When A. B. Maston left the United States for New Zealand, O. A. Carr gave him a few words of counsel, neatly written in a little note book. As Bro. Maston was an American, and had no experience of the churches in other lands, O. A. Carr deemed it necessary that he should have some few directions, to avoid mistakes, on coming to a foreign country. The wisdom of these injunctions will be apparent to all Australian brethren. On the first page of this little book (still in good preservation, though the ink is faded), Bro. Carr inscribed these lines:

      Then follow certain directions as to the voyage, and what to do on landing in New Zealand. He sends his kindest Christian regards to "Brethren T. H. Bates, M. Wood Green, T. J. Gore, Thos. Alex, Vaney, and Wm. Magarey (Adelaide), and all the Magarey family, Philip Santo, Bro. Warren,, J. J. Haley, G. B. Moysey, J. P. Wright, Thos. Porter, H. D. Smith, of Hindmarsh, John Laurie, of Alma Plains, and all Lauries and kinsfolk." [20]

      The suggestions are numbered, and read as follows:--

      1. Accommodate yourself to English and Scotch customs.
      2. Your business is to preach the gospel.
      3. Teach the Church to take care of itself.
      4. Do not have elders unless they fulfil the requirements. 1 Tim. 3:1-7.
      5. Do not preach on Lord's Day morning. Meet to "break bread," for worship, teaching, exhortation, and prayer (mutual).
      6. Contribution, fellowship, each first day.
      7. Use the Press all you can.
      8. Have the brethren distribute tracts.
      9. See that the Church and the world do not get mixed up.
      10. Show no quarter, and expect none.
      11. Don't be "mealy mouthed," but always kind.
      12. Don't countenance sectarianism.
      13. Don't say "Campbellite."
      14. Don't say "other denominations."
      15. The plainer you preach the better.
      16. Remember you speak to those who do not understand, rather than to those who oppose.
      17. Shake hands with everybody.
      18. Mingle with the people.
      19. Go to meetings of sects and speak when you have a chance.
      20. Don't join any "Society," unless it be "Temperance." [21]
      21. Teach the brethren that the Church is enough.
      22. Have the Church take care of its own poor and unfortunate.
      23. Encourage members to take part in worship, and bring out talent and have preaching stations and put the young men at it, and send to Kentucky University the young man who has the heart and the talent to be a preacher.
      24. Do not try to do everything yourself.
      25. Appoint committees for special work.
      26. Beware of business meetings, and have as few as possible, and never on the Lord's Day.
      27. Remember that non-attendance at worship is an indication of bad spiritual health and requires medicine.
      28. Have every member do something.

      Over on the next leaf is this note:

      "Sell the tracts you bought of Bro. Burns, and print more."

      The little book concludes with a few gentle criticisms and practical hints:

      1. Don't speak so fast.
      2. Don't mouth your words.
      3. More attention to grammar.
      4. Avoid Americanisms.
      5. Make climaxes in your sentences.
      6. In a word, be Rhetorical.
      7. You will stir things.
      8. Always hear and profit by criticism.
      9. Be patient with the weaknesses of humanity. [22]

      While almost all of these suggestions will commend themselves to most people as being very appropriately offered to a young preacher about to enter a new and important field, there are a few of them which seem to call for special comment. It is somewhat remarkable that we should find in these words of a friend the germs of almost all that A. B. Maston was destined to be and do.

      "Use the Press all you can." A.B.M. was first and last a press-man, doing his best and abiding work in connection with the printers' art. "Have the brethren distribute tracts." It almost looks as if Bro. Carr actually foresaw the "Sower Tract Fund," and the 180 odd tracts issued and printed by the million by the Austral Puby. Co. "See that the Church and the world do not get mixed up." "Teach the brethren that the Church is enough." A.B.M. Proved to be a true Church-man. He loved the Church, and refused to belong to any other organisation. In his case, at all events, the Church and the world did not get mixed up. By adopting this course, he avoided the pit into which so many promising brethren have fallen. "Show no quarter and expect none." If, as I suppose, the reference is to the expression of views in public and private discussion, A.B.M. was an exemplification of this motto. He did not know fear, and on all occasions spoke the thing that was in his heart. Plain, blunt, straightforward, homely speech was his. He knew how to hit out straight, from the shoulder, and everyone grasped his meaning at once. "You will stir things." A prophecy! Wherever A.B.M. went, things were stirred." [23] "Accommodate yourself to English and Scotch customs." A. B. Maston, on coming to these shores, found some things different to those which obtained in America. Very wisely, he did not immediately set about to alter everything, but waited, and carefully reconsidered his position. As a result, he became convinced that some of the practices in vogue among the Australian Churches were nearer the Scriptural ideal than the American customs; notably, close communion, close "fellowship," and mutual edification. In the end, he became a doughty champion of these practices, and was very outspoken when he noticed any tendency to deviate. He was strong in his opposition to all clerical titles and clerical costume, and always advocated a complete return to the teaching of the Apostles on all matters relating to the Church, and the religion of Jesus Christ.

      When Bro. and Sister Maston left for New Zealand, O. A. Carr wrote thus to the "Standard and Apostolic Times," Dec. 14. "The Church in Wellington grew up out of the fidelity of a few brethren who emigrated there from Great Britain and the Australian Colonies. By "continuing steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and in the fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in prayers," they have been able to spend £80 to defray Bro. Maston's travelling expenses. How unlike is this to the settlement of whole communities in our Western States, where our brethren go without their Church letters, brethren who might do good work in edifying the Church,--bless you! graduates of colleges, of our own colleges, too, and who seem to have [24] no concern about their souls, nor about other people's souls; and instead of meeting an the first day of the week for worship, scarcely know when that day comes. They wait for the Missionary Society to send them a preacher to feed them, whereas, they ought to be able to feed themselves, and I judge they would be, if the Churches whence they have come had been more careful to encourage them in prayer and in participating in the worship. They have been preached to death, and they go out West to die. The daws of criticism may peck at the divine instruction for the Church to edify itself in mutual teaching and exhortation and prayer, as practised by the Churches in Great Britain and Australasia; our scribes may go on advocating the everlasting preaching at the Church in contrast to the blessed family meeting for mutual edification and comfort an the Lord's Day, and yet the brethren who edify one another will be a power in the land; while the Churches that wait for the preacher (as the Romanists wait for the priest), in order to have monthly meetings, will dwindle away under the monthly harangue until it will require four or five Churches to pay a preacher to come once a month to pray for them. What if the brethren in Wellington had waited in prayerless indifference for the Missionary Society to send them a preacher? Instead of this, they met for worship, and on the first day of the week laid in store as the Lord had prospered them; and now they are able to help themselves."

      It will give some notion of the crude ideas prevailing in some parts of America at that time regarding [25] conditions of life in Australia to print an extract from the "Indianian," an American newspaper, Dec. 11, 1879: "It is with feelings akin to pain that we, with many others of their friends, will be called upon to-day to bid good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Maston, of Pierceton, in this county, who leave for the far-distant island of New Zealand, whither they go as missionaries to the half-enlightened people of that far-off land, under the auspices of the Missionary Society of the Christian Church (?). One can hardly contemplate such a voyage as they will have to undergo without fear that they may never return. The country is so distant, and we know so little of its people, that the thought will force itself upon the minds of most people, that there is a reality, indeed a living reality, in a cause that will induce those who believe in it, to forsake the comforts and luxuries of a home among an enlightened and intelligent people and take the hazards of such a trip. . . We understand that Mr. M. has engaged his services in the missionary cause for three years, at which time he and his wife will return to their old home in Hoosierdom, unless other arrangements are made. Mr. Maston is well known in this county, having taught school in various parts during the past six years, and both himself and wife will carry with them to the distant part of the globe to which they are going the fondest, heartfelt wishes and hopes for their prosperity." [26]

[LABM 20-26]