The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1876-07-26
Missionary Professorships.

The transcendant success of the German
army in the late terrible war with France is
generally ascribed to the fact that all the
German officers had accurate and reliable
maps of all parts Of the country through
which their armies had to march. On the
said maps were marked all the natural OBJ
stacles and difficulties in the way, all the
strategic points of the country, the forts and
Notifications which had to be attacked
They were also furnished with full and de-
tailed directions as to how these difficulties
were to be overcome and the Notifications
were to be attacked. This knowledge had
been obtained by painstaking care and labor
in previous years and it had been so sys-
tematized and arranged by General Moltke,
that every German officer was prepared to
do his duty in every emergency. A great
portion of the heather world has been care
fully explored by former missionaries. A
vast amount of knowledge on all the subjects
which it is desirable and necessary for the
missionary to know has been obtained. 1t
has not, however, been systematized and ar
ranged. 1t is scattered through numerous
volumes of monthly publications and annual
reports of missionary societies, and books of
history and travels, journals and disquisi-
tions on the religions and philosophy of the
various lands. The question, therefore, for
the church now to consider, is virtually this:
Shall we have Professor who will systema-
tie and arrange this knowledge, as far as
practicable, and furnish it to the students
who are expecting to 60 as foreign misslona-
ries, so that in measure they may 60 forth
to their work fully prepared, in this respect,
as the officers of the German army were p
Or shall they be left to 60 forth as the French
officers did, without any local and practical
knowledge of the fields where the battles
were to be fought, and hence meet with dis
graceful defeat? The imparting of such
instruction in preparation for missionary
labor is not new idea, nor is it mere mat
ter of theory. The General Assembly of the
Free Church of Scotland has established
such professorship; and the Rev. A. Duff,
D. D., long the able and devoted missionary
in India, fills the chair. The missionary so.
cieties of the Church of England, and of the
English Baptists and Independents, have
long had provision for giving special instruc
ton to those who were preparing to 60 as
missionaries to heather lands. This has
long been the usage of the various mission
airy societies among the Protestants of the
various states of Europe. 1t has also the
still longer sanction of the Roman hierarchy,
which is unequalled in the skill with which it
prepares and trains men for its work among
the nations of the earth. The error in the
systems of the various societies, in my opin-
ion, is this: They educate their missionaries
in separate schools from those in which the
great body of the ministers of their respec-
tive communions are educated, and with a
special and less thorough course of educa.
ton. I would, therefore, seek to perfect our
system of preparing missionaries, by making
arrangements to afford them, in addition to
their present course, that special instruction
which they need to fit them for the work in
the particular fields to which they are to 60.
l-Dr. HAMPER IN Bibhotheca Sacra.