essings of our faith. This body is constantly increasing in numbers and
is sent forth and maintained by some seventy societies.(11) They are a
noble band of Christian workers, of no less consecration and faith than
those in the past, and of the highest training and broadest culture ever
known.

The missionary furnishes to the home churches the chief interest in
missionary work and is the link which connects them and the home society
with their enterprise abroad.

His work at present is not what it once was in India. In earlier days the
missionary had to be a man of all works; every form of missionary
endeavour came under his direction. In mission work, as in every other
line of effort, specialization has become a feature and a necessity. There
must be men of as varied talents and special lines of training as there
are departments of missionary work. But every missionary should be
preeminently, _a man_. He should be a man of large calibre. There is much
danger lest the church become indifferent to this matter, and send to the
mission field inferior men--men who would be unable to stem the tide of
competition and attain success at home. If a man is not qualified for
success in the home land, there is little chance of his attaining much
usefulness upon the mission field. And an inferior class of men sent out
to heathen lands to represent, and to conduct the work of, the home church
must necessarily react upon the church through want of success,
discouragement and defeat in the missionary enterprise. A church whose
missionary representatives abroad are wanting in fitness and power cannot
long continue to be a strenuous missionary church; it will lack fuel to
keep burning the fire of missionary enthusiasm.

And in speaking of the missionary I include the lady missionary.
Missionary ladies today are more numerous in India than are the men. More
than a thousand single ladies have given themselves to the missionary life
and are labouring with conspicuous success in that land. They meet almost
the same conditions of life and require the same qualifications for
success as their brother missionaries do. Of course, in certain details,
they differ; but into such matters I cannot enter at present.

I desire to enumerate the qualifications of a missionary for highest
usefulness in India at the present time.

1. Physical Fitness.

Is a man physically qualified to be sent out into missionary work? For an
enterprise like th