The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-09-15 00:00:00

LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

The friends of this, one of the oldest of the modern
missionary societies, and the principal one that sends out
the Gospel without being bound by any denominational
sectarianism, heard accounts of its working this week.
The Rev. T. H. Clark. an old missionary, pastor in
Jamaica, was the deputation, sermons were preached at
Gloucester-street and Hope chapels, in behalf of the
society', funde and in the at terntsei • juvenile missionary
meeting, attended by the scholars of both what's, was
held at Hope chapel. The collections amount.' to I:7 14e
gld. at. Gloucester chapel ; and 1::1 Ifs. Ind. at Hope
The annual meeting .4 the Weymouth auxiliary WM
held at Gloucester street chapel on Monday evening, under
the presidency re Mr. R. if. Eliot There were also on the
platform the Rev. Z. Bolton, pastor of Gloucester street,
Ike. J. C. Fowler (Wesleyan), Rev J. Bailey (Baptist),
and Rev. T. H. Clark, the deputation.
. . . .

The meeting with singing and prayer.
The Rev. E. BOLTON read the financial statement, from
which it appeared that the income for the past year .4 the
society was £lld,Vll liii, lid., and there was £1,47 Hs. 2d.
balance in favour of the society. The contributions from
mission stations were .4.21,441, additional fronathe South
Sea Islands, 11,&10, showing that the converts themselves
also gave that others might enjoy the benefits. £7055
were raised for the missionary ship, and over 14,000 by
means of the New Year's offering scheme, by cards by
the Sunday school children. Weymouth district does not
contribute very largely—Gl tttttttttttt chapel total Ms.. 24.
Hopei chapel, total £l6 ; /I Tet. ;
Chickerel, about /I ; total from Weymouth district,
£433.. tkL ; total remitted £l2 12. 60. Ile believed that
was about the AIM raised yearly for some years past.
Some subscribers had been hot at Gloucester street,
perhaps bemuse of their not having& pastor he some time;
but the children had made up, and more than made lip,
for the deficenry in the subscriptions of the elders.
The CIIILINTI ic sail he thought it very important at
these interesting meetings of or great religious societies.
that we should call in every stray thought, and direct all
our hearts wholly and soberly to that Great Master, in
whore 1131110 we are met together, and to spread whose
glory is the thought and object of this society - that our
thought may he on leaving " I have been in the presence
of the King, I have listened to the tale of His growing
Kingdom," and in contemplation of the fulfilment .4 His
promise, each heart should respond, and ear "Lord what
will thou have me to do t" It might be in their remem-
brance that a few years ago, the mission agencies of this
country were rather severely criticised in the public press,
and some Haws (for flaws there must be in the inauage-
went of societies of such magnitude) were severely
scrutinised, and, he thought, greatly exa*gerated. The
loading paper of the day pot this question "Has the
gospel less power now than it had of old I Why then do
men seem rather more anxious shout the external
machinery than about sending forth men to preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ r However that rebuke might
apply to other societies, it does not apply to the London
Missionary Society, because it is one of its fundamental
principles not to try to spread one form of Christianity or
another but simply to send forth rime., to spread abroad
the gospel of our Lord and Saviour. It seemed to him that
the missionary societies of this country haie been going
through a very important phase, driving them to prayer
and to cast themselves more entirely upon the Lord.
Such crises as this, whether in the history of a
society like this or of a nation, were a most hopeful
sign, for they generally denoted that God was about to
open a wider sphere of work, or to 1t..1 us LO look to Him,
to lean upon Him, and not upon man. This was just the
phase that it Keined our missionary societies are going
through, and he doubted not that, as we are driven to look
more to God, and leas to human means, we shall sew a
wider sphere of usefulness °peanut before U., and see the
Protestant missionary societies of this country going forth
to far more extended work. But we know that however
the world may sneer, however it may make sarcastic
calculations as to the cost of the conversion of a Ilindoo or
• Jew, we know and are sure that the "works of the Lord
are great, *ought out of all them that have pleasure
therein, and that God is carrying forth a blessed and
glorious work in all parts of the world, to the honour of
His holy name. In order to illustrate lie read to the meet-
ing the testimony of a gentleman, Nebo thought, as he had
been reading reports of missionary societies for years past,
be would just travel round and see whether they were
true. from his observation he witneael that although
people asserted that missionaries exaggerate, the contrary
was true- that they could not write the half of what is
done. Ile had personally known many Chinese and Kaffir
Christians and converts from other races, and their love of
doing good to other men, their holy walk, and real for the
Lord
Jesus hail often refreshed his soul. How dots God
carry on his work By men—great and noble men. When
he met the veteran Moffat, he felt inclined to shrink into
his shoes. And there was not only Moffat, there were
such men as John Brownley, the lint missionary who
carried the gospel to the Kaflirs, sail whom,. God had
privileged to labour among them for 50 yews. When John
Ilrownley had done 50 years of work, an address was pm-
seated to him on his jubilee, and he replied "Before I
teoled into the mission work, leave myself wholly to the
and I have always been assured that whether there
would be any remits or not. God would acknowledge His
own work in 'lfs own tiwesuld way. The chairman asked
—Had they given themselves to the Lord They nught
and should all have the missionary spirit. though they
might not go out to preach the gemsl abroad, they might
have the spirit like John Brownley s, to give theneelves
te the Lord. Th. concluding words of the report said that
God has been very faithful as of old, and we should still
weds on, and we Open+ to hear skein the voice of our
Saviour speaking plainly and saying "Go forth ! Go
forth r God seems to be opening one sphere of work after
another, and only lately • new sphere had been opened in
New Guinea. A few years ago it would hone semied
impossible to send the gospel to New Guinea, but in the
present success God seems to be rebuking us, and saying
. again 'Go forward r Their subscriptions seemed to be
about the same this year IA they were in years before ; but
was that the way to go forward? We have increased our
business year by year, we have more and more mercies
every year. and (kid says to us "Go forward I have
still more work 'for you to do." Let us be prepared in
humble fiiti aed dependence wive God to go forward in
His gracious service. •
The Rev. T. If. CLOAK. who had laboured litany years
in Jainaca, said the society had for its object the glory
of God, and the salvation of 'the whole world. The
report which had been presented was very encouraging, as
they had been going forward instead of going back,
although they bad been unsettled as to a pastor. He
intended to direct their attention more especially to that
part of the work in which he had hem engaged. In
Jamaica they bad not laboured in vain, although the
experiences of different missionaries were different, yet,
come Own whatever part they ought they would agree
that where the Gospel of Jesus Christ was preached in
simplicity and sincerity, it had lawn blessed to the salva-
tion of souls, and with all their trials, if they had to go
ever their life again, they would again spend it in the
work. Ile went to Jamaica just after the shackles had
been broken from the slaves, and they were in a state of
transition. He heard one of them say it was a good thing
the gospel came hefore freedom, for if freedom 4.asl collie
first, they did not knew what would have happened; but
as the gospel came tirst, it taught them to love their
enemies. Many who were slaves are now landowners,
who rear upon the land coffee, suwir, arrowroot. and other
staples, while others work for the Landowners. But the
principal labourers are coolies from India, while the
negroes are mostly in the lower middle class. The
missionaries first sought to estahlish schools, to get the
young people under their influence, and they got
thoroughly good European teachers, for they considered
that if • school was to be had, it should be gimil, Aim
showing that the results were good, the present schools
are now taught by negroes who were lads trained in these
schools. Beside day schools, they have large and flourish-
ing Sabbath scheils, which will compare with those in
England. There are earnest men and women, general
intelheence, aud many striving to win souls to Christ.
Sometimes they had to put up with things they did nut
like, as for instance, a teacher, trying to explain the text
" lie must increase, but I most decrease." said increase
means to increase, and decrease mean to decrease. But
another speaking on the creation told his hearers that God
wade the gnus before the animals, to show them they
wust not buy a horse till they hail a pastime to put him
in. But Chnst is taught in the schools, and many of the
scholars have I wen brought to Him. The is•ople in the
congregations are divided into classes, and the speaker
thr:
oft:dt:art;ewitatealr,l
was in the enquirers' class and asked au African :
" Laurence, do you feel yourself a sinner r The ,„an
rePlied " Me feel
61nA:an great low!, as great as this
chapel ; but thank '
away A hall'-witted y, named Fisher, said he knew
when weak prayer could not go up to ?hal, anti when it
could go up to God. It was like
which we would not drink. But when it was put through
a filter, it was lei:alt., and we drank it. So Goo „aw
the prayer with sin in it.; but it being sent through Jesus
('lariat, In took out all the sin from it. and Goal recehad
it. A poor woman said " What should I IN without
Jesus?nuy I walk with Him, I sit sit down freq.)
upon hiimt, I sleep, and He is near, all I do is
with Two §of the mon were at such tariance that
it seemed they could not I. brought together, ad if the
breach could not be healed. But he prayed with them,
before he tried to make 'once, and then the difficulty
seeined to vanish, and they were reconciled. One Mid,
"lilt! this gospel ! without it we should have gone to
court, and wasted our money, and no matter who the
judge said was right, we should have hated each other."
The speaker noticed a tendency in missionary societies to
try and supplant the European missionary by native
pastors, but while anxious that native pastors should be
relied, he thought it would not be well to press wive

_
pastors on the churches, until they Were certain
the right man. But there are many earnest
useful native pastom anil LI an instance. • black minister
and his wife, wlm were educated in a missicu collage in
Jamaica, are now labourin,,- in Africa. The black people
are liberal in gi%ing, awl they try to make the 1111161114 CM agi
little burdensome as poss Ede to the s,ciety at home, &lid
hope in time to susiport their iiii.tors entirely loy thF.n-
selves. In his church they had nOu in the congregation,
and 200 church members ; but they were all poor black
Peeples Yet they had repaired their church, repaired
teacher's house, paid for it all, and paid their missionaxY s
salary, without drawing one penny from England, and
he left ttill with the gessl minister who succeeded him.
But all is not smooth there, any inure than it is here.
Superstition, ignorance, and vice, are nuniant there, as
they are here, and there is still much to be done. They
wanted a men to g‘i out to churches who would pay his
passage, and his salary when he got there they wanted
to rear a new school-room, and wanted a teacher to take
charge of the girls there. In conclusion he made an
epteal for help.
The hymn