Missionaries’ Exaggeration. 1gl 
“We cannot reasonably expect to see a people anywhere 
throw off heathenism in a month ora year. When real, the 
embracing of Christianity is not a mechanical process ; it results 
from the use of certain means, and is the outcome of certain in- 
ward changes. Before any transformation can take place among 
a heathen people, light must be communicated, and a better 
way of life be unfolded; before that can be done, a new 
language has to be acquired, independent of grammars and 
dictionaries ; some knowledge must also be gained of the 
habits, ideas, and prejudices of the natives—so very different 
from those of Europeans. Divided as his time and energies 
will be in the New Hebrides between secular and spiritual du- 
ties, a missionary will not communicate: much effective know- 
ledge under two years.” 
And again, speaking of the danger of overstating things above 
alluded to, he thus appeals to the friends of the mission :— 
“ By an inordinate desire for the bright and the pleasing, 
don’t force us to exaggerate, to send you accounts of converts 
that exist very much only on paper—to give cheques which we 
shall not fbe able one day to meet fully. If we missionaries 
have at all a tendency to err in our letters, it is to overstate 
matters, and to give accounts of our work a touch of the couleur 
de rose. Our parental eyes are sometimes a little blind to ‘the 
defects of our work and our converts. Take care when you 
read our letters. Remember whence they come, and the people 
they describe, and that it is perhaps the first flush of a new feel- 
ing on the part of the natives we are writing about. Don’t add 
to our statement. Remember that words and phrases may not 
comprehend here all they do with you. Don’t make much of 
little ; don’t put constructions on simple and trivial circum- 
stances which they will not bear; don’t draw a universal con- 
clusion from a single premise ; and don’t form high anticipations 
from mere passing events and outward appearances, but rather 
