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best.

apostolic method, and can we be surprised if in those native Christian communities where this system has prevailed, we find but little trace of that spirituality and enthusiasm which adorned the Christians of apostolic times? What chance has true spirituality had where the temptations to ape piety have been so tremendous? What wonder if few have sincerely sought to please God when it has been made apparently so much more advantageous to please the Missionary! Can we be surprised if there has been little true devotion and self-denial when the path of religion has so glittered with the rupees? What likelihood of getting genuinely disinterested volunteer workers, when it has been known that a show of zeal will be quickly rewarded with a lucrative post! What encouragement has there been to native liberality in giving, when the foreign money is always ready to hand for Church or School or poor! What possibility of enthusiasm for a Church which is not felt to be their own but the foreigner's, nursed, ruled and supported by him?

I speak strongly on this point because day by day I am made to feel how disastrous a mistake has been made in this respect. Please note I am not accusing the Missionaries of by-gone days of Missionaries undue love of power. They acted for the best no doubt, and with acted for the the highest and most benevolent motives, but the whole policy was a mistake, and alas! now we see its ruinous consequences in the miserably low standard of religion which is to be found in our Christian communities. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that we have trained them to servility and selfishness, meanness in giving, backwardness in working, feeblenees in ruling. We have made them overgrown children with the faults and without the virtues of children-childish but not childlike; and now the task of raising them out of this state has become, not, thank God, impossible, but very tremendously difficult.

The remedy But though difficult it must be attempted slowly. gradually, if difficult, yet you will. for if the crutch they have always been taught to lean we must seek on were suddenly snatched away, no doubt the enfeebled limbs would faint and fail under their own weight; slowly and gradually, but still surely and firmly, must the change be made and the lesson of self-support and self-government learned.

one.

In a paper like this it would be impossible for me to discuss at length the ways and means of attaining this end. In Krishnaghar where there existed one of the worst examples of the evil I have been describing, we are now at last making some little progress, though often plans seem to break down under the dead Krishnaghar. weight of apathy and selfishness. Our methods are I suppose neither original nor peculiar, but I may as well briefly enumerate them.

Plans in

Church

1.

In all our principal villages there is a Church Committee Committees. with the Pastor or Catechist of the place for its Chairman. Its principal duties are to enquire into and punish cases of immorality or breach of church discipline; to collect funds, to

help in church work. Its members are elected by the communicants of the church, and its decisions, in all cases brought before it, are regarded as the judgment of the whole community.

2. Every year each of these local Committees sends up two of its members to represent it at a general Council of the churches connected with the Mission. Of this Council the Chairman is at present a European and our Bishop is president, with one other exception all the members of the Council are natives. All funds belonging to the native church are in the hands of the Treasurer of the Council and are disposed of as the Council directs. The Mission Society makes the Council a yearly grant-in-aid and by means of this grant and its own funds all Catechists and Pastors are supported. Natives employed in pastoral work are now therefore no longer the agents of the foreign Society but of the church. Such agents cannot be employed, transferred, promoted or dismissed without the expressed consent of the Council. Nor can any Catechist or Pastor be appointed to any village without the consent of the local Committee of that place. The amount of annual subscription given by native Christians in our Mission for the support of their ministry is still lamentably small, though it is double and treble what it was a few years ago. The 6,000 Christians of Krishnaghar only give about Rs 1,000 a year.

General

Council.

3. It should be added that we are also making an effort to Education. make the Christians bear their share of responsibility in the education of their children. In the principal villages of the Krishnaghar Mission we have established local School Committees to whom is committed almost the entire management of the schools and the disposal of all school funds.

Thus in the three important matters of self-support, self-government and self-education, the church of Krishnaghar may be said to be gradually pushing off the foreign yoke and bearing its responsibilities toward God and man. Much has still to be

learned and done, especially in the direction of evangelization of the heathen; but I believe a start has been made in the right direction, an effort toward that condition of things which, humanly speaking, is essential to the growth of that faith, courage and devotion which go to make up true spirituality.

II. I must pass on to another point. Hitherto I have spoken Means of of the removal of some of the hindrances to the development of edification. the spiritual life of the church. Important as this is, however, it is plain that in addition to it, we need direct instrumentalities for the promotion of true religion. Now I firmly believe that God has often used and still uses, the instrumentality of His written word, the printed Bible, for the conversion and quickening of souls. But though the circulation of the Scriptures and the study of them is a very important and a not uncommon means for the imparting of the D vine life, yet who can doubt but that means which God has most used and blessed is not the written word by itself but the living word spoken by the burning lips and exhibited

The word in

living men.

The minister

moulds the people.

by the holy characters of bis servants. The importance of having Catechists and Pastors who are truly men of God and who by natural ability, character and education are able to influence their flock cannot possibly be overrated. Tell me what the ministers of a church are, and I will tell you what its people are. How striking is the fact that in the epistles of the Apocalypse, the character of the Angel of the Church and of the church itself are so bound up together, that it is impossible to separate the one from the other or distribute between the two parties the praise or blame that is bestowed? What one is that the other is. And the phenomenon is repeated with more or less emphasis in every modern congregation too. Water does not rise above the level of its source. The minister of a church is, from one point of view at any rate, the fountain head of the religious life of his people, and their spiritual level cannot be expected to be higher than his. If the minister is a man of high principle and spirituality, diligent in prayer, earnest in his preaching, devoted in his work, liberal in his giving, patient and affectionate in his dealing with individual souls, sooner or later, we shall surely see his character impressing itself upon his flock. If on the other hand, he is indolent and worldly-minded his congregation will take their tone from him and, though his talk may be fine enough, will follow, not his preaching, but his practice.

If we wish then to see the promotion of spiritual life and enthusiasm in our churches how serious is the importance of doing all that in us lies to raise up pastors of a high standard of Christianity, men truly and thoroughly converted and full of the power of the Holy Ghost, men who are not only living souls but quickening spirits.

How to get a But the practical question is, how is the Church to get such men ? quickened I have before expressed my sense of our utter inability to impart ministry. spiritual life. By no human effort, by no educational or other process can we either convert or re-vivify. Such men are the gift of God. "He gave some to be evangelists and some pastors and teachers," says St. Paul, "for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ." "He gave" and He must give to us if we are to get. But is there no method by which He may be moved to give? Pray for it. Has not He Himself said, "Pray ye the Lord of the vineyard that He would put forth labourers into His vineyard." Sure in such a matter as this we may plead to the full the munificence of His promise." Ask and it shall be given." If we are prepared to do our part, He will surely do His. Let us give ourselves to prayer and in answer to our supplication men of gifts, themselves His gift, shall surely be given.

Exercise wise

But I say our part must also be done; in this as in all else we choice of men. are allowed to be fellow workers with God. And in the first place our part consists in a wise choice of those who have been awakened by the Divine Spirit. For it is not every converted man who is

fit to be evangelist or pastor, and as regards those who have it in them to be fit, it needs much judgment to discern when the time is ripe for their appointment. Many an evangelist and pastor is injured, if not spoilt, by being appointed to a post of great responsibility before he is sufficiently established in principle and spirituality. The falls which you have to lament and the scandals which disgrace the Christian community are, if I mistake not, often the result of such premature thrusting of authority upon men not ripe for it.

Next, after to the best of our ability choosing fit men, we must give them fitting training. In the Mission with which I am connected, we have made it a rule that no agent shall engage in pastoral work till he has received a course of instruction in our Divinity College. The rule being so obviously a sensible one, I have no doubt it has its counterpart in other Missions. Spiritual life must be sustained by spiritual food and most of all, the food of the word. For his own interior life and health, a training which will teach the future teacher how to take and how to digest the God-given bread of the Scriptures is of the highest importance; but the Divine word is not only to be his food, it is also to be his weapon; his future success as a soldier of the cross will depend in no small measure upon these lessons of his College days on the use of that sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. The necessity of this as part of the training of our Catechists and Pastors is so obvious that I need do no more than allude to it. But in addition to this I would call your attention to the importance of using the time of preparation passed at our divinity schools as an opportunity for close and intimate spiritual fellowship between the students and their professors. Nothing tends more to produce spiritual mindedness than contact with the spiritual-minded. I remember a distinguished convert of the great Doctor Duff once saying to me-" Yes, but excellent and convincing as his theological lectures were, it was not that that wrought the change in me; it was his intercourse with me in my own home when I was sick." Such a testimony to the power of personal influence, as compared with instruction appealing chiefly to the reason, is significant. I do not for a moment mean to imply that our divinity professors have forgotten the vast importance of personal and private intercourse with their students, but I confess I should like to see our theological institutions get on such a footing that such intercourse should be woven into the very texture of their system. Where the European Professors are young and unmarried, I do not know that there need be any serious difficulty in the way of their living with the students a great deal more than they usually do. But what I should like to see best, and what I hope we soon shall see, is Native Professors of real living Christian principle and glowing enthusiasm for Christ, engaging in this work and impressing their own character and example upon the young men committed to their care. Some

Meetings for mutual

of us can remember with thanksgiving the wonderful influence for good which intercourse with some of the Christian Fellows of our College had over us in our Undergraduate days. I know of no reason why this peculiarly happy and beneficent sort of influence, at once so inspiriting and so powerful with young men, should not be acclimatized in this country and not in European guise, but in genuine native fashion, find its congenial home in our theological schools. Who can tell the power for good which might be effected if our young men came forth from them not only sound in the faith and well equipped with learning, but fired with zeal and glowing with love toward Christ and their fellowmen ?

Only one other suggestion will I make under this head of the question How is the spiritual standard of Catechists and Pastors of the native Church to be raised ?' It is this:-May not more be done in the way of meetings for mutual edification among our native Clergy and Catechists? Such meetings of fellow-workers edification. for the Lord, both lay and clerical, have been found very useful in England, and I do not know why they should prove less so here. As a rule, I would leave these meetings entirely in the hands of our native brethren, as probably the presence of a European tends to produce a certain stiffness and constraint. Let them be conducted by the most spiritually-minded Pastor or Catechist of the district, let the exercise consist of prayer and the careful study (not merely exposition) of the word. Let some definite subject for meditation and discussion be settled before hand. Give all the assistance in your power by lending books or suggesting lines of thought, and then leave them with the help of the Spirit and the Bible to discover for themselves the happiness and blessedness of communion with one another in the Lord.

III. There is one important branch of our subject which I have not touched upon yet, which I can only discuss very briefly. Direct efforts What direct efforts should be made for the promotion of the to promote spiritual life among the lay members of our Churches? In dealspirituality. ing with this point I shall not attempt to go beyond what my experience among rural congregations suggests.

Show men

of it.

1. The first step toward the attainment of spiritual life is to be made to feel the need of it. "Blessed are they who hunger and their need thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled." Let us all, Missionaries, Pastors and Catechists, make it more the aim of our preaching to impress our hearers with a sense of the unsatisfactoriness of their present condition; let us, by the help of the Spirit, preach with conviction of sin as our direct object; let us be definite in pointing out the difference between the Law of God and their practice; let us shew the necessity of the conversion of heart and life, the need of vital, practical godliness. And then follow this up by constant exhortation to private and united prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit.