did missionary live more among and for the people around him: and we cannot read of his sleepless nights spent in prayer, and of his unwearied labours by day, without feeling pained at heart to think that all this exertion was in a cause which proved, in almost all other hands, more opposed to the diffusion of Divine truth, and to the civil and religious liberties of man, than any system of tyranny ever devised. After every abatement that may be made from the British power ever ready to throw her ægis around the pious and discreet Missionary. "Oh, where are the first propagators and professors of Christianity? Where are our martyrs and Reformers? Where are the ingenious, devoted, pious sons of our Universities? Where are our younger devoted clergy? Are they studying their ease? Are they resolved on a ministry tame, ordinary, agreeable to the flesh? Are they drivelling after minute literature, poetry, fame? Do they shrink from that toil and labour, which, as Augustine says, OUR COMMANDER ("Noster Imperator") accounts most blessed? "No: the truth is, honoured brethren, our English Youth and English Clergymen are uninformed, unread in eastern story. A deathlike obscurity hangs over so distant a scene. They know little of the fortunes of the Indian Church. They think of nothing but persecutions, exile, disease, and death, as connected with the missionary life. They are held back by a false humility. They are retained by the tears of sisters and friends. Let us unite, then, in removing misconceptions -Let us join in appealing to Societies-Let us write to particular friends and public bodies-Let us afford correct, intelligible information-Let us send specific and individual invitations-And let us pray the Lord of the Harvest, that he would send forth more Labourers into his Harvest. "A false notion prevails, that it is a sort of martyrdom to come out to India as a missionary; whereas the real danger is on the side of ease, not privation. A young man in the military service has vastly more to encounter. A missionary in India has more than the comforts of a good English curacy. The single real difficulty is, an increased hazard of disease. Fifty Clergymen are now wanted for India. In the southern missions of the Incorporated Society alone, Twelve are indispensable. Missionary Register, 1836, pp. 104, 105. A. D. 1544. CHAP. His converts at Manaar cruelly persecuted. extravagant accounts of his superstitious and credulous biographer, who represents this missionary as an apostle in gifts and direct communications with heaven, as well as in toils and dangers; it cannot be denied that he, like Saul of Tarsus, seems to have thought that he was doing God service, though most mistaken in the means he used for that end. 21. During his present journey to the coast, he received an invitation from the natives of Manaar to pay them a visit. The inhabitants of this island are of the same caste and occupation as the Paravars, and many were soon induced to follow their example in embracing the Christian religion. They were subject to the rajah of Jaffnapatam, on the northern coast of Ceylon, who was much incensed at their becoming Christians, and persecuted them with unrelenting rage, putting men, women and children to the sword. Notwithstanding the imperfect instruction they had received, and the short time afforded them to prove the sincerity of their profession, may we not hope that some of them were true martyrs to the name of Jesus? It is said, that six or seven hundred of these poor people were slain on that occasion, and that several died with a constancy which astounded their executioners. The usual effect of persecution was seen here. The rajah's hope thereby to suppress Christianity was more than defeated, for it produced the opposite result. He had soon the mortification of seeing his courtiers and domestics embrace the new creed, and even his eldest son, whom, in disappointed rage, he put to death. Xavier is said to have envied these sufferers their crown of martyrdom; and he Acts xxvi. 9-11. naturally cherished the expectation, that the Christian religion would flourish among a people, who evinced so much fortitude in bearing the Cross. He determined, however, to defend them to the utmost of his power; and though disappointed for the present, his efforts for their protection were ultimately successful. A. D. 1544. His singular convert a expedient to 22. The Portuguese viceroy was then at Cambaya, whither Xavier proceeded for the purpose of engaging him to take up arms against libertine. the rajah of Jaffnapatam. He embarked at Cochin, and one of his fellow passengers was a Portuguese gentleman, but a libertine and an atheist, who gloried in his infidelity. Xavier determined to make his acquaintance, with a view to his conversion; and by his courteous manners and diverting conversation, they soon became intimate. But the man would not allow the missionary to speak to him about his soul; and whenever his sins were touched upon, he flew into a rage, inveighing against the practices of the Church, and swearing that he would never more go to confession. Xavier, nothing daunted, would then resume his milder deportment, until he had again conciliated him, but without the least relaxation from his perseverance to bring him to confession. The vessel in which they sailed touching at Cannanore, they went on shore together, and took a walk in a neighbouring wood. They had not been long there before Xavier stripped himself to the waist, and then, taking a Discipline,1 which was pointed with wires, inflicted upon his naked body so severe a chastisement, that his back and shoulders were soon covered with blood. He then cried to his companion ." It is for 1 An instrument of penance. CHAP. your sake that I do this, and it is nothing to what I would cheerfully suffer for your soul. But you have inflicted a much severer penalty on Jesus Christ. Will not His passion, nor His death, nor all His blood, suffice to soften the hardness of your heart? Then, lifting up his voice, he said-" O Lord, be pleased to look on thine own adorable blood, and not on that of so vile a sinner as I am !" All this produced the desired effect. For the man immediately threw himself at the father's feet, entreated him to forbear, and promised to confess and turn from his wicked course. This is not the only instance of Xavier's undergoing such a penance for a similar purpose; a practice at that time very common with the monks of the Roman church, not merely to work upon a sinner's feelings, so as to cause him to be ashamed of himself, and to bring him to repentance, but to obtain his pardon and the people were taught to believe, that the merit of such selfinflicted pain was to be purchased with money.2 We freely acquit Xavier of so base a motive. But while in his case we would fain look upon it only as expressive of the intense interest he took in the sinner's welfare, we cannot but de There have been Romanists enlightened enough to see, and candid enough to own, the absurdity of these practices. The Abbè Fleury reprobates them in becoming terms.—"The severities which a pious monk himself would suffer for the sinner, were never effectual to the healing of the latter; for sin is not like a pecuniary debt, which another may pay for the debtor, and in any kind of money: it is a disease which can only be cured in the person of the sick. Further, these penances which another performed, were condemned by a national council in England, which was held in the year 747. And they gave this remarkable reason for it: that by this means the rich would more easily save themselves than the poor, which is contrary to the express word of the Gospel.”— Discourses on Ecclesiastical History, p. 164. plore the infatuation which is thus seen to have 23. In the following year, 1545, he sailed 3 Col. ii. 1, 2. A. D. 1544. 191 A. D. 1545. His voyage to the Eastsuccesses ern isles, and there. |