The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3678, 28 April 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1883.

■\Viiex ii man is very much warned, as it often happens to a man in heathen countries, a period arrives in his life, in these days, of missionary enterprise, -when it is convenient to renounce his wives and the—evil one. In spiritual matters the latter is, perhaps, easier to get rid of than the former, as far, at least, as the missionary is concerned. In the palmy days of his heathendom the candidate for baptism -would have experienced no difficulty in getting rid of too larg-e a family. Ho could ljavo caton the surplus, members of his household, J?ut this , .simple process is denied him wlien lie .jocks to enter the Christian fold. The difficulty i.s then thrown on the missionary. A man, not over-abundantly clothed, presents liinir self for baptism ; a'man with half-a-dozen ■wives, all loving and faithful. What is the missionary to do ? This was the question that was put by the Bishop of Melanesia at the remit sitting of the Synod, and which lie suggested should be submitted to the Archbishop of Canterbury for solution. Why the Primate of AH England should be called upon to unravel these sort ot conundrums we do not know. He h.w had no experience in the matter. In com.meriting upon the knotty point thus raided the Christohurch Press says it seems to be iio-ainst all rules to administer the rites ot Christian baptism to men who are openly dwelling in that unholy state. But what is to be clone ? The islanders see no harm in a plurality of wives. On the they liavo beeu trained from time immemorial to regard it as highly meritorious in a man to° absorb as large a .share of the female population as possible ■; for old maids arc sternly discouraged as an institution in that part of the world. Though wojnsu are numerous in proportion to the _ men, a spinster over fifteen years of age is uiikiiowu. These polygamies want to be Christians, and the trouble is now to make the two things work together. The missionaries are naturally loth (o reject candidates for baptism, and leave them m the darkness of heathendom, merely on account of a social custom which really does not affect their religious convictions ; but at .the same time the letter and the spirit of the law of the Church are clearly against ad-

mitting them. A happy thought, it appears, has struck the Bishop of Melanesia,

He proposes that the candidate for baptism should divorce all his wives except one, and

thus qualify himself as a respectable mem-

ber of the Church of England. There are, however, several rather serious to this plan. In the first place it is diffi-

cult, not to say invidious, to choose one from

amongst a score or so of -wives who, perhaps, hare equal charms and are equally distinguished for domestic and moral virtues according to their lights. In this country the case "would be simple. The firsfrwife would have the precedence, and all the others would have to go ; but in the islands, when a chief marries, he takes a batch of wives at a time—say, ten or ar dozen, selected from all the leading families of his acquaintance. Thus no one wife has any precedence in point of time over the others. It becomes a decidedly awkward business, therefore, if a chief or a missionary has arbitrarily to fix on one, and dismiss the remainder to single blessedness, especially in cases where there is. a large family. Each of the rejected wives feels hurt at not having been chosen, and.goes straight to her pa or her big brother, with a request that he will forthwith introduce that chief or that missionary to liis club. Then there is more bother, and the results are not unto edification. There is another little difficulty, too. The Church forbids polygamy; but it also disap2)roves of divorce; and looking to principle rather than expediency, it seems scarcely consistent for the missionaries to require the natives to do that as a qualification for baptism, which should in itself suffice to disqualify them. On the whole, we fear, the Bishop's happy thought docs not prove quite so happy on examination as it appeared at first sight. Hence it came about that the worthy prelate desired to obtain the assistance of the Archbishop of Canterbury in order to ascercertain the views of Anglicans in all parts . of the world on a problem which he found himself quite unable to solve. It may be said, perhaps, that if he could not solve it, living on the spot and knowing all the circumstances, then Anglicans less favourably situated certainly could-not have done so. But that is just the point. In a multitude of counsellors there is safety, and it is possible that among many millions of Anglicans of all nationalities one might have been found who could settle the doubts '' as to the manner in which missionaries should deal with polygamists in baptising them." We have, indeed, heard of a practical suggestion Avhich would have been made by an Anglican residing in this country, if the Bishop's motion had been carried and the Archbishop of Canterbury had acceded to his request. It is that the missionaries in baptising polygamists should adopt the method of total immersion, and should prolong the ceremony until life is extinct. By this'meaus all the wives would become widows together, and no jealousies or heart-burnings would arise among them. Neither would any scandal bo created in the shape of wholesale divorce. It is true this plan would be attended by some temporary inconvenience to the candidates for baptism, and the Church would be deprived of some hopeful members; but what are (lstiiils like these where a great principle is v involved 'i