largest proportion belonging to the two | the painful alternative of abandoning societies of the church of England and to the baptist denomination. These native Christians and the churches (or congregations) which they form are the fruits of missionary labour, and as such they afford with many drawbacks matter for gratitude and joy. Nevertheless, when we look at them from a particular point of view they must occasion the deepest anxiety to the friends of missions. With certain trifling exceptions these churches are to this day dependent upon Europe (and America) both for pecuniary supplies and for pastors. Some of them, indeed, have native pastors or pastoral assistants under various names, but these are trained to their work at the expense of distant societies and by the labours of their agents. Now this state of things, at first unavoidable, is one which if continued and extended beyond certain limits cannot fail to become disastrous in the extreme. If the churches increase in number and extent without becoming self-sustaining, they will and must become an insuperable barrier to the evangelization of the country, by absorbing all the pecuniary supplies, and claiming all the energy and time of the missionaries sent to these shores from distant lands. If the income of our missionary societies admitted of a perpetual increase, and if the numbers of missionaries coming from Europe or America were unlimited, no danger could be apprehended. But the resources of our missionary societies are not inexhaustible; they have their limits, and it may be questioned whether some of them are not even at present worked to their full extent. The highest point of productiveness which they can reach being once attained which probably will be the case with most of them after the lapse of a few more years-the various societies will one after another be driven to either the heathen population or the native churches. If all their resources are expended upon the latter, the former must be left to their hopeless condition. If the heathen population continues to be the object of missionary efforts, the native churches must be left to shift for themselves. The consideration of this state of things clearly shows that for the sake of the heathen it is absolutely necessary that the native churches should become self-sustaining, both as to pecuniary supplies and as to the ministry. The fact, however, is that they are not yet self-sustaining. A commencement has indeed been made in this direction, but the result is almost too minute to be taken into account. And this is the state of things now at the close of half a century! It therefore becomes us to look the evil in the face, and to inquire into the reasons why our native churches are not yet selfsustaining? Such an inquiry may lead to the discovery of the root of the evil and of the means of eradicating it. The following pages are intended as a contribution to such an inquiry. writer deeply feels the importance of the subject, but is conscious that his ideas regarding it are fragmentary and crude. His object is to draw the attention of others to the coming danger, with a view to solicit their advice as to the means by which it may be avoided. The In blending together the supplies of money and men it may appear to many that two very heterogeneous things are coupled together. In practice, however, both are closely connected. So long as our missionary societies have to supply the money, they will and must also control the expenditure, and this again implies the choice and control at least, and probably also the training of the men, who are supported by that expenditure. And on the other hand the temporal condition, in other words the poverty of our native Christians, is apparently the chief cause why the churches are dependent upon extraneous aid as to men. Take away the salaries now paid by our missionary societies to native preachers, from what source are they to obtain the means of support? And without the means of support it is idle to expect that any native preachers or pastors will be found unless an entirely new system of superintending churches can be devised. The writer does not deny the possibility of such a new system being discovered; but as he is not aware of any having as yet been discovered that appears practicable, he feels justified in blending into one the two questions regarding money and men. The idea which it is intended to express by the term self-sustaining is, that the native churches should be able from their own resources to support their pastors, to defray the cost of erecting and keeping in repair their places of worship and school-rooms, and to meet all the minor current expenditure connected with them and with the relief of poor members. With regard to men the churches will be selfsustaining when they shall themselves furnish, train up, and appoint pastors and teachers without requiring any further official superintendence on the part of missionary societies. It appears to the writer that the causes which have hitherto retarded the development of this self-sustaining character of the churches may conveniently be classed under two heads,-first, those inherent in the very nature of things and which do not admit of an immediate remedy; and secondly, those that are adventitious, and might, therefore, be avoided or remedied within a short time. 1. Among the first class must be mentioned the recent origin of many of the native churches. Having been in existence only a few years they are feeble in numbers, feeble in intelligence, and feeble in Christian character. From churches in a state of infancy it would be absurd to expect that they should be self-sustaining. They obviously need to be supported and guided by others up to a certain time. It would be especially foolish to expect the new converts belonging to such churches to be at once fit for teachers and pastors. But whilst some churches are still in their infancy, there are others of twenty and thirty and more years' standing, composed of pretty large numbers, which certainly ought no longer to be found in the same helpless and dependent state in which they were involved at the commencement of their existence. 2. The temporal condition of native Christians is one of the greatest obstacles the churches have to contend with. If we assume the total number to amount to 12,000 it may safely be said that 11,000 of them live mainly from the proceeds of their land. The men are ryots or peasants in humble circumstances. If their land be what is called poitrik, the rent they have to pay for it is about one rupee per biga, but if the land be what is called tiká the rent is generally two rupees. A biga of land (of which nearly three make an English acre) yields on an average a produce worth five rupees. After deducting from this sum the expense of implements, bullocks, seed-corn, and the rent, a small profit remains in the case of poitrik land, but the cultivation of tiká land generally proves a loss, submitted to from custom and ignorance because holding a little land is regarded as a sign of respectability. Other occupations, such as fishing, &c., may in favourable years keep the poor family above water, but many are involved in a constant struggle for existence. Seedcorn can be borrowed at an interest of fifty per cent (in kind) for eight months, the interest on money is generally three pice a month for a rupee of sixty-four pice, and frequently it is even higher.* Taking all these things into consideration and allowing also for the endless extortions practised by zemindars, it must be evident that the condition of native Christian ryots is very discouraging. Only those who hold about seven or more bigas of poitrik land can get along with any comfort, the rest who are the great majority-are constantly struggling with dire poverty. Among the remaining thousand of native Christians the majority are servants. These labour under the disadvantage of not having had an early training for their work, and of being disliked and indirectly persecuted by their fellow servants, whilst their masters are apt to expect more from them as Christians than they do from others. Some native Christians have obtained respectable situations as writers, &c., but these also labour under similar disadvantages. Lucrative situations are held by very few if any. Those who are employed as preachers and teachers form a distinct class, and cannot be taken into account here, as the question under consideration is why they are not supported by the native churches? : have been very few if any artizans and respectable shop-keepers. Such might, even if they had lost all, be set up again at a moderate cost, provided they could find customers as readily as before. As time advances and the number of native Christians increases their temporal condition will gradually be improved. Only it will be necessary to keep this object steadily in view. At the present time the poverty of our native brethren imposes heavy burdens upon missionaries and their friends. A convert who was well off before loses everything, and unless the missionary support him for a time he must starve. The Christian ryots also look to the missionary for aid in times of famine, inundation, murrain, &c. Great efforts should, therefore, be made to qualify native Christians for all manner of work by which an honest livelihood may be earned. If youths could be apprenticed to artizans, or obtain situations in government and commercial offices, the cause of the native Christians would gain much. And if those in the rural districts could be supplied with land at the lower rate of rent, they also would be saved from misery and wretchedness. As things are at present it is very clear that it is not in the power of native Christians to do much for the support and extension of religion. Two circumstances have hitherto materially retarded the improvement in the temporal condition of native Chris- 3. A third evil which cannot be tians one is, that those who were remedied at once is the inadequate suppretty well off before have in conse-ply of the means calculated to aid the quence of their conversion been de- development of the Christian character. prived of all their property and compelled to begin the world afresh: the other is, that among the converts there It is cheerfully admitted that public worship is everywhere maintained and that preaching is generally connected with it. The Lord's supper also is administered pretty regularly. These divine ordinances are useful to the members of the churches, and they are enjoyed by them. But it will hardly be denied that the discourses delivered by the preachers are not generally equal in quality to those which Christian congregations in Europe are favoured with. | Most of the native churches are dependent for their sermons upon native preachers, who from various causes do not and cannot make their discourses so rich in varied instruction as they should be. The range of subjects which they handle is very limited, and the arguments and illustrations introduced are very meagre. There are a few native preachers to whom these remarks do not apply, but these form a small proportion of the whole number. It may also be a question whether European preachers when addressing an audience of native Christians do not generally take it too easy, so as to be satisfied with a very superficial preparation. A display of erudition would certainly be thrown away upon such an audience, but that is no reason why pains should not be taken to make the discourses rich in matter, and impressive and plain in manner. As it is, it may be taken for granted that the style and pronunciation peculiar to most European preachers deprives their Bengali discourses of a certain portion of their usefulness. At all events the saying of archbishop Usher is very true, " that it takes all our learning to make these things plain." very little indeed in the shape of easy and attractive reading adapted to enlarge the mind and to widen the range of Christian sympathy. Whilst the books which we have are calculated to be very useful, and certainly call for gratitude, the want of others almost equally necessary is felt to retard the development of Christian intelligence, especially among the class of native preachers who are not acquainted with English. 4. Another evil is the imperfect development of those intellectual and social habits which have an important bearing upon the Christian character. Even if we possessed an extensive Christian literature it would at present be of little comparative use, not merely because there are few native Christians who could afford to purchase books, but also because very few of them have acquired the habit of reading intelligently for their own pleasure. To many of those who are able to read, reading is a task rather than an amusement. Their comprehension of what they read is very incomplete unless they go over the same ground many times. The ability of reading fluently is an accomplishment possessed by a very limited number of readers, most of them—though by no means all-being obliged to spell out many words as they proceed. This Our native Christian literature is defect has a very important bearing in still very limited. We have the Bible, two ways; first, the reading of the the Pilgrim's Progress, Baxter's Call, bible in private and at family worship Doddridge's Rise and Progress, the must be very partial. Very many adult Companion to the Bible, Barth's Church native Christians cannot read it at all, History, and now also the Holy War. and many others must sit down to it as To these may be added two or three a task rather than a pleasure. Secondcatechisms, various collections of Chris-ly, few wives and mothers are able to tian hymns, and about twenty printed read intelligently, consequently matersermons. But we have as yet no Commentary, no Dictionary of the Bible, no full course of divinity, in short scarcely any books of the kind most wanted by preachers. And we have VOL. XIII.-FOURTH SERIES. nal instruction must be extremely defective. In this respect those native Christian females who have been brought up in boarding schools are for the most part far ahead of their sisters, but it is M to be feared that even among them | ral superintendence on the spot which many neglect their learning from the time they leave school. Even the social habits of native Christians are a hindrance to their progress in piety. In their houses they have little privacy, and therefore find it difficult to practise secret prayer; they have few comforts, little order, in some respects little cleanliness, and no idea of the value of time. They are deficient in their sense of propriety with regard to the dress of their children, &c. All these are hindrances to evenness of temper, regularity of devotion, purity of mind, and other elements of piety. many churches have had and still have. It has pleased God to call to the fellowship of the gospel people that dwell in places where Europeans cannot dwell without either going to very great expense, or risking their health, or encountering both these evils at once. Some of these places are situated in swampy neighbourhoods where proper dwelling-houses can only be built on ground artificially raised to a high elevation, and where locomotion at certain seasons of the year is rendered almost impracticable, the ground being neither dry land nor sufficiently covered with water to allow of the use of a boat. In One great means by which these evils the three months preceding the cold may be remedied will be the establish- weather dangerous fevers prevail. At ment of village schools for the instruc- all seasons of the year it is difficult to tion of the children of native Christians. obtain wholesome water, the natives But even such schools will not be very themselves being obliged to boil that efficient at first. Children that are which they intend to drink. Supplies able to look after cattle, to take care of of provisions must be sent for from a infants, to catch fish, to assist in field distance. Such are some, and in fact labour or household work, will be kept most, of the villages to the south of at home rather than sent to school, be- Calcutta, such are many of those in cause the parents will find it difficult to Jessore, and all those in the Barisal dispense with their services. Besides, district, where large numbers of native it is with reference to these schools that Christians reside. It is evident that the money question will perhaps first during the first years of the existence prove to be very perplexing. Such of a church the pastor must come from schools ought to be supported by the a distant place, even if he be a native parents; to draw upon the funds of brother from another district he finds missionary societies for this purpose will it difficult, especially with a family, to drain their resources long before the become accustomed to the new mode of sufficient number of schools is esta- living; and if he be of European deblished. At first it is unavoidable to scent (as in most cases) he must comlook to the societies for aid, but if that mence his labours with occasional visits, is afforded beyond a certain point it will until he finds himself able to live on afterwards be very difficult to introduce the spot for a week or a fortnight at the a sounder system. Again, such schools time and so gradually to become domito be efficient will require masters ciled. Supposing that after a while he trained for that special object. And selects some of the most suitable men how is such a class of teachers to be dwelling on the spot to assist him in his obtained? Ought they not to be select-work, the disadvantages under which ed from among the native Christians they have laboured in consequence of themselves? deficient pastoral superintendence will 5. A fifth evil is the inadequate pasto-be felt by them alsɔ, and as a matter of |