representative of Industrial Missions. It would be against the FOURTH Day. spirit of Christianity itself to assist probationers up to the day of baptism and then to send them away with the cheap cou-olation that the Lord will provide for them. In most cases such a procedure would undo even the spiritual work accomplished before. The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but as long as we belong to the ecclesia militans we cannot do without it. I think it is mere duty and a duty of love for a missionary to try his utmost that such, who by their conversion have lost the means of livelihood, may earn their daily bread by some good and useful work. How could converts believe in the sincerity of our Christian love, if the whole of our Christianity were to consist of spirit and words without any manifestation of what is called "practical Christianity? Quite true: "The base things of the world, and the things that are despised did God choose," but this does not mean, that having become spiritually rich in Christ, they must remain henceforth in bodily poverty and misery. Besides, wheresoever Christianity has been implanted and nourished in a people, it has been conducive to the development of culture and to a transformation of all conditions of life. Such a result is something perfectly natural. I am very far from recommending a mission by the means of culture; the Basel Mission has kept clear of this modern idea, and we have always been anxious to give Mary prominence before Martha. On the other hand, as the parable of the leaven indicates, the outward conditions of our people will not remain unaffected by Christianity. There

is besides the direct preaching of the Gospel, the power of The power of example, which will manifest itself in the practical conditions example. of life, viz., mission-work done by the introduction of Christian diligence, Christian integrity and respectability, a mission-work which intends to prove by evidence, as far as possible, that godliness is profitable for all things, having promise not only for the life which is to come, but also for the life which now is. It is this prominence given to the universal character of Christianity that in addition to practical difficulties has given rise to our Industrial Mission. So much as to principles,

Still the Basel Mission did not commence work with a fixed set of theories, a priori deciding, that there must be an Industrial mission. It is not a favourable idea of the Basel Mission

FOURTH DAY.

Only a temporal makeshift.

Why the

work was undertaken.

Converts' views of work.

to have industrial establishments, neither is it a national inclination of German Missionaries to introduce industrial mission-work. On the contrary, the opinion amongst our own missionaries has always been very much divided as to the merits and demerits of such work, not to speak of the public opinion amongst the Christians contributing to our mission at home. Without touching in any way the principles laid down as to practical Christianity and the inseparable connexion. between what is spiritual and what is outward in Christianity, I do not hesitate to say that our mission looks upon this Indus trial Mission as a temporal make-shift forced upon us by circumstances, and we hope that it belongs but to a transition state and will lead over to something more permanent, more reliable and more natural.

What first of all led to the establishment of an industrial institution, were the immense difficulties we met with in opening for our converts a way to lead a life becoming a Christian The real difficulty in this respect begins after baptism. In that part of India, whither we have been sent to work, some native customs make things really worse than they usually are. There is the " Marumakkattayam" or the inheritance in the female line, in consequence of which even converts, who were in possession of something, will in most cases be deprived of everything. Very often the former way of living is out of question, if it was really heathenish, so some new way must be found out. Outside of the mission the difficulties are almost insurmountable. The caste-feeling, still very strong in those parts of India, prevents them from working amongst non-Christians. A great many handicrafts are in the hands of certain castes, and as long as the Christian community is not strong enough to give sufficient employment to its own members, to enter into competition with non-Christian artisans would be a hopeless undertaking. I cannot deny that now and then the difficulty lies also with the converts themselves, some of whom lack all energy, and either have never been accustomed to work or else are under the impression that Christianity will not only give rest to their souls but also to their bodies. It is Christianity which has sanctified labour; whilst in Hinduism exertion is looked upon as an evil which is undergone only as far as it is absolutely necessary. The majority of the people we have to deal

with would prefer to commence Life's work by taking a pension. Ferers DAY This is a fact to be reckoned with, and the constances of our converts will not be improved by ignoring this of our new Cristians it is a zem Lesson 02 that it is God's will that a Christ an still work *: the thing that is good. In addir cat this there is the other obstacle that some useful and good becapators are 1 osed upon to be degrading and not becoming an honotar e man. We cannot expect that our converts and new Christians wi... by taptism, at once get rid of such prejudice, howsoever foolis. they may appear to Europeans or Americans. Time must be given to the leaveu of the Gospel untu such remnants of the forn er life have gone. To give our converts this lesson, we did not begin with A beginning. establishments, but with something that now is considered a novelty, a kind of industrial school in connexion with our boarding school at Mangalore. In 1846, two book-binders, two lock-smiths, and two weavers were trained in this way, Finding this training impracticable in connexion with an ordinary school, some boys were apprenticed with native artisans, some were sent to Bombay, others to military stations in order to learn some trade. In this way book-binding, tanning, shoe-making, weaving, tailoring, a baking and other handicrafts were learnt by them, but not sufficiently well to be of any use. This led to the sending out of European artisans, first of all of a lock-smith and a clock-maker. These two experiments failed, and so a weaver was sent out. Improving the original looms and implements of Indian weavers and gradually bringing them up to a more European standard, the first weaving establishment came into existence. Without proceeding farther in this history of our Industrial Mission, I may add that, after many experiments, our Mission finally settled to the weaving industry at Mangalore, Cannanore and Calicut, with branches at Tellicherry, Chombala and Codacal. Moreover, there is a mechanical establishment and a press at Mangalore, carpentry and some tailoring in connexion with the Mission shop at Caliocut. The work was commenced merely with the intention to teach our converts some handicrafts, and with the hope that something like house-industry would be the outcome of it. How far we have succeeded in this will be shown below. On the other hand, we cannot deny that the character of our establishments has changed altogether.

Co-operation.

FOURTH DAY. Mr. Pfleiderer, who has been for many years the head of our Industrial Mission, explains this in the following manner : "We were gradually convinced that we had to reckon with facts, and that, as in other countries, so in India, the days of the small tradesmen were numbered. The single individual cannot go ahead against the general competition, and it was only the system of improved machinery and combined labour by which success could be attained." What Mr. Hudson of the Wesleyan Mission pointed out at the Bangalore Conference as their great difficulty, you will see has been experienced by us too as a real difficulty; namely, that such industries as are likely to be of any use to an individual for getting an independent livelihood are not self-supporting but entail considerable loss, while, on the other hand, such industries as our mission carries on chiefly, though self-supporting, seem to keep our Christians always depending on the mission. As to the production of native articles a competition seems to be impossible. An establishment dealing with such articles never could flourish, and even if the mission were prepared to sustain loss in order to make our Christians independent, single individuals could stand the competition still less. Our Christians cannot live on the wages of indigenous labourers, who are not wholly dependent on their handicraft. A Christian family has also neces saries unknown to a Hindu family. I do not refer to luxuries, but to needs which are the beneficial consequences of Christianity. Even Native industry in many branches (for instance in weaving) struggles for existence and is dying away gradually. This is chiefly due to the English colonial system, at the bottom of which we see the anxiety that English productions should have a great run in the colonies. The country is overflown with cheap English weaving, all formerly done by Native industry. Not only the Mission industry, even the Native industry must reckon with these changed circumstances. Going through the bazaar of Tellicherry one can see Moplah-tailors by dozens busy at the sewing-machine, and if a Christian tailor wants to compete with them, he must needs have a sewing-machine too. So after all as a temporal measure we considered our industrial establishments to be the best way to serve our poor Christians.

Drawbacks.

Weare, however, not unaware of the drawbacks and the manifold deficiencies adhering to this particular mission agency. A friend

of mission-work, passing through some of our stations, told me, FOURTH DAY. that the whole looks like one great establishment kept up for the maintenance of our Christians. Others say, that our Christians, if dependent on us for their livelihood, will remain dependent on the missionaries in every respect, and they com. pare them to plants in a glass-house, carefully looked after and guarded against cold and wind. They prognosticate, of course, that once exposed to the struggle of life and the temptations of this world, they necessarily must discredit our mission. There is some truth in all this criticism. Although a state of dependency may be very natural and wholesome at the beginning of mission-work, it is true the majority of those people who get employment in our establishments are still entirely dependent on the mission. They live comparatively easy, they need not go about and look for work, being assured that every day there will be some work prepared for them, but in proportion to this the feeling of responsibility has become deplorably weak in some of the house-fathers. In spite of very good wages, a good many of our people, leading a careless life and even not exerting themselves to make both ends meet, remain poor and run into debts. Some are even not satisfied with getting their work from the mission; in case of any emergency they rush to the missionary expecting him to help them. Even if employed by the mission a state of relative self-dependency could be arrived at ; it is, however, seldom that we meet with signs betokening a craving in this direction. There are social drawbacks in addition to Social draw. this. The first indications of calamities invariably connected backs. with big manufactories cannot be denied. Family life and happiness must suffer, if father and mother must go for work and leave the little ones in care of an elder sister or a nonChristian servant. Now, the necessity of what Germans call "interior mission" has been felt, and Infant Schools in connection with our establishments have arisen. In a place where so many people live together, naturally also something like an esprit de corps will spring up, and the spirit is not always. of the best kind, reminding one of the proletarian spirit. rising under similar conditions at home. The more some get the more they will expect, and often it seems, as if the Christians who have received almost no temporal benefits from the mission, prove to be more thankful and more devoted to their