DIVISION OF LABOUR BY THE PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN POLYNESIA.

Samoan Reporter, Issue 1, 1 March 1845, Page 1

DIVISION OF LABOUR BY THE PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN POLYNESIA.

It must be obvious to the most ordinary understandings, that it is far better that the American B. F. M. should exclusively occupy the Sandwich Islands, than that one or two other Protestant Societies should establish missions there, the consequence of which would, almost necesarily be, that, at some of the stations, two brethren would be doing the w T ork which might be done by one, and that two societies would be paying for that, which the expenditure of the one would cover. Happily there has been none of this waste of strength, none of this “treading on each others heels” in that groupe. While “ the world is all before” any band of brethren which a society may be able to send forth, it surely can be nothing but party spirit —the spirit which would hazard what pertains to Christ, for the sake of what pertains to a Paul, an Apollos, or a Cephas—that would send such a band to a field already occupied, and especially if it be a field embracing only some twenty or fifty thousand inhabitants I And the more especially so when two things are borne in mind, — Ist. That so far as our knowledge extends, each of the protestant societies admits that the others preach and teach all that is essential or important to the well-being and salvation of man ; and 2ndly, That the native tribes, especially when first emerging from the darkness of heathenism, are disposed to attach great importance to even little differences, and thus religious party spirit, once introduced, operates most perniciously, and at once feeds,' arid is fed by, political and social jealousies and disputes. How far it has been wise to conduct two protestant missions at New Zealand, we have scarcely sufficient knowdedge of the facts to say; but we are sorry to learn that the Episcopalian Bishop there has succeeded in kindling the flames of discord by propagating the anti-christian notion that he and those with him, are the only true teachers, and the only true church I With regard to our own Islands, w T e have painfully learnt that the indiscreet atiempt of the agents of another society to conduct a mission simultaneously with ours, has occasioned no little waste of missionary strength, and exercised a most pernicious influence on the minds of the natives. The committees of the tw r o societies at home have indeed long ago agreed to confine their agency to separate fields; subordinate agents and partizans, however, have continued no small amount of the mischief to this day, But we have introduced this subject rather w T ith a view to the future than the past, and hope we shall not be driven to the necessity of more explicit recurrence to this “untoward” movement. Popery, heathenism, idolatry, licentiousness, cannibalism, the powers of hell —demand our antagonism ! O let us never more be the antagonists or the obstructors of each other I “Is not the whole land before thee? “ separate thyself, I pray thee, from me : If thou “ wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; “ or if thou depart to the righthand, then I will “go to the left”. Gen: xiii. 9. “ One rule of action there is,” says a distinguished American Missionary—Abeel “ which, if observed by all sects, would result in the greatest benefit to the Church aud to the world. It involves no sacrifice of party interests, and it is the only plan which while Christians remain in distinct communities, does not sacrifice the interests of the Redeemer’s kingdom to mere sectarian aggrandizement. In selecting their spheres of action, let each denomination pass by the place already occupied, and fix upon those where their services are most wanted. Let it be a mutual understanding that if education or predilection dispose the inhabitants of any part of a country to a particular sect, all others will yield the ground. What endless collision and confusion this would prevent I what desirable consequences it would produce ’ If the attention of Christians could only be diverted from, each other,and from the places already occupied, and fixed in deep compassion upon the destitute parts of the world, how soon their dying fellow men in every land would feel the quickening influence !”