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REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
We want to form a Mission Study Class on the text book "The Christian Crusade for World Democracy" in our church and desire the "Suggestions for Leaders" and other material that will be of help in or- ganizing and conducting it.
Very truly yours,
Name
Street and Number
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Church
MISSION STUDY ENROLLMENT
Conference District
Name of Local Church Pastor
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We formed a Mission Study Class of Members on (date)
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If the class is organized in the Epworth League please send the above request to the Central Office of the Epworth League, 740 Rush Street, Chicago, Illinois.
If organized in The Sunday School send to The Board of Sunday Schools, 58 East Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois.
If organized under other auspices send to The Joint Centenary Com- mittee, 111 Fifth Avenue, New York.
"CLEAR THROUGH TO THE FINISH!"
America is determined to see the struggle for world democracy through to complete success
The Christian Crusade
FOR
World Democracy
By
S. EARL TAYLOR
and
HALFORD E. LUGCOGK
THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN
NEW YORK CINCINNATI
^^T.
/^/^,
3
Copyright, 1918, by THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN
OCT -5 1918 ©Ci,,:506040
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
Foreword 7
I. Making Democracy Safe for the World 11
II. Christian Democracy for Latin America ..... 35
III. China — The Open Door to Four Hundred Million
Minds 63
IV. The Leaven of Freedom at Work in India .... 89 V. Flood Tide in the Destiny of Africa 113
VI. The Christian Mastery of the Pacific 135
VII. The Rebuilding of Europe 159
VIII. A World Program 177
Questions for Study and Discussion 195
ILLUSTRATIONS
"Clear Through to the Finish!" frontispiece
FACING PAGE
The Promise of To-morrow 46
Some of Our Chinese Allies in France 68 ^^
Students of Peking University . 68
Village Preaching in India 94
Islam on the March 123
Baseball Follows the Flag 149 t
Street Preaching in Singapore 149
MAPS
PAGE
1. The World Neighborhood. 17
2. South America 37
3. Methodist Responsibility in South America 40
4. Literacy Chart of South America 44
5. Panama. 50
6. Mexico 54
7. China 65
8. Christian University Centers of China 73 •
9. Hospital Map of China 83
10. Where the Millions are Moving Toward Christi-
anity 100
11. Comparative Size of Africa 117
12. Africa , . . . 126
13. Japan 138
14. The Philippines 146
15. Malaysia — The Melting Pot of Asia ......... 153
16. After the War — What ? 167
FOREWORD
Two men stood in the Colosseum at Rome.
^ ^ Think of the men who have stood here ! ' ' said one.
^' Think of the men who ivill!" said the other.
That is the Christian outlook in all ages. It fronts the dawn. Its word of command is "Eyes Front!"
The one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of Methodist Missions in 1819 is not being celebrated by a his- tory of the past, but by a program for the future. The Cente- nary World Program of Methodism is an expression of the only answer which the Christian Church can make to a world at war — a vigorous and world-wide extension of the kingdom of God.
Two volumes dealing with the place of Christianity in the world situation are published as part of the observance of the Centenary of Methodist Missions.
The present volume deals with the relation of Christian missions to world democracy. A companion volume, "Christian Democracy for America/^ considers the place of the church in strengthening the forces of Christian de- mocracy in our own land.
The books are designed for use in Mission Study Classes in Epworth Leagues, Young People's Societies, Church groups, and Sunday Schools, as well as for general reading.
Acknowledgment is made to Miss Gail M. Kennedy for assistance in the collection of material.
This is the end and the beginning of an age. This is something far greater than the French Revolution or the Reformation. . . . And we live in it.
— H. G. Wells, in Mr. Britling Sees It Through.
Would that men could see that we are living not only in the crisis of the greatest war that has ever afflicted mankind, but also in the Advent of Revolution, at once material, moral, and spiritual; wider, I believe, and deeper than any which in some thousand years has trans- formed civilization on earth. We are on the eve of what must prove to be a revaluation of our habits and thoughts. Now, in a state of revolution things move, change, appear, and disappear with lightning velocity. Things which we imagine to be trifles suddenly swell up into incalculable forces. Changes which in normal times could hardly be worked through in generations spring up completed in months or weeks. New things which were Utopian dreams of yesterday are truisms and facts to-day. A state of revolution is a social earthquake, in which neither things nor persons remain what they were. All are inverted.
' — Frederic Harrison.
All the world is in the melting pot. Old things are passing away. All things may become new, not as a result of magic, not because of chance, not because of the war, but because through the Christian churches there shall be sufficient leadership to take hold of these nations of the Near East, of all parts of Europe that may need our ministry, as well as the Far East, Southern Asia, Africa, and Latin America, to lead them out into the new and better age.
— John B. Mott.
Trumpeter, sound for the splendor of God I Sound the Music whose name is law. Whose service is perfect freedom still. The august order that rules the stars! Bid the anarchs of night withdraw. Too long the Destroyers have worked their will. Sound for the last, the last of the wars ! Trumpeter, rally us, rally us, rally us. On to the City of God.
— Alfred Noyes.
CHAPTER I
MAKING DEMOCRACY SAFE FOR THE WORLD
In the years of the great war the world has crossed a new International Date Line. It is impossible for anyone to estimate accurately the full significance of the time in which he lives, but there is a widespread unanimity of opin- ion that only one date has surpassed in importance to man- kind these days in which we live. That date is the shining peak of time which separates A. D. from B. C. In 1910 the world's missionary conference at Edinburgh declared, ^'The next ten years will in all probability constitute a turning point in human history." If ever a prophecy was fulfilled beyond the farthest dream of those who made it, it was that one. For while it would doubtless have proved true from the natural development of forces then in sight, even had there been no war, the convulsion which has shaken civiliza- tion to its foundations is effecting changes so momentous and has brought into action forces so powerful that no mind can gauge their possibilities. The future will in all proba- bility look back on these years, not merely as a turning point in history, but as determining the destiny of mankind for ages to come.
A World Situation
It is not an exaggerated use of language to say that for the first time in history there has developed a ivorld situa- tion. The phrase has often been used before, but until the present conflict drew the whole world into its vortex, no one train of events has ever bound up the destinies of all nations together. During the early days of the war the question was frequently asked, ^'What shall it be called! By what name shall it be known in history?'' Some, with pathetic optimism, proposed to call it ^'The War of 1914." For a
11
12 CHRISTIAN CEUSADE FOE DEMOCRACY
long time we vainly imagined it might be called, ^^The European War." The question is asked no longer. The titanic explosions of the conflict have burst the bonds of geography: It has named itself — ' ' The World War." And that very name, ^'The World War," is more than a geo- graphical measurement. It is history. For it records one of the greatest results of the war so far, the discovery of the ivorld as a ivhole. It is prophecy as well. For the conflict is not only an appalling war of the world, hut a ivar for a tvorld, a new ivorld. The hope of mankind for that new order of life, is gathered up in the words in which President Wilson has voiced the mind and heart of the allied nations — ^'The world must be made safe for democracy."
There are four great aspects of the present tumultuous days of conflict which have brought to the Church of Christ the largest opportunity and the gravest challenge which it has ever faced. The first is the agony and loss of battle, which can neither be conceived nor computed, the fact that we are living under the shadow of the greatest world trag- edy in the history of mankind. The second is the utterly new consciousness of the world as a whole. The third is that the world, both as a result of the war and of forces which preceded it, is in the most plastic and formative state it has ever had. The fourth is the fact that by far the larger portion of the human family has set out on a crusade for the winning and guarding of democracy. These four aspects of the present world situation intermingle and overlap at many points, but each brings its distinct and overwhelming call to the Christian Church.
A Shattered Civilization
Whatever may be thought of the causes of the war, or its outcome, a world engaged in slaughter on an unpre- cedented scale ; a world in agony, in mourning and in ruins presents a searching test to Christianity. The cost of the conflict in suffering, in death, in destruction, outruns the power of the fleetest imagination to conceive. Colossal and
MAKING DEMOCRACY SAFE 13
malignant forces of destruction have been at work which make all former wars, even those of Napoleon, seem like sham battles. Two thirds of the human race are directly involved in the conflict, and every other human being indi- rectly. Over forty-two million of men are under arms, not- withstanding the losses already met with. In no previous . war were there more than 2,000,000 men lined up against each other. At the close of 1917 more than 6,000,000 had been killed in action ; 1,000,000 men, women, and children had been brutally massacred; 3,000,000 had died of starvation; 6,000,000 were lying wounded in military hospitals and as many more were captives in prison. Unnumbered thou- sands have been sent home permanently crippled, blinded, or deformed. Think what these figures mean when translated into terms of human heartache ! The cost in money, the large burden of which future generations must bear, runs into billions in a way that simply numbs our senses and con- veys little meaning. At the beginning of 1918 the daily cost was over $130,000,000. Three and a half years of war brought an increase of $111,700,000,000 in the public debt of the twelve leading war nations. During the first and cheap- est year of the war the cost was greater than all the national debts in the world combined. To this must be added things which cannot be hinted at in figures at all, the burdens of future years, the legacies of hatred, and the setting-back of many forces of social progress. What message do these things spell out to the disciples of the Prince of Peace f
Has Christianity Failed?
It was but natural that many should jump to the conclu- sion that Christianity had failed. That after nineteen cen- turies of Christian influence, the so-called Christian nations should be involved in so terrible a carnage was for many a self-sufficient proof of the failure of Christianity. And, in- deed, let it be confessed freely, no section of the Christian world is entitled with easy complacency to shove the entire guilt on any other section. There is in the crisis an element
14 CHEISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
of judgment, which must bow all Christendom in humility and contrition.
The sober thought of men, however, has come to see that it is a travesty to call the forces which have launched the war Christianity. It is the distortions of and substitutions for Christianity which have failed to insure a peaceful and se- cure world order — the crass materialistic philosophy of life, a rampant and aggressive autocracy with an immoral theory of the state as above law, a pagan trust in power and the ele- vation of power as the supreme good with the denial of the claims of human brotherhood. When these forces run their course and produce a world holocaust, is it the gospel of the Son of Man which has failed! There is profound truth as well as brilliance in Mr. Chesterton's word: ^^Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and not tried.'' Everything else has been tried. Commerce has been vaunted for a generation as the saviour of the world's peace. A writer^ in 1907, in a book called The New Internationalism, stated that ^'the dollar sign is rap- idly supplanting the cross as a factor in international peace." That was the kind of thing multitudes of people were commencing to believe. We have been witnessing for four years the kind of ''new internationalism" the dollar mark creates, in Belgium and France, Poland and Armenia. Scientific progress, diplomacy, military power and Western civilization have all been exploited as the guarantee of the world's peace and plenty — and they have all gone up in smoke. One thing has to-day found a shining place in the sun and that is the everlasting truth that there is none other name given in heaven or earth whereby men must be saved but Jesus Christ. In clear, shining sunlight such as it has never been seen before during nineteen hundred years, is the truth that nothing can save individuals, homes, commu- nities and the world except Christ — Christ a living reality in the whole life of the people throughout the world. ^'The
Harold Bolce.
MAKING DEMOCRACY SAFE 15
world's supreme need demands the release of the world's supreme power for righteousness."
The Only Hope of Peace
Men may devise ^^ Leagues to Enforce Peace" of a hun- dred different varieties, and should devise them. But at the heart of it peace means brotherhood, and to say that broth- erhood has become the superlative necessity of the world is to say that Christ is the sole hope of the world because none other has been found to be a dynamic of brotherhood among mankind.
The Church of Christ has not come to an hour of apol- ogy. Above the crash of the guns and through them has sounded the call for aggression, to let loose in force and di- mensions as never before the only true peace-making power on earth, the gospel of Christ. The United States is com- mitted, in the words of her President, to a war to end war. ^'We shall fight," he says, *^for a universal dominion of right, by such a consent of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and shall make the world itself at last free." Such a program involves nothing less than the evangelization of the world. Only religion can kill war, for religion alone creates the new heart. In the words of Dr. Fosdick, already become classic, ^^the missionary enterprise is the Christian campaign for international good will. We must see that it is so and handle it as though it were so. What the nations through their governments will slowly learn to do, loath to leave old precedents, bound by the sec- tarian narrowness of national loyalties. Christians must do now, and do with a lavish generosity that they have not prac- ticed hitherto. " ^
The Discoveky of the Wokld
The earthquake which has shaken the world down has shaken it together. It may seem like a paradox to say that
^ H. E. Fosdick, The Challenge of the Present Crisis.
16 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
out of the bitterest strife of the ages has emerged the dis- covery that the world is one, but it is the truth. That dis- covery places upon the Christian Church an inescapable responsibility to shape and accomplish a program for the evangelization and emancipation of that united world.
Millions of men have had in these last few years the experience of Keats :
"Then felt I like some watcher in the skies When a new planet swings into his ken."
The new planet is our old world, but it has swung into the consciousness of men as a whole as never before.
It has long been a commonplace that steam and elec- tricity have made the world a neighborhood, but the war has seized the old commonplace and made it bewilderingly vivid. The figure of a neighborhood is too spacious. The war is not so much a neighborhood quarrel as a fire in a tenement house where men are crowded together for life or death. A family in a tenement house has a highly substantial interest in the question whether the children across the hall play with matches. You cannot very well quarantine a fire in a tene- ment house. Nor can a war in this compacted and crowded home of the human family be quarantined. The flames of war which started in northern Europe soon spread down the corridors till two thirds of the race were involved in it.
Terrible as has been the occasion which has brought the world together, there is a profound spiritual significance in such vast portions of the world uniting in eif ort and thought. It raises the curtain on a new era. On that frontier of free- dom which stretches from the English Channel clear down into Africa and Mesopotamia over twenty-five nations on the Allied side have answered ''Here" to the great roll call of democracy. If ''politics makes strange bed-fellows," the war has made still stranger trench-fellows. The Gurkha from India and the Arab, the Algerian, and Hottentot from Central Africa have spilled their blood along with the New Zealander, the Canadian and the Belgian in the cause of
18 CHRISTIAN CEUSADE FOE DEMOCRACY
freedom. The American airman fights with a British gun from a French machine. The Fiji Islander has gone over the top with his French and American brothers. The Sikh from India rightly wears the Victoria Cross for high valor along with his English comrade in arms. Each in his own tongue repeats that glorious watchword of France — ^ ^ They shall not pass.''
Hunger, one of the strongest bonds that tie men to- gether, is playing its part too, as well as danger and hope, in bringing this new world-consciousness to the forefront. We cannot be parochial in our food. Hunger is teaching the world in a stern and memorable way the old truth that Grod Almighty has made all men of one blood to live together and to eat together. The war has given a mighty emphasis to President Wilson's words: "The world no longer consists of neighborhoods. The whole is linked together in a com- mon life and interest such as humanity never saw before and the starting of wars can never again be a private and individual matter for nations."
The thundering call to the Christian Church is plain — if the luorld is one whole and a scourge in it cannot he quar- antined, the cure for that scourge must not he. No part of the world is safe till all is safe. Democracy cannot be safe anywhere until it is safe everywhere. Ignorance and dark- ness and vice and degradation can no more be quarantined than war. We cannot save the world by homeopathic por- tions of the gospel, here a little and there a little. A united world demands of a world church, a world-program.
A New Woeld at Birth
The plastic condition of a world in ferment, in the melt- ing pot of revolution and change, presents a providential but fleeting opportunity to the church to furnish a Christian foundation for the new structure. The world has never stood still, and ever since the days of Pentecost there has been abundant opportunity for Christian influence. But never have there been at one time such revolutionary forces
MAKING DEMOCRACY SAFE 19
of different character at work throughout the whole world. What the character of the new structure will be no one can prophesy ; but that it will be new no one can doubt.
"The rudiments of Empire here Are plastic yet and warm. The chaos of a mighty world Is rounding into form."
^^When God rubs out/' said Bousset, ^4t is because he is be- ginning to write. ' ' If there ever was a time in the history of the Christian Church when the establishment of the world- wide kingdom of God should be the dominating thought and purpose of the united body of Christ, that hour has just dawned upon us in these tragic, pregnant days. Every- where we look, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, men and nations are in upheaval and we see conditions which demand the concentration of the unifying and guiding forces of Christendom. If the church as a great missionary force does not rise to a great occasion now, it will not be because she can ever hope to get a bigger or a better one.
Not all the changes of these days are on the credit side of the ledger. Many are terrible liabilities which will be a peril and obstacle to the Kingdom for years to come. But the very threatening of those new evils is itself an urgent call to Christian campaigning.
Nor are all the revolutionary changes, particularly in the Far East and Africa and South America, the result of the war. They have been increasing in momentum for a decade and more. But they have been vastly accelerated and increased by the war. The revolution in Eussia, with all that it means for good and ill, moved forward by a leap of a generation at least, under the forcing process of the upheaval.
The New Day iit America and England
In England and America, what tokens of a new world are already before our eyes ! The passage by Congress of
20 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
the prohibition amendment, called by Bishop Bashford ''the greatest piece of constructive legislation in American his- tory since the amendment prohibiting slavery;" the rapid extension of woman suffrage in America and the admission of six million women to suffrage in Great Britain; the new status of women industrially in both countries ; the progress of collective effort; the wide extension of government con- trol of industry; the progress of industrial democracy in the greater participation of labor in the profits and direction of industry ; the undreamt of revelation of resources in patriot- ism, generosity, and humanity — all these are indisputable signs of a new day.
In Non-Cheistian Lands
And if, as Kipling expresses it, taking ''hold of the wings of the morning," we "flop around the earth," what do we see? Not only a new Europe, but also a new Asia, and in many respects a New Africa will emerge from the war. In India a new national consciousness is awake and large polit- ical changes are imminent ; China is searching for the ideas and the men that are to shape its future destiny ; Japan has gained a new position as a world-power and is experiencing within its own life great industrial changes. In the near and middle East the collapse of Islam's political power is bringing far-reaching changes in political and economic life of the peoples ; the Jews have won a new freedom and have been deeply stirred by the hope of regaining after two thou- sand years an independent national existence in their ancient home ; conservatism and prejudice are being broken down through new and wide contacts ; non-Christian nations are in a serious mood, of which dissatisfaction with the tra • ditional faiths of Asia and Africa is a convincing evidence. The masses of plain people practically everywhere are mov- ing toward Christ in larger numbers and with greater mo- mentum at this present time than at any time within the last fifty years. We are learning from the mass movement in India and the revivals in Korea that there is such a thing as
MAKING DEMOCRACY SAFE 21
the Cliristianizing of families, villages, and tribes. ^^ There is such a thing as the conversion of national aspirations and ideals. There is a sudden turning of the vast streams of hu- man history. It was seen in the days of Constantine, again in the days of Luther ; again under Napoleon. That stream is turning massively, irresistibly to-day. " ^
Now OE Nevek
This vast shifting to new foundations is more than op- portunity which Christianity can take or reject at its will. It is menace. The cause of Christ hangs in the balance. For the church, as far as we are concerned, it is now or never. If once this period of upheaval passes, and the new world which is now in the making, builds itself upon foundations which are as hostile or indifferent to Christ as were the foundations of the age which has gone down in ruins, the future of the church in this and the next generation will be an unutterable darkness. Christianity has now her chance, the great chance of all her long existence. She holds the key to humanity's unsolved problems. She is the steward of that which the world supremely needs. This is no time for a Christian leadership whose only military command is, ^^ As you were ! ' ' The world will never be as it was. The church cannot afford to be as it was. It must respond in an ade- quate way to this God-given day.
The War for Democracy
The heart of the urgent call to us in the United States for world-wide Christian advance lies in the fact that we are engaged in a war for democracy; not merely for our own defense, but to make the world safe for democracy. To that sacred task we have dedicated our hearts, our money, our lives. Underlying all the thinking and acting of individuals and the nation must be the winning of the war.
But thoughtful men have come in increasing numbers to
W. H. p. Faunce, Social Aspects of Foreign Missions, p. 64.
22 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
see that we have set our faces as a nation to a task which no military victory, howeA^er complete, can accomplish. The victory of arms which we pray and believe that God will bring to the allied nations, will remove the hindrance to a world free for democracy which lies in an aggressive autoc- racy bent on conquest. But with that hindrance removed, no mass of armies can bring into being the inner mental and moral and spiritual forces which must be created if safe democracies are to exist and flourish on the earth. No merely military victory can protect the two thirds of the world which lies distant from the battlefields from its in- ternal weakness and disorder. No military victory can foster the intelligence and moral character which are the foundations of democracy. Only the emancipating, educat- ing, and stabilizing forces of the Christian religion can do that. The task of the hour is one task. In it the two great passions of the human heart join and fuse — patriotism and religion.
On the patriotic side it is to rid the world of the menace of the rampant despotism of Germany and her allies ; to free democracy from the material obstacle of aggressive autoc- racy.
On the religious side it may best be stated by the re- versal of President Wilson's words, to malve democracy safe for the ivorld; to set at work those forces of education, moral control and religion among the backward peoples of the world without which democracy is ^^a destruction walking at noonday. ' '
The Patriotic Task
Never must it drop from the mind that the cause of Christ has an overwhelming stake in the winning of the war. Some of the fairest hopes of the kingdom of God are bound up in it. The true freedom of the world cannot exist under the rule of materialistic power. The kingdom of God cannot tolerate a world where nations live by swagger and threat, where the ambition and philosophy of a few make
MAKING DEMOCRACY SAFE 23
miserable all mankind. We fight ^'to vindicate the prin- ciples of peace and justice in the life of the world as against selfish and autocratic power . . . for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of its peoples, the German people included : for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience.'' ^ ^^We are fighting Germany because in this war feudalism is making its last stand against oncom- ing democracy. We see it now. It is a war against an old spirit, an ancient, outworn spirit. It is a war against feu- dalism— ^the right of the castle on the hill to rule the vil- lage beneath. ' ' ^
Sadly as Christian men draw the sword, we need be, in no confusion. We find in the New Testament no surrender of the chief aim of all, the commonwealth of humanity ; no substitution of lesser loyalties for justice, truth, and right. We find, rather, as its climax a call to arms. There is to be battle, but without hatred to human foe. There is to be par- ticipation in the age-long, bitter struggle against an unseen foe that makes his stronghold in the minds of men, inciting them to war and conquest and the lust of selfish power. To such times as ours comes the message of Ephesians: ^^Fi- nally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principal- ities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."
The nation has embarked on a great, unselfish, spiritual crusade to clear the pathway for God and it follows its sons across the sea with prayer.
^ President Wilson, April 2, 1917.
"" Franklin K. Lane, "Why We Are At War.'
24 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
Where are you going, Great-Heart ? "To cleanse the earth of noisome things, To draw from life its poison-stings. To give free play to Freedom's wings." Then God go with you, Great-Heart 1
Where are you going, Great-Heart ? "To lift To-day above the Past; To make To-morrow sure and fast; To nail God's colors to the mast." Then God go with you, Great-Heart I^
The Missionaky Task
To complete the task of the soldier demands an ade- quate and aggressive program for the world-wide extension of the kingdom of God.
Two slogans of the third Liberty Loan campaign, when deeply studied, make this clear. One was ' ' Halt the Hun. ' ' The other was ^'To make the world a decent place to live in. ' ' The second is the larger and longer task, and without its accomplishment success in the first will be largely fruit- less. The Allied armies, please Grod, will ^'Halt the Hun.'' But nothing can make the world ^^a decent place to live in'' except the fundamental qualities of the spirit of Christ.
The war is essentially a war for opportunity. The over- throw of tyranny means that the nations will be safe from outside interference. But only the extension of vital Chris- tianity throughout the world will ever mean that moral and spiritual forces will be unchained which will create the pos- sibility of world safety, save nations from internal sin, weak- ness, and disorder, and undergird them with purity and the spirit of justice and brotherhood.
We are in this war in behalf of the democracy of the world. The greatest needs throughout this bleeding planet are, after all, those which touch the ideals and future of humanity. It is the function of the religion, the ethics, the
' From "The Vision Splendid," by John Oxenham. George H. Doran Company, Publishers.
MAKING DEMOCRACY SAFE 25
power, the love that was brought by the Son of God to make the world safe for anything worth while. Jesus Christ alone can save the world. Guns cannot. They leave but a desert waste. The upbuilding of the world begins when war has spit its last bomb and thrust its last bayonet. Governments and armies never attempted to accomplish these results ab- solutely fundamental to the safety of democracy. There is but one institution in the world that has a program, the pur- pose of which is to bring about these tremendous structural changes ; that institution is the Church of Jesus Christ.
Democeacy Not Safe for the World To-day
The boon which more than half the world ^s a-seeking — democracy — is not safe to-day. And after the war two thirds of the human race in Asia, Africa, half of America, and more than half of Europe will be as little prepared to safeguard democracy as they are to-day.
Look at this proposition a little more closely. What is necessary for the safety of democracy? What, after all, is a true democracy? It is more than a republican form of government with the machinery of popular vote. Under republican forms of government, Mexico for years was a despotism ruled with a hand of iron. Still under a repub- lican form it was more closely anarchy for four recent years than anything else. England, under the form of a mon- archy, has had one of the freest democracies on earth. A true democracy is more than any form. It is a moral and spiritual order whose aim is the freedom, happiness, and welfare of the individual. James Eussell Lowell has defined democracy in plain words as that order in which every man has a chance and knows that he has a chance.
Three great classic statements of the essence of democ- racy have been made. One i^ the watchword of the French Revolution — '^Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. ' ' The sec- ond is in the words of the Declaration of Independence — ^^The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The third is in the immortal words of Lincoln — ^^A govern-
26 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
ment of the people, by the people, and for the people.'' At heart democracy is a faith, a faith in a common humanity, a belief that men are essentially the same kind of stuff and that only by the cooperation of all, by the recognition of all as the common partners, with equal dignity of membership, can any progress worth the fighting for be obtained.
What Demockacy Rests On
The foregoing description of democracy is not a quota- tion from the New Testament, but it comes from it neverthe- less. It needs no long argument to convince that this order of life can never be realized till it rests on the foundation of the world 's first and greatest democrat — Jesus Christ.
Ask yourself what it is that has made democracy safe in America. And when we speak of our own land, we speak not as though we had attained but as though we press on to the mark of our high calling. The more ardent our patriot- ism the more ready we are to see and confess our imperfec- tions of democracy, and the more ready to strive to correct them. The call of the present day is strong on America to free herself from all undemocratic blights — its race prej- udices, class distinctions, economic injustices. Neverthe- less, our heritage of freedom is large ; and it is easy to see the forces which have made it so.
The Church
The gospel of Christ and the church which proclaims it are the undergirding of freedom in America. Other founda- tion for democracy can no man lay than that which is laid in Christ. It came from him. That was a fine and uncon- ventional tribute to Christ paid by Decker, ^'The first true gentlemen that ever breathed.'" He was also, as Lowell points out, the first true democrat who ever lived. The world knew nothing of the rights of the common man till Christ brought to earth the revelation of the infinite value of every soul. The democracies of Greece and Rome were for
MAKING DEMOCRACY SAFE 27
the few, resting on slavery for the many, and soon perished. No one before ever voiced the value and unspoken hopes of common humanity.
"He was the first that ever burst Into that silent sea."
The Bible has been woven into the very texture of American life. ^ ' The existing government of this country, ' ' said William H. Seward, ''could never have had existence but for the Bible. ' ' The moral foundations of national char- acter, without which no free state can stand, have sprung from Christian ideals and been sustained by them.
The Home
The home has played an incalculable part in the build- ing and safe-guarding of free institutions, in America and everywhere it has flourished. It is the training school of reverence, of sympathy, of obedience, and self-control, with- out which on a widespread scale a republic is a mockery. The home as we know it, with its reverence for womanhood, its solicitude for childhood, its ideals, has never appeared apart from Christianity. ''The Cotter's Saturday Night,'' by Robert Burns, is more than a beautiful picture of a Chris- tian home in the Scotch Highlands. It is a profound piece of political philosophy :
"From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad."
The School
It is an axiom that where the people rule they must be fitted to rule. Education or chaos is the only alternative in a democracy. The demagogue or tyrant will rule the peo- ple who are not educated. Shipwreck is as sure as when a blind pilot undertakes to steer a ship through the rocks. Let the anarchy in Mexico and the collapse in Russia enforce the truth.
28 CHRISTIAN CEUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
Public Opinion
Public opinion is king in a true democracy. With no widespread devotion to ideals on the part of the multitude, no capacity for moral indignation with which the govern- ment must reckon, freedom is not sustained. ' ' Eternal vigi- lance is the price of liberty. ' '
The Need of the World to Be Fitted for Democracy
How fares the world in respect to these essentials of true democracy? Over one half of the population of the globe can neither read nor write. By far the largest por- tion of that percentage is found in the non-Christian lands. Ninety-four per cent of the population of India are illiter- ate as against 7.3 per cent in the United States. In China the percentage of illiterates is even larger. What is the out- look for true democracy there? What can it be but black without speedy aid in education? In Latin America the illiteracy ranges from 40 to 80 per c5nt; in Moslem lands, with the exception of Turkey, from 75 to 90 per cent. "In pagan Africa, apart from mission stations, the people do not even know that writing has ever been invented!"
Nearly a billion people have never heard of Christ — almost two thirds of the population of the globe. That means they stand entirely apart from the whole range of influences associated with Christianity, the sense of the value of personality and human rights which work so mightily as incentives to progress.
A safe democracy will come in these belated nations when Christ comes. It will come with the Great Democrat, not before. Up to the present time republican iyistitutions have never 'flourished in any land where a free church has not preceded it to set up standards of Christian living and to lay the foundations in Christian ethics and character.
The democracy without sure foundations is a menace to the rest of the world. The democracies of Russia, and China, and Mexico are illustrations of the fact that the
MAKING DEMOCEACY SAFE 29
world's safety may be disturbed at any time by internal quarrels in countries where 90 per cent of the population are illiterate.
Has the Chuech a Pkogram"?
Has the church a program to meet this world-circling and world-lifting task? No other institution on earth has. The Church of God has both the program and the credentials for the task. All that it needs is to be baptized into a new sense of the urgency and immensity of the task. It is a heart-breaking task, but it began in a heart- break on Calvary, a divine heartbreak over the need and sin of the world.
The Christian program is the same as it has ever been since Christ sent out that first group of disciples into Gali- lee, preaching, teaching, and healing. It is lifting the world's life by those three levers. It preaches the gospel of the love of God, the redemptive power of God, and the king- dom of God as an order of righteousness, brotherhood, and service. In every environment that message has proved a germinating force of righteousness and social progress. In its schools of every kind which belt the earth — primary, secondary, and colleges, industrial and medical schools — ^it has plowed up the earth for the growth of self-realization and self-government. In its hospitals and social healing of every kind it has set moving forces of vast social trans- formation.
It has the credentials. The missionary of the gospel has been the carrier of the democratic ideal to the four corners of the earth. It was through the missionary and those who came in his train that those vague forces which we together call Western civilization were created.
The mainspring of human progress has been for nine- teen hundred years, and is to-day, the Christian faith. * ' The moral dynamic that transformed our wild forefathers, the Saxons, Celts, and Scandinavian, into civilized nations was not science, then unborn; not politics, literature or art;
30 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
it was Christianity.^' ^ And tlie power that has in the last one hundred years aroused Asia and Africa and the islands of the Pacific from the sleep of centuries is not commercial or governmental but Christian. The credentials of the gos- pel of Christ for a world-task are well urged in the words of President Wilson : ''The gospel of Christ is the only force in the world that I have ever heard of that does actively transform the life ; and the proof of the transformation is to be found all over the world, and is multiplied and repeated as Christianity gains fresh territory in the heathen world. ' '
The Centenaey Pkogeam of Methodism
The Methodist Episcopal Church has planned to cele- brate the one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of Methodist missions by the only kind of a celebration that would fit this day. It has girded itself to face adequately its share of this world task. In a careful and thorough way it has surveyed its world field and estimated what it needs for a five-year term to attempt in a fair measure the Christianization of the one hundred and fifty millions in the non-Christian world for which it is solely responsible. It is a program of large dimensions, for a small program in this day would be none at all. It is the most far-reaching, the most daring perhaps, ever undertaken by any church. It involves a consecration of life, of prayer, and of money which is ^revolutionary. But the church cannot stay as a leader in a revolutionary world without becoming revolu- tionary too. The program calls for a church on its knees, and an offering of hundreds of its best sons and daughters for world-service and forty millions of dollars.
It is a crusade that is God-timed. Timed, it is true, in days of burden and stress, but timed to a day when men are thinking in larger terms and there is a moral sacrificial temi^er in the hearts of men and a larger horizon to their minds than ever before.
W. H. p. Faunce, Social Aspects of Foreign Missions.
MAKING DEMOCRACY SAFE 31
To accomplish this program means nothing less than to recover for the church the horizon of Christ. If this is not done, the church must sound a retreat at a time when the world outside the church is moving into a new age and drop back into a place of secondary importance in all that pertains to constructive spiritual leadership. We must '*go on or go under. ' '
It can be done. The spirit of the church must be mobil- ized. The Christian spirit of adventure and of faith must be stimulated. We are come to the Kingdom for such a time as this. Spirit is the one really creative force in the world. Change the spirit of the church, and all else will follow, as the fruition of an intense life.
We must give the Christian emphasis to words that in these days have burned themselves into the memory of every American. ^^A supreme movement of history has come." Our great and loved church, born with a world-parish as the destiny of her message and experience, has squared herself to make her world-task her supreme business. ''God help- ing her, she can do no other. We must all speak, act and serve together. ' '
I honestly believe that no place in all this world needs the gospel as South America. — Bohert E. Speer.
Both the intellectual life and the ethical standards of these coun- tries seem to be entirely divorced from religion. The absence of a reli- gious foundation for thought and conduct is a grave misfortune for South America. — Lord Bryce.
We are told that some day we shall have war with Mexico. How much our own fault it will be if such a lamentable conflict comes ! What Mexico needs is an invasion of schoolteachers and social workers and Christian preachers, who have caught the idea of missions in their international relationships; and if such an invasion is not forthcoming, a military invasion may indeed be necessary. — Harry E. Fosdich.
Latin America had a population of 15,000,000 a century ago ; to-day it has about 80,000,000. Formerly immigration was restricted to the Latin race. With transportation facilities multiplying and cheapened, and the Panama Canal open, these lands face all the congested areas in the world. On the east their doors open to Europe and Africa; on the west, to the millions of Asia. Latin America will have its day in the twentieth century. Calderon predicts a population of 250,000,000 by the end of the century. There are many who believe it can maintain a popu- lation of 500,000,000, or one third the world's present total. — Commission J — Conference on Christian Work in Latin America.
CHAPTER II CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY FOR LATIN AMERICA
Chkistopher Columbus discovered South America in 1498. About four hundred years later the United States began to catch up with him.
The war has moved this process of rediscovering South America, which has been going on for many years, several speeds forward. The war has made lightning as well as thunder, and as by a vivid flash it has shown to us far more clearly than before our neighbors to the south. New trade relations have developed, many of them by necessity, and a new realization of a unity of interest between North and South America has been stimulated. Large fruits of this new discovery of South America are already manifest in the political, commercial, scientific, and the religious world. We are linked arm in arm with the largest of the republics of South America, Brazil, an ally in the war for democracy, and that new relationship has contributed to the new interest.
Latin America
Other causes, notably the opening of the Panama Canal and our relations with Mexico, have brought into the mind of the country the larger area of which South America is a part— Latin America. It is a good name for citizens of the United States to learn — ** Latin America." It is good for our humility, for it reminds us of what we so easily forget, that the United States is not all there is to '^America." Latin America stretches from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn and includes Mexico, Central America, Panama, and three islands of the West Indies. Widely diverse in respect to progress, situation, and climate it has a common background
35
36 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
of language, tradition, and religion and similar racial stock. Its problems are to a large extent the same. It includes twenty nations, a population of 80,000,000 of people and an area of almost 8,500,000 square miles — three times the size of the United States. Eighteen millions are whites, 17,000,- 000 Indians, 6,000,000 Negroes, and of mixed white and Indian, 30,000,000. Of mixed white and Negro there are 8,000,000, 700,000 mixed Negro and Indian, and 300,000 East Indian, Japanese, and Chinese.
This vast area presents to the United States a maze of interesting possibilities in politics, in trade, fascinating to think of and plan for.
But to the heart and conscience of the Protestant churches of the United States it presents more than that. In an hour when our eyes are set on the shining goal of a world safe for democracy, it presents the need of a group of na- tions struggling against tremendous handicaps in the enter- prise of democracy and pitifully lacking in many of the fun- damental necessities for a safe, free, and permanent democ- racy. It presents also the momentous question. What shall be the ideals which shall control the life of this vast section of the world, which unquestionably will hold within a cen- tury over 250,000,000 people?
The Rediscovery of South America
We are learning in the United States a new set of A B C's. That lesson is in the importance, present and future, of the A. B. C. countries, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, the leading republics of South America. When these three countries came together with the United States and Mexico in conference at Niagara Falls in an attempt to settle oui' differences with Mexico, the conference failed to ac- complish that result. But it was highly successful in ac- complishing something else, just as important or more so — a new knowledge of South America on the part of the United States, and a new appreciation of the need and possibilities
LATIN AMERICA
37
SOUTH AMERICA— THE CONTINENT OF THE FUTURE
The heavy black shading indicates the territory occupied by the Methodist Episcopal Church. The white spaces show the unoccupied territory for which it is responsible. The lighter vertical shading marks the countries in which the Methodist Church South is at work.
of cooperation with her countries for great purposes of common interest.
Reasons for Neglect and Ignorance of South America
There are many reasons for the ignorance of South America on the part of people in the United States, and most
38 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
of them are not flattering. A self-satisfied complacency is one of the chief ones. Vague, incorrect ideas have found a congenial soil in our national hotbed of ignorance. We have taken Baron Munchausen as one of our leading authorities on South America, supplemented, perhaps, by 0. Henry and Richard Harding Davis. To large numbers of people. South America has been, and unfortunately is to-day, a land of ^'fevers and revolutions,'' a suitable theme for comic opera and exciting fiction.
The American business man, ^'the hustler," whom we have raised into a myth of efficiency, has succeeded in get- ting only 29 per cent of the trade of Latin America largely because he has not taken the trouble to learn the facts about it. The trade of Latin America with the rest of the world has been growing far more rapidly than with the United States. The assumption that there was little in South America worth learning about has been a costly one and is coming to an abrupt end in the world of trade.
A New Interest
Many forces fortunately have conspired in the last few years to turn the eyes of the United States to South Amer- ica. The Panama Canal has made a new water map of the world and brought the west coast of South America within easy reach. The whiz of bullets across the Mexican border turned our eyes to the South and brought South America within view, as well as Mexico. Real information is begin- ning to filter through our hazy preconceptions and prej- udices. Travel has increased between the continents. Vis- its of eminent statesmen like Mr. Root, Lord Bryce, Mjr. Roosevelt, and scientific expeditions, have had wide educa- tional value. Trade with South America has increased and expanded in many directions and a new knowledge of the commercial and agricultural possibilities has quickened in- terest greatly.
Striking expressions of this new interest abound. The
LATIN AMERICA 39
Pan- American Bureau, housed in a great building at Wash- ington, is a powerful organization under the active support of the President of the United States and the presidents of South American republics to promote closer relationship. In 1915 two conferences of immense importance were held in Washington. One was a gathering of financiers repre- senting twenty-one American republics, held under the aus- pices of the United States government. The second was a Pan-American Scientific Congress which brought a group of visitors from Latin America more broadly representative than any other group ever assembled in America. More deeply significant than either of these was the Congress on Christian work in Latin America which was held at Panama in February, 1916. Four hundred and eighty-one delegates, of whom 230 were appointed by denominational mission boards from practically all the Christian countries of the world, made up a congress unique in the New World's his- tory of missions. Its reports are the most exhaustive study of the social, educational, and spiritual conditions of Latin America ever made. Its results in closer cooperation and advance mark a new epoch in the history of missions in the two Americas. The turning of all these new streams of in- terest toward South America heralds a new day for the whole continent.
The Magnitude of South Ameeica
To try to convey any vivid idea of the size of South America means a riot of the imagination, Kipling tells us that ^' there are forty different ways of inditing tribal lays ' ' and remarks that ' ' every single one of them is right. ' ' There are also forty different ways of giving first aid to the imagination in its effort to consider the size of South America, and every single one of them is true. Have you an imperial mind that delights to ^' think in continents"? Then try this: South America is three times as large as China and four times as large as India. Brazil itself, the
40 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
fourth largest country in the world, is larger than the whole of EurojDe. Perhaps your own country's size means more to you. Then remember that the whole United States could
be put into Brazil and leave room for four States the size of New York. The Argentine Republic, which is cus- tomarily thought of as about as large as Penn- sylvania or, to be gen- erous, as Pennsylvania and New York, could hold all of the United States east of the Mis- sissippi plus the first tier of States west of it. Perhaps we think more clearly in terms of a smaller area. Try a ' ' little ' ' country like Venezuela. Texas, which we think of as an empire in itself, would go into Venezuela twice, leaving room for Ken- tucky and Tennessee. We call Chile ' ' the shoe- string republic, ' ' but we forget what a large shoe it would make a string for ! Narrow, it is true, but long enough to reach from New York to San Francisco and have enough left to tie a knot with. Its area is four times that of Nebraska.
South America has larger areas unknown than any con- tinent, not excepting Africa. In no other continent could a
PORTION OF SOUTH AMERICA IX WHICH
METHODIST EPISCOP.AL CHURCH
IS AT WORK
This includes the leading republics of Argentine and Chile and a third of the population of the continent.
LATIN AMERICA 41
hunter plunge into the wilderness and emerge with a whole new, unknown river system as his game, as Mr. Roosevelt did in Brazil with the "River of Doubt.''
Wealth
The wealth of South America is literally boundless - Half the rubber of the world comes from tropical America. From Brazil alone comes four fifths of the world's coffee supply, and from its diamond fields more gems than any part of the world except South Africa. Argentina alone, in 1914, possessed over 123,000,000 head of live stock — sheep, cattle, horses, pigs, etc. Chile produced in 1913 nitrates val- ued at $128,000,000. The supposedly barren wastes of Peru the same year yielded 1,700,000 tons of sugar cane, and from its mines was shipped $10,000,000 worth of copper. Inter- national trade has grown from $2,000,000,000 to $3,000,000,- 000 in the last ten years ; and the Hon. John Barrett predicts that in the five years following the war it will increase to $5,000,000,000.
The Futuke
When we look toward the future, as we cannot help look- ing, the natural resources, coupled with its comparatively small population, make it clear that South America will wit- ness as great development in population, and economic and social transformation, as any other continent of the world, and very probably greater. It is the last great unoccupied area of the habitable world, except sections of Africa and Malaysia. The stream of immigration had already set in with a strong current before the war. In 1913 about a mil- lion immigrants landed in South America. There are nearly half a million Italians near Buenos Ayres in Argentina. Most of the emigration has been from Europe, but immi- grants are commencing to pour in from China and Japan, a movement of vast possibilities. As soon as the war is over streams of emigration from Europe will start and deepen. While the United States will undoubtedly receive some of it,
42 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
there is no more free land in North America. South Amer- ica will claim and receive the largest streams of immigration that are going to pour into any of the Western world in the next two hundred years. There is no other place for hu- manity to go. One of the most conservative estimates is that of Lord Bryce, who predicts that in two hundred years the population will be 375,000,000; while the common estimate that it will one day maintain half a billion, or almost one third of the world's present population, is not at all difficult to accept.
South America is on the threshold of a future whose possibilities cannot be measured. The guarantees of a future population and future wealth are here. But here also is the certatiny of a materialistic, agnostic civilization, weak in moral character and spiritual ideals, unless the saving force of a free and full gospel of Christ can be built into the life of the continent.
A Continent In Need
The appeal of South America to Christian North Amer- ica is the same appeal which comes from any land without the strong vitalizing influences of a free, living, spiritual Christianity. But that appeal is strongly reenforced by two considerations. The first is the responsibility which its nearness and unity of interests with North America put upon us. The second consideration is the timely one of the needs of its democracy, the necessity of the varied influ- ences of a vital Protestant Christianity if the democracies of South America are to be the true homes of freedom and justice.
It is not presumption nor ambition nor a narrow sectar- ianism which forces the Protestant Church to regard South America as a mission field and a desperately needy one. The Roman Catholic Church has been in South America for four hundred years, and the fruits of its stewardship in that time, for the most part, constitute an urgent call for a living
LATIN AMERICA 43'
and free Christianity. Even in case one should question the justifiableness of sending missionaries to Roman Catholic South America, there are still the millions of neglected people, especially the Indians, for whom the church is doing in most cases nothing at all. It fails utterly to occupy vast regions.
But beyond that, South America is not a Roman Cath- olic continent in any real sense. The men in the civilized and more enlightened centers have practically all left the Roman Church and are swinging in a body to unbelief. An- other thing which must not be forgotten is that the Roman- ism of South America is not the Romanism of the United States. In that country it is weighted down with crass mate- rialism and dense ignorance; its moral life is weak and its spiritual witness faint.
**No Plymouth Rock"
^^ South America had no Mayflower and no Plymouth Rock. ' ' This famous sentence is the key to the condition of South America and to much of its history. The Europeans who came first to South America were impelled by the spirit of adventure, the lust for gold, the desire for conquest. The founders of New England were driven by a love for liberty, the desire to worship God after the dictates of their own conscience. The settlers of North America came from those countries of Northwestern Europe where there was the greatest freedom. They came to set up new homes. The conquerors of South America were militarists from the most absolute monarchy in western Europe, and came bent on destroying and carrying away all they could get their hands on. By giving proper place to this difference of purpose and ideals and racial stock we have explained much of the divergence between the history of the two continents.
We have seen what are the requirements for a safe and free democracy — universal education, a pure and elevated
44 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
home life, moral foundations in character, a strong public opinion, and spiritual ideals. We find in South America a continent in desperate need of these great pillars of Democ- racy.
Need of Education
In few nations is illiteracy more pronounced. The following percentage of illiteracy will show the appalling situation at a glance. In Argentina the percentage of illit- erates is 50 per cent; in Uruguay, 50 per cent; in Chile, 65 per cent ; in Paraguay, 90 per cent ; in Colombia, 80 per cent;
and in Brazil, 70 per cent. This will mean more when we remem- ber that for the United States the average is 7.3 per cent. To remedy this stigma of illiteracy the governments are do- ing very little, except in the higher branches of education. The ele- mentary schools are the least developed part of the educational system. It should be remem- bered that mixed races, such as the white and Indian or the white and Negro, form 40 per cent of the population of the continent. The univer- sities and higher schools are almost entirely for the intel- lectuals or those of pure white blood, of whom there are less than fifteen million. There are large and well- equipped universities, in cities like Buenos Ayres, under state control and a strongly marked leadership of highly
LITERACY CHART OF SOUTH AMERICA
The percentage of the population of the difTerent countries who can read and write is indicated by the diagonal shading.
LATIN AMERICA 45
educated men. The universities are nonreligious and the students and professors are almost to a man agnostic or openly infidel.
MoEAL Ideals
**We cannot," says Burke, ^ indict a whole people." We cannot overlook the moral idealism which has been active in South America or cast any slur on its pure, good womanhood. But we cannot overlook the fact that countries where from twenty to over sixty per cent of the people are of illegitimate birth are lands of desperate moral need. From one fifth to one sixth of the population of Brazil are of illegitimate birth; in Venezuela it is two thirds; in Ecuador, one half; in Chile, one third. Male chastity is al- most unknown. Drink has nearly wiped out the Indians. Professor Edward A. Ross says, ^'The state has entered into a kind of partnership with the church; the former to sell alcohol to the Indians (having a monopoly of its sale), and the latter to provide in her festivals the occasion for its con- sumption. ' ' ^ Alcoholism is particularly rife on the west coast. In Valparaiso, Chile, there is one saloon for every twenty-four men. That city, with a population of 180,000, had 600 more cases of drunkenness reported in one year than all London, with a population of 5,000,000.
Religious Needs
Back of moral needs is a condition of spiritual destitu- tion. The question of the need of Protestantism in all Latin America is not a question of church order ; not at all a his- torical question whether the Roman Church has provided there a true ministry. It is the inescapable conclusion that the old, mediaeval superstitions of the church life that is there are inadequate to furnish the moral and spiritual leadership needed to bring South America out into the liberty of a new national life in the faith of Christ. The
'• E. A. Ross, South of Panama.
46 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
Bible in South America is an unknown book. The gospel of a living Christ is an unknown story. Lord Bryce sums up the moral conditions of South America in the last chapter of his book in these words : ^'It is a grave misfortune that both the intellectual life and the ethical standards of conduct seem to be entirely divorced from religion.'' At least one half of the men of these South American republics have broken finally from Rome. The intellectual class has moved almost in a body into skepticism and agnosticism. In a re- cent Y. M. C. A. canvass only four students out of five thou- sand in Buenos Ayres reported any belief in God or faith in Christianity. That condition is typical of the universities and educated classes everywhere. Robert E. Speer writes, "I do not believe that of the one million peoi3le in Buenos Ayres, there are two hundred men on any given Sunday at service." Surely, doubt and denial of all faiths, spreading apace and unchecked among eighty millions of people, con- cern the entire Christian world. ''Churches with modern religious scholarship and strong faith are bound to offer in- tellectual Latins the torch with which to relight the falling or darkened lamps of Christian belief and life. ' '
The Centenaky Pkogram and South America
Despite the heroic achievements of a small band of mis- sionaries in South America and results of large promise, it has been ''The Neglected Continent'' in Christian missions as well as in many other ways. The total number of or- dained foreign missionaries in all of South America in 1916 was only 320. That means one ordained clergj^man of the evangelical churches for every 156,250 of the population. In America the ratio is one to every 622. There are four times as many Protestant ordained ministers in the State of Ohio as in all of South America.
The Centenary Program of the Methodist Church plans to build, in an adequate way, on the foundations already laid to meet its share of responsibility and opportunity. The
"^w
^^»l:-.
LATIN AMEEICA 47
estimates do not call for the complete occupation of the fields open to Methodism. That would involve staggering amounts. But they do provide for a strategic advance through the doors that have been opened. The missions in South America have made a fine beginning, in which exploits of heroism and persistence in the face of great obstacles have been done which will rank with the great chapters of missionary history. Methodism has to-day 157 missionaries and foreign workers, 239 native preachers and workers, and 152 teachers, a membership of 15,000 and 6,000 unbaptized adherents. There are 16 educational institutions and over 2,500 students. The church is at work in 8 of the republics whose total population is 23,000,000. The totals of results are not nearly so great as the obstacles and distances, but represent a remarkable achievement in the face of all the circumstances.
Establishment of Churches
As everywhere, the great aims is the establishment of a self-supporting, self-propagating native church. The method in its essence is that of the successful establishment of Christianity anywhere, the proclamation of a ^'know- able ' ' gospel by extensive itinerating. It is the old strategy of the pioneer preaching on the frontier in the days of the saddlebag, of John Wesley among the coal miners, of the apostle Paul in Corinth and Ephesus. There is a marked evangelical stir on both the east and west coasts. A wide- spread evangelistic movement appears to be approaching in South America, and the Centenary Program provides for the occupation of new territory and the creation of new churches. It calls for such additions to the missionary forces as will make possible a continent-wide program of church development. This will require 24 missionary preachers and 84 national (that is, inhabitants of South America) preachers; 86 churches and chapels and 31 par- sonages and 4 missionary residences. The financial outlay
48 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
for the staff and maintenance will be $588,180 ; for property about $1,500,000. All the figures of the Centenary survey cover a five-year period.
Education
In the case of such crying- need as the illiteracy of South America discloses, educational work is both large, immedi- ate service and the pathway to ultimate leadership. To win leadership in a non-Christian or belated Christian country Christian education must be the very center of the move- ment. In the republics where the Methodist Church is at work illiteracy averages almost 75 per cent. Unless there is developed an extensive system of education the danger ap- pears of creating churches of illiterates. The state schools are entirely unqualified to produce moral leadership or fur- nish gospel ministry. In large areas the state schools do not even exist. The educational program looks out on the need in both directions — the need for primary schools of ele- mentary education and higher training schools, universities, and colleges in order to rear an educated Christian leader- ship with which to stem the tides of infidelity and immoral- ity among the educated classes. Bishop Homer C. Stuntz says that the battle for the conversion of South America, within the next hundred years, will be won or lost in the edu- cational institutions that are planted there. To engage in this battle with the stake of a continent for Christianity as its prize, the Centenary Movement proposes 29 elementary schools, 14 high schools, 3 colleges, 1 agricultural school, and 4 seminary and training schools. The staff required will be 126 missionary teachers and 158 national (South Amer- ican) teachers. The total cost will be about $1,000,000 for staff and maintenance and about $2,000,000 for property. In the primary schools will be taught elementary industrial instruction, hygiene and sanitation, and religion, as well as the common elementary branches. The Methodist Church will cooperate with other denominations in a union theolog- ical seminary at Montevideo in Uruguay and in two union
LATIN AMERICA 49
evangelical universities, one for each coast. In addition to this direct service there is now a chance to impress the edu- cational movement in South America with the Christian point of view, and to give character, tone, motive, and defi- nite ends to the educational policies of all the Latin Amer- ican republics.
Along with this program of education there is imme- diate need to enlarge the two publishing houses already in operation, one on the east and one on the west coast, so that they can spread broadcast clean moral and religious literature. Much of the general literature now accessible to Latin America young people is of a nature so vile that if a man were detected in an attempt to bring specimens of it into the United States even as personal property, he would be arrested and punished.
Medical.
The number of hospitals of the Methodist Church at the present time in the whole of South America is a tragical zero. And that in a land where the state hospitals are not adequate to care for ten per cent of the people. South America has no hospitals, no nurses' training school, nor deaconess home under any mission board. Outside of such progressive centers as Buenos Ayres, and in countries less advanced than Argentina, the neglect of public hygiene is appalling. In some sections smallpox is a continuous epi- demic. In Chile, where there is one of the finest climates of the world, the death rate is twice as high as that of the United States. Dr. Speer calls Chile ^^a killing ground for children. ' ' Seventy-five per cent of the children die before reaching two years of age. Among the neglected and pov- erty-stricken millions of Indians the death rate of children is even higher than that.
The present proposal is for the establishment of a hos- pital and nurses ' training school in the capital city of five of the republics, both as a work of mercy and evangelizing force of high value.
50 CHEISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
Panama
The Republic of Panama has been included in these estimates of needs of South America. Panama is a key to the world in the new trade map and naval map which the
PANAMA— THE CROSS ROADS OF THE WORLD
opening of the canal has made. If the Church of Christ should be located "Where cross the crowded ways of life," Panama is a good place, for it has become ''the crossroads of the nations'' and will be increasingly so. In two growing cosmopolitan cities, Panama and Colon, along what is likely to become the greatest commercial highway on the globe,
LATIN AMEEICA 51
Methodism is already located and must be strengthened. All of Panama, outside the Canal Zone, with 300,000 Indians, mostly living in stark paganism with no Christian effort directed toward them, has been given to the Methodist Church as its sole responsibility, with churches and schools to be provided.
The Chkistian Intekpketation of the Monkoe Doctrine
The Monroe doctrine, by which we have said to all the world for a century, ''Keep hands off South America,'^ com- mits the United States to a peculiar responsibility for it. Not all the interpretations of that doctrine have been looked on with favor in South America. The Monroe doctrine is often regarded as patronage and as the cover for an undue domination of South American affairs and an affront to her independence. What is called ' ' the North American peril, ' ' the danger of aggression from the United States, has been widely heralded and believed. A large step in an interpreta- tion of the Monroe doctrine which will replace jealousy and suspicion by cooperation is that which Secretary of State Lansing gave at the Pan-American Scientific Congress in 1915 and which met with a hearty support of the South American delegates. It is that of a Pan- Americanism which rallies around the common standard of the rights of hu- manity and the defense of these rights as represented in the western hemisphere.
There is a Christian interpretation of the Monroe doc- trine which must supplement all others. It is the responsi- bility of the LTnited States to bring to South America the liv- ing Christ, who came that all men might have life, and have it more abundantly, so that in its own way and under its own leadership that great continent may develop the moral and spiritual forces strong enough to guide and shape its great development.
New doors are opened. The long battle for religious liberty is issuing in victory. Through the heroic efforts of Protestant missionaries and often under their leadership,
52 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
constitutions have been rewritten granting religious liberty to eight tenths of the people of South America. Old tethers are being worn away. Will the church match the new oppor- tunity with new endeavor?
Mexico A Giant Mission-Study Class
Probably the most remarkable mission-study class ever known was that conducted in Mexico during four recent years by Victoriano Huerta and Pancho Villa. If the aim of a mission-study class is to produce a strong realization of a country's need, that class was an unusual success. The revolution and anarchy which prevailed, the raids of Villa 's bandits across the border, the imminent danger of war and the sending of costly military expeditions by the United States, all riveted the attention of the nation to the glaring fact that there was something desperately wrong in Mexico. This violent and effective projection of Mexico into the con- sciousness of the United States led to many different con- clusions. The, voice of the military interventionist was loud in the land. With eloquent phrases about the vindication of American rights, he pointed to military conquest as the only means of quelling the disturbances which are a menace to the peace and interests of the United States. When stripped of its oratorical trappings, however, this remedy is seen to involve an enormous military effort calling for millions of men and money, and a long time, with the question of the complete subjugation of Mexico doubtful even then. The Mexicans as a race are proud and brave. They are bitterly resentful of forcible intervention. The vast extent of Mexico and the deep mountain fastnesses would make it pos- sible for resistance to hold out indefinitely.
And even if we conquered Mexico, what result would we have? We would either have to annex it and admit it as a State in the Union or hold it as subject territory in an im- perialistic manner. Either alternative is revolting. Fifteen
LATIN AMERICA 53
millions of people, 80 per cent of whom are illiterate, unused to democratic institutions such as ours, are not ready for statehood and cannot conceivably be ready for a generation, perhaps for many. The United States is not ready for the other alternative — of becoming a conquering, imperialistic power. It would be too dangerous to the safety of our demo- cratic institutions at home.
The Only Solutioit of ^ ^ The Mexican Problem ' '
Even when the attention which the disturbances in Mexico drew to the country had no result except the pes- simistic and disgusted conclusion that there was '^no hope for order in Mexico," that result has a high value, for it points inevitably to the conclusion that the only salvation of democracy in Mexico is not the application of force on the outside, but the development of new forces on the inside. The United States has realized that its career is indissolu- bly bound together with that of its nearest foreign terri- tory on the south. The one great result of our mixed prob- lems in Mexico is a growing realization that Mexico will be a source of ceaseless anxiety and danger to the people of the United States until the national thinking and ideals are brought to higher levels. Democracy will never be safe in Mexico either for that country or the United States until the forces which make democracy safe anyivhere are brought in}:o action and developed — universal education, freedom from economic slavery, enlightened public opinion, strong moral character, and religious life. The only solution of the Mexican problem is the Christian solution, an invasion of Christian preachers, teachers, and physicians, the estab- lishment of churches, schools, and hospitals that will enable Mexico to start realizing her own destiny of strong and en- lightened self-government and moral and spiritual progress. The United States government in 1917 spent enough money in the patrol of the Mexican border on the Pershing expedi- tion the first six months to build a college, a hospital, a
54 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
cliurcli, and a social settlement, all magnificently equipped, in every town of over 1,000 people in tlie republic of Mexico, and to provide for their maintenance for ten years. Can there be any doubt that the latter expenditure would have insured a safe democracy there, as the military expedition utterly failed to do ?
The Needs of Democracy in Mexico
The strong searchlight of national interest which has been swinging across our southern border for five years has revealed the glaring handica^DS which democracy has in Mexico.
Illiteracy
Eighty per cent of the population of Mexico is illiterate. Schools are few in number, and even in times of peace the
■^^Sll
MEXICO— OUR NEAREST NEIGHBOR
Names in Roman type indicate stations of the Methodist Episcopal Church; those in Italics, centers of the Methodist Church South. This map shows the central and commanding position the Methodist Church holds in ^Mexico.
government has made little effort to overcome illiteracy. Among the large percentage of the population which is the
LATIN AMERICA 55
native aboriginal stock, about forty per cent, education is practically unknown. In a condition like this it is clearly evident that there can be no intelligent public opinion to make possible a stable representative government.
Slavery
A democracy must be free, and over half of the popula- tion of Mexico is in a state of debt slavery, or peonage, which is little to be distinguished from actual slavery. Ninety per cent of the land is held by a small fraction of the population. The majority of the population, both of the aboriginal inhabitants, the Indians, and the mixed race of Spanish and Indian stock, are peons, attached to the great estates frequently a million acres in extent. They have no land of their own and are kept in ignorance and poverty. It is the operation of this system of oppression which makes the peons so habitually ready to join a revolutionary enter- prise or to become bandits.
Religious Darkness
Superstition and immoralit}^ are interwoven into the very religious life of the nation. The religious destitution of the Indians is a vivid indication of the spiritual darkness of Mexico. For four hundred years since their discovery by white men they have been left without the Bible and the knowledge of the living Christ. The Roman Catholic Church has not only failed to provide an open Bible and the preaching of a spiritual Christianity, but it has been for the most part the relentless foe of free thought and speech, a free press and free public schools. It has been the agent of the rule of oppression and the means of exploitation of the people. For these reasons it is losing its hold on think- ing people.
The Present Opportunity
In spite of the revolution and the famine and disease and destruction of missionary property, the opportunity for
56 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
Protestant missionary success in Mexico was never so bright. Revolutionary conditions are gone. Organized opposition to the present Mexican government has disappeared. Gen- uine elections have been held and the government is grad- ually coming into a secure position.
The attitude of the present government toward religion as expressed in the new constitution has been interpreted as uncompromisingly hostile. The constitution provides for a complete separation of church and state. Foreign reli- gious leaders, priests and ministers, are not allowed to work in the country. But that provision is designed to kill the political influence of the Roman Church. It was not in- tended to interfere with Protestant religious work, and has not in any way interfered with it. Catholicism is in marked disfavor with the present government because of Roman opposition to the revolutionary party now in power. The Protestant missionaries are not allowed to administer the sacraments, but they have remained in Mexico and are un- hindered in their work of teaching and preaching and pub- lishing. The courage and heroism of missionaries in stick- ing to their posts in the time of greatest need and danger has created an extremely favorable disposition toward Protestant Christianity.
Never was the response to a vital Protestant Christian- ity so large in Mexico as to-day. The weakening of the power of the priests and the liberalizing influences of the revolution on religious thought have furthered a marked re- sponse to evangelizing efforts. Never have such crowds at- tended Protestant preaching services. In 1917 a great re- vival in Mexico City resulted in the professed conversion of nearly one thousand people. There is a new eagerness to read Christian literature. The sale of Bibles has increased over four times in the last few years. In 1917 it was well over one hundred thousand.
Many of the constitutionalist generals and other leaders are either Protestants or attendants on Protestant service. Mexican Protestant Christians are hopeful and active. The
LATIN AMERICA 57
various Mission Boards working in Mexico have taken ad- vanced steps in cooperation and union activities. All these are unmistakable signs that Mexico is at the threshold of a new era in religious development.
The Centenaey Response
The Centenary Program of Methodism in Mexico plans a response to this enlarged opportunity. It is not a large financial outlay that is called for. It is in no way adequate to completely meet the responsibility, and yet a program that is teeming with possibilities.
Methodism in Mexico is a 'Agoing concern." The revo- lution did not stop it. There was only one thing which could cause the superintendent of the mission for many years, one of the most-loved and trusted men in all the country, John Wesley Butler, to leave Mexico. That was the sum- mons to another world, which came in March, 1918. Under his leadership and helped by his efforts, Methodism has grown in Mexico to a total of members and adherents of 20,000, with 5,000 students in her schools. There is a total staff of 21 missionaries, 143 native preachers and workers, and 169 teachers. There are 64 churches and chapels.
Evangelistic
Methodism has a sole responsibility for three of the fif- teen million inhabitants of Mexico. Much damage has been inflicted by the disturbances of the revolution. Buildings have been plundered and burned. Famine, disease, and un- certain conditions have made the work precarious. But these losses are more than compensated for by the new re- sponse to evangelistic efforts which characterizes conditions since the revolution. The largest public congregation in the City of Mexico, Protestant or Catholic, meets in the Meth odist church, over a thousand people as a rule, with mam standing. An extension of direct preaching throughout the country will produce large results. The number of evan- gelists and pastors and local churches must be increased in
58 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
order to cover the area allotted to Methodism. Seventy- seven additional churches, 4 missionaries and 78 native preachers are the efficiency requirements for this need.
Education
The Methodist schools in Mexico are few, but influen- tial out of all proportion to their size and numbers. They have been a large means of disarming prejudice and gain- ing the good will of the people. With proper expansion they will be an increasing influence. The appalling illiteracy, the absence of all moral and religious education in the govern- ment schools, make an irresistible appeal for Christian edu- cation. The Centenary Program calls for a minimum of 66 schools, 102 native teachers, the strengthening of the exist- ing secondary schools and cooperation with other denomina- tions in two great union educational enterprises, a central Christian university, and a union theological seminary in Mexico City.
Medical.
The conditions of war have increased the need for med- ical help, a need that was already large. Abounding filth and avoidable disease spread throughout the country. Only in the large cities are there state hospitals and physicians, and these are almost entirely for the wealthy. The one hos- pital and dispensary which the church has, serves exclusively an area of two hundred and fifty by four hundred miles con- taining a million people. It is a center of healing and sani- tation and social betterment. It must be strengthened and medical work expanded.
The Rise of a National Church
A day of large promise for the development of a vigor- ous Protestant Christian Church of Mexico is here. Some idea of the vitality of the Mexican Methodist Church may be gained from the fact that of the $200,000 a year asked for five years for the expansion of the work of the church in
LATIN AMERICA 59
Mexico, over one third of the amount is to be raised in Mex- ico itself! Mexicans are taking new responsibilities of leadership and support. It is not the Americanization of Mexico to which we are called, but to a task better than that. It is to supply in these shaping years the fertilizing forces of the gospel by which a strong Mexican church and nation may rise. The urgent call, in the words of Bishop F. J. Mc- Connell, is to ^^take the Lord Jesus Christ to Mexico to let him work out his own plans for the Mexican people. ' *
The Chinese Question is the world question of the twentieth cen- tury.— B. L. Putnam Weale.
The crucifixion was two hundred and eighty years old before Chris- tianity won toleration in the Roman empire. It was one hundred and twenty-eight years after Luther's defiance before the permanence of the Protestant Reformation was assured. After the discovery of the New World one hundred and fifteen years elapsed before the first English colony was planted here. No one who saw the beginning of these great, slow, historic movements could grasp their full import or witness their culmination. But nowadays world processes are telescoped and history is made at aviation speed. The exciting part of the transformation of China will take place in our time. In forty years there will be tele- phones and moving picture shov/s and appendicitis and sanitation and baseball nines and bachelor maids in every one of the thirteen hundred districts of the empire. The renaissance of a quarter of the human family is occurring before our eyes, and we have only to sit in the parquet and watch the stage. — Edward A. Ross, The Changing Chinese.
CHAPTER III
CHINA— THE OPEN DOOR TO FOUR HUNDRED MILLION MINDS
Communication Tkenches
A RECENT picture in the illustrated weekly papers of a group of several hundred Chinese laborers digging com- munication trenches behind the Allied lines in France is a vivid symbol of the position of China in the world to-day. Two forces of vast significance are symbolized in that pic- ture: the fact that the ancient autocracy of China is lined up with the forces of democracy in the great conflict; and also that that great people, from one fourth to one fifth of the human race, which for ages has built around itself a solid wall of exclusiveness, is to-day building communication trenches out to all the world. The war has extended and quickened the transformation of China, a process already going on at express speed, and a movement of unsurpassed importance in modern history.
The Awakening Giant
To try to picture the transformation which China is undergoing puts a hard strain on the dictionary. Writers on China in the past fifteen years have ransacked the dic- tionary for all the words that look like the Whirlpool Rapids below Niagara Falls and have pressed them into service. We have had in rapid succession China in Convulsion, the Conflict of Color, The Changing Chinese, The New Day in China, The Uplift, The Awakening, The Emergency, The Revolution, China Inside Out, and China Upside Down. It takes a whole conspiracy of picturesque words to express
63
64 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
what is going on. It is a political revolution, a moral ad- vance, an intellectual renaissance, a religious reformation, and a nineteenth century of scientific and industrial develop- ment all combined.
More than a century ago that far seeing genius. Na- poleon, said of China, the memorable and oft-quoted words : ' ' Yonder is a sleeping giant. Do not wake him. ' ' But there are more things in heaven and earth than were dreamt of in Napoleon's philosophy. The giant has been awakened, startled bolt upright, by forces in which Napoleon little reckoned ; by another giant which in Napoleon's day was ly- ing asleep in the teakettle — steam ; by the long-distance flash of the electric wire; and last, but by no means least, by the inspiration of the long-distance reach of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The awakening in China, part of the great transforma- tion which is making a new era through Asia, can be fitly compared only to the Renaissance in Europe in the fifteenth century which was the transition from the Middle Age to the Modern — a ^'new birth" to a new and larger life through the revival of learning. Men look back to those days, the '' spacious days" of discovery, of political and religious reformation, of the birth of modern science, as one of the greatest creative epochs in history. Yet the new awakening now going on in the Far East, and notably to-day in China, surpasses in extent, in rapidity of development, and perhaps even in significance, that which took form in Europe in the fifteenth century.
As we look more closely at this many-sided revolution in China, three large aspects of it press upon our attention. These aspects have been visible for many years, but are brought to our minds with a sharpened intensity because of the war and its results. The first consideration is that of the vastness of the awakening. The second is that of the tremen- dous importance to the world of what China becomes. The third is the solemn one of the fleeting character of the Chris- tian opportunity.
CHINA
65
The Vastness of China's Awakening
Any vivid sense of the scale of the changes already accomplished and now going on in China must have for its
CHINA
Strategic centers in the Methodist occupation of China. Chart at the right shows the de- velopment of membership and self-support of Methodism in China.
background a conception of the size and extent of China. A population of nearly four hundred millions of people, set in one of the most productive areas in the world, one half as
66 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
large as the United States, including Alaska ; with, coal and iron resources as rich as those of any land on earth ; a labor- ing class by far the largest and toughest, the most industri- ous and economical to be found on the globe — surel}^ here is the stage and here are the actors for one of the greatest dramas of history.
This background of the mass of China has far more meaning, however, when we add to it the fact that since the outbreak against foreigners in the Boxer Revolution in 1901, there has developed in seventeen years, a reversal of national feeling, an openness to Western influence, such as can hardly be matched in all history. The land where once all life had crystallized into unchangeable molds has suddenly become fluid, plastic, seeking new molds from the Western world.
The Political Revolution
The political revolution which in 1911 overthrew the Manchu dynasty and made China a republic astounded the world, and the world has not yet recovered from its amaze- ment. Those who knew China at all had little idea that the course of democracy would run smooth. The six years of the republic have not been smooth ones. The democratic idea is still crude. The great essentials of a safe and sound democracy are lacking and must be supplied. The struggle for democracy is still on. Nevertheless, the failure of the monarchist movement under Yuan Shih Kai and the collapse of the attempt of Chang Hsun to restore the Manchu em- peror has shown that the heart of China is unmistakably at- tached to democracy and to the republic.
A new emphasis to this new political day in China has been given b}^ the response of the republic to the invitation of the United States to associate herself with the stand taken against the piratical submarine warfare of Germany, Feb- ruary 9, 1917. In her affirmative response a far-reaching foreign policy was inaugurated and China undoubtedly won for herself a new place in the world's esteem. In that rer
CHINA 67
sponse and in the subsequent declaration of war on the Central Powers, August 14, 1917, ^'for the first time since treaty relations with the powers had been established, Chinese diplomatic action had swung beyond the walls of Peking and embraced the world within its scope. ' ' ^
The New Patkiotism
Along with the political revolution, both as cause and effect of it, there is in China a national spirit of patriotism, absent ten years ago, but to-day a growing and even a flam- ing force. A new self-consciousness of national weakness and humiliation over it have generated a nationalism the like of which China has never known before. There is an ardent resolve that the old, weak China must give way to a new, strong China, made solid instead of loosely bound to- gether, armed instead of defenseless, self-supporting instead of dependent. The action which is resulting from this new nationalistic feeling runs along three main lines : the provi- sion of an army and navy so that China may be able to re- sist foreign aggression; the development of native indus- tries ; and the movement for universal education. It will be readily seen that this new patriotism contains both large promise and peril to Christian influence. It affords a splendid new foundation in national feeling on which Chris- tianity may build, but it also holds the possibility, that un- less the church can so increase its effort during these years of opportunity and make itself Chinese in leadership and thought, the new patriotism may turn to the native faiths as being Chinese, and Christianity may be struggling under the odium of being foreign.
The Moeal. Reformation
Perhaps the most astounding feature of China's awak- ing is the moral advance, strikingly illustrated by the war on
^ B. L. Putnam- Weale, The Fight for the Republic in China, p. 319.
68 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
opium begun iu tlie edict of the Empress Dowager in 1906. Thirty years ago the majority of the people in Europe and America would have as soon thought of gravitation being abolished as of opium-smoking being abolished by China. E. A. Ross calls the warfare on opium which China con- ducted for ten years "the most extensive warfare on a vi- cious private habit that the world has ever known. " ^ It sprang from a sense that unless the people speedily re- nounced the vice that was undermining its manhood, there was no hope for China among the nations. It should be re- membered that it was the great memorial signed by thir- teen hundred and thirty-three missionaries from seven coun- tries which drew forth the famous edict abolishing the opium trade, much of the edict being the very language of the me- morial. The enforcement of the edict against opium was carried out strictly and strenuously. Blood was shed and millions of dollars' worth of property destroyed.. Vol- untary Anti-opium Leagues were formed which entered into the fight in many places with the fervor of a religious cru- sade. The fight on the habit has had unexpected success, due to the rising spirit of jDatriotism which came to its aid. The production of opium in China has been cut down seventy or eighty per cent and in the process a new force in China is being nourished — public opinion. Millions for the first time in their lives have thought, "What is the public good!" The war on oj^ium is only one phase of the awakening. Other moral delinquencies such as the social evil and official dishonesty have been dragged forth from their intrenched positions and pilloried.
Educational Awakening
The educational awakening in China is the real key to its future. It must be examined in more detail later in the chapter, but its place is central in even the most rapid im-
The Changing Chinese, p. 146.
Asia Photo by Olive Gilbreath
SOME OF OUR CHINESE ALLIES IN FRANCE
STUDENTS OF PEKING UNIVERSITY COMING FROM THE ASBURY METHODIST CHURCH ON THE UNIVERSITY GROUNDS
CHINA 69
pression of the vastness of the ^'new birth'' of the nation. With the awakening to the need of universal education as the only real preparedness for China's future, and the sub- stitution of modern education for the ancient system in use for two thousand years, China has embarked on the most stupendous educational task ever attempted. It involves the provision of a million schools to furnish instruction for the children of school age. Only two per cent of the children are now being educated. Temples are being confiscated in many cities to accommodate schools and colleges. The number of modern government students in Peking in the decade from 1905 to 1915 rose from 300 to 17,000, and the pupils in the province surrounding from 2,000 to 200,000.^ The new sys- tem when completed will call for nearly a million teachers. No one with a living imagination can fail to be deeply moved by the spectacle of this great people setting itself to the gi- gantic task by acquiring a knowledge by which it alone can hope to play in the world's affairs a part commensurate with its natural strength.
The Religious Shifting
Deep as these changes go, there is one that goes deeper. It is the moving away from old religious foundations and the search for new ones. The religious situation in China is an enlargement by four hundred million diameters of that picture which has touched the heart of the world, "Breaking Home Ties." A great people, more numerous than all of Europe, with the exception of Russia, is faring forth from its ancestral home of beliefs to find a power which its old faiths have failed to supply. Through all classes, government officials and scholars and the illiterate masses, there is an openness to Christianity. In the classic declaration of the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference in 1910, truer to-day than then — ^ ^ One quarter of the human
Eddy, The New Era in Asia, p. 15.
70 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
race is slipping from its spiritual moorings. Surely, never was richer freight derelict on tlie waters of time/'
Importance to the World of What China Becomes
Swiftly and providentially we are being led out of the laundryman stage in our thinking of China. It is idle to dream of a peace for the world and a democracy safe for the world unless in these formative years the moving mass of China settles firmly on the political, moral, and spiritual foundations which alone can support a true democracy. The population of China doubles itself in about eighty years ; that of the rest of the world in about a century. It is probable that by the year 2000 it will be close to eight hundred million. With a similar growth in Japan, Malay- sia, and India this means that the yellow races in a century or two will rapidly approach the white race in numbers. It is not ''yellow journalists" or "jingos" who foresee that unless this inevitable growth in numbers and power is ac- companied by a moral and spiritual transformation on the inside of China and a truly Christian and unselfish states- manship on the part of the powers dealing with her, we may witness a race war in comparison with which the present conflict will prove only a skirmish.^ It is of vast importance to the world what conceptions of life command the alle- giance and what principles govern the conduct of the multi- tudes of China. There is a real yellow peril in the East, not the bugaboo of a war with Japan with which conscienceless "jingos" struggle vainly to start strife, but the possibility that the new age in China as well as Japan may end in mate- rialism. Should China successfully reorganize herself, and become an independent industrialized state, given to militar- ism, factories, foreign trade, and to all the allurements of an age which has lost its head in the mad rush for wealth which modern inventions have made possible, she may become a great materialistic power and her weight be
^See Bashford, China: An Interpretation, p. 457.
CHINA ^ 71
thrown into the scale against the forces making for moral progress and nobler ideals in life, to the infinite loss and danger of the world.
The Fleeting Christian Opportunity
The Christian Church has in China an opportunity boundless in every respect except that of time. China will not always be in her present transition. The forces which make for the present popularity of Christianity will spend themselves by a natural process. China sits to-day at the feet of the West in school. But schooldays will pass, in that sense, and the young giant will go out from the schoolroom door, his industrial and political lessons learned. The prominence of the Christian missionary as a pioneer of Western culture will some time have an end. Government schools will equal, and possibly surpass, missionary schools. Will Christianity in this generation so redeem the time that when China has learned of the West its arts, its sciences, its industry, it shall also have received its best gift, its faith, and a virile and expanding Chinese Christianity have come into being adequate for the titanic task of shaping the new nation? ^^A new China is impossible without renewed Chinese. ' '
The Eesponse of Methodism
In the Centenary Program for China the Methodist Episcopal Church has planned a thoroughgoing and stra- tegic response to this divine opportunity. It is a program not based on a guess, nor on vague hopes. It is based on a careful survey, the product of the years of study, of the actual needs in men and money covering a five-year period for putting the present work on an efficient basis for the Christianizing of the eighty millions of people for whom the church is exclusively responsible. The program rests on seventy years of encouraging history and experience. In 1847 the first missionaries of the Methodist Church
72 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
landed in Foocliow. After ten years of intensive labor the first converts, thirteen adults, were baptized. In sixty years that small company has grown to a Chinese church of 65,900 members, 7,309 nnbaptized adherents, and a strong native leadership of 3,000 preachers. The church won a place of educational leadership with 21,000 students in 600 primary schools, 12 secondary schools, and 5 universities. Its 11 hos- pitals and 2 dispensaries, though understaffed and almost without nurses, have performed miracles of healing and opened doors more imj)regnable than the great wall of the northern kingdom.
The call for advance is along these three lines of pro^n.- dential success. The estimates express the call to Christian America to help make democracy safe for China ; to see our struggle to admit the world to democracy clear "through to the finish" and to help rear in China those pillars without which any democracy must crash to the ground — education, moral character, and religious ideals. China has wakened up, it is true. But " it is one thing to ivalie up. It is another thing to get up.'' China will never ''get up" until that gos- pel, which is not in word but in power, comes to its strug- gling democracy and bids it with a divine potency, "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk ! ' '
Let us look at this Centenary Program for China in education, in that broad proclamation of a rounded gospel which may be called evangelism, and in medical luork.
China's Need for Educatioit
"The fight for the reiDublic in China" will be in the schoolroom. A safe democracy in a nation where illiteracy averages 95 per cent of the population as it does in China, and where only two per cent of the children are in school is unthinkable. It is unthinkable to the leaders in China them- selves, and the government, seeing the utter hopelessness of a strong China without widespread education, has inaugu- rated a movement for education without parallel.
CHINA
73
The key to the Christian opportunity in China is to be found in the old ruined examination halls in Peking and other capitals of provinces, where examinations under the
"CHINA'S ONLY HOPE "
Strategic Christian Educational Centers. Union Universities are located at Peking, Foochow, Nanking, and Chengtu. Each of these universities is fed by secondary schools in outlying districts.
ancient system of education were held. Over thousands of these halls reeds and vines are growing. Since the edict of 1905 abolishing the old system of education and substitut- ing modern methods of instruction these halls are crumbling into dust. And '^with them has crumbled, not only a kind of examination but an attitude toward life, a system of values,
74 CHRISTIAN CEUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
a standard of character. The passing of China's old edu- cation is the transformation of her life. Now the student who would win governmental positions must answer ques- tions in European history, in economics, in social science; and the old Chinese officials, with their huge goggles, their embroidered coats, their clinging to the far past, have gone into hiding, never to emerge.'' ^
These crumbling halls are the symbol of present Chris- tianity in China, not only in that they witness to the eager open-mindedness of China, but also because they witness to the age-long veneration of the scholar in China. China is literally a nation of scholar worshipers. Hence for Chris- tianity to win the educated classes through its colleges will give it an ascendency over the masses to a degree not to be matched in any other land. And when we add to that the fact that the educated classes, the literati, are approachable to a measure unknown fifteen, or even ten, years ago, the opportunity of a strategic Christian victory through educa- tional leadership is a large one.
Democracy's Need of Cheistian Education
China's need for Christian education is, in biblical lan- guage, '^nuch every way." We have seen that the only hope of her democratic experiment is in education. The government is powerless both to provide all she needs and the kiiid she needs. Not for a hundred years to come can the government in China care for the education of its own children. Even if it were to gather into schools as large a percentage of the population as attends school in Japan, it would need to provide buildings and teachers for forty mil- lions of pupils.
The fertilizing truth of the gospel brought democracy to China, and Christianity must see it through. A half cen- tury or more of silent and ceaseless publication of the reli-
^W. H. p. Faunce, Social Aspects of Foreign Missions, p. 73.
CHINA 75
gious and economic truths of the gospel in a very real way laid the mine whose explosion the world saw when the Manchus were driven out. In the words of the President of China, Li Yuan Hung, ^^ China would not be aroused to- day as it is were it not for the missionaries/' A large num- ber of the leaders of the new republic were educated in mis- sion schools. But the testing of that democracy has only be- gun. Christian education must furnish the leaders needed, unselfish, true leaders. A live and intelligent public opinion has begun to be created, but it nee/is nurture and the devel- opment of conscience in the individual. Patriotism, newly born, must be stimulated and purged of selfishness.
Industrial Education
Democracy cannot survive unless it is solvent. China must be self-supporting if she is to be free. She needs tech- nical education in order to develop her abundant national re- sources, raise the standards of living, and wipe out her curse of poverty. It is part of the task of Christianity to provide training in scientific agriculture, forestry, and technical branches of all kinds so that China may be able to throw sure economic foundations under her democracy.
MOEAL AND EeLIGIOUS FOUNDATION OF CHARACTER
Here is the real problem of education for democracy, the formation of character. It is a problem before which China, resting only on her ancient faiths, is helpless. Con- fucianism has furnished a great moral restraint to the peo- ple of China in its high ethical teaching, but the religions of China have proved utterly inadequate to save the people by producing sustained and progressive moral character. The widespread corruption of officials, of the new as well as of the old, is to-day one of the chief obstacles to progress in China. It is an obstacle which will never be solved without a new moral and religious dynamic. There has come a
76 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
strong recognition by thoughtful Chinese that without some power which can create and strengthen character there is little hope of their dreams for their country being realized. As Yuan Shih Kai confessed to John R. Mott, ''Confucian- ism has ethical ideals but lacks the power to make them eifective.'^ It cannot block natural inclinations and wrest lives from the grip of appetite and passion without the doc- trine of responsibility to God. More than that, with the breakdown of Confucianism and the swing away from the moral influence it had, oi^ the part of the educated classes, the most important question China must answer is, ' 'Whence shall come the morality of to-morrow so deeply needed T' Christianity must help her find the only sufficient answer.
The Favoring Conditions for Christian Education
The Methodist Centenary Program for education in China comes at a time when conditions have made a su- premely favorable opportunity.
A Welcome to Christian Schools
China offers a welcome to Christian education such as is met with in no other non-Christian nation. Communities ever}"where are calling and frequently in vain for Christian schools. The Chinese are ready to make liberal subscrip- tions for land and buildings. The missionary school has a wide prestige from the fact the missionary has aggressively pioneered many reform movements. Missionary schools were the first modern schools and are still the best. The missionary introduced Western medicine. He has intro- duced new trees and crops ; has been prominent in famine re- lief and in other ways has been the pioneer of Western cul- ture. All this has brought to Christian education an en- thusiastic welcome. The return by the United States to China of $50,000,000 after the Boxer indemnity was paid, and its use by China for educating leaders in the United
CHINA 77
States, has won for the American missionary school in China an increased regard.
QPEISr-MlNDEDNESS OF EDUCATED CLASSES
The receptiveness of the literati, or educated classes, is one of the outstanding features of the changed attitude of China. In 1896 John E. Mott called the literati of China ''the Gibraltar of the non-Christian student world.'' A leading missionary to China stated that he would have felt well repaid if he could have been the means of the conver- sion of one of these officials or literati in his lifetime.^ A striking evidence of this new appro achability was furnished by the meetings for the educated classes conducted by Dr. John E. Mott and Sherwood Eddy in 1914 and by Mr. Eddy in 1915. In every center visited the largest halls available were filled with audiences drawn from the educated classes. The government and educational authorities in many cases gave their cordial support. Public buildings were given for the meetings and holidays declared in colleges in order that students might attend. In 1915 in twelve cities 121,000 of these officials, literati, and business men attended these evan- gelistic meetings, 12,000 of them signed Bible study pledges, and 7,000 are actually enrolled in Bible classes and making a sincere study of Christianity.
Influence of Geaduates
Christians occupy a place of influence in the new China out of all proportion to their numbers. Many of the lead- ers of the reform party at Nanking, Peking and in the prov- inces, including Sun Yat Sen, are products of mission schools. Two thirds of China 's first constitutional congress were graduates of mission schools. These fruits of Chris- tian education have vastly increased the favorable disposi- tion of the new China toward the missionary schools and
^ Eddy, The New Era in Asia, p. 115,
78 CHEISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
colleges. It should not escape our notice, in passing, what a remarkable tribute this prominence of mission school graduates is to the efficiency of education as a force for Christian influence.
The Centenary Educational Peogkam
primaey and secondary schools
The Methodist Church is exclusively responsible for 16,000,000 boys and girls of school age — a part of China's 60,000,000 children who never receive a day's schooling. Methodism, according to Bishop Bashford, who has spent fourteen years in China, could plant primary schools for a million jDupils this year, in her own territory, if the teachers and means could be provided. Schools of all grades are crowded to the doors and hundreds of applicants are turned away annually. The survey of efficiency requirements for China calls for 328 primary schools, with enough missionary and native teachers to direct them. These primary schools are needed for a twofold purpose, as feeders to the higher schools and for creating universal literacy in the church. At present from one half to two thirds of the converts are illiterate. The same aims determine the need of secondary schools. The advance program calls for 21 secondary schools, designed especially for securing an educated mem- bership. The aim is to fit students for life as well as prepare them for higher schools; and agriculture, chicken-raising, weaving, silk culture, and mechanical training are taught.
UNIVERSITIES
Methodism has located, by a wise statesmanshii^, uni- versities in five strategic centers, with a system of tributary schools around each. In Peking, Chengtu, Nanking, and Foochow Methodism cooperates in union university centers. Xanchang is to be the denominational university center in the unmeasurably rich province of Kiangsi. This states- manlike cooperation in educational work in China is one of
CHINA 79
the finest fruits of Christianity on the mission field. It has added to the efficiency and prestige of Christianity and holds large promise for the future. At Peking the church is united with other missions, building on what was the former Meth- odist campus, a university in the national capital, the radiat- ing center of political life. There young men trained in a Christian university are put in the very center of the na- tion's life. At Foochow, the center of the largest Methodist constituency of China, the church is cooperating in another Union University with six denominations. At Nanking is located the third Union University. It is the ancient cap- ital and the center of the political and educational life of the lower Yangtze valley. Four other denominations cooperate with the Methodist Church. At Chengtu, the center of West China, is the West China Union University, a triumph of church federation, with seven denominations cooperating. A few years ago large plans were made for this university involving sixty buildings to be erected on the campus. To- day thirty of these buildings are either erected or are pro- vided for.
The magnitude of this university task may be estimated from the fact that there are 1,000,000 teachers to be trained for China's 60,000,000 illiterate children. The high strat- egy of it may be seen in the fact that 80 per cent of students desiring education above high school must come to mission- ary institutions. The Christian Church is thus educating the men who in five to ten years will give direction to the government system of education. One of the largest fields of influence for these universities is that they set uip stand- ards of education which may become models for the gov- ernment school system which is at the present time taking definite shape.
To put this educational undertaking on an efficient basis calls for 65 missionary teachers and 973 native teachers. For property and equipment, there will be needed in the next five years, in addition to present income, $1,879,007; for maintenance, $1,131,978; and for endowment, $1,806,667,
80 CHEISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
making a total of $4,817,652. Plainly, this is a small price to pay for buying up an opportunity that will never come again.
The Evangelistic Peogram
*'What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.'^ Education and the direct proclamation of the gospel are parts of one Christian task in every land. In the evangelistic program are grouped the direct work of the church in preaching and social service. The call for advance is based on a thrilling history of evangelistic success and a marvelous opportunity. Three thousand native preachers and a membership and adherents totaling 75,000 make up a native church of genuine strength. The temper of the church may be seen in the 100 per cent increase of self-sup- port in ten years. The Centenary surveys for China call for a 300 per cent increase in giving on the field by the native church.
The Methodist Church is exclusively responsible for eighty millions of people, a number four-fifths as large as the population of the United States. Every fact advanced about China in this chapter is an argument that this is the time of times to give to the native church of China a mo- mentum that will insure it a destiny of leadership. The loosened grip of ancient faiths on China, the receptivity of all classes, high and low, and the stirring of the national mind outlined above, make an opportunity for Christian evangelism hardly to be matched by any since the conversion of the peoples of northern Europe.
The Centenary World Program plans the development of self-supporting and self -propagating churches until they are found everywhere. At present there are hundreds of thousands of villages and towns left to Methodism alone which are still without any regular Christian services. It will make possible a commanding work among educated classes in city centers, including the erection of worthy church buildings which will command the respect of both
CHINA 81
Christian and non-Christian and the securing of strategic sites while property is still cheap. It is planned to provide and equip Chinese pastors qualified to lead the influential classes and to hold for Christian life and service the pro- ducts of mission institutions.
With great wisdom the evangelistic program calls for social service on a broad scale. There is both statesmanship and love in it. Social service is a direct application of the gospel and also a means of largest appeal to the Chinese. For the social message of Christianity is strikingly in accord with the best of Chinese tradition.
When the missionary emphasizes medical work, famine relief, public health, and help for the unfortunate, he meets a hearty response in China, for the Confucian thought which has so controlled China through the ages has stressed hu- manitarian work.
To carry through this program there will be needed 33 new missionaries and 474 native workers. In property and equipment it calls for 9 institutional churches, 314 city and village churches and many missionary and native workers' residences ; an outlay over four years of about $1,500,000.
• The Floweeing of a Centuey Plant
The church must do no less. The present readiness of China is the divine flowering of a century plant, for the year 1919 is the one hundredth anniversary of the translation of the Bible into Chinese by Robert Morrison, the first Protes- tant missionary. It was a tremendous task. Little wonder that after the task was done, Milne, Morrison's associate, cried out, ^ ^ To learn Chinese is a work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah." That date of the translation of the Bible into Chinese is one of the great red-letter days in the history of China. Now that century plant is bursting in a gorgeous bloom. In the five years after the revolution there
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has been an increase in membershii) in the Christian Church in China of 25 per cent !
AYestern influence is breaking down superstition in China. Shall we put nothing else in its place? The science and learning and commerce and the vices of Western civili- zation are sweei^ing in pellmell. Shall we send nothing along to supplement and redeem? If we cast out the evil demon of superstition only to have the seven devils of com- mercialism, agnosticism, sensuality, and materialism take up their abode, surely the last state of China will be worse than the first. We play the part of destroyers if we break idols only to leave vacant shrines. China needs those idols replaced by a deeper reverence, a more satisfying faith, a nobler moral ideal. ''We who have sent through all the Eastern lands our food products, our textiles, our automo- biles, shall we also send our Bible? We who are breaking down family life and ancient forms of worship and long- established government, shall we also plant the faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ ? " ^
The Medical Task
A physician in the United States, hurrying to the house of a patient recently, was met by a friend who inquired where he was going. On being told the name of the patient the friend reassured him by saying the patient had a book on ' ' A^liat to Do Before the Doctor Comes. " " That is why I am hurrying," the physician replied. "I am afraid he will use it. ' '
That has been the climax of China's physical suffer- ing. She has been using her native text-book of old wives' fables in medicine to meet the great scourges with which the land is afflicted and has not only been i^owerless before them but even added to their toll of suffering and death. It has been like the fatal sickness of George Washington. The disease was bad enough, but he was making a brave
^W. H. p. Faunce, Social Aspects of Foreign Missions, p. 97.
CHINA
83
struggle against it, when the doctor arrived with his stern cure which proved too much even for the iron constitution of the ^'Father of his Country." Chinese medicine, al-
METHODIST HOSPITAL CENTERS IN CHINA The figures represent the number of persons for whom Methodism is responsible
though possessing some value, is quite incapable of dealing with such diseases as diphtheria, cholera, and plague. The Chinese know practically nothing of surgery except as they learn it from Western schools. Only in certain centers have people awakened to questions of public sanitation ; cities the
84 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
size of Boston draw water from polluted rivers and wells. Every city and village lias open sewers. Out of ten chil- dren born in the United States three, normally the weakest three, will fail to grow up. Out of ten children born in China, these weakest three and probably five more besides will die. The present death rate in China is from 50 to 55 per 1,000. In the State of New York it is 15 per 1,000; in modernized Japan, 20 per 1,000. In North America there is one doctor to every 625 people; in China one to every 2,500,000.
Methodism in China has 11 hospitals, 2 dispensaries, and 16 physicians. They have performed a service vastly out of proportion to their numbers. Native women physicians at the head of Methodist hospitals, such as Dr. Mary Stone and Dr. Ida Kahn, graduates of American medical schools, and brilliant physicians and surgeons, are among the bright- est trophies ever won by Christian missions in any land at any time. At Dr. Mary Stone's Hospital in 1915, 10,000 new patients were treated, 13,000 return visits and 1,000 patients eared for in the hospital, making a total in round numbers of 25,000 persons reached by Dr. Stone's work. In the survey of needs the responsibility of Methodism has been figured out carefully on the basis of figures submitted by physicians in charge of hospitals on the fields. At Peking the measure of responsibility for the Methodist hospital is 14,000,000 people. In Chengtu in West China it is 2,500,- 000. For that need there is one doctor. Thirty-five million people for whom the church is responsible have 11 hospitals and 24 physicians ! One of the saddest facts is that 40 per cent of the Methodist hospitals in China are closed, because there is no staff to care for them. Most of the hospitals are manned with one physician and when he leaves, for illness, or any cause, there is no one to take his place.
There is imperative need for equipping existing hos- pitals with sufficient nurses, physicians, and surgeons. On the lowest estimate 25 missionary doctors, and 101 native doctors and assistants are needed. Two new hospitals and
CHINA 85
13 dispensaries must be provided. The total asking for this medical work is $1,087,345. This much must be invested to meet the church's share in the great cooperative medical work in which it is engaged, and which the China Medical Board is aiding in a broad-visioned, generous way.
The Prize
These are days of revolution and somersault. Deeper than that they are days of grace. For there has appeared to the sober, conservative, and restrained minds of Chris- tian leaders at the heart of the whirlpool the real possibility that if the Church of Christ will open its eyes and see and act swiftly and grandly, the next generation will find China a Christian republic.
IJntil India is leavened with Christianity she will be unfit for freedom. — Si?- H. B. Edwards.
Rapid as India's progress has been in some respects, the essential fact is that the great mass of her people are at this moment given over to beliefs, prejudices, and habits a thousand years behind those of the races who live efficiently in the real world. A country which has lain for twenty or thirty centuries' under the maleficent spell of caste, fetishism, cow-and-Brahman worship and an almost equally enervating metaphysics, cannot all of a sudden wake up, rub its eyes and claim to be a civilized nation. There is now every likelihood of a great and fairly rapid change in the mental condition of the masses, and until that change has had time to make itself felt it would be madness for India to attempt to stand alone. — William Archer, "India and the Future."
We are watching to-day a great and stupendous process, the recon- struction of a decomposed society, parallel to the movement in Europe in the fifth century. . . . Stupendous, indeed, and to guide that transi- tion with sympathy, wisdom, and courage may well be called a glorious mission. — Lord Morley, Secretary of State for India, 1905-1910.
CHAPTEE IV THE LEAVEN OF FREEDOM AT WORK IN INDIA
^^What picture comes to your mind when you think of India 1 ' ' was asked of a company of people recently.
i i rpj^g rp^j ]y[ahal, ' ' answered one traveler, as the mem- ory of that glittering gem of architecture came to mind.
^ ' The Road to Mandalay, ' ' replied another, recalling the glamour of Kipling's India.
^'When I think of India," said a third, ^^I always think of the picture of a man sitting on a bed of spikes. ' '
^^ India always suggests to me," said a fourth, ^'the pictures of famine sufferers which were so familiar years ago, more like living skeletons than men. ' '
It is the mingling of these true pictures of different as- pects of India that makes it such a ' ' buzzing, blooming blur ' ' to the Western mind.
The New Dream
The dominating fact in the life of India to-day, per- vading the bewildering maze of its congress of races and languages, castes and religions, is the throbbing of a new na- tional consciousness. This spirit of nationalism finds ex- pression in the political field as a movement toward national unity and an aspiration for a larger measure of democracy and self-government. In the social life it is a striving to break the fetters of caste and other curses of the most en- slaving social order ever devised. In the religious life that same ferment of freedom finds its most striking expression in the mass movement toward Christianity among the lowest classes.
The presence of the picturesque and doughty fighters
89
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from India in the battle line of democracy in France and Egypt, Asia Minor and Mesopotamia is the outward and visible sign of an inward sympathy with the cause. And the very participation of India in the war is hastening the move- ment toward unity and quickening the other forces which are transforming her life. India no longer sits aloof from the commotion of the Western world in inward contemplation, as in other days when
'"She let the legions thunder past And plunged in thought again."
The thundering legions of this war will indeed leave India plunged in thought, but she is thinking in tune "with the rest of the world, thinking of freedom and enlightenment and progress.
Will the Deeam Come Tele ?
This birth of the new national consciousness of India greatly multiplies its appeal to the Church of Christ. It had an already great appeal as the most religious of all coun- tries, the one most cursed by its religion, and the neediest and most poverty-stricken of all lands. But as India has awakened to a new feeling of unity and a striving for free- dom she presents to the Christian Church both an increased need and- opi^ortunity. If her dream of a larger measure of self-government is to be realized in a safe and beneficent manner, she must be fitted for it by the enlightening and uplifting forces of the gospel of Christ. There is no reason to doubt that Great Britain will admit India to the self- government enjoyed by her other dominions, such as Canada and Australia, when she is fitted for it.^ But beyond the need of India for the gospel in order to make democracy safe there lies the need of that larger freedom in the Chris-
' A new home-rule plan of government which has for its purpose eventu- ally to set up in India a responsible self-government has been prepared for submission to the British Parliament by the Secretary of State for India, E. S. Montague, and the Viceroy, Baron Chelmsford (July, 1918).
LEAVEN OF FREEDOM AT WORK 91
tian sense, of which political self-government is only one incidental expression. It is the liberation and strengthening of the soul, which frees from the power of sin and selfish- nesSj from the bondage of superstition and custom and sets men at liberty to serve God and their fellow men. Without this deeper spiritual freedom, which is the gift of Christ, self-government is a hollow gain, a prize which cannot be fully used and which is easily lost.
Days or Ferment
The stirring of these new desires and aspirations fur- nishes an unprecedented opportunity for Christian leader- ship. The leaven of freedom which is the result of mission- ary influence, British government and Western contacts, is. at work with astounding results. Christianity has that for which India is seeking. If in these fermenting and creative days, when the national life is being stirred and millions are moving toward Christianity, the church shall widen its endeavor and furnish an adequate leadership, the process of the Christianization of India will go forward with a mo- mentum of which no one dared to dream a generation ago.
*^The Land of Desiee" '
Since the dawn of history India has been ^^a land of desire" to all nations on account of its untold wealth and strategic location. Recall for a moment some of the amaz- ing proportions and characteristics of India.
While it embraces only one fifteenth of the world's area, it contains one fifth of the population of the globe, about 315,000,000. With an area a little less than one half that of the United States, including Alaska, it has three times the population. It has more races than in all Europe and 147 languages. Its population is composed of 217,000,- 000 Hindus, 66,000,000 Mohammedans, 10,000,000 Buddhists, 10,000,000 animists, 4,000,000 Christians, and about 6,000,000
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others. Its Mohammedan population of 66,000,000 makes it the largest Mohammedan country in the world.
Out of a population of 315,000,000, 280,000,000 live in villages. It is estimated that there are over 730,000 villages in India. In the vivid picturing of Bishop Warne, ^'If Christ had started on the day of his baptism to preach in the villages of India, visiting one village each day, he would still have 30,000 villages to visit. ' ' In other words, he would not complete the trip until the year 2000.
It is a land of bewildering contrasts. Its climate ranges all the way from that of ^^Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strands." It possesses unrivaled natural beauty and some of the most artistic buildings ever created by the hand of man, such as the Taj Mahal, side by side with ugliness and filth beyond description. A land of amazing wealth, it has a depth of squalor and poverty not to be matched on earth. Justly famous for its scholars and learned pundits, eighty-nine per cent of its men and ninety- nine per cent of its women are unable even to read or write. Possessed of a profound religious philosophy and literature, the most instinctively religious people on earth, its life is fettered with bonds of fhe grossest superstition and an op- pressive social system.
If India has ever been a ''land of desire" to human monarchs, how much more, with its deep religious nature and its teeming, needy millions, must it be a ''land of de- sire" to Christ!
Signs of the New Day
Let us glance swiftly at some of the manifestations of the awakening in India.
'Natioi^aiasm.
The Russo-Japanese war was an alarm clock which tingled throughout the whole of Asia. The spectacle of an Oriental nation matching its strength successfully with a
LEAVEN OF FREEDOM AT WORK 93
great European power caused a restlessness throughout India, a consciousness of herself as a nation and an aspira- tion that India as a people should take a share among the nations and act her part in the great world drama. The American occupation of the Philippines, with the educa- tional and political progress which has resulted, has fostered new national desires. The participation of India in the world war has brought national patriotism to large sections of Indian society and strengthened the feeling of sympathy and unity among the native states. The meeting of the India National Congress in 1916, in which Mohammedans as well as Hindus participated, appeared as a body more fully representing the whole population than ever before. That body drafted a joint Hindu-Moslem program of reforms which was presented to the viceroy and secretary of state, an action which evidences that representatives of the masses now think very much alike on the essentials of India's na- tional needs and national rights.
It must be remembered that this new spirit of national- ism is not a movement to break away from the control of Great Britain. That fact is abundantly demonstrated by the enthusiastic loyalty of India during the war. Notwithstand- ing the fact that the Sultan of Turkey declared a holy war, the Mohammedan population of India, of 66,000,000, has stood loyal to England. The nationalist movement in India, except for small and misguided parts, concedes that the gov- ernment of India shall remain responsible to the British government and Parliament in the matter of foreign rela- tions, Indian defense, and affairs of the native states. In other matters the desire is for home rule like that of other British dominions.
Christianity and the National Aspiration
The point of contact between Christianity and this na- tional aspiration is clear. It is not the purpose of Christian missions to establish any particular form of government, not
94 CHEISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
even democratic government. That tlie longing for self-ex- pression and development follows in the wake of Christian teaching is not due to any political propaganda or meddling on the part of the missionary, but to the inherent quality of the Christian evangel as a message of the worth and pos- sibility of every man.
The British Government has freely and fully recognized the part which Christian missions have plaj^ed in the loyalty of India in the present crisis. Missionaries, at the request of the government, have gone with native troops to Europe and by their service have greatly increased their effective- ness. The business of Christianity in India to-day is not the minor one of securing new political forms, but, in view of the movement toward larger self-government, to quicken the spiritual forces which are the soul of liberty and progress.
Economic Advance
The busy whirl of factory wheels is mingling to-day with the sound of the temple bells. An industrial revolution is in process and factories and industries have grown enor- mously. In a land which from time immemorial has been almost entirely agricultural, over 35,000,000 people are de- pendent on industrial occupations for a living. It is a sur- prise to most people to realize that India stands second to the United States in railway mileage, with over 32,000 miles. The produce of the world is carried in sacks of Indian jute. She is second only to the United States in the i^roduction of cotton, being responsible for one sixth of the world's output. The iron and steel industry is just at its beginning, but al- ready large steel plants are making rails and girders and, at the present time, shells for the Allies. In agriculture, large irrigation projects and canal systems with 50,000 miles of canals are in operation which have redeemed over 20,000,- 000 acres of waste land. Recently India exported more wheat to Great Britain than any other country with an aver- age yield of only six bushels to the acre. With improved
LEAVEN OF FREEDOM AT WORK 95
methods of cultivation and increase of acreage due to irri- gation, this yield per acre will undoubtedly be increased six- fold.
Educational Activity
India 's coining of age is indicated by the passing of the old era of almost unbroken ignorance and superstition and the organization of a new system of Western education and knowledge. It is a movement which extends through all the great divisions of the population. Hindus, Mohammedans, Christians, and the government are all holding educational congresses, establishing schools, and projecting universities. A new recognition of the lack of education and its fatal handicap to national progress has developed, and the un- usual thing about this educational effort is that a part of it concerns women. An uneducated womanhood has had the sanction of religion in India and still has, but in spite of that, schools for girls and even for Hindu widows are springing up in progressive communities. A Hindu Woman's Uni- versity is being planned. It is a colossal task — educating a fifth of the human race. A new impetus is felt in the field of primary education, India's greatest educational need. The higher universities are far better developed than elementary schools. With three times the population of the United States India has only two fifths as many pupils in school. Of her 315,000,000 people over 288,000,000 are unable to read or write. This new educational interest and conscience is a remarkable tribute to the work of Christian educators in India during the last half century and also a remarkable opportunity for Christian education to-day.
A New Conscience
A new conscience is an unmistakable and gratifying ex- pression of the national awakening in India. An active spirit of social reform is abroad in the land which is waging a spirited attack on the prime curse of India, the caste sys- tem, and on other social blights. Sometimes these move-
96 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
ments and tlie associations which promote them are strongly anti-Christian, but Christian example and influence have been unmistakable in their growth. The caste system, which separates the population into different classes with unpass- able boundaries, is being dealt some hard blows by Western institutions which force intermingling, such as the railroad, and by associations which defy the prohibitions of caste. Public dinners at which members of many different castes, from the highest, the Brahmans, to the lowest, the outcastes, sat down together, have thrown down the gantlet to the caste authorities. The war is loosening the hold of caste restric- tions. Over 300,000 troops have crossed the sea from India and by doing so have broken caste. It is impossible to think that these men will be despised as outcastes on their re- turn. On the contrary, they will be hailed as heroes and the whole caste system will receive a severe jolt.
Reform associations for attacking many of the great social curses of India have been formed among the Hindus, and others of the population, as well as among Christians. A Hindu Marriage Reform League with ninety-eight branches is combating the evils of child-marriage and seek- ing to raise the age of marriage. Agitation to make possible and common the remarriage of widows, and to abolish the se- clusion of women in the Purdah is being carried on by many associations. The task to which the reformers have set themselves is, of course, enormous, and progress is neces- sarily slow. But the significant thing is not the actual suc- cess thus far achieved, but the fact that India is awakening.
Religious Unrest
India is the greatest arena of religions in the world. It has given two great religions to the world, Buddhism and Hinduism, which have vitally affected every individual in Asia. It is the greatest world center of Mohammedanism and Hinduism. With its intense religious interest, India is marked by deep unrest in the religious as well as in the social
LEAVEN OF FREEDOM AT WORK 97
life. The most remarkable sign of that unrest is the mass movement toward Christianity now going on among the low- est classes. This will be discussed later. The religious un- rest and transformation, however, are widespread through- out all classes. The old pantheistic and polytheistic order is breaking up and the reconstruction in many quarters of the belief in one Grod is indication that India is beginning to rise to grasp the conception of the Fatherhood of God.
We cannot study the census figures without realizing that there is a great spiritual awakening going on. While the Buddhists have increased in ten years only about eleven per cent, the Mohammedans six per cent, the Hindus only four per cent, Protestant Indian Christians increased forty- eight per cent, and they are coming forward at that rate every decade. Their rate of increase is seven times as fast as that of the population, and twelve times as fast as that of the Hindus; so that, even at the present rate of increase, India would be a Christian country in one hundred and fifty years, which would be a shorter time than it took to convert the Roman empire. But the very rate of increase is gaining, and when once the system of caste breaks, a great flood-tide will flow into the Christian Church.^
The Old Needs
Significant and hopeful as these proofs of awakening are, the dream of a new India will be futile without Chris- tianity. The old evils and the old bondage still abide in their intensity and make up a sum of misery beyond our power to compute. The religions of India have forged on it a social system which is the most unmitigated curse a land has ever known. The caste system has held the people in a vise for twenty-five centuries and still has its deadening grip upon them. It is the world's arch enemy of democracy and
' Sherwood Eddy, in Students and the World-Wide Expansion of Chris- tianity, p. 287.
98 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
a true democracy in India can rise only when it is broken. There are upward of 19,000 castes and sub-castes, most of them belonging to the three great groups known as Brahmans, sudras and outcastes. Individuals belonging to the outcastes are considered so impure in nature that to touch them brings defilement, hence their common name — ''the untouchables.'' The higher castes, though somewhat tolerant of each other, must not dine together nor inter- marry, on pain of a social persecution which to most peo- ple is intolerable. Did any land ever present such crying need for the Christian revelation of the Brotherhood of Man!
''One Long Ckime Against Womanhood''
Asia has been well called "one long crime against womanhood," and the crime is intensified in India. Child- marriage still lays its blight on the physical, mental, and spiritual life of the land. There are over 300,000 wives in India under six years of age and over 22,000,000 between fiye and ten. Most girls are taken from school to be married at ten and receive no more education, if, indeed, they have received any at all up to that time. The suffering caused by the oppression of ividows still continues. There are 23,000,000 widows in India of whom 112,000 are under ten years of age. Hindu custom absolutely forbids the remar- riage of widows, and they are condemned to a life of drudg- ery and disgrace. The lot of a widow in India is so hard that the number of suicides among them is large and often it is hardly to be preferred to the old fate which awaited the widow, that of being burned on her husband's funeral pyre. The 7ieed of education cannot be pictured strongly enough. In spite of the new interest in education, and in spite of the 175,000 schools in India, only one quarter of the boys and one twentieth of the girls are receiving any instruction. Professor D. J. Fleming has made statistics tell a graphic story in his statement that while there are enough females in India to replace every man, woman, and child in North and
LEAVEN OF FREEDOM AT WORK 99
South America, yet all who could read or write among them could reside comfortably in Philadelphia.^
Extreme poverty must be kept as the background of every mental picture we form of India. Lord Cromer of Egypt estimated the average income per capita in India as nine dollars. Lord Curzon boasted that during his admin- istration as viceroy the income of the agriculturists had been raised from six dollars to seven dollars a year. Forty mil- lions of people go to bed hungry every night; and they lie down on a mud floor to sleep.
The spiritual need is the one that touches and under- lies all others. This great country of 300,000,000 people, the dominating trait of whose history through all the ages has been the search for God, is still without him as he has shown his fullness in Christ. The weary and yet eager search goes on. Surely, those who are trustees of the news of God in Jesus Christ cannot withhold it at this crucial hour of India 's search.
The Christian Opportunity
The most arresting feature of the Christian opportunity to-day is
The Mass Movement
It is no exaggeration to say that the present mass move- ment toward Christianity now going on among the lowest classes in India, a movement as a body in groups, villages, and castes, is the greatest since the Christian Church was founded. It is the dominating fact in the missionary situa- tion in India. It is a movement of great waves. The Meth- odist Episcopal Church alone baptized 40,000 in 1915, and is at present baptizing 2,000 a week. Last year 150,000 were refused baptism for lack of Christian teachers. Back of them are 6,000,000 calling for instruction and baptism and back of them 50,000,000 available to Christianity.
It might be more properly called a caste or class move-
^ World Outlook, August, 1917.
100 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
ment than a mass movement, for the explanation of the movement is found in the caste system which binds the peo- ple of India together in an intricate social network. India
WHERE THE MILLIONS ARE MOVING TOWARD CHRISTIANITY
Map of India showing the geographical and numerical extent of Mass Movements. A million outcastes a year might be baptized if facilities for shepherding and instruction were provided.
has acquired the habit of moving along caste lines, for the members of a caste are so enmeshed in common prohibitions that if they move at all they must move together. Hinduism is built in layers or castes, piled one upon another into the
LEAVEN OF FREEDOM AT WORK 101
thousands. There are three great divisions of these castes — Brahmans, numbering 15,000,000; the middle castes, 142,- 000,000 ; and the low castes or outcastes, 50,000,000, or one sixth of the total population. It is among these outcastes that the mass movement is taking place.
The Outcastes
These outcastes are so low in the scale of life that they have to *^ reach up to touch bottom." They are depressed classes outside the pale of Hinduism, sunk in abject ignor- ance and squalor. It is common for them to live on one meal of grain a day, and a frugal meal at that. The daily wage of the members of the Methodist Church who have come in through the mass movement averages three cents. A mis- sionary has described how he has seen a man come home late at night to a family of five persons with a smile of tri- umph at his success, while all that he had brought was a mess of millet gruel in a filthy pot, about the equivalent of the porridge which two American children take for break- fast, and that was the sole nourishment for five persons for twenty-four hours.^
In addition to this poverty the outcastes labor under a pitiless social oppression. Hindu society regards them as so unclean that even their shadow pollutes. While under British rule they enjoy equal rights with other members of the population, social custom compels them to live apart, often excluding them from the use of the village well and public roads and bridges.
The Devil's Mastekpieoe
Caste has well been called ^'the deviPs masterpiece." No system ever devised on earth has ever been so powerful an instrument in holding great masses of people under the dead hand of enslaving tradition. Each of these castes
* J. H. Oldham, The World and the Gospel, p. 96.
102 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
retains something of the guild or craft idea, and its mem- bers are for the most part engaged in similar trades. There is a caste of weavers, leather workers, goldsmiths, etc. Un- like the social divisions of any other lands, these caste lines are rigid. No possession of talent or intelligence or wealth avails to lift a man out of his caste. The caste system is well compared to a long line of people ascending a ladder, where the proper procedure is to kiss the feet of the one above and kick the face of the one beneath.
Throughout all missionary endeavor in India caste has been an almost insuperable obstacle. But the astonishing thing disclosed by the mass movement is that while the great social network of caste has been powerful to hold men down together, it is also powerful to lift them up together. This demonstration is changing the strategy of the Christian effort of India and is filling the future with new and en- larged hope. It is like the movement of a glacier. It is next to impossible to budge any part of it, but once the foundation of the whole is loosened and the whole mass starts to move together, it is irresistible. To win individuals out of a caste, in the face of tLe terrible economic and social persecution which awaits them, has been exceedingly hard and slow work. •But when a whole village or a large part of a caste gets a vision of the religious and social advantages which Chris- tianity offers and becomes Christian in solid group, it can change the social customs under which it lives to a large extent. This, in brief, is what is happening among the out- castes of India and is the underlying explanation of the mass movement, in distinction from the older form of missionary success in winning individuals by twos and threes or by families.
Pentecost— A. D. To-day
The Pentecost in which the expansion of Christianity began, as recorded in the second chapter of the book of Acts, was marked by the baptism of 3,000 people. In the 1918th chapter of the book of Acts, now being written, there
LEAVEN OF FEEEDOM AT WORK 103
is a Pentecost every two weeks in India, over 3,000 people being baptized every two weeks. It has not been a spon- taneous movement springing suddenly from the ground. It has been going on for twenty-five years, but with increased momentum the last ten years. It spreads through villages and through castes, such as the large Chamar, or leather workers ' caste, and the Sweeper caste, whose combined mem- bership is about 13,000,000, and among which there are large movements toward Christianity at present.
Work among a caste is begun by missionaries and pro- ceeds slowly. Then when the knowledge of Christian teach- ing spreads, the village or district group, usually under the leadership of the head man or mayor, decides to become Christian in a body and asks for instruction and baptism. These village leaders have been made an important factor in the mass movement. Special effort has been made to win them on account of their ability and recognized leadership, and thousands of these village leaders, or chaudrisj as they are called, have become voluntary, unpaid Christian leaders and have had large success in bringing their whole village to the decision to accept Christianity. Thus the movement is seizing on the already established leadership of the de- pressed peoples and making it a force in the native Christian church.
The Social Gospel iisr Action
The mass movement is a social as well as a religious movement. It is not to be denied that millions are turning to Christianity for freedom from social and economic bondage as well as for spiritual light. It is one of the greatest demo- cratic movements in history. Does that social character of the movement discount it as a Christian evangelistic success ! If anyone thinks so, let him read his New Testament over again. It is the response of the oppressed and downtrodden to Christ, the great Democrat, who came ''to preach good tidings to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that
104 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
are bruised.'^ The desire for social betterment among the outcastes is the natural response to the great invitation of Christ, '^Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." You can no more set the great truths of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man free among the oppressed peoples of the earth with- out starting a social upheaval than you can drop dynamite bombs from the sky without causing an explosion. In the work of Christian missions among the depressed classes of India there is a striking demonstration of the social value of the teaching of Christ. The Christian community which has come from the outcastes has shown great material, intellect- ual, and moral progress. The whole standard of life has been raised ; degrading habits and practices have been aban- doned ; a new idea of the worth of human life has followed the Christian teaching of the value of every human soul.
Are They Worth Lifting?
Physically, these outcaste peoples are the best in India. They have the vigorous physique of outdoor laborers, and the children are healthy and robust. They have a mental caliber that compares favorably with that of classes higher in the social scale. Many of them, when highly educated, have become the ablest leaders of the country. With the advantages which higher castes enjoy they would not be inferior in any degree.
Their spiritual capacity and loyalty under persecution has been amply demonstrated. Many of them have with- stood a persecution which has a bitterness and sharp edge inconceivable to the inhabitant of the United States. Let us try to put ourselves in their places. Think what it would mean for us to be refused work, or made to work and then refused any pay ; to have our water supply cut off under a scorching heat, to be put out of the houses in which our families have lived for generations and to be denied all share in the common life of our towns. Yet these are the persecu-
LEAVEN OF FEEEDOM AT WORK 105
tions which thousands of these ^^untouchables'' have loyally endured. Voluntary Christian service and generous giving out of an abysmal poverty have further proved the quality of the converts.
The Embarrassment or Answered Prayer
For half a century the church has been praying that people might be moved, and now that the prayer is being so tumultuously answered, the church is embarrassed by the calls that are put upon if. The evangelistic resources of the church are overwhelmed. At the present time 200,000 peo- ple in the mass movement areas are awaiting baptism in the Methodist Church. For a dozen years or so the church has been ^^ standing like a policeman holding back the people that wanted to come into the church of Jesus Christ. ' ' ^ A novel commentary, surely, on the text: ^^ Whosoever will, let him come ! '' A million a year might be baptized if pastoral care and teaching could be provided.
Possibilities
We cannot soberly think of the possibilities of the mass movement without constructing what must seem like a Chris- tian Arabian Nights. Eemember that the Hindu caste sys- tem is like a pyramid which rests heavily on the outcastes as a base. Let the base be undermined and the pyramid will begin to fall. Already experience has shown that wherever the work among the depressed classes has been most suc- cessful, there the upper castes have been most ready to hear and accept the message of the gospel. Thus it is shown that work among the depressed classes at present will prove the most successful way of opening a wide door to the middle and upper castes. For a little above these 50,000,000 out- castes are 142,000,000 of the middle castes, the backbone of Indian society; and above these the higher Brahman castes.
^Bishop C. D. Foss.
106 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
Indications are already at hand that these caste or mass movements will spread upward.
Meeting the Oppoktunity
In view of the fact that the missionaries are unable to care for the thousands who come in the mass movement, the missionaries are frequently advised to stop it. No one can stop it! As soon try to stop Niagara Falls by laying a few logs across the top ! Forces have been set in motion which are impelling vast multitudes toward Christianity. There are only three alternatives before the church. One is to refuse to receive them and drive them into a permanent and bitter hostility to Christianity, as well as keep them in piti- ful need. The second is to baptize them without the neces- sary training. The third is to furnish the teachers and pastors necessary to build them up into a strong intelligent church.
The Dangeks or the Movement
If these peoples are refused baptism for a long time, they turn away and often become implacable enemies of Christianity. In all cases it is much harder to win them back.
Other religions are seeking the outcastes and will re- ceive them unless Christianity speedily opens the door. The reformdng cult of Hinduism is eagerly seeking to keep the untouchables from Christianity. Even more formidable is the Mohammedan, with his incessant appeal to the depressed classes by an offer of brotherhood. The masses in many sections of India hesitate between Mohammed and Christ. Once lost to Christianity they will be difficult, if not im- possible, to recover.
The alternative of bringing multitudes into the Chris- tian Church without sufficient training is even more danger- ous. Under such a process the church would soon lose its Christian distinctiveness and be submerged into the sur-
LEAVEN OF FREEDOM AT WORK 107
rounding Hinduism. Such, tragedies have often happened in Christian history, notably in North Africa and Syria, and there is a very real crisis on in that respect in India to-day. ' 'If the salt has lost its savor, it is good for nothing but to be cast out. ' ' If the church is swamped with uninstructed ad- herents and becomes a mixture of Christianity and Hindu- ism, it will be powerless to save India.
The Call of the Hour
The Centenary program is leading the Methodist Church along the only safe path in this crucial opportunity. It seeks to provide the facilities for shepherding these people who are thrusting themselves against the church doors and educating them, particularly the children. This will re- quire large additions to the force of missionaries and to the force of teachers, provisions for training teachers, and to the number of village and rural schools. At least 1,300 rural teachers and 400 village and rural schools are called for in the program. There are 60,000 Methodist boys and girls who are entirely without schools, four fifths of the total number of Methodist children. This number increases at the rate of 5,000 a year. Unless this situation is corrected the church is in great danger of being half heathenized in a few years.
In addition to providing education for the illiterate and neglected children of the mass movement areas, a large in- crease in the evangelistic forces, both foreign and native, is required for the large and increasing task of training the converts coming at the rate of 40,000 or 50,000 a year. About 275 additional rural chapels, with 75 missionaries and over 1,000 native workers, are called for as a minimum. Every estimate of forces needed seems small when we re- member that Methodism's share of India's population for which she is responsible is 54,000,000 and of the 50,000,000 of the depressed classes among which the mass movement is going on, it is responsible for 6,000,000.
108 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
The Educationai. Program
Christianity in every land must conquer at the top as well as at the bottom. It has always done so. While it is true that in the early days of the church ^^not many wise, not many noble" were called, it is also true that the most signal successes of Christianity have been won under the leadership of highly trained men such as Paul and Augustine. It was so in the days of Luther and Wesley. It will be so in India. In the intellectual and religious unrest among the student class of India to-day there is a real opportunity. There is a wide restlessness and ferment among the higher castes and educated classes which makes for a new accessibility to Christianity. In the words of J. H. Oldham, ^^the new knowledge has kindled new desires, created new demands, and set new dreams coursing through men's brains. Western knowledge is slowly but surely undermining the whole fabric of Hinduism. ' ' ^ Caste is being discovered as an institution which thwarts the national unity which India desires. The worship of Hindu deities and the priestly cere- monies of the Brahmans are things in which an educated man can no longer believe. The awakened national con- sciousness has led to a vigorous revival of all things Indian, religion as well as literature and art, but that has been ac- companied by **a continuous and steadily increasing inner decay. ' ' ^ The Hindu system is threatened with inward col- lapse.
For such a time as this a strong type of educated Chris- tian leadership is needed. Existing Christian colleges must be strengthened and endowment provided sufficient to insure an efficient staff, necessary new buildings and adequate equipment. The government schools cannot supply Chris- tian leaders. They are anti-Christian in sentiment and en- tirely secular in character. The government contributes liberally to the cost of mission schools and colleges, provided
^ The World and the Gospel, p. 100.
* J. N. Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements in India, p. 431.
LEAVEN OF FEEEDOM AT WOEK 109
they are well equipped and maintain high standards. The higher educational institutions of the Methodist Church, three colleges and 28 high schools, afford an opportunity to reach the upper class of Hindu and Moslem youth. Over 40,000 students are already enrolled in a well related system of education through kindergarten to university.
Christian Literature
Let no one think that because the percentage of illiter- acy is so high in India there is little place for Christian lit- erature. The printing press is already a power in the land through its influence with those who do read ; and the educa- tional awakening is bringing the press to a position of domi- nating influence. The educated classes of the population are great readers. The social and educational advance vastly increases the need of endowed Christian presses which can produce Christian literature of a high type in large quan- tities. A new interpretation of Christianity must be made and circulated to meet the new spirit of sympathetic inquiry now abroad. In addition to this fertile field for literary evangelism, the rapidly expanding Christian community de- mands an adequate literature in its own languages.
The two presses of the Methodist Church, one at Luck- now and one at Madras, have had a remarkable record of service. A permanent fund for publishing Christian liter- ature is needed and the Centenary program for India in- cludes such a fund.
The Eomance of Providence
There has been the romance of Providence over the whole Christian enterprise in India. Great names spangle the sky like stars, such as those of Carey and Alexander Duff. It contains the largest Christian community in any mission field. There has been a strange romance in the his- tory of Methodism in India — a history in which great names
110 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
gleam forth: William Butler, William Taylor, James M. Thoburn, and Isabella Thoburn. William Butler landed in India in 1857, barely sixty years ago, as the first Methodist missionary. It took long, painful years to collect a few dozen converts. James M. Thoburn had one baptism to show for his first year's labor, and at the close of the second year had won only six converts. To-day there is a mem- bership of the Methodist Church in India of over 335,000 members, with the rate of increase rising each year.
Christ and the Mh^lions
But not merely in terms of opportunity, great as it may be, and certainly not in any columns of figures can the appeal of India be put. Its deepest appeal is to the heart ; the appeal of ^'the great burning heart of Asia" that for ages has cried out for the living God and been baffled in its search ; the appeal of toiling, suffering, hungry millions ; the appeal of millions of wronged children and defrauded and depressed women.
We return to the question with which we started, ''What do you think of when you think of India?'' The question was suddenly put to a native Christian woman, for years a teacher in a woman's Christian college. Her eyes glistened as she made her answer:
''I think of Christ/'
Africa has suffered many wrongs in the past at the hands of the stronger nations of Christendom, and she is suffering wrongs at their hands to-day; but the greatest wrong, and that from which she is suffer- ing most, is being inflicted by the Church of Christ. It consists in with- holding from so many of her children the knowledge of Christ. — Re- ports of World's Missionary Conference, Edinburgh.
The problem with which we are confronted in Africa is one of the great issues of history. Have we eyes to see its immense significance? Shall the African races be enabled to develop their latent gifts, to create a characteristic life of their own, and so enrich the life of hu- manity by their distinctive contributions? Or shall they be depressed and degraded, and made the tool of others, the instrument of their gain, the victim of their greed and lust? — J. H. Oldham, The World and the Gospel.
CHAPTER V FLOOD TIDE IN THE DESTINY OF AFRICA
*^The Next Tinder-Box of the World"
Such is the startling description which H. G. Wells gives of what Africa may become. It is a graphic statement of the central importance of Africa in the Peace Conference which will conclude the war and the century which follows it. We cannot contemplate the ruin which has followed the flare-up in ''the tinder-box of the Balkans" in the present war, without realizing the gravity of the question of the disposition of Africa. ''A muddling in Africa this year," says Mr. Wells, ''may kill your son and mine in the next decade. ' ' In The New Map of Africa, Herbert A. Gibbons echoes the same warning. "The happiness of our children, in a world where peace and harmony reign, depends much on the new map of Africa. ' ' ^
Africa and the Future
The seeds of many of the international rivalries which bore fruit in the present conflict were in Africa. And if the nations of Europe in the years to come regard Africa as so much loot to be grabbed in a selfish and jealous spirit and exploited with no regard for the benefit of the people of Africa, they will lay up for themselves the certainty of future conflict.
There is a far-reaching significance in the presence on the battle line of the many varieties of soldiers from Africa fighting under the flags of France and England, Belgium
H. A. Gibbons, The New Map of Africa, p. 491.
113
114 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
and Italy. In one sense it is not their war, in that they have no nation of their own to fight for. But in another sense it is emphatically their war, for they will be affected by the outcome and the settlement moist take large account of them. Because Africa is under control of one or another of the European nations, it will be more vitally affected by the ulti- mate decision of the present war than any of the main geo- graphical divisions of the earth save only Europe. The welfare and destiny of Africa are inextricably interlocked with the welfare and destiny of Europe and the world. A wise statesmanship must find some other role for the great continent of Africa than merely that of a bone of contention.
The Religious Destiny of the Continent
The question of the religious development of Africa can- not be separated from its tremendous importance in the future of the world. What kind of social ideals and reli- gious ideas and practices control the life of the 130,000,000 or more of the population of Africa will be of vast concern to the world. However far native Africa may be from the power of self-government, the trend of movement in the pres- ent century will be undeniably in the direction of a larger measure of self-rule for all peoples. The great war for democracy which is shaking the world is bound to change current conceptions of the justice of regarding any race as a '^subject race." Liberal Europe cannot fight against autocracy and at the same time perpetuate it in its treat- ment of subject colonies. H. Gr. Wells may be too eager a prophet in his statement, ^'Long before A. D. 2100 there will be no such thing as a subject race in all the world." ^ Time alone can tell. But he has stated the direction in which the world is swiftly moving. Surely, there can be no argument over the absolute necessity for the great mass of backward, pagan Africa to have the mental enlightenment, social uplift and spiritual truth of Christianity before it is ready for the
^H. G. Wells, What is Coming, p. 240.
FLOOD TIDE IN DESTINY OF AFRICA 115
first step of self-government. More than that, Christian influence is necessary in order that Africa may be able to secure the largest benefits of European rule.
The appeal of Africa comes to the Christian world to- day with a double force. It is the old and changeless appeal of any people in need of the uplifting power of the gospel, the call of physical suffering, mental and spiritual darkness, which Christian love must answer. But there is also the urgent necessity to-day of supplying the transforming and enlightening influences of Christianity so that developing Africa, destined to hold so important a place in the world's life, may not be a menace to the world's highest progress.
Africa's ^^Hat Is in the Ring"
In these days of military stride, Africa, in the words of General J. C. Smuts, the former Boer leader and present English general, ^ ^ has marched with great suddenness to the center of the European stage, and must henceforth pro- foundly influence the problems of its statesmanship. ' ' ^ Long, long lines of men from Africa have landed at Mar- seilles and other ports of France to fight the battles of free- dom. From Algiers and Tunis and Egypt they have come, dark-skinned, strong as steel, quick of eye. From the Soudan and Central Africa they have poured in. This land- ing in France is a living symbol of the landing of Africa in the consciousness of Europe and the world. It must be the sign also of the landing of Africa on the conscience and heart of Christendom. The future of Africa has as import- ant a bearing on the future of Christianity as it has on the political arrangements of the world. Aside from future im- portance, however, is the great consideration of justice which should move both state and church to Africa's welfare. Here are these representatives of Africa fighting for the world's freedom, thousands giving their lives for justice and for opportunity. In all fairness, do they not deserve some * The Geographical Journal, March, 1918.
116 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
for tliemselves ? Does not fairness demand of every govern- ing nation in Africa that the political ideal shall be the wel- fare of the governed peoples? And does not fairness de- mand of the Church of Christ that the millions of Africa, a great orphanage of backward children, be given the Chris- tian education and healing and teaching which shall lead them out into spiritual freedom?
The Rock of Gibraltae
The approach to Africa from the north is by the Rock of Gibraltar and Gibraltar is a fit symbol for Africa in Christian history. It has been a Gibraltar to Christian missions — a continent of superlative obstacles, of deadly oppositions, of impenetrable darkness until two genera- tions ago. And yet, with a glaring contrast to all this dark side, it has to show some of the greatest triumphs of Chris- tian success in the conversion of whole tribes which have been achieved in any land or at any age. It had always had a magnetic, mysterious pull on great souls, and without any question it has the longest and brightest line of truly great missionaries of any mission field on earth. But, after all, the contrast is not so hard to explain. It is simply the old, old law, that the hardest tasks always attract the greatest and most daring men.
^'I Dare You''
Nearly every fact in African geography has been a bolted door to Christian advance. Physical and social fea- tures of the land have shouted ^'I dare you" into Christian ears. Christian missions in Africa have relatively less to show than in any other continent, and many of the reasons are not far to seek.
Begin with the size of the continent. Look at the map on the next page, with a large section of the world tucked away in its corners, as though Africa were a large bag into which some giant had hurriedly dumped half the globe.
FLOOD TIDE IN DESTINY OF AFRICA 117
How snugly our own mighty United States nestles up in one corner! China and India do not crowd it at all, with plenty of room for Europe and Argentina. It is approxi-
COMPARATIVE SIZE OF AFRICA
Notice how easily Africa's great bulk accommodates the United States, France, Germany, the British Isles, Norway, Sweden, Argentina, China and India.
mately 6,000 by 5,000 miles, over three times as large as Europe and half as large again as North America. It is as far around the coast of Africa as it is around the world. To this large expanse must be added the fact that the large
118 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
island section of the continent is exceedingly difficult of access.
The climate has been a high barrier to missionary effort. Many mission enterprises have been stopped by tragedies like that which overtook Methodism's first foreign mission- ary, Melville Cox, who died of fever in Liberia four months after landing. The low-lying coast strip of a few hundred miles is a particularly unhealthy climate. Farther inland the climate of the central plateau is more healthful, although through the whole of Central Africa the climate is hard on the white man.
Danger has been a real deterrent to Europeans and Americans in Africa. Tigers, cobras, and lions are far more attractive in the zoo than they are in the jungle. The savage tribes have taken a large toll of death, and travel in the interior until recent years has been precarious.
Lack of exploration prevented missionary occupation. The intrepid spirit of Livingstone was the first to draw the veil from Central Africa, and he has been dead only forty- five years.
The Tower of Bahel in Africa has offered hindrances of 843 different varieties. There are 843 varieties of speech in Africa, the vast rojajority of which the missionary must reduce to writing for the first time and patiently and pain- fully evolve a dictionary and grammar for them. The mis- sionaries and Bible Societies have accomplished the stu- pendous task of translating and printing the Scriptures into 100 African tongues, but there are still 423 tongues without the word of God ! There are 543 distinct languages and 300 dialects.
Finally the savage state of the people makes the task a larger one than that of a land with an ancient civilization, such as India or China. Everything must be taught. Words for the most elementary Christian terms and ideas must often be invented. The process of education is necessarily a slow and exhausting one. To the difficulty of making an approach to the pagan must be added the fact of North
FLOOD TIDE IN DESTINY OF AFEICA 119
Africa's domination by Mohammedanism, a religion which has been through all Christian history the hardest to over- throw.
The Top of the Morning
So much for the obstacles. Many of them remain and will remain for generations. Nevertheless, such a picture leaves out some of the most striking characteristics of the Africa of to-day. For Africa stands to-day not at midnight, which settled over her for centuries, but at the top of the morning. The opening up of Africa to European civiliza- tion has been progressing at a surprising speed. In 1875 not more than a tenth of Africa was under white dominion. To- day the whole of the continent, with the exception of Abys- sinia and the small Negro republic of Liberia, is under European rule— all in forty-three years! ^^ Black Man's Africa" is no more. The European powers have spent enormous sums in the development of their African posses- sions. Steamship lines have been projected and great rail- way systems have been built far into the interior.
The world has come upon the native with a bewildering rush, with its railways, steamboats, electric cars, planta- tions, factories, mines, laws, taxes, magistrates, police. In South Africa, under British governmtent, a great industrial European civilization has sprung into being with large cities and the richest mines in the world. The whole equipment of modern civilization is moving inland from all directions, including the cultivation of plantations, cattle ranches, mer- cantile establishments, forts, army posts, city and territorial governments, agricultural implements, and industrial ma- chinery. Railway systems of twenty-five thousand miles are now in operation, nine tenths of which are included in the British systems of the Nile Valley and South Africa and the French systems of Algeria and Tunis. The Cape-to-Cairo Railway, which was near completion at the beginning of the war, will bring the southern tip of Africa within ten days of London and Paris. The barred door is swinging and
120 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
Africa is seeing a development wliicli greatly mnltiplies its openness to Christian missions, and, as we shall see, its urgent need of them.
Chicago Moves to North Africa
If you still think of the Pyramids and the Sphinx as the most exciting things in North Africa, you are almost as far behind the times as the mummies themselves ! In the French- controlled countries of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunis and in Egypt under British control, modern cities have been reared which make the American visitor think he is looking at a mirage. The European population of North Africa is over a million and is increasing. Algiers, a city of 200,000, is largely European. Out of its population 70,000 are French and 42,000 other foreigners. Oran, on the coast of Algeria, is a young and rapidly growing Chicago of 100,000 popu- lation, with apartment houses, boulevards, and imposing public building's. Constantine, in Algeria, is another bus- tling city of 250,000, largely Europeanized. There are over 16,000,000 people in North Africa, and the region is capable of supporting many more. The picturesque days of the pirates of Tripoli and Algiers, with which is associated such a stirring chapter of American naval history, are over, and the swift modernization of North Africa has displaced the old fanatical exclusiveness and changeless modes of life and thought and thrown open that whole section of Africa to new influences.
Enter — the "War
Prophesying just where a tornado will hit, or indicating just what buildings and fences it will topple over, is uncer- tain business. Particularly in connection with so great a tornado as the present war, is it impossible to say just what effect it will have. Nevertheless, when the tornado of war has already flattened ancient fences it is permissible to record the fact, without indulging in loose prophesying. It is easy to see two clear results of the war on the Christian
FLOOD TIDE IN DESTINY OF AFRICA 121
opportunity in Africa. The first is that the political power of Mohammedanism has toppled like a house of cards. The war has divided the house against itself in such a way that the prestige of Islam will never recover. The old dream of a united Moslem world of 200,000,000 is a hopeless one. The Mohamm'edans of India and Africa have been fighting against their brothers in the faith in Constantinople. Turkey is the only self-governing country left of all the lands once ruled by the followers of Mohammed. The proclamation of a holy war by the Sultan of Turkey, bidding all Moslems to rally to the defense of the faith, had no effect whatever, showing clearly that national bonds have been substituted for the religious one. The second effect has been the new contacts established by Mohammedans and the open- ing of new doors to European and Christian influence. Doors closed for centuries have been blown open, as it were, by the dynamite of the world war. This does not mean that the conversion of Islamic Africa has become in any sense an easy problem. Far from it; but it does mean that a new approachability has been established ; and if we believe in a divine purpose at work in human life, we cannot neglect its meaning of responsibility and opportunity for the Christian Church.
The Three Problems of Africa
Africa to-day from the Christian standpoint, like all Gaul in Caesar's time, is divided into three parts. In the north is Mohammedan Africa, with a population of 40,000,- 000, the base of the movement of Mohammedanism to the south. In the south is the commercial European civilization which is just as real a peril in another way to the welfare of Africa. There are 10,000,000 in this civilized, European- ize'd, nominally Christian South Africa. Between these two advancing forces on the north and south is Central, pagan Africa with 80,000,000. The great majority are still in an uncivilized state, devotees of pagan religions that are doomed, backward children in mind, the easy victims of
122 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
exploitation accompanied with the white man's vices, and the easy prey to the Mohammedan zealot. Surely, such a spectacle cannot fail to move the noblest feelings of the church and call forth the best in her.
The Mohammedan Peril
The Mohammedan invasion of Africa from the north, now resulting in the wholesale conversion of native tribes, is the most vigorous antagonistic force which Christianity is meeting anywhere on earth. It is probably not too much to say that it is the most active opposition which it has met since the followers of Mohammed broke forth in their first fury in the seventh century. Many Christian leaders in all parts of the world regard this Mohammedan advance in Central Africa as the greatest crisis before the Christian Churches to-day. South fromi the lands that front on the Mediterranean Sea and west from Egypt and the Soudan, Islam is thrusting itself into pagan Central Africa. The faith is being carried with a zeal that puts all other religions, including Christianity, to shame. It is not the work of official leaders so much as the pressing concern of every Moham- medan. Formerly Islam followed the track of Moslem con- querors. Later it propagated itself along the slave routes. To-day it goes along the trade pathways, and it is one of the ironies of history that the introduction of modern civiliza- tion into Africa, by railways, good roads, and development of trade, has been a large factor in making a new Moham- medan advance possible. The movement which is winning the tribes of Central Africa to Islam is to-day more wide- spread, more insidious than ever, and as certain as the rising tide. The mierchants carry the Koran and the Moslem catechism wherever they carry their merchandise. The Mosque follows the trader. All ranks of men are propa- gandists :
"Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief. Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief."
FLOOD TIDE IN DESTINY OF AFRICA 123
The Victoky of the Crescent
The most arresting fact in connection with this advance is that pagan Africa is becoming Mohammedan far more rapidly than it is becoming Christian. For every 33 natives who become Christians 100 become Mohammedans. In the Soudan there is only one Christian missionary for every 100,000, while every Mohammedan that comes along is a worker for Islam. Is it any wonder that the Crescent is de- feating the Cross in the conflict! The Mohammedan gain is so great that many observers have regarded the outcome as already settled, that pagan Africa will become Moham- medan.^
It is in Africa alone that Islam is making any such advance. In India it is not keeping pace with Christianity at all. According to the last census in India, Mohammedans increased only at the rate of 6.7 as compared with an in- crease of 32 per cent for Christians. At the time when Islam is losing its prestige and relative power elsewhere, shall Christians allow it to gain a new continent-wide dominion in Africa, whence it can propagate itself for centuries to come? To win the continent of Africa away from Islam is thus, then, to be a service to the Chris tianiza- tion of all the world, and to lose Central Africa will be to cripple the Christian enterprise in all non-Christian lands, perhaps for centuries.
The Appeal of Islam
There are many elements in the success of Islam among the natives. It is propagated by traders, hence it is often to the native's economic advantage to accept the trader's reli- gion along with his dry goods. The Mohammedan creed is simple: ^' There is no god but God: Mohannned is his prophet." It is an easy faith to pass along. It is held by the Mohammedan with flaming conviction. It comes to the African from a man much more like himself than the ^ ^white- faced" Christian missionary. It makes no hard moral de-
^H. G. Wells, What is Coming, p. 247.
124 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
inands, allows polygamy and many pagan customs to exist undisturbed. In addition to these reasons, there is the fact that Mohammedanism is undeniably favored by European governments such as England and France. Christian mis- sionaries have been forbidden to work in areas designated by the governments as Moslem.^ This is done through fear of the Moslem chiefs and the desire to refrain from arousing their enmity. It is easy to understand this motive of polit- ical expediency, but it has made the governments practical partners in the spread of the Mohammedan religion.
Is Mohammedanism a Step to Christianity.^
Two classes of people will say, ^' Why be concerned over this sweeping invasion of Mohammedanism!" One class believes that it is the best religion for the natives. The other believes that it is a half-way house to Christianity. Both are wrong. All experience proves that it is much harder to win men from Mohammedanism to Christianity than it is to win them from their native paganism.
As for Islam being a good-enough religion for Africans, God forbid that any Christian should ever retreat from the position that no religion is good enough for any child of Grod except the revelation of his love in Jesus Christ. Moham- medanism brings to the savage in Africa many benefits. It brings clothing, some learning and the abolition of many de- grading superstitions. It inculcates temperance and clean- liness. On the other hand, it degrades womanhood, allows polygamy and sensuality. It lays the dead hand of an iron tradition on all mental and moral progress. It fosters the spirit of hate and violence. Its ideal of life as portrayed in Mohammed is worlds below that portrayed in Christ. It is a backward force socially and politically.
^^They Shall Not Pass"
The supreme demand of the hour is to throw across Central Africa from the western to the eastern coast a line
Patton, The Lure of Africa, p. 64.
FLOOD TIDE IN DESTINY OF AFRICA 125
of mission stations which shall effectually occupy t|ie vacant areas and stop the advancing Mohammedan wave. There is need in Africa for the equivalent of that line before Ver- dun which gave to the world the deathless watchword, ' ' They shall not pass." There are vast areas in Central Africa inhabited by tribes whose evangelization is not provided for in the plans of any missionary society. A line of mission stations across the continent has already been partly flung and in this line the Methodist mission in Central Africa plays a vital and strategic part. The Centenary survey plans a wise strengthening and extension of its activity.
The other method of meeting this Mohammedan peril is to meet it right at its base in North Africa, and that also Methodism is doing. It has laid the beginnings of mission stations that shall take hold of the life of these old and solidly Moslem lands. For, as has been well pointed out, ^^We have not only to stay the advance of Islam in Africa, we are to win the Moslem world in Africa for Christ; and until the foundations of Islam in the north are shaken, the Christianity that may be established in Central Africa will be perpetually exposed to its assaults.'' ^ North Africa Mo- hammedanism is a hard field. To convert the Mohammedan, some one has said, is *Ho get the proudest man on earth to take the thing he hates from the hand of the man he despises." No easy task that. Historically, it has provided the hardest that Christianity has ever attempted. She has never attempted it on any large scale. But to-day European influence is speedily disintegrating the barriers of Moham- medan exclusiveness. Islam is not holding its own against the unbelief which is flooding it from European civilization.^ There is large new promise for Christian effort in Northern Africa.
Pagan Afkica
Eighty millions in pagan Africa, the largest solid block
^ students and the World-Wide Expansion of Christianity, p. 67. ^ D. B. MacDonald, Aspects of Islam, p. 12.
126 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
of paganism in the world! In ntter innocence of written language for the most part, divided against any solid Chris- tian advance by a multitude of languages (six hundred and
AFRICA
Eighty millioh pagans caught between two forces. Forty million Mohainmedans advancing from the north. From the south, commerciaUsm steaming up the rivers, and building steel trails through the jungle.
seventy languages and dialects have not yet been reduced to writing), it is under the dominion of the crudest supersti- tions, savage, primitive, and childlike.
Yet this one thought must be kept in mind with all the
FLOOD TIDE IN DESTINY OF AFRICA 127
obstacles. In pagan Africa are eighty millions of the most accessible people on earth. Some of the brightest trophies of the cross are found among these pagan tribes, ''Kohinoor diamonds of the King's crown." Where is there a country that for missionary romance and apostolic success can sur- pass the story of Uganda?
The need of Christianity in primitive, childlike, savage Africa cannot be truly conceived from the outside. It is the land where fear holds sway. A hundred evil spirits and many hundred cruel, debasing, and destructive superstitions oc- cupy the central position of religion. The crude conditions of savagery, with its cruelties, take a large toll of life. The oppression of women, miarriage by barter, polygamy, domestic slavery, the neglect.and suffering of childhood, are constant features of life. There is no attempt at education. ^^ Apart from mission stations, they do not even know that writing has been invented. ' ' ^ The only medicines are the useless superstitions of the witch doctor, and the death rate mounts accordingly. While the native African is the spoiled child of nature, in so far as prodigal provision of food is con- cerned, he knows so little of the cultivation of the soil that in many parts of the continent long stretches of hunger and famine are frequent.
The Demoe" of Civilization
But how happy, comparatively, the African would be if those were all his troubles and perils ! There is rushing in on him, principally from the Christian (mark the word!) civilization of South Africa, an evil spirit far more terrible than any Mumbo Jumbo of the forest — ;the spirit com- mercial exploitation. In the wake of the steam engine, push- ing its way into the center of the continent, are the deadly attendants of the white man, drunkenness and immorality, before which the childlike black man is helpless.
How we must bow our heads and blush when we call the
' Murray, The Call of a World Task, p. 117.
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commercial greed tliat is bringing ruin to the native of Africa, Christian! How much we prefer to call it "West- ern'^ civilization because we dare not say Christian !
European control has brought great and undeniable benefits to Africa. Slave raids and tribal warfare are largely abolished. Much has been done to combat disease and famine. Cruel practices, such as the murder of twins, ordeals of poison, etc., are in many places things of the past. Standards of life have been raised and laws established. Education has been provided in many places. Let all this be freely acknowledged. Yet there is the other side of the shield. The relations of Europe to Africa have been stained by the hideous iniquity of the slave traffic. And while an en- lightened conscience has practically put an end to that, the natives are still exposed to the danger of pitiless exploita- tion by the white race. The forced labor, the introduction of liquor and immorality have worked such havoc that it is a fair conclusion that civilization has brought more evil than good to Africa.
What Chbistians Must Do
The Christian cannot settle the vexed political problems of Africa, but Christians in Europe and America can do much to demand that the ideal of government in Africa shall be for the benefit of the African and not for commercial gain. Government is a help or hindrance to Christian progress. Christians cannot effectually teach the natives a gospel of love and brotherhood, when a so-called Christian govern- ment is practicing selfish oppression of them. Lest we in America think we have no part in this corruption, note the fact that in 1914-15 over a million and a half gallons of rum were shipped from Boston ! An international agreement to protect Africa from this murderous traffic must be made.
The gospel of Christ must be supplied to the African to meet his great needs, and to prepare him to withstand the shock of the advent of commercialized civilization with all its attendant vices. Western civilization is already violently
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disturbing and breaking down native life and morality and removing old restraints. ^ ^Unless some new moral sanctions can be supplied to take the place of those swept away, the people are left unprotected and helpless, '' says J. H. Old- ham, ^^to face the overwhelming temptations to which they are increasingly exposed. ' ' ^ A new spiritual basis must be provided for the life of the people — and the Christian reli- gion is the only force capable of achieving the necessary transformation.
Africa and the Centenary
The Methodist Centenary program for Africa deals with both of these perils of Africa. Look at the map and let your eye grasp the generalship of our location in Africa. In North, South, West, East, and Central Africa radiating centers of influence are already located. The Methodist Episcopal Church is located in the Mohammedan strong- holds of Algeria and Tunis ; in pagan Africa, in Liberia on the west coast, farther to the south in Angola and in Central Africa in the Belgian Congo, and in the heart of Rhodesia and in Portuguese East Africa on the east coast. In six strategic areas the church is at work, under ^ve friendly governments, with stations easily reached by steamship and railroad. Our responsibility is for 20,000,000 people in ter- ritories already occupied or assigned to us by governments or through arrangements with other churches. There is a total staff of 92 missionaries and about 650 native preachers and teachers, with 364 churches, chapels, and homes, 23 edu- cational institutions and four hospitals and dispensaries. There are at present about 10,000 pupils in the schools and 33,000 members and adherents of the church.
In the Mohammedan Strongholds
In North Africa the most promising work is among the children. Four homes for boys and ten for girls are supply-
^ J. H. Oldham, The World and the Gospel, p. 132.
130 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
ing Christian en-\TLroimieiit and influence for students in gov- ernment schools, and making a strategic beginning for evan- gelistic work. "We have converted Mohammedans who are now local preachers. Evangelistic circuits for preaching and distribution of Christian literature among Moham- medans must be established and centers where native
evangelists can be stationed.
*
. Reaching Out in Pagan Africa
In the Republic of Liberia we have a press, a college, industrial school, and theological seminaries. In Angola, on the west coast, there are churches, boys' and girls' schools, a printing establishment, and large mission farms. In the center of the Belgian Congo there is a fast develop- ing industrial mission, with marvelous results surrounding that center with 80 primary schools. The beginning of that mission is a story to rank with some of the great journeys of Livingstone. Before our missionaries went into the Congo region it was found that a native who had gone back into the interior had been praying for two years that God would send a missionary; and Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Springer were impelled to go, though without adequate resources, and crossed the continent on foot until they found this lone Chris- tian. Already a great mission has been founded.
At old Umtali, in Rhodesia, we have 3,000 acres of land and many buildings, turned over to the church by the British government, a flourishing industrial mission of the type most needed. Training in agriculture, carpentry, brick- making, and other industries supplements and extends evangelistic work. •
In Portuguese East Africa the mission comprises churches, a mission press, training school, girls' school, and hospitals. Our doctor there is the only medical man in a ter- ritory populated by three and a half millions of people. At six o'clock in the morning as many as fifty patients wlII assemble outside the hospital to wait for him.
FLOOD TIDE IN DESTINY OF AFRICA 131
The church must occupy providential openings for service. Native chiefs are requesting missionaries, and in many cases are eager to grant necessary land and buildings for schools and churches and homes. Many strong evan- gelistic centers must be established. At least ten additional missionaries a year must be sent to keep up present work and insure reasonable advance. Hundreds of native pastor- teachers must be trained. The success of work in schools must be followed up by more schools and teachers. For the medical work, in a field of more crying need than anywhere on earth, the Centenary program calls for four new hospitals to be established, and the enlargement of the two existing ones with missionary physicians and adequate staff.
To-MOEEOW
Great souls have worked in Africa; Saint Augustine and Athanasius; Robert Moffat and David Livingstone; those three wonderful Marys of the modern gospel story, Mary Moffat, Mary Livingstone and Mary Slessor; Mackay of Uganda, Bishop Hannington and George Grenfell. Our own record is bright with the names of Cox, William Taylor, and Hartzell.
But think of the men and women who will follow them ! Surely, at this very tip of the new dawn in Africa the church will not withhold the light and leading of Christ.
It is beginning to dawn upon some people that Christian missions are really acting as a leaven in the Eastern world, and that whether the East shall become Christian is a matter that vitally concerns every nation and must determine the future of humanity. If the East with its swarming millions should ever learn our civilization on its industrial and military side only while it abandons its ancient religions and ethic — both of which are happening before our eyes — the supremacy and even the safety of . the West is more than threatened. We have seen what can happen to our semi-Christianized civilization; but what a purely atheistic civilization would be we can now perhaps begin to imagine. — W. E. Orchard, The Outlook for Religion.
Since Christianity assimilated Greek thought and conquered Eoman civilization it never faced a task so stupendous as that of the conquest of the Orient. Japan, with all her progress in the arts and crafts of civilization and all her friendliness toward Christian eth- ical standards, is far from being a Christian nation. . . .
Yet Japan is a prize worth capturing. The situation in the whole Orient, in fact, constitutes one of the most splendid opportunities, and at the same time one of the gravest crises, in the whole history of the church. With every passing year the opportunity is slipping farther from her grasp. I make bold to say that her victory or defeat in Japan will largely determine the future of Christianity in the whole Far East. — Dr. Tasuku Harada, President of Doshisha University, Tokio,
CHAPTER VI THE CHRISTIAN MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC
Eastward Ho!
Few days in the world's history have had larger signifi- cance than that one of which Balboa, ^'with eagle eyes," first
"Stared at the Pacific, and all his men Looked at each other with a wild surmise. Silent, upon a peak in Darien."
The opening of the Pacific Ocean to the ships, the arts and ideas of the Western world has vastly changed the course of history for both East and West. Yet the real importance of the Pacific in the world's affairs lies in the future. To-day Europe and America are standing tiptoe behind Balboa, gazing at the far Pacific with wonder and expectation even larger than his. For these, too, are days of discovery, when the world is realizing that the Pacific Ocean will be the scene of the next great drama in its progress. The development of the great lands and peoples which are set in the far eastern Pacific, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Malaysia, and their relation to China and the rest of Asia, will unquestionably be the great world-movement of this century.
The New Mediterkanean Basin
What the Mediterranean Sea has been throughout much of the world's past history, the central arena of its great actions, on which were played out national and racial struggles affecting its destiny, the Pacific Ocean will be in the future. Around the Mediterranean Sea were reared great civilizations beginning with the ancient kingdom of
135
136 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
Egypt. There sailed the ship of Tyre. Along its shores marched the legions of Persia in a vain attempt to strangle the freedom of Greece. Alexander the Great became the master and built great cities. From opposite sides of the sea, Rome and Carthage were locked in deadly struggle for dominion of that Mediterranean world. Around its shores great religions have contended for mastery. Here Chris- tianity defeated paganism and struggled with Islam. So down through the centuries it has been the seething center of commercial, political, and religious movements and con- flicts of world-wide meaning.
The Pacific Ocean is the new center for the world move- ments of this century and for many to come. Our world has outgrown the Mediterranean, important as that will always be. Around the new arena of action in the Pacific are gath- ered peoples whose numbers and resources far outrun those of any other section of the world. Picture the peoples in this new chapter of history — Japan with its fifty-five millions crowded to the bursting point ; Manchuria and Siberia, enor- mous, bristling question marks ; the Philippines, a salient of American democracy thrust into the Orient; Malaysia, into whose open fields are beginning to flock the hungry, crowded millions from China, All these will vitally aifect China her- self with her four hundred million ' ^ possibilities ' M
Theee Keys
Is it any wonder that 'Hhe mastery of the Pacific" is a matter that rivets the eyes of the world! "What that ''mastery" will be in a political sense, whether peaceful or militaristic, whether Japanese or European or Chinese, or a mixture of all, cannot be foreseen.
But of vastly greater importance to the world is the question of the Christian mastery of the Pacific, the domin- ion of Christian moral and spiritual ideals in the expand- ing life of these great peoples. Upon this Christian influ- ence will depend the character of the political development.
CHEISTIAN MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC 137
The prevalence of Christian ideals will mean the opening of this new center of development to peace, to liberty and democratic ideals, and to cooperation between nations. A Pacific basin without Christianity will mean a new stage set for conflict, the play of selfish national ambitions, the ex- ploitation of weaker peoples, and moral darkness.
It is a struggle for large stakes, in Christian warfare, upon which we look in this chapter. Lord Fisher, recently the First Lord of the Admiralty of Great Britain, once said : i i There are five keys to the world. They are the Straits of Dover, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, the Straits of Malacca, the Cape of Good Hope.'' However this may be true of naval supremacy, there are three keys to the Pacific in Christian strategy — Tokyo, Manilla, and Singa- pore. The winning of these keys will mean open doors to Christian mastery in Japan, in the Philippines, and in that vast real estate bonanza to the south, Malaysia. Let us look at these three lands in turn.
Japan" and Kobea
We may very fittingly take off our hats when our steamer dooks in Japan, for we have reached the Land of Achievement. It is just fifty years since the Reformation of 1868, when Japan began to adopt "Western civilization. In that time she has become almost more modern than her teachers. She has tried to catch up at one bound with the progress made by other nations in centuries. This difficult task is being done with marvelous rapidity. Japan is the modern Aladdin who has rubbed the lamp of Western learn- ing and a vast new modern civilization has arisen. She has a system of universal education which enrolls ninety per cent of the children of school age. Her genius for adapting the machinery of the Western world has astounded all nations. She has vanquished what was a supposedly first-class European power, Russia, and that victory resounded throughout all Asia.
138 CHEISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
The Leadership of Asia
Japan occupies an undoubted position of leadership tliroughout Asia to-day. Her influence is increasing daily.
■ CBUiA SEA
PAcinc ocEAH
JAPAX An empire st^i^•illg for leadership
How far that leadership is welcomed in all respects by other nations in Asia ; to what extent Japan is feared in China, and what grounds there are for it, are questions on which wide disagreement would be found. The far Eastern situa-
CHEISTIAN MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC 139
tion shifts so from day to day that the vast majority of political pronouncements should be revised every night and morning. But of the question of Japan's leadership in the Orient there can be no doubt. Whether it be in the educa- tional, financial, political, military, naval, commercial, or industrial sphere, Japanese leadership is to-day very ex- tensive. China has had large numbers of her leaders edu- cated in Japan. Japan has retained all the prestige won in the Russo-Japanese war and the present war is giving her a new position as a world power.
Japan leads Asia — ^but whither! That is the question which confronts the world to-day.
Japan's Need of Christianity
Japan needs Christianity supremely because the moral foundations of her national life are slipping away. The whirling movements of the transformation to modern life and education have swept away many of the did sanctions of morality and idealism and have brought many new tempta- tions. No new force has yet been found to take the place of the old which has been weakened. In the words of Count Okuma, the former prime minister, *' Japan at present may be likened to a sea into which a hundred currents of Oriental and Occidental thoughts have poured, and, not having effected a fusion, are raging, wildly tossing, warring, roar- ing. The old religion and old morals are steadily losing their hold and nothing has yet arisen to take their place.'' ^ The new environment, commercial and industrial, and the new wealth in many quarters, are increasing luxury, license and lust. It is no exaggeration to say the life blood of the nation is being drained off by immorality. The educational system of Japan, so admirable in many ways, has been powerless to prevent the moral peril. The teaching of reli- gion and ethics founded on religion is prohibited in the schools and the moral teaching given is shallow, urging ^Quoted in Reports of World Missionary Conference, vol. iv, p. 116.
140 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
patriotism and loyalty without giving a reasonable and fundamental basis. Among the influential student class, agnosticism, selfishness, contempt for the family tie and materialism are destructive influences. As a recent writer has said, ^^Dreadnoughts, machine guns, gold currency and braid, electric railways and imported tailorings, are at best only accessories. Poverty, mortality, and crime and the condition of the subject races are the true barometers of national welfare. ' ' ^
Break Up of Old Faiths
The old faiths of Japan, Shintoism, Buddhism, and Con- fucianism, are loosening their hold. The vital influence of Buddhism over educated people is practically gone, even though outwardly Buddhism is marked by a vigorous imi- tation of Christian methods such as Sunday schools. Young Men's Buddhist Associations, adaptations of Christian hymns, etc. But this outward activity is accompanied by inward weakening of its hold and grave doubts on the part of Japanese leaders over its ability to supply the moral dynamic the nation needs.
Needs of the New Day
The industrial revolution brings a new demand for a strong moral sense and quickened conscience. The increase of factories, from 125 to 20,000 in thirty-four years, brings grave dangers to the nation.^ A vigorous moral and social conscience is needed to protest against the waste and cruelty of child labor if the nation is not to suffer frightful loss. Government statistics declare that out of every hundred girls to enter factory work, twenty-three die within one year of their return home, and of these fifty per cent die of tuber- culosis. Nothing but the realization of the Christian con- ception of the intrinsic worth of the individual will save
^ A. M. Pooley, Japan at the Cross Roads, p. 21. ^ Price, Ancient Peoples at New Tasks, p. 37.
CHRISTIAN MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC 141
Japan from the wide destructiveness of modern machinery driven by commercial greed.
*^The White Disaster *'
An able Japanese writer, Okaknra Kakuzo, says, '^You talk of the Yellow Peril, but what about the White Dis- aster f There is a very real meaning to the term. Western industry and commerce, which break down old moral re- straints without bringing any new moral or religious power is the true White Disaster for Japan and every Oriental country, a disaster already being felt in many quarters. Without taking Christianity to Japan in an adequate way, we bring serious problems without the help of the great principles necessary to solve them and do not truly share our best, only our second best and often our worst.
Concerning Democracy
What must be said regarding the main contention of this volume — the necessity of the Christian gospel to Democ- racy! Japan is one of our allies and a land where a high degree of education and progress prevail. The truth is just as true here as anywhere. No force for the extension of democracy and representative government could be intro- duced into Japan so strong and beneficent as Christianity. It is greatly needed. If Japan is to become a modern de- mocracy, where the welfare of the individual is the control- ling ideal of government, she needs the Christian vision of each man's worth and the ideal of service. If Japan is to be a liberalizing and not a grasping power in the Orient, she needs the Christian evangel of brotherhood and peace and justice built into her national life.
The Christian Advance
Christianity has had a large influence in Japan, an in- fluence, not to be measured merely by the Protestant com-
142 CHRISTIAX CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
immity of 150,000 members. Christian ideas have had wide influence. Great missionaries such as Yerbeck and others have had much to do with launching the new educational system. At the present time there is wide recognition on the part of the lea'ders of the government of the need of a moral and religious basis of national life, coupled with a gi'owing recognition of the failure of Buddhism and Shintoism to supply that basis.
The three-year national evangelistic campaign which closed last year, participated in by aU Protestant bodies, re- sulted in the enrollment of thousands of inquirers and dis- closed a receptive spirit toward Christianity. In the last three years 1,200.000 coj^ies of the Bible were sold in Japan. The demand for admittance to Christian schools and colleges is greater than can be granted.
Xo Time to Lose
Nevertheless, every advantage must be pressed to the utmost without delay, for this serious situation in Ja^Dan must be honestly faced. The days of largest opportunity are passing. Lest anyone think that Christian leaders in other lands such as China and India are insisting on the need of hurry in Christian effort with overheated emphasis, look carefully at Japan. The opportunity is not so large to-day as it was fifteen or twenty years ago. Christianity did not enter the door when it was opened widest. That is, the op- portunity was greater when Japan was first adojDting TVest- ern civilization and when the national ideas and standards were undergoing greater change. These are unwelcome and solemn facts. A Christian traveler recently retnrning from Japan said, ' 'I had at times in Japan the feeling that I could hear the fateful words of the parable of the ten virgins, ' Too late, ye cannot enter now!' '' It is not too late. But the church must work in Japan with enlarged forces the works of Him that sent it while it is yet day, for the night of less- ened opportunity is coming.
CHRISTIAN MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC 143
Does anyone think Japan is almost evangelized! Out of 55,000,000 people, there are only about 150,000 native Protestant Christians; 26,000,000 are absolutely untouched by the Word, with no facilities for hearing it, and millions more have never listened to Christian preaching.
The Centenary Proposals
The Centenary program for Japan and Korea is united, as Korea is now a part of the Japanese empire: The ad- vance proposals in Japan are designed to extend the evan- gelistic and educational work as swiftly as possible in order to meet the opportunity. Methodism in Japan is in a unique position, unmatched in any other land. The Japanese Meth- odist Church was formed in 1907 out of members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Church, South, and the Canadian Methodist Church. This action was a striking example of two growing movements destined to have a great development in Christian missions, church unity on the field, and the rise of the native church to self- direction and self-support. Our church at the time of the union contributed 45 churches and 5,500 members. Each of the three churches which united continues its support, with a decreasing appropriation each year, and cooperates with the Japanese Methodist Church. The Centenary calls for cooperation by enlarging and extending the evangelistic work to hitherto untouched regions.
Education
A work of commanding importance has been done by the schools of the church. With the exclusion of religion from the state schools and the weakness of what moral instruction is given in them, there is vital need for schools which give to Japan the religious and ethical power it lacks. The fam- ous Aoyama G-akuin at Tokyo provides collegiate, theolog- ical, and preparatory training for six hundred students. An indication of its service to Christianity in Japan is seen in
144 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
the recent gift of one of its former students of a building- costing $100,000. This and other schools in Japan must be strengthened for larger service. A great Union Christian University at Tokyo is planned in which we must bear our share.
The Battle Flag
When Admiral Togo led his fleet into action in the great naval battle with Russia in the Sea of Japan, he flung out this signal from the mast of his flagship — "The destiny of an empire." That same signal flag flies from the cross as it is raised in Japan. The destiny of the empire is at stake in a far larger sense than it ever was in the struggle with Russia. The whole future of Christianity in the Far East depends much on its success in Japan.
Korea
The story of Christianity in Korea reads like a chapter in the book of Acts. We would not feel a bit surprised to have Paul and Silas step into a typical Korean prayer meet- ing. One thing is sure, they would feel right at home. Christianity has had violent opposition, just as it did in the world in which the apostle Paul moved. But it has won some truly apostolic successes worthy to rank with the days of Pentecost. In thirty years 300,000 have been converted and joined the Christian Church — a remarkable record for a single generation in a nation whose total present popula- tion is only 15,000,000 ! Christianity has profoundly stirred the nation. It is confined to no class, but is a movement in the great mass of Korea's millions. Eager multitudes in all places listen when the gospel is preached, and churches are too small for the crowds.
The Gateway to the East
The location of Korea gives to the task of her thorough Christianization a high strategic value. It is located be- tween Japan and China. It is on the great highway across
CHRISTIAN MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC 145
Asia by which the East is joined to the West by the Trans- Siberian Railroad. Seoul, the capital of Korea, is only forty-eight hours from Tokyo and forty-six from Peking. In times of peace it is only twelve days from London and seventeen days from New York. Korea is well fitted, not only by her geographical location but also by her religious temperament, to be a vital influence for Christian evangel- ization in Japan, China, and the rapidly developing Man- churia. Korea will play that role if Christianity wins a de- cisive victory there.
The Methodist Episcopal Church already has a mem- bership of 25,000. There are five high schools and 159 ele- mentary schools. The evangelistic, educational, and hospital work must all be vigorously extended. The native church is already doing Herculean labors of evangelistic work and self-support. There is a crying need of schools, particularly in view of the government's refusal to permit the teaching of religion. Less than one tenth of the children of school age are in any regularly organized school. More children of Christian families are outside of school than in. Some imperative items of this advance are new churches, mission- aries, native teachers, and doctors.
The Philippines
When Admiral Dewey slipped into Manilla Bay in the twilight of that May morning twenty years ago the United States moved out into new world relationships and responsi- bilities. From that day to the present there has been a steady widening of the horizon of American interests, of which the participation of our country in the world-wide struggle of to-day is the culmination. We have been forced to think in world terms. The new day in history, ushered in by the taking of Manilla, has not meant what many feared, an era of 'imperialism," but it has meant the breakdown of old isolation and the acceptance of responsibilities of service, beyond our own shores.
146 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
New Day foe the East
The first of May, 1898, not only marks a new era in American thinking, but also a new era for the East. The American administration of the Philippines has introduced
THE PHILIPPINES A school where the Orient may learn the essentials of democracy
and demonstrated that a hitherto untried theory of colonial policy could work successfully. It has been a salient of democratic influence flung into the midst of Asia and has awakened longings for self-determination and larger degree of self-government among all peoples of Asia. ^^Why can't we have government like the Philippines T ' is a question
CHRISTIAN MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC 147
which has echoed from island to island through all the Eastern Sea and over all the mainland.
A Demonstkation School foe Asia
The influence of American presence in the Philippines already demonstrates that it opens a new day in the kingdom of God. It affords a center from which both Christianity and democracy are swiftly carried to the Orient. Look at Manilla on the map and you will readily understand the description of it as ^^the Hub around which the wheel of Asia turns.'' What an opportunity it is, with our flag flying over eight millions of Orientals! When God's hour for all of Asia has com^e, we are standing in this strategic place, the very front yard ! It is an arena around which are ranged 900,000,000 spectators in that Eastern world. What an op- portunity for influence, if in the Philippines we can show to that greatest audience which ever witnessed any spectacle a successful and vigorous Christianity going hand in hand with a beneficent democracy! It is small wonder that one who has spent years in the Philippines, Bishop W. F. Old- ham, has said: '^The crux of our missionary activities in Asia is in the Philippine Islands. If we fail to Christianize the Filipinos, we shall fail to Christianize Asia. If we suc- ceed in Christianizing the Filipinos, we shall succeed in all Asia."
Toward Democracy
For centuries under Spanish dominion the only spiritual watchword the Philippines knew was ' ' Backward Ho ! ' ' The American occupation has turned them right about face and set them marching toward democracy. The United States is pledged to give the Philippines complete rights of self-government as soon as the Filipinos show their fitness for it. They are not fit for it now and will not be able to maintain free republican institutions without the liberalizing influences of Protestant Christianity as well as the public
148 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
schools. It is this program of an increasingly democratic government which onr government has set for the Philip- pines and which the Orient is watching, which makes so urgent a call for the Christianizing of the islands.
Those who are nrging immediate independence for the Philippines are the ones who know least of the situation there. The educational process has not gone far enough. The people were ninety-five per cent illiterate only eighteen years ago and only 3,000,000 have been touched so far by the public school system, most of them, of course, being children. The whole body of the people have not yet had time to learn the rights of the individual. For the United States to step out immediately would simply be handing the people over to the exploitation of designing leaders, and such would not be the fulfillment of our responsibilities. If independence can be wisely granted in another decade, or two, a free and vital Christianity must supply the foundations and safe- guards of true democracy.
Uncle Sam — Tel^stee
It was a high ideal with which the United States started in the Philippines. In the words of President Me- Kinley: ^'The Philippines are ours, not to exploit but to develop, civilize, educate, and train in the science of self- government. This is the path of duty which we must follow or be recreant to a mighty trust committed to us. " We may well be proud that our nation has been true to that trust. We have given the Filipinos the best we have — science, edu- cation of the masses, intellectual and religious liberty, a just and liberal government in which they themselves have part. It is a record of progress ^'unexampled in the contact of any Western people with any part of Asia." ^ In eighteen 3^ears have been brought about the changes of a century. Over 600,000 children are in American public schools, in which the English language is used. More Filipinos are
* W. F. Oldham, India, Malaysia, and the Phili'ppines, p. 258.
BASEBALL FOLLOWS THE FLAG One evidence of the American influence in the Philippines
BB
PREACHING IN THE STREETS OF SINGAPORE
CHRISTIAN MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC 149
speaking English to-day than ever spoke Spanish at any one time, notwithstanding the fact that Spain was there three hundred and forty years, while the United States has been there only twenty years.
After eleven years of American control the trade of the islands was three times as large as the highest figures under Spain. Improved agricultural methods, good roads and railroads, are vastly increasing material prosperity. Smallpox, formerly an annual scourge, has been completely wiped out. Cholera has virtually disappeared. The death rate in Manilla has been cut down fifty per cent since Amer- ican occupation.
The Christian Achievement
The Christian occupation of the Philippines has in many respects kept pace with other American achievements. The story of American Christian effort since our control of the islands has many unusual features, among which are the speed with which missionary work was begun when the door of opportunity opened; the remarkable growth of the Protestant churches and the spirit of cooperation which has prevailed from the beginning. Before the firing in the city of Manilla had ceased the missionary was on the ground. An evangelical union organized by the missionaries, determined that there should be no overlapping, competition, or wasted effort, divided the territory among different denominations. It was a heartening demonstration that the things which separate Christian bodies are not worth carrying eight thousand miles to sea.
The response to evangelistic effort has been remarkable. The per cent of increase in church membership, in propor- tion to the number of people to be reached, has been greater in the Philippines than in any other foreign field. In the Methodist Church alone there are 48,000 members and 13,000 unbaptized adherents, a community of over 60,000, and other churches have met success equally remarkable. The eager-
150 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
ness with, which the inhabitants of the Islands received the gospel after the American control replaced the old Roman Church repression of freedom of thought and speech was intense and pathetic. That receptivity still characterizes the people. Twenty-five years ago the Bible was a closed book. To-day it has been translated into ten languages and over a million copies have been sold in the islands.
Less than fifty per cent of the people may be considered as good Roman Catholics. Besides the number who are totally beyond the influence of the church, there are vast numbers of the natives who have never known any religion whatever except their primitive savagery.
The Advaxce
The principal activity in the Philippines is evangelistic. If one asks why there is such little i3rovision for primary and secondary education, the answer which may be proudly given is, ''The Stars and Stripes." The government is do- ing many things in the PhiliiDiDines which in other lands have to be done by the missions. The educational need is to sup- plement the government schools among people who are not yet reached by them, for only two fifths of the school popu- lation are as yet in school. Mission dormitories are needed for students in government schools in order to supply Chris- tian environment and influence, as the government allows no religious teaching. Cooperation in a much needed Christian university and a theological seminary has been promised. One of the most hopeful indications for large success in the Philippines is the number of young men of power and self- sacrificing spirit who have pressed into the ministry from the very beginning of missionary work.
The minimum of church extension calls for 128 churches and chapels, 69 native preachers, and 9 mission- aries. Our responsibility is for two and a half million peo- ple. Two medical stations in centers distant from Manilla, with physicians, are needed to minister to districts contain-
CHRISTIAN MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC 151
ing a million and a quarter population without any medical attention.
When a miner finds a ''paying streak" of metal he bends every etfort to follow it. The Philippines, for the short time missionary effort has been there, have proved one of the best ''paying streaks" in the history of Christianity.
Malaysia
A hungry world will listen with interest to at least one claim made for Malaysia : it could feed the globe. Perhaps there may be a slight touch of exaggeration to that claim as there has been to some other statements about real estate. Nevertheless, it is within easy hailing distance of the truth. It is not a guess or fervent hope, but the scientific appraisal of experts. Malaysia contains a million square miles of exceedingly fertile soil, tropical abundance, and frequent harvests. It can produce three yearly harvests of rice or any other tropical grain. Its resources have barely been touched. So there is some solid foundation for the belief that Malaysia, if her resources were properly developed, could invite the world into her dining room and say with calm assurance, "Ladies and gentlemen, be seated!"
The What, Where and Who of Malaysia
If the word "Malaysia" conveys any clearcut, definite meaning to you, you are one in a thousand and are entitled to pin the order of the Sons of Geography, First Class, on your breast. Malaysia is the composite name for a group of countries and islands in the Pacific, and has, in our minds, the same blurred outlines that a composite picture has. It is hopeless to try to dispel the fog without the light of a good map. Study the one on page 153 for a moment. Malaysia consists of the Malay Peninsula in the southeast of Asia, pointing like a forefinger down at the south pole, and the most wonderful group of islands in the world, including four large ones, Sumatra, Borneo, New Guinea, and Java, and
152 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
thousands of smaller ones. In this area there is a population of about 60,000,000. In spite of this large population, larger than that of all South America, half of it is packed so closely in Java that vast areas of the rest of Malaysia are very sparsely populated.
Many flags wave over this group of islands. The Malay Peninsula, with many of the islands surrounding it, includ- ing Straits Settlements, of which Singapore is the metrop- olis, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea, belong to Great Britain. Holland owns Sumatra, Java, and many other islands, an empire of over forty million people, seven times outnumbering the population of Holland itself. Under both of these flags nominal rule over certain areas is still held by native chiefs and kings.
A Land or Room Enough
With the exception of Java there is plenty of room for more in Malaysia. It would seem that Java must soon be forced to hang out the sign ''Standing Room Only'' at all of her ports. Under the wise rule of the Dutch the popula- tion has increased in two centuries from 2,000,000 to 30,000,- 000. There are 720 people to the square mile, more than in any country in Europe. If the other islands attain a density equal to Java, they will hold 720,000,000 instead of 50,000,- 000 or 60,000,000. This gives some indication of the possi- bilities of growth and development of Malaysia. There is room for many millions, and large streams of immigration are already flowing from China and India. When asked how many Chinese he could encourage to come to Malaysia, the governor-general at Singapore answered in an off-hand way, ' ' Fifty millions if you can spare them. ' '
Wonderland — Admission Free
The whole area of Malaysia is a gigantic Bonanza Farm, whose possibilities and wealth the world is just begin- ning to learn. Large and varied crops are now produced
CHRISTIAN MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC 153
and no limits can be set to the increase possible. Rice, sugar, cocoanuts, rubber, and coffee flourish. Immense oil fields have been found in Bali, the island next to Java.
The Melting Pot of Asia
The unique importance of Malaysia in the future of the Orient and the world lies mainly in two things — its strategic location and the vast immigration which is flowing to it.
N
SCALE OF Milts
III II.
0 50 100 200 300
MALAYSIA— THE MELTING POT OF ASIA Every year it receives hundreds of thousands of the overflow of China and India
15i CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
Singapore is the great center and metropolis of Ma- laysia, and one of the world's great pivot points of travel and trade. Yon cannot get from India or Europe to China or Japan or anywhere onto the Pacific ocean without passing through the narrow straits of Singapore, or else going so far east as to make the voyage almost impossible. The city of Singapore is the distributing point for all Asia and a transfer point for the world. It is probably the most cos- mopolitan city of the world. One may stand at a crowded street corner and count forty different nationalities passing within an hour. In that city of 300,000, over sixty-nine dif- ferent languages are spoken. Whatever is planted firmly in Singapore soon spreads out through the millions of Ma- laysia and through all the Orient. It is a nerve center of the Eastern world and a place of supreme vantage for Chris- tianity.
Immigration is fast making not only a vast, developing civilization in Malaysia, but is making a new race. Over 250,000 Chinese and 60,000 from India are coming to Malaysia every year and are rapidly interfusing with the Malays. It is the true melting pot of Asia. The city of Singapore at the present time is seventy-two per cent Chinese. Many of these Chinese become wealthy through trade. The great majority of the immigrants from China are laborers, and they are so much more industrious and thrifty than the native Malays that the future in Malaysia seems to belong to the Chinese. "Walter Weyel says : '^It is not impossible or even improbable that another century will find 100,000,000 or 200,000,000 Chinese in this unoccupied territory. ' ' ^ The foundations of a great populous civiliza- tion are being newly laid in this great region, presenting the opportunity of centuries to Christianity.
The Christian Outlook If Malaysia is a wonderland of nature, it is in many re-
Harpefs Magazine, July, 1918, p. 162.
CHRISTIAN MASTERY OF THE PACIFIC 155
spects a wonderland of missionary adventure also. The Methodist Church is the only American church working in all of Malaysia. The opening of the work was a daring ven- ture of sheer faith which has been abundantly rewarded. The educational work has been stressed from the begin- ning. Already we have a self-supporting educational work that enrolls 7,500 pupils. The Anglo-Chinese School at Singapore, founded by Bishop W. F. Oldham when he was a missionary in Singapore, is the largest educational insti- tution outside of Japan in the Far East, having over 1,600 4 pupils. Its graduates have been extremely influential. Sev- eral were leaders in the Chinese Revolution.
A publishing house is self-supporting, furnishing books, Sunday school literature, tracts and Bibles in many lan- guages. Methodism, as the only expression of American Christian activity, stands very high in the confidence of all the governments and also in the trust and confidence of the people.
In a little over twenty years a church community of 6,000 has been gathered. The quality and interest of this community may be gauged by the fact that they are under- taking to raise one fourth of the total Centenary asking for Malaysia ! That group of 6,000 will raise $382,000.
The most notable advance in the educational program is the development of the school in Singapore into a college. A circle with a radius of 1,200 miles would enclose 60,000,000 people and in it there is not a single school of college grade. It affords an opportunity to set the educational standard for 60,000,000 people. Part of the money necessary is being raised on the field. One interested Chinaman has already made a gift of $100,000. An increase in the number of village schools is also planned.
In connection with all these school centers there is large evangelistic opportunity. At present the appropriation furnishes only one missionary for each million of those for whom our church is responsible. The religions which Chris- tianity must meet and supplant are Mohammedanism, Bud-
156 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
dhism, Hinduism, and the native paganism. Work among Mohammedans yields results much more readily at this tip end of Mohammedanism, as it were, than at the center in Turkey or North Africa.
There is an urgent need of medical service. That con- stitutes the most promising approach to the Malay. ^'The easiest tunnel to the heart of Mohammedanism is the one which leads from the gate of a hospital." A hospital for Mohammedans at Singapore is proposed and nine hospitals on the various islands. The Dutch government has offered to supply three fourths of the cost, with the salary of one American doctor, nurses, and equipment. This means that for every dollar contributed from America nine will be con- tributed by the Dutch government.
The Pacific Pkince
In one of his finest missionary hymns Charles Wesley uses this ascription, ^'0 thou mild pacific Prince!" We must capitalize the word ' ' pacific ' ' and sing it with new con- viction. Jesus Christ must be the Pacific Prince. For the world's peace and progress, the new-world center in the Pacific must be under his mastery.
Will the Russians build a government of, by, and for the people? On the answer to that question the hope of a liberal Europe hangs. — Ernest Poole, The Dark People.
While we see to it that nothing allows the foreign missionary enterprise to suffer at this time, there is another problem of even greater dimensions, namely, re-evangelizing of Europe. — W, E. Orchard, The Outlook for Religion.
CHAPTEE VII
THE EEBUILDINa OF EUROPE
The rebuilding' of Europe is the largest, most heart- breaking task which has ever awaited the hand and mind of man. The familiar pictures of French and Belgian women, sitting alone amid the desolate ruins of what had once been pleasant homes, are grim symbols of a broken, bereaved, and exhausted Europe bowed in the chaos left by the tornado of war. Millions of rough wooden crosses give to Northern France and Belgium the aspect of a vast cemetery where lie buried men and hopes and possibilities. Once fruitful fields and orchards are transformed into the barren crater of a volcano. Villages and cities with innumerable homes and churches have been leveled to shapeless ruins. Millions of maimed and blinded men are seeking to take up the tangled threads of life again under heavy handicaps. The large tasks of reconstruction must be undertaken with depleted human forces and wearied strength.
The Havoc of War
It is so large a task that the title of this chapter is in many senses a mockery. Europe will never be rebuilt. Much that has gone down to destruction can never be re- stored. The human harvest of war, a large part of the finest manhood of Europe, has been cut down and lost forever. Europe in its four years of war has lavishly spent not only its present wealth, but that of the past and future as well. A measureless mountain of debt and toil has been thrust for- ward to the shoulders of coming generations.
Yet the war has left more than ruins. It has left an immortal chapter in the story of high-hearted valor, of un-
159
160 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
selfish sacrifice and true human greatness that will be one of the most priceless and fruitful legacies of the race for all ages to come. In the nations which have spent themselves so fully and ungrudgingly for the world's liberties, there have been disclosed undaunted heroism and capacity which will face the great reconstruction tasks as resolutely as they did the advancing armies.
A New Europe
While some things cannot be restored, many other things must not be rebuilt. The old structures of secret and in- triguing diplomacy, of selfish and grasping imperialism, of oppressive autocracy and militarism must never be set up again.
The victory of the forces of democracy in the great war will be incomplete unless the nations of Europe replace old jealousies by new bonds of confidence and cooperation. Spiritual ideals of brotherhood and justice must supplant all materialistic worship of power. It is becoming increas- ingly clear to millions of men that only such ideals worked out into actual institutions will ever prevent another war like the present one or worse. It is a farseeing, practical statesmanship which proclaims at this hour regarding the reconstruction of Europe, ^^ Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.''
Spiritual Foundations for Reconstruction
In every field of life Europe has great tasks of recon- struction awaiting. Great changes in the political life of every nation are bound to follow the upheaval, with the crea- tion of new states and new forms and methods of govern- ment. Education of every kind will be profoundly atfected. In the industrial world many look for the most far-reach- ing results of the war. It cannot be doubted that the idea of democracy, which has been so much in the thought of all Europe for the years of the war, will be rigorously ap-
THE REBUILDING OF EUROPE 161
plied to industry and the power and rewards of labor greatly increased. In religious thinking and activity equally great transformations will occur. Nothing is surer than that the new order will place the free Protestant church beside the free school as essential to the achievement of democracy. A free church with vigorous spiritual ideals and life must enter into the foundations of the new order in Europe to make it permanent and safe.
Methodism in Continental Europe
It is not with any small spirit of making proselytes or competing with other churches that a free Protestantism looks at Europe to-day. It is, rather, with the desire to render assistance to the forces already working there to lay a true moral and spiritual foundation for national life. America has proved herself a minister of mercy in Europe and a military ally of the forces of democracy. We would seek for her also a place of service in completing the victory of democracy by strengthening the spiritual forces essential to its safety.
The work of Methodism in Europe, in eleven countries, has furnished it with a unique equipment and opportunity for service at this hour. It is the only Protestant church without national affiliations working over all this war-af- fected territory. Through the international scope and char- acter of its European membership and organization it holds a providential relationship to much of the future religious life of Europe.
No survey of the European fields and its needs could, of course, be made. It is rather difficult to survey a whirlwind in action. It is clear, however, that there exists an unprec- edented opportunity to minister to the varied needs, phys- ical, educational, and spiritual, of some of the stricken coun- tries of Europe. Methodism is so placed in relation to these great needs that they constitute an immediate responsibility which cannot be evaded.
162 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
Under Three Flags
Among the countries of Continental Europe which are opening opportunities for service of striking character, are Russia, Italy, and France. The conditions in each of these countries are vastly different, hut even a slight examination of them will give an indication of the wide opportunity for ministry that lies ahead of a free Protestant Christianity in Europe.
Russia
Russia has become the world's rampant question mark and will be so for a generation to come. Both history and fiction fail to furnish a parallel to the two revolutions of 1917 by which the whole political and social order of Russia was overturned, the course of the war changed, and the gov- ernment placed in the hands of what looked from the outside like a workingmen's debating society. Russia has won for herself, during the progress of this most amazing revolution, every possible attitude on the part of the rest of the world, from the most extravagant applause and admiration to the bitterest hatred and accusations of treachery. Probably no nation has ever had to deal at one time with such great dis- turbing undertakings as Russia has had in the last two years. In the first place, she has had to engage in the greatest war in the history of the world, maintaining alone a vast front of twelve hundred miles for nearly three years. Second, Russia has had the greatest political revolution of modern times, perhaps also of ancient or modern times. She has swung from a cruel and dark autocracy to a government wholly in the hands of the working class. Third, she has undergone a social revolution which is the greatest social up- heaval of this or any age. Fourth, she is in the midst of a striking religious revolution, which has not received so much attention as the political and social revolution, but which has already brought tolerance to faiths and sects persecuted for centuries and which has great possibilities for the religious future of Russia.
THE EEBUILDING OF EUROPE 163
While much of the movement of this turbulent whirlpool in Russia cannot be rightly interpreted at present, in two respects it is clearly to be seen that the course of events has been inevitable. One is that the great revolution was the sure fruit of a blind and brutal tyranny. The other is that a safe democracy cannot exist among a people unprepared for it. The world has never been treated to a more conclusive demonstration that a democracy without sure foundations in universal education and moral and spiritual enlightenment is a menace to the world. The collapse of Russia, her failing the allied nations at a crucial hour in the great struggle, and the internal weakness of her improvised democracy, have shown with terrible emphasis the havoc that may be wrought by democracy without the essential conditions of success.
The Fruit of Tyeanny
The revolution which blew the autocracy of the Tsar to atoms was the inevitable result of a repressive tyranny. Its coming was as sure as the explosion of a steam boiler which has no outlet. However disappointing the year's collapse of Russia as an ally and the feebleness of the Bolsheviki government was, it must not be forgotten that the freeing of the one hundred and sixty-four millions of Russia from the iron heel of despotism is one of the greatest results of the war and one of the largest single steps ever taken in the world's march to freedom. A few months before the crash came the Tsar's brother wrote a warning letter to Nicholas in which he said, ^'The time is by when nine tenths of the people can be treated as manure to grow a few roses. ' ' This handwriting on the wall was disregarded, but the rising tor- rent of revolution soon proved the truth of the words. The liberation of Russia has come in response to that same divine voice which first sounded when the Israelites were oppressed in Egypt, ^ ^ Let my people go ! "
The Dark Ages in Russia have existed up until the pres- ent time. The autocracy of Russia was blind, untouched by
164 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
any reason whatever at times and securing few of the results desired. The old spirit of the Russian government is well exhibited by the system of exile to Siberia for even minor political offenses, and the treatment of the Jews. In the words of Professor E. A. Ross, ''The government lit no lamps for the people, nor would it allow others to do so freely. ' ' ^ The workmen were held down with a hard cruelty long since abandoned in western Europe. One third of the agricultural land of Russia was in the hands of 110,000 nobles, out of a population of over 160,000,000. The whole social system was designed to concentrate the good things of life in the hands of the few at the top of the social pyramid and distribute all the burdens possible to the shoulders of the common people at the bottom. This oppressive result was secured by the cooperation of the absolute power of the autocracy, the subservient spirit of office holders, a captive church, ' ' safe ' ' teaching in what schools there were, by class distinctions in the law code, the tax system weighing heaviest on the poor, the police, and spies.
Unprepared for Democracy
The result of these centuries of oppression has been that when the despotic yoke of the Tsar was overthrown, the peo- ple of Russia were entirely unprepared to maintain a se- cure democracy. The government kept the people in dark- ness, and now that the despotism is overthrown, the people do not understand the nature of liberty or the necessity of making adjustments by law. ' ' They are too ignorant to per- ceive the fallacies of agitators who urge them to take what they want now. ' ' ^ Eighty-three per cent of the population above nine years were reported illiterate in 1908, and this figure is still given even by Russian professors.^ It is not surprising that in its new found liberty Russia has been
^ Ross, Russia In Upheaval, p. 217. ^ lUd., p. 16. ^lUd., p. 112.
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rearing and plunging like her own wild horses on the Steppes. ' ' To look for a national consciousness, ' ' says Prof. Ross, ^^ among people who have no mental image of Russia, never saw a map of the world, and could not locate their country on such a map, would be folly. ''^ This unpre- paredness for democracy has been a tragedy of the gravest sort in the present world struggle. It demonstrates the serious obstacles to world democracy which exist in the ignorance and moral weakness upon the part of multitudes who desire to participate in it. There can be no doubt of the truth of the forcible words of Bishop Bashford, ^'Had Protestantism spent forty millions of dollars in missionary work in Russia during the last forty years, Russian democ- racy would stand the crisis firmly and would be worth forty billions of dollars in terminating the war. "
What of the Future?
It would be a foolhardy prophet who would risk his reputation by trying to foretell the exact course of events in Russia for even a few weeks.
''What do you think about Russia!'' one man asked an- other recently on a street car.
''I haven't seen a paper since an hour ago," was the discreet answer he received.
All predictions about Russia must be made with some- thing of the same undogmatic discretion.
The eyes of the world are eagerly focused on Russia to-day. Vital questions press for an answer : How long will the present Bolsheviki^ government stand! What success will the allied nations have in saving Russia from complete domination by Germany? Can a famine and disease, involv- ing the lives of millions, be averted? But amid all the com-
^ Ross, Russia In Upheaval, p. 115.
''The name "Bolshevik" means "member of a majority." The aim of the Bolshevik party was the establishment of a state in which the workers control. The Sovyet is a council of delegates chosen by groups of workers.
166 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
plex maze of possibilities, one thing stands out clearly. If Russia is ever to emerge out of her present upheaval as a safe, solvent, and just democracy, there must develop within it the forces which have made democracy free and safe any- where, universal education, enlightenment, and vigorous moral and spiritual ideals. Upon the free Christian churches of the world rests the pressing responsibility of bringing aid so that these saving forces may be released and developed in the democracy of Russia.
The Present Opportunity
The throne of the Tsars is not the only thing which has been blown sky-high in the revolutionary explosion. Old doors of exclusiveness have been lifted off their hinges and forbidding barriers razed to the ground. In many respects Russia presents a unique opportunity in Christian history to help shape the foundations of a new national life among a great people coming out of oppression into liberty. It is an opportunity of service not only to Russia, but to the whole world. There are many foundations for the hope of a strong Christian democracy in Russia if the necessary leadership and assistance are forthcoming.
The Russian Character
The national Russian character possesses many and strong virtues which promise an immense contribution to the world. They are virtues intimately associated with Chris- tianity and will undoubtedly prove an immense power in the establishment of a spirit of brotherhood and sympathy throughout the world. No people have such a quick impulse of sympathy for a fellow man as the Russians. They mani- fest a genuine Christian spirit by a hundred tokens. Trav- elers report that early in the war peasants would give all their stock of food to the passing Polish and Jewish refugees. The millions who fled into Russia before the advancing German armies met with wonderful kindness and generosity.
THE REBUILDING OF EUROPE
167
They are a prevailing peaceful people. Russian militarism is an alien thing of Prussian origin settled upon the people. No more democratic people by their nature and long habits
AFTER THE WAR— WHAT ?
The countries of Europe in which the Methodist Episcopal Church has work are indicated in white
of life exists than the great mass of Russia. Nor is there any great people more idealistic. Observers have always been struck with the serious-mindedneas and depth of the
168 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
people. Whether this is to be ascribed, as is commonly done, to the savage Russian winter or not, it is a trait of character of the largest possibilities. Their characteristic of striking orderliness has not failed them in the turbulent days of revolution.^ In spite of all the upheaval, the period of seven years after the French Revolution was far worse in every respect than that through which Russia is now passing. The Russians are great in patience. It is often predicted that the Russians will be the first to forgive after the war is over. These racial characteristics form a large basis for hope of a great democratic nation.
The New Eka in the Russian Church
The State Church of Russia, the Greek Orthodox Cath- olic Church, has been unchanged through the centuries, being occupied far more with ritual than with teaching. Un- like our Protestant churches it has striven neither to in- struct nor to develop attitudes of the will. It has been the servant of the autocratic government. But it has shared in the democratic revolution and is at present undergoing a transformation which holds large possibilities. Religious toleration has at last been achieved and the long era of per- secution and exclusiveness ended. All religions now stand on an equality. The Orthodox Church itself is undergoing a process of democratization and a break with the old autocratic method of church government has been made. Old corruptions are being corrected and many signs of spir- itual quickening are at hand, such as improving the parish life of the churches, the larger use of preaching. This situ- ation points the way to the opportunity of influencing with the principles and spirit of evangelistic Christianity that great ecclesiastical establishment, one of the largest in the world, with 115,000,000 members. It will require wise and sympathetic action.
Fred P. Haggard, Journal of Race Development, January, 1918, p. 291.
THE REBUILDING OF EUROPE 169
Methodism in Russia
Methodism is already located in Petrograd in a mission which has made substantial progress under grave handicap under the old autocratic regime. In the changed situation which is presented in Russia that effort must be strength- ened and enlarged. In the field of education there is a pecu- liarly large opportunity. The planting of some strong schools will be eagerly welcomed and will afford a strategic center of influence and be one of the most effective ap- proaches to the whole religious problem of Russia. Some of the greatest weaknesses of Russia have been the lack of standards, intellectual, economic, and moral. Christian edu- cation of a broad and modern type under free and vigorous Protestant auspices can do much in strengthening the foundations of the new Russia now rising on the wreck of the Bolsheviki regime. A close relation to young Russia is the line of action dictated by America's pledge to Demo- cracy, Humanity, and Freedom.
France
The strains of *^The Marseillaise" are resounding throughout the world. In a very real sense France has saved the world, and the largest part of the world looks to France with feelings of reverent devotion and gratitude. Those feelings on the part of America have already found expression both in military comradeship in arms and in large ministries of mercy, and will continue to find expres- sion after the war is over. The debt which civilization owes to France can never be reckoned and never be paid. The heroic valor of her soldiers and the indomitable spirit and cheerful sacrifice on the part of all her people will furnish inspiration to the whole human race for ages to come. The United States will surely regard the opportunity of assist- ing in the rebuilding of France as a high privilege. The comradeship of the two nations now expressed in arms must be continued after the war in works of reconstruction.
170 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
To-MOKROw's Tasks
That rebuilding, as elsewhere in Europe, will take many forms, and among them and interpenetrating all will be the religious. A new spirit has been liberated in France dur- ing the war, a quickening of the spiritual life of the nation. The witnesses of that new spirit are present in a thousand forms. Just how that spirit will affect the institutionalized religion of France cannot be definitely predicted, but it is evident that it otfers an increased receptivity to a free spir- itual message.
To the established French work of Methodism, the pres- ent and immediate days to come present two urgent calls, which are closely related. The first is to bear an earnest part in the great task of helping France rebuild, particularly in caring for her orphans and educating them, thus conserv- ing her priceless human wealth. The second is to minister to the awakened spiritual aspiration and life. All Europe, along with France, greatly needs a statement of Christ which shall be modern and vital and which shall make a direct appeal to the mind and heart.
The Spirit of Approach
Methodism approaches the opportunity of service in France with humility, reverence, and gratitude. The large spiritual ministry which France has given and is giving to the United States in her heroic and sacrificing devotion to liberty, justice, and humanity has uplifted our own national life to a degree beyond computation. That we shall never forget. In grateful spirit we would seek to bring to France, so largely without definite religious connections, a Christian evangel unfettered by ecclesiasticism, which shall strengthen her own spiritual life. The religious situation in France is peculiar. There is a socialistic section of the nation which is strongly antireligious and therefore anti-Catholic. The great middle class, which takes in four fifths of the French
THE REBUILDING OP EUROPE 171
people, from peasant to intellectual, have very little relation to any religious institution save that they have been bap- tized and confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. The French Protestant Church, though influential out of propor- tion to its numbers, has not been an aggressive propagating force. The strong anticlerical movement which resulted in the disestablishment of the Roman Catholic Church a few years ago left large numbers entirely outside of the influence of any form of Christianity. At the time of the disestablish- ment Rome claimed at the most only ^ve or six million loyal Catholics. At the present time the French man or woman whose religious impulses have been quickened by the war, has practically no choice between agnosticism on the one hand and a form of Roman faith on the other.^
That the great unchurched masses of France accord a ready hearing to the message of evangelical Christianity has been amply demonstrated by the success of the Methodist evangelistic work before the war, in the Savoy district. Many churches were planted and a promising orphanage work developed. The present activity is centered on the orphanage work at Grenoble, where an important service is being rendered, helping to meet two pressing needs of France, the preservation and education of her children and the problem of feeding her people after the war. At Grenoble our church is conducting an agricultural school for soldiers ' orphans, in connection with which a farm is operated. It is the nucleus for a great new agricultural and industrial school which will be of large service. In this connection the important war orphans' work of the Woman's Foreign Mis- sionary Society of the Methodist Church must not be over- looked. For this purpose $45,000 has been appropriated, of which $30,000 will be used for building an orphanage.
After the war the evangelistic opportunity will be even larger. The new bonds which unite France and the United States, the service of the Red Cross and Y. M. C. A., in addi-
Tyler Dennett, World Outlook, November, 1917.
172 CHEISTIAX CRUSADE FOE DEMOCEACY
tion to the awakened religious spirit of the French, all mark a new day of opportunity. Plans for cooperation with the French Protestant Church are already being made.
Italy
The war has affected the Methodist work in Italy in two diverse ways. On the one hand, it has destroyed many churches in the battle zone of north Italy, taken toll of many of the members and leaders and crippled the work in every part of the country. On the other hand, it has greatly in- creased the prestige and prosjDects of our work by disclosing Methodism as a national force of high patriotic feeling and vital influence. There is no doubt that Methodism has per- manently gained increased confidence and good will, which will lead to larger service in future years. At the Annual Conference in Florence, in April. 1918, half of the min- isterial forces were appointed to service in the armies. Many of the preachers have been decorated for valor in action. The Italian government has recognized the value of Italian Methodism in the official appointment of Methodist chap- lains in the army.
The Methodist work and program in Italy appeals strongly to the liberals of the country. The authority and prestige of the Vatican have been materially lessened during the war by the failure of the Pope to take a stand with Italy on the moral issues of the war. and already there are many indications of an increased receptivity after the war toward a free evangelical Christianity.
LixES OF Advaxce
Methodism is on a firm foundation in Italy with a col- lege, publishing house, schools, and churches. Perhaps the most strategic advance now planned is the completion of the Collegio at Rome for which a magnificent site has been pur- chased on ]\Ionte Mario overlooking Saint Peter's Cathedral. This will insure an evangelical Christian leadership for the
THE REBUILDING OF EUROPE 173
work in the whole kingdom and will extend and increase the already remarkable work of the Collegio. Another educa- tional project now in successful operation which must be strengthened for increased influence is the industrial school in Venice. The opportunity for these institutions is many times greater to-day than it was before the war, because the government is too poor to maintain its school system and so will welcome all institutions that desire to render service to Italy.
In addition to these educational projects there is need for extending the evangelistic work of the churches both in men and money for the increased opportunity of the coming years.
Italy and the United States are standing closer to- gether than ever before. The flag of Italy, so little known here a few years ago, is becoming almost as well known as the Union Jack or the tri-color of France. It is coming to be a dearly loved flag as well, all over our land. It is a highly favorable day in which to express our feeling of alliance with Italy in ways that will strengthen her national life and democratic ideals.
Othee Nations
In many other countries Methodism is bearing the strain and stress of war and will face large tasks with slender resources after it is over. We are in Bulgaria, and responsible for Serbia and Roumania, wholly unoccupied by Protestantism. What needier field in which to play the good Samaritan than these three storm-tossed Balkan countries? In Switzerland, in Scandinavia, in Denmark, our work has undoubtedly suffered under the strain. And finally —
Geemany
What can be said of Germany! How can any one pic- ture the suffering of German Methodists, or of those of
174 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
Austria? "Wliat the state of the Methodist Church in Germany, once so vigorous and promising, will be after the war cannot be foreseen at present. But two considerations must be kept in mind. One is that the great ideal of brother- hood in Christ never needed such large and compelling state- ment as it does to-day and will need in the days that follow the war. No force will be so effective in making that ideal a realit}" as the church founded on that ideal. European Methodism, located on both sides of the firing line, will be- come immediately effective in the direly needed ministry of reconciliation when the firing ceases.
The other consideration to be remembered in connection with German and Austrian Methodism is its great possible service to the growth of democracy within those countries. It is a growth for which we long and pray. The future peace and happiness of the world will be largely affected by the establishment of democracy within the German empire, and no influence will work so mightily for that result as a free and vigorous evangelical Christianity uncontrolled by the state, boldly declaring the freedom and inalienable rights of every man as a child of God. For that reason we may earnestly pray that Methodism among the Central Powers may wax strong in numbers and influence.
It is the time of times to do something that reminds people that we believe our religion. Things that are impossible with men have ever been the most attractive things for Christ. — John R. Mott.
England possessed a superb architect of genius, Sir Christopher Wren. He prepared a magnificent design for rebuilding the city of London which he would have made the noblest and most magnificent city in the world. The central idea was Saint Paul's Cathedral, and Wren meant it to be approached by a stately colonnade leading up from what is now Ludgate Hill. All the rest of the city was to be grouped around. The king and Parliament accepted the plans, but it was a melancholy fact that the scheme was thrust aside by the haste of the commercial interest to begin rebuilding, and by the unwillingness of the citizens to cooperate for the common good. The supreme moment was lost. Sel- fishness rose and spoiled the picture. The old London, with its narrow- ness, its crookedness, its inconvenience, remained as it will be with us to the end. Shall the new world after the war perpetuate the crookedness, the narrowness of the world before the war? — W. Blaclcshaw.
Never can the church say to any young missionary, "Young man, sit down!" when the country is calling its young soldiers to enlist. Never can the church be content to become parochial when the mind of the country is becoming international. When the thoughts of all living men are widened by the process of the suns, then is the very time to widen the endeavor of the Christian Church. — W. H, P. Faunce.
CHAPTEE VIII A WOELD PEOGEAM
The Methodist Episcopal Church has gotten her dates mixed in a divine confusion. Coming to the one hundredth anniversary of the beginning of Methodist missions in 1819, she is planning to celebrate, not the first hundred years, but the next hundred. Forgetting the things which are behind, not unmindful of their sublimities, but stirred by their obli- gations, she has set her face like a flint to rear as a centen- nial observance the only monument worthy of those who have gone out to the world with Christ's message and of the Christ who led them. That monument is to be a world-wide foundation for Christ's kingdom.
Two things there are in the heritage of Methodism which commit the church irrevocably to a new and deter- mined pressing of her world warfare.
The Obligation of History
The providential success of the first century of Meth- odist missions lays upon the church the high obligation of building worthily on that noble foundation. In no other con- nection is the paradox more true that ''We must be greater than our fathers in order to be equal to them. ' ' The begin- ning of the first hundred years of Methodist missions saw one man, a Negro, John Stewart, at work among the Wyan- dot Indians in Ohio. Not an inspiring figure, surely, and yet, making his way through the tangled forests, he was the trail-blazer of a world-movement. The first missionary to a foreign land soon followed in his train, Melville Cox^ — whose
177
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frail body soon burned itself out with fever, but whose grave in the African sands has made one spot of that great con- tinent forever American, from which he still calls in his dy- ing exhortation, ^'Let a thousand fall, before Africa be given up!"
The close of the century sees the church set full in the stream of modern life, building the evangel of Christ into the life of thirty-four countries. It is raising a vigorous native church, which is itself carrying the propaganda of the Kingdom in the Far East, in Africa, in India, and South America. The Board of Foreign Missions has 1,071 mis- sionaries and 9,107 native workers. The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society has 500 missionaries and 4,003 native workers. The total staff, therefore, is 14,680, of whom about nine out of every ten are native workers. The vitality of the native church in mission lands may be fairly judged by the fact that for every three dollars contributed by the Home Base, about one dollar is collected on the field. When we re- member that most of these fields are lands of dire poverty, the showing is remarkable. On the foreign field there are 442,765 members, 2,516 churches and chapels, 106 high schools and colleges, 36 theological and biblical schools, 2,853 primary and other schools, and 49 hospitals. There are to-day 7,440 Sunday schools with an enrollment of 346,793. The potential strength which this Sunday school host means to the church of to-morrow cannot be meas- ured.
The Obligation of Democratic Ideals
In a day of democratic striving the world over, a church born of democratic ideals, a force for social progress in its very birth hour, and during all its historj^ a church of the common people, cannot escape the responsibility of world-service for democracy. In the democratic awakening in England in the eighteenth century the Methodist revival under Wesley played a vital part. The English historian
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Lecky reckons the Methodist revival as one of the greatest forces for social progress in the century, ^'The democracy of the Methodist Movement, ' ' in the words of a recent his- torian, ''was founded upon the eternal possibility before every man. ' ' The religious revival preceded and made pos- sible in large degree the steady march of democratic pro- gress in England which went on for a hundred years, secur- ing the extension of the right to vote, the protection of workers in factories, and child labor laws. And now that the democratic struggle is being fought out on a world scale, Methodism must answer the call for service and leadership in that struggle for which her birthright and experience have so splendidly fitted her.
A Vision of Wokld Need
In the chapters of this book we have lifted up our eyes to the fields to whose emancipation our church is pledged. We have scanned the horizon of China, India, Japan, and Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. We have seen men of different colors, but every color takes on a darker hue from the shadow of Christless night in which the peoples sit. We have listened to a Babel of languages, but the language of human need is one.- It is a weary world, needing many things, but needing nothing so desperately as it needs Christ. We have gone in imagination through wide-open doors, and yet the figure of a door is too passive and mechanical. It is not so much a world of open doors that stretches out be- fore us as a world of imploring hands. It is a darkened world, where over one half the human race cannot read or write a word of any language ; a sufiFering world where one half the human race is without a knowledge of medicine, surgery, hygiene, or sanitation.
It is a receptive world. H. G. Wells is a true seer when he reports: ''All mankind is seeking God. There is not a nation nor a city in the globe where men are not being urged
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at this moment by the Spirit of God in them toward the dis- covery of God. ' ' ^
For this hour, the Centenary World Program of Meth- odism is the organized strategy of the love of Christ. It must stir the church as the voice of God.
The Chukch's Need of a Woeld Crusade
We have thought of this program as one for the salva- tion of the world, and so it is. But let us not deceive our- selves into thinking that that is all. It is a necessary under- taking for the salvation of the church. The hour has struck when the Christian Church must get on with the business of establishing the kingdom of God by an aggressive warfare in deadly earnest if she is to hold the allegiance of men. In her total task she has what the world so direly needs, ^'The moral equivalent of war ' ' ; and only as she utilizes all her resources for that one tremendous objective can she lead a world which has become accustomed to a war footing. There is no other idea large enough to serve ^^as a moral equivalent to war" than the adventure of applying Chris- tianity to a desperately needy world. All the ''war vir- tues," farsighted planning, quick initiative, unselfish cour- age, disciplined leadership, obedience, e^pri^ de corps and effective cooperation, may find permanent and satisfying place in the crusade of the kingdom of God. The task to which the church calls men must be large and daring enough to make room for these virtues, else it will not appear worth while. For the war has taught us what we had almost for- gotten— that a great response can always be brought out by a great appeal. The capacity for heroism in the average man and woman when confronted by a really big demand has been almost a revelation. Merely dabbling with its task will rally no army to the standard of the church. The church
H. G. Wells, God the Invisible King.
A WORLD PROGRAM 181
must be saved by her faith, a militant and aggressive faith in the world-kingdom of God, to which she dedicates her all.
The Christian Spirit of Adventure
A program of world-evangelization and uplift such as Methodism has before her will recover what is essential in Christianity and what has possessed the strongest appeal to men since the days of Christ, the spirit of adventure. The church is an institution, of course, but Christianity is more than that. It is an adventure, an enterprise, a crusade. ^^It was intended for the arena ; it is helmed and girded for the quick encounter, it sends out its knights and men-at-arms to battle. ' ' ^ The moral and spiritual authority which we crave for Christ's church, the power to command the enthusiasm and service of men will be hers when she flings herself into and holds before them a great positive offensive movement. Mr. Clutton-Brock, in words that bite, has described the source of much of the weakness of organized Christianity.
* ^ Christianity, ' ' he says, *^has lost its power of coher- ence, its joy, its power of laughter, because it has been merely on the defensive. There we stand, entrenched in our carefully fortified lines which cover the narrow territory we are holding on to, without the strategic initiative that goes with victory.'' ^ <'^e are afraid — so many of us — to take risks and make history, afraid to think imperially in the cause of the Kingdom of God, afraid of all the reconstruc- tion and enterprise that must go with war. We rely upon apology, and dreading the disasters which might follow frontal attacks upon deeply entrenched evils, we strafe them from a distance with long-rang^ fire. Timid and divided counsels, which would bring certain failure on the Somme or at Arras, first limit and then wreck our scheme for progress and reform. We have grown contented, or are only feebly
"■ P. B. MacNutt, The Church in the Furnace, p. 17. =^ A. Clutton-Brock, The Ultimate Faith.
182 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
discontented, witli onr limitations, and year after year we settle down to onr trenches for another winter. ' ' ^
Only one course is large enough for the emergency — to do boldly what Jesns did, put the Kingdom and the Cross in the very center of our message and life. And the Cross in terms of modern life means getting under the world 's need
and burden with a force strong enough to lift it.
i
The Favoring Conditions To-day for the World Program
The unfavorable conditions are far more easily seen perhaps. The great preoccupation — the war — with its long train of financial and other calls which must be swiftly and fully met, makes the task larger and harder in many ways. But one who enters deeply into the temper of the times can- not fail to feel that there are great and new forces at work in our national life which make it a day of unprecedented opportunity for initiating a wide and sacrificial missionary undertaking which has a truly great challenge and promise.
A Day of Large Things
It is a day of large things. The leadership of the world is thinking and acting in larger terms than ever before. The scale on which resources are being mobilized in the countries at war, the new standards of thinking in military circles, in scientific realms, in the financial world, all present a tre- mendous challenge to forsake the old standards forever and to lift the program of the Kingdom into new terms greater and more expansive than those of all other organizations. In our first year of war the United States gave to humani- tarian and Christian objects for which great campaigns were conducted, $330,000,000. In no previous year had there ever been given to corresponding objects more than $30,000,000. The Red Cross in its first campaign asked for $100,000,000. It received $120,000,000. The Y. M. C. A. asked for $35,000,000 in November, 1917; it received over
^ F. B. MacNutt, The Church in the Furnace.
A WOELD PROGRAM 183
$50,000,000. People are accustomed to thinking in large dimensions ; old standards of measuring and thinking have been abandoned. In addition to that, while Christian peo- ple in the United States are in the war whole-heartedly to see it through to final victory, there is an increasing longing for something constructive rather than merely destructive, that builds rather than batters down. And in the words of Bishop Bashford, *'The Centenary World Program is the most constructive and statesmanlike project before the world to-day."
A Day Favorable to American World-Influence
When President Wilson delivered his message to Con- gress at its assembling, December 4, 1917, the telegraph lines and cables of the whole world were connected up and held in readiness, so that his words might be flashed to every corner of the earth without the loss of an unnecessary second. That network of wires running out to the waiting millions of the earth is a symbol of the new position of America to-day. President Wilson has become the enthusi- astically accepted spokesman for the Allied nations. In the words of Stephane Lauzanne, editor Le Matin, Paris, '^President Wilson's addresses are the gospel of the Allied cause. In his message of April 2, as well as in those that fol- lowed it, the Allies found the echo of their own sentiments, of their own will, their own hopes, strengthened in volume by distance.''^ From England Frederic Harrison writes: ^ ^ The American President has put the whole case of the war into unanswerable words. The material and moral forces of the Old World seem to be passing over to the New World. Mr. Wilson is now the most powerful ruler the world has seen for at least one hundred years.'' ^
Never was there throughout the world so favorable a predisposition for whatever moral and spiritual leadership America may give. The embarking of the United States in
^ New York Times, March 10, 1918.
' The Fortnightly Review, February, 1918.
184 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
an unselfish war for the rights of mankind — a war in which it has nothing to gain save the privilege of establishing the victory of simple faith, humanity, and justice^ — is a unique spectacle in history. The nation's rally to that war has brought a new glory to Old Glory — the brightest that has ever shone on its folds. The flag has become the revered symbol of the consecration of a great people to an unselfish world task of liberation. '^We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indem- nities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacri- fices we shall freely make. We are but one of the cham- pions of the rights of mankind. ' ' ^ Up to May 15, 1918, the United States had advanced to the Allied nations $5,763,- 850,000, and the total will increase every month.
What does this new position of the United States mean in terms of spiritual opportunity? Simply that God has placed before us a pathway to world-spiritual influence such as has never before been opened to a people. To fail to use it in a large way would be an unthinkable blunder.
A New Sacrificial Temper
A new sacrificial temper is abroad which is transform- ing the national life. Idealism has waxed strong in adver- sity. Multitudes who had hitherto lived selfish lives have learned the joy of helping to bear the burdens of others. We see it supremely in the thousands of men who have freely offered themselves to meet hardship, pain, and death for the nation's life.
"Blow, bugles, blow. They brought us, for our dearth, Holiness, lacked so long, and Love and Pain.
Honor has come back, as a King, to earth And paid his subjects with a royal wage ;
And nobleness walks in our common ways again ; And we have come into our heritage."^
' President Wilson's War Message, April 2, 1917.
2 Rupert Brooke, "The Dead." Published by John Lane Co. From Col- lected Poems of Rupert Brooke.
A WORLD PROGRAM 185
^^The call of national necessity, the splendid comrade- ship of service on behalf of all that makes life moral and spiritual and lifts it above a godless chaos that is ruled by brute force, the high romance of giving self away for the more-than-self which is the background of all idealism and religion, the breaking in upon smooth, easy living of a sud- den demand for sacrifice — these things have been a trumpet blast to the soul of the people during these past three years. Men who once appeared to be absorbed in trivial- ities have ridden off into the unknown with a great glory at heart that none can take away, and heroism which seemed to have vanished from the earth has looked at us again out of quiet, shining eyes, splendidly unconscious of anything but that it is fine and yet quite natural to venture all at the call of duty. We have seen the smaller interests of the state merged in the great flood of patriotism, and the partisan loy- alties of political life, while not abolished, yet certainly sub- ordinated to the higher demands of national service. Al- most everywhere we have heard a new spirit of self-devotion confessing the obligation to give one 's share, however small, to the whole effort of the nation. How different it has all been from the deadly inertia of the past P ' ^
That spirit is abroad in the land from coast to coast. Women have eagerly sought new forms of service and leaped forward to undertake responsibilities hitherto borne by tnen. Human society has never seemed more worth saving than it does now ; nor were the hearts of men ever more prepared for a great adventure.
Surely, it is God's time to place before the newly dis- covered and released capacities in the manhood and wo- manhood of America for sacrifice, leadership, and devotion, the Christian crusade for the world's true freedom, as the completion of conflict in which they are now engaged. It is a time to show them that there is a battle line that extends not merely from the English Channel to the Mediterranean,
^ F. B. MacNutt, The Church in the Furnace, p. 18.
186 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
but which stretches out against the strongholds of night and evil around the world ; and a battle which never ceases and in whose warfare the highest and most heroic qualities of men are demanded. These new gains of the spirit in the men and women of America in these days will make the re- sponse to so great a cause sure and emphatic.
The Voice of Missionary History
That such a hope has solid foundations, the voice of history amply testifies. Strange as it may seem to the super- ficial glance, war time has always been the birthday of mis- sionary advance. There is a vital relation between the for- eign missionary enterprise and the widening of men's hor- izon through sacrifice and struggle. It was during the "War of 1812 that foreign missions in America began and Judson sailed for India. ^ ' The church did not wait for the success of our navy, but sent out its missionaries because moved in some measure by the same impulse that sent forth our ship — ^by a determination to assert human freedom for America and for all the world. ' ' ^ The record of our own Civil War days is eloquent. Seldom has a people passed through a more exhausting crisis, and it might well be supposed that foreign missionary societies would languish. But that was the very period when new ones were founded. All the wo- men's missionary organizations were founded either during or at the close of the war. The dark and critical years of 1863 and 1864 witnessed a remarkable rally of the Christian people of North America to maintain their missionary enter- prises. The supporters of the American Board increased their givings by $61,000 in 1863 and by $122,000 in 1864.^ From 1852 to 1862 the average income of the Methodist Episcopal Church for home and foreign missions was under $260,000 ; in 1864 there came a further increase of $150,000, and in 1865 a still further increase of $83,000, bringing the
W. H. P. Faunce, The New Horizon of Church and State, p. 36. J. H. Oldham, The World and the Gospel, p. 62.
A WOELD PROGRAM 187
total contribution in that year to more than $618,000. The same is true in larger measure of our own time. The Lon- don Missionary Society last year cleared off a large in- debtedness and carried forward its work without diminu- tion. The Missionary Society of the Wesleyan Church in England, in the third year of the war, received the largest income that it has ever received in its entire history. The Methodist Church in Canada received a larger income than it had ever had in any year of peace.
These records prove that the support available for mis- sionary work is to be measured not by the material wealth of a people, but by the spirit which animates them. They well illustrate the truth strikingly expressed by John R. Mott: ^^The history of the world and all Christianity shows that periods of suffering have for some reason always been great creative moments with God. ' '
A Day of Wokld Hokizons
The United States since 1914, and more completely since her entry into the war, has been forced to think in world terms. The horizon of the mind of the average citizen has been pushed back till it touches the ends of the earth. The map of the world has been really studied for the first time by a hundred million people. More than that, millions have become acutely conscious for the first time since they trudged away to school with a big geography under their arm, that there was such a thing as a map of the world. Geography has suddenly leaped out of the character of a text-book for the grammar grades into that of a gripping romance. To the average man a few years ago Bagdad was in the Arabian Nights — nowhere else. Jerusalem had its sole existence in the Bible. He could not tell whether Ukraine was a river or a breakfast food, and, more than that, he did not care. Multitudes of Americans have lived almost as remote from European problems as the Pequot Indians before the Pilgrims landed. But now the great con-
188 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
flagration in Europe lias lighted up the four corners of the globe. What comes into our dinner table depends on what happens in Russia and the number of ships in South Amer- ican ports. The map of the world is replacing the map of the township and the township mind is bursting its bonds.
Physical contacts have helped to widen the horizon. The gathering of millions of men in our own country into great cantonments has been an incalculable educational and social force in the removal of provincialism and mind-suft'o- cating prejudice. Letters home from Americans over the sea, in contact with new countries and new races, have pushed out the walls of a million homes until a large part of the world begins to be visible from the sitting room window. The recent beautiful words of a Canadian soldier throw a vivid light on the process of thought which is going on all over Xorth America :
^^If where an Englishman is buried on a foreign soil is called ' a little bit of England, ' then we may call the Ypres salient a mighty bit of Canada. If anyone were to inquire what is the most important city of Canada, we might answer unhesitatingly, ^ The city of Ypres. ' The hosts of our young men who have fallen in battles round that city have hallowed the name for all Canadian hearts, and rendered the place ours in the deepest sense. Montreal, and Halifax, and Van- couver are among our lesser cities, but Ypres, where so many of our brave are buried, shall remain for us the city of our everlasting possessions.'' ^
This process has made more easy the task of spiritual- izing this gigantic lesson in geography. That is just what the missionary undertaking is — spiritual geography. When a man has learned to pronounce Ypres and Prezmysl (if any such exist) and Mesopotamia, there is a gTeater chance that he will be able to pronounce Chengiu and Benares and Sin- gapore and realize that they are not merely dots on the map in some forgotten text-book, but seething centers of life
Arthur H. Chute, North American Review, March, 1918, p. 227.
A WORLD PROGRAM 189
which have a vital relation to him. The spots on the map must be put on our conscience, and there never was a more favorable atmosphere in which this transfer may be made than now. ^'When the thoughts of men are widened by the process of the suns, then is the time to widen the endeavor of the Christian Church. ' '
The Wokld at Ouk Dinner Table
It is when we sit down at our dinner table, however, that the new horizon becomes most evident. America in her food conservation campaign has been keeping a world boarding house, and the process has high spiritual values. New boards have been put in the table to lengthen it out so that our Allies and the hungry peoples of the earth may sit down with us, and strange faces gather at every meal. The food- saving regulations are in effect a knock at the door at the beginning of every meal and the government saying to us, ^^Move along a little closer at the table. Here are six French orphans who must dine with you to-day.'' And when in a thin, weak voice they ask, ^'Please pass the sugar,'' we pass it, even though we have only one spoonful, or none at all, for our coifee. At the next meal it is four hearty English soldiers whom we are feeding by our saving. They have been doing hard work and need meat and wheat, and we pass it to them, keeping the bran muffins for our- selves. Multitudes are rising up at these demands and throwing open the door to these hungry guests and crying, *^In the name of God, welcome!" The United States is making an experiment in organized sacrifice. The forces born out of a demand for food as a universal need are gen- erating new values in society which may be effective in turn- ing the scale to victory. They will be effective for a longer task than that too, for they are the fundamental virtues necessary to the extension of the kingdom of God. It is in- conceivable that after having had the world at our table for years, reminded at every meal of the world fellowship of
190 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
need, France's need and Belgium's, Poland's and Ar- menia's, as well as our own, we can ever again sit down in the little dining room as it was before, and shut the world from our thought. America has already appeared in a new role among the nations as the Wheat Bringer, and the expe- rience is preparing her in a real way for the larger task to which she must come — that of spreading the Bread of Life before the world and bidding the lame, the halt, the blind of the East and West to sit down at the great democratic feast of God.
Accomplishing the Task
THE discovery OE GOD
The discovery of a world — a world so needy as ours — is a terrible thing unless there goes with it something else, the discovery of God. That is the center of the Centenary undertaking — a new discovery of God. It is not money pri- marily. Money will not be given without the Spirit of God to prompt it ; nor can it be used fruitfully without the Spirit of God to direct. The neiv world-consciousness must be matched by a new God-consciousness. It is a vast foreign missionary program and is paralleled by one equally great for home missions. In the face of such a task, without God we can do nothing. That is the chief glory of the task. The tragedy of a little task is that frequently a man or a group of men can accomplish it and there it ends. The glory of a big task is that men are utterly unable to accomplish it and are thrown back on God in utter dependence. That brings them into contact with the only power sufficient for getting God 's work done in the world — the fullness of God himself. It is futile for us to find again the world-horizon of Christ if we do not find also the vantage point from which he scanned it, that of an empowering fellowship with God. The whole Centenary task of which every other aspect is an expression is to increase the spiritual energy of the church by the full- ness of spiritual life. It was that release of power which was always in Paul's mind when he thought of the church
A WORLD PROGRAM 191
— *^Tlie church which is his body, the fullness of Him that fillethallinall/'
THE EESPONSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL
With the far horizon of Christ must go the immediate focus of his call on the individual. It is not ^^the church'' which can do this task; it is no mythical ''they" who can do it. It is we who must do it. It is I who must do it. Christ lifted up his eyes afar and beheld the fields white unto har- vest; but he also always looked squarely into the eyes of the individual he spoke to, and flung his great imperatives. Come, Be, Do, and Go, into the heart of the man before him. The evangelization of the whole world demands tine whole church.
This truth of the dependence of victory upon every man has been greatly sharpened by the war. If the war has resulted in the discovery of the world as one, it has made another discovery equally great at the other end of the scale — the discovery of the common man. It is not too much to say that among the many things which distinguish this war from all others, one is the emergence of the common man. The strongest weapon in the hands of either side is the capacity to starve. Victory depends on the capacity and willingness of the whole people to suffer and sacrifice. It is fought by the individual in every walk of life rather than generals and leaders and governments. ' ' The war is being fought to-day by all the nations in the most solid formation imaginable — men, women, and children all roped together after the fashion of the Ancient Cimbri when going into battle.''^
A Militant Faith
Christ's warfare in the world is a people's warfare. If the Centenary Program is to mean a successful epoch in that victory, it will be only through the service and sacrifice of every disciple.
^ Simeon Strunsky, Yale Review, October, 1917.
192 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
It means that the militant conceptions of our faith which run all through the New Testament shall achieve a new dominion over our lives. "The army/' says the first of the regulations and orders for the British army, "is composed of those who have undertaken a definite liability for serv- ices.'' So is the church. That liability must be recognized by more than the comparatively few. ^ ^ Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it ; . . . that he might pre- sent it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." Christ's church must not be a church in which men enlist for a lifelong warfare, and then pass into a permanent reserve which is never called up for active service. Its bases must not be thronged with those who wear its uniform but refuse to go up into the line. The call of the hour is for the resources of the whole church, multiplied by a new energizing of God, to be lined up to the whole task of the Kingdom.
A NEW EEALITY IN" EELIGION
A new reality in our religion must be our primary pre- paration to meet the day. We cannot be
"Light half -believers in our casual creeds Who never deeply felt or clearly willed,"
and be what our own time demands of us as followers of Christ. The only method of growth that the kingdom of Christ has ever known has been by the overflow of an abounding life. And as it was in the beginning it is now and ever shall be. To nourish and sustain that new reality of faith, the Centenary Movement calls for a new practice of prayer. To express that reality it calls for a new practice of stewardship.
PRAYER
The call is for a world-fellowship of intercession throughout the church. It will mean for many entirely new adventures in prayer, and prayer is an adventure — the most
A WORLD PROGRAM 193
rewarding and the most enabling adventure in life. Prayer is not saying religious words with our eyes shut and a ter- minal ^^Amen" attached. It is a venturing forth of the soul like the voyage of Columbus across a great unchartered deep. And as the evidence that it really finds the Father that it seeks, it brings back the marvelous treasure of a changed life and a reenf orced might for service. "We read in the Gospels that when Jesus looked out over the whitened fields ready for harvest, the first thing he said was, ^'Pray." His order must be ours. ^'It is in agonizing in- tercession that the real conflict in our time is to be won. Rivers of vitality have their rise in souls that are on their knees. The deep and mighty prayers of the church are the birth pangs of the race. ' ' ^
STEWARDSHIP
Stewardship is organized devotion. It must be a stew- ardship of life — ^holding our personality and all its powers as a trust. For many it will mean a dedication of life to spe- cific service. The church needs eighteen hundred new men every year to keep her pulpits adequately manned. The Board of Foreign Missions has declared the need of five hundred new missionaries every year to carry out the Cen- tenary Program ; and the Home Board requires no less. It is a call for the strong, daring leaders. ' ' Send forth the best ye breed'' is the world's asking.
It must be a stewardship of money — a definitely planned and scanned allotment of a sacrificial proportion of money regularly given to God. We must bear in our ledger, in our cash book, ' ' the marks of the Lord Jesus. ' '
The Available Resources
The Methodist Episcopal Church is easily able to make the offering required to meet the financial asking of the total world Program of Foreign and Home Missions. The budget
^ J. H. Jowett, The Church in Time of War, p. 122.
194 CHEISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
of forty million dollars in five years for foreign missions would require an average weekly offering of only four and one half cents per member! The present combined offering of churches and Sunday schools is an average of less than half a cent a week per member ! The total of eighty millions of dollars for both Home and Foreign Mission program can be raised by an average gift of nine cents per member each week. Surely this is not a staggering amount! The chief difficulty to be overcome is that at present the total offering for all benevolences comes from a small per cent of the mem- bership.
^'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.'' God is still creating. The loom of Providence is moving swiftly. It took one hundred years of missionary effort to win the first million converts to Protestant Chris- tianity. It took twelve to win the second. It took six to win the third. In the melting and reshaping world to-day the movement of the Kingdom is accelerated. Never was the creative hand of God more clearly visible than in this hour. What more glorious destiny could there be for anyone than to become in deed and truth a fellow worker, a fellow creator of the new world he is shaping?
"Only have vision and bold enterprise, No task too great for men of unsealed eyes. The future stands with outstretched hands ; Press on and claim its high supremacies."
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION CHAPTER I
1. How would you answer the contention that the war has shown the failure of Christianity?
2. Do you believe that war can be destroyed by in- crease of education, science, commerce, or law! Give rea- sons for your answer.
3. Do you think that Christian principles, if they were allowed free action, could prevent war! What principles?
4. In what ways do Christian missions make for peace ? Can you give any examples f
5. In what ways has the war shown the. unity and in- terdependence of the world I
6. What effects of the war in changing conditions of life here in the United States have come under your obser- vation?
7. How would you define ' ^ democracy ' ' ? Why do you consider it worth fighting for?
8. What teachings of Jesus have been effective in pro- moting democracy ? Why have they been so ?
9. What is the difference between autocracy and de- mocracy? Which is the nearer to Christian principles? Why?
10. What different institutions or forces have made democracy and freedom permanent in the United States ?
11. What are the imperfections of democracy in the United States ? How may they be corrected ?
12. What is the effect of a democracy in a country where people are not ready for it?
13. What does a nation need in order to be fitted for democracy?
14. How does Christianity supply those needs?
15. What is meant by a ^ Aplastic'' condition in the life
195
196 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
of a nation? Wliat evidences are there in different coun- tries of such conditions now?
16. Why is there a better opportunity for the extension of Christianity now than a generation from now?
17. In what way would you show that missions are a completion of the nation's task in the war?
CHAPTER n
Latin Ameeica
1. What difference in ideals and purposes was there between the early settlers of North and South America? What effect did these differences have on the development of the two continents ?
2. What reasons are there for expecting an immense immigration to South America in this century?
3. What are the reasons for the comparative neglect of South America by the United States.
4. What are the causes of the present new interest ? In what ways has that interest been expressed?
5. What has been the effect of the large illiteracy on the democracy of South America ?
6. What would you say to the contention that South America is a Roman Catholic continent and Protestants ought to keep out of it ?
7. What are some of the characteristics of Roman Catholicism in South America? How does it differ from the Catholic Church as we know it in the United States ?
8. What are the reasons for the prevalence of agnosti- cism in South America ?
9. Why does the United States have a peculiar respon- sibility for the welfare of South America?
10. How can it best meet that responsibility?
11. What conditions seem to you to promise most suc- cess to Christian missions in South America now?
12. Mexico is one of the richest lands in the world,
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION 197
probably the very richest in the world in proportion to its population. Why are the majority of the people so poor?
13. What do you consider the good results of the Mex- ican revolution?
14. Why is it a matter of intense importance to the United States what Mexico becomes I
15. How does Mexico stand in reference to the neces- sary conditions of a safe democracy discussed in Chapter I?
16. What are the hopeful conditions for the develop- ment of a strong Protestant Christianity in Mexico 1
17. How would the Centenary Program of Methodism for Latin America affect the prospects of democracy there ?
CHAPTER ni
China
1. How would you compare the probability of winning China to Christianity to the probability of the early church's winning the Roman empire ? Which do you think the harder task! Why do you think so?
2. Compare the Renaissance, or Revival of Learning, in Europe at the end of the Middle Ages with the awaken- ing in China.
3. What were the causes of the revolution by which China became a republic? What part had Christian mis- sions in it?
4. Why does the fact that China is a republic increase the obligation at this time to strengthen the Christian Church there?
5. In what necessities of a strong and safe democracy is China weak or lacking entirely?
6. How does the Centenary Program of Methodism 'aim to strengthen these deficiences ?
7. Why is the opportunity for the Christianization of China one that will not wait for a long period of years? What elements in the present opportunity are transient?
8. What advantages of popularity do missionaries en-
198 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
joy to-day in China? What are the reasons for it? Will it always be so ?
9. ^^y is the new feeling of patriotism an advantage to Christianity? How may it possibly become an obstacle?
10. What will be the future character of China if it does not become a Christian nation? What effect would such a result have on the peace and moral progress of the world?
11. What are some of the evil effects which contact with Western civilization has had on China ?
12. Which do you regard as the harder task — the abo- lition of opium in China or the prohibition of liquor in the United States?
13. ^Hiat reasons are there favorable to the influence of the United States in educational and spiritual influence in China?
14. What features of China's history make educa- tion of supreme importance ?
15. What main lines of service are planned in the Cen- tenary Program for China? Which one would you prefer to engage in ?
16. What are the particular possibilities of influence in the ^ve university centers involved in the Centenary Pro- gram?
17. If China's faith in her old religions is destroyed and Christianity is not put in their place, will she be as well off as before ?
18. What are the reasons why many people believe China may be made a Christian nation within a century ?
CHAPTER IV
India
1. Which is more significant for the future of Chris- tianity in the Orient — the mass movement in India or the turning to Christ of the educated classes in China! Why?
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION 199
2. Which do you think is the greatest sorrow, that of a widow in America or in India? Why?
3. In which foreign country do you think the worst degradation of womanhood prevails ? Why do you think so !
4. What will be the result if the masses who are com- ing into the Christian Church in India through the mass movement are not given Christian training and education 1
5. What will be the effects if those now waiting for baptism are permanently refused through lack of mission- aries and teachers?
6. Is India ready for independent self-government now? How can Christian missions prepare the way for self-government ?
7. What would be some of the changes in the life of an American city if the caste system prevailed here ?
8. How does the Christian gospel promote democracy?
9. What is the effect of the doctrine of the brotherhood of man on the caste system?
10. Why would complete democratic government be unsafe in India to-day?
11. How does the caste system of India make mass movements possible?
12. What are some of the reasons for the mass move- ment in India ?
CHAPTER V
Africa
1. What relation has Africa to the future peace of the world?
2. Why is it harder to win the native Africans from Mohammedanism to Christianity than to win them directly from paganism ?
3. What have been the good results of European rule in Africa ? What have been the evil results ?
4. What are some reasons for the successful advance of Mohammedanism among the native Africans ?
200 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
5. "What are the evil results of the Mohammedan faith?
6. What answer would you make to the common state- ment that Mohammedanism is the religion best suited to the African native ?
7. If you were to go as a missionary to some one of the great fields would you choose Africa f Give reasons for your answer.
8. How does the collapse of the political power of Islam favorably atfect the missionary opportunity in Africa?
9. What would you consider to be a truly Christian attitude in the government of African colonies by European countries ?
10. What have been some of the reasons which have made the evangelization of Africa a slower process than in some other continents ?
CHAPTER VI
Japak", the Philippines, and Malaysia
1. What are the particular reasons why the future of Christianity in the Orient depends so much on its success in Japan?
2. How does the Pacific Ocean correspond to the Medi- terranean Sea in the life of the world in the beginning of the Christian era?
3. In what ways do you think the friendship between Japan and the United States can be strengthened?
4. Wliat effect do you think the war is having on our friendship with Japan?
5. What are the moral dangers to which Japan is ex- posed and how can Christianity meet them?
6. Show on the map the strategic location of Korea with reference to the through routes of travel from Europe to Asia.
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION 201
7. What are some of the benefits which American occu- pation of the Philippines has brought to the people?
8. Do you think it wise to grant immediate independ- ence to the Filipinos! Why do you think as you do?
9. What would be the effect on the future prospects of Christianity in Asia of a failure to win the Filipinos I
10. How has the American government in the Philip- pines affected the democratic movement in Asia ?
11. What reasons are there for the emigration of Chinese to Malaysia?
12. What are the advantages for missionary influence in a country being newly settled !
13. Why is Singapore so influential a point with refer- ence to the rest of Asia?
14. What effect would the extension of Christianity among the Chinese of Malaysia have on the Christian enter- prise in China itself?
CHAPTER VII
EUEOPE
1. What are some of the handicaps which a state-con- trolled church has in the proclamation of a full and free gospel ?
2. What are the greatest obstacles to a permanent peace in Europe ? How would the extension of a vital Christianity affect these obstacles ?
3. What are some of the reasons for the failure of the Russian Revolution to establish a strong, safe government?
4. In what ways do you think the spiritual task of re- conciliation after the war may be performed? What fits the Methodism of Europe for sharing in that work?
5. What is the necessity of having a vital spiritual church in Germany after the war?
6. What characteristics of the Russian people seem to promise hope for a future great nation?
202 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
7. What have been the effects on the Russian people of the long tyranny of the Tsars I
8. What has been the character of the Russian Ortho- dox Church!
- 9. What are the chief religious needs of Russia, to strengthen it for success in democratic government?
10. What changes are being brought about by the revolution in the Russian Church?
11. How can Protestant missions influence this reli- gious situation!
12. What reciprocal effect would a large extension of Protestant Christianity in Italy have on the United States ?
13. What effect would it have on the democracy of Italy?
CHAPTER VIII
1. What are some of the results of the first century of Methodist missions? How has this effort in foreign lands affected the growth and life of the church at home ?
2. Why was the Methodist Revival in England, under the leadership of John Wesley and Whitefield and others, an influence in bettering social conditions and securing greater political freedom?
3. What is meant by ^'a moral equivalent for war''? In what ways can the missionary enterprise of Christianity appeal to the same virtues which are developed by war? Why has it not done so more in the past?
4. What do you think are the principal obstacles in the way of making possible an advanced missionary program at the present time?
5. Wliat are the characteristics of this time which are favorable to an increased interest in aggressive foreign missions?
6. What would you say to a man who argues, ^^We ought not to think of or plan for anything except the war"?
7. What would you say to a man who says, ^'I give all
QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION 203
my contributions to the Red Cross ; I haven't a cent for mis- sions''?
8. What evidences can you give out of personal expe- rience of the increase of men's knowledge and interest in the rest of the world due to the war? How much geog- raphy have you learned from the war I
9. How do you explain the fact that war times have always been times of increased missionary activity and giv- ing?
10. Why is the United States to-day in a favorable position for world spiritual influence? Would it have had such a position if it had stayed out of the war ?
11. What is the relation of prayer to the world pro- gram of Christianity?
12. What is the meaning of ^ ^ stewardship ' ' ?
13. Wliat do you think constitutes a ^ ^ call ' ' for Chris- tian service abroad or at home?
14. How can the sympathies and generosity which the war has aroused be conserved after the war is over?
15. What appear to you the strongest reasons for a thorough mobilization of Methodism for her world cam- paign?
204 CHRISTIAN CRUSADE FOR DEMOCRACY
SUGGESTIONS FOE COLLATERAL READING
The Call of a World Task. By F. Lovell Murray.
The Soul of Democracy. By Edward Howard Griggs.
The Churches of Christ in War Time. Edited by C. S. Macfarland.
South American Neighbors. By Homer C. Stuntz.
The Renaissance of Latin America. By Harlan P. Beach.
The Changing Chinese. By Edward A. Ross.
China : An Interpretation. By James W. Bashf ord.
The New Era in Asia.- By Sherwood Eddy.
The Lure of Africa. Cornelius H. Patton.
India, Malaysia, and the Philippines. W. F. Oldham.
Since this course deals with the developments and movements of the hour, the best reference material will be found in monthly periodi- cals, particularly the World Outlook and the Missionary Review of the World and the weekly Christian Advocates.
The above books may be obtained from the publishers of this volume.
THE MISSIONARY CENTENARY
Booklets and Folders of Helpful Information
The Place of Prayer in God's Plan of World Conquest. By James M.
Campbell. 5 cents. Preparing for Tomorrow. Free.
The Next Hundred Years. By W. E. Doughty. Free. The Centenary World Program: What It Is and What It Propoaea.
Free. Foreign Missions and World Democracy. 10 cents. Why Launch a World Program in War Times. By John R. Mott. Free.
All the above will be sent on receipt of 15 cents.
Address, Joint Centenary Committee, 111 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.
TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WORLD DEMOCRACY MEANS
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