Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/257

Rh and practising few of the Christian precepts they profess to teach. The natives see through it all; they are clever enough for that; but it pays them, to be on the right side of the “missionary man” they in their hearts really scorn. It is truly astounding to see a couple of missionaries in dead earnest “converting” a mass of people not one word of whose language they understand, and actually thinking they are doing it; what sorts of minds can they have to so shut out all reason? I have seen missionaries give printed tracts to the heathen, who cannot read, and if they could, do not know the language in which the tract is printed; and yet the givers really believe they are “doing the Lord's work,” and are unctuously satisfied with themselves! My brain cannot comprehend such things. The teachings of Christ must be borne in upon the heathen not by words but by deeds, and it is in their own lives the Christians are to exemplify what Christ taught. Many are good men and women according to their lights—but how feeble the lights!

Yet it must not be supposed that in saying this I mean to cast either ridicule or contempt on the great band of missionaries, male and female, and of all denominations, who in so many lands have given up all they possess—a very easy thing to talk about, but a very difficult thing to do—all the joys, comforts, and pleasures of this world, to go forth cheerfully and with steadfast and enduring courage to carry out the mission they felt themselves destined for, often perilling their lives daily. I have seen enough of them to know how great is sometimes their civilising influence, how earnest and sincere they are, and what benefits have resulted to their countries and the world generally through their self-sacrifice. They sow the seed perhaps at times in barren soil and it