Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

while they sat in a circle round his bed, I spoke to them of Jesus, and told them the glad tidings of his salvation. They all listened very attentively, and seemed much interested. I asked them if they clearly understood me. Oh, yes,' several of them answered, go on, please.' Then the patient, raising himself a little, said, with a low voice, 'Iya (sir), until now we have worshipped devils, and idols of earth, stone, wood, and brass, as you have just said. We have hitherto very strictly and ungrudgingly made our offerings and fulfilled our vows. Kinsmen and friends, answer the question which has just been asked-What doth it profit? As for me, and, I trust I may say, as for you too, my people, we, with all our heart, wish henceforth to worship the one living and true God, to have him and him only as our God. Iya,' he continued, we wish to begin now; let us all humbly worship the Lord now, in the sick-room here.'" This remarkable turn to the proceedings filled the heart of the missionary with joy, and it was with additional gratitude to God that he found the whole company responding. The Scriptures were read and explained, and all knelt down and prayer was offered for their salvation. That the desire for increased knowledge of Christ was not transient, appears from the fact that when the patient left the missionary's charge, the latter was urged to conduct service at the rich man's house on the Sabbath morning. To his delight, he found the man and his neighbours there; and, after worship, they all accompanied him to the house of God.

[ocr errors]

Such cases as these are great encouragements to those who labour in the missionary field. And they are much needed; for, in addition to the ordinary obstacles attending their work, they have to bear with the peculiar prejudices and superstitions of the native heathen. About the middle of the year, cholera broke out; and the popular belief was that this foul epidemic was imported by the English when they conquered the country. "When the English pulled down the pagoda at Seerangapuram, the goddess, on quitting her temple, let loose Usika Davi, the propagator of pestilence, whom, until then, she had held captive beneath her feet. There are, however, descriptions of the disease by different native authors who lived long before the invasion of Travancore." The popular impression that cholera is due to the malignancy of some feverpropagating devil and his black band, is deepened by the curious fact that persons who are attacked with the disease on a dark or cloudy night rarely recover; and the knowledge of this fact operates in keeping the natives indoors after sunset. The havoc which this fearful scourge has made has been most alarming; and the missionaries mourn over the loss of not fewer than five hundred of their adherents. The death of a native medical evangelist of much promise, surrounded by his patients, was a great disaster. His last report gives an incident which evidently solemnized his mind, and brought him to think of his own end. A lady escaped, with her children, a companion, and two nurses, from the district in which she resided, from fear of the cholera, but she had hardly arrived at Santhapuram when one of the nurses fell sick and died. One of the children was also taken ill, and during the night the mother was seized. The good native brother found her, to his deep grief, hopelessly ill. A telegram came to say that her husband, whom she had left behind, was dying. "My heart," said the late

missionary, "was like to break, as message after message came from her husband wishing to see his wife, and the poor wife calling for her husband in a heart-rending manner. Her last moments I can never forget: she was quite conscious to the last, and no one had as yet spoken to her of Jesus. I thought that being East Indian, and I only a native, they might think it presumption in me to do so, but the Lord helped me. About three o'clock in the gloomy night, I said to her, 'Dear lady, I have done for you all I possibly can; 1 do not think you will recover; your husband is very dear to you, but you cannot see him. I hope yon have heard of one who loves you more than husband or child can: I mean Jesus Christ the Saviour?' She looked up at once, and nodded her head. 'If you have heard of him, but have not yet found him as your Saviour, then please, dear lady, seek to know him now-confess your sins to God, and ask forgiveness for Jesus' sake, and he will forgive you.'" After this, adds the writer, she lay composed, breathing now and then a prayer, and just before her death, cried out, "My SaviourO my Saviour!"

The report of the English missionary speaks highly of the ability and skill of the native medical gentleman whom he has trained for this service; and it is only reasonable to suppose that, among so grossly superstitious a people as the Hindoos, the employment of such an agency must go far to dissipate their absurd fancies respecting Englishmen, and win them to the truth, which these natives are evidently so well qualified to teach. The record of their earnestness in presenting the gospel to the deluded heathens, in evangelising towns and villages every Sabbath, and in curing all kinds of distempers, is one full of instruction.

Our readers will be glad to hear that one of the students of the Tabernacle College hopes to qualify himself as a medical student, that he may go among the heathen wherever the Lord may lead him. hope to find him funds for this enterprise.

Open-air Preaching.

We

HE practice of open-air preaching is as old as the objections alleged against it. Noah, the earliest open-air preacher of whom we have any record, was, perhaps, the least successful of any; and all that this "preacher of righteousness" accomplished in his scoffing and wicked age was to become a testimony against it. A more unbelieving audience, and, perhaps, a more critical, no open-air preacher ever had. Other preachers in streets and rural scenes are noticed in the Scriptures: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." The prophet's lamentation and utterances were not always acceptable to a people as sensitive of rebuke as they were susceptible of the very evils needing the stern reproof. The preacher's warnings and threatenings, as we know, often produced great, and sometimes immediate results. Jonah, who shrank so fretfully and cowardly from going through the almost incredibly long city of Nineveh, with the message of woe, so aroused the people to a sense of their

danger, that they repented, and the threatened punishment was averted. Jesus Christ was not only a travelling, but an open-air preacher; his choicest discourses were delivered in the streets and suburbs of the cities through which he journeyed in his noble errand of "doing good." His sermons are fragrant with thoughts and illustrations derived from the scenes of nature. Preaching from the fishing-vessel off the beach of the Sea of Gennesareth, the waving corn furnished him with images; and the birds flying overhead, or the fishermen on the lake, or the lilies of the fields," or the city set on a hill, with other points of the glowing landscape, were introduced into the addresses of him who "spake as never man spake." The apostles probably taught oftener in the open-air, by the river-side, "where prayer was wont to be made," than in houses; and we read that "they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following."

This primitive mode of evangelisation was adopted largely by the early Christians, and even by the Church of Rome before it was corrupted. It was thus that Christianity spread. Before the emissaries of Rome had arrived to force the Britons to yield themselves to their superstitions, a pure and simple faith was taught. Thus St. Patrick and his missionaries in Iona promulgated the good tidings of salvation in Ireland.

The Lollards were earnest open-air preachers, often delivering their souls to a few godly or enquiring villagers in the night, reading by torchlight, or trusting to the light of the genial moon for protection from their persecutors. When religion was at a low ebb, street preaching was but rarely resorted to; and when a new springtide of piety blessed the land, forthwith open-air services were resumed. Throughout the length and breath of this happy isle, the voices of Whitefield and Wesley, with their earnest followers, were heard, and thus a revival of godliness was the result. So it came to pass that open-air preaching was regarded as the peculiar product of Methodism, and many hoped and believed that both would die out together. Were it agreeable with our present plan, many thrilling instances might be quoted from the biographies of these active revival preachers of the success attendant upon preaching the gospel in the market-places and on the commons of England. Villagers, low sunk in ignorance and the grossest vice, were arrested by the plain, vigorous appeals of these evangelists, and brought, with passionate anxiety, to solicit guidance to the cross. Worship in private houses followed, and churches being gathered, conventicles suited to the requirements and the pecuniary position of the new converts were erected. Large assemblies of men and women were held in many of the squares of the metropolis and other great cities, and, although the opposition offered was frequently discouraging, thousands were awakened, and places of worship were built and filled.

The fervour of this great tide of excitement having somewhat subsided, there was less street preaching. It is true that the churches and chapels had not lost their congregations, nor had all zeal for God departed. Still, there was less attention than formerly to this important mode of evangelisation; and, as a consequence, perhaps, the churches had less hold upon the masses. The practice must have

fallen greatly into disuetude, or people would not have regarded street preaching as a nuisance, and street preachers as fanatics of the vulgarest type. Thirty years ago, abuse was heaped upon such men, and probably the field was almost entirely left to those who had stronger lungs than judgment. More competent laymen, however, joined the bands of earnest preachers; ministers began, although slowly, to countenance the movement, and it was found that crowds could be attracted by these means. The feeling that the tone of street preaching should be raised was very creditable in those who entered this field of labour. The agency strengthened and improved, strange to say it became for a time quite popular; and the world ecclesiastical was startled one fine day to find that even the Bishop of London, Dr. Tait, had ventured, lawnless and staffless, to preach to the people out-of-doors. On Sunday afternoons, crowds of persons, many of whom were of the very class for whom such services are designed, flocked around some Church or Nonconformist minister, or some unaccredited preacher, to hear a very simple but effective discourse. Alas, that infidels, secularists, and the advocates of superstition and false notions became busy, and sought to destroy the good that had been done. Many of the prominent spots where street preaching had been greatly blessed, soon became renowned for acrimonious disputation. Controversialists drew swords in the Parks, and fierce wordy battles were the result. Some places we remember well as theological bear gardens. Happily, although the Parks were closed against Christian as well as infidel teachers, street preaching was not stopped. Young men who had gained a hearing in the less prominent parts of the metropolis, retained these advantages. Those who had once been treated with contumely, began to be regarded with respect and sympathy. The poor and illiterate liked their unassuming manners and plain talk, were won by their kindly smile, and pleased with the hearty grasp of the horny hand.

We are not sure that, in London at least, open-air preaching is in as good repute now as then. The fault is not in the classes of the community for whom such services are more especially designed. Thousands of mechanics labour all day in the open-air, and are more disposed to be out of doors in fine weather than to be engaged in indoor occupations. The majority of the poorer classes in our thickly populated cities are more comfortable out of their rooms than when in them. Unfitted for intellectual pursuits, and, perhaps, strangers to the luxury of a good book, they fall asleep when sitting still; or, tired of "pottering about" the rooms which need but little of their attention, they saunter out into the open-air to interest themselves in the many incidents of street-life. Persuade them to attend our ordinary religious services, and the charms that quiet our souls fill them with unrest; while the incitements to spiritual thought to us so gladdening, only yield them despondency, or provoke them to thoughtless indifference. Our enjoyments will be their disappointments; our delights, their disgust. Entice them into mission-rooms, and if the preacher be attractive and earnest, they may be interested, perhaps for the while delighted to excitement; but, if he be violently eccentric, or a vulgar Boanerges, the probabilities are that the working man will have his good sense insulted, or his risible faculties unduly excited. Clearly there must be

some strong inducement to lead him to attend, with regularity, special in-door services. He is too full of trivial excuses for us deliberately to add to the stock: and mere talkers, whose agreement with Mrs. Poyser's aphorism, "There's no pleasure in living if you are to be corked up for ever, and only dribble your mind out by the sly, like a leaky barrel," leads them to inflict indescribable pains upon their too patient hearers, only repel those who might be allured. Unfortunately, this type of evangelists is too often regarded, by the labouring classes, as representative of the whole; and we would strongly urge upon our capable brethren, suffering under the imputation of being classed with such rude thinkers and chatterers, the task of convincing the poor to the contrary, by going where they are, and speaking to them in the streets, and so winning them to the regular services of the mission-room. A simple, fervent preacher, with homely genius, smart and cheerful, cannot fail in gathering together larger numbers to hear the gospel out-of-doors than within. Our variable climate does not keep in-doors thousands of persons who would not regard this as an objection to openair efforts, any more than the Easterns would object to such gatherings where sun-strokes are not uncommon, and tempests occasionally rage.

Into whatever disrepute open-air preaching may have fallen, not a little of the blame must rest upon the injudicious agents by whom it has been carried on. Twaddle, whether found in the four million sermons said to be annually delivered within walls in England, or in the street lectures of incompetent men, or the idle talk of private life, must be a nuisance. There may be, as Matthew Henry so well observes, in well-doing an over-doing, and such over-doing as may prove undoing. It is a grievous mistake to suppose no qualifications are necessary for open-air preaching. We need not curb the enthusiasm of young men disposed to encounter all the difficulties of arduous Christian service, but to enlighten their minds upon the nature of these difficulties, and to improve the character of their voluntary service, are benefits to themselves, and to the cause of piety. Any organisations that seek these ends have our hearty sympathy. The church of the Tabernacle, by the means of its Evening Classes and Evangelists' Association, has contributed not a little, we think, in improving the gifts of many young men who have preached in different parts of South London.

A useful society, not so well known as it deserves, has prosecuted this work with considerable energy. We refer to the Open-air Mission -"an Unsectarian Lay Association," as it calls itself-formed for the purpose of calling out and qualifying, as far as may be, Christian men of zeal and native ability as open-air preachers. The society has an active secretary who, it is only fair to say, is the soul of the mission, and an honorary secretary, who has acquired not only a unique popularity for "paddling his own canoe," but also a high reputation for Christian and philanthropic zeal. Both gentlemen are open-air preachers of great ability, and are well fitted to train and give direction to the young men who constitute the members of the mission. The way in which young men are thus trained is mainly by monthly conferences, at which special addresses by ministers and gentlemen of all denominations are given, and discussions held. These addresses are theological, exegetical, and practical, and cover a wide field of useful knowledge.

« PreviousContinue »