The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-08 00:00:00

MISSIONARY ESTABLISHMENT.

The Colonial Church Chronicle (a very valuable pub-
lication) for February, contains a very interesting article,
with special reference to Western India, on the necessity
which an experienced Missionary finds of obtaining some
retired spot where his disciples may, in quietness and
peace, become strengthened before meeting the opposition
and temptations with which their heathen countrymen
will besiege them. The writer says :
" A great defect in our present system of missionary
operations is a want of centralization. Converts are
made by twos and threes, in widely scattered provinces,
and are often left without guidance. A chaplain, or a
zealous officer, gains a servant or a poor neighbour, who,
after instructions of Christianity, is baptized. Leading,
as Europeans are compelled to do, migratory lives, the
poor convert soon finds himself separated from his teacher ;
and whilst he is but a babe in Christ, he is left to wrestle
by himself with such temptations as the strong can
scarcely overcome. Who, then, does not see that it be-
comes a religious duty to provide a situation where the
dispersed of Israel may be gathered together, and brought
from the cities of heathenism to worship the Lord in His
_holy temple ? Far would we be from holding nut to them .
any mercenary motives ; on the contrary, we would im-
press upon them, that if they would not work, neither
should they eat. In their scattered positions they have
strong inducements to idleness; the sluggard soon learns
that his conversion renders him an object of interest, and
gives him an irresistible claim for support upon charitable
Europeans. But provide him a home where he must do
his duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God
to call him, and where a reasonable amount of labour will
daily be demanded of him ; you then lead him to those
earnest exertions which are indispensable in the formation
of a Christian character, and offer him a means and a
motive for escaping from beggary and shame. We see
then the importance of not only providing an asylum for
orphans, but also of fixing it in the centre of a colony
comnosed of native Christians of all ages.
" The superintendence of such an establishment, so far
from diverting a Missionary from his main object of direct
and public preaching, will enable him to follow it more
effectually. During the monsoon, and the unhealthy sea-
son which follows, he will be compelled to remain station-
ary, and his time cannot be better occupied than in watch-
ing its progress, and regulating its management. When
he commences his tour he will resign his charge into the
hands of a European, or Indo-Briton, who will act as
bailiff, and at the same time see that the duties of the
institution are carried on with diligence.
" Both the men and boys of the colony should be en-
gaged in agricultural and mechanical employments. A
European system of farming is not, it is true. adapted for
India, but yet, by judicious management, considerable
improvements might be introduced into the native method,
and new crops be cultivated, which would yield a profit-
able return."
The trades which are proposed to be followed as being
most lucrative, in the Decan and Western India are,
cart-making, oil-making, and weaving coarse cloths.
Many suitable situations are, it is said, to be found in
the fine climate of the Decan ; and the institution, for
which the only officers required at the commencement
would be the Missionary and his Bailiff, would be the
Missionary's head-quarters—his house, chapel, school-
room, and workshops for learning and practising trades
and the homestead of his farm, together with the habita-
tions of his flock. It is proposed that no person. capable
of earning his own bread should be maintained otherwise
than by his own labour, and no art or manufacture should
be followed, unless with a view to its proving fairly re-
munerative.