Year: 1873

The undersigned, members of the China
mission, desire to bring to your attention q
matter which we regard as of much import
ance in the work in which we are engaged
here. 1t concerns the control and instruc
ton of the boys school of the mission;
Our experience and observation in this field
have led US to the conviction that the inter,
ests of this school and of our work in gen.
eral, are likely to be greatly advanced by
the appointment of lay teacher to take
charge of the school. The school will then
no longer be under the care of an evangel-
ist, but under the care of Christian lay
man specially selected and designated to this
work.


You are we'll aware of the Importance
which we attach to this school as branch
of mission work. We regard it as the most
hopeful means that can beeemployed for
raising up native ministry. The boys, who
are brought into the school at an early age,
are, in a measure, shielded from the super
stitions of their countrymen, and are daily
taught by precept and by example the truth
of the Scriptures. The promises given in
the Scriptures as to the happy results of
such early training would entitle us to ex.
pect that labor thus expended would not be
in vain; and the fact is, that experience has
shown that in this part of China some of
the best fruits of the field have been reaped
by natives who are trained in the mission
schools. Indeed, so general is the impress
sion among missionaries here as to the ad-
vantage of the mission school, that it is an
exception to find mission which has not
adopted this as one branch of its work.
The members of this mission, therefore,
who have hitherto been connected with the
schools, do not feel that their labor in this
direction has been miSapplied. They regard
it as good and necessary work that has
been performed. At the same time, it is
true that even work like this may some
times with advantage be transferred from
ministers of the word to the hands of others.
The apostles were engaged in good and
necessary work when they ministered to the
necessities of the widows in Jerusalem, and
yet, experience soon showed that it was best
to transfer this work to others, who are spe
cially appointed for this service. And SO
we are led to the belief that the schools of
the mission should be put under the charge
of those who are specially designated to this
work.


Our reasons for this conclusion are as fol-
lows: l. The taste and aptitude for teach
ing school are, as is we'll known, qualities
which vary very widely IN different persons.
Indeed, it is perhaps only in exceptional
cases that these qualities are found combined
in a good degree. Yet missionaries, as a
rule, are selected without reference to these
traits, but solely with view to their quail
fcations for preaching the gospel. 1t is ev-
ident, therefore, that missionary, possess.
ing excellent qualifications as an evangelist,
may feel himself disinclined or unsuited to
take charge of school. This, in itself,
would seem to US to indicate the proprety
of appointing over the school, man who
had been chosen with special view to his
fitness for the work. 2 If it be said that
in body composed of several missionaries,
one can always be found possessing the fit
ness just mentioned, we have to object that
in this field it is impracticable, on account
of the difference in local dialects, to select
one from the whole body without detrment
to the service. If, for example, the brother
who is now in charge of the school should,
by any cause, be removed from his post, we
would not feel justified in calling one of the
brethren from Soochow to take his place.
The dialect of Soochow is SO different from
that of Hanchow, that the removal from one
station to the other would necessitate the
abandonment of one dialect and the acqui-
sition of new. This, of course, would in
volye the loss of much time and labor to
the missionary who made the change. Prac-
tically, therefore, the choice is limited to the
station where the school is, and as our Gus.
tom is to have but two missionaries at sta
ton, the removal of one missionary from
the school leaves US, of course, without any
choice at all. 3. The charge of boarding
school, where the clothing and food of the
scholars are both provided by the head Of
the school, requires that the missionary
should give part of his time to "serving
tables. He must, of course, desire to bt
relieved of this, that he may, as far as his
situation will permit, "give himself contin
ually to prayer and to the ministry of the
word" 4. A missionary who has charge Of
the school must feel his attention divided
between the care and instruction of the
school, and the chapel and wayside preach
ing. Indeed, the constant attention re
quired by a school, even where it does no
interfere with his regular preaching in the
chapel, must debar him almost entirely from
the work of itineration-a kind of WORK
useful both for scattering the seed of thu
word, and for building up the strength o
the laborer. With lay teacher the case
would be different. He would find full EN-
ployment for his energies in the school. A
he would feel no call to 90 abroad, he 'woulc