- vals up to 1837, and leaving a settled mission there. The progress at first was unusually slow : for eleven years no conversion took place ; at the end of seventeen years only thirty converts had been bap- tized. But then, as so often, after long and patient sowing, the harvest was suddenly given ; and a considerable native Church was formed under the
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 257
Church Missionary Society, before the first coloniza- tion in 1839. Meanwhile the Society for the Pro- pagation of the Gospel devoted itself mainly to the support of Christianity among the English settlers, who rapidly poured in. They were of a far different type from the first Australian immigrants. There was in them no convict element ; the New Zealand Company was careful as to the character of their settlers, and did much for their higher welfare ; in Canterbury, under the auspices of our own Church, and in Otago, under Presbyterian auspices, a colonization was attempted, which should embrace all classes of society and carry with it provision for churches and clergy, colleges and schools, as well as for material necessities. The result has been the planting there of a singularly vigorous and thoroughly English life, amidst surroundings of climate and natural resources, which ought to perpetuate it with little change and without degeneration.
In 1 84 1, George Augustus Selwyn was conse- crated Bishop of New Zealand, and from the first resolved to be the spiritual father both of the Eng- lish and the Maori peoples, and to unite them, if possible, in true Christian brotherhood. By that time there were about 30,000 native Christians ; and (as he himself said) " a few faithful men, by the power of the Spirit of God, had been the instruments of adding another Christian people to the family of God." It was his task — over and above his Melanesian Mission — to extend, organize, and deepen the work among both races.
S
258 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
Unhappily there came on almost inevitable col- lisions between them, in respect of the occupation of the land, resulting in the Maori Wars ; and the result was felt painfully in the religious sphere. Among the Maori Christians there arose a move- ment of apostasy from Christianity — not in itself, but as the religion of the English — to a strange hybrid religion/ mixing some Old Testament and Christian elements with gross heathen superstition. It was a terrible disappointment, which almost broke the hearts of the Bishop and his fellow-labourers. But as soon as peace was restored, the Maori Christianity began to recover, and in great measure has recovered, from this temporary obscuration. The native population, although dwindling under the influence of English sin, English habits of life, and English disease, still, however, numbers some 40,000. Out of these at least half are baptized members of our Church, ministered to by native clergy, side by side with their English brethren in the Ministry. For them everything is done, both by the Church, and now by the civil authority also, to protect and advance them in secular and religious prosperity.
Meanwhile the English population has rapidly increased, especially in the Southern Island, till it now numbers about 700,000. There was accordingly
^ It acknowledged the protection of the Angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, and borrowed some of its rites and doctrines from the Old Testament. But the Scriptures were to be burned, Sabbath observance abolished, the Christian law of marriage abrogated, and the religion of the English destroyed. A priesthood claiming superhuman powers sprang up, and carried out some persecution of Christianity.
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 259
a corresponding development of Church organization. In 1856 was founded the See of Christchurch in the Canterbury settlement; in 1858 that of Wel- lington at the seat of government ; in the same year the Sees of Nelson and Waiapu ; in 1866 that of Dunedin in the predominantly Presbyterian province of Otago ; and in i 869, on the resignation of Bishop Selwyn, the old See changed its name to Auckland. Added to these is the outlying Missionary Bishopric of Melanesia, created in 1861. All these are united in the province of New Zealand, with full Synod ical government, both diocesan and provincial.^ The Church numbers about 250,000, ministered to by 234 clergy (English and Maori) ; it has an admirable system of Church schools and colleges ; and it builds not only fresh churches every year, but cathedrals of some dignity and magnificence, to be the mother- churches of their respective dioceses. Like the colony itself, the Church manifests a healthy and vigorous life. For the Maories it still receives some help from the Church Missionary Society. Other- wise it is not only self-supporting, but able to give large support to its daughter Melanesian Mission. In whatever point of view we regard it, we see every sign of a steady future growth on true Church lines.
V. The last great sphere of Colonial Extension is in the group of South African colonies — singularly
1 The Sees of Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Nelson, Waiapu, Melanesia, and Dunedin form the province of New Zealand, under an elective primacy, not restricted to any one See.
26o HULSEAN LECTURES app.
unlike the Australasian, because won mainly by con- quest, containing accordingly a considerable foreign European element, and a mass of heathen population, which is not dwindling but growing rapidly, under the pacifying and civilizing influence of the English sway.
The Cape Colony, founded by the Dutch, was taken by England in the great European War, and after restoration for a time, became ours permanently in 1806. It contained a sturdy Dutch people, a Hottentot population in a state of virtual serfship, and an element of imported negro slavery, which was abolished in 1834, On its frontier it had a large varied population of "Kaffir" tribes, with whom there have been constant wars, and through these an irresistible and inevitable expansion of the English territory and influence. New provinces have been continually formed, with a comparatively few European settlers and a dense native population. Still attached to the Cape Colony (which became a self-governing colony in 1853) are Kaffraria and Griqualand ; separate from it Natal in 1856 ; Basuto- land in 1883 ; Zululand, annexed after the great war in 1887; Bechuanaland, where a protectorate was established in 1884; Mashonaland and Matabele- land, annexed in 1895. Almost every year sees some extension, first of influence, next of pro- tectorate, finally of dominion, often made after wars, undertaken against the will of the Home Govern- ment, and not without some reluctance by the local authorities, but, as all experience shows, almost
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 261
inevitable, where barbarian tribes, many being war- like and independent, are in contact with a civilized and colonizing race. This extension has not been without much error and fault, especially where the hand of authority has been forced by individual enterprise of commerce and settlement, which has in time to be recognised, controlled, and organized. The result has been a singular incon- sistency and vacillation of policy, which has had most disastrous effects. But, in spite of all, the extension goes on continually — much as in India — by an irregular and almost unconscious growth of responsibility and power ; and no one can doubt that it is on the whole infinitely for the advantage of the subject-races, and their advance in happiness and in civilization. The position is, moreover, com- plicated, first, by the existence in the Cape Colony of a strong Dutch element, jealous of the growing English ascendency ; next, by the establishment on our frontier of the Dutch powers of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal (which have been under English sovereignty, but are now independent states), and of the Portuguese territory of Delagoa Bay ; lastly, by the inevitable contact, present or future, with the spheres of influence or settlement on the north of other European nations, out of which great trouble and national danger may arise. No field of our colonial expansion is for all these reasons of greater interest and promise, and at the same time of greater risk and difficulty. The area occupied is large and continually increasing ; the English
262 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
settlers number rather less than 200,000 ; the Dutch and French and other Europeans about 250,000 ; and the native population of various tribes and char- acters, now at least 2,200,000, is increasing with great rapidity, and shows in various degrees intelli- gence, vigour, and capacity for civilization.
This description of the difficulty and conflict, under which this group of colonies has grown up, applies in some sense to the progress of the Church in it. On the first cession of the Cape to England in 1795, the Dutch Reformed Church, somewhat rigidly Calvinistic, and showing much of a strong and rugged religious life, was guaranteed in its position and endowments ; and in the early days our own iGw people, for want of other provision, took refuge in it.^ From 1 806 onwards there was simply ministration by the chaplains to the English troops at Cape Town. But in 18 19 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel entered the field, pressing for a division of the inhabited districts into parishes, and for provision of some maintenance for a regular Ministry. Considerable aid, both in grant and in appropriation of lands as Clergy Reserves, was given by the Colonial Government ; and the work accord- ingly began. An occasional visit was made by the Bishops of Calcutta — Bishops James, Turner, and Wilson ; and at last the first bishop of Cape Town
^ In 1806, when Henry Martyn, who, on his way to India, was present at the capture of Cape Town, was requested to officiate at a funeral, no Prayer-Book could be found, although he " sent for one to all the English families."
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 263
(Bishop Gray) was consecrated in 1847, to take charge of a diocese of 250,000 square miles. Happily in him, as in Bishop Broughton in Australia, the infant Church found one who in energy, ability, power of ecclesiastical statesmanship and organiza- tion, holiness and devotion of life, was equal to the great occasion. Liberally supported by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,he was able to take with him a body of workers, to begin the urgently-needed provision of churches and schools, and to hold visitation of his enormous diocese. There he found, already working for God, much of Christian evan- gelism, but with even more than usual of division, and so of confusion. " Not less," he said, " than twenty different forms of religion " were being pressed upon the heathen mind. It was true that " a kindly and brotherly spirit " prevailed among the Christians, thus dwelling " in the very midst of the kingdom of darkness." Strong Churchman as he himself was, he was able and willing to show a large- hearted sympathy to all, and to rejoice that every way Christ was preached. In spite of the contro- versies which vexed his spirit in the later days, and the necessity which he felt of asserting strongly the faith and the authority of the Church, that sympathy was fully reciprocated. When he finished his course of devoted service in 1872, we read that all classes, ranks, and denominations united " to do honour to his memory," and " representatives of the Dutch Re- formed, the Congregational, the Wesleyan, the Roman and other Christian communities stood in affectionate
264 IIULSEAN LECTURES app.
and respectful sorrow at his grave, in acknowledg- ment of his fervent and large-hearted Christian service towards all." That experience is happily one which has often been repeated.
But the evil of division, though mitigated, could not be removed ; and our own Church, which should be at least some link of unity, had been as yet far from anything like her right leadership. Still, as usual, with the introduction of the Episcopate the work of speedy expansion began. In 1853 the Cape Colony was divided by the establishment in the East of the See of Grahamstown, and beyond it the Bishopric of the growing settlement of Natal ; and this was the beginning of the advance which since that time has created Sees more and more distinctly stamped with missionary impress — in Zululand in 1870, in St. John's (formerly " Independent Caffraria") in 1873, in Mashonaland in 1886; and, moreover, even beyond our own sphere of dominion, Bloemfontein (in the Orange Free State) in 1863, Pretoria (in the Transvaal) in 1878, and Lebombo (in the Delagoa Bay district) in 1891. With this extension the work of Church organization in Synodical govern- ment kept pace.^ Had no disturbing causes inter- vened, a rapid progress might have been confidently anticipated.
But on the Church in South Africa, thus pro-
^ The Sees of Cape Town, Grahamstown, Maritzburg (now Natal), St. Helena, Bloemfontein, Zululand, St. John's, Pretoria, Mashonaland, and Lebombo form the province of Cape Town, under the Bishop as Metropolitan. Mauritius and Madagascar are independent Sees.
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 265
gressive under difficulty, there broke the storm of the Colenso controversy, raised by the action of the first Bishop of Natal. Into the history and the merits of the controversy it is here impossible to enter. But in estimating its effect on the colonial Church, it is necessary to understand the complex issues which it raised. In its first beginning the question was whether Bishop Colenso's published opinions on Biblical inspiration, on the doctrine of the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the impossibility of accepting ex animo the teaching of the Church of England upon Holy Scripture, as expressed in her Ordination questions and Services, did or did not formally constitute heresy, and demand his deposition.^ On the one hand, Bishop Colenso appeared as the champion of free thought and criti- cism ; on the other, Bishop Gray threw himself with characteristic energy into the defence of the historic faith. But his action in citing his suffi"agan to appear before himself as Metropolitan with two Episcopal assessors, refusing his appeal to the Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury in England, pro- ceeding to pronounce a sentence of deposition and excommunication, assuming charge of the "widowed diocese of Natal," and afterwards consecrating a new
^ The great body of the EngHsh Episcopate, while al:)Staining from formal condemnation, expressed to Bishop Colenso, in a letter drafted by the Bishop of London (Tait), their strong sense of the incompati- bility of his published utterance, as to the Ordination questions and the Baptismal services, with the position of a bishop — especially a mis- sionary bishop— of the Church of England, and suggested his retire- ment. See Life of Archbishop Tait, vol. i, pp. 342. 343.
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bishop therein, raised a distinct question as to the extent of metropolitical authority, and of ecclesiastical authority generally, in the colonial Church. Out of this, again, arose a third question of the relation of the Church of South Africa to the courts, ecclesiastical and civil, of the Church at home. Ecclesiastically this took the form of a question as to the right of appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the acknowledgment of his primacy by oath of canonical obedience to him of all bishops consecrated in Eng- land ; which was upheld on the one hand as a link of unity in the Anglican Communion, and resisted on the other as encroaching on the independence of metropolitans. In relation to the civil courts, it was raised not only by their general decisions on ecclesi- astical and doctrinal questions, but by their refusal in this case to recognise the validity of the deposi- tion, as affecting the title of Bishop Colenso and the temporalities of the See, their discovery of a certain legal invalidity in the letters patent of the Bishop of Cape Town as metropolitan, and their judgments, not wholly consistent with each other, on the legal position of the colonial Episcopate. These were obviously questions of grave import, and, moreover, questions of general application to the whole colonial Church. In relation to Natal, many embraced the side represented by Bishop Colenso on the last two, who had no sympathy with his peculiar opinions, although all acknowledged the sincerity and devotion of his character, his past services to the missionary cause, and his strong fatherly sympathy with the
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native races under his charge. Finally, after much communication with the Archbishop and the Bishops in England, and reference of the whole question to the first Lambeth Conference in 1867, the result was a general recognition by the Church at home, and by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in particular, of Bishop Macrorie, consecrated at Cape Town in 1 869 under the title of Bishop of Maritzburg, to the charge of such clergy and laity as would acknowledge him in Natal. From the time of his consecration onwards the result was a schism in the Church there — the support of legal authority being on the side of Bishop Colenso, and the section of clergy and laity who adhered to him — the adhesion, on the other hand, of the larger section of Churchmen in the colony and the great majority of Churchmen at home being given to Bishop Macrorie. The unhappy division, with other controversies which were developed out of it, greatly distressed and distracted the South African Church. It was, indeed, the means of determining some im- portant questions for the colonial Church, of suggest- ing some points of its future policy, and of throwing it more distinctly upon its own independent powders. Perhaps it forced the Churchmen of South Africa to deeper thought on the great principles involved, and induced much earnestness and sacrifice on both sides. But the effect was necessarily to waste energy, to produce friction, and to check progress, causing a grave scandal in the eyes of the heathen, and giving much occasion to the enemies of the Church. By
268 IIULSEAN LECTURES APr.
the death of Bishop Colenso in 1883, and the sub- sequent resignation of Bishop Macrorie in 1892, an opportunity offered itself for terminating the schism. Accordingly in 1893 Bishop Baynes was consecrated to take charge of the whole diocese ; and there seems great hope, although even now not unclouded with anxiety, that under his auspices unity may be restored.
There is, indeed, much need. For as yet — prob- ably in great degree through these divisions and scandals — our Church holds numerically a very secondary place, especially in Natal. Out of a gross population of some two millions, little more than 150,000 are professed members of our Church. As in other cases, the numerical test gives but an im- perfect idea of the real influence which the Church exercises ; but it shows only too clearly how far she is from holding her right place in the South African colonies.
With the South African work may naturally be connected St. Helena and Mauritius.
In St. Helena, which became English in 1673 — first granted to the East India Company by Charles II., and made a Crown Colony in 1834— the mis- sionary work began in 1704, among a mixed popu- lation of but a few English, and the rest of Hindu, Chinese, and Malay origin, with an African element, chiefly of liberated slaves. The Mission was visited by Bishop Gray about 1850, and its first bishop was consecrated in 1859. It is but a small charge. There are now only about 5000 inhabitants in the
I GROWTH OF THE COLONIAL CHURCHES 269
island ; but of these nearly 4000 are members of our Church, and there seems to be much vitality in this little community.
Mauritius, discovered by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, and long possessed by the French as the " He de France," became ours in 18 14. It has a dense population, largely Hindu by birth or descent, and the remainder of singularly mixed European and native elements. With it are joined the Seychelles, about 1000 miles to the north. The work of our Church is carried on here under the shadow of an overwhelming Roman Catholic influ- ence. On the cession of the island by the French, the position of the Roman Catholic Church was guaranteed by treaty, and it appears to have re- ceived from our Government something more than justice. Meanwhile very little was done for our own Church, although up to 1856 it was supposed to receive Government support. Gradually, however, mainly through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Mission was taken up, and in 1854 the first bishop was consecrated, and vigorous work begun in what is certainly a great and interesting mission- field. But of some 388,000 people, of whom perhaps one-fourth are Christians, mainly Roman Catholic, our Church has only about 10,000, ministered to by twenty-two clergy under the Bishop's direction.
In this branch of our colonial Church, more than in any other except the West Indian, the ministry to the heathen races occupies a primary place. It will be seen hereafter how that missionary
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duty is carried out, both in the dioceses of the South African province, and in the outlying Missionary Bishopric of Madagascar. In spite of all its diffi- culties and troubles, there is about the whole South African Church much of peculiar interest and im- portance.
VI. This brief outline of the history of the colonial development of the Church shows the primary importance of this first sphere of Church expansion.
Among the English-speaking race it is in the strictest sense an expansion of an Anglican Com- munion, showing, of course, much freedom and variety of development in its various parts, but yet on all essential points having a thorough solidarity of work with the old Church at home, and virtually reproducing it, in respect of doctrine, worship, and discipline. Towards the lower races, brought into connection with the Colonies and the colonial Churches, while it is not the most striking or heroic missionary agency, yet perhaps it supplies the firmest basis and the most solid growth of evangelization, and it creates new centres of such evangelization in the daughter churches, to work in harmony with the continuing and increasing missionary energy of the Mother-Church.
Although, as we have seen, the Church has not always maintained her right leadership in the ex- pansion of English Christianity, yet her colonial branches form a really great organization, which has reacted for cfood, both in lessons of guidance and in
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power of inspiration, upon the Church at home. It has now — including the Church in America, as once a daughter and now a sister Church — more than 160 bishops, more than 7000 clergy, and about 6,250,000 professed members, all united under a free Synodical government, and attached to the old home, not so much by law as by a spiritual loyalty. As such, it is clearly to the Mother-Church, much as the colonies to the mother-country, a source of strength, by an enlargement and variety of develop- ment which still preserves unity, while it takes away the narrowness and stiffness of insularity. It tells also on the national life, by anticipating and perhaps preparing for that free federation of the English-speaking race, which is as yet in the civil sphere only an aspiration. But in relation to the whole Church of Christ it has a still higher function, as presenting perhaps the greatest type of that free ecclesiastical federation, in which lies the best hope of some reunion of our divided Christendom.
APPENDIX II
(To Lecture III)
THE EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST
Our religious mission in the East is twofold.^ To our own English people, few in number but domi- nant in power, it is, as in the colonial sphere, a simple expansion of the Anglican Church, essentially the same as at home, although with variations of detail ; and to this the State in India rightly gives support. To the native races it is a mission of the Church of Christ as such — a mission of expansion, not of spiritual dominion, but of spiritual influence. Our ultimate aim must be to create and foster every- where a native Christianity, embodying itself neces- sarily in native churches, which shall, slowly or swiftly, rise to independence, and have free com- munion with us, as daughter or sister churches in the
' A general idea of the work of our Church in this mission may be gained by study of the C.Al.S. Missionary Atlas and History, the Digest of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the excellent Reports of the Board of Missions ; and the outline there drawn can be filled up from the many detailed accounts now accessible. The chief work of other Christian bodies is recorded in the Report of the London Mis- sionary Society, and those of the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Wesleyan Societies, both English and American.
APP. II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 273
common faith. But, for the accomplishment of this end, we cannot for a time refuse to exercise some dominant influence. Our extraordinary ascendency in the East must be accepted as a great fact, ordained by the Providence of God, carrying with it an unexampled power and responsibility, in the re- ligious as in the secular sphere. No thinking man can regard it as an absolute possession, to be used for our own purposes ; and, indeed, in that view it might be questioned whether it is an advantage or a burden. It must be regarded as a trust for the true civilization of humanity, which, to every one who believes in God at all, is the working out through human hands of His dispensation to man. But to a Christian the key to that dispensation is the mani- festation of the Lord Jesus Christ ; and therefore this unexampled ascendency must involve a religious mission, as the crown and consummation of all its other responsibilities. Our own Christianity came to us from the East, Semitic in origin, although de- veloped by assimilation of Aryan elements. There is laid upon us a spiritual necessity to return it, thus developed, to its old home, and to try its power as a religion of all humanity, not only over the Semitic and Aryan races of Asia, but over the lower and weaker races, which they have so long held in subjection.
This Eastern mission may be said to be created for England by the possession of our Indian Empire, ruling, directly or indirectly, nearly three hundred millions of these various races. That Empire sup-
T
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plies, indeed, the chief sphere of its actual exercise ; but it necessarily brings with it relations both to the Empires of China and Japan in the farther East, and to the Turkish and Persian Empires in Western Asia, and out of these arise secondary but not unimportant opportunities and duties of evangelization.
I. It would be impossible, even if it were not unnecessary, to attempt here any complete outline of the growth of our Indian Empire.^ But in order to understand the history of our religious mission in India, it is well to have some general notion of the various stages of the growth of that Empire, and of the influences which, in its past progress and in its present maturity, it brings to bear upon the people of India.
(A) These stages of growth seem to fall naturally under five divisions.
The first steps of political progress were, as usual, slow. For about 150 years from our first landing in India at the beginning of the seventeenth century, our settlement was little more than a pros- perous commercial settlement, daily advancing in wealth, and acquiring, indirectly and almost uncon- sciously, large political influence. In its successful growth much was due to the fact that its earlier stages belonged to a critical time of disorganization of native powers, giving opportunity to European advance. At that period " India had no jealousy of
^ An admirable sketch of the previous history of India, of the Euro- pean settlements other than our own, and of the chief stages of the development of our Empire, will be found in Sir William Hunter's Indian Empire^ cc. vi. vii. x. xi. xii. xiv. \v,
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 275
the foreigner, because it had no sense whatever of national unity. The English did not introduce a foreign domination into it ; for the foreign domina- tion was there already." ^ For just then the great Moghul Empire of Akbar and his successors, which, if it was a foreign domination, still supplied some political unity, was breaking up, by revolt of its tributary kingdoms, and by the attack of the Mah- ratta power. Our English settlement had perhaps, in the first instance, to meet more formidable diffi- culties from the previous ascendency of the Portu- guese and Dutch influence in India ; its growth to power subsequently involved a long struggle in the eighteenth century with the French settle- ment, which at one time seemed destined to rival or supersede it, but of which now only a shadow remains. But from the time when it began, nearly three hundred years ago, in the creation of the first East India Company in 1600, it steadily extended itself, simply as a commercial enterprise, under vicissi- tudes of native favour and opposition, and against a continual pressure of European jealousy. Its earliest settlements belong to the seventeenth century — Madras in 1639, Bombay (superseding Surat) in 1668, Calcutta in 1686; its first acquisition of territorial power, simply for protection of trade, was in 1689. But, until the middle of the eighteenth century, our East India Company was but one of
^ See Seeley's Expansion of Englajid, pjx 203, 204. In Part II. Lecture III. there is an instructive sketch of the conditions favouring the growth of our power in India.
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many European companies — Dutch, French, Danish, and German — and its aims were mainly com- mercial.
The succeeding half-century saw a comparatively rapid growth to political ascendency. This growth began from the war of France and England in the Carnatic, and the careers of Clive (175 i-i 767) and Warren Hastings (1774- 1785). The victory of Plassey (1757) was the birthday of British rule in India. " Clive," says Sir W. Hunter, " laid the territorial foundations of the British Empire ; Hast- ings may be said to have created a British adminis- stration for that Empire." Trade interests were still paramount with the directors at home. But in India commercial began to give way to political ideas. In the division and rivalry of native powers, and by the gradual extinction of French influence, the career of Empire had begun ; and, through wars with the Rohillas, the Mahrattas, and the king- dom of Mysore, it extended itself victoriously in the latter half of the eighteenth century.
The next critical stage of advance began with the period of the great revolutionary and Napoleonic war with France, when Napoleon himself contem- plated, as a sequel to his Egyptian campaigns, an invasion of India and overthrow of the British power. The Governor-Generalship of Lord Wellesley (1798- 1 805) was the critical time. It marked the first conception, and the partial acquisition, of a really imperial position — by extension of our dominion in the North, by the conquest of Mysore
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 277
and the victories which first broke the Mahratta power, and by the estabHshment of our headship over a great confederacy of subject princes. In it the victory of British Empire was substantially won ; and it only remained to consolidate and complete it. This was successfully done under the Marquis of Hastings (1814-23) and Lord Amherst (1824- 28). By the conquest of Nepal, the destruction of the Pindari bands, the final Mahratta war, and the first annexation of Burmah, " the map of British India was so drawn, as to remain substantially unchanged till the time of Lord Dalhousic."
The succeeding period was still one of growth, although not unchequered by serious trouble. The attempt under Lord Auckland (1836-42) to extend our sovereignty over Afghanistan was a disastrous failure, which for a time shook our ascend- ency in India. But the forward movement, although checked here, still continued, in the conquest and annexation, first of Scindc, then, after a severe struggle, of the Sikh country, lastly, after a second war, of a large portion of Burmah. Under Lord Dalhousie (1848-56) the policy of annexation was carried to its highest point by the absorption of " lapsed territories " — Nagpur, Berar, Oude, and others — into the British dominion. The fabric of the British Empire was completed, and since his death the frontier has hardly advanced.
The result of this masterful and perhaps over- hasty policy was seen in the terrible Indian Mutiny of 1858. Happily it was mainly confined to the
278 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
Bengal army ; and the feudatory princes and the mass of the people either remained loyal, or at least refused to join it. Even so, uniting Hindu and Mohammedan against us, it taxed all our power to put it down, by feats of arms extraordinary even in the East. Then a new era began with the assumption of direct imperial rule in India in 1858, inaugurating a new policy, discouraging annexation as far as possible, controlling with as little inter- ference as may be the feudatory kingdoms, and striving to give to the native race in our own dominions education, freedom, and some share in government. Except perforce in Burmah, after a third war, no extension of dominion has taken place ; and, with some interruptions and much varia- tion of degree, the same general draft of policy has been followed up to the present day. The promise of the Queen's Imperial Proclamation in 1858 to rule " for the benefit of all her subjects " has been on the whole most faithfully kept.
So the extraordinary fabric of our Indian Empire has grown up, with all the irregularity and vitality of a natural growth, not by the fulfilment of a great fore-conceived design on our own part, but by force of circumstance and gradual openings of oppor- tunity ; in which, if in any portion of human history, we must trace the leadings of the " Divinity which shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will." It is a vast and marvellous Empire indeed. In the year 1891 we find that our own territory included nearly a million of square miles, and a population of
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 279
221,172,952, of which Httlc more than 100,000 are European, and only 90,169 arc actually British. The " Feudatory India " of the native states in- cluded 644,7 1 7 square miles, and a population of 66,908,147 (about one-half to a square mile of the average of British India). The Portuguese and French settlements included i 808 square miles, and a population of 844,507 — far the densest per square mile in all India. In all, as intestine wars are put down, and the effects of famine and pestilence mitigated, the population grows with a for- midable rapidity — the gross increase between 1881 and 1 89 1 being nearly 28,000,000.^ The charge thus committed to us, and held in absolute dominion by a mere handful of Europeans — hardly more than one in three thousand — is certainly a tremendous charge. It includes people of various races,- various languages,^ various degrees of civilization, various
^ There is no doubt that since 1891 the increase has gone steadily on ; and it is believed that at this moment the whole population amounts to nearly 300,000,000.
^ Sir William Hunter gives from the Census of 1881 the following estimate : — (a) The pure Aryan race (the Brahmans and Rajputs, about 16 millions for British India and 21 millions for all India ; (/-') the mixed population of Christians, low-caste Hindus, and aboriginal tribes, 138 millions for British India and 184 millions for all India ; (r) the Mohammedans, 45 millions for British India and 50 millions for all India (see T/ie Indian Empire, p. 89). The proportion has probably not greatly changed in the Census of 1891.
^ In 1887 no less than 142 non-Aryan languages were tabulated, spoken by some 50 millions of people. Sir Monier Williams enumerates eight chief Aryan languages — Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujerati, Pan- jabi, Kasmiri, Sindi, Oriya — as spoken by nearly 200 millions of people {Hinduism, S.P.C.K., pp. 7, 8).
28o HULSEAN LECTURES afp.
religions ^ — distinct and often mutually antagon- istic. If in this diversity lies much of the secret of the acceptance of our sway, through the belief that in it is the one security against internecine war, and the one chance of firm government and even-handed justice to all alike, yet it creates a formidable diffi- culty for a Government, which desires not only to rule securely, but to elevate, to unite, and to civilize this great heterogeneous mass of humanity.
If we inquire how our trust for civilization has been fulfilled, we shall of course have to confess, especially in the earlier stages of growth, man)^ errors and faults and many failures, partly through these and partly from inherent difficulties or impos- sibilities. But it cannot be for a moment doubted that under our rule the natural prosperity and civilization of India has so advanced as to transform the whole face of native society for good, and to promote especially the happiness of the poorer and weaker classes ; that, both by the indirect influence of contact with the English language and literature, and through them with Western science and thought, and by the direct diffusion of education through a great system of schools, colleges, and universities, our services to intellectual progress have been incal- culable ; that the higher moral civilization has been signally promoted by the influence of a firm and just
^ In 1891 the Census gave in British India of Hindus 155,171,943, of Mohammedans 49,550,491, of Buddhists 7,095,398, of Animistic reh'gions 5,848,427, of Sikhs 1,407,968, and of lesser rehgions 607,063. Of Christians there were then only 1,491,662 in British India, and in all India 2,601,355 — "ot quite one in a hundred.
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND TIIK EAST 281
government, giving more and more of freedom and share in its administration to the subject-races, and also on the whole, although here not without chequered results of good and evil, by the subtler influence of English character and example. Through the com- bined force of these material, intellectual, and social elements of advance, the effect of our rule has been to breathe a new life into old civilizations, decaying or dead, and to elevate in the scale of humanity tribes almost barbarous, which those civilizations ignored or oppressed.^
(B) But how far have we carried on this benefi- cent work as a Christian people ? How far (that is) have we crowned its lower developments b)' the diffusion of the light and grace of Christ, which should be the inspiration of them all ? How far has there been an expansion of the Church of Christ as the universal kingdom, in which true civilization teaches men to play their part ?
Of the Christianity of India, inadequate as it is, the greater part belongs to the work of other hands than ours. It is no new thing in that country. We are apt to forget that the knowledge of the Gospel and the planting of the Church of Christ there are of very ancient date. The deeply interesting " Church of St. Thomas " on the Malabar coast traces itself back, if not to an Apostolic, at least to an early
^ I may be allowed to refer for an outline of these various phases of influence to cc. ii. iii. iv. of my own little book on England s Mission to India (S.P.C.K. 1895), from which considerable portions of this Appendix are taken.
282 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
age} There seems no doubt that Pantcenus,the famous head of the great Catechetical School at Alexandria — a man, like Apollos, " mighty in the Scriptures " — went out to preach " among the Brahmans " at the close of the second century ; and we are told by St. Jerome that he found Christianity already existing, and discovered a Hebrew original of St. Matthew's Gospel, left there by the Apostle Bartholomew. It is at least probable that the scene of his labour was this ancient seat of Christianity. Certainly in the later centuries Missions from the Church of East Syria, commonly known as Nes- torian, established in India (as also in China and other lands of the East) a vigorous native Christi- anity. But for some reason there was in India little power of expansiveness in this ancient Christian faith. For many centuries it stood alone in India, till it was oppressed and superseded by the Roman Catholic Missions. Yet of what might have been
^ Its own tradition of foundation by St. Thomas the Apostle rests on no sufficient evidence, and is generally rejected. But it is not in itself impossible ; for early Roman coins found in the country show a communication with Rome and the West, through the Red Sea fleet, in the first centuries. The settlement of the curious colony of the "White Jews" at Cochin in the same locality claims for itself an origin " after the destruction of the Second Temple " (a.d. 70). The other tradition (referred to hereafter in the text), tracing the Christianity found in the second century to another Apostle, is notable. Possibly, after all, the Gospel may have been preached there in the first century. The other authors to whom the planting of this early Christianity is referred are a Manichcean Thomas of the third century, of whom little or nothing is certainly known ; and an Armenian merchant Thomas of about the eighth century, who, however, appears rather as a restorer than as a founder.
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 2S3
the seed of an extensive evangelization of India, the only fruit is now the old Malabar Church, numbering some 300,000 souls, besides nearly the same number who have been drawn from its independent life to the Roman obedience.
The Roman Catholic Church, in some rivalry of the older Nestorian Missions, entered upon the field in the fourteenth century, working mainly through the Dominican and Franciscan Orders. But the great impulse to its work was given under the Portuguese dominion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, chiefly through the splendid Jesuit Missions of Xavier and his successors, supported, even to compulsion, by the Portuguese Government, and absorbing for a time, not without persecution, the older Syrian Church. These Missions were evidently full of vitality and power. They may have carried to excess the adaptation of Christianity to native thoughts and habits, and even native superstitions. Certainly they relied far too much on the secular arm, and did not shrink from direct persecution ; and accordingly they may have been satisfied too often with merely external conversions.^ Still, in spite of all defects and errors, they did a great work ; and they have left behind, especially in the Portuguese and French territories, a strong Roman Catholic Church, which, if it still retains something of these same
^ Bishop Cotton did not hesitate to say in 1864 of Xavier himself, "While he deserves the title of the Apostle of India for his energy, self-sacrifice, and piety, I consider his whole method thoroughly wrong, and its results in India and Ceylon deplorable."
284 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
defects, shows a real vitality, great self-denial and self-sacrifice in its workers, and strong influence over the native mind. It includes within it the " Syrian Catholics," drawn over from the old Malabar Church ; it flourishes, as is natural, greatly in Portuguese India (where there has been some conflict between the old Archbishopric of Goa and the Court of Rome) and in the French territory. But it is a great and growing power everywhere. In British and Feuda- tory India it numbered in 189 1, 1,277,926 mem- bers, in Portuguese India 281,248, in French India 35,727 ; organized in seven provinces, with a full hierarchy of thirty archbishops and bishops, and more than two thousand clergy, and with a great array of schools and colleges. Of the whole Christian population of India (about 2,600,000), some two- thirds are included in the Roman Communion. But its missionaries are drawn from various European nations ; and English influence, even through the Roman Catholic Church here, appears to occupy a secondary place.
Once more under the Dutch ascendency an effort at evangelization was made by the Dutch Reformed Church, again supported by strong pressure from the Government. But when, on the English conquest, the pressure was withdrawn, the religious influence languished, and has left at present but slight traces in India and in Ceylon.^
On all these works for God we look with interest
^ For a very interesting account of these earlier attempts see Dr. George Smith's Conversion of India, cc. ii. iii. iv. (Murray, 1893).
/
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 285
and sympathy ; we rejoice in their successes ; we learn by their failures ; with the ancient Syrian Church we have close and friendly relations. But they have not, of course, any bearing on our dis- charge of the mission which God has laid upon us in India. They show us, indeed, its greatness and its difficulty. For we see that we are not bringing in a spiritual power absolutely new ; we are attempting a work in which other Churches of Christ have so far failed, that the Christianity planted has had only a local and exceptional success, and made but little impression on the mass of the vast Indian population. It seems to us strange that the expansive force of Christianity, which has spread its power so widely and so deeply over the Aryan races of Europe, should have for so many centuries failed to lay hold of the cognate races of India, or to make head effectively against the religion of Islam. We have learnt much from the experience of the past — to repudiate all material and political force in our religious warfare, and to rely for spiritual effect upon spiritual weapons only, — to ally our direct Christian- ization with all the other civilizing influences, and especially with the work of education, and to deal more wisely, because more sympathetically, with native religion and native thought. But if we are to succeed where other Christian efforts have failed, we certainly have before us a stupendous task, needing more than we have yet shown of wisdom and en- thusiasm and reliance, in spite of all discouragements, on the Divine strength, made perfect in weakness.
286 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
(C) Now, when we put all aside which God has wrought through other hands, and consider what has been actually done through the English rule in India towards the Christianization of the people, we have, of course, to distinguish between the action of civil authority, and the action of the English Church, and of English Christianity in general, through the various Communions into which that Christianity is unhappily divided.
The civil authority, unlike the Portuguese and Dutch Governments preceding it, has at all times refused to support the work of Christianization, either by force of law, or even by material support. From the beginning some provision has been made, more or less completely, for the spiritual needs of those who, whether as soldiers or as civilians, are engaged in the public service ; and this provision has extended indirectly to the English settlers who have gathered round them, and in some slight degree also to the Eurasian population, which stands in a position of peculiar difficulty and disadvantage between the dominant and the subject races. Even here the provision at first was scanty enough. Although the earliest Charter to an East India Company was granted in 1600, yet it was not till 1 68 1 that the first English Church was begun in India, and not till 1708 were the services of chap- lains and schoolmasters put on a regular ecclesias- tical footing. In the first century of our settlement in India, only nineteen chaplains were sent out. As to the natives, it was, indeed, ordered in 1708 that
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 287
the chaplains should learn the vernacular languages, " to enable them to instruct the Gentoos, that shall be servants or slaves of the Company, in the Protestant religion." But even this direction ap- pears to have remained generally a dead letter.
In regard to the independent missionary effort which gradually sprang up, the attitude of the civil power varied at different times, from friendly neutrality to direct hostility. In the early period from 1600 to about 17 JO, before the rise of the East India Company to political power, it was on the whole favourable. The great missionary Schwartz, who laboured in South India from 1750 to 1798, was protected and honoured by the authorities — perhaps in some measure on account of his singular influence over native princes. But as soon as the second period of rapid political growth and high aspiration began, the relation was gradually altered, evidently from motives of policy. The civil power did not profess neutrality ; it was hardly content even with discouragement ; it assumed a position of direct hostility and actual persecution.
No one, of course, would have desired more than neutrality from civil authority. The history of the earlier attempts at Christianization plainly teaches us how fatal it would be to true spiritual interest, that the civil authority — especially in an Eastern community, which can hardly understand any action from it which is not compulsory — should bring any legal or material force to bear on the religious
288 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
work. Immediate and apparent advantage would be dearly purchased by that which is ultimately injurious to reality and permanence. We are told that even now our missionaries often find it hard to convince their native hearers, that they are not simply servants* of the British Government, engaged in furthering its political ends. The more the spiritual work is left to its own intrinsic power, — the more clearly mere English ascendency is distin- guished from the higher enthusiasm of Christian Brotherhood, — the better will it be for the advance of true Christianity.
But the policy of hostility, indefensible in prin- ciple, and perhaps of doubtful expediency, was now plainly shown. The sole considerations of those who guided our Indian Government were, first, commercial peace and prosperity, and, next, the advance of political power. Both depended on friendly relations with the native races, Hindu and Mohammedan, in which we were at first content with a subordination almost servile, but gradually assumed equality and superiority. All modes of action which could imperil these friendly relations were sternly prohibited or discouraged ; and among these religious aggression, or even religious self- assertion, was thought to be the most dangerous. It is, moreover, notable that this hostility increased with our advance in power. In 1774 we find Warren Hastings — one chief founder of our Indian Empire — laying it down as a fundamental rule of policy " to discourage all missionary efforts " among
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 289
races so strongly attached to their religious beliefs. Missionaries from England were actually driven to take refuge under the Dutch flag — the London Missionary Society in 1798 at Chinsurah, and the remarkable Baptist Mission in 1799 at Serampur. In 1812a body of American missionaries (of whom the famous Judson was one) were expelled from Bengal. In fact the period from 1774 to 181 3, which was the brightest in the history of our Conquest, and which, in fact, established our Empire, was the darkest period of discouragement and persecution of missionary effort. Nor was the tone of authority at home more favourable. In 1793 Wilberforce's proposed clauses in the renewed Charter of the Company, venturing on the modest declaration that our duty required us " to promote the religious and moral improvement" of the native peoples, were sneered at as " the pious clauses," and dropped by the timidity of the Government. Even activity in respect of vernacular education was mostly looked upon with an unfavourable eye at headquarters, lest it should indirectly shock religious prejudice, or associate itself with direct Christian teaching. To this rule there were, of course, noble exceptions of men in the highest spheres of authority and influence, who were not ashamed to confess Christ, and that with a singularly earnest and enthusiastic confession. But the general drift of the policy of the Government was but too obvious. It was only through some of the chap- lains, who had a legal status and could not be put
u
290 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
down, that in this dark time efYbrt was made to change public opinion, and, even in defiance of it, to do something to Christianize the natives.^
Step by step, however, pubHc opinion in India and at home was being educated to a higher con- ception of national policy and national duty. The chief force which wrought upon it in this direction is undoubtedly to be traced to the great Evangelical Revival. It was to such men as William Wilberforce, Charles Simeon, and Charles Grant at home, that the forward steps were due ; as it was by men trained in the same school and sent to chaplaincies in India — David Brown, Claudius Buchanan, Daniel Corrie, Thomas Thomason, Henry Martyn — that a change was wrought in the opinion of Anglo-Indian society.
The year 1813 was the great turning-point. Wilberforce, whose " pious clauses " had been scouted in 1793, was now able to carry them through triumphantly, although not without strenuous opposi- tion, and to add provisions which went far beyond them. One virtually gave to missionary work legal right and forbade interference ; another established the See of Calcutta, the beginning of the full Church organization so much needed, and at the same time a fresh impulse to the whole work of the Church among English and natives alike. The growing strength of missionary duty and enterprise had, in fact, forced recognition from the civil authority, and
^ How hard a task this was, against the prevalent thought and practice of the time, is shown clearly in Dr. G. Smith's Life of Henry Martyn.
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 291
took advantage of it at once. The Baptist and London Missionary Societies, which had already entered the field, were now able to labour peacefully and effectively ; and our own Missionary Societies took up the work — the Church Missionary Society in 1 8 14, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1820. From this time may be dated a continually increasing friendliness of action, although with much caution and even timidity, from the civil power in India and at home. The Bishoprics of Madras in 1835 and of Bombay in 1837 were founded with the same legal authority and support as Calcutta. Not without much opposition and some apprehension, the State ventured to prohibit superstitious practices, plainly immoral — such as Suttee, religious infanticide, and human sacrifice ; to relieve our officials from compulsory attendance, which appeared to be participation, at idolatrous ceremonies ; and to give some measure of legal protection to Christian converts. Meanwhile the voluntary missionary energy, which asked simply for a fair field and no favour, was steadily and rapidly advancing ; and the higher civil authorities in India began to recognise more fully its value even to the wellbeing of the Empire, and not to be ashamed to confess it. So things continued during the later period of the rule of the Company in India — not without vicissitudes and occasional checks through fear of Hindu fanaticism, but with considerable pro- gress on the whole in the favourable conditions of missionary work.
292 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
But it was the great storm of the Indian Mutiny of 1858 which finally cleared the air. It is true that the incident of the " greased cartridges " showed how terrible and how blindly unreasonable was the violence of Hindu fanaticism. Yet the union against us of Hindu and Mohammedan, in spite of their mutual religious hatred, at once showed that the rising was not properly a religious rising, and yet made it clear that, in respect of both, our policy of religious neutrality had utterly failed to conciliate, and had left untouched the elements of alienation and antagonism towards English and Christian civilization. Men began to inquire whether, after all, the religious bond is not the only bond which can really unite alien races, differing in all else from one another. They saw that, so far as native Chris- tianity had spread, it proved itself in the hour of trial to be such a bond of sympathy and loyalty ; they asked themselves what would have been the effect, even from a secular point of view, if that native Christianity had been, as it might have been, extended far and wide. When the rule, moreover, of the old East India Company was brought to an end by the direct assumption of imperial power, it was but natural that the dominance of merely com- mercial and prudential ideas should give way to some higher conceptions of national duty and responsibility. The effect was seen in the celebrated Proclamation of November 1858, in which Her Majesty, speaking as " Victoria by the grace of God . . . Queen, Defender of the Faith," thus addressed her Indian subjects : —
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 293
Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion, we dis- claim alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects. We declare it to be our Royal Will and Pleasure that none be in any wise favoured, none molested or disquieted, by reason of their religious faith or observances, but that all alike shall enjoy the equal and impartial protec- tion of the law. . . . It is our earnest desire to stimulate the peaceful industry of India, to promote works of public utility and improvement, and to administer its government for the benefit of all our subjects resident therein. In their prosperity will be our strength ; in their contentment our security ; and in their gratitude our best reward. And may the God of all power grant to us, and to those in authority under us, strength to carry out our wishes for the good of our people I
It is not a little remarkable that the draft of this Proclamation, as submitted to the Queen by the Secretary of State, simply contained the declaration of complete religious toleration and impartiality, and of desire to rule for the benefit of the whole people. We owe to the Queen herself the addition by her own hand of the opening confession of Christian faith, and the closing prayer for God's blessing.^ So wisely and nobly completed, it is clearly all that the most earnest Christianity could desire from the civil authority.
It asserts — as is but wise and right — the principle of unreserved toleration, and forbids all intervention of material force or favour. But the avowal of Christian faith, and the prayer to the one true God for His blessing on labour for the good of all the people, native and English alike, under the imperial sway,
^ See Life of the Prince Consort, vol. iv. pp. 28 1-335.
294 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
mark, as it seems, a wholly new departure on the part of the civil power. It was said truly at the time, " It is the principle of our Government, not its external form, which has been changed. ... A century hence men will date the history of progress from the Proclamation of the Queen." It bears just that witness for Christ, telling strongly on the native mind, which alone can be rightly demanded and really needed. Beyond the moral effect of this wit- ness it cannot rightly go. Even recent experience, as notably in the religious conflicts between Hindu and Mohammedan at Bombay, tells us how needful it is for the Government to show a firm and obvious impartiality. Probably, as Christian ideas tell more powerfully upon the educated native mind, some more decided action in deahng with native customs and superstitions, with a view to the moral and social wellbeing of the people, will be accepted, or even demanded. But such action must be kept clear both of the reality and of the appearance of State proselytism.
The two duties in this respect, which remain for the Government of India, are clearly marked out in the Imperial Proclamation.
For the English in India, engaged mainly in the service of the State, it is clearly right by some kind of *' Establishment " to provide for them religious ministration, which would have been theirs at home. In relation to the natives, we must so carry out the promise of impartial toleration, as not virtually to favour native religions, and not to fail in giving fair
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 295
protection to Christian converts. If these two duties be done resolutely and ungrudgingly, the civil power will have done all that it is called upon to do, in a matter which bears powerfully on the highest welfare of its subjects. Christian zeal occa- sionally urges it to go farther ; but wisely and rightly that demand has been refused.
(D) Meanwhile, under this relation to the civil power and to those other civilizing influences, which it is labouring not unsuccessfully to foster, there remain two questions. First, how far has the Church of Christ striven to enter by her own spiritual power upon the vast field of missionary enterprise ? Next, how far has the Church of England, as a National Church, taken her right place of leadership in this sacred work ?
It must at once be confessed that, although our settlement in India is three centuries old, and our dominance there of not inconsiderable antiquity, yet it is only in this century that any serious attempt has been made to rise to our high vocation.
In the earlier times of our history, we see with some shame that the missionary energy of our Eng- lish Christianity was not strong enough to undertake so great a work, and to overcome the discouragement and opposition, which, as we have seen, it would have had to encounter from the civil authority. P^or a time, indeed, it seemed almost dead. Setting aside the older Syrian and Roman Catholic Christianit\% the first missions appear to have been the Danish Lutheran Missions in 1705. Our Church was, as
296 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
yet, contented to help them through the old Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and this aid was continued till 1824. Then followed in 1750 the great missionary work of Schwartz, again under the guidance and with the support of the Society for Pro- moting Christian Knowledge — still, as it would seem, unable to find English Churchmen ready to enter upon the work of evangelization. It was by his hand that the Tinnevelly Missions were founded in 1750. His labour was earnest and unwearied, and his influence in South India over the native races and the native princes extraordinary/ For forty - three years he wrought for his Master in faith, sowing the seed of which future times were to reap the harvest," and his farewell words to the old Society in England were full of hope.
Meanwhile it was the zeal of English Noncon- formity, stirred by the religious revival of the close of the eighteenth century, and able to move without legal hindrance and difficulty, which led the way in evangelization, outstripping the direct action of the Church herself In 1790 Marshman and Carey, in spite of the open hostility of the East India Directors, founded the famous Baptist Mission at Serampur, which, over and above its active mis-
^ We are told that during our wars with Mysore, he was the one representative of the English whom Haidar Ali would trust.
- Not, it must be added, at once ; for after his death, and during the period of discouragement which followed, the converts made by him and by other faithful labourers — who are said to have been some 50,000 — greatly fell off, and in some cases the Missions appear to have died out.
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 297
sionary work, translated and printed the Bible in more than thirty native languages, and began in 1 8 1 8 the work of higher education, by founding a college for " the Instruction of Youth in Eastern Literature and European Science." The London Missionary Society entered upon the field in 1798, in spite of great discouragement.
From that time onward — and especially since the Charter of 1 8 1 3 gave free scope to missionary enterprise — there has been a continually and rapidly increasing development of activity from all sections of our British Christianity. Outside the pale of our own Church, we see missions — Baptist, Congrega- tional, Presbyterian, Methodist — both from our own country and from the United States of America, working mainly through voluntary Societies, with great earnestness and self-sacrifice, and often with abundant blessing. It is said that at this monlent there are no less than twenty - nine British and seventeen American Societies at work in India.-^ The spectacle, indeed, of religious division thus afforded is sad enough in itself, and disastrous in its effect, however that effect may be in practice mitigated. Yet " notwithstanding every way Christ is preached " ; and, so preached, He is drawing men to Himself.
Before entering upon our proper subject, which is the expansion of the work of the Church of England, it is right to glance at the work thus done by others, which as yet far exceeds what she has been able
^ See Dr. George Smith's Conversion of India, pp. 161, 162.
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to accomplish. Of less than 800,000 Christians in India outside the Syrian and Roman Catholic Churches, the Census of 1891 gives the following list : —
|
Baptist |
202,746 |
|
Presbyterian .... |
46,351 |
|
Methodist ..... |
32,123 |
|
Lutheran and other foreign bodies . |
69,405 |
|
Congregationalist and unsectarian . |
50,936 |
|
Various smaller bodies and unspecified |
25,010 |
|
426,571 |
It is clear from this list that the work done for Christ by others puts our own Church to shame. But, although even now inadequately, she is beginning to awake to her great opportunity and responsibility ; and it is not presumptuous to believe that, if she rises adequately to that duty, her work is carried on with singular advantage, under that constitution of Evangelical truth and Apostolical order, which God has been pleased to preserve to her, and ought to be able to move with unequalled power all sections of our English society.
Now up to the beginning of this century the Church herself, except by indirect aid, was satisfied with the provision for the European population
^ In these are included the results of very remarkable work done by American societies, of which the Report of our own Board of Missions says (p. 162): "Perhaps the most noteworthy fact is the prominence of America as an evangelizing force. Of the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist groups of Missions, unquestionably the most important are the American."
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 299
through the chaplains, who, of course, when they were earnest and enthusiastic, could not but do something- for the natives around them. A splendid example of this extension of evangelistic influence was set by the " five chaplains "—Brown, Buchanan, Corrie, Thomason, Marty n — to whom reference has already been made. The example was the more striking, because it was shown against the greatest difficulties in the darkest time of discouragement and opposition. Although they were not properly missionaries, it has been said that —
Few men have had so important a share in establishing Christianity as these five — Brown by his personal influence in Calcutta and faithful preaching to the elite of English society there for twenty -five years ; Buchanan by his pub- lished books on the Syrian Church and the need of an Indian Episcopate ; Corrie and Thomason by their quiet and untiring labours for the spiritual good of officers and civilians, and afterwards in the direct cause of missions ; Martyn by the example of zeal and devotion which he set to succeeding generations.!
But earnest and fruitful as this work for Christ was, yet it was necessarily quite inadequate to fulfil our missionary duty and opportunity. It was simply a preparation for better things to come.
Our real missionary work begins from the critical time of opportunity given in 181 3. The creation of the See of Calcutta in 18 14, both in itself and in its significance as a victory over the vehement opposition of the older school of the East India Directors,
1 See the Church Missio7jary Atlas of India, pu])lishccl hy the C.M.S. in 1887.
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marked the opening of a new era, as in Church organization, so in evangelistic spirit and activity. For it was the entrance of the Church of England, as a body, upon the great field now opened to her. In the same year the Church Missionary Society — one of the chief fruits of the overflowing energy of the Evangelical Revival, founded especially for " Africa and the East " — began active operations in India, and was followed by the older Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1820. Since that time there has been a remarkable progress, and that progress, moreover, grows with a continually increas- ing rapidity.
On the one hand, the right organization of the Church has advanced, although it has had to over- come many legal obstacles, much timidity, and some active discouragement. The Sees of Madras and Bombay were founded in 1835 and 1837, with the same authority as the older See of Calcutta ; and, after a lonsf interval, followed the creation of other bishoprics, founded without any further aid from the State than the assignment to each new bishop of a senior chaplaincy, and all plainly stamped with a missionary character — the See of Rangoon in 1877, of Lahore in 1877, of Travancore in 1879, of Chota- Nagpore in 1890, of Lucknow in 1893. In the vast diocese of Madras, where native Christianity is strongest, Bishops Caldwell and Sargent were appointed in 1877 as assistant - bishops over the native Christian communities, sustained and directed by the great Missionary Societies ; and, now that
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 301
they have passed away, it is to be hoped that legal obstacles may be overcome or boldly disregarded, so that an independent See of Tinnevclly may be at once established. All these bishoprics are subject to the authority of the metropolitan See of Calcutta, and, with Colombo and Rangoon, constitute the " Province of India and Ceylon." It is only to be desired that their number should be considerably multiplied, and that, so far as possible, Synodical action, both diocesan and general, should be largely developed. For the task assigned to an Indian bishop is a singularly important and complex task. He has to weld together, as far as possible, English and native Christianity, and to be the organ of com- munication between the Church and the civil power. He has to sustain through the chaplaincies the Christianity of our own people in India ; to provide for the poorer English, unattached to the public service, and the Eurasian class, which is placed under peculiar disadvantage ; and to direct and stimulate the missionary activity of our great Societies.^
Happily that activity has enormously increased, studding British India with mission stations, churches, schools, colleges, as centres from which the light and grace of Christianity may be propagated. Side by
^ In these should be inckided the old Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which has done invaluable service, not only in translation and provision of Holy Scripture, the Prayer- Book, and Christian literature, but in hel]:iing to found bishoprics, and in giving grants to the dioceses for Church building, for educalit)n, and general Church work.
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side with them, partly in connection, partly in inde- pendence, there have grown up such missions as the Oxford Mission at Calcutta (now closely united with the old " Bishop's College "), the Cambridge Mission at Delhi, the Mission from Trinity College, Dublin, in Chota-Nagpore, and the Cowley Mission at Bom- bay and Poona. The Indian Church Aid Society is endeavouring, although with inadequate resources, to meet the needs of the Eurasian population, which has hitherto been greatly overlooked. The Zenana and Medical Missions, in connection with the two great Societies, are taking up to some extent the work of female education, both in the zenanas and in schools.^ Every year now sees the initiation of some new enterprise. Late as our efforts are, and still quite inadequate to the need and hopefulness of the work, they have, indeed, been signally blessed already, and under that blessing they show not only sustained vitality, but a very remarkable growth. Yet, as usual, every step of achievement only makes it more evident that, as yet, we have but made a slight beginning of an almost infinite work. From all quarters there comes the cry that " a great door and effectual is opened," although " there are many adversaries."
^ The returns of 1892 show that the two Societies had of European and Eurasian clergy 231, of native clergy 286, of lay teachers (almost entirely native) 3843 ; of native Christians baptized 198,629, and of Catechumens 22,095. ^^ colleges and schools of all kinds there were of European and Eurasian teachers 238, of native Christians 2804, of natives not Christian 822, and of scholars 79,983. The baptisms in 1892 were 10,790. Of these the greater part belong to the Church Missionary Society.
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The work is certainly one of stupendous difficulty and of many hindrances. It has to make its way against a deep-seated power over the mass of the people of great native religions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism — to say nothing of strange superstitions and devil-worship in the non- Aryan races. In dealing with Hinduism the way is barred by the tremendous force of religious caste, closely bound up with the social organization of the people. Among the educated classes,^ where faith in the old religion has given way before the influence of Western education and Western literature, the blank Agnosticism, or the vague Theism or Pantheism, which succeed, are hindrances quite as serious to the work of evangelization. That work suffers even more from internal defects — the evil of our unhappy religious divisions, the errors of the past as to the right spirit and method of dealing with native religion and thought and character, the secularist influences in English life and literature, the defects in true Christian character in those, English or native, who call themselves Christian. The resources at its command, both in men and money, although greatly increased and increasing still, are most inadequate to its extraordinary task ; and our English Churchmen as a body are far from being awakened to the great- ness of their vocation.
It is, therefore, no wonder that as yet it has
1 It should be remembered that, in spite of our exertions in founda- tion of universities, colleges, and schools, hardly 7 per cent of the population can even read and write.
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scarcely begun to touch the great mass of the Indian people. Hardly one in a hundred is even professedly Christian. But that, in spite of all hindrances, Christianity in India is rapidly advancing, both in achievement and in promise, is happily beyond ques- tion. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has published certain " Laymen's Opinions of the Value of Missions in India" from men in high official authority, such as Lord Lawrence, Sir Bartle Frere, Lord Napier and Ettrick, Sir Richard Temple, and even from the official Bluebooks, which prove this unmistakably. They all agree in this, that while the present visible results of missionary work are con- siderable, they are as nothing compared with the indirect and preparatory influence which is pervading and stirring Indian society as a whole.
"I speak" (says Sir Bartle Frere, for example) "simply as to matters of experience and observation and not of opinion, just as a Roman prefect might have reported to Trajan or the Antonines ; and I assure you that, whatever you may be told to the contrary, the teaching of Christianity among i6o millions of civilized, industrious Hindus and Mohammedans in India, is effecting changes, moral, social, and political, which, for extent and rapidity of effect, are far more extraordi- nary than anything that you or your fathers have witnessed in modern Europe."
"I have shown you" (says Sir Richard Temple) "that success has already been \ouchsafed. I wonder whether our fore- fathers foresaw the greatness of the success which a hundred years would produce. And you will remember that the result has been attained by an increase of 50 per cent in each decade during the last thirty years, or one generation of man. And during the coming generation the result is likely to be
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even greater, because the work is now backed up, not only by European energy and the zeal of the English Church, but also by the influence which education on the part of the State is producing throughout the la,nd and amongst all classes of the people. Thus India is like a mighty bastion which is being battered by heavy artillery. We have given blow after blow, and thud after thud, and the effect is not at first very remark- able ; but at last with a crash the mighty structure will come toppling down, and it is our hope that some fine day the heathen religions of India will in like manner succumb."
But independently of opinion, the simple fact speaks for itself, that, according to the census returns, the number of native Christians in nineteen years (from I 872- 1 891) has increased in British India by 66 per cent, and in all India (including the native states and the French and Portuguese territories) by 46 per cent — the increase of the whole population being only 20 per cent. If we examine the work of the missions (excluding the Roman Catholic and Syrian Christians) the figures are even more remark- able. In forty years, from 185 i, the number of native clergy has increased from 21 to 797, of native lay preachers from 493 to 3491, of congrega- tions from 267 to 4863, of native Christians from 91,092 to 648,843, and of scholars from 64,043 to 299,051 in day schools, besides 144,263 in Sunday schools. It is notable also that the proportionate increase is greatest where the actual numbers are lowest. Thus in Madras it is 22 per cent, while in the N.-W. provinces it reaches 139, and in the Punjab 335 per cent.^ Clearly in quarters which
^ In 1851, exclusive of Roman Catholics, there were but 115 native Christians in the Punjab. There were in 1890, 18,792.
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have hitherto seemed hopeless, the seed sown in patience is beginning at last to yield an abundant harvest.
But this is far from representing the whole effect of Christianity in India. For of the Christian work now undoubtedly advancing, there stand out two distinct phases — the one immediate, the other only prospective, as to fruit.
There is, first, the direct missionary work, rapidly forming native Christian communities, and organiz- ing them into native Christian Churches. It is clear that this branch of the work has advanced most successfully among the non - Aryan races — in Southern India, in Chota-Nagpore, in Burmah, in Borneo, and elsewhere.^
The old missions in the Tinnevelly district, established by Schwartz more than a century ago, but of late years blessed with a new outburst of religious and evangelistic vitality, are, perhaps, the best illustrations of this advance." With these may be classed the remarkable mission in Chota-Nag- pore, now going on with such signal success, under the direction of the bishop of that new diocese, and with the aid of a third " University Mission " from Trinity College, Dublin.
These missions are again of two distinct types. At Palamcottah, for example, the headquarters of
^ The Historical Sketches y published by the S.P.G., of various fields of missionary work, are well worth careful study.
^ There is at this moment some check to this advance — possibly con- nected with the difficult question of caste. But it is probably only temporary.
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the Church Missionary Society, there is a strong central organization — with some twenty European and fifty- eight native missionaries, besides twelve English ladies engaged in the Zenana Mission — with its great church,^ its training college, its schools for boys and girls, its dispensaries, its orphanages. Round this centre are gathered in the adjacent country districts dependent missionary stations, served partly by local ministers, partly by mission- aries from Palamcottah itself There are nearly a thousand villages containing native Christians ; some are completely Christian villages ; there are more than 600 native catechists, evangelists, and schoolmasters, and the whole number of native Christians is about 56,000.^ Each little native Christian community has its native pastor and Church council, and all are being gradually organ- ized into something of independent life. They have thus their native Ministry, largely increasing every day ; they are being gradually trained to self- government by councils, clerical and lay, of native Christians and Church officers, having limited but definite and effective powers ; in some degree they are becoming self-supporting, in money as well as in
^ That church has at its Sunday Tamil service a native congrega- tion of at least 1200, and some 250 communicants.
2 Under the S. P.G. Missions in the Tinnevelly district — so arranged as not in any way to cross those of the C. M.S.— there are somewhere about the same number of native Christians. Renieml)ering how large a majority of the natives of India belong to the villages, it is especially satisfactory that Christianity should be thus spreading in the village society.
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men. Clearly the right principle is here being followed. European direction and inspiration are being freely and ably given. But the whole stress of the work is rightly laid upon native agency, by which alone there can be any hope of winning the native races to Christ ; and the native Christians are being raised to religious independence and re- ligious equality with their English brethren. The old paternal relation is thus gradually passing into a kind of elder brotherhood in Christ. Nor is there, I believe, any serious difficulty in this enterprise, although it naturally needs both caution and de- liberation. Growth which is to be deep-seated and permanent must, of course, be gradual ; and there will be, moreover, from time to time some errors and vagaries in the newness of native Christianity and native ministry. But on the whole, it is certain that the native converts are rising to their duties and responsibilities.
There are, on the other hand, outlying mission stations — such as Nazareth under the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel — where one or two European missionaries rule with a kind of patriarchal authority over a native city in the wilderness, relying, however, entirely on the support of native colleagues in the Ministry. Such a village is a little society of purely Christian type, with a church as its centre, and, gathered round it in a great square, schools of all kinds, a dispensary, a gymnasium, various workshops, and the residences, plain and simple enough, of the missionary staff It
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is obvious at once that all the social influences, else- where so fatally antagonistic, are here enlisted in the service of Christianity ; and that all the agencies of civilization are inspired and harmonized under the supreme spiritual force. Such must be the one right method of evangelizing a race, which needs to be raised out of a low intellectual condition and a debasing devil-worship, at once to true humanity and true faith.^
By such missions as these there is a directly evangelistic work going on everywhere, especially in Southern India, mainly under the auspices of our two great Missionary Societies. In respect of this work generally, the old Apostolic experience is repeated — " Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." By it Christianity is drawing in, and welcoming, in the name of its Master, the poor and the simple, of lower class and lower race ; it is admitting to the Brotherhood, where there is " neither Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free," those whom the earlier civilizations of India treated simply as subjects, almost as slaves. It need hardly be added that here, as in other similar experiences, those whom the wisdom of the world despises are found able to receive the simplicity of the wisdom of God, and to be so raised by it to a higher humanity, as to become
^ Nazareth certainly is a hive of bright and intelligent Christian life, with its fine church and beautiful native services, its admirable Dispen- sary of St. Luke, its flourishing schools, especially its famous industrial and art schools, its gymnasium, and its orphan homes.
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capable not only of true Christian membership, but of efficient Christian Ministry. The work for God has its vicissitudes of rapid advance, and of occa- sional stagnation and apparent retrogression ; it has its experience of the instability and failure, especially attaching to work on uncivilized races. But there is no doubt whatever either of its general advance at this moment, or of its future promise. Just in pro- portion as it assumes a true indigenous character, it will lay hold of that vast Indian population which lies far from the busy life of the great towns, and is comparatively untouched by mere intellectual culture.
But side by side with this simple evangelistic work, there is going on by the hands of our mission- aries a less direct, but not less important, advance through educational agencies.
Of the direct missionary work, indeed, a large school system always forms an integral part ; and of the mission schools some are entirely for Christian children, while others admit both heathen and Christian, and bring all in different degrees, unless objection is made by parents, under religious teaching. The work of primary vernacular edu- cation in India was begun by Christian agency ; and in Southern India, in spite of all governmental pro- visions, missionary agency is even now said by authority to be " the only agency that can at present bring the benefits of teaching home to the humblest orders of the population." This educational work is carried on in schools of all grades ; and it is
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necessarily affecting, morally and religiously, the whole mass of the rising generation.
From early times, moreover, our Church in India, true to its old traditions, has taken the greatest care for Christian education of a higher type. The first Bishop of Calcutta (Bishop Middleton) founded "Bishop's College" in 1820, on a splendid scale. It was designed for education of Christians, native as well as European, for various grades of the Ministry ; for general instruction of non- Christian students ; for translation of Holy Scripture and the Prayer- Book ; for the reception and training of missionaries sent out from England. From that time onward educational work of this comprehensive character has always been carried on in various colleges and high schools, uniting in different pro- portions general education with distinct Christian and ministerial training.
But of late years, with the advance of the University system in India, this work has assumed larger dimensions, and has developed especially the element of general education. It affects accordingly the higher castes and the higher culture of India. As a religious work, it is less direct than the regular mission agency ; it appeals less obviously to Christian sympathy ; but yet it is, as I trust, likely to tell very powerfully on a future Indian Christianity.
In great colleges affiliated to the Universities there is now being given under avowedly Christian auspices a general education of the highest order, of which systematic instruction in Holy Scripture
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HULSEAN LECTURES
and in the fundamental truths of the Gospel forms an integral part. This instruction is given to all alike, to native Christians and to those students, Hindu or Mohammedan, who do not profess to be even Catechumens or inquirers after the faith. As yet it has yielded but little visible fruit of conver- sion— less, as it appears to me, than might reason- ably have been hoped for — although such converts as have been made are naturally men of high educa- tion and position. Nor is it hard to see that in itself it is liable to some rather serious dangers. But, on the whole, the balance of opinion and experience is decidedly in its favour — provided always that the colleges are really Christian colleges, not only refusing to allow religious teaching to become vague and colourless, or to be crowded out by the pressure of secular subjects, but maintaining in all teaching and government a true Christian tone. For this end it seems clear that their teachers should be, wholly or predominantly. Christian teachers ; and — thanks to the growth of higher education in the native Christian community — this would now seem to be attainable, although perhaps at greater cost and with a more restricted choice of men. After all, a school is what its teachers make it. If the Christian tone is really kept up, in living force, the value of this work will be infinite.^ It deals, perhaps in the only way as yet possible, with the higher castes, and — what is as
^ On this subject, see an admirable pamphlet by the Rev. S. S. Allnutt, of the Cambridge Mission at Delhi.
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yet much the same — the leaders of the higher culture, rapidly extending itself in India. It lays hold of the great movement for education, and moulds it by Christian hands and through Christian influences ; and thus it is rapidly saturating the educated classes everywhere with Christian idea and with Christian morality. The effect on the future cannot but be great.^ If India is ever to be won for Christ, no one doubts that it must be through native agency. Clearly it is through the free native development of the great fundamental principles of Gospel truth and Church life that success must be achieved in God's appointed time.
For that future success the educational work, now going on everywhere, is doubly a preparation. It has a general preparatory influence on the whole native mind, moving it, as by a great undercurrent, towards a future anchorage on the Christian shore. Perhaps in the union of direct visible evangelism among the simpler and poorer classes, and this in- direct influence over the intellectual and social leaders of the community, the condition is not wholly unlike that of the early Christianity, when it began to confront, as a victorious force, the power of heathen religions and philosophies in the old Roman
^ " Nothing can be more disastrous to the cause of Christianity in India than the relaxation of Christian effort in the matter of higher education. If our mission schools go, then our missionaries will have no hold whatever on the educated classes. . . . It is an admitted fact that Christianity has an immense influence outside the circle of the two million Christians " ( fVor^ among the Educated Classes in India, by S. Satthianadhan, M.A.)
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Empire, and to force them to pass from contempt and indifference to inquiry, and from inquiry to adhesion.
But besides this general influence, it is more definitely and decisively preparing for the future, by educating the native Christians to become the teachers of their countrymen, both in the ordained Ministry of the Church and as lay evangelists. This effect, moreover, is rapidly advancing. It is stated that in the great " Christian College " at Madras, the number of Christians among the students is nine times as great now as it was twenty years ago, and that at this moment one -sixth of those who have graduated from it are professed Christians.^ In this respect it evidently leads up to the higher work of the regular training colleges for native clergy, of which there are some splendid specimens in India. Both classes of colleges are now being in great degree officered by their former students ; and many of the native teachers have already attained to a high standard of education and ability. In spite, there- fore, of the slowness and the indirect character of this branch of the work, and of those dangers to which I have adverted, it is in its own way invaluable.
This work is going on in many quarters. It began with the leaders of the Presbyterian Missions in India ; and in their hands are still some of its finest developments — such as the great " Christian College " at Madras, with its really splendid
^ See Rev. Dr. Miller's paper, read at Chicago in 1893, on " Educa- tional Agencies in Missions." There is an excellent hostel for resident Christian students attached to the College.
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buildings and its immense educational influence. But it is being taken up energetically by our own Church. I had myself the opportunity of seeing the flourishing Colleges of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at Trichinopoly and Tanjore, the Church Missionary Society College at Agra, the Colleges of the Oxford Mission at Calcutta, and the Cambridge Mission at Delhi. In different degrees, and in the last two Missions in a high degree, the educational work in the colleges and their affiliated schools is connected with direct missionary enterprise — mainly in Calcutta towards the Hindu, and in Delhi towards the Mohammedan population. Most of all perhaps in Calcutta — where the revived Bishop's College and the Oxford Mission are most happily united under the Rev. H. Whitehead — the more general work of education is being merged in ministry to Christian students, in evangelistic work in the villages of the Sunderbunds district, and in direct missionary train- ing. In Delhi, while the St. Stephen's College flourishes under the Rev. S. S. Allnutt, the preaching to the educated Mohammedans in the lecture-hall of the native quarter, and even in the precincts of the mosques, is carried on by the Rev. G. A. Lefroy, with splendid ability and earnestness, and with that clear understanding of the strength and weakness of Mohammedanism, by which alone the work can be rightly directed.^
^ A brief recent experience in Intiia showetl me the receptivity of the educated heathen mind. At Trichinopoly, both in the hall of the
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(D) Such are the present condition and future prospects of the work in India itself. In Ceylon, which is substantially Indian in character, although not under Indian government, the experience is much of the same kind. This beautiful island itself, of some 25,000 square miles, now con- taining 3,007,789 people, was occupied by the Portuguese in 1505, taken from them by the Dutch in 1656, and from the Dutch by Eng- land in 1795. Under both the earlier dominions great efforts were made for Christianization, un- happily backed by civil compulsion. The effect of the Portuguese effort still remains ; that of the Dutch, which resulted in the nominal conversion of about 350,000, died out almost entirely under the tolera- tion, which was exaggerated into indifference, of English rule. Our neglect of religious duty in
College and under the shadow of the gigantic temple of Shrirangam, at Madras in the Christian College, at Calcutta in the house of the Oxford Mission, at Agra in the C.M.S. College, hallowed by the memory of the saintly Bishop French, and at Delhi in the fine hall of St. Stephen's College, I was allowed to address large audiences, varying from about 100 to 800 or 900, of educated natives, mostly members, present or future, of the Universities. I chose subjects of directly Christian wit- ness, in view of what seemed to be the greatest needs — the "Thirst for God " satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ, the witness of the Spirit to " Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment," and the inseparability of Chris- tian morality from Christian truth. In every case I had, as it seemed, intelligent and most attentive audiences, well able to understand Eng- lish, and to follow in it subjects of no slight difficulty, and ready to listen to a treatment which, while it was, of course, not directly con- troversial, certainly did not shrink from the most definite Christian doctrine, and the most earnest pleading against mere speculative curiosity and indifference.
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the first instance was great. Nothing was done by the Church for the natives till 1 8 1 7, when the Church Missionary Society entered upon the field ; although Nonconformist missionaries from America and from England preceded her in the work. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel only began active operations in 1840, and the Bishopric of Colombo was not created till 1845. Tardy and inadequate as our work has been — at first supported by Government aid, which is now withdrawn — it has since that time advanced steadily and not slowly.
The work itself has two singular points of interest. In the first place, Ceylon is a remarkable mission-field. Of its population the Sinhalese (about 1,850,000) are Buddhists, the Tamil immigrants (about 620,000) are Hindus, the Moormen (about 210,000) are Mohammedans. The Christians num- ber 302,000, of whom at least 246,000 are Roman Catholics; of the rest probably two -thirds are members of our Church. In the next place, there is in our Church a resolute attempt to harmonize with regular Synodical government the self-governing action of the Church Missionary Society, which after much difficulty appears to be succeeding, and to weld together the European and native Christians on a footing of equality in one Church system.^ Although it is as yet only in its beginning, the pro-
^ In the Synod there are of English and Eurasian birth 38 clergy and 61 lay representatives, side by side with 29 native clergy and 54 lay representatives. It often happens that English forms a medium of communication between the Sinhalese and Tamil people.
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gress made is considerable ; and, if only this Church unity can be preserved, its promise is great.
Burmah also, which has passed under English sway by successive conquests from 1826 to 1886, is a part of the Indian mission-field. It is, even more than Ceylon, the home of the Southern Buddhism ; of its inhabitants — nearly 8,000,000 — about 6,900,000 are professed Buddhists, and a complete organization of Buddhist monks and religious teachers pervades the country. Besides these there are Hindus, Moham- medans, and Nat-worshippers (Animistic) — in all about 600,000. The number of Christians is hard to ascertain; the census returns give 120,768, of whom only 19,000 are European and Eurasian ; but the returns for the various religious bodies differ considerably from these. Of these the Roman Catholic Mission began in 1720, and now, thoroughly organized with both European and native workers, has a large proportion ; the Baptist Mission, begun in 1 8 1 3 (chiefly American), has also a thorough organization and a large body of converts. Our own Church was, again, very late in the field : the first chaplain was only appointed in 1843 ; the regular mission work (of the S.P.G. alone) began in 1877 ; and the Bishopric of Rangoon was not created till the same year. Its most successful work is among the Karens (Nat-worshippers) ; among the Burmese Buddhists the direct and immediate progress is slow. But, as in India, there is great promise in the educational institutions, especially the S.P.G. College (St. John's) at Rangoon, for higher education, which
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has now 650 students, chiefly of the higher classes, and has sent out 10,000 to all grades of the Civil Service. Meanwhile, under the Bishop, mission stations are rising in many quarters, with thirteen European clergy, eight native pastors, i 1 5 cate- chists, and (as yet) about 6300 native Christians. The fruit of these is yet in great measure to come, but it is hard to make up the lee-way of our long neglect.
Beyond these more settled spheres of work lie the missions in the Straits Settlements and Borneo, now formed into the diocese of Singapore, Labuan, and Sarawak, which will be referred to hereafter.
The survey of this Mission in India and depend- encies suggests to us at least these conclusions. First, that it offers a field of extraordinary and manifold interest, on which we are bidden to enter, by the wonderful leadings of God's Providence, and by the inalienable responsibilities of extraordinary power. Next, that for many generations that call has been shamefully ignored or neglected, and that even now its full scope and significance are most imperfectly realized. Thirdly, that our tardy and inadequate efforts are nevertheless largely blessed, and that Christianity is at last manifesting itself as an advancing and victorious power. Lastly, that our Church of England needs a far greater awakening of understanding and devotion, if she is to any extent to vindicate her position as the representative of a national Christianity, and to use rightly the extraor- dinary resources and advantages, which it has pleased God to give her.
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II. Our relations with the Empires of the far East — China and Japan — are created partly by the extension of our commerce, partly by the possession of the Indian Empire, Avhich makes England one of the greatest of Asiatic powers.
(A) The extraordinary Empire of China — in area variously estimated from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 square miles, and from 300,000,000 to 405,000,000 of inhabitants ^ — known as the kingdom of the Since or Seres to the Greeks and Romans, and as Cathay in the Middle Ages— is unique in character among the empires of the world. With a vast and varied country, rich in all natural resources, a coast-line of 2500 miles, and unequalled river communication, it has remained comparatively isolated from the world. With a teeming population, industrious, intelligent, and enterprising, with a great literature and civiliza- tion of immemorial antiquity, with an universal system of education, opening all posts of an elaborate civil organization, it yet remains an example of an unprogressive and unwieldy empire, incapable, as it seems, collectively of energy and progress, ignorantly contemptuous of all other civilization than its own, and unable to resist, except by a stolid inactivity, aggression from without.
It is at least a remarkable coincidence that its civilization is destitute of all vital religious inspiration. Confucianism, the so-called religion of the educated classes, is little more than a code of strong but
^ Of these China proper, about 1,300,000 square miles, has all but about 23,000,000 of the people, averaging some 300 to a square mile.
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 321
somewhat formal morality, based simply on rever- ence for earthly authority, parental and national. Taouism and Buddhism, which prevail largely among the masses, are almost equally Agnostic as to the ultimate relation of man to a living God, although the former perhaps implies the conception of a Supreme Cause unknown and unknowable, and although both have developed a strange variety of lower worships and superstitions. It is a curious sign of the absence of any strong religious vitality in them, that many authorities declare ancestral worship and sacrifice to be the real religion of China, and that, in conjunction with this, profession of two or all of the three so-called religions is often taken up by the same individual. The only positive religion which has rooted itself in China is the stern Monotheism of Islam, which is said to be the religion of some thirty millions.
It is notable that in very early times the Chris- tianity of the Nestorian Churches of East Syria spread itself into China, as into India, and had be- come an important power in the seventh and eighth centuries.^ It was found there when, in the thirteenth century, in answer to an invitation from the great Khan (Kublai Khan), Christian teachers were sent from Rome, and when Marco Polo visited Cathay.
1 An inscribed pillar, discovered at Singan-fu in the seventeenth century, and bearing in a Syriac inscription the date 781 A.D., gives the names of the Nestorian patriarch and of a bishop and priests in China, adds a short outline of Christian doctrine, and quotes a decree of the Emperor favouring Christianity. (See Dr. G. Smith's Conversion of India, pp. 18-24.)
Y
322 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
But it seems to have given way before the growing force of Roman Christianity in the next centuries, and perhaps before the inroads of Mohammedanism. Then in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, long before China was formally opened to Europeans, the Jesuit Missions, adopting the dress and customs, and perhaps some superstitions of the people, penetrated into the country, and laid the foundation of a Roman Catholic Church, which is still the only considerable representative of Christianity in China — served chiefly by missionaries from France, and now organized into 30 vicariates, with 41 bishops, 664 European and 559 native priests. It claims about 1,200,000 native Christians. It should be noticed also that for the last two centuries there has been a Russo- Greek Mission from the side of Siberia, and the Bible and other religious books have been translated into Chinese. But of the work of this Mission little is known.
The first effort of English Christianity was made through the London Missionary Society in 1808, by sending out Dr. Robert Morrison to the East India Factory at Canton, where he established an Anglo- Chinese college, and published his Chinese Dictionary and a Chinese version of the New Testament. He was followed by American missionary Societies from 1830 to 1838. But it was not till 1843, when, after a war with China, Hong-Kong was ceded to England, and the treaty ports opened, that any vigorous evan- gelization was attempted. Then missions of all kinds poured in, with much energy, but more even
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 323
than usual of religious diversity. In 1844 the Church Missionary Society began work. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel gave aid for a chaplaincy at Hong-Kong ; helped to establish there the first missionary bishopric (of Victoria) in 1849, for spiritual care of our English people and con- version of the natives ; and began active work under the Bishop in 1863. Since that time, as usual, there has been considerable development. A bishopric of North China, chiefly supported by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, was created in 1872, and one of Mid -China (through the Church Missionary Society) in 1880, with its centre at Shanghai, in joint action with a missionary bishop of our sister Church in America. Our Church has now at work about 40 European and 20 native clergy, more than 320 native Catechists, and perhaps 10,000 native Christians. But ours is but a small part of the whole work done by the various Com- munions of English and American Christianity, and by some joint action, as in the China Inland Mission. In 1889 it was estimated that, on the whole, there were in various parts nearly 800 missionaries and about 35,000 native communicants, probably repre- senting a body of some i 50,000 converts.
The work done is, therefore, but small, although, as usual, progress has advanced rapidly of late years. It is certainly carried on under most formidable diffi- culties— the negative hindrance of the remarkable apathy of the Chinese in regard of all religious interest, their confidence in their own superiority and real or
324 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
affected contempt for the foreigner, and their extra- ordinary tenacity of ancestral custom and prejudice, — the positive hindrances of slander, denunciation, and violence, stirred up by the priests, and covertly fomented by the governing class in spite of imperial edicts of toleration, breaking out from time to time in massacre. In fear, moreover, of difficulties likely to arise with the feeble and corrupt Chinese Govern- ment, missionary action is regarded with scant favour from a commercial and political point of view in England. But we have simply to hold our post and persevere, till, as seems likely, some change — possibly some revolution — shall break down the great wall of hindrance still barring progress, and perhaps create the sense of the need of a new life, which Christianity alone can satisfy. Besides this direct action, moreover, much might be done by bringing Christian influence to bear upon the Chinese im- migrants in America and in our colonies, who should, on their return, become missionaries to their own people. The work, after all, is but half a century old. According to all experience this is but the seed-time, from which the next half-century should see some harvest.
(B) The Empire of Japan is, in a wholly different way, at least equally remarkable. Comparatively small in area — about 150,000 square miles, with a population of 40,000,000 — it is in size, in position, and (as its people believe) in destiny, the Great Britain of the North Pacific. Placed in the neigh- bourhood of the great Empires of China and Russia,
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 325
and of the advancing dominion of England and France in the South, it holds its own with extra- ordinary vigour, and is now emerging, since the late victorious war with China, as a dominant power in the far East. Its record of progress during the last half-century is perhaps unexampled in the history of the world. For two hundred years, up to 1854, it re- mained, like China, rigidly closed to the outside world, till first the United States, and then Great Britain, virtually forced an entrance. But, unlike China, Japan welcomed and assimilated, with an extra- ordinary readiness and intelligence, all the ideas and resources of the Western civilization which now poured in. In less than half a century the whole face of society has been changed. The quasi-theo- cratic sovereignty of the Mikado, practically super- seded since 1143 by a feudal aristocracy with the Shogun at its head, gave way suddenly, in 1868, to the inauguration under the Mikado of a constitu- tional government. Education, through universities, colleges, and schools, at first officered by Europeans, now almost entirely in native hands, has flooded the rising generation with Western ideas, literature, and science. A powerful army and navy have been organ- ized, for conquest as well as defence ; commerce has been largely developed ; and a new life, not without certain elements of precocity and turbulence, has been breathed into the " Old Japan," which will soon be in its ancient form a thing of the past. Japan now claims to deal on equal terms with any one of the Western powers, and to take the leadership of
326 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
the East out of the hands of the stationary and dis- organized Empire of China.
Over this growing Hfe the native religions exercise but Httle real power. Shintoism, which is professed as the state- rehgion, appears to be an organized ancestral worship, wrought out especially into rever- ence for the Mikado, as descended from super- human beings of days gone by ; with, however, an incongruous admixture of Nature-worship, gross and superstitious in character, which it is the object of the new regime to suppress. Buddhism is the religion of the great mass of the people, and has developed accordingly an elaborate system of ritual, ceremonial, and worship of inferior powers. Neither has any strong religious vitality ; both are giving way before the influence of Western knowledge and thought. But, again unlike China, Japan seems to realize the need of some vital religion, and to be in search of one, which may satisfy the cravings of its intellectual and practical growth, and ally itself w^ith freedom of progress. The alternative seems practically to be, whether it shall attempt to frame such a religion for itself,^ or shall embrace Christianity.
It is notable that there was once in Japan a strong native Christianity, of which the seed was sown by the splendid labours of Xavier and his Jesuit successors in the sixteenth century. It be- came thoroughly indigenous, adopting, as usual, much
^ The more enterprising Japanese have had visions of a "grand national Church," Christian in idea, but "free from all sectarian teaching, and the crippling influence of creeds."
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 327
of native habit and character, and something of native superstition, and in half a century is said by the Japanese to have gathered two milHons of mem- bers. But it was unhappily mixed up with political conflict, and invoked for its progress the power of the sword. By the sword it perished ; in 1587 the Government began an unrelenting persecution of the Christians, often nobly borne, and an attempt at self-defence was met by massacre in 1637 of 37,000 at one time. Christianity was formally proscribed by an edict posted in every town and village, on pain of death, as a pestilent and immoral supersti- tion ; and in 1624 all Europeans were expelled from Japan, except a few Dutch, shut up in a small island, and the country closed against the rest of the world for 230 years. When it was reopened in 1854, it was found that Christianity had not been quite stamped out. What remained of it became the nucleus of a Roman Catholic Church, now fully organized with numerous stations, and about 40,000 members.
Meanwhile, as usual, missions of all kinds began. The Russian Church has a flourishing mission, with many native clergy and catechists, and some 14,000 members. Various missions, American even more than English, are also at work. Our own Church entered the field through the Church Missionary Society in 1869, and through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1873, working hand in hand with the American Church, which had preceded us in 1859, and forming with it that which calls
328 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
itself a " Church of Japan," and shows much vigour of self-government and independence. The first English bishop was consecrated in 1883. Since that time great progress has been made in organiza- tion of religious and educational work. Our Church mission is still only in its infancy, with perhaps 50 clergy, English and native, and some 3000 mem- bers, while the converts of other Communions are more than 30,000. But it has singular promise, especially in its attempt to found a Church, having much independence, although in full communion with our own, which may perhaps serve as a link of union for the divided Christian bodies in this in- quiring and enterprising country.
(C) An offshoot from the mission to Japan is the mission to Korea, urged upon the Church at home by the Bishops of Japan and North China in 1887. Korea, which has lately been the battlefield of China and Japan, and has passed from the nominal suzerainty of the one to the more vigorous protec- torate of the other, is a somewhat backward and dis- organized country of 82,000 square miles, and more than ten millions of people. In religious faith it seems almost a blank, " The Confucian philosophy is the religion of the learned classes ; the unlearned have none, unless it be an excessive reverence and dread of ghosts and evil spirits." Korea evidently needs both secular civilization, which it will receive from Japan, and the higher life of Christianity.
The Roman Catholic Church has long had a mission there, now fully organized, which has had
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 329
its numerous converts, and has grown under per- secution and through actual martyrdom. The Russian Church has also a mission ; the Scottish and American Presbyterians have been at work since 1882, and have completed a Korean translation of the New Testament. There are said to be on the whole about 17,000 native Christians, and more than 300 mission stations. Our own share in the work is but of yesterday ; and the Korean mission, working with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, is peculiar, as having set the example of a mission, headed from the beginning by a bishop (consecrated in 1889), with a small body of clergy and lay catechists. It has begun with much vigour and self-sacrifice ; but has not as yet had time to yield much fruit.
In regard to this sphere of action we may draw the same conclusions as in the case of our Indian Missions. Our vocation is, of course, less urgent and direct, and can claim from us accordingly less ex- penditure of resource, and less absorbing interest. It needs much more caution and wisdom in carrying it out, because our political relations with these great independent Empires are somewhat vague and precarious — complicated, moreover, by relations to other European powers — and because wc often feel doubt how far we can rightly invoke material support for protection of our missionaries in their arduous and dangerous work. But nevertheless the Mission is a real one, and, from its very slight present beginnings it will have to be carried out far more effectively.
330 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
III. In Western Asia there devolves upon our English Christianity an entirely different kind of duty. In this case also it is brought home to us through our Indian Empire, and the intimate relations which it creates with the Persian and Turkish Empires. The conditions, moreover, differ considerably in these two Empires.
(A) The population of the smaller Persian Empire — estimated at about 7,750,000 — is almost entirely Mohammedan. Hardly more than 150,000 are outside the pale of Islam ; and of these perhaps 120,000 are Christians, and the rest Jews or Parsees. The Monotheism of Islam has superseded that of Zoroastrianism, as the latter superseded the Vedic elemental religion of the earliest Aryan races. But the Mohammedanism of Persia is of the Shiah division, less rigid perhaps than that of the Sunni section, and, in the developments of Sufism and Babiism, inclining to a mystic aspiration after absorption in a Deity, more or less Pantheistic in conception, as the ultimate religion, for which the ordinary forms of Mohammedanism are but stepping- stones. In this aspect Henry Martyn in 181 1 believed that he saw a preparation for " the first Persian Church" of Christ. The Christian popula- tion belongs either to the Armenian, or to the Syrian " Nestorian " Church. Both are apparently depressed and weak, needing help to shake off ignorance, despondency, and corruption. The latter is the remnant of a Church formerly among the greatest Christian Communions, which, as has been seen, was
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 331
once the chief means of the diffusion of Christianity in India and in China.
Our main duty here seems clear. We may do what we can for the conversion of Mohammedans to Christ ; but the one thing most needful is to give the aid, especially the educational aid, which is earnestly desired, and gladly welcomed, by these struggling Eastern Churches. This idea is strictly adhered to by the "Archbishop's Mission to the Assyrian Christians" begun in 1886, and steadily carried on under some difficulty. On the other hand, a virtual proselytism from the native churches is carried out by a French Roman Catholic Mission, and by the vigorous Missions of the American Presbyterians. The C.M.S. Mission seems to occupy an intermediate position — at its first origin in 1875 desiring to work with and through the native Churches, but gradually coming to form a Communion of its own, distinct from them, although not unfriendly. Taken all together, the strength of this effort is as yet very small. It helps to keep alive the witness for Christ in this alien land, but it can do no more.
(B) In the greater Turkish Empire, on the other hand — occupying in Europe, Asia, and Africa 1,263,000 square miles, and estimated to contain 38,650,000 people — the condition is altogether different We find a large Christian element, amounting to above 15,000,000, or more than a third of the whole ; but it is greatly divided.
There is the Greek Orthodox Church, in its Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch,
332 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
and Jerusalem, of 7,630,000 souls ; besides the affiliated churches of Greece and Cyprus. There is the Armenian Church of 4,000,000, separate from it on points of Church government, rather than essential Christian doctrine. There are the two Syrian Communions known as " Jacobite " and " Nes- torian," numbering about 600,000. There are in Egypt the Coptic and Abyssinian Churches of some 2,250,000 souls. There is the '* Bulgarian Church" of at least a million. These Churches are separate from each other, in most cases professedly through doctrinal differences, which, however, hardly go in reality to the foundation — perhaps more truly through racial diversity, and questions of Church order and jurisdiction.
Then comes in the aggressive Roman Communion claiming about 800,000, of whom some 270,000 use the Latin, and the rest the Greek ritual. There is another aggressive agency through the American Congregational and Presbyterian missionaries. It has hundreds of stations, and is said to have 60,000 ''attendants" and 11,000 communicants. It has printed and circulated millions of translations of Holy Scripture in various languages.
Our own chief missionary agency is the Palestine Mission, sustained by the Society for the Conversion of the Jews and Church Missionary Society, and now organized under the Anglican Bishop in Jeru- salem, who has charge also in Egypt and in Cyprus. Besides this the Church Missionary Society has stations in Egypt, in Abyssinia, and in Constantinople.
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST ^33
For purposes of conversion it would be altogether inadequate, although, especially at Jerusalem, it does gather in Jewish converts, and associates itself with various ministrations to them of instruction and beneficence.
But in Turkey, even more than in Persia, our true function is clearly to cultivate and strengthen unity with these ancient Christian Churches, and to give them whatever help we can. They not only have a glorious record in the past, but for more than a thousand years have kept steadfast to the essentials of the Christian faith and Church life, under the constant oppression, and the not unfrequent per- secution, of the Turkish power. With them, rather than with us, lies the Christian future of Persia and Turkey, as the disintegration and decay of the Mohammedan power advance. Under our happier circumstances we can give them brotherly help, especially in respect of education and reform ; and we can also endeavour to serve the cause of reunion among those, whose unhappy divisions and antago- nisms are the main hindrance to Christian progress, and the scorn of the Moslem. This right principle is making way in public opinion and Church action, in spite of the natural and almost inevitable temptations to proselytism under the present condition of Eastern Christianity. Nowhere is it more faithfully carried out than under the present Anglican Episcopate in Jerusalem, which is now welcomed and honoured by the authorities of the Eastern Churches.^ More and ^ A remarkable sign of this friendly relation is the recent concession
334 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
more it commends itself in itself, and by its results, to English Churchmen at home/
It must be added that our tenure of Cyprus, and occupation of Egypt, impose upon us special duties in respect of these countries, both to sustain the Christianity of our English colonies of soldiers and civilians in both, and to minister in every way to the higher welfare of the native inhabitants.
Cyprus has a predominantly Christian population, about 140,000, almost all Greek Churchmen, as against 46,000 Moslems. Here our work is simple — to cultivate friendly relations with the Greek Church, to develop education, and to help it to a higher religious and intellectual life ; and meanwhile to provide spiritually for our own people.
Egypt — with its 6,800,000 people — presents to us a larger problem. The mass of the people are Arab in origin and Mohammedan in religion ; the old Coptic Church, in spite of long oppression and persecution, still has about 400,000 souls, and has, moreover, the Abyssinian Church under its jurisdic- tion ; and the foreign population of various European nationalities amounts to 100,000, and belongs to various forms of Christianity. Our duty in Egypt, performed with much success under unexampled
by the Greek Patriarch of a little chapel in the Church of the Holy- Sepulchre, for celebration of the Holy Communion after the Anglican rite.
^ The "Eastern Church Association" has clone much good by emphasizing this principle. In its Report for 1894 there is an admirable sketch by Mr. Brightman of the position and the relations of the various Communions of Eastern Christianity.
II EXPANSION IN INDIA AND THE EAST 335
difficulties, is to justify our occupation by promoting the material, intellectual, and moral welfare of the people. Education, which has a splendid Moslem representative in the great collegiate mosque of El- Azhar, is being pushed on through Coptic and governmental and mission schools. Efforts are being made to aid the ancient Coptic Church, now under our rule relieved from Mohammedan oppres- sion, and beginning a movement towards education and reform. For our own garrison, and for the English visitors, good spiritual provision is made in Cairo and other chief centres.
The work, therefore, to be done in this sphere is one which needs perhaps less active enthusiasm, but even greater wisdom, than in the spheres of direct evangelization. As yet it has been but little done, being " crowded out " (so to speak) by more imme- diate interests. But, as political interference is more and more forced upon us, by the disorganization and corruption of the Turkish Empire, and by the cruel oppression of its Christian subjects (of which we have before us at this moment a terrible example), our religious duty will become more urgent, and our religious opportunities will increase. The peculiar nature, moreover, of the Mission makes it one, which the Church of England by its very nature is especially fitted to discharge.
APPENDIX III
(To Lecture IV) OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES
This mission, at once of civilization and of Christian- ization, is closely connected with the other two. For it grows necessarily out of our colonial expan- sion and our Eastern Empire, and our dominion through both over the subject -races of the earth. But it extends beyond these to the still larger " sphere of influence," opened to us, in the first instance, by commercial expansion and maritime enterprise of discovery, and often developed into protectorate and dominion.
It should be noted that this extension of influ- ence itself is only a part — although indeed a leading part — of that universal movement, which is asserting for the European nations in general an ascendency over the other races of the world. In respect of it, indeed, our own action is sometimes forced, against a not unnatural reluctance to extend the enormous sphere of our national responsibility, by the advance of other European powers, and the necessity of maintaining, in face of this advance, the commercial
APP. Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 337
leadership, on which our own prosperity depends. But in spite of this reluctance, and the hesitations and vacillations of policy which it is apt to produce, the English-speaking race seems naturally to be brought to the front, by some special aptitude for colonization and conquest, and some special power of dealing with these barbarian races.
The reality of this European ascendency is un- equivocal ; nor is there any sign of the fulfilment of some despondent predictions of its passing away. The one question is, whether it shall be a selfish and destructive ascendency, gradually exterminating the weaker races, as has been the case to so great an extent in North America and Australia, or an ascendency like that which we exercise in India — firm, indeed, but unselfish and beneficent, caring for its subjects, protecting them against tyranny and oppression, and endeavouring to promote their happiness and civilization. The decision of that question will depend largely on the effective power of Christianity. Whatever other influences may work for the progress of that unselfish benevolence, which we significantly call *' humanity," it is impos- sible to doubt the truth — so forcibly brought out in Kidd's Social Evolution — that the dominant influence must be that of the religion, which so emphatically proclaims human brotherhood.
In examining historically how far our English Christianity has exercised this influence over our relation to the weaker races, we must note that its missionary effort is only a part of a larger action of
z
338 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
evangelism. The Roman Catholic Church holds everywhere a leading position in this service of the kingdom of God, and its work is done mainly through men of other nationalities than ours. The Lutheran and Calvinistic Communions of the Conti- nent, although in less degree, are represented in the same service. The various American Communions — especially the Presbyterian, the Baptist, the Methodist, and the Congregational Communions, — are singularly active and aggressive in this war- fare against heathenism. Our English Christianity may perhaps assert some leadership in this general advance, corresponding to our leadership in coloniza- tion and dominion ; but it certainly does no more than this, and at times may be thought to fall short of it.
We have, moreover, to confess that in this service the missionary enterprise of our own Church is often put to shame by the energy, swifter, if not greater, of the Nonconformist Communions in England itself. The London Missionary Society especially, somewhat older than our own Church Missionary Society, has constantly led the way ; as, for instance, in India, Madagascar, and Polynesia. If we add to its work that which is done by the Presbyterian, the Wesleyan, and the Baptist Missions, the aggregate result far exceeds anything which the Church of England has been able to achieve. In this sphere, as in that of our Oriental Mission, we can hardly think that our Church has sufficiently assumed the spiritual leadership, to which, as the National Church,
OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES
339
she is undoubtedly called in all that belongs to the religious mission of England. It is, of course, true that she has duties and responsibilities at home, which no other religious Communion has to bear ; it is true also that similar duties and responsibilities grow upon her abroad with bewildering rapidity, as the Greater Britain of our dominion grows by an irresistible expansion. But yet the resources, material and spiritual, which God has given her are vast, and these also advance by a corresponding growth. They might be, and ought to be, by God's blessing, adequate to the whole of the glorious task to which He calls her.^
It is necessary to keep these actual conditions in view, in tracing the gradual extension, chiefly in this century, of this missionary influence of our
1 The amount of money spent in this service is a rough but fairly trustworthy test of the missionary zeal shown. In relation to this test, we find that in 1892 the contributions to the mission cause through missionary societies were for —
Church of England ^^396,643
Presbyterians
London Missionary Society .
Methodist ,, ,,
Baptist ,, ,,
Moravian ,, ,,
China Inland Mission .
Episcopal Church in America
Other American Missions It will be observed that the combined contribut outside the pale of the Church exceed ours by more than ;^ioo,ooo, and that the American contribution is more than half as large again.
(The figures, except those for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, are taken from The Centenary Record oi \\v^ Baptist Missionary Society, 1892.)
150,018 108,247 121,123
78,460
23,489
29,932
52,870
687,733
ons of English missions
340 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
Church, exercised through our two great Missionary Societies, but especially through the Church Mission- ary Society, which is able to give it more undivided attention and to devote to it larger resources.
To this mission, as it grows out of our colonial expansion, some reference has already been made. It is only necessary here to refer to it somewhat more in detail. It may be noted that from the beginning it has never been altogether ignored or neglected. But it has passed through great vicissi- tudes. In the earliest period of our colonization it was always openly acknowledged, even in the charters granted by the Crown. At the first foundation of our old Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the conversion of the natives was put side by side with the care of our English settlers ; and this pro- vision was never allowed to remain a dead letter. In 1 74 1 Archbishop Seeker was able to speak of the conversion " of great multitudes of negroes and Indians." But the greater part of the eighteenth century was in this respect, as in others, a time of dulness, if not deadness, of religious enthusiasm. A new era was opened by the great Revival, beginning at the close of that century — first the Wesleyan Revival, which was intended not to divide but to reanimate the Church, and then the " Evangelical Revival " in the Church itself. To it and to the Evangelical party are undoubtedly due two glorious works, closely connected with each other — the abolition of the slave-trade, and the revival of missionary enthusiasm, as shown by the creation of the Church
Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 341
Missionary Society. Perhaps this enthusiasm is strongest still in that section of the Church. But, like other principles of the Evangelical Revival, it has spread to other schools, and has to some extent diffused a sense of universal obligation through the whole body.
I. In the North American Colonies — both those which have now grown into the great Republic and those which still form British America — the relation of the English settlers to the natives was mainly one of hostility. Attempts were made at friendship and alliance (as notably in the foundation of Pennsyl- vania) ; lands were bought, instead of being seized ; peaceful relations were prescribed by authority. But the inevitable tendency of the increasing English settlements was to encroach upon the red men ; English vice, moreover, and strong drink had fatal effect upon them ; and the general result was to drive them, not without bloody struggles, from their old homes, gradually exterminating them, till there remain now but a small remnant. Of course Christi- anity, whether through our own Church or the other religious Communions, necessarily bore some witness against this internecine war, as an abuse of our superior strength, endeavouring at least to mitigate its bitter- ness of struggle, and to spread Christianity among these races — fierce, indeed, and barbarian, but far from being incapable of moral and religious civilization. But it cannot be said that this witness, although in many cases it was splendidly borne by " Apostles of the Indians," so prevailed, as to control and temper
342 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
the general hostility to the native tribes, under which they have dwindled away.
Now, it is true, for the remnant still left, that relation is wholly changed. To speak only of British North America, where there are said to be about 35,000 Indians in Canada, 52,000 in Mani- toba and the North-West, and 35,000 in British Columbia, the civil power, settling about 75,000 on reserved lands, gives to them care and protection, which seem to prevent such Indian risings as recur from time to time in the United States ; and the Church of Christ has laboured not unsuccessfully for their conversion. In our own Church the main work has been carried on in the North-West since 1823 by the Church Missionary Society — the energies of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel being devoted to the building up of the Church among the English settlers. The Society has now at work 32 English clergy, 27 native clergy, and 66 native lay-teachers, and ministers in various Indian languages to about 1 3,000 native Christians. The Church of Canada, more- over, has already instituted its own Domestic and Foreign Missionary Organization, working under synodical authority in the various dioceses, and is beginning to assume some part of the missionary duty. The change has come too late to save the Indian population generally ; but their numbers are said now not to be diminishing, and there can be no doubt that those who remain will be absorbed into the civilization and Christianity of the dominant race.
Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 343
II. In the old North American Colonies and in the West Indian Settlements, the relation to the negro race was not of hostility and extermination, but of the absolute domination of slavery, under which it grew and multiplied. It has been already seen how slavery was dealt with by the civil power : first, sanctioned and promoted by laws ; next, gradually mitigated in its oppressive dominion by laws, logically inconsistent, but practically bene- ficent ; lastly, abolished utterly — by peaceful process in our West Indian Settlements — through the tre- mendous convulsion and bloodshed of the great Civil War in the United States. It has been also seen how our English Christianity, fighting as usual the battle of true humanity, passed through a corre- sponding process — first, indeed, positively or nega- tively sanctioning slavery, and persuading itself that it was an institution not unnatural or unscriptural, and overruled for the conversion of the race to Christ ; then with a noble inconsistency striving, in spite of legal difficulty and social jealousy, to admit those, who were in the eye of the law mere chattels, to the brotherhood and the liberty of the children of God ; lastly, so telling on the public conscience by the declaration " Not a slave but a brother " as to induce the unexampled sacrifice — great in our own case, tremendous in the American Republic — by which slavery was for ever undone among the English-speaking race. The general effect has been the preservation and Christianization of the negro race as a whole.
344 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
There remains still a problem of infinite difficulty — again far more painfully felt in the United States. The slave-trade has brought together two distinct races — the one necessarily dominant, the other capable of development under domination, but as yet showing but little sign of capacity for civilized independence ; and these are brought together under institutions which give them a legal equality. How shall they be fused together, socially if not physically ? How shall the lower race be educated and inspired to fitness for the independence, which is secured to it by the law ? In our ow^n colonies, how shall the negroes, increasing in number and power, be led without compulsion to work and progress ? In the United States, how shall the tremendous danger of a conflict between races be averted ? The existence of these difficult problems is the penalty of natural misdeeds in the past, which has to be faced patiently and resolutely in the present. Clearly Christianity, which has in some sense pro- duced these problems, is bound to take a leading part in their solution — first, by guidance and educa- tion to the negro, and next, by endeavour to create some brotherhood, though not necessarily one of strict equality, betw^een the races.
The work, in this respect, of the Christianity of the United States, and of our ow^n sister Church in particular, lies, except by brief reference, beyond the scope of this summary. But in our West Indian Islands — thanks to the work of our own Church, largely aided by the civil power, and of
Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 345
other Christian Communions — there has been great and successful progress. The effort made at the time of the Emancipation by the Negro Education Fund bore an abundant fruit ; the value of Codring- ton College as a training school for the Ministry, both European and native, can hardly be exagger- ated. In Barbados we find that of a population of 182,867, all, with insignificant exceptions, are returned as Christian, and of these 147,063 belong to the Church of England, ministered to by about fifty-three clergy, with much lay help. In the Windward Islands the population of about 144,000 is Christian, with the exception of a Hindu coolie element ; and some 45,000 are members of the Church, the remainder being divided among many other Communions. In Jamaica there are but 6990 non-Christian out of 607,798 (of whom not more than 15,000 are white), and the Church of England has ninety-five clergy and about a third of the whole population. In Antigua and the Leeward Islands there are about 127,000 people, all Christian, except a few Chinese immigrants, and the Church of England has thirty- five clergy and some 52,000 members. In the Bahamas the population, about 52,000, is wholly Christian, and the Church has twenty clergy, besides a large staff of catechists under the Bishop of Nassau, and about 16,000 members. In all these dioceses, therefore, the evangelistic work is mainly over ; it remains simply to build up an established Christianity, among the comparatively few English
346 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
settlers, and the great mass of the coloured popu- lation.
There are, however, in this sphere constant developments of more directly missionary work, to which reference has already been made.
Thus in British Guiana the leading element of the work of the Church is the mission to the various races of the strangely mixed population — to the Aborigines, the East Indian coolie immigrants (about 100,000), and the Chinese immigrants (about 8000). How far the whole population of about 300,000 is Christianized, I do not know. But 150,000 are said to belong to our own Church, and we have some forty clergy under the Bishop engaged in a work mainly evangelistic. Nor is it otherwise in British Honduras, where of 31,000 inhabitants about 14,000 are negroes and 14,500 Spanish Indians. The chief Christian agency here is the Roman Catholic. Our own work at present is very slight ; but it has now a bishop at its head, and will in all probability advance.
But far the most interesting mission work in this sphere is that of the Missionary Bishopric, having its centre on British territory in the Falkland Islands, and working through the South American Mission Society. It began some fifty years ago through Captain Allen Gardiner, who was at once its founder and a martyr in its cause. It was designed to deal with those Patagonian tribes, who seemed to be utterly incapable of civilization, but were reached, and at once humanized and Christian-
Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 347
ized, by the power of the Gospel. It is on record that Charles Darwin himself, who had held that opinion, yet with his usual candour confessed him- self converted from it by actual facts, and to his dying day gave the Mission his sympathy and support/ But it has also its ministration to our own English countrymen scattered in South America, and our seamen in its ports, and through them to the natives over whom they have influence. It has its stations everywhere in South America — in the Falkland Islands, in Terra del Fuego, in the Argentine Republic, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chili. The work appears to be singularly laborious, and somewhat distracting by its variety, and the disjointed character of its organization. But it shows clearly much simplicity and earnestness in its ministry to these sheep scattered in the wilderness.
More interesting still in this connection is the mission undertaken by the "West Indian Church Association " in Barbados to the negroes in West Africa (with the aid of a corresponding Committee, and of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in England), which has been at work since 1855 in the district of the Pongos river. It was the first missionary enterprise of the members of this Colonial Church, mainly of African descent, to their African brethren. It has been singularly tried by disaster and difficulty, some distress as to resources, and much loss of life. But, in spite of all these, it has per-
^ See a letter from Admiral Sulivan to the Daily At'?^'^, 24th April 1885.
348 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
severed, and now works from five centres through clergy and catechists. By it the Susu tongue, spoken widely in West Africa, has been reduced to writing, and a translation into it of the New Testament and Prayer-Book made. It has played a leading part in the supersession of the slave-trade in that region by legitimate commerce, and it has done much in the work of native education. Like most West African missions, it has had to " sow in tears," and wait patiently, till it can " reap in joy."
III. The mission work which has devolved on the Church in Australasia is of varied character. It is carried on both in Australia and in New Zealand under Boards of Missions, including all the bishops and certain members appointed by the synods, and having diocesan committees under them ; and it is assuming larger dimensions year by year.
In Australia this missionary action seems least effective in the sphere of its closest responsibility. The aboriginal population, never perhaps very large, has almost died out, except in Western Australia, where there are about 15,000, and probably about the same number in Northern Queensland. In New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, there are still some scattered native settlements, now in all cases cared for by the governments in temporal matters, and under care of the Church through the Board of Missions, or some other Communion, in re- ligion. Of the two colonies, where the natives most abound, Queensland seems to have done little, but is now taking up the work ; Western Australia
Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 349
has made more attempt, but still with very in- adequate resources. The most remarkable mission in this colony is perhaps the Benedictine Monastery, alluded to in Lecture IV., where hundreds are gathered, converted, and brought to settled habits of life and industry. But, speaking generally, it can- not be said that even now our English Christianity has done much to atone for the sins committed in the past, by the neglect, oppression, and extermina- tion of the aboriginal race. The idea that they are incapable of civilization and conversion is certainly untrue. They would never have occupied a high place ; but still room might have been found for them in the brotherhood of humanity, had there been desire and earnestness in the cause. On one occa- sion Bishop Selwyn preached in Australia on the text, " Lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left " ; and the exhortation is needed still.
For the Chinese immigrants found in consider- able numbers in the Northern territory, and scattered elsewhere, chiefly in the great cities, more has been done. From a civil point of view they are looked upon with scant favour, partly through trade-jealousy of cheap labour, partly from a more statesmanlike fear of large alien immigration. But our Church has for many years endeavoured to draw them to Christ. In Sydney, where they are the market-gardeners of the city at Botany, there is a flourishing mission, a Chinese church, Chinese catechists, and one ordained Chinese clergyman. Every year sees adult baptisms after careful training, and baptism and instruction of
350 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
the children ; and the influence for good over the Chinese community extends far beyond the pro- fessed Christians. The mission has its dependent stations in New South Wales, and has sent out catechists to Brisbane and Riverina. In Melbourne a lesser mission is vigorously at work, and a church is in prospect of erection. In Ballarat, where the Chinese population, partly engaged in the mines, is diminishing, but still numbers some hundreds, mis- sion work has gone on for twenty-five years. In Brisbane the work is only beginning, but has now six stations. But it is in the Northern territory of South Australia and in North Queensland that the Chinese most congregate ; and, as yet, the Church in these regions, which has a severe struggle for its own existence, does not seem to have been able to meet the need.
Another phase of mission is to the Polynesian islanders, often erroneously called Kanakas, who are brought in as labourers for the sugar plantations in North Queensland. On the policy and righteous- ness of this " labour traffic " there is great difference of opinion. But, thanks to much earnest witness on the subject, the outrages which once disgraced it are being put down, and much care is taken by law for the temporal welfare of the labourers. The Church necessarily feels, and is vigorously trying to dis- charge, her missionary duty to them. Through the Board of Missions successful work, educational and evangelistic, is going on ; and there is every reason to hope that, through those who go back to their
Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 351
islands, the work so nobly done by the Melanesian Mission may be greatly aided. In this work the new Bishop of Melanesia and the Bishops of Queens- land are joining hands.
Besides these internal missionary works, consider- able aid is given both in Australia and in New Zealand to the Melanesian Mission, which will be referred to below.
The last missionary enterprise of the Australian Church is to New Guinea, in which, at the desire of the Australian colonies, a British protectorate, and sub- sequently a British dominion, have been established. In this dominion, of some 86,000 square miles, with a large population, our English Christianity has to work. The London Missionary Society has again led the way (since 1871), and under the splendid leadership of the Rev. W. G. Lawes and Rev. J. Chalmers, whose names are as household words everywhere among the natives, it has 7 European and 106 native missionaries, and a not inconsider- able number of native Christians and scholars. There is also a Roman Catholic mission at work, of which less is known. It will be, of course, under- stood that our own mission was not sent out, without consultation with these earlier labourers, and care to avoid infringing on their spheres. It began in 1886, sustained by the Australian Church, with liberal grants in aid of ;^iooo from the Society for Pro- moting Christian Knowledge, and ^1000 from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. It has its mission schooner, and has taken out clergy and
352 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
laymen, prepared both for religious and for in- dustrial work. As so often, it was tried by the loss through fever of its leader, the Rev. A. A. Maclaren ; but it has established itself, and is steadily and hope- fully at work.
In New Zealand the chief missionary work, now mainly of the past, has been to the Maori race, as described in Appendix I. By it, through our own Church, and through Roman Catholic and Wesleyan missions, the whole Maori population now existing has been Christianized. The overflow from that work, when it passed into the hands of the first Bishop of New Zealand, was the Melanesian Mission.
Such is the missionary work of the Australasian Churches, and it is almost entirely self-supporting, with the exception of the aid still given in England to the Maori Church in New Zealand and the Melanesian Mission. Even this aid is being gradually diminished, and will probably at no distant time pass away.
IV. In the third group of the South African Colonies, containing even within our own borders a large and increasing native population, the work of the Church has been from the beginning- marked with a distinctly missionary character. In the Cape Colony itself the whole European and white element was in 1891 but 376,987, out of a population of 1,527,224; in Natal only 46,788, compared with 3 native and Indian population of 496,855; in the outlying districts — Zululand, Bechuanaland, and Basutoland — a mere handful, perhaps 6000, out of more than 400,000. While, therefore, the care for
Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 353
these European settlers is at once difficult and in- finitely important, the mission to the native races necessarily assumes almost as great a prominence as in our old West Indian Settlements, although, unfortunately, there are nothing like the same re- sources for meeting it. These native races vary greatly in origin and character. In the Cape Colony alone the census of 1891 enumerates Kafirs and Bechuanas, Fingoes, Hottentots, Malays, and mixed tribes. Beyond its limits lie the Zulus, Basutos, Mashonas, Matabeles, and others. Many of them are, as we have reason to know, vigorous and war- like ; many stand high in the uncivilized scale for intelligence and capacity. From the beginning, therefore, the colonies themselves have presented a singularly varied and interesting mission-field to the barbarian races.
That field has been entered upon by representa- tives of all the chief sections of our unhappily divided Christianity. Roman Catholic missions occupy a lesser place than usual ; from the Continent we find German, Swiss, Norwegian, and Swedish societies at work ; from England and America, besides the missions of our own Church, come Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and Congregational Missions ; and the old Dutch Reformed Church, although in less proportion than other Christian bodies, has its native converts. In spite of the evil of these divi- sions, and the special causes which have impeded the action of our own Church, there has been con- siderable progress. Taking the Cape Colony alone,
2A
354 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
where the census returns are most accurate, we find that while the European and white Christian popu- lation is returned at about 372,000, there are already 319*253 native converts.^ In the other colonial districts the proportion of the native population is far larger, and the proportion of the native converts should increase with it.
In our own Church it will be noticed that even in the Cape Colony the number of native members is about equal to that of the Europeans. In the newer colonial districts every new See is marked more and more with a distinctly missionary impress. The Bishop of Zululand, for example, has but 648 whites, while the native tribes number 150,000 ; the Bishops of Kaffraria and Mashonaland have almost their whole work among the natives. The minis- tration is to at least twenty races and in ten languages. As yet but few native Christians have been found fit for the Ministry ; but progress in this respect goes on steadily and not slowly.
Nor is this all. Beyond the limits of our own colonies we have the outlying bishoprics of Bloem- fontein, in the Orange Free State, of Pretoria in the
^ Of these there are in the
Dutch Reformed Church
Church of England
Presbyterian ....
Methodist ....
Congregationalist .
Roman CathoHc
It will be noticed that the proportion of native converts in the Non- conformist Communions is singularly large.
|
White. |
Black. |
|
223,627 |
77,693 |
|
69,789 |
69,269 |
|
12,684 |
24,418 |
|
21,707 |
89,815 |
|
2,634 |
67,078 |
|
14,853 |
Uncertain |
Transvaal, of Lebombo in Delagoa Bay ; and, while these minister to our scattered English people under foreign government, they have, and will have in increasing degree, their mission to the native tribes. Farther still, the new diocese of Nyassaland forms a link with the independent missions of Central Africa.
In this group of colonies, therefore, far more than in America and Australia, the mission to the lower races will necessarily assume a special prominence. How to build up a native African Christianity, and to weld it together in true brotherhood with the Christianity of the English settlers, dominant in power, and steadily increasing in number, will be its great problems in the future. Towards their solution only an imperfect beginning has been made, especially by our own Church. But in the extra- ordinary diversity of races, and the danger of rivalry and conflict, the need of the bond of some religious unity must be very keenly felt.
V. In similar connection with our great Indian Empire there are some outlying missionary agencies to the lower races, over and above that important ministration to races of this type within the Empire and its dependencies, which has been noticed already.
The way into the great island of Borneo was opened by the remarkable enterprise of Sir James Brooke in 1838, his establishment as Rajah of Sarawak, and the acquisition of the island of Labuan as a British colony, and of North Borneo as a protectorate. Previously attempts had been made
356 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
at settlement from the beginning of the seventeenth century by the Dutch and English ; and the former have secured a protectorate over a large portion of the island. Its whole area is 280,000 square miles, and the population of heathen Dyaks, Moham- medan Malays, and Chinese, amounts to nearly 2,000,000. 01 this Sarawak and North Borneo together have about 71,000 square miles and some 500,000 people. The dominion and civilization of these regions have not been attained without severe struggles against native piracy and Chinese insurrection, but appear to be now fairly established.
On the invitation of Rajah Brooke, mission work began in i 847 under the Rev. F. T. Macdougall — afterwards consecrated as Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak in 1852 — first through an independent society, afterwards under the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel. In spite of the usual diffi- culties and strong Mohammedan opposition, it has grown in scope and organization, now working from six stations, chiefly among the Dyaks, who are intelligent and capable of civilization. It is still little more than a beginning, with ten clergy under the bishop, and about 3000 or 4000 native Christians. But, as usual, it has established stations and schools in many quarters, to be centres of future progress.
The " Straits Settlements " of the Malay Penin- sula include the islands of Singapore, Penang, and Panker, with the districts of Malacca and Wellesley, and the protected states of Perak and Salangor.
The Peninsula itself is divided between the
Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 357
Siamese and British governments, England having succeeded to the earlier Portuguese and Dutch dominion. The population generally is mixed of Siamese, Malay, and Negroid elements. But the great city of Singapore — one of the chief emporiums of Eastern commerce — has an extraordinary variety of races. In 1881 the census gave only 2769 Europeans of various nationalities, 22,155 Malays, 12,058 Klings^ (from India), 5881 Javanese, and no less than Z6,j66 Chinese. The population now probably exceeds 150,000; and the total imports and exports i^2 6,000,000 annually. There is a corresponding mixture of religions ; Christian churches, Mohammedan mosques, Hindu temples, and Chinese joss-houses rise side by side. As a mission -field it is one of infinite interest, but of infinite complexity and difficulty.
The mission work of the Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel began in i 86 1, working in conjunc- tion with chaplaincies supported by the Government for the benefit of its civil and military servants.'^ In 1872 the Peninsula was separated ecclesiastically from the See of Calcutta, and united with Labuan and Sarawak under one P^piscopate. The work is carried on from Singapore and many other centres ; but as yet it has but some eight clergy and 2000 native Christians. The cosmopolitan character of the people, while it, of course, makes progress difficult,
^ The name is said to be a corruption of Telinga (Telugu).
2 It is on record, that, when the Imperial Government contemplated disestablishment of these chaplaincies, the whole Legislative Council of Singapore protested against the resolution, and secured its withdrawal.
3S8 HULSEAN LECTURES api'.
should also make it an important centre for the diffusion of Christianity through various races of the East, if only it could be more strongly occupied. Especially it should bear upon and strengthen the work which we are endeavouring to do in China through Christian influence on the returning Chinese settlers, who form the great majority of the in- habitants of Singapore.
VI. We have next to consider the independent missions to these lower races, not directly connected with our Colonial and Indian Empire. The two forms of our mission melt into each other. That Empire extends already so widely in all quarters of the world that the spheres mainly untouched by it are only two — Africa and Polynesia. Even over these our English influence continually spreads — beginning usually in enterprise of discovery and commerce, and growing continually, almost against our will, into protectorate and dominion. But, as yet, their inhabitants are generally independent, and our influence over them, for civilization and Christianiza- tion, depends on their own willingness to receive us. Africa is still the " Dark Continent," although it is already fringed on every side by various European settlements, and although the work of exploration, and the opening of commercial and other inter- course, have wonderfully advanced in our generation, and are advancing still every day. The 170 millions' who inhabit it arc of various races, marked by six great divisions of language. Of the Hamitic family are the languages of the North,
OUR iMISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES
359
Egyptian, Libyan, and Ethiopic ; the Semitic are represented by the Arabic and Abyssinian ; the negro tribes cover the great central region from East to West, with an infinite number of languages and dialects ; the Bantu in the Southern and Eastern Africa is similarly divided ; the Nubo- Fulah is spoken in the Soudan and its neighbour- hood ; and the languages of the Hottentots, Bush- men, and pigmy tribes, belong to the far South. All these various races, divided from one another, and constantly liable to internecine wars, are of various degrees and capacities of civilization. There is in them little independent force and no internal unity. Evidently they must be, and will be, absorbed or sub- jugated by the stronger power of the civilized races. At present the battle for mastery is between the Asiatic and the European races, and of the issue of this conflict there can be little doubt. At this moment it is estimated that far the greater part of the continent is included within the " spheres of influence," into which the European nations have calmly assumed the right of dividing it. The last returns give for —
|
Siiuare Miles. |
Population. |
|
|
British Africa French ,, .... German ,, .... Portuguese Africa .... ItaHan ,, ■ Spanish ,, • |
2,810,000 2,997,000 823,000 842,000 602,000 214,000 |
47,656,000 27,320,000 6,920,000 5,650,000 7,300,000 450,000 |
|
8,288,000 |
95,296,000 |
36o HULSEAN LECTURES app.
The whole of the rest, including the Boer States, the Congo Free State, and Turkish Africa and Morocco, occupies only 3,232,000 square miles, and contains 73,950,000 people, and even over this European influence largely prevails.
Clearly, therefore, the Dark Continent is directly or indirectly under European ascendency.
This ascendency over the weaker African races was in days past abused to the horror of the slave- trade. As in all barbarian countries, slavery is everywhere a domestic institution in Africa, fed by war and man - hunting, or, as in old times, by distress from famine and insolvency. Of that institution the slave-trade took advantage, and not only helped to sustain and extend it, but added to it extremes of cruelty and suffering before unknown. The slave - trade through Christian nations, after lasting for more than three centuries, is happily — mainly through the initiative taken by England — a thing of the past. But two forms of this trade still remain, of which the central influence is in Mohammedanism — the slave-trade of East Africa by sea to Mohammedan countries, of which Zanzibar was a chief centre ; and the interior slave-trade through the Soudan, against which General Gordon and Sir Samuel Baker fought for a time successfully, but which in the present condition of the Soudan has unhappily revived. Of both these forms of oppression and injustice it is clear, that they have to be put down by defeat of the inhuman power of Mohammedanism, and almost equally clear
Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 361
that this beneficent task will devolve mainly on England.
But if this abuse of superior power is doomed, as undoubtedly it is doomed, to perish before the advance of European influence, there is a danger, lest that advance should beget less flagrant, but hardly less deadly evils, if it still be abused to purely political or commercial selfishness.
The " scramble for Africa," now rapidly growing in scope and intensity, if it is carried on simply to open new markets and gain new territories, without any sense of duty and mission to the native races, may not only bring its penalty to ourselves by making Africa a battle-field of disastrous struggle between European nations, but may become a tyranny and a destruction to those whom we ought to benefit and help to a higher humanity. The ideal at which this dominant influence, whether in our own hands or in others, should aim, is such a government as that which the Anglo-Indian Govern- ment endeavours to be, securing something like unity and peace, tempering might by right, develop- ing the natural resources of the territories, and educating the native races, intellectually, socially, and morally, to a true civilization. Only so far as it attains to this, can it have its justification and blessing.
Far worse, even than this, is the unscrupulous ascendency of the merely commercial spirit — using the ignorance and recklessness of the natives to the utmost, as simply means of gain, if not oppor- tunities of fraud ; selling to them what must be
362 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
their curse and their destruction ; conniving at the slavery, with all its attendant cruelties, which we profess to repudiate. Of all the most fatal in its effect is the selling to the native tribes the fire- arms, which are used for intestine wars, and the strong liquor, often made more deadly by shameless adulteration, which is rapidly degrading and even destroying these weaker races. There may be difference of opinion as to the extent of this evil ; but no one can doubt that it is so disastrous in its effects, as often to outweigh all advantages of inter- course with civilized nations, and that it is steadily, and often rapidly, increasing, as this intercourse extends. After all, it is but a modified form of the reckless use of the weak for the material benefit of the strong, of which the slave-trade was a crude unblushing example.
Against all these forms of selfishness the battle of a true humanity has to be waged. It can be waged successfully only by international agreement. If England is true to her old traditions, she will be foremost in the cause ; but she cannot act alone. The chief motive force to generate such agreement will be now, as of old, the spirit of Christian brotherhood ; but its higher influence must be supported by material force. Towards such inter- national action we are, it may be hoped, slowly and imperfectly, but steadily advancing.
Looking now to the religious aspect of our rela- tion to Africa, we see that it is emphatically the "Pagan Continent." Of its 170 millions of people
Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 363
the mass lie altogether outside the pale of the great religions of the world. The paganism of Africa, by the very nature of things, is marked by local and racial variety. Hardly anywhere is there absence of belief in the supernatural — ^mostly, as usual, in some one supreme power, above and below the lesser supernatural powers, gods, demons, or spirits. But this is strangely overlaid by belief in witchcraft of various kinds, and by fetichism — a virtual idolatry of objects, into which some supernatural power has been infused. The effect is to oppress and darken life with gross superstitions, properly so called, culmin- ating in terrible human sacrifices, demanded through the priests or wizards by the powers of good and evil. Here also it is clear that the disintegration and spiritual weakness of the native races will give way to the ascendency of some nobler religion ; nor can there be any doubt that they are capable of being raised by it to a higher humanity. Again the question appears to be whether the conquering religion shall be Mohammedanism or Christianity.
Mohammedanism w^as from the seventh century propagated by the sword in Northern Africa, where it trod down or extirpated w^hat was once a great and flourishing Christianity — in Egypt the very centre of Greek enlightenment and religious philo- sophy— elsewhere the cradle of Latin Christianity itself It has spread largely, both in West Africa and in the Soudan and on the East Coast, partly perhaps still by force, partly by its own intrinsic superiority to paganism, and by its power over bar-
364 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
barians as a religion of the law. It is said to rule over some forty millions of people, with a sway vary- ing greatly in its effective force, and in the purity of its Monotheism. Christianity in North Africa, as in Asia, is of ancient date. Its disintegration by schism, heresy, and persecution, and its final super- session by the religion of Islam, form one of the saddest chapters in Church history. It survives only — oppressed, and in measure corrupted — in the Coptic and Abyssinian Churches of the North-East. In the other parts of Africa its introduction has followed naturally with the growth of European in- fluence. But as yet it cannot be said to number more than three and a half millions of adherents — scarcely one-fiftieth of the whole population.
With which of these two religions is the future religious civilization of Africa to rest? Independ- ently of the confidence of Christian faith, history supplies an unequivocal answer. The religion of Islam, with its grand but bare Monotheism, its fatalism, and its dependence upon law, has had, and still has, power over simpler and cruder conditions of human society ; but not being, in the true sense, a religion of humanity, will not only fail to further culture and progress, but will hardly coexist with them. In Africa, moreover, it is marked by two fatal disqualifications. First, its polygamy condones voluptuousness and degrades womanhood ; next, it is the very strength of the slave-trade and slavery, which are the curses of Africa. Where it supersedes gross paganism, we may recognise it as an instrument
Ill OUR MISSION TO THE BARBARIAN RACES 365
for good in the hand of God. But the future cannot rest with it. If only European nations were as earnest and as united in their Christian faith, as in the service of their commercial and political ascend- ency, no one can doubt that Christianity, although it be now but a comparatively small force, would steadily and irresistibly prevail.
These then being the relations in which we stand to Africa, it remains to see what progress has been made by English Christianity towards their right fulfilment.
The answer is twofold. First, in South Africa, as has been already seen, the colonial Church furnishes a base of operations, from which we have begun to advance already in the spiritual warfare, and shall, I trust, advance more rapidly and in greater force in time to come. In the next place, we are establishing elsewhere scattered outposts on the outskirts of the great continent, from which we may hope to converge upon the dark interior.
So far as our own Church is concerned, this latter work has been carried on in the main by the great Church Missionary Society, expressly founded for " Africa and the East," and through its founders connected with the noble work of the abolition of the slave trade. It is true that the older Society for the Propagation of the Gospel began some effort upon the Gold Coast in 175 i, and in Sierra Leone after 1787; and that it has materially aided the Pongos Mission of the West Indian Church. There arc still in connection with its Mission about 2000
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native Christians. But, true to its primary relation to the colonial Church, it has transferred its main interest to the work of the South African Church, and the field has been left to the missionary energy of the younger society.
VII. In Western Africa the Church Missionary Society has three important missions — the Sierra Leone, the Yoruba, and the Niger Missions.^
" Western Africa," as ordinarily understood, ex- tends from the Senegal river to the Cameroon moun- tains, including the valley of the Gambia and the great basin of the Niger. France has possessions on the Senegal, and a large tract in the interior up to the Sahara ; the free Republic of Liberia (inhabited by negroes from the United States) is on the " Grain Coast " ; England occupies Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and the delta of the Niger ; and the two negro kingdoms of Dahomey and Ashanti ^ are trouble- some neighbours to our Gold Coast Settlements. The Mohammedan influence is strong through the great Fulah tribe, distinct from the pagan negroes, who are divided into many tribes, with a bewildering variety of languages.
Sierra Leone, a settlement of the Portuguese since
^ The other most important Mission is the Weslcyan, which has stations in Sierra Leone, on the Gambia, in the Gold Coast and Lagos districts, with thirty-four European missionaries, and a large number of native teachers, and with 13,000 Church members, and more than 50,000 adherents. Our sister Church in America has had a mission at Cape Palmas under a missionary bishop since 1S51.
^ The Basle Society, in spite of difficulty and persecution, has estab- lished a mission in Ashanti itself, which claims 4000 native converts.
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1 46 1, became a great centre of the slave-trade. On the aboHtion of the trade, having passed into Eng- Hsh hands, first of a Company in 1791, afterwards of the Crown in 1808, it was made a home for hberated and rescued slaves — necessarily a strangely mixed population, degraded and demoralized by slavery. Its territory gradually extended ; and in 1 88 1 it had above 60,000 people, of whom more than 35,000 were "liberated Africans," and only 271 Europeans. The Church Missionary Society began its work in 1 8 5 i ; the bishopric was estab- lished in 1852. Necessarily the beginning was made entirely by Europeans ; but the country became the " white man's grave " ; missionary after missionary succumbed, and the first three bishops died of fever in seven years. By the teaching of necessity, it was seen that the work must be done by a native ministry. Accordingly Fourah Bay Training College was established, and has worked successfully since 1827. It has sent out already some sixty native clergy and the first native bishop (Bishop Crowther). The native Church is now organized, independently of the Church Missionary Society ; to be already " self-governing, self-supporting, and self- extending " ; and to be hereafter, we trust, a centre of light and evangelization to the natives around. At this moment it has 19 clergy, 92 lay teachers, and 14,000 native Christians, besides the staff still retained at work under the parent Society.
Yorubaland, extending from the Bight of Benin far inland, has a population of about two millions,enter-
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prising and partly civilized, open to commerce, and possessing large cities, of which Abeokuta is the chief. Of all the West African regions it had suffered most from the slave-trade and the ravages to which it gave rise — the chief centre of the trade being Lagos on the coast. The C.M.S. Mission began in 1 844 with glad welcome and rapid progress. Subsequently it suffered greatly, first from inter-tribal wars and native jealousy of British advance, leading to persecu- tion and expulsion from Abeokuta ; and next, from savage Dahomey inroads and massacres. In defiance, moreover, of all that could be done by force or by treaty, the slave-trade continued ; till in 185 i Lagos was taken and annexed by England, and has since become a flourishing town of nearly forty thousand people. In spite of all obstacles the Mission has steadily grown. As at Sierra Leone, an independent native church has been formed, with ten clergy, many lay teachers, and 6500 native Christians ; while the Church Missionary Society still has nine European and seven native clergy, and about 2000 native Christians. The lower basin of the great river Niger, with an inland territory of 500,000 square miles, and a popu- lation estimated at about 30,000,000, has now been brought into the " British sphere of influence" through the Royal Niger Company. The upper basin, con- taining some powerful Mohammedan states, is in the French sphere ; and out of the juxtaposition of the two nations difficulties and • troubles constantly arise. The Niger itself was discovered as early as 1797 ; three successive expeditions were sent up
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the river by the British Government in 1841, 1854, and 1857, with a view to further discovery, com- merce, and evangelization. Although they suffered many disasters, they achieved much in opening up the country. Along the river a large and increas- ing trade with the interior has sprung up.
The Church Missionary Society did not begin its labours here till about 1857, and for a long time progress was very slow. There were many hind- rances— the great variety of languages and the need of study and translation in each, the difficulties of climate and circumstance, the hostility of savage tribes (some being cannibals), and the abuses of European trade, especially in the liquor -traffic. Gradually, however, as usual, way was made ; a missionary steamer was launched on the Niger, and stations formed on the coast (as at Bonny and Brass), and up the river. There are now at work under the Church Missionary Society nine European and native clergy, besides lay teachers, and the native Christians are about 1300.
This Mission is especially notable, as the one in which the native Ministry has been crowned by a native Episcopate in the person of Bishop Crowther. His history is a singularly striking one, as indicating the capacities, intellectual and spiritual, of the negro race. Brought down as a slave-boy and liberated by a British cruiser in 1822, he was instructed at Sierra Leone and baptized in 1825 ; he entered Fourah Bay College as its first student in 1827, and, after years of study and teaching, was ordained in
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1843. ^or twenty-one years he ministered, both as a pastor and an evangehst, in various African missions ; he took a leading part in all the Niger expeditions, and became leader of the Mission in 1857. Finally, he was consecrated as the Bishop of the Niger in 1864, and after twenty-seven years of faithful and self-denying service died in 1891, not long after a visit to England in 1888 for the last Lambeth Conference, where he was received with singular cordiality and respect. The example is a notable one. With needful caution and discrimina- tion we may hope to see it followed, as the native Ministry grows to maturity.
These are the chief outposts of our Church on the West African coasts — signs and fruits of our atonement for the slave-trade, which so long deso- lated the country. The great hope of advance of Christianity in that region is the prospect of their becoming, in due course, missionary centres to their heathen fellow-countrymen.
VIII. On the other side of the continent, " East Africa," which extends from Cape Gardafui to the Zambesi, presents another field, of large extent and population, representing three chief linguistic divi- sions of the native tribes. It has been long under dominant Mohammedan influence, having intercourse by sea with Arabia. Arab governments, partially civilized, were found there by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century; and through them the whole region, and especially Zanzibar, became the seat of the Eastern slave-trade and of piracy. It is only of
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late years that European power has made itself felt here, gradually absorbing the Arab Sultanate of Zanzibar. In 1890 and 1891 the whole of this region was divided into the " spheres of influence " of Germany, Italy, and England. Zanzibar itself fell under the British Protectorate, with a large tract of country — stretching along the coast, and inland up to the Victoria Nyanza and the borders of the Congo Free State — administered by the British East Africa Company under imperial control. The main objects in view are to develop commerce, to destroy the East African slave-trade, and to carry on the work of civilization and Christianization. The task- is facilitated by the wide prevalence of the Swahili language.
The two chief centres of our own missionary work here are Mombasa and Zanzibar, the head- quarters respectively of the Church Missionary Society and Universities' Missions.^
The pioneers of missionary work in East Africa were the Germans, Krapf and Rebmann, working under the Church Missionary Society from i 844 to about 1 88 1. By geographical discovery, by re- markable linguistic labour, and in less degree by direct evangelism under infinite difficulties, they were content simply to sow the seed, and look for- ward in faith to the harvest. Then followed the
^ Many other missions are at work — the Presbyterian missions, both of the Established and Free Churches, the London Missionary Society, and (in German East Africa) several German societies. Others, both British and American, start from the western side, especially on the Congo, and meet these in the interior.
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journeys of discovery of Burton and Speke, of Baker, Livingstone, and Stanley ; and by them the country was opened up to EngHsh knowledge and enterprise. The C.M.S. Mission has its head- quarters at the island of Mombasa — the chief depot of the East Africa Company. After the visit of Sir Bartle Frere to negotiate for the aboli- tion of the Eastern slave-trade, the island and Frere Town, a settlement on the mainland, became — like Sierra Leone in former times — a settlement of liberated slaves, the nucleus of a native Church. From it extension took place to the Rabai district, and to the country of the great Masai tribe, which is said to be fierce and savage, but not incapable of civilization. Progress under constant difficulty and occasional persecution, here as elsewhere, was the substance of its history.
But from this base of operations a bold advance was soon to be made. The discoveries of Speke and Burton, following up a hint of Krapf, had made known the two great inland seas, now called Lake Tanganika ^ and the Victoria Nyanza. Living- stone and Stanley followed in the same track ; and Stanley in particular surveyed the Victoria Nyanza and the country round, lying 3800 feet above the level of the sea, in a region not unfit for European settlement, with a people superior to the ordinary native tribes, evidently having promise of being capable of civilization. Of these tribes the king-
^ In this region the London Missionary Society has several stations.
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dom which we call Uganda^ is the chief power, and Stanley had much intercourse with its king, Mtesa. On his return to England he challenged English Christianity to send missionaries to this remarkable country, which Mohammedanism had already penetrated. His challenge was promptly and nobly taken up by the Church Missionary Society, and some ;^24,ooo raised to meet this splendid vocation.
It seemed a hazardous enterprise to plunge many hundred miles from the base of operations into an unknown land. But in seven months the first expedition was ready to start from Zanzibar in June 1876 ; and from that time onward the Mission has been vigorously carried on. It has had more than usual of trouble and vicissitude — in conflict with the Arab slave-traders and the power of Moham- medanism—under alternations of favour and hostility from the native kings, at one time resulting in cruel persecution — under the difficulty and scandal of conflict between our Mission and a subsequent Roman Catholic Mission, which is substantially a rivalry of English and French influences. But, as usual, the work made progress, and in 1884 the first bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa (Bishop Hannington) was consecrated as its head. He had scarcely begun his work, when, by the hostility of Mwanga, king of Uganda, he was called to seal it by martyrdom, and a cruel persecution, borne with extraordinary faithfulness, fell on the native converts. ^ The people themselves appear to call it Buganda.
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This also passed away ; the Church had grown under it, and had already made translations of parts of the New Testament, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer in their own tongue.
Then came another trial. The British East Africa Company, appalled by pecuniary risk and difficulty, and unsupported by our Government, announced their intention of withdrawal from Uganda. Once more the Church Missionary Society rose nobly to the occasion, and in a few days raised ^16,000 to supply the needful funds. The Govern- ment sent out a Commission of Inquiry; subsequently they accepted the responsibility of a British Pro- tectorate in 1894, and are resolving now on a railway from Mombasa to Uganda.
The history is a remarkable one. Here, for once, Christian enthusiasm has outstripped even com- mercial enterprise, and become the pioneer of national advance. We may confidently hope that Uganda is won for ever, as an outpost and centre of Christian civilization in the heart of the Dark Continent. Already we see considerable advance. There are at work 2 5 European and 8 native clergy, 3 1 European and 1 2 8 native lay teachers ; of native Christians in the coast district 2535, and in the interior 1700. But, since the first stages of difficulty and failure seem to have passed by, it is all but certain that this advance will speedily and signally increase.
The Universities' Mission was founded in 1859, in answer to a stirring appeal from Livingstone in
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1856, by combination of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Dublin, and Durham. Its sphere of action was farther to the south, in the neighbourhood of Zanzibar and the basin of the great river Zambesi. Headed by Bishop Mackenzie — one of the most distinguished of the Cambridge teachers of his day, who had previously been Archdeacon of Natal — the expedition started in 1861, under the guidance of Livingstone himself, for the Shire uplands in the valley of the Zambesi, intending there to establish its first settlement, and to make slaves, rescued on the way from Arab slave-holders, the nucleus of a native Church. It began its work with enthusiasm and hope, and with a strong support of public interest and sympathy. But, more than even the Uganda Mission, it met with disaster and failure. In less than a year its noble and saintly leader died of fever, and his companions were similarly struck down, or sent home as invalids. Bishop Tozer, who succeeded, despairing of success in that region, transferred the enfeebled and dispirited Mission to Zanzibar in 1864 ; and there for a time it languished, the enthusiasm of support at home slackened, and its bright hopes seemed quenched in utter failure. But it held on still, and under Bishop Steere (1874-82) — a man of strong character, high linguistic culture and ability, and absolute devotion — it revived marvellously out of apparent deadness. This revival continued under the leadership of Bishop Smythies — a worthy successor of Bishop Steere — who, after a laborious and self- denying episcopate of ten years, has but lately passed
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away — another of those earnest and holy men, who have been content to lay down their lives in the African Mission. Still having its centre, with school and college and hospital, at Zanzibar — where it deals with the liberated slaves, and has signalized its remark- able ascendency by erecting a fine church on the site of the old slave-market — it has established stations on the mainland in the Rovuma and Usambara dis- tricts, and has pushed on to Nyassaland, which is now the seat of a second Missionary Bishopric. Every- where at last, after long delay and trial, openings seem to present themselves. In Nyassaland the presence of its own bishop has given a fresh impulse to the work, carried on especially on the borders of the great lake, and coming almost into touch with the missions on the other two lakes of Tanganika and Victoria Nyanza.
It is a characteristic feature of this Mission, that it already has Synodical government and organization in full force under Episcopal presidency, and gains from it the great benefits of unity, counsel, and direction of its scattered missionary works. Perhaps it is an even more striking characteristic, that the great body of its missionaries form a kind of free brotherhood, sustained by a common fund, and re- ceiving from it only the needful expense of main- tenance. In both it has struck the keynote of an initiative, which may be of the greatest value to the whole Missionary Church.
The Mission in 1893 had its 2 bishops, 24 European and 5 native clergy, 56 European lay
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teachers (male and female), and 104 native lay- readers and teachers ; the adult lay members of the Church were 3551, and there were more than 2000 children in its schools. The " bread cast upon the waters " has been " found after many days " ; and the Mission, once apparently doomed to failure, is now at last brightened by success and hopefulness.
It will be seen by this brief summary that, as yet, our mission to Africa is but in its infancy. The great mass of the people of Africa are still un- touched ; those who are won to Christ are but a few sheep, scattered in the wilderness. But on every side of this vast Continent, which is now opening itself rapidly to our discovery and commerce, and becoming an important factor in the history of the world, the difficult task of the first planting of centres of Christian influence has been achieved, not without infinite sacrifice of devoted Christian lives. If we may trust the teaching of experience, we may fairly hope that the next half- century will be an era of rapid spiritual development — provided only that Christian evangelism keeps pace with commercial and political enterprise.
In connection with our Mission in Africa, the progress of Christianity in Madagascar may be noticed here, although in itself it is an entirely independent development. This large and beautiful island, discovered by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, has received settlers from many European races, but has fallen, and is clearly destined to fall more completely, under French domination. It has
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a large mixed population, about 4,000,000, of native tribes, of which the Hova is the chief, with an idola- trous religion, involving some ancestral worship and much belief in sorcery. The English connection with the island is purely commercial.
The chief representative of English Christianity here is the London Missionary Society, which began its work in 181 8, reducing the Hova language to writing, translating the Scriptures, and building up a large and flourishing Christian community.^ There is also, under French auspices, a Roman Catholic Mission. The work of our own Church is com- paratively recent — through the Society for the Pro- pagation of the Gospel, and (for a time) the Church Missionary Society — first in 1864 at Tamatave, and subsequently, by express invitation of the Hova authorities, at the capital Antananarivo. As the work grew, it needed, of course, the superintendence of a bishop. But the London Missionary Society opposed the creation of a Madagascar bishopric, especially in the capital, as likely to interfere with their own very successful work, and as inconsistent with the usual understanding to avoid trenching on a province already occupied by Christianity. Even the Church Missionary Society authorities were in- clined to be content with Episcopal supervision from Mauritius. The Government, influenced by this opposition, refused to advise the grant of the royal
^ The return for 1894 gives 32 English and 1061 native ministers, 63,020 "church members," 283,738 "native adherents," and about 74,000 scholars.
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license to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Archbishop Tait), and, after many efforts at conciliation, he advised another reference to the Scottish Bishops, as unfettered by legal difficulties. By them the first bishop (Kestell -Cornish) was consecrated in 1874, with the support of the Society for the Pro- pagation of the Gospel — the Church Missionary Society having withdrawn their Mission. The con- troversy was, indeed, most unfortunate. But it need hardly be said that there is abundant room for various missions in this great island, and there is reason to hope that the fears of collision have proved unfounded.^ At present our Church has there about 27 clergy and 10,000 native Christians. But the French invasion, and coming French ascendency, may, it is feared, interfere with the work of our English Christianity.
IX. The other chief sphere of this same form of missionary work to the barbarian races is in the great congeries of islands, which stud the Pacific Ocean off the eastern shores of Asia, and which we call generally Polynesia. Like Africa, although in less degree, it is bordered on every side by higher civilizations. In the north are the great Eastern Empires of China and Japan ; on the south-west our Australasian colonies, with lesser settlements of other European powers, are the strong representatives of the West. Here also the same result follows from
^ The Bishop has joined with the missionaries of the London Society in the work of Bible translation, and other religious and charitable works.
38o HULSEAN LECTURES app.
this contact — first the intercourse of maritime discovery and commerce ; then the extension of dominant influence, the assumption of protectorate, and the creation of dominion. Here also there is in some degree the same rivahy, and not unfrequent colHsion, of the advancing powers. Happily in this region there has been no slave-trade ; nor, except in a highly -modified form, any approach to its cruel abuse of superior strength. Happily also in this region the advance of the higher Christian brother- hood has mostly kept pace with the secular expansion, and in not a few cases has preceded it, striving not unsuccessfully to control or temper the more selfish influences of the merely commercial spirit, and the greed of political aggrandisement.
The field is one of great extent, of singular interest, yet of singular difficulty. These islands are numbered by hundreds, mostly of great beauty and fertility ; the native races, while they are barbarous, in many cases even to cannibalism, are far from being un- intelligent, and have proved themselves highly capable of culture and civilization ; nor, except where they have been deceived or oppressed, are they unwilling to open intercourse with Europeans. But, over and above the serious difficulty of the tropical climate, the extraordinary mixture of races, and the bewilder- ing babel of tongues, are necessarily most serious hindrances to the creation among them of anything like unity and brotherhood. Still these hindrances, great as they are, have not prevented us from in- cluding these islands, for good and for evil, within
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the sphere of European Influence. It has been felt (as Bishop Sehvyn expressed it) that where the discoverer, the trader, and the settler went, the missionary of the kingdom of God must also go.
The leading position which England occupies in these regions, both through her commercial supremacy and by her great colonial possessions, has, of course, laid a special responsibility on our English Chris- tianity, which within the last half- century it has striven to fulfil. There has been through all its divisions an universal movement for Polynesian evan- gelization. To say nothing of Roman Catholic missions, of which we know but little, and which are often rather foreign than English, the various Nonconformist Communions, both of England and of America, have been active labourers in this mission- field. The London Missionary Society has done splendid work in the Society Islands, the Samoan Islands the Hervey Islands, the Loyalty Islands, and in the great island of New Guinea ; and its missionaries are said to have more than 42,000 native adherents. The Wesleyan Missions have absolutely Christianized the Friendly Islands and the Fijian group, which now have their independent native Churches. Pres- byterian Missions have established themselves in the New Hebrides. Other Christian bodies have taken part in this great movement ; and the separation of the islands from one another, and mutual agreement to avoid trenching on fields already occupied, have done much to mitigate the evil effects of our religious divisions.
382 HULSEAN LECTURES app.
The chief part taken by our own Church is re- presented by the Melanesian Mission, occupying the Solomon Islands. It was originated in 1847 by Bishop Selwyn, stirred (as he said) to action by the knowledge, that these islands had long been visited in the interests of trade, while no European mission- ary of any nation or creed had found his way thither. Struck with the babel of languages — two or three, perhaps, even in a small island — he saw at once that the one chance of reaching these islanders was through men of their own race, taught and Christian- ized, and sent back to be missionaries for Christ in their old homes. Accordingly in the year 1849 ^^ set out in a little 20 -ton schooner, the Undine (which made voyages of 20,000 miles before it was super- seded by a larger vessel), and after friendly inter- course with various islands, brought home to Auckland his first cargo of Melanesian boys, to be instructed and trained. For years this same work continued, in his hands and those of Bishop Patteson, to whom it was given up in 1861. First at Auck- land, afterwards at Norfolk Island, the Missionary School and College were established ; by Bishop Patteson and the Rev. R. Codrington and others the native languages were studied and classified, and translations of Holy Scripture and the Prayer-Book made. Gradually the young scholars grew up, were trained, and, wherever fit, ordained for the Ministry ; and through them the work of Christ in the various islands began, and the spiritual harvest has been gathered in. Norfolk Island is the central Christian
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community, European and native ; and from it the Bishop and his fellow-labourers go out continually to direct and inspire the local workers in the various islands, more of which are occupied every year — returning after each voyage for rest and study, and the restoring influences of a common Christian life and worship. This method of evangelization has, of course, its failures and disappointments ; but on the whole it has vindicated itself by its results, and the Christianity, which it implants, is distinctly a native Christianity.
Success in this, as in the other missionary fields, would have been far greater, if it had not been marred by the sins of our own people — by fraud and de- moralization in commerce, and by the abuses, even to kidnapping and murder, of the labour-traffic from Queensland. Some vessels engaged in that traffic actually personated the Bishop and his vessel, and carried off the deceived natives by force. Finally, this flagrant evil culminated in a catastrophe, which stirred the whole heart and conscience of England. In 1 87 1 five men had been thus carried from Nukapu. Soon after Bishop Patteson landed, unarmed and alone as usual, on the island. His boat's crew waiting for him were assailed with fatal effect by a shower of poisoned arrows ; and soon a native canoe was seen floating out, with the body of the murdered Bishop laid in it, and a palm branch of five knots placed upon his breast. The murder was the savage revenge on the white man of those who knew not what they did. He himself had foreseen its possibility, and
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had protested by anticipation that no vengeance should be taken for his death. At the time he was in the zenith of his influence ; he had 565 young islanders under his care, representing some fifteen languages ; and everywhere his " Southern Cross " was hailed with joy and confidence. But his death was not in vain. It checked, and for a time abolished, the labour-traffic ; it stirred an infinite sympathy at home, which was expressed even in the Queen's Speech in Parliament ; it gave a fresh impulse and support to the Mission, carried on with unabated earnestness by the Rev. R. Codrington and Bishop John Selwyn, consecrated in 1875. The beautiful Memorial Church at Norfolk Island was raised to his memory ; and it is not a little significant of subse- quent progress, that, on the very spot where he was murdered, a memorial cross has been erected, and is now reverently guarded by the islanders.
Since that time the Mission has gone on and prospered. Spent by unremitting labour and sacrifice. Bishop John Selwyn had reluctantly to retire disabled, and take up quieter Church work in England. His successor, Bishop Wilson, on his way out has been able to arrange with the Church authorities in Queens- land for the care and Christianization of the islanders, again brought into that colony under stricter regula- tions, and for combination of this with the work of the Melanesian Mission itself.
The Mission, as a whole, is full of brightness and interest. It has proved plainly that in these islanders, barbarous and savage as they have been, there are
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the rudiments of moral and spiritual life, which Christianity can use and guide to perfection ; and that their Christianity, when it has been thus im- planted, is a real and vital power.^ By the nature of the case it is but the seed-time of the future. But hardly anywhere has Christ been more faithfully and effectually preached, by life as well as word.
Besides the Melanesian Mission, it may be well to refer briefly to two other efforts of our Church in the Pacific.
The former is in the Fijian islands, which since 1874 have become a British possession. With the native population. Christianized by the Wesleyan missionaries since 1835, there is no idea of inter- ference. But there is in the island a not inconsider- able English settlement, mainly of Churchmen, and there has been an importation of coolies — 7000 from the Melanesian Islands, and 4000 from North India— who lie beyond the pale of the Wesleyan ministra- tion. Accordingly some few English clergy have taken up this branch of the work, and it has been proposed to found a Missionary Bishopric in Fiji for this and for evangelization of neighbouring islands.^
The second is some 2500 miles away, in the
^ In Samoa, after the late German inroad, when a hurricane drove some of the German ships on shore, the Samoans, not long ago savages and cannibals, actually saved many of the sailors at the risk of their own lives. There could hardly have been a more striking object-lesson in practical Christianity.
^ The late Hon. John Campbell of Sydney, the founder of the See of Riverina, left by will an estate for the endowment of this Bishopric of Fiji, which, however, under the present depression, cannot be adequately realized.
2C
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Hawaiian group of islands. The social and political condition of these islands, discovered by Captain Cook and the scene of his death, has been strangely confused. English influence has hitherto been strong ; but from their position the islands fall more naturally under American influence, and may pass under an American protectorate. They are beautiful and fertile islands of volcanic formation, and appear to have now about 90,000 inhabitants, European, Hawaiian, and Chinese.
The religious history of these islands is strange enough. In 1786 two English sailors were seized and detained, but kindly treated by the king. They gained influence, and taught something of Christianity. In 1 8 1 9 the king and the people broke through the superstition of the Tapu, destroyed their idols, and were in search of a new religion. Christian mission- aries began to answer the call — American Congrega- tionalists in 1820, the London Missionary Society in 1822, Roman Catholics in 1829. It was not till i860 that, at the request of the king and his queen Emma, the grand-daughter of one of the English sailors of 1787, the Church of England took up the work, and, with the liberal aid of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, sent out a bishop and some clergy in 1861. The Mission, begun under most favourable auspices, has not quite fulfilled its first expectations. But it has about 2000 people attached to it, and is well organized, with a cathedral, an hospital, a sisterhood, churches, and schools, and a small body of clergy under the bishop.
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X. Such is the last sphere of our missionary enter- prise— in no quarter neglected, but in none adequately filled. To our own Church especially there is un- doubtedly a call to far greater enterprise. For upon the manifestation of a vital strength in our Christianity depends in no slight degree the future of a true civilization of these backward races. Nor can we doubt that through this ministration, as through that of our Oriental Mission, we are ourselves learning lessons, both of wisdom and of faith, as to the essen- tial truth and force of Christianity, which must react for good on our own Christian thougrht and life.
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