[Sidenote: THE POPULARITY OF MISSION SCHOOLS.]
It is undeniable that mission schools have been, and are, popular with the people of India. From the Report just published of our Benares Mission it appears that at present there are 1,265 pupils in its schools, boys and girls. Various things have conduced to this popularity. Missionaries as a class have acquired a firmly established character for attention to their pupils and kindly treatment of them. They are credited with good motives by many who have no drawing to Christianity. Then, for a considerable time no charge for tuition was made, the pupils being simply required to pay for their school books. Since fees have been taken they are, I believe, generally lower than in Government institutions; though, on the other hand, these have scholarships and prizes which are far beyond any pecuniary advantage mission schools can offer. There is, of course, in our schools the possibility of the pupils' ancestral religion being weakened, or even abandoned, but the hope is entertained both by them and their parents that the danger will be escaped. While the main motive for resorting to our schools is secular advancement--undoubtedly a right motive, if kept within due limits--the missionaries, while earnestly desiring the temporal welfare of their pupils, are actuated by a still higher motive, which they constantly avow. Till the establishment of the University, boys and young men, while prosecuting the special object for which they had put themselves under tuition, with few exceptions showed no disinclination to Christian instruction. A portion of the school-time was allotted for it, and to the work of that time many cheerfully applied themselves. Some became deeply interested, and a few were led in consequence to avow their faith in Jesus. With the new University system a new order of things has come in, which has placed Christian instruction under great disadvantages.
In consequence of this change some have advocated the entire withdrawal of mission agency from the schools where the higher education is imparted. It has been said, "Why should missionaries from day to day be doing the work of mere secular teachers, in hope that during the short time allotted for Christian instruction to young men, indisposed to receive it, they can secure their spiritual good?" If they withdraw, what then? The alternative is the loss of influence over a class that may be expected to take the lead in all movements of their people, and their transfer to teachers who are, in many cases, the avowed and bitter foes of Christianity, and whose object will be to imbue them with their own sentiments. There is abundant testimony to the fact that the pupils of mission schools regard missionaries with a friendly feeling, and diffuse that feeling in their respective circles, and also show respect for the Gospel even when they argue against it to justify their adherence to their ancestral religion. May it not be hoped, too, that in many minds a conviction is left that Christianity is the religion of heaven, although there are formidable obstacles to that conviction obtaining sway over the heart and life? There have been instances where the conviction has broken through every obstacle, and has been avowed by open profession of faith in Christ. Our Missionary Societies may well shrink from the abandonment of a sphere which furnishes the opportunity for favourable influence over so many minds--and minds, too, which are sure to be very influential in the community.