London Missionary Society

“ The honored instruments in their moral and social elevation have chiefly been the agents of the London Missionary Society who have labored among them for many years with remarkable energy, zeal and success. ”

“ In KAFIRLAND, in districts within the English dominion, the Society has five stations, in most of which there is fair access to a population still heathen. In each a Christian Church has been gathered; the members are nine hundred in number, and the congregations contain nearly four thousand persons. Four English missionaries have charge of these missions, and a Native Pastor, the Rev. A. Van Rooyen. These missions, however, are surrounded by the agencies of other Missionary Societies ”

“ The hundred and fifty-six English missionaries of the Society in foreign lands constitute the central force and stimulus of a wider agency, numbering twelve hundred persons, gathered among people once heathen, now Christian; an agency adopting the same aims, ruled by the same Christian spirit, and fulfilling the same Divine command. This body of true and devoted men were never rendering to the Society a nobler service than at the present time ”

“ In 1780 he added to his clerical work a tutorship in an institution of the town for the education of young men destined for the independent ministry. There grew out of this his scheme of foreign missions, which led to the formation of the London Missionary Society. ”

“ In the direct religious teaching of the people, nearly six hundred missionaries from Europe and America, sustained by twenty-two Missionary Societies, have planted stations in the most populous and influential cities. Joined by two hundred ordained Native Ministers and two thousand Native Preachers, they carry on a system of christian agency which costs the important sum of £300,000 sterling a year. Many calumnies have been uttered respecting missionaries, and their work, by men who have professed to visit the cities where they labour, and saw nothing of its results. ”

“ The London Missionary Society, which embraces all conservative Protestant denominations outside the Baptists, are now practically Congregationalists, all other British Protestant denominations having in later years established societies of their own. ”

“ It has from the first been a settled rule with the Society's missionaries that catechists and preachers should be men of known and proved piety; and that all candidates for theological classes shall be members of the church. The Directors believe that it is largely owing to the observance of this sound rule that the Missions have received a great blessing from above, and have been built up on a solid basis. It is the effect of this blessing, and a result of the development of the churches, that a steady improvement has taken place in the general character and fitness of Native Agents. ”

“ But this advanced and noble position, which is the proof of success in the past, and the guarantee and instrument of larger results in days to come, is precisely that attainment and possession of our Society, which the friends of the Society appear least to appreciate. It seems to be thought that now, as ever, missionaries just preach to the heathen and give away books; they teach a few boys and girls; win a few souls; and send a few teachers into the districts around. ”

“ They have had great difficulty in finding suitable medical missionaries, and they ask their friends to make it a matter of earnest prayer that the Spirit of God will touch the hearts of the right men to offer their service to His cause.
The Directors adopt these moderate measures for the extension of the Society's usefulness in hope. From every quarter they continue to receive gratifying proofs of the increased interest taken in their work. ”

“ Again, while the Society enjoys the services of a large number of able, conscientious, and spiritual men, as devoted as ever their predecessors were to missionary work, it was seen to be essential to their fullest efficiency, that they should be brought into closer union with each other abroad, and with the system of the Society at home ”

“ The Church Missionary Society, which had now been established about seven years, seemed fully disposed to co-operate with him; and at their request he drew up a memorial on the subject of a New Zealand mission, not less important than that we have already mentioned, to the London Missionary Society, on the subject of their Polynesian missions. He still lays great stress upon the necessity of civilization going first as the pioneer of the gospel ”

“ Like ministers at home, our Missionaries preach the Gospel; instruct, govern, and build up churches; watch over the young, and stir up their people's zeal. But they do a great deal more. Placed in many cases in simple states of society, on a low level of education and social connection, as well as of religion; in states of society saturated with heathen vices and heathen beliefs, our missionaries have not only to Christianize individual souls, but to Christianize literature, to Christianize public law, to form a healthy public opinion, to sanctify public taste. ”

“ It is, therefore, with indignation and regret that Christian men have seen the recent attacks made on the whole missionary body, and the contemptuous terms in which their labours have been described. Looking away from all that is temporary and special, and contemplating that which springs from their ordinary duties, the Directors would never forget what a noble position missionaries occupy, and how truly great, from its very nature, their work is. ”

“ Much was done by this body to encourage foreign missions, and it is stated that ‘the first money ever contributed to the London Missionary Society was raised at a meeting held in the vestry of West Orchard Chapel.’ In 1799, on the failure of his London bookseller, he suggested, and was instrumental in forming, the Religious Tract Society. ”

“ It is an injustice to the Society that the training of its missionaries should be incomplete. And it is an injustice to the Missions generally, should they be placed in the hands of men who are unable, from defective education, rightly to comprehend their claims, and to fulfil the important duties which the charge of them now involves. In addition to considerations such as these, the Directors observed that for some years past their missionary students had been trained in a variety of ways ”

“ Besides, evangelistic work is growing on our hands; the native churches are strong; labourers are abundant; the groups lying to the north and west are more open than ever; and the Directors are called upon to look fairly in the face a large extension of the South Sea Mission among three hundred islands, containing millions of people who are heathen still. All the objects desired through the entire range of the Society's interests and the Society's work, can with ease be secured by a vessel of our own, commanded by a truly missionary captain, officers, and crew. ”

“ If unable completely to run alone, our churches are too large, the members too numerous, and their resources too great to justify any continuance of that complete dependence upon the Society which has prevailed with them hitherto. The Board desire to see the churches strong in themselves, managing completely their own affairs, providing the ministry by which they shall be instructed, and engaged heartily in missionary efforts for the conversion of their heathen neighbours. ”

“ A school was opened for the children of foreigners, and a mission to the sailors at Cronstadt established. Returning to England in August 1833 to obtain funds for erecting a larger church in St. Petersburg, his labours were so successful in creating funds and friends for the London Missionary Society, that he was requested to remain at home, and for eight years he visited almost every place in the United Kingdom, advocating the claims of the foreign missions. ”

“ Of the ninety Protestant Missionaries labouring in China, the five who stand first in public estimation for character, scholarship, and zeal are missionaries of this Society. Among the five hundred missionaries of India, not a few of our brethren occupy a high and honoured place; while in all other of the older Missions the men who with fidelity and zeal have steadily maintained their posts for twenty-five and thirty years are numerous, and are all held in honour. ”

“ If the measure of our suffering be the measure of our greatness, we cannot wonder that this martyr church is strong in faith, giving glory to God. Hence all the quiet but solid strength of their present prosperity. Hence the great but not too rapid increase, in their numbers. Hence it is that, though persecution left them poor, they have built nearly a hundred village chapels; that their search into the Word of God is deep, continuous, and unwearied; that their congregations are crowded; that, at a missionary prayer meeting held early in the day, sixteen hundred persons gather together ”

“ In the seven districts of the mission, recently reduced to six, the great number of native churches, the large congregations, the number of scholars, the order and general purity of christian society, and the liberality with which the agencies of the gospel are supported, exhibit that success in a striking manner. The crowning proofs of blessing and prosperity are seen in the congregations prepared for complete self-support; in their great liberality; in the large band of well-educated Native preachers and teachers ”

“ They need a larger income still, if the friends of the Society would wish them to undertake that extension of their Missions into new fields which the world needs, for which the missionaries earnestly plead, and which they themselves are most anxious to secure. ”

“ But, besides supplying stores to their missionaries, the Society is carrying on most important evangelistic work in several small and isolated groups; as the Pearl Islands, the Penrhyns, the Ellice and Lagoon Islands, and in detached islands of the larger groups. These isolated spots require to be visited regularly, for the protection of the people, the encouragement of the teachers, and for the supply of new men, medicines, and books. The vessels that may be hired are not always available. They are often far from suitable to the work ”

“ While the mission numbered on its staff thirty-five European missionaries, no less than twenty-one of these brethren were labouring in the christianized portions of the colony; where the native population has grown thinner rather than more numerous; and where the ministers and missionaries of other Societies have considerably increased. Only fourteen of the Society's missionaries were labouring in the heathen territories, in Kafirland and among the Bechuana tribes. ”

“ The progress of the churches during the last eight years has been sound as well as rapid. Conviction has ripened where the good seed was sown; thousands have become members; many thousands more have joined our congregations; numerous churches have been organized both in the capital and in the country round. The members of the churches have been true missionaries where they have gone; and thus many, whom public duty or private interest had led far away from home, have been the means of planting churches in the district of Vonizongo, and even in the distant town of Fianarantsoa. ”

“ Why should we put upon the neck of our young disciples a yoke which we and our fathers have not been able to bear? We must teach them some system, and missionaries of different churches will naturally, as well as from conscientious principles, teach their own. But let us teach the systems in their essential elements; let us teach those elements which have stood the test of time, and are found suitable to the spiritual power, the self-management, the general resources, the christian civilization of the churches which we are asked to guide. ”

“ He was sent, about two years ago, by the Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society, of London, assisted by Belmont Church, Aberdeen, Scotland, and several individual Christians, to Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., where he has been studying with a view to devoting himself to missionary work in Africa.
These young men are in a very trying position, and need the prayers of all good people that they may have wisdom and grace and patience from the Giver of all good and perfect gifts. ”

“ In the same great cities Female education now occupies a larger place than ever in the labours of the Mission. In two of the missions of South India, seven among the well-trained evangelists of those missions have been ordained as pastors or missionaries during the past two years, and eleven others have been proposed for the same responsibilities. ”

“ They have long since accomplished their special work; and socially, in recent years, some of them have been doing evil rather than good. Again, the close relation subsisting between several of the missionaries and the Native Churches of which they were pastors, has operated much to the disadvantage of these brethren during the years of drought; and the system required readjustment without delay. The incomes of all the missionaries, especially of those within the Cape Colony, were insufficient, and the education of the young was in general very imperfectly provided for. ”

“ THAT, as any plan for the formation of a separate Missionary Institution, and of affiliating it with any existing College, is found to be impracticable; and as existing colleges have shown themselves so ready and anxious on favourable terms to welcome the Society's students among theirs, it is desirable that our students should be placed in those Institutions in various parts of the country. ”