. In India it
should be, largely, if not exclusively, constructive rather than
destructive. Forces destructive to a belief in Hinduism and its numberless
superstitions have multiplied wonderfully in that land during the last
fifty years. So that there is no necessity, today, that the Christian
preacher spend any of his time in attacking the errors and evils of the
ancestral faith of the people. He should give himself to the more
agreeable and blessed work of imparting the living truth of the Gospel in
all directness and simplicity. The destructive agencies of the
civilization, knowledge and religious institutions of the West have
accomplished their work and have made straight the pathway of the Gospel
Messenger into the mind and heart of the people. Thus, it is not the abuse
of the old, but the exposition of the new, faith which should occupy the
time of the preacher to Hindus today. It has been my own custom, and I
always urge it upon my students, to avoid the temptation of attacking
Hinduism, and to preach a simple Gospel of salvation.

(_b_) Pastoral Work.

The rapidly increasing number of churches and congregations has added much
to the pastoral duties of a mission. Formerly missionaries themselves
acted as pastors and shepherded the flocks in the villages. Even today
some of the German missions have missionary pastors. But this is now
exceptional. Missions generally have learned that, for native
congregations, native pastors are essential. They not only are better
adapted, by nature and by training, to meet the needs of the native
Church; they are also the only ones that are within the range of the
financial possibilities of self-support. And self-support must be ever
held before the church as a high future blessing and duty of the Christian
community.

[Illustration: Theological Students With Their Families.]

[Illustration: Group Of Madura Pastors.]

And yet the day when the pastoral work can be effectively and
satisfactorily done by the natives themselves has hardly arrived. Few
native pastors today, and much fewer catechists, are competent, both on
the score of character and of independence, to wisely direct the affairs
of their people and to efficiently preserve church discipline. This is a
sad confession to make; but truth compels me to make it--a truth emphasized
more than once by long experience among them. A few years ago a church
within my jurisdiction wished to expel