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Pioneers and Founders or, Recent Workers in the Mission field By: Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823-1901) |
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BY C. M. YONGE, Author of " The Heir of Radclyffe ." {i:Portrait of Reginald Heber: p0.jpg} London:
MACMILLAN & CO
1874.
INTRODUCTION.
It has been my endeavour in the ensuing narratives to bring together such
of the more distinguished Missionaries of the English and American
nations as might best illustrate the character and growth of Mission work
in the last two centuries. It is impossible to make it a real history of
the Missions of modern times. If I could, I would have followed in the
track of Mr. Maclear's admirable volume, but the field is too wide, the
material at once too numerous and too scattered, and the account of the
spread of the Gospel in the distant parts of the earth has yet to be
written in volumes far exceeding the bulk of those allotted to the
"Sunday Library." Two large classes of admirable Missions have been purposely
avoided, namely, those of the Jesuits in Japan, China, and North and
South America, and those of the Moravians in Greenland, the United
States, and Africa. These are noble works, but they are subjects apart,
and our narratives deal with men exclusively of British blood, with the
exception of Schwartz, whose toils were so entirely accepted and adopted
by the Church of England, that he cannot but be reckoned among her
ambassadors. The object, then, has been to throw together such
biographies as are most complete, most illustrative, and have been found
most inciting to stir up others representative lives, as far as
possible from the time when the destitution of the Red Indians first
stirred the heart of John Eliot, till the misery of the hunted negro
brought Charles Mackenzie to the banks of the fever haunted Zambesi. We think it will be found that, so far from being the talking,
exaggerating, unpractical men that the critical and popular mind is apt
to suppose, these labourers were in general eminently practical and hard
working. They seem to us to range themselves into three classes: one,
stirred up by the sight of the destitution before their eyes, and quietly
trying to supply those needs; one, inspired by fervid zeal to devote
themselves; and one, selected by others, taking that selection as a call,
and toiling as a duty, as they would have toiled at any other duty set
before them. Each and all have their place, and fulfil the work. The
hindrances and drawbacks are generally not in the men themselves, nor in
the objects of their labour, but first and foremost in the almost uniform
hostility of the colonists around, who are used to consider the dark
races as subjects for servitude, and either despise or resent any attempt
at raising them in the scale; and next, in the extreme difficulty of
obtaining means. This it is that has more than anything tended to bring
Mission work into disrepute. Many people have no regular system nor
principle of giving the much needed supplies can only be charmed out of
their pockets by sensational accounts, such as the most really
hard working and devoted men cannot prevail on themselves to pour forth;
and the work of collection is left to any of the rank and file who have
the power of speech, backed by articles where immediate results may be
dwelt upon to satisfy those who will not sow in faith and wait patiently. And the Societies that do their best to regulate and collect the funds
raised by those who give, whether on impulse or principle, are
necessarily managed by home committees, who ought to unite the qualities
of men of business with an intimate knowledge of the needs and
governments of numerous young churches, among varied peoples, nations,
and languages, each in an entirely abnormal state; and, moreover, to deal
with those great men who now and then rise to fulfil great tasks, and
cannot be judged by common rules. Thus it is that home Societies are
often to be reckoned among the trials of Missionaries. But we will not dwell on such shortcomings, and will rather pass on to
what we had designed as the purpose of our present introduction; namely,
to supplement the information which the biographical form of our work has
necessitated us to leave imperfect, respecting the Missions as well as
the men... Continue reading book >>
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