Constituency.|brought in |Evangelising | Subscribed | Conclusions
|by Native |their | for Missionary |
|Christians.|Neighbours. | Purposes. |
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That a Church must be instructed and instruct its children all are
agreed: where men differ is with respect to the manner of the teaching.
On the one side are those who would safeguard the faith by committing
the teaching of it to a small body of carefully trained men, the clergy,
whilst the majority of the Christians, the laity, remain unlearned and
accept what is taught by the trained official teachers: on the other
side are those who would boldly commit the faith to all, opening to all
the door of learning. The one party would preserve the faith in the
hands of a select few, the other would put the Bible into every man's
hands. It is an old controversy; but we suppose nearly all those for
whom we write are of the second party, men who would gladly see every
Christian able to read the Bible and to base his religious life upon it.
We stand for the open Bible; we believe that the Christian Church in
every country will progress and develop strongly if it is based on a
widespread knowledge of Holy Writ, and we are prepared to believe that a
capacity to read the Bible is a sure sign of health in any Christian
Church. The test of literacy commonly adopted in our missions is the
capacity to read the Holy Gospels: we accept that gladly and
confidently.

Furthermore, the influence of the Christian Church in the country will
largely depend upon the extent to which the Christians are better able
to read and understand literary expression than their heathen