METHODS OF MISSION WORK.

LETTER VIII.

BY REV. J. L. NEVIUS, D.D.

BEGINNING WORK-(Continued.)

When places in the interior

How ow shall we reach the people? are visited for the first time, there are opportunities to preach to crowds such as will probably never occur again. The whole population moved by curiosity, comes out to see the foreigner, eagerly intent to hear what he has to say. In preaching under these circumstances, even when well acquainted with the language, we must not expect the people to understand more than a moiety of what we say. There is too much curiosity, excitement, and noise, to admit of connected discourse or continued attention. Besides, the people are so unaccustomed to religious subjects, that language fails to communicate the ideas intended. This kind of preaching, though for the reasons above stated, very ineffectual as regards its main object, is still very important. We may at least leave the impression behind us that we have kindly intentions, that we are not barbarians, and may also give some general idea of our character and work as religious teachers; thus preparing the way for a more lengthened visit and more detailed teaching in the future. We may also hope and pray that in the crowd which gathers around us as we pass from village. to village there may be some person prepared to receive our message; or that the good seed may find a permanent lodgment in some heart and bring forth fruit in God's own time. A few tracts are very useful at such a time, to convey to the people as they are read afterwards better ideas of our object than we have been able under the circumstances to give orally.

There are many advantages in visiting the regular fairs which are so striking a feature of country life in most parts of China. Here crowds of country people are gathered, and an excellent opportunity is afforded for addressing a constantly changing audience, representing many surrounding villages and distant cities. If there are those listening who wish fuller instruction, or whose curiosity is not satisfied, they will probably seek out the missionary in his inn.

In the inn there is an opportunity for more or less lengthened conversation, adapting instruction and information to individuals, and forming acquaintances which may be followed up in the future. Books can also be disposed of with a greater degree of care and discrimination. In parts of the country where there are canals, the travelling boat largely takes the place of the inn.

Visits to native schools are sometimes very interesting and encouraging. Here we may expect widely differing receptions and experiences according to the character of the teacher in charge.

Some missionaries adopt indirect and unobtrusive methods, avoiding crowds and making comparatively little use of public preaching; waiting for the people to seek them rather than going after the people. The Romanists, so far as my observation goes, generally adopt this method. Their long experience and success render their example worthy of serious consideration.

Others wherever they go make enquiries after religiously disposed persons or seekers after truth, a class which is found in greater or less numbers almost everywhere in China; and endeavor to influence them, and through them the circle of friends or adherents always found connected with them. This plan is obviously reasonable and practical, and has the special sanction of our Saviour's teachings, Matthew 10: 11. It has been largely adopted by the English Baptists in Shantung, and with encouraging results.

While most missionaries give their chief attention to the middle or more illiterate class, a few feel a special call to attempt to influence the literati and officials; not only because they exercise a dominating influence on the masses, but also because they have been in general too much neglected. It is obvious that this kind of work is attended with peculiar difficulty, and requires special preparation, particularly in acquainting one's self with Chinese etiquette. Indeed a theoretical and practical knowledge of Chinese laws of politeness is very important for every missionary in intercourse with all classes.

as to

In what way should we spend our time and talents so accomplish most for the advancement of Christ's cause? The dominant idea of a missionary should be duty, and not immediate individual success, as judged by human standards. If the desire for tangible results should take the form of a wish to gather into the Church as soon as possible the greatest number of professed converts, it may become a dangerous temptation and snare.

It will be early fifty years hence to determine with positive certainty what any individual life has or has not accomplished. Only in eternity will every man's work be fully made manifest what

sort it is. Results of apparently great importance may attract attention and secure general commendation, and yet prove only temporary and misleading. On the other hand a good book, or a word spoken in season, may bear rich and abundant fruit, though the world may never be able to trace these results to their

true source.

Probably no two men ever have or ever will work in the same groove. Each man will do his own work best in his own way. If God has called us as individuals to serve Him in China, He has a special work for each of us to do, and if we earnestly seek His guidance He will direct us to it. It is apt to be a very different one from that which we have been disposed to plan for ourselves.

It is sometimes asked what practical answer does the experience of missionaries in China for the past forty years give to the question, "Which methods of work have really brought the greatest number of converts into the Church?" This question should probably be regarded as a legitimate and important one, but can only be answered approximately. The conventional modes of work which sum up the labors of missionaries as reported every year to the home societies are Bible distribution, Tract distribution, Chapel preaching, Translating and Book-making, Schools, and Itinerations.

The number of copies of the Bible and parts of the Bible distributed in the different parts of China during the past forty years can only be estimated by millions: the same is true of Christian tracts.

Many missionaries have given their time largely to chapel preaching and have thus spent from one to three hours daily. A great deal of this work has also been done by natives. The number of chapel discourses during the past forty years can also only be estimated by millions.

The result of literary work in the study cannot be tabulated. It passes into and is utilized in every other department of labor.

The aggregate number of years spent in teaching in different kinds of schools during the last forty years, I am convinced, can only be numbered by thousands.

As to itinerations it is a very common thing for a missionary to preach in from five to ten villages in a day, and from two hundred to five hundred times on a tour. The number of these itinerating addresses during these forty years can only be numbered by hundreds of thousands; and including those of natives probably by millions.

The question is, to which of these different modes of work is the conversion of the about 30,000 Protestant Christians of China to be mainly traced? I am disposed to think that the number of conversions due to each would be found to increase about in the order in which they are mentioned above; and that the number traceable to them all together would be but a small fraction of the whole; and that by far the greater proportion is to be referred to private social intercourse, "The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation."

In the spiritual work of the conversion of souls and building up Christ's Kingdom on earth we of ourselves can do nothing except as instruments. This is a fact so familiarly known and universally acknowledged that it may well be regarded as a simple truism. Theoretically we learned this lesson almost in infancy; practically however it is difficult for some of us fully to learn in a life time. It is so natural for us to feel that with a good knowledge of the language, sincere earnestness and sympathy with the people, together with prudence, common sense, zeal, hard work and perseverance, sooner or later great spiritual results must certainly be accomplished. This is by no means the case. Our labors may combine all the above conditions and yet be fruitless in the conversion of souls. If we depend upon our gifts or acquisitions, our zeal in the use even of God's appointed means, but with an underlying and insidious desire for a result which may be regarded as something which we ourselves have accomplished, we shall probably be disappointed. If we are cherishing a feeling of self-dependence in any form, God will probably humble us before He will use us. We must feel that if anything is accomplished it will be by the presence and power of God's Holy Spirit, and be ready to ascribe all the glory to Him. Otherwise He will probably leave us to ourselves to learn the lesson of our own weakness. The natural tendency to depend on self, or on anything else rather than God, has been a prominent sin of God's people from the earliest times. I am disposed to think that this tendency now prevails to a great extent among Christians at home, and that missionaries commence work in foreign lands too much under the influence of it.

In this commercial age a commercial spirit has crept into the Church. As in business matters generally, so in religious enterprises, it is supposed that a certain amount of capital, judiciously expended, will naturally work out a certain result. The success of a Mission Society is gauged by the amount of money in its treasury. In order to secure more liberal contributions, only the more favorable and encouraging facts are welcomed and laid before the Churches, so that

they may feel that they are contributing not to a failing but to a prospering cause. Let me not be understood as implying that money is not important, and that the duty of giving to missions should not be pressed home upon the hearts and consciences of all, whether native converts or home Christians. The danger I would guard against is of giving such disproportionate prominence to money as to divert the mind from what is of much greater importance.. In a word it is making money, or what money can command, rather than the Holy Spirit, our main dependence. I am quite aware that all Christians would earnestly disavow any such intention. It is not an uncommon thing however to find ourselves doing indirectly, or unconsciously, what we could never be induced to do deliberately and knowingly. The work we are prosecuting is distinctly and emphatically a work of God's Spirit. If we fail to recognize and act upon this fact, the mission work will decline even with a full treasury; while with the Spirit's presence it will prosper even with a depleted one.

Personal experience in beginning work in Shantung.-I commenced itinerating work in Central Shantung about fifteen years. ago; my previous tours having been in the eastern part of the province. I knew the language and had the advantage of seventeen years of experience elsewhere; but was without a native assistant. I prosecuted the work laboriously, making long tours over the same ground every Spring and Autumn, but for five years had not a single convert. The work at that time was quite different from what it is at present. Then my labors were entirely with the previously unreached masses, and consisted in preaching at fairs, in inns, and on the street, in book distribution, and efforts to form acquaintances with well disposed persons wherever I could find them. At present nearly all my time and strength, when in the country, are expended on the native Christians, on the plan detailed in previous letters. As a rule I now reach the masses indirectly through the Christians; they doing the aggressive work and I following it up, directing and organizing it. Had I again to begin work in a new field, I do not know where I should change the methods heretofore adopted, except in the one particular of not encouraging in any way, hopes of pecuniary help. Why these methods proved fruitless for so long a time it is impossible to say. In looking back over my experience during the first five years of work in this field, it appears made up chiefly of failures and disappointments. Men for whom I had watched and labored for years, who seemed almost persuaded to be Christians, went back and were lost sight of. Associations of coreligionists were at different times on the point of entering the