X. THE MISSION 
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done it all in three weeks and made a permanent job 
of it, not mere temporary patchwork. This is one 
example out of hundreds of the useless, unprofitable 
condition of insufficiently manned mission stations. 
In the tropics a man can do at most half of what he 
can manage in a temperate climate. If he is dragged 
about from one task to another he gets used up so 
quickly that, though he is still on the spot, the working 
capacity he represents is nil. Hence a strict division 
of labour is absolutely necessary, though on the other 
hand, each member must be able, when circumstances 
demand it, to turn his hand to anything. A missionary 
who does not understand something of practical work, 
of garden work, of treatment of the sick, is a misfortune 
to a mission station. 
The missionary who is there for the evangelistic work 
must as a rule have nothing to do with the carrying on 
of the daily work of the station ; he must be free to 
undertake every day his longer or shorter journeys for 
the purpose of visiting the villages, nor must he be 
obliged to be back at the mission on a particular day. 
He may be invited while out on one of his journeys to 
go to this or that village which was not included in his 
plan, because the people there want to hear the Gospel. 
He must never answer that he has no time, but must be 
able to give them two or three days or even a whole 
week. When he gets back he must rest, for an unbroken 
fortnight on the river or on forest paths will certainly 
have exhausted him. 
Too few missionary journeys, and those too hastily 
carried through, that is the miserable mistake of almost 
all missions, and the cause of it always is that in con- 
sequence of an insufficient number of workers or of 
