The Press.
London, England, 1854-07-15 00:00:00

SATURDAY,

We confess, too, that in a work of this kind
we should like to see a contrast between the
toils of the Romish Church, and those of the
evangelical communions. Popery boasts that
it has a system which can please the intellec-
tual and dazzle the vulgar, and the deceitful
force of its corrupt attractiveness we do not
dispute. It has a clergy out off from the en-
dearing ties of home and kindred, and a thea-
trical worship, with perfumes, painted win-
dows, voluptuous music, and a blaze of pomp
for affecting the senses. We think that no
history of missionary labours can be accepted
as complete without a comparison between the
propagandist power of the religion of the Bible,
and the sacerdotalism of Rome ; nor need
Protestants shrink from the results.
Few things are more creditable to our Eng-
lish people than the continuous interest taken
in missionary labours. The lukewarm and the
sceptical affect to disparage the results of
preaching the gospel to the heathen. Yet, even
though the end is not always attained, the at-
tempt to Christianise the heathen is a sub-
lime purpose, and it would argue a scandalous
indifference to our faith if we were to leave to
Popery the toil of converting savages, or the
glory of braving martyrdom in the name of our
Lord. There are practical results from the
amour of our missionary societies which
ought to conciliate for them more regard from
the economists. In many of our colonies the
missionaries are useful to our fellow-subjects,
whose clergy is often inadequate or ill-sup-
plied. A strong religious bond is kept up
between the outposts of our empire and its
central power in England. In saying this,
however, we are fully alive to the dangers to
which the enthusiasm and indiscretion of
missionaries have sometimes exposed their
parent States. Yet even in these cases national
' collisions have arisen rather upon pretexts
than actual causes for quarrel.
The difficulties in the way of missionaries
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are very great. They arise from race, aversion
to novelty, savage ignorance, and want of skill
in influencing bararians or grossly-preju-
diced tribes. The apostles had direct inspira-
tion and miraculous powers. But when the
Church of Christ had grown to self-supporting
strength it was beautifully ordained that it
should further advance, under subjection to
trials and social difficulties. It is possible
that if communities had more sensitive con-
sciences they would make far greater efforts in
propagating the gospel. The most careless
reader of these volumes must be struck with
the want of unity and purpose between our mis-
sionary societies. The propagandism of Rome
is left under the control of a special body, di-
rectly charged with distinct duties. The
number of our societies, the apathy of some,
the ill-directed enthusiasm of others, the irre-
gular constitution of their committees, all sug-
gest that system is much wanted in our British
propagandism.
Some have asserted that Christian colonies
are the true missionaries, and that the gospel
can be spread only by collective influences.
Their theory is not much better than the
laissez faire of free trade, which would leave
Paganism to disappear along with the con-
quered races. Such views are very dispa-
raging to the vital power of the gospel, which
has superior resources to those which result
from that combination of manners and political
force which composes civilisation. In civil
life individuals mould and often control the
destinies of empires. Riuhelieus and Napo-
leons, or a Luther and a Knox, can leave
behind them traces of their volition and pow-
erful individualism stamped upon vast tracts
of time. And why should not similar ascen-
dancy of personal prowess be looked for in
the history of the propagandism of the gospel
amongst the heathen ?
That question at once reveals the master-
difficulty before the missionary. An adequate
communication with the heathen mind is
wanted before even divine truth can be seen
in its radiant beauty. We may form some
estimate of this difficulty by taking illiterate
and rustic boors and endeavouring to instruct
them in the beauties of Shakspeare. It would
require some training and intellectual exer-
cise before they could be brought to see the
transcendant superiority of Lear or Othello
over the Surrey melodrama, with its brace of