Inculcate church independence. and commending our holy faith to their countrymen. Social ostracism is fast yielding to common sense and justice, and Christian agriculturists and artisans will soon be welcome everywhere. V. The Bible idea of church independence should be early inculcated and insisted upon. Our converts should be patiently and persistently taught that the church or chapel, the school, the preacher, all are theirs in a higher and truer sense than they are the Mission's. From the day of their baptism we should train them to contribute freely for the maintenance and extension of the church whose members they become. The life and vigour of the Native Church will depend upon her understanding that it is her own duty and privilege to provide the means of grace for herself and for her benighted countrymen. Many of us know how hard a thing it is to make a church believe this, that has been fed, and fostered and fattened on foreign funds. The fattening process I fear in such churches falls short of reaching the soul, which remains lean and languid enough though in a well kept body. Begin on the So I say we should begin on the right plan. We want right plan. no village or jungle cathedrals built with English or American cash. Let our converts build their own mud chapels, pay their own Native pastors in paddy or other produce. Aggressive Christianity imposes this burden on every believer, and our jungle-men cannot and do not claim exemption from the Scripture precept, "Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things." Our fine pucka edifices built with Mission money and kept in repair at Mission cost may be putting back and keeping back the day of church independence in India. Thank God, the Santals like their Karen brothers across the Bay, are beginning to show us how cheerfully, and with what genuine Christian spontaneity and zest converts may care for their own and their neighbours' spiritual needs. The closer we keep to Bible methods, the sooner shall we see our Mission churches strong and self-propagating. More men apart for this work. VI. More men should be set apart for this work amongst should be set the masses. Every clever man, my brethren, is not needed at Jerusalem. Our towns and sudder stations are drawing off too many Missionaries from the Mofussil proper. The cities and stations must be held by strong men, but I extremely regret the tendency to overlook village and jungle work. Recently several fresh helpers were sent out to a Bengal Mission, and all were located by express orders from home in one sudder station. I think the locating of Missionaries should always be left to the Mission Committee in the field. They know where help is most needed, and will be more apt surely to judge wisely than men on the other side of the globe. A Christian Civilian was saying the other day, "See those Missionaries, half a dozen of them in that station. There they live the whole year, save a few weeks in December and January when they go out on preaching tours into the great district of which the station is only the capital." I felt the force of the remark, which was not cynical but kind and called for. Civilians, civil engineers, Civil Surgeons and other Government officers, besides contractors, planters and other Europeans are much out amongst the masses. Might not a part if not all of our city force be as mobile, and as much on the move?" Ambassadors of Christ of the apostolic order" says a writer in one of your popular London periodicals," are becoming as scarce as the dodo and the caperkalzie." I don't believe it, but it is a pity such a thing should be said. Not to Timothy alone but to all of us saith the Scripture, "Endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." There are petty drawbacks in this outside work, but these only whet the edge of true courage. "Give us men of David Brainerd's spirit" said Leighton, "and nothing will stand before them." Besides, men living and working in a rural community come closer to the natural heart and life of the people. Here are none of the artificial modes and manners of the city, but open, undisguised simplicity. And our Missionary reports prove that the villages have yielded more plentiful fruit from the seed sowing of the preacher. Cannot some of the city work, e. g., schools, translation of the Scriptures, the press, &c. be carried with profit into the country, and conducted as well or better there? This and kindred questions will have to be answered before the outlying masses are reached by the glorious Gospel of the Son of God. VII. More of the time and strength of our Missionary force, city and mofussil, should be devoted to itinerating amongst the people. Millions of these denizens of our jungles and plains never come into the cities or stations. They live and work and die where they were born. shall we reach them? We must follow more fully in His footprints who, "went through every village preaching and How Station more men in the mofussil. Let the Mission force be more mobile. Itinerate more, as of old. Let ladies itinerate more. shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God." Some of you, my brethren, have visited Galilee and Judea and Samaria, "Over whose acres walked those blessed feet Which eighteen hundred years ago were nailed Be Our Saviour's life was that of an intinerant preacher, and Would that our ladies too were oftener out in the villages of the people. Your poor, pining sisters are calling you, and the plea coming up from their rural or jungle homes should sometimes entice you, my sisters, from your city schools and zenanas to carry light and love and life to darker, heavier hearts. Let us have our mothers, wives, and sisters accompany us oftener on our tours. Many homes will welcome them, many hearts will bless them, and long after they are gone shy women will teach their names to prattling children, and say over and again with hearty sincerity, "How I wish the Mem-Sahib and the Missi baba would come again." Don't forget that millions of benighted women and children are waiting for your coming. Don't disappoint their hope. Church. In this brief paper I have spoken of Missionaries work- The work of ing for the masses. But, Sir, it is the work of the whole the whole Church of Christ. Would that all our European congregations in India were enlisted, heart, head and hand, in Missionary work. Let us have a forward movement all along the line. Let the Native Church vie with the foreign in holy ardour and self-abnegation. We fight under one banner. In hoc signo vince. The cross, the cross of Calvary is our symbol of triumph, our pledge of sure and sustained success. The dwellers in the plains and the hills and jungles shall see the cross lifted up, and bow before Him who bled and died upon it. Already the people of our dear India are flocking to this standard; and in Burmah and the Deccan we have the promise of still greater ingatherings in all Hindustan. "They come, they come! those exiled bands, Where'er they rest or roam, They've heard Thy voice in distant lands OPENING SPEECH BY THE REV. W. B. BOGGS, Ramapatam, South India. I regret, as I am sure you all do, that Mr. Clough is not here Work among to tell you something of the great work of the Lord among the the Telugus. Telugu people, as witnessed and shared in by him. But as far as I am able I will endeavour to fill the vacancy, as I have been associated with Mr. Clough in the work at Ongole, more or less since 1878. According to the programme, I am to speak of Mission work among the lower classes of Hindus, The great awakening and ingathering of Telugus which so dis- The great tinguished the year 1878, when upwards of nine thousand con- ingathering verts were received in the Ongole Mission alone, has not ceased. still continues. Though not quite so Pentecostal in its fulness and all-absorbing interest, it still continues. are added to us annually. From 1500 to 2000 professed believers The statistics of our Mission at present are about as follows. Statistics. Native preachers, 120; school teachers, 250; church members, 22,000. By church members we mean communicants. Christians live in five or six hundred villages. These Our Mission proceeds, as it has from the beginning, on the principle that it is the gospel of Christ which men need first of all and above all, whether they be high caste or low caste, ignorant or learned. We believe the true method of Mission work to be this;—not educate first and evangelize afterwards, but evange lize first and educate afterwards. We do not find that Paul and Principles of the Mission work. The Native preachers the chief agents in the work. his colleagues first established secular schools in Ephesus, Philippi or Corinth, to teach the people Aristotle and Plato, that they might be prepared to hear about Christ. Though our Missionaries themselves have always given special attention to evangelistic efforts, yet I attribute the great work chiefly to the labours of our Native preachers, as far as human means are concerned. These "Native preachers," what sort of men are they? They are not great men; they are not educated men, as that word is generally understood; very few of them know any English; many Men of one of them are not skilled in controversy with Brahmins and book. Moulvies. But they know one book, and they can tell of the amazing love of God for the lost, and Christ's all-sufficient atoning work. And they tell to all what Christ has done for themselves, how He has delivered them from the bondage of sin, from darkness and degradation and the fear of death, and has made them happy, and filled their lives with peace and hope. There are men among them who, fifteen or twenty years ago, were ignorant, wretched, filthy, worshipping shapeless stones; whose characters I now admire, whose words I listen to with wonder and pleasure, and whom I love as I do my dearest brethren. Supported Their support is chiefly supplied by the Native Christians. We mainly by the Christians, give them simply a little supplementary aid. This averages about five rupees a quarter. We seek to place the burden of selfsupport on the Native churches, just as soon as possible, and they \ are already bearing a large share of it. The work mainly among the lower classes. The work which has thus been so richly blessed has been chiefly among the poor, the lower classes; not by our own choice or purpose, but, as we believe, by the Providence of God. We do not confine our labours to them. We preach to all castes and classes, and our Native preachers proclaim the word to all who will hear, but the work, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we believe, has gone in that direction. We recognize the great historical fact, to which I do not know that there is an exception, that in every land and in every age Christianity has spread first among the poor, the lower strata of society, and has afterwards gradually risen. When the Saviour preached, it was the "common people" who heard Him gladly, while the "caste" people scorned Him. Most of the Apostles were poor obscure fishermen. Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians that "not many wise or mighty, or noble, are called, but that God has chosen the foolish, and the weak, and the base, and the despised, that no flesh should glory in His presence.' And so we endeavour to follow in the line indicated by God's providence. It is a hard and discouraging task to work contrary to that course which God, both in history and nature, points out. It would be an exceedingly difficult thing to build the upper storey of a house first, then the next lower, and the next, and then the foundation. Or if you wished to heat a vessel of water |