they wish. They will not give less for Christ's Church unless Missionaries Examples of unintentionally lead them to do so. In a city of India there is parsimony an intelligent. Native Christian in good position who receives not and liberality. many hundred rupees less than a thousand a month. The church of which he is a member is now anxious to repair and enlarge its house of worship at a cost of several thousand rupees. How much do you suppose that this Native Christian gave to the fund for a church building for the use of himself and his family? Rs. 20. I was astonished to hear the Missionary there intimate that he thought the man had done pretty well. And doubtless the Native Christian, too, thought that he had done pretty well, as he had not been accustomed or expected to do much. Yet the Missionary, with perhaps half the salary of the other and with a much more expensive establishment, had very likely subscribed a much larger sum for building this church which was not for his own use, but for the use of that well-to-do Native Christian and others and had also sent urgent appeals to people in England and India for the several thousand rupees needed for this purpose. On the other hand, I know a Native Christian who has an income of only Rs. 1200 a year, who has for the past two years given over Rs. 200 yearly for the support of pastors and Missionary work. No country in the would can show better than India the value of the homely but important truth, that many littles make a mickle. When the Western wishes to make a great illumination he depends on a few powerful burners of gas or electric light. The Eastern uses a thousand little lights, each. of which is cheap and insignificant. But how pleasing and effective is their combination! The support of non-Christian religious teachers and institutions in India depends mainly on a multitude of small gifts. Missionaries sometimes imagine that it is an imposition and out of the question to expect poor Christians to give for their religious institutions, forgetting that the poorest Indian widow could not be poorer than she who fed Elijah from her last handful of meal, or she whose all was but two mites. But the one was distinctly requested in the name of God and in trust upon Him to give from her handful, and the other was commended for having thrown her all into the Lord's treasury. This was doubtless because these poor women could best in this way, and could only after thus giving, receive the large blessings which they received. 3. In order to call out the best strength of the Native Christians in this direction, giving up to the limit of their ability for the support of their institutions must be placed before them as a duty. Many Missionaries and Native Christians have perverted that inspiring text "God loveth a cheerful giver" to mean that if any one does not wish to give, he need not do so. The sermon on that text might well have two heads: (1) God loveth the giver. God is by nature a giver, and cannot feel pleasure in one Power of littles. Urge the duty of giving. Example of Work all motives. who does not give; (2) God loveth a cheerful giver. Unless we are prepared to teach that one is excused from doing any duty which he cannot do cheerfully, let us never allow that pernicious doctrine that the Native Christians should not be urged to give for their religious institutions, up to their ability, if they do not give cheerfully. 4. But we should rise higher than duty, and represent giving for the support of church institutions as a precious privilege. Christ so loved the Church that He gave Himself for it (Eph. v. 25). Let us and our native Christians so love the Church that we will gladly give our best gifts for it. 5. Use every other motive. Paul was accustomed to praise the churches which did well, and to praise them when writing to other churches. In this way he quickened and encouraged those who were foremost in this grace, and he also stimulated others to imitate them. 6. Just as far as possible let us make the privileges of the Christians depend on their faithfulness in helping to pay for them. Whenever a new desire or opportunity arises, let the Christians' getting what they wish depend, so far as the Missionary is concerned, on their exerting themselves for it. 7. The best giving strength of no Church at home or in India Importance can be called out without system. Not only should principle and of system. love prompt to generous giving, but system is essential to large success. The system may vary in different places, but probably that system will secure the largest amounts which leads men as an ordinary rule to dedicate a certain portion of their incomes for given objects. American Mission. Now a few words to show how the principles indicated have been in a measure carried out in the American Marathi Mission of Western India. For a long time the Mission had done almost every thing, and this made it doubly hard to lead the churches to selfsupport. But a few years ago an effort was made to explain and impress upon our Christians the duty and grace of giving for the support of their pastors. Providentially our leading Native Christians and the Missionaries were led to take up the position that as the Jews were expected to give to the Lord a tenth of all their incomes, we, Christians, ghould not give less; and it was felt that in devising a system for ourselves, we could not get a better general principle than that of urging every Christian to give a tenth of his income to the Lord. Some immediately adopted the rule and have followed it from the first. It was hard for some to feel able or willing to do so. Some decided to do so and only partially lived up to their resolution. But the habit was strengthening; and the spiritual life of our whole Christian. community was growing higher, and men publicly testified that in their experience they had found God's promise in Mal. iii. 10 true, when they withheld their tithes God had not blessed their sources of income, and when they had given tithes, the Lord had opened the windows of heaven and poured out a blessing. And now giving a tenth of their incomes is widely practised by our Christians, and with a good degree of cheerfulness by many. By re gularly giving in this systematic way, both Native Christians and Missionaries were surprised to find how large was the ability in the direction of self-support of a body composed mainly of poor Christians. Some of the churches began to pay the entire salary of their pastors. And on the occasion of a Jubilee meeting held a little more than a year ago, the Christians raised the nucleus of a sustentation fund to help the weaker churches, and so placed themselves in a position where they could support all their pastors without any Mission help. During the past year 17 ordained pastors ministered to the churches connected with our Mission and received from Rs 15 to Rs. 50 a month, and they were all supported by the Christians themselves without the grant of a rupee from the Mission. I remark incidentally that all licenses to preach and ordinations and withdrawals of ordination and other ecclesiastical matters are managed by an association of which no Missionary is in any way a member, or by the churches themselves. Mode of Time will not allow a minute description of the way in which the funds for the support of pastors are collected, but it should be collection. said that an essential to large success in this direction is a faithful, active and courteous church treasurer or steward to collect, keep and disburse money. If possible, this treasurer should be a Native Christian, and not a Missionary. When the latter acts as church treasurer there is room for the suspicion that some of the Christians do not give, but that the Missionary sometimes takes the money, and the Christians are not as strong as when they are obliged to carry their own responsibilities. One of our churches has a pastor who receives little or nothing from the church, but who supports himself. Being the most suitable man in the church, he was selected by them to be their spiritual leader and was ordained to the ministry. But some of our churches have found, as the churches of ancient times soon found, that there are serious disadvantages in having a pastor who devotes part of his time to purely secular affairs, and that it is much better somehow to pay him a salary sufficient for his support and to expect him to devote all his time to the ministry. Properly speaking, self-support does not refer to the payment of pastors' salaries only, and the principle of calling out the best strength of the Native Christians to enable them to carry their own burdens should be applied, as far as possible, to the erection of church buildings, to educational privileges, to the support of their more helpless members, by the organization of Widows' Aid Societies and in other ways, and to all other matters. Our theme calls for some remarks on self-propagation in the Native Church, as well as on self-support, and there is an intimate connection between the two. But time allows only a brief statement of two thoughts. Every 1. The best strength of the Indian Church in the direction of Christian to self-propagation can only be called out by setting every Christian do something. to do something. This does not mean that men or women should be encouraged to attempt what they are not qualified to do; and it includes the idea that at least hereafter no branch of Missionary work is likely to be so fruitful as our best efforts to train up workers of all grades of attainment, not stopping till the fullest Theological training is given to our best educated men. But, as in the matter of giving, so in the matter of personal Christian effort, our churches at home and in India need to remember that every one has at least one talent, and that it is especially those with the single talent who are apt to excuse themselves from using it and from whom men with more talents expect nothing, but whom God will never excuse. One chief reason why there are not more numerous and more successful Christian workers everywhere is because men and women wait, and often think they must wait, to begin personal work for others until they are highly trained. But like the Samaritan woman, every other woman who has met the Lord can tell her neighbours of Him; like Andrew every Christian can find his brother and tell him of the Messiah ; like Philip every one can seek out his fellow-townsman to deliver the same message; like Naaman's captive maid every child can tell what he or she knows of a great prophet; and this, I earnestly believe, we should encourage every true Christian man, woman and child to do. If Moody had waited for training before engaging in Christian work, or had allowed himself to be deterred from his efforts, as some well meaning persons tried to do, the kingdom of God would have been less near than it is to-day. A personal duty. Mistakes of early (2.) The best strength of the Native Christians in the direction of self-propagation can be called out only when they and we think of the duty and privilege of evangelistic efforts-not as a trust laid upon the apostles 1800 years ago, and hence in a general way as applicable to us-but when they and we realize the personal presence of the living Christ, and looking from our inmost souls on His divine face and tear-dimmed eyes we see Him pointing to the men and women who are living to-day, and to whom we can speak or to whom we can send the gospel, and then hear Him 66 says pronounce our names as He -, go preach the Gospel; and lo, I am with you." Then shall our Native Christians and we be inspired in some fuller degree with the yearning for souls expressed by the Saviour's words, " Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring: and there shall be one fold and one shepherd." SECOND SPEECH BY THE REV. G. C. DUTT, B. M. S., Khulna, Bengal. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the first Missionaries who Missionaries, brought the Gospel of Jesus Christ to my country and laid the foundation of the Christianity that has now spread over it. But with all their virtues, they were foreigners, and made mistakes in attempting to manage their converts, just as the early English conquerors did when they first tried to govern the country. These mistakes arose from their doing everything according to their foreign ideas and ways, without the least regard to the ideas and ways of the natives. To give an instance, they supposed we were a great barbarous nation, and could know nothing of music; being themselves quite ignorant of the fact that music had been for many ages studied in India, and that Sanskrit treatises had been written upon it. So they taught us their style of music, which was quite unsuited to our taste, and although we would sing their hymns to please our teachers, we did not relish them at all. In order that you may understand this, I will mention that when I was in England and Scotland, I used to sing some of our airs to amuse the friends; and there would always be some such remark as this made, "How queer a tune is this, Mr. Dutt!" Just so was our feeling with regard to the foreign music. Native singing, The same holds true with respect to instrumental music. When and music. I first got charge of a congregation, I thought I would touch the people's hearts by means of music, and I got a tum-tum which I used to play to them. But when the Missionary paid us a visit he said, "What heathen practice is this?" Whereupon I repented and did not touch the tum-tum for some time. I was then young and easily frightened. Afterwards, when I became more independent, I fought with the Missionaries. For I felt that I had received my commission to preach from Christ, and that I must preach by means which were available in this country. of rice. If ever the Native Church becomes self-supporting, it will be Daily handful under Native preachers, who will have been educated under the Missionaries. I will tell you what course I follow myself. When I was a boy my father kept and worshipped a rather expensive idol. At length, in order to save himself the daily trouble, he presented the idol to a priest, and agreed to pay him a certain sum monthly to perform the usual ceremonies on his account. Then my mother, who was a shrewd, discerning woman, contrived to obtain the money by simply taking and putting aside a handful of the rice purchased for our morning and evening meals. Well, as I say, I told my wife of this plan of my mother's, and she, every time she cooked our food, abstracted a handful of the rice, and at the end of a month she had eight annas' worth, which was sold for the benefit of the Church. Our method was soon adopted in other families, and each month they come with an offering of eight or ten annas. I say eight or ten annas, because some women's hands are larger than others. This is an example of the customs and manners of the country which ought to be studied by Missionaries if they wish to develop self-support in the Native Church. The time allowed me for speaking is almost spent, so I shall |