Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1910-03-25

they themselves, nor their WORK, can
measure up to the enthusiastic por-
traitures of uniformed supporters.
A Motley Assortment of Missionaries.
Ii is impossible to speak of ''the
missionary" human nature does not
lend itself to congratulations. Mis-.
sionaries are almost as various a com.
pany as editors or doctors or lawyers.
! An honest critic cannot unqualifedly
approve or condemn the missionary"
Even at the risk of shocking many
readers, let me say that | have met
missionaries who are as incomnetent
as the bitterest enemy of missions
/ represents all missionaries to be.
] nave met others who are so small that
they may be classed as negligible
quantities. | have met unmannered
missionaries, lazy missionaries. cow
ardly missionaries, gluttonous mis-.
Slonarles. bad-tempered missionaries.
aVarlcous missionaries, bigoted mis-
9loharles, eccentric missionaries, sell
nsh missionaries, and even. in two
cases, | know missionaries who have
been cast out for gross immortality.
There is scarcely a charge which has
oeen made concerning missionaries as
whole that | have not found true of
individual missionaries. Let those
who know little of the facts on the
heId rush into qualified defense of all
missionaries as worthy of haloes; l
cannot do so.
Yet, In perfect fairness and frank
ness, L can say of the very large ma
Jority of the hundreds of mission
aries whom l have watched at their
work, that they are thoroughly hon
est, competent self-immolating and
devoted servants Of great ideal. This
applies to men and women of all de-
nominations and bodies-Roman Cath
Ollie and Protestant, churchman and
independent; and to all the mission
fields which l have thus far investi-
gated. In quiet modesty, and with
self-denying service, these men and
women are patiently seeking, against
great odds, the conversion of the peo-
pie among whom they dwell. Their
lives are the best recommendation of
their message.
On the whole, they are persons of
more than ordinary ability and refine
ment; the charge may be rejected
practically in toto, that missionaries
are incompetents who have been driv-
en- into their field by inability to Sc
cure livelihood. So eminent an au-
thority as Dr. Arthur H. Smith as
sures me that there is no class of pro-
fessional worker, except only the col
lege professor of whom so high a
standard is required
The number of missionaries of in
dependent wealth, who give literally
to the foreign mission work of which
they themselves are a part, is sur
prising revelation to an investigator;
and at once an evidence of the conf.
dcnce of these persons in the mission
/ airy enterprise, and of their own dis
interestedness in pursuing this voca-
! ton.
The Troubles of the Missionaries.
! Nevertheless, there are certain trials
I
of missionary life worth noting, apart
from the difficulties inseparable from
any kind of pioneer work The first
of these, which bears most hardly in
the beginning, is the separation from
/ family and friends; as the years soften
tbs and the foreign field becomes
home. there ensues, usually, the great
| nct trio of a oh
dren, who must be sent away to be ed
uCated. This is the heaviest burden
borne by the missionary
Very little is said by missionaries
in China about the danger from mobs
although all the older workers have
thrilling stories to tell when you get
them to talking upon this topic