Misstonary Musing

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XIII, Issue 5, 1 November 1922, Page 420

Misstonary Musing

' (Iv the <-< Church Standard"). And then comes another picture. Quite a number of my -dark-skinned parishioners can read English tolerably well. Several of them have served on sailing 1 - ships/ and know something 1 of England and America;, net a few have been to Brisbane and -Sydney. Theyjiave advanced beyond the day when ' ' bluff and simple -stories went down without question. They have their own local interests, but they like to know what's going on m the outside world. And so newspapers are m constant demand. Quite' naturally, they like the picture -papers — the " Daily Mirror," "Graphic," and. so. on. They like -to see what their -more highly civilised brother elsewhere says and does. And many of -their comments come,jny way. .'-"They. • got plenty trouble along England and Ireland, this • tinie, " said . onfr old -.* chap., one - day. (f And plenty nien he "make strike

along south, I look,, those Indian people they no like: English government now." And then, "My " word, plenty mdn look at that box-fighter (Carpentier and Dempsey), that nother day; I think he make plenty money along that thing. You think by-and-bye might we do that one here?" I thought not. He mentioned that "along Sydney" he had seen a "box-fight," arid told me how they had "made bet." Arid it was another enlightened who informed me— ''Plenty men* he break marriage (divorce) along England now. I look those paper— one boy he bring them on boat — he got plenty picture along that one I" Yes, it's quite true; the native is getting new ideas, and especially of our English life and social organisation. . Still, this again does not figure in ..tire mission school curriculum, though perhaps the necessary explanation may have to. "Watch the papers" is a good, catchy phrase — it applies here,' too, though perhaps m a different sense; and I sometimes wonder whether' that verse from Proverbs, which a certain overseas paper adopts on its front page — "As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country" — ought not to bear a trifling attention!, Which recalls something 1 else. I had been reproving a man for behaving uncharitably towards his .wife. He had been away working on the boats for some time, and. on his return found that she had been unfaithful. Hence he had "slapped" her (with a stick), and had then told her to clear out and go to her mother. "But I not all same white man!" he exclaimed proudly but scornfully. I inquired as to wherein lay the "difference. "Well, suppose I white man, I shoot that woman and" that man !" Had the mission taught him that way"? I asked. "No! but he proper white man. fashion. I look along those moving pictures south, and I see plenty men do that way!" - But then the mission encourages laziness. Well, there is a lot m definitions, I suppose. And perhaps it would be unkind to draw comparisons. But possibly my loquacious friend meant that the missions don't always encourage the native to work hard to make fortunes for white masters! Still) I fancy that he surely could not have v seen those reports from . the representatives of His Majesty's Governments, concerning the industrial progress of mission stations 'm -the north and m Papua, nor the •impressions of a certain celebrated traveller who' spent some time "on the spot.- 5 ' But still, here again men differ' — for did not a man send a message a- little while back to some' tribes of natives amongst whom it is hoped to- form a ' 'mission - —Mo r e better you don't have- that mission, more

better you no come, tjhat mission he make you work too hard!" Had the gentleman an interest m. not desiring the proximity of the missionary 1 ? Oh, well,, that need not enter into these reflections. One of my old churchwardens, now grey-headed, and an old saint despite" his color, a man who liqs passed from darkness to light, . and who can narrate "many an- incident of the earlier days— was telling me about the doings of a certain Government official "who had. besmirched the white, man's name, and had covered his office with anything but glory. And lobking up quite seriously and solemnly into my face he informed me — "That. white man he a fair , he spoil we all the time, he tell lies like hhr—!!'— r— !!' It was he also who complained to me of the severity of the weather one morning. "I no sleep all last night, he cold like h- — . ' ' I understood . that \ his adjectival expressions were not taught him m the mission school, arid that he "had acquired his English from a certain captain. Still, I may be wrong! And iiow, whether it is the languor of the day or the steady thud-thud of the engines, but I am m Rome— Rome of the sixth century, and passing by the slave market. A missionary is speaking— he says something about a far-off country called Anglia, and of a Church 's ' commission . His companion is listening intently, his heart already ablaze. But what was it the sneering group hard by muttered, as they overheard the *love-inspired words — "Missions. Why, missions are. no good ! They only • make the people lazy, and give them wrong ideas; and anyway, those nude, uncultured people belong to the lower grades—God only made them to be slaves! I haven't any time for — ." But the vision has passed! And so I ponder! A Japanese steamer, white passengers crowding her decks, a brown-skinned officer on the bridge, salutes us* as she passes on her way south. Shall we soon be seeing ships skimming down, qur coasts, I wonder, flying that new ■' 'black cross flag, owned arid captained by that vast colored organisation which has come into prominence' lately with its slogan of "Africa for the Africans. ' ' Is it beyond the bounds of possibility ? Cast your thoughts back 50 years. Glance at the ever-rising line of color. Shall prejudice and selfishness and the -insularity of ignorance keep the Christ from them? Is He to be only the white man's Christ, or the Great Bond bringing His influence of love to bear upon all alike? • And so we churn through the tropic waters. The conversation of the trio has ; drifted into other channels, arid one of them presently ejaculates, m answer to some remonstrance —

"But then, that's the law!" The law? Oh, yes; it came, if my reading serves me correctly, as the result of missions m the first instance. Was my friend someAvhat inconsistent, then, m his denunciation of missions'? But perhaps that grand old man of New Guinea, Sir William' MacGregor, was more nearly right when he " pronounced mission teaching to be indispensable to the progress and settlement of a country." .True, the missionary makes mistikes. He is only human— "an earthen vessel, ' ' so the Apostle to the Gentiles described himself, and his less worthy followers have but the same frail tenement. But there is the Commission, from Him who did believe m missions. He recognises his own weaknesses, his limitations. Bat his vision is of the countless hosts beyond the veil. And the results lie with God.— W.H.M.