40 JESUIT AND PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES. 



missionary with whom I ever came in contact, traded ; and while 

 the traders, whom we introduced and rendered secure in the 

 country, waxed rich, the missionaries have invariably remained 

 poor, and have died so. The Jesuits, in Africa at least, were wiser 

 in their generation than we ; theirs were large, influential commu- 

 nities, proceeding on the system of turning the abilities of every 

 brother into that channel in which he was most likely to excel ; 

 one, fond of natural history, was allowed to follow his bent ; anoth- 

 er, fond of literature, found leisure to pursue his studies ; and he 

 who was great in barter was sent in search of ivory and gold-dust ; 

 so that while in the course of performing the religious acts of his 

 mission to distant tribes, he found the means of aiding effectually 

 the brethren whom he had left in the central settlement.* We 

 Protestants, with the comfortable conviction of superiority, have 

 sent out missionaries with a bare subsistence only, and are un- 

 sparing in our laudations of some for not being worldly-minded 

 whom our niggardliness made to live as did the prodigal son. I 

 do not speak of myself, nor need I to do so, but for that very 

 reason I feel at liberty to interpose a word in behalf of others. I 

 have before my mind at this moment facts and instances which 

 warrant my putting the case in this way: The command to "go 

 into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature" must 

 be obeyed by Christians either personally or by substitute. Now 

 it is quite possible to find men whose love for the heathen and 

 devotion to the work will make them ready to go forth on the 

 terms "bare subsistence," but what can be thought of the just- 

 ice, to say nothing of the generosity, of Christians and churches 

 who not only work their substitutes at the lowest terms, but 

 regard what they give as charity ! The matter is the more 

 grave in respect to the Protestant missionary, who may have a 

 wife and family. The fact is, there are many cases in which it 

 is right, virtuous, and praiseworthy for a man to sacrifice every 

 thing for a great object, but in which it would be very wrong for 



* The Dutch clergy, too, are not wanting in worldly wisdom. A fountain is 

 bought, and the lands which it can irrigate parceled out and let to villagers. As 

 they increase in numbers, the rents rise and the church becomes i-ich. With £200 

 per annum in addition from government, the salary amounts to £400 or £500 a 

 year. The clergymen then preach abstinence from politics as a Christian duty. 

 It is quite clear that, with £400 a year, but little else except pure spirituality is 

 required. 



