Fruits of Toil in the London Missionary Society

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Fruits of Toil in the London
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Title: Fruits of Toil in the London Missionary Society
Author: Various
Editor: The London Missionary Society
Release Date: November 20, 2005 [EBook #17115]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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TOIL ***

Produced by Ron Swanson

[Frontispiece: TAHITI.]

Fruits of Toil IN THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS AND SKETCHES
[Illustration: POINT VENUS LIGHTHOUSE, TAHITI.]

LONDON: JOHN SNOW & CO., IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1869.

"Sow in the morn thy seed, At eve hold not thine hand; To doubt and
fear give thou no heed, Broad-cast it o'er the land.
"Beside all waters sow; The highway furrows stock; Drop it where
thorns and thistles grow; Scatter it on the rock.
"Thou canst not toil in vain; Cold, heat, and moist and dry, Shall foster
and mature the grain For garners in the sky."

Fruits of Toil IN THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
When our fathers established this Society they were met by a
formidable array of difficulties of which we know nothing. Gathered in
fellowship when the infidel principles of the French Revolution were
doing deadly work, and soon involved in the national struggle of the
great war, they found little to encourage them in the outward aspects of
their position. Christian men were few; Christian churches were small
and scattered; money was scarce; Christian benevolence was little
understood. The wide world of Christian effort opened to us was almost
wholly closed against them. They could enter the South Seas; though

their islands were almost unknown. But the West Indies were close shut.
"If you preach to the slaves," said the Governor of Demerara to a
missionary, "I cannot let you stay here." They were excluded from
South Africa and from India. China was sealed, and remained so for
forty years. Passages were expensive; voyages were full of discomfort;
letters were few. They knew little of the manners and systems of
heathen nations; they knew less of their literature; they knew nothing of
their languages. Dictionaries, literature, buildings, converts, everything
had to be produced. Their fields of labour were unprepared. Their
message and their aims were little understood.
In all these elements of usefulness we occupy at this hour a position of
usefulness, in marked contrast to that of our predecessors. With a
mighty advance in practical freedom, in intelligence and education, in
social comfort, in material resources, the entire religious life of
England has secured a solidity, an elevation, and a general influence of
the most marvellous kind. In the number and wealth of our churches, in
the character and position of the ministry, the Society ought to find
supporters immeasurably in advance of the few but earnest friends of
seventy years ago. Our missions have made indescribable progress. Our
agencies continue to grow more complete. Churches have been
gathered; the members of which are no longer novices in Christian
truth and Christian life. The time has come for a native ministry; and a
larger number appear on our lists than ever before. And last, but not
least, the full and faithful preaching of the gospel, for which our
missionary brethren have ever been distinguished, and the employment
of Christian education, have made a marked impression upon
heathenism; have broken its prestige, have silenced its objections, and
have prepared the way for future victories, more triumphant in their
grandeur than anything the Society has yet seen.
But this advanced and noble position, which is the proof of success in
the past, and the guarantee and instrument of larger results in days to
come, is precisely that attainment and possession of our Society, which
the friends of the Society appear least to appreciate. It seems to be
thought that now, as ever, missionaries just preach to the heathen and
give away books; they teach a few boys and girls; win a few souls; and

send a few teachers into the districts around. All that is true. But the
high and solid work beyond it--all that superior influence which the
Society and its missionaries are exercising, in Christianizing
communities, in sanctifying all the great elements of their public and
social life, in destroying the very roots of their heathenism, and in
preparing the way for enlightened, disciplined, independent churches,
sound in faith and full of life--all this has been little