There can be no question that the missionaries were now in their right sphere; they were no longer bound to sanction by their silence things of which they could not approve, or to be parties in proceedings which violated their consciences. They were free to rebuke error, and fully to unfold the whole mystery of God, without compromise. The pure and scriptural liturgy of the Church of England was used in their churches, and many were they who were thus enabled to worship in sincerity and truth. What they did, in the matter of their separation, was, in fact, scarcely a matter of choice. They had, indeed, no alternative; the Syrians had rejected their aid in the way in which it had been proffered, and they could only then establish an open mission. And now God seemed more abundantly to bless their labours; the fire which, when thrust into the midst of the fagot, seemed to be smothered and powerless, now when kindled on the outside soon caught the propitious winds of heaven, and spread its Subsequent Mission Statistics. 141 flames around. As the early Church only grew after its founder was removed, and his work was revealed as a whole by the Spirit, so the Church in Travancore only seemed to increase when the missionaries could pitch their tabernacle outside, and exhibit a pure example of the worship of the Most High. Since that time God has given us many witnesses. We have now fourteen ordained clergymen, thirteen of whom are of Syrian parentage, two of them having been deacons in the Syrian Church when young. The remaining one is a Brahmin convert. And, numerically, with regard to those in communion with our own Church, I have spoken. But the question will be asked-and that, no doubt, pointedly—what has the result of the open mission been on the Syrian Church as a Church?—for the first object of the mission to Travancore was the renovation of this ancient institution. Is the Church, as a Church, any nearer a reform than in 1836? The answer, I think, is undeniable, that the system of the last thirty years has told on the Syrian Church. The preaching of the missionaries (and by preaching I mean the whole of their teaching as ministers of the gospel), the example of a pure ritual, the lives and teachings of the native clergy and other agents, increased education, and, above all, the dissemination of the Word of God in the vernacular, have moved the Syrian Church to the centre. A reforming party is growing up, already so far developed as to be known by that distinctive title, who are beginning to read their liturgy in Malayalim, refuse to acknowledge the validity of prayers for the dead, to worship the Virgin Mary and saints, and to engage in other superstitious observances that have long polluted their religion. They are found chiefly in the southern districts, where, of all places, the missionaries, Messrs. Peet and Hawksworth, never gave any quarter to Syrianism. And if further proof were needed of the sincerity of the movement, the following fact stands out prominent among the rest: that Syrian deacons are in increasing numbers seeking their education in the Church Missionary Society's college, at their own expense. very opposite of the methods at first pursued, in the management of the mission to the Syrians, is gradually producing the very results then so earnestly desired. Thus it would seem that the 6 May our Society be ever guided by the Spirit of God in the choice of missionaries for this field, that they send out none other than those who are wise in their generation, men of sound learning, and, above all, men full of the Holy Ghost;' for this is indeed a field which needs the most skilful and most devoted of husbandmen-men 'wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.' |