The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1870-07-09
[From the Christian. Advocated
A SANDER on Missionaries Refuted.

/
The London Times, in conjunction
with some other English journals, has
recently been sneerIng at the labors of
missionaries in foreign parts, and es'
pecially at the results of missionary
labor in the Feejee Islands. The i'm
mediate occasion OF these unfavora-
bic criticisms was the death of an old
chief by the name of TUT Levuka,
who was nominally acouvert, but who
INDUCED considerably as a drinker.
A gentleman from England, who is
now growing cotton IN the Feejee Is
lands, but who is not a member Of
any church. sends this communion
ton to the Times:
II noticed in the Times of the 23d
inst, an extract from the Feejee Times
on the death of the old chief TUT
Levuka.
Will you allow me to say that the
heading Of the paragraph A Fee
jeean Convert, which proceeds to re-
cord the death of a drunken old Fee
jeemaD, is an injustice to the mission
aries who are engaged In preaching
the Gospel in Feejee.
There are never wanting people
of false reports about missionaries
to deny their usefulness, and to doubt
their disinterested motives. and the
idea of notorious ruDkard being a
convert to religion would be TO such
only too good case in point to back
their arguments.
The truth is that in Feejee, as
elsewhere among the islands under
missionary influence, a large proper
ton of the heather become we'll dis
posed toward the missionaries, relin-
quish some of the grosser customs of
their savage state, such as cannibal-
Ism, etc. aud become nominal Chris
tlans. They are indebted to the mis-
slunaries for any Improvement they
manifest IN life or character: but the
missionaries do not claim them as
converts unless they exhibit most nm
mistakable signs of that change of
heart and life which accompanies true
conversion to God.
ITO this class Of nominal Chris.
tians poor old TUT Levuka belonged :.
but no one who has seen him. as /
have repeatedly done, riding home
helplessly drum K on tie back of one
of his people, and supported in his
saddle by an attendant on each side,
would ever call him a Christian or a
convert In the narrower acceptance OF
the term
W hen first | went to Feeiee | con-
less L was prejudiced against mission
aries and their work, judging from
what had seen of the futile endea
vors of persons wholly untitled for the
task of UhFistainizing the Australian
aborigines; but | soon altered nv
opinion. and now / think it would be
hard to say too much in favor of some
of those who are laboripg in Feeiee.
To Judge of them correctly one must
be on the spot.
ut is owing to the missionaries
labor alone that the white man has
safe footing on these islands for trade
or any enterprise.
This letter brings clearly before US
ant islands In their present transition
state. Nothing in the history of
modern missions, not even the story
of the Madagascar Churches. is more
wonderful than the change which.
within single generation has come
over one OF the most INTELLIGENT and
powerful, but at the same tima ono of
the. most savagely brutal. of the Poly
nesian races. The writer clearly Dis.
eliminates between the nominal
Christians-and there are scores and
thousands Of them, who have aban-
doned ldolatry IN its grosser customs
and those who have given evidence
of a genuine change of heart and life
of whom there are many thousands
also. His testimony is the more val.
liable. as he was prejudiced against
the missionaries when he first went to
the islands. The last sentence is
specially noteworthy. Missionaries,
not gun boats, make the island safe.
Just now large numbers of English
and Americans are making for them
selves permanent homes in several of
the groups.