FOREIGN MISSIONS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 295, 24 October 1874, Page 3

FOREIGN MISSIONS.

• A ctntlOTTS phase of criticism may be observed by noting the impressions caused by the receipt, in ourselves or others, of opinions advanced by different pers 11s or authorities. As cominir from a laj man, we should probablv, ut first sight, have much sympathy with any such expression as " that home work'should bo attended to first: alter that is perfected, is time eix-ugh for expenditure on missions." Yet, such expressed opinion in the mouth of the Kev. Mr. Stanford finds little approval or sympathy. Probably wo guard most jealously in our own minds the reputation of Ou- clergy. It is well they should tie without tear; but it is also well they should be without reproach. That there is a very strong shade of reproach in such a position a< was taken'up by the Anglican Synod 1 in the discussion of .Diocesan support ' to the iVJelanesiau Mission —to the exclusion of even one collection in a year, the only tiling asked by \lr. ('ifi'ord I cannot be gainsaid. Certainly, if perfection ofal! in the Church was to be the ruie before outside- work was attempted, Christianity could never .ha\e spread beyond Jerusalem and its environs. Who is to judge when home work-i's sufficiently perfected to,allow, of offerings being given towards.'the outward spread ot Christianity: • v'l'he idea seems to be based upon .the -fallacy that human effort, in proper)ionto its ability and profusion,. 'rriusfl.uing in proportionate results in the spirinird as in the material world.. Such an idea, if .true, is entirely op. posed to the action taken by all sec-; tions of Protestantism, and by the Woman Catholic Church—a Churc'i that, whatever may be its defects from a ; I'potcstnnt view, has ever been foremost in sending her cleriry to all parts of the world.to evangelise the heathen. ' The Church's theory of missions, if we may so speak, has alwa\s been that their rninist. rs are only vehicles of Divine communication at the I mine will, and that, in proportion as their labors are broadened and extended beyond WlfisMsm, so will the ho- e Churches be sustained and enlarged? This position,- faith,-credulity—speak of it as we choose —has been abun dantly. supported in practical results. Whether wo turn to "England's work during the last fifty years, and her prosperity—Germany, "her work and her prosperity—koine, kept alive in a wonderful degree as a Church, and able to present such a spectacle ns was s'iowi: in the late(E umjnical Council in spite- of the latent, opposition of nearly all tho Kuropeau Powers—or whether we look simply at Pa.-toi Harms, ot llerrmansburg. who, without a. appeal outside his parish, started and kept going a mission ship, and in eleven years spent £50,530 in trailing and forwarding voung men, equipped j\ith all Christian and tech-" nical knowledge—forty, fifty, and a hundred at a time—to the interior of Africa : whose maxim was, •• As a believing" Christian you cannot In lp car rying on mission,work with all earnest-, ir-ss anil with a 1 your heart, even though you stand.alone''—their home .industry and prosperity has. increased proportionately to the *ext» St'of their ioriign Work. ,We have yet to "learn that the efforts of the Kng'lish Church in Otagn have been very exhaustive in forwarding mission work probablv have never extended beyond a shilling or.half-crown subscription once a. vear, w'lich, even,'now is grudged by MessrrStunfonl, B aumont, and Coffey. "Bishop Se'.wyn made one a]>peal throughout the""Province, winch w.-s fairly supported; Bishop Patterson, in his death, made another. These'were the on!y special <'fforts, to our knowledge, that appealed forcibly to Otago. It is to be regretted that Mr. Stanford's energy should force him into such a position of doubt, whiib, as at the--'outseti'we s'niil, coming from a layman, would jump sufficiently with lav sympathies to be partially ".approved! -but coining from a branch of the nf character, is practically the Synod must, almost without exception, .ataiid condemned. ; '.