THE MELANE IAN MISSION

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 35, 9 August 1930, Page 19

THE MELANE IAN MISSION

Bishop'a Home

(From "T!io Post's" Representative.) ' LONDON, 19th June. St. Jlartin's-iu-thevFields is one of those London churches which is full, both morning and evening. People have to look for seats a quarter of an hour before tho service begins. To a>really large congregation the Bishop cf" Melanesia told a story of this Islands' mission last Sunday morning.

. It was appropriate,' ho said, that-lie liad been dismissed to tho Melartesian Mission in that very church just five years ago. The.question had been asked just before the service: "Where has that man come from?" Some 1200 miles cast from Sydney and 1300 miles north from Auckland —there was his diocese. During his last voyage through the diocese he had (ravelled SOOO miles in the Southern Cross, ending at New Zealand, iind then there was a third of tho diocese unvisited. For nine months ho had been at sea. Truly, it might be said, "The Spirit of God to-day moves upon the face of. the waters." The sanctuary and the church was on the ship. . 'i'hink of those people,, said tho Bishop,, the most that he could visit them was twice a year. Those were the only times they could participate in the Holy Communion. Truly, the harvest was great, but the labourers were few. A native had seen in an' illustrated paper the picture of a London crowd. He was surprised that there wero so many white people in the world, and he wondered why only forty of them came to Melanesia. In their ignorance, they thought the white ■ people.- had everything to give' to them. ■.'.',-•'• THE NEW HEBRIDES. The Bishop of ■ Melanesia wention to speak .of the abuses in the-NewHebri-des under the condpminiori., Not only had.,they to preach the Gospel there, but they, had to help tho native in other more material ways. Black murder 'was still going on, and kidnapping and something that was almost slavery. A native had come to him on.the last trip and ; complained that Ms wife had been stolen and taken on a French 'ship. The Government would or could do nothing. "I \ had .to go on board," said the Bishop, "and find the woman and bring her back." .'•■'•■■.. * Then there was tho medical work. Every missionary had to turn his hands to that. They were there to save bodies as well as souls. There was the terrible disease of yaws, for which they had found a cure. For ten years one of their old teachers could riot walk. Three injections cured him. It. cost about £1 to cure him. It was juit that money ■ they wanted: to carry on such beneficent work. People -had said to him: "Do not you> think you dp more harm than good in unsettiing; the natives and changing their customs?" "I do not believe.that;there is anybody in this church," said the -Bishop, "who, if they, went out and saw the condition of the-people in the Solomon Islands, would ask that,question^" NATIVE TEACHERS' INFLUENCE. The Bishop told the story-of • one island where the people/had drifted into drunkenness and heathen orgies and debauchery. Ho had taken three of hia native teachers there—young men of thirty, twenty-one, and twenty-two years respectively—who :had just left school. They had been there only fivo months, and they now had fifty boys at school and ■ 100 under instruction, and they, were rapidly getting the people to forsake their bad habits. . In another island he had found the people living in a state of terror. In the bush were the shrines, to the evil spirits decorated with old-skulls. Where he had known a largo' and,' prosperous village the' ;plac& . was now deserted. They had displeased the evil spirits and fled. He had to tell them he had,brought a greater and more; powerful .spirit, and they must .trust him to go out and destroy the evil spirits.- He had to lay .the shrines and bury the skulls before they would come.together again. Bishop Paterson, the first Bishop, had set them a standard,- and they must see that the work out there did not fall below that standard. He appealed to the congregation not only for the means to carry on that work; but for men and women to help. ;ii»; the. field.