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PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY
FROM THE LIBRARY OF ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER
BV 2060 .B72 1904
Brain, Belle Marvel, 1359
1933. Holding the ropes
HOLDING THE ROPES
A
HOLDING T ROPES:
-,
%/CAL t
Missionary Methods for Workers at Home
BY
BELLE M. BRAIN
AUTHOR OF " FUEL FOR MISSIONARY FIRES," " THE TRANSFOR- MATION OF HAWAII," " FIFTY MISSIONARY PROGRAMS," ETC.
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON I9O4
'¥
&
Copyright, 1903 and 1904,
BY
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
{Printed in the United States of America)
Published June, 1904
" We saw there was a gold mine in India," said Andrew Fuller, in 1793, after listening to the stirring words of John Thomas, who had been pleading for India, " but it seemed almost as deep as the center of the earth. 1 Who will venture to go explore it ? ' we asked."
" I will go down," responded William Carey, " but remember that you must hold the ropes."
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Bible in the Missionary Meeting . 1
II. Prayer in the Missionary Meeting . . 20
III. Music in the Missionary Meeting . . 41
IV. How to Interest the Individual — A Study
of the Turning-points of Great Mis- sionary Careers 61
V. Missionary Training in the Home
VI. The Missionary Library
VII. The Mission Study Class .
VIII. Missions in the Sunday School .
IX. The Money Problem .
X. Practical Work for Missionary Societies 156
XI. Who's Who in Missions .... 173
XII. Great Statesmen in the Witness-Box . 180
XIII. Great Thoughts of Master Missionaries 206
74
90
106
122
137
Hn irntrofcuctorp WLotb
Thousands of Christians must remain at home for every one who is permitted to go to the front, but they are not therefore excused from active service. Christ's " Great Com- mission " is binding upon all alike, and they must go by proxy who cannot go in person. Those who are " Holding the Ropes " have an equal responsibility with those who are en- gaged in the hand to hand work of rescue.
There are many encouraging indications that Christians at home are beginning to realize this responsibility more than ever before. The growing interest in the need of the non-Chris- tian world and in the progress of the Kingdom of God is shown by the development of mission- ary periodicals, by the remarkable multiplica- tion of missionary books, and in the large num- ber of classes that have recently been formed among women and young people for the sys- tematic study of missions. Some knowledge of ix
AN INTRODUCTORY WORD
the world-field is coming to be considered an essential part of a Christian education.
But it is one thing to have missionary facts at one's command or to hold a meeting for the study of the progress of the Kingdom ; it is quite another to make those facts live, or to conduct the meeting so that it will have real in- terest and power. The study of missions is a science, and the management of a missionary meeting is an art.
Not long ago we saw a prescription war- ranted to " kill a missionary meeting." It was not a patent medicine of which any trust has the monopoly, for there are too many home- made concoctions of a similar sort which do quite as effective execution. The prescription may be stated somewhat as follows :
Take one dimly lighted church parlor, at a tempera- ture not to exceed sixty degress; add a few people — the older the better — drawn together by a strong sense of duty and an apologetic announcement. Begin to stir to slow music or a formal prayer at from five to twenty minutes late; drop in one at a time, ad infinitum, some not over-fresh facts relating to the geography and cus- toms of any mission field. Close up all outlets and let stand, but do not fail to extract a few pennies from each atom present.
AN INTRODUCTORY WORD
Miss Brain has given us in this volume an antidote and a substitute for all such treat- ment. If adopted and adapted, we believe that her suggestions cannot fail to resurrect dead meetings and to make them living forces in the evangelization of the world. There is no excuse for a dull or dead missionary meeting; it ought to be the most inspiring and interesting gather- ing imaginable. The author of the following chapters tells us how to make them such. Her suggestions are not based on mere theories and impractical ideals, for her methods have been tested and have proved successful. The papers were originally prepared for The Missionary Review of the World, and first appeared in the pages of that magazine. They have therefore already been widely used, and there have been many urgent requests for their publication in a form adapted for frequent reference. As a result of wide experience and systematic study Miss Brain has been able to give us a volume which meets a real need, and which will enable us to realize some of our ideals.
Delavan L. Pierson. Brooklyn, New York.
xl
Ube Bible in tbe Missionary /l&eetina
The greatest of all missionary books is the Bible. Without it there would be no missionary work. The most helpful of all missionary libraries is the " little library of sixty-six small books, usually bound together as one great Book, which has been the inspiration of every missionary and missionary worker since the world began."
Too little use is made of the Bible in the mis- sionary meeting. In many societies, where the most elaborate preparation is made for the re- mainder of the program, little or no thought is given to the Scripture lesson. It is true that reading the Bible at the opening of the mis- sionary meeting is an almost universal custom, but too often it is done merely as a matter of form and not with the definite purpose of accom- plishing something. The idea seems to prevail that if the Bible is read, no matter how, a holy service has been performed and a blessing is sure
HOLDING THE ROPES
to follow. Yet to be effective the Scripture les- son must be carefully and prayerfully selected, impressively read, and its teachings forcibly applied. Otherwise it will make but little im- pression and leave scarcely a memory behind.
The writer recalls a missionary meeting where the Scripture lesson, selected hastily at the last moment, was read in so perfunctory a manner that less than half an hour later, when a test was made, not a single person present was able to tell what had been read! It was one of the most striking missionary passages in the Bible, yet it had made no impression whatever.
On another well-remembered occasion a mis- sionary worker of no little prominence was asked to read the Scripture lesson at a missionary con- ference. The passage selected was obscure, with seemingly no bearing whatever on the cause of missions. As he made no comment and drew no parallels, his hearers are still in ignorance of the lessons he intended to convey. Selecting in- appropriate passages is, unfortunately, not an uncommon failing. The writer recently heard of a leader of a children's mission band who opened her meeting by reading an entire chapter from the book of Lamentations ! 2
BIBLE IN MISSIONARY MEETING
At still another meeting, the leader, who, by the way, was the pastor of the church, contented himself by having the congregation turn to the back of the hymn-book and read a short psalm not specially missionary in character. This practise is becoming so prevalent, and is such a poor makeshift for a Scripture lesson, that one could almost wish that the psalms might be omitted from future editions of the hymn-book. Responsive readings and concert readings can be made effective, but it requires special care to make them so.
Instances such as the foregoing, which could probably be duplicated by any one in the habit of attending missionary meetings, go to show the careless and ineffectual way in which the Scriptures are used. The result is a great loss of power.
THE BIBLE IN THE DEVOTIONAL SERVICE
There are many profitable ways of using the Bible in the devotional service of the missionary meeting. The wise leader will sometimes use one, sometimes another.1
1 Every missionary worker should have a " Missionary Bible," such as that described by William D. Murray,
3
HOLDING THE ROPES
To be effectual the Scripture lesson need not be long. Sometimes a single text, followed by a few pointed remarks, will make a deeper im- pression than a whole chapter aimlessly read. For example : " Carest thou not that we perish?5' (Mark iv: 38). These words of the disciples to the Master on the Sea of Galilee may well be taken as the cry of the forty million heathen who die every year in foreign lands. Forty million will die during the ensuing year. They are passing away at the rate of one hun- dred thousand a day. Every tick of the watch sounds the death-knell of a heathen soul. With every breath we draw four souls pass away
in the Sunday-School Times of January 15, 1898. It is an ordinary copy of the Bible in which he has gathered four different kinds of material: 1. Autographs of missionaries and missionary workers. 2. Charts giving facts and statistics. 3. Sayings of great missionaries. 4. Striking missionary texts. " This Bible has been nearly ten years in growing," says Mr. Murray. " Its first usefulness might be called personal. It has in- creased my interest in missions, it has made my prayers definite, it has made me more efficient as a worker in the mission cause. Another use has been public. I have found here material for missionary talks, and the things which have helped me have been where 1 could pass them on to others."
BIBLE IN MISSIONARY MEETING
never having heard of Christ. " Carest thou not that they perish? "
Uniting two texts somewhat similar in thought sometimes impresses a stronger lesson than using either alone. For example :
" I must be about my Father's business " (Luke ii : 49 ) .
"The King's business requireth haste" (I. Samuel xxi:8).
Also,
"Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it" (John ii:5). " See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh" (Hebrews xii:25).
Selecting a " golden text " from the Scripture lesson for the day and placing special emphasis upon it is an excellent plan. Such passages as the following are adapted to this purpose:
The Feeding of the Five Thousand (Matthew xiv:15- 21). Golden Text: " Give ye them to eat" (v. 16).
The Story of the Lepers at the Siege of Samaria (II. Kings vii:3-16). Golden Text: "We do not well; this day is a day of good tidings and we hold our peace " (v. 9).
Our Lord's Inheritance (Psalm ii). Golden Text: " Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine
5
HOLDING THE ROPES
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession "(v. 8).
Whenever possible it is well to make the Scrip- ture lesson appropriate to the topic for the day. For a meeting on the mountain people of the South, read the parable of the lost sheep (Matthew xviii : 11-13), impressing the thought that missionaries to these people have literally gone to the mountains to " seek that which has gone astray." For a meeting on the Chinese and Japanese in America, use the story of Philip and the Ethiopean eunuch (Acts viii: 26-39) — the story of a " home missionary work for a foreign missionary subject." Like the eunuch, many a converted Chinese or Japanese has gone "on his way rejoicing" and carried the Gospel to his countrymen in a distant land. For a Christmas meeting, read " The First Christmas Gifts " (Matthew ii : 1-11), and call attention to the significant fact that the first offerings to the Lord Jesus were brought by Gentile worshipers.
Making slight changes in familiar texts, adapting them to present-day conditions, is another excellent plan. Texts showing the
6
BIBLE IN MISSIONARY MEETING
world-embracing character of Christ's mission can be made most effective by changing them to suit the attitude of various classes toward the cause of missions. Irreverent tho it may sound, John Smith, who does not believe in missions, either home or foreign, and has no concern for any soul save his own, reads thus : " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save John Smith." The member of the First Fres- byterian Church, who believes in working within the limits of his own church walls but nowhere else, reads thus : " The field is the First Presby- terian Church." The resident of New York City who believes in city missions, but does nothing toward saving his nation or the world, reads thus : " The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of New York City." The citizen of the United States who believes in home missions but not in foreign, reads thus : " God so loved the United States that He gave His only begotten Son." Only those who believe in world-wide missions read thus : " This is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."
Following the Scripture lesson with a few terse questions is an excellent way of concen-
1
HOLDING THE ROPES
trating thought upon it and bringing out its teachings. The following questions on I. Co- rinthians xvi : 2 have been suggested :
1. How often are we to give? (Upon the first day of the week.)
2. Who are to be givers? (Every one of you.)
3. What method should be used in giving? (Let every one of you lay by him in store — i. e., set apart a certain portion.)
4. What is to be the measure of Christian liberality? (As God hath prospered.)
It is sometimes a good plan to call upon the society to give the Scripture lesson. Either with or without previous notice, let the leader ask those present to name some of the things given to God by prominent Bible characters (Isaiah gave himself, Hannah gave Samuel, the widow gave her mite, the little lad his " five loaves and two small fishes," Dorcas her needle, etc.). This is a most helpful lesson. For another meeting those present may be asked to repeat some of Ihe promises to which Judson referred when he said : " The prospect is as bright as the promises of God."
A very effective lesson, contrasting the idols of the heathen with the Jehovah God of the 8
BIBLE IN MISSIONARY MEETING
Christian, may be given as follows : Read Isaiah xl:9-31, describing the majesty and power of God, and give special emphasis to the words, "Behold your God!" (v. 9). Then, holding up an idol, say, " Behold the heathen's god ! " and read Psalm cxv : 4-8.
STUDYING THE BIBLE AS A MISSIONARY BOOK
In addition to reading the Scriptures during the devotional service, it would be well for every missionary organization to devote some time to the systematic study of the Bible as a mission- ary book. Because so few have done this, the average Christian has no clear conception of the place of missions in the plan of God.
Many, even among missionary workers, are so ignorant of the Scriptural foundations on which missionary operations rest, and of the great promises and prophecies by which the ultimate triumph of world-wide missions is as- sured, that their faith is shaken by every tem- porary wind of adversity that seems to threaten the missionary cause. Such events as the Boxer outbreak or the capture of Miss Stone fill them with apprehension concerning the final outcome of the work.
9
HOLDING THE ROPES
Half an hour, or even a quarter of an hour, devoted to a systematic study of the Bible at the monthly missionary meetings, not as a part of the devotional service, but as a regular num- ber on the program, would do much to correct all this. The result would be a band of strong and reliable workers, able to give a reason for the hope that is in them, and standing strong in the faith that the day will come when the kingdoms of the earth shall have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.
Two series of lessons, each containing twelve studies, are here recommended for the use of societies or individuals willing to take up such work. The first was suggested by a study of the opening chapters of Smith's " Short His- tory of Missions " and Barnes' " Two Thou- sand Years of Missions Before Carey." The second is taken from Beach's admirable little text-book, " New Testament Studies in Mis- sions."
I. — THE GENESIS OF MISSIONS
1. The Missionary Covenant: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blest" (Genesis xxii:18).
2. The Missionary Messages of the Prophets.
3. Missions in the Hebrew Hymn-book.
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BIBLE IN MISSIONARY MEETING
4. The Messiah Missionary.
5. Missionary Key-notes of the First Christian Hymns: The Benedictus (Luke i: 68-79); the Annunciation to the Shepherds (Luke ii: 10-12); and the Nunc Dimittis (Luke ii: 29-32).
6. The Great Commission (Matthew xxviii: 18-20; Mark xvi:15; Luke xxiv: 46-49; John xxi: 21, 22; Acts i:8).
7. The Birthday of Christian Missions (Acts ii: 1-41 : " Fifteen nations heard the Gospel, and a missionary force of three thousand was created in a day").
8. The Divine Program of Missions (Acts i:8).
9. " Beginning at Jerusalem " — the City Mission Period (Acts ii : 42-viii : 1 ) .
10. "In all Judea and in Samaria" — the Home Mis- sion Period (Acts viii.-xii.).
11. "Unto the uttermost parts of the earth"— the Foreign Mission Period (Acts xiii.-xxviii.).
12. Missionary lessons from the Epistles.
II. — NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES IN MISSIONS
Part. I. — Missions in the light of the Gospels
1. Parallels between the life and work of Jesus and those of modern missionaries.
2. Gospel teachings concerning the Gentile nations.
3. Messengers to the world.
4. Missionary fruitfulness.
5. Hardness and opposition in missionary service.
6. The personal call to missionary work.
Part II. — St. Paul and the Gentile World
7. The development of Paul the missionary.
8. Condition of the Gentile world in St. Paul's time.
11
HOLDING THE ROPES
9. St. Paul's missionary aims and methods.
10. St. Paul as a missionary teacher.
11. Difficulties encountered by St. Paul in prosecuting his work.
12. What St. Paul and his associates accomplished toward the evangelization of the Gentile world in their own generation.
STORIES OF SPECIAL TEXTS
Tho not always distinctively missionary in character, texts and Scripture passages asso- ciated with great missionaries or connected with important events in missionary history can be used with profit in the missionary meeting.
Ezekiel xxxvii:9, 10, containing the words, " Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live," is notable as the text of the first sermon preached in the native tongue on the American continent. The preacher was John Eliot ; the date, October 28, 1646. By a strange coincidence the name of the chief in whose wigwam the sermon was preached was Waban, the Indian word signify- ing " breath " or " wind." This made a deep impression on the red men, and was regarded as a good omen by them.
Isaiah liv : 2, 3 was the text of Carey's famous sermon preached at Nottingham, May 12
BIBLE IN MISSIONARY MEETING
31, 1792, which resulted in the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society, and ushered in the remarkable period known as the missionary cen- tury. The two divisions of this sermon — (1) "Expect great things from God," (2) "At- tempt great things for God " — have become famous mottoes of the Church. Another text associated with Carey is Psalm xlvi : 10. On the Lord's day following the disastrous fire at Serampore, which destroyed property valued at nearly $50,000, including his valuable Sanscrit and other translations, he preached on the words, " Be still, and know that I am God," and set before his hearers two thoughts: (1) " God has a sovereign right to dispose of us as he pleases," (2) " we ought to acquiesce in all that God does with us and to us."
II. Kings xiii : 21 — " As they were burying a man, behold, they spied a band of men ; and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood upon his feet " — was the peculiar text chosen by Gordon Lathrop for his powerful discourse delivered at an anniversary of the Church Missionary So- ciety, held in Westminster Abbey, three weeks 13
HOLDING TH*E ROPES
after the funeral of Livingstone. The great audience, seated over the spot where the great missionary had been so recently laid to rest, was intensely moved when the speaker exclaimed: " Let the whole Church touch his bones and rise to a new victory for God."
Genesis i:l and John iii:16 are the texts that won Joseph Hardy Neesima to the Chris- tian faith. The first, found in an abridged copy of a Chinese Bible in the library of a friend in Japan, revealed to him God as the Creator of the universe. The second, slowly spelled out in an English Testament, while working his passage to America on board the Wild Rover, revealed to him God as the Savior of mankind.
I. Corinthians i : 26-29 was wondrously used of God as a means of leading Dr. Clough, the hero of Ongole, to a right decision of a most perplexing question. There was a flourishing school at Ongole, attended by over sixty hi^h- caste boys, the entire cost being borne by their fathers. All went well until three low-caste men presented themselves for baptism. The missionary received them gladly, but the Brah- mans declared that if he had any more to do
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BIBLE IN MISSIONARY MEETING
with them they would withdraw their support from the school. It was a grave situation, and Dr. and Mrs. Clough retired to separate rooms to lay the matter before God. By a curious co- incidence each had the same experience. After prayer each took up a Bible, and, opening it at random, was directed to the words found in I. Corinthians i : 26-29. Next morning Dr. Clough announced his decision to receive low- caste converts, whereupon everybody left the school and the Brahmans became bitterly hostile. But God honored the work done according to His plan, and ere long great ingatherings began that are almost without a parallel in missionary history.
Psalm lxii : 5-8 has a most pathetic interest on account of its use by Allen Gardiner, the hero- martyr of South America. While attempting to carry the Bread of Life to the heathen of Terra del Fuego, Gardiner starved to death with six heroic companions. When the bodies of the " deathless seven " were discovered a hand was found painted on the rocks, and beneath it " Psalm lxii : 5-8." The choice of these words, under such circumstances, shows how strong and unshaken was the faith of this martyr band. 15
HOLDING THE ROPES
Luke vi : 30 was once a cause of great per- plexity to Henry Richards, the famous Baptist missionary on the Kongo. It was his custom to translate a few verses from Luke's Gospel every day and expound them to his dusky hearers. These people were notorious beggars, and asked for everything they saw. When he came to the text, " Give to every man that ask- eth of thee," he did not know what to do with it. His first thought was to omit it ; his second, to say that it was not to be followed literally ; but neither satisfied his conscience. After two weeks of prayerful consideration, he decided to give out the verse just as it was written and take the consequences. After that, no matter what the people asked for he freely gave it to them. They were deeply impressed by this, and at length not only stopped asking, but brought back much of what they had taken away. Ere long the great awakening began, known in mis- sionary history as the " Pentecost on the Kongo."
I. Samuel xxx : 24 — " As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike " — is called Hannington's text, because
16
BIBLE IN MISSIONARY MEETING
he used it so frequently in sermons and ad- dresses.
Jeremiah xlv : 5 — " Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not, saith the Lord " — was Henry Martyn's favorite text — a most significant one in view of the fact that he was a brilliant scholar, winning the highest honors during his college course, and so full of worldly ambition that he chose the law as a profession rather than the ministry, " chiefly because he could not consent to be poor for Christ's sake."
Psalms cxxi (the Travelers' Psalm) and cxxxv are known as Livingstone's psalms, because they are the ones he selected to read on that mem- orable morning in November, 1840, when he bade farewell to father and mother, and the old Scotch home at Blantyre, and sailed away to his distant field.
Of all texts connected with missionary his- tory, none seems more inappropriate than Genesis xlv : 24 — " See that ye fall not out by the way " — which, together with Isaiah xli : 10, was inscribed on a brass plate presented by two ladies to the pioneer band of twenty-five mis- sionaries who sailed for the South Seas on board the Duff in August, 1796. It recalls Marie 17
HOLDING THE ROPES
Corelli's startling dedication of " The Master Christian " : " To Churches quarreling in the name of Christ," and should remind us that missionaries are, after all, only human, and are exposed to the same temptations as Christians who stay at home.
Matthew xxviii : 20 has been a source of com- fort to countless missionaries in the field, but to none more so than to James Gilmour at the be- ginning of his lonely work among the nomad Mongols. " Companions I can scarcely hope to meet," he says, " and the feeling of being alone comes over me till I think of Christ and His blessed promise, ' Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.' No one who does not go away, leaving all and being alone, can feel the force of this promise; and when I feel my heart threatening to go down, I betake myself to this companionship, and, thank God, I have felt the blessedness of this promise rushing over me repeatedly when I have knelt down and spoken to Jesus as a present companion, from whom I was sure to find sympathy." *
1 For the stories of other texts see " Modern Heroes of the Mission Field," pp. 69, 131-133, 171, 209; "Irene Petrie," pp. 60, 61, 63; "Modern Apostles of Missionary
18
BIBLE IN MISSIONARY MEETING
Byways," pp. 11, 15, 35, 36, 50; " Pilkington of Uganda," p. 98; " Islands of the Pacific," pp. 258, 259; " New Acts of the Apostles," pp. 126, 231 ; Thompson's " Moravian Missions," pp. 34, 183, 198, 199; "Mosaics From India," pp. 82, 83; "Life of James Chalmers," p. 136; Thomp- son's "Foreign Missions," pp. 373, 374; The Missionary Review, February, 1888, p. 106; July, 1893, p. 502; Feb- ruary, 1896, p. 83; February, 1902, p. 94; February, 1903, p. 148.
19
II
draper in the /nMssionar£ /IDeeting
Of all the forces God has placed at our dis- posal for winning the world to Christ the great- est is that of prayer. Through its mighty power marvelous achievements have been wrought ; for lack of it the progress of the kingdom has been seriously retarded. The ab- solute dependence of missions upon prayer is shown by the following words of great leaders in the work :
Every step in the progress of missions is directly- traceable to prayer. It has been the preparation of every new triumph and the secret of all success. — Arthur T. Pierson.
Epochs of prayer are the most significant epochs in the history of Christ's kingdom. Trace ahy stream of blessing back far enough, and its source will be found above the clouds. — Augustus C. Thompson.
Everything vital in the missionary enterprise hinges upon prayer. — Johk R. Mott.
Every element of the missionary problem depends for its solution upon prayer. — Robert E. Speer.
20
PRAYER IN MISSIONARY MEETING
Yet, to a great extent, prayer is an unused power in missionary work. The average mis- sionary organization " plays at prayer," and does not even play at it very hard.
In most societies prayer is at once the most important and the least important item on the program — the most important in that no so- ciety dares to begin without it ; the least im- portant in that scant time and little thought are given to it. Too often an opening prayer is offered largely because it is the proper thing to do, and the omission of it would offend both God and man. An almost superstitious feeling seems to prevail, that if the heads are bowed for a few moments while a brief petition is offered, or the Lord's Prayer is repeated (not prayed) in unison, all will be well, and the society may safely proceed to other business. Yet prayer that is offered merely for the sake of praying can not prevail with God, and leaves scarcely a memory in the heart of man. A few turns of a prayer-wheel from Tibet would serve the pur- pose nearly as well.
The writer recently attended a missionary meeting which was opened by a most eloquent prayer. It was a model of its kind, yet so easily 21
HOLDING THE ROPES
did the polished sentences roll out, and so in- definite were its petitions, that less than half an hour later, when a test was made, no one present, including the one who offered it, could remem- ber a single petition of it, or even state its gen- eral trend.
At another meeting the leader called for sen- tence prayers. Those present responded with a number of well-worded petitions, but at the close, when they were unexpectedly asked to tell for what they had prayed, only two could re- member! They had probably been more con- cerned over the rhetorical excellence of their phrases than with the substance of their peti- tions, yet a halting phrase from the heart is in- finitely better than a polished sentence from the head.
The lack of prayer in the missionary meet- ing is due to several causes. In the first place, the number of those willing to lead in prayer is usually limited. There can not be much inter- cession because there are so few intercessors. In some societies the Lord's Prayer is repeated at every session because none of the members will lead in prayer, and in others the entire burden of supplication rests on one or two.
PRAYER IN MISSIONARY MEETING
If these are absent, the society is in de- spair.
A pastor's wife, who was formerly secretary of a Young Woman's Christian Association, re- lates an incident that would be amusing were it not so reprehensible. One afternoon a lady from a near-by church came to the office of the association in great haste. " We are in trouble ! " she exclaimed. " Mrs. W is ab- sent, and no one else will pray ! We can't begin the meeting! Won't you please come over and pray for us?" The secretary went at once. "I felt," she says, " that they needed praying for in more senses than one."
In the second place, there is a widespread feel- ing, seldom expressed, and not always realized, that in view of the vastness of the field, the hun- dreds of missionaries and millions of Christless souls, it is impossible to exert an influence through prayer. The supplications of some mighty man of God — a Pastor Harms, a George Miiller, or a John G. Paton — might indeed pre- vail, but not so the petitions of an obscure be- liever in an unknown missionary society. Yet the humblest believer may become mighty in supplication. The apostle James is careful to
HOLDING THE ROPES
explain that Elijah, who, for three years and a half, controlled the rainfall by his prayers, was " a man subject to like passions as we are." The God of Elijah still rules the universe, and it is a glad tho solemn thought that the devout Christian of to-day may, through prayer, con- trol the showers of spiritual blessing from on high.
SOME SECRETS OF PREVAILING PRAYER
But prayer in the missionary meeting is lack- ing not only in quantity, but in quality as well. Missionary leaders should, therefore, endeavor to learn some of the secrets of prevailing prayer.
The first lesson we need is that of definiteness in prayer. There should be more real praying for specific things. It was said of Gossner that he " prayed open both hearts and pocketbooks, prayed up the walls of a hospital, prayed mis- sion stations into being." Having the same great promises, any missionary society may pray workers into the field, money into empty treasuries, and heathen souls into the king- dom of God. Individual missionaries and special fields should be prayed for by name, and
PRAYER IN MISSIONARY MEETING
not in the roundabout fashion that, by reason of long usage, has become almost a law of prayer. Sir John Patteson took a long step in advance when, at family worship, he began to pray for " John Coleridge Patteson, missionary bishop," instead of " the absent member of this family," as had been his custom. The dying prayer of John Hunt is a model of definiteness : " O let me pray once more for Fiji! Lord, for Christ's sake bless Fiji! Save Fiji! Save Thy servants ; save Thy people ; save the heathen in Fiji!"
Another lesson we need is that of agreement in prayer. The promise of the Master, " If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any- thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven " (Mat- thew xviii:19), is often quoted but seldom used in a way to insure its fulfilment. If the members of a missionary society would select certain definite objects, and enter into a cove- nant to pray for them both publicly in the meet- ings and privately at home, their power in prayer would be increased a hundred-fold.
A third lesson is that of expectancy in prayer. It is the prayer of faith that prevails 25
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with God. In his matchless text-book, " With Christ in the School of Prayer," Andrew Mur- ray says: " As long as in prayer we just pour out our hearts in a multitude of petitions, with- out taking time to see whether every petition is sent with the purpose and expectancy of get- ting an answer, not many will reach the mark."
Probably nowhere are prayers so frequently offered with little or no expectation of an an- swer as in a missionary meeting. This is due partly to a lack of faith in the promises and prophecies of God and partly to the remote- ness of the mission field. It seems incredible to many that a prayer offered in New York can be instantaneously answered in Calcutta. Yet with an omniscient, omnipresent God, distance is no hindrance. Through the divine telegraphy of prayer, which needs neither wire nor key, but simply a heart in tune with God, the remotest soul may be reached in an instant of time.
Prayer which combines the elements of defi- niteness, agreement, and expectancy has a power well-nigh unlimited with God. This is illustrated by the " Story of the Seventy " in Mrs. Geraldine Guinness Taylor's history of the China Inland Mission. About the year 1880
PRAYER IN MISSIONARY MEETING
the mission began to be seriously embarrassed for lack of men. Opportunities were opening in districts long closed to Gospel effort, but there were no workers to enter them. In the autumn of 1881 a number of the China Inland mis- sionaries met at Wu-chang for conference with Mr. Hudson Taylor. As they prayed they be- gan to realize that while they had been urgent in pleading for open doors, they had neglected to ask for men to enter them. Believing that God would supply all their need, they took a sheet of paper, and went over their whole vast field, province by province, noting the points in each where reinforcements seemed absolutely necessary. When at length they came to an end, it was found that no less than seventy new workers were needed — an overwhelming number, in view of the fact that their entire staff was less than a hundred, and that the growth of fifteen years. But, believing it to be God's plan, they then and there covenanted together to plead daily with God in agreed prayer for the coming of the seventy within three years. So confidently did they expect an answer that, before they separated, a thanksgiving service was held, in which they thanked God for what 27
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He was going to do. Note the result. At the end of three years not seventy, but seventy-six new missionaries were at work in China! God had given more than they had asked.
SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
In every missionary meeting there should be much prayer, not only in connection with the de- votional service, but at appropriate intervals throughout the entire session.
The ideal way to open the meeting is by a brief season of silent prayer for God's blessing and the Spirit's presence. No other form of devotion so quickly solemnizes the heart as this, which brings every soul face to face with God.
Calling for sentence prayers, consisting of a single petition for some definite object, is an excellent plan. It not only gives opportunity to a large number to take part, but teaches brevity and conciseness of petition. That such prayers are acceptable to God may be learned from a study of Bible prayers, which are, as a rule, very short. "Lord, save me!" (Mat- thew xiv: 30), Peter's prayer for himself, and "Lord, help me!" (Matthew xv: 25), the Syro-Phenician woman's prayer for her child,
PRAYER IN MISSIONARY MEETING
consist of but three words each, yet they were speedily and wondrously answered. It is always wise to designate the way of closing a series of sentence prayers. This may be done by ap- pointing some one to make the closing prayer, by uniting in the Lord's Prayer, or by singing a prayer-hymn while the heads are still bowed.
A chain of prayer, which usually consists of several prayers, fewer in number but longer in petition than sentence prayers, is a very helpful plan. The names of those who participate should always be announced beforehand, so that they may follow one another in order, and if special topics are assigned, they should be written on slips of paper and distributed before the meeting opens.
The Lord's Prayer is more widely used than any other form of petition. It is universally repeated, but seldom really prayed. Missionary leaders could render no greater service to the cause of Christ than to teach a correct use of its matchless missionary petitions. " If all true be- lievers could only unite," says Bishop Thoburn, " not in repeating the words merely, but in ut- tering from the heart, the first petition of our Lord's Prayer, ' Thy Kingdom come,' the na- 29
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tions would be shaken, and the Kingdom of God begin to advance with mighty strides toward universal triumph."
Praise as well as prayer should have a place in the missionary meeting. There should be gen- eral thanksgiving for the progress of Christ's kingdom in the world, and specific praise for special blessings granted in the work. Each issue of India's Women and China's Daughters, the organ of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, contains two long lists of requests, one for praise, the other for prayer, which societies and individuals are urged to use.
Maps are an invaluable aid to intercession. No great orator at the Ecumenical Conference inspired more prayer than the map that hung above the platform of Carnegie Hall, its great dark patches revealing how much land remains yet to be possessed of God. At the opening ses- sion of the Free Assembly of Scotland, in 1886, the Moderator, Dr. Somerville, declared that the best prayer-book for daily use was a pocket atlas of the world, and proved his assertion by a series of remarkable prayers in which he daily interceded for all the nations of the earth in turn. Every state and territory in the United 30
PRAYER IN MISSIONARY MEETING
States, and many of the larger cities, were pre- sented at the throne of grace by name, as were also the principal cities and divisions of India, China, and other heathen lands.
An almost ideal season of map-inspired prayer was recently observedJby the study class of a Young Men's Christian Association. With a map of the world before them, they spent an hour and a half in silent prayer, pleading in- tensely and earnestly for the conversion of the world. One by one the fields were taken up until the globe was girdled with petition. No word was spoken save by the leader, who, from time to time announced the countries in their turn.
In societies where only a few of the members are willing to take part in prayer a constant effort should be made to increase the number. Sentence prayers, or short Scripture prayers written out on slips of paper, are very helpful for this. Many a timid soul has been led to pray for the first time in public through being asked to be one of many to offer a single brief peti- tion or read a Bible prayer.
In the average society the session is so short, and so much is crowded into it, that there is in- sufficient time for prayer. To remedy this, every 31
HOLDING THE ROPES
missionary organization should have connected with it a prayer circle composed of those willing to meet for a few moments before the regular meeting, or at some other convenient time, to pray for certain specific things ; or, if meeting together seems impracticable, a covenant might be entered into to pray daily at some stated hour in the home. Few leaders realize what can be accomplished in this way.
For nearly five years it was the privilege of the writer to be the leader of a young people's missionary organization that had many remark- able experiences of answered prayer. Every- thing connected with the society was taken to God, not only by the leader, but by an " inner circle " of praying ones. The answers were often according to God's own scale, " Exceed- ing abundantly above all that we ask or think." In making the programs, God was always asked to give the wisdom promised in James i : 5 The result was a series of plans that were not only greatly blest to their original users, but that, printed later in a little book, have been widely used throughout the United States and Canada, and, to some extent, across the sea as well. The programs being made, God was al- 32
PRAYER IN MISSIONARY MEETING
ways asked not only to make the young people willing to take the parts assigned, but also to make them faithful in the carrying of them out. It is worthy of note that of the seven hundred assignments made in five years' time, less than a dozen failed in any way. In response to con- tinuous prayer for more helpers and deeper in- terest, the society grew steadily in numbers and power. One by one the young people were prayed for by name (not publicly, of course), until they were drawn into the work, some of them giving up all forms of doubtful amuse- ment in order to enter more fully into the ser- vice of the Lord. Prayer was offered, too, that God would call some of their own number to the mission field. In answer to this, five of the young people pledged themselves, God permit- ting, to become foreign missionaries.
It was the custom of the leader, after select- ing the Scripture lesson for each meeting, to pray that God would bless His Word and make it fruitful in some soul. No prayers were an- swered more signally than these. On one oc- casion the text selected was II. Samuel xxiv: 24 — " Neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which dost cost me S3
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nothing." A stranger who was present that evening — the treasurer of a large church in a neighboring city — was so deeply impressed with the words, which he had never before noticed in the Book, that on his return home he had them printed on the collection envelopes of his church.
Large boxes of books and other literature were frequently sent to destitute districts in the West. Before starting them off, prayer was always offered that God would bless and use their contents. On one of these occasions the young man who led in prayer asked that " some soul might be led to Christ through something in that box, and that we might hear of i£." A few months later a letter came, saying that the mother of a large family of children had been converted through reading one of the books in that very box.
One of the most remarkable answers to prayer was granted at an all-day missionary meeting in a neighboring city, where the leader of the society and a valued assistant had gone to con- duct a young people's hour. It was to be held at the close of the afternoon session, and the pastor's wife was very dubious about the at- 34
PRAYER IN MISSIONARY MEETING
tendance. A literary club to which many of the young women belonged was to meet at the same hour, and a large party was to be given in the evening. The outlook was dark indeed. But during the noon hour a little meeting was held, with but half a dozen present, in which the matter was laid before God in prayer. Early that afternoon the young women began to come in twos and threes, and when the meet- ing opened, the room was crowded to the doors.
ENCOURAGEMENTS TO PRAYER
Every missionary society, to increase its faith and encourage the spirit of supplication, should study prayer and its answer in missionary his- tory. The following examples have been se- lected from an almost countless number to show the power of prayer in every phase of the mis- sionary problem.
1. Open Doors, — At the beginning of the nineteenth century almost the whole world, out- side of Christendom, was closed to missionary effort. Now, in answer to prayer for open doors that was made without ceasing by the Church of Christ, practically the whole world is open to the Gospel. Dr. Pierson says : 35
HOLDING THE ROPES
During the year 1858, Japan, after two centuries of sealed ports, made treaty with Great Britain; China enlarged the rights conceded sixteen years before; India became part of Britain's world-wide empire, and zenanas were penetrated by Christian women; Italy laid the basis of her new era of freedom; Mexico threw open her doors to the Protestant missionary — all this and much more within a twelvemonth. In that one annus mirabilis two-thirds of the entire population of the globe were suddenly brought within the reach of a full Gospel and an open Bible. It was that same year that the week of prayer began, upon the recommendation of the mis- sionaries in Lahore, and how quickly the answer came !
2. Laborers. — Open doors call for men to enter them, but this need, too, has been met by prayer. " Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest," is a Divine command that has never been obeyed in vain. Reference has been made to the prayers of the China Inland Mis- sion for seventy new missionaries within three years. In the autumn of 1886, when again doors were opening everywhere before them, they began to pray for one hundred new mis- sionaries during the ensuing year. Again God honored their faith. Of the six hundred candi- dates who applied, one hundred were selected and sent to China before the close of 1887.
36
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Equally notable was the answer granted to the Church Missionary Society in 1884. There was a pressing need for workers, and a day of special intercession was appointed in the hope of meeting it. The day preceding it, however, Secretary Wigram was called to Cambridge, where there was a deep spiritual movement among the students. Before midnight one hun- dred men had volunteered for foreign missions, and next day he returned to his colleagues to quote the old promise : " Before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear."
3. Money. — Reinforcements of men call for enlarged gifts of money, but the history of missions proves that there will be no lack of this when God, not man, is depended upon to supply it. When Hudson Taylor and his associates asked for one hundred new missionaries they asked also for money to send them. And know- ing that if it came in small amounts it would necessitate an increase in office force, they asked that it might be given in large amounts. It is worthy of note that the entire amount (about $50,000) was paid in eleven payments. The financial record of Pastor Harms' mission has
37
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been called a " spiritual study in statistics." In fifty years the congregation of simple Ger- man peasants at Hermannsburg raised the vast sum of $2,141,657 for their missionary work through prayer, and so nicely was demand bal- anced by supply that, tho their expenditures varied greatly from year to year, the income varied in exact proportion, so that a deficit never occurred at any time.
4. Revivals. — Every great ingathering on the mission field may be directly traced to prayer. Mary#Moffet wrote in South Africa:
The Spirit of God has commenced His operations, and surely He will go on. Oh, for a more general spirit of prayer and supplication ! I hear from my friend, Miss Leeds, that the very time of the awakening here was the season of extraordinary prayer among the churches at home. What a coincidence and an encour- agement to persevere in that most important part of Christian duty!
In 1846 the first of a remarkable series of revivals occurred in Miss Fiske's school in Persia. By comparing dates it was found that on the memorable morning when first the showers began to descend in Oroomiah, Mary Lynn had said to her pupils at Mount Holyoke : 38
PRAYER IN MISSIONARY MEETING
" We must pray more for Miss Fiske and her school of Nestorian girls." Of the subsequent revivals, some began on the day of the monthly concert at home, others on the first Monday in January, which was at that time devoted to the missionary cause.
5. Preservation of Missionaries. — The power of prayer to protect and deliver missionaries in time of peril is strikingly shown in the life of William Burns. Arriving in Chao-chou-fu on the eve of the war which broke out between China and Great Britain, he was arrested and ordered sent to Canton. The relations of China with foreign nations were so disturbed that he was in the greatest danger. Yet no harm came to him. Why? In the diary of a noble Scotch woman occurs this entry:
Mr. Burns was safely kept through his arrest and imprisonment in China. Comparing the dates, I find that we were met in prayer for him during his dan- gerous journey under guard of the Chinese officials.
Instances similar to this have occurred in the lives of many a worker in the field.
For other instances of answered prayer see " Foreign Missions," by A. C. Thompson, 39
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Lecture 8 ; " The New Acts of the Apostles," by A. T. Pierson, Part V. ; " The Life of John Kenneth Mackenzie," by Mrs. Bryson, Chapter 9 ; "In the Tiger Jungle," by Jacob Cham- berlain, Chapter 1 ; " The Story of the China Inland Mission," by Geraldine Guinness Tay- lor; "Prayer and Missions," by Robert E. Speer ; " Praying and Working," by W. H. Stevenson ; " Pioneering in the New Hebrides," by John G. Paton, and almost all missionary biographies.
40
Ill ZlDusfc In tbe /HMssfonars Meeting
Music is an important factor in the mission- ary meeting. So great is the power of sacred song to " help the human heart to love, to dare, and to aspire," that many a soul has been led to yield itself to God and obey his call to mis- sionary service through the singing of a hymn.
Two such instances have come within per- sonal knowledge of the writer. One was that of a young man who possessed a fine bass voice and was a member of the quartet choir in a prominent city church. He had long been a confessed follower of Christ, but was just be- ginning to see the beauty and privilege of a life of service, when one evening the pastor an- nounced, in closing, a well-known missionary hymn. As the young man sang the stirring words he heard God's voice calling him to the mission field. Intensely moved, he went at once to the home of a trusted friend for advice. 41
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Obeying the call involved the giving up of cer- tain bright business prospects, and probably the breaking of a tender tie, yet that night, ere he slept, the young singer made the resolve, " God permitting, I will be a foreign mission- ary," and shortly after enrolled himself among the Student Volunteers.
The other instance was that of an earnest Christian girl who felt that God was calling her to the mission field, but was quite unwilling to go. A sore struggle had been going on in her heart for months, when one day at a young people's meeting at a summer assembly the hymn, " I surrender," was announced. Unwill- ing to sing with her lips words that her heart was refusing to utter, she kept silent and did not join in the singing. At the close of the meeting she crept away in an agony of soul, once more to lay the matter before God in prayer. Ere long the victory came, and with it came the peace of God. With a joy that had long been a stranger to her soul, her heart echoed and reechoed the refrain, " I surrender, I surrender, I surrender all ! "
Music, however, is not always effective in the missionary meeting. Too often the service of
MUSIC IN MISSIONARY MEETING
song, tho fairly good from a musical stand- point, is lacking in spiritual power. This is largely due to the fact that so little attention is paid to the words. " Music is wings, and the words are the body," says Dr. A. F. Schauffler. " As wings without a body are of no use, so music that does not help the words is of no avail from a spiritual standpoint."
The thoughtless singing of a hymn must really be a serious offense in the sight of God. The writer has never forgotten the exhortation of a good old Presbyterian pastor in Cincinnati, Ohio, who, after announcing a hymn expressing deep consecration and loyal love to Christ, said to the congregation : " Now, my dear people, I beg of you, do not s'mg lies to the Lord this morning! "
The contrast between the sentiments of a hymn and the conduct of the singers is some- times painfully apparent. One of Dr. John Hall's favorite stories was of a pious Scotch- man who lustily sang the words:
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all
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and as he sang fumbled in his pocket to find the smallest coin he had for the contribution box.
Another serious hindrance to the spiritual power of music is the use of inappropriate selections. Elaborate anthems rendered largely for the gratification of the musical faculty, and not in a true spirit of worship to God, are out of place in missionary meetings. So also is secular music of any kind. The practise of having secular solos in the hope of attracting those not interested in missions is deplorable. No matter how beautiful and pleasing such music may be, it has no place on the missionary program.
SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
Every missionary organization should have a committee to take charge of the music and see that it is made an attractive feature of each meeting. An accompanist should also be ap- pointed, and either a precentor or choir to lead the singing, but it is well to remember that the power of sacred song is immeasurably increased when " the hands that touch the organ keys and the voices that lead in singing psalms and 44
MUSIC IN MISSIONARY MEETING
hymns and spiritual songs are at the disposal of the Holy Ghost and usable as His instru- ments."
While it is well, occasionally, to arrange for appropriate solos and duets, music in the mis- sionary meetings should largely consist of con- gregational singing. The method of conduct- ing it, however, may frequently be varied.
1. Stenciling the words of special hymns on large sheets of paper or muslin, and singing from them instead of from books, is an excellent plan which concentrates the attention and pro- duces fine results.
2. Responsive singing, rightly conducted, can be made very effective. In hymns such as "The Light of the World" and "What a Wonderful Savior ! " where two lines of each stanza are alike, one division of the society may sing the first and third lines and the other re- spond with the second and fourth, all uniting in the chorus. In such hymns as " Revive Us Again " and " Bringing in the Sheaves," where the repetition occurs in the chorus, the entire society may sing the stanzas and the two divisions alternate in the lines of the chorus. "Watchman, Tell Us of the Night" should
45
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always be sung antiphonally, either by a choir and the society, or by two divisions of the so- ciety.
3. Reading the words of a hymn instead of singing them is helpful sometimes. It may be done either responsivcly or in unison, and is especially to be recommended where the number present is too small, or the voices not strong enough for good congregational singing.
4. Professor Amos R. Wells makes the fol- lowing suggestion, which is well worth adopt- ing:
Choose a missionary hymn that shall be sung at all the missionary meetings for the year — not some flippant song, but some grand old hymn of the faith. It should be committed to memory, and at the beginning of every missionary meeting the entire company should rise and sing it with fervor.
5. Making slight changes in familiar hymns to adapt them to special occasions may some- times be done with good effect. The hymn " Christ for the World We Sing " lends itself nicely to this method ; for example, in a meeting on Japan, the name of the country may be substituted for the words " the world " :
40
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Christ for Japan we sing, Japan to Christ we bring.
For a home missionary meeting the words " our land " may be used, and for world-wide missions each stanza might be sung in a dif- ferent way — 1. Christ for the world; 2. Christ for our land ; 3. Christ for our state ; 4. Christ for our homes.
At one of the sessions of Woman's Day at the Ecumenical Conference a very effective change was made in the third stanza of Heber's famous hymn :
Can / whose soul is lighted
With wisdom from on high, Can / to men benighted
The lamp of life deny?
6. Connecting hymns with the Scripture pas- sages which inspired them calls attention to the words and deeply impresses their lessons. Thus : " Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun " should be used in connection with Psalm lxxii ; " Joy to the World " with Psalm xcviii ; " Hark ! the Voice of Jesus Calling " with Isaiah vi : 8, and " Ye Christian Heralds, Go, Proclaim " with Mark xvi: 15.
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7. Native airs from missionary lands sung by persons dressed in native costume affords a pleasing innovation. Such music rarely has a spiritual value, but, like pictures and curios, it serves a noble purpose in creating interest in foreign peoples and foreign lands.
MISSIONARY STORIES OF THE HYMNS
Hymns associated with great missionaries and famous native converts, or connected with notable events in missionary history, are appro- priate for use in the missionary meeting. An entire evening may be profitably devoted to a missionary song service, in which such hymns are sung and their stories told.
" From Greenland's Icy Mountains," the greatest of all missionary hymns, was written by Reginald Heber, the young rector of Hod- net, who afterward became the beloved Bishop of Calcutta. During the week preceding Whitsunday, in 1819, he went to Wrexham to assist his father-in-law, Dean Shirley, with the services. A royal mandate had been issued call- ing for a missionary collection at the morning service, and on Saturday afternoon, in the pres- ence of a few friends in the rectory parlor, Dr. 48
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Shirley requested his son-in-law to write a hymn for the occasion. The young rector, whose heart had been deeply stirred by the story of Henry Martyn's life, complied at once. Re- tiring to a window of the room he wrote out the first three stanzas of the hymn that has made his name immortal, and, returning, read it to his companions. One change only was made, and that a slight one — the word " heathen " being substituted for " savage " in the second verse. Dr. Shirley was abundantly satisfied, but young Heber declared it incomplete, and, withdrawing again for a few moments, wrote out the matchless lines of the concluding verse. The following extract from Heber's journal, written on his voyage to India in 1823, adds much to the interest of the second verse:
Tho we were now too far off to catch the odors of the land, yet it is, we are assured, perfectly true that such odors are perceptible to a very considerable distance. In the Straits of Malacca a smell like that of a haw- thorn hedge is commonly experienced, and from Cey- lon, at thirty or forty miles, under certain circumstances, a yet more agreeable scent is inhaled.
"Tell It Out among the Heathen," Miss Havergal's stirring hymn, was written one Sun- 49
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day morning in Wales, while the church bells were ringing. Being too ill to attend the service, she poured forth the longing of her heart in verse. Dr. Duffield calls attention to the fact that both the words of the hymn and the tune written for it by Mr. Sankey suggest the chiming of the bells.
" I Gave My Life for Thee," another hymn by Miss Havergal that has rendered good ser- vice in the missionary meeting, was written in Germany in 1859. It was inspired, so she tells us, by a picture of Christ, crowned with thorns, beneath which were the words :
"I gave my life for thee; What hast thou given for me?"
Since Miss Havergal attended school at Dus- seldorf, and afterwards visited the place, it is believed by many that the picture to which she refers was the Ecce Homo of Sternberg in the Dusseldorf Gallery, which, with the same in- scription underneath, so powerfully impressed Count Zinzendorf when he saw it in 1719-
" Christ for the World We Sing " was in- spired by the motto of the Ohio State Young Men's Christian Association convention, held in 50
MUSIC IN MISSIONARY MEETING
Cleveland in 1869. The words of this motto, "Christ for the World, and the World for Christ," wrought in evergreen over the plat- form, so deeply impressed the Rev. Samuel Wal- cott, D. D., that at the close of one of the even- ing sessions, while walking home alone through the streets, he " put together " the four stanzas of this favorite hymn.
" A Mighty Fortress is Our God," the grand old hero-psalm of Luther, was sung as a part- ing hymn by the first band of missionaries sent forth by Pastor Harms in 1853. At a great farewell service held in the old church at Her- mannsberg, the departing missionaries — sixteen in number, and all men — stood up at the close of the sermon and sang the words so dear to every German heart. " There was something noble," says Dr. Stevenson, " in those humble men setting their faces toward the savages in Africa, and flinging back such lofty music out of brave, composed hearts."
" All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name ! " con- ceded by all to be the most inspiring hymn in the language, was used as the opening number of the Ecumenical Conference held in New York in 1900. Few who were present will ever for- 51
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get the inspiring moment when the vast audi- ence arose, and with glad, exultant voices poured forth this triumphant pean of praise A touching incident, showing the power of the hymn, comes to us from India. One day, on the streets of a village, a missionary came in contact with a man who belonged to a fierce and warlike mountain tribe to whom, as yet, the Gospel had never been preached. Determined to " carry Jesus to them," at great personal risk Jne started for their country, taking, among other things, his violin. After a two days' journey he reached his destination, only to find himself surrounded by hostile savages, who pointed their spears at his heart. Death seemed imminent, but taking out his violin he began to sing and play the first verse of " All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name ! " Finding himself unharmed, he sang on and on until at length he dared to open his eyes. Great was his amazement to find the spears dropped and the people ready to welcome him. Their savage hearts had been conquered by a hymn.
" Yes, My Native Land, I Love Thee," Dr. F. S. Smith's beautiful hymn, was sung at the farewell service in 1836, when Marcus Whit- 52
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man and his bride were about to start on their long journey to Oregon. Mrs. Whitman was gifted with a voice of remarkable sweetness, and had long been a member of the choir. So dearly was she loved, that when this hymn was announced the congregation was unable to sing it. They began bravely enough, but were soon overcome by emotion. The bride alone con- tinued to the end, singing the last stanza in clear, unwavering tones while many around her sobbed aloud.
" Before Jehovah's Awful Throne," Wesley's revision of Watts' version of the One Hundredth Psalm, was used in a notable way by Commo- dore Perry while knocking at the gates of Japan in 1853. On the morning of July 10, the first Sunday in Japanese waters, when divine service was held on board the flag-ship, the stars and stripes being spread over the capstan for a pulpit, the chaplain, at Perry's request, announced this hymn. No more appropriate one could have been selected. As the band struck up the notes of Old Hundred, the grand old hymn echoed and reechoed across the Bay of Yeddo, summoning a heathen nation to the worship of the living God.
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" O God of Bethel, by Whose Hand," was David Livingstone's favorite hymn. It greatly cheered him during privations and sufferings of his long journeys through Africa, and it was sung at the great service in Westminster Abbey, when, on April 18, 1874, his body was finally laid away to rest. " O Thou From Whom All Goodness Flows " was a source of much comfort to Henry Martyn when reviled and persecuted for the sake of Christ on the mission field. After a prolonged and wearisome discussion with a Mohammedan concerning the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, he wrote in his diary, under date of August 23, 1811 :
It is this doctrine which exposes me to the contempt of the learned Mohammedans. Their sneers are more difficult to bear than the brickbats which the boys some- times throw at me; however, both are an honor of which I am not worthy. How many times a day have I occa- sion to repeat the words:
If, on my face, for Thy dear name,
Shame and reproaches be, All hail reproach, and welcome shame,
If Thou remember me.
On June 12, 1812, so the diary says, the scene was repeated, and again the saintly missionary found comfort in his favorite hymn. 54
MUSIC IN MISSIONARY MEETING
The matchless hymn, " The God of Abram Praise," which Montgomery placed above all others for majesty and elevation of thought, has been a source of comfort to many mission- aries. " Many times," says Richard Pattison, a devoted missionary to the West Indies, " in storms on the ocean, or in crossing from one island to another in small vessels, I have held on by a rope and sung:
4 « The watery deep I pass, With Jesus in my view; And through the howling wilderness My way pursue,
and I have felt my faith in God wonderfully strengthened."
" Arise, My Soul, Arise," Wesley's hymn that has been blest to the conversion of so many souls, has acquired a pathetic interest through its association with Allen Gardiner and the " Deathless Seven," who, while attempting to carry the Gospel to Terra del Fuego, starved to death at Spaniard's Harbor. John Badcock was the first of the seven to die, and this hymn was his parting song. As he lay in the narrow, leaky cabin of the Speedwell, he asked Richard 55
HOLDING THE ROPES
Williams, who lay beside him, to sing it with him, and shortly after passed away.
"Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me," the hymn so dear to every Christian heart, is especially significant throughout the Orient, where the followers of Buddha and the devotees of Hindu- ism are willing to perform any task, no matter how difficult or how repulsive, in the hope of escaping the pain and sorrow of countless rein- carnations. Mrs. Bainbridge tells of a woman who, in order to make merit, dug with her own hands a well twenty-five feet deep and from ten to fifteen feet across. Not until long after completing this difficult task did she learn of free salvation through Christ. She was an old woman eighty years old when Mrs. Bainbridge saw her, but she was able to stretch forth the poor old crippled hands that had performed such incredible labor in an endeavor to obtain salvation, and sing with her visitor:
Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling.
" Jesus, and Shall it Ever Be," the hymn written by Joseph Grigg when but ten years old, was sung at the baptism of Krishna Pal, 56
MUSIC IN MISSIONARY MEETING
the first Hindu convert who had the faith and courage to endure the odium of a public confes- sion of Christ. This notable baptism took place at Serampore on the last Lord's day of the year 1800, the hymn being sung just before Carey " desecrated the Ganges " by leading down into one of its tributaries two candidates for immersion, his son Felix and Krishna Pal.
" I'm Not Ashamed to Own My Lord " was used by Mackay, of Formosa, to strengthen the faith of A Hoa, his first convert, who had be- come his efficient helper, but was early learning that the path of service is sometimes strewn with thorns. When Dr. Mackay was preaching for the first time in Kelung, a heathen city in North Formosa, he was surrounded by a mob of angry idolators, among them some of A Hoa's old associates, whose hatred for the missionary was only exceeded by their contempt for his con- vert. What followed can best be told in Dr. Mackay's own words:
I turned to A Hoa and asked him to address the people. It was a moment of testing. Never before had he spoken for Christ in the public street, and it was only a few months since he himself first heard the Gos- pel. As he heard the vile and scornful words of his
57
HOLDING THE ROPES
old comrades, he was silent and hung down his head. Immediately I read the first verse of a hymn, and we sang it together. It was the old Scotch paraphrase that has so often put iron into the blood and courage into the hearts of trembling saints:
" I'm not ashamed to own my Lord, Or to defend His cause; Maintain the glory of His cross, And honor all His laws."
It was enough. A Hoa raised his head, and never again was he " ashamed." Looking out over the angry mob, he addressed them in the calm, clear tones of a man who believes and is not afraid.
" Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken," was sung in a most touching manner by Sooboonagam Ammal, a high-caste Hindu convert of Madras, on the occasion of her public confession of Christ. The daughter of a learned and in- fluential Brahman of the strictest sect, she had been reared in seclusion in a home of wealth and luxury. The youngest and most petted child of the household, all that money could buy or love could devise, had been lavished upon her. Her clothing was of the richest silk, her jewels rare and costly. She was, too, unusually devout in her worship of the gods, and from 58
MUSIC IN MISSIONARY MEETING
early childhood there was no idolatrous cere- mony into which she did not enter with zest. Yet, when she learned of Christ through the ladies of the Methodist Episcopal Zenana Mis- sion of Madras, she gave herself wholly to Him, and, finding that she could not serve Him in her home by reason of the bitter opposition of her relatives, she decided to forsake all — home, friends, the mother she loved so well, her high rank, her wealth, her costly jewels — and seek a refuge with the missionaries. On Christmas night, 1895, she made her flight, going under the cover of darkness to the headquarters of the mission. Five weeks later, notwithstand- ing the earnest efforts of her relatives to win her back, she publicly confessed Christ and was baptized. At the close of the service, at her own wish, she sang the words which so well ex- pressed her feelings that they seemed to have been written especially for her:
Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow Thee; Destitute, despised, forsaken, Thou, from hence, my all shall be.
" In the Secret of His Presence," " O Thou 59
HOLDING THE ROPES
My Soul, Forget No More," " Take My Heart for Thine, Jehovah," and " Awak'd by Sinai's Awful Sound," four devout hymns that have proved most useful to the Church, are worthy of special note, because they are the work o£ Christian converts in mission lands. The first was written by Ellen Lakshmi Goreh, a high- caste Hindu girl, born in Benares in 1853, who, after her conversion developed rapidly in the Christian life, and became a missionary to her people; the second, by Krishna Pal, Carey's first convert, who became an earnest Christian and an eloquent preacher; the third, by the native pastor of the Ampamarianan (" Rock of Hurling") Church, in Madagascar, who wrote it in prison shortly before his death ; the fourth, by Samson Occom, a famous Indian preacher of New England.
60
IV
l&ow to "(Interest tbe 1fnfc>i\>ifcual in /IDissf oris
A STUDY OF THE TURNING-POINTS IN THE CAREERS OF GREAT MISSIONARIES 1
The supreme object of every missionary or- ganization should be to interest those not in- terested in world-wide missions, and to increase the interest of those already enlisted in the work. Yet there were scores of missionary so- cieties in the United States last year that failed to add a single name to the roll of those soundly converted to the missionary cause.
JThis topic is an excellent one for use on a missionary program. It is appropriate for any missionary meeting, but especially so for the missionary concert or a con- ference on missions. In introducing the topic, let the leader to whom it has been assigned speak briefly of the importance of interesting those not interested in mis- sions, and follow it with instances of how great mis- sionaries were led to devote their lives to the work. Then let him call on those present to tell, in a sentence or two, how they first became interested, and close with an appeal to all present to try to interest at least one person in missions during the coming year.
61
HOLDING THE ROPES
This deplorable state of affairs was largely due to the fact that comparatively few mission- ary workers put forth individual effort for those not interested in missions. Believers in Christ are not, as a rule, won en masse; neither are believers in missions. In both cases they are best " hand-picked." Christians are frequently urged to keep prayer-lists of those they hope to win to Christ. Missionary workers would do well to keep similar lists of those they hope to interest in missions. If each worker would win one other worker to the cause each year, the evangelization of the world would soon be an accomplished fact.
The question of how to interest individuals in missions is therefore one of vital importance to every missionary worker. In no way can so much light be thrown upon the subject as by studying the lives of great missionaries and noting what sent them to the foreign field. What has interested individuals in the past will give the best clue to what will interest them in the future.
Alexander Duff, the pioneer of higher educa- tion in India, owed his first interest in missions to pictures of idols shown him by his father on 62
HOW TO INTEREST THE INDIVIDUAL
Sunday afternoons. Tho but four years old, his young heart was so stirred with compassion for the heathen who worshiped such hideous things that the impression never left him. This early interest was intensified in his student days by the lectures of Chalmers and the addresses of the great missionary pioneers, Morrison and Marsden.
Alexander Mackay, whom Stanley pronounced the greatest missionary since Livingstone, also became interested in missions in childhood. The stories of missionary heroism related to him by his mother, and the map of Africa on which his father traced the journeys of Livingstone then in progress, fired his young heart with mission- ary zeal. His thought was later turned to the foreign field by the " Life of Patteson " and by the report of a lecture on Madagascar which his sister had sent him ; but the immediate cause of his giving his life to Africa was the appeal of Stanley for missionaries for Uganda.
Eliza Agnew's purpose to become a mission- ary was formed while at school in New York City, when but eight years old. One day, during the geography lesson, the teacher pointed out the Isle of France on the map, 63
HOLDING THE ROPES
and told the children not to forget it, for Har- riet Newell, one of his former pupils, was buried there. As he told the story of her sweet young life and early death, Eliza Agnew's heart was so deeply touched that she decided then and there that when she grew to womanhood she " would go as a missionary to tell the heathen about Jesus."
The first flame of missionary zeal kindled in the heart of William Carey was the result of giving daily lessons in geography in his little school at Moulton. As he studied the map of the world, with its vast regions lying in spiritual darkness, his heart was overwhelmed, and he began to gather information about various heathen lands. A copy of Cook's " Voyages " falling into his hands about this time, fanned the flame and fed the growing impulse, until his whole mind became absorbed with the thought of preaching Christ to all the world.
Writing an essay on missions made John Ludwig Krapf, the great' African explorer, a missionary. When about fourteen years of age the principal of the school which he attended read to the pupils a pamphlet on the spread of Christianity in heathen lands. Never before 64
HOW TO INTEREST THE INDIVIDUAL
had young Krapf heard anything of missions, but the subject took such a hold upon his mind that he at once asked himself the question, " Shall I be a missionary and go to the heathen ? " This question was answered in the affirmative, and shortly after he offered himself as a missionary student at Basel.
Adoniram Judson, David Livingstone, John Scudder, Henry Martyn, and Samuel Marsden became missionaries as a result of reading mis- sionary literature. Buchanan's " Star of the East," telling of missionary work in India, changed the whole course of Judson's life, and led him to give up the pleasant prospect of an assistant pastorate in Boston for the hardships of a missionary career in foreign lands, Gut?- laff's " Appeal in Behalf of China " falling into the hands of David Livingstone, led him to offer himself for work in the Middle Kingdom, but the Opium War blocked the way, and Robert Moffat won him for Africa. A little tract, en- titled " The Claims of Six Hundred Millions, and the Ability and Duty of the Churches Re- specting Them," lent him by one of his lady patients, led Dr. Scudder, the first medical mis- sionary from America, to give up his lucrative 65
HOLDING THE ROPES
practise in New York City and go to Cey- lon.
Jonathan Edwards' " Life of David Brain- erd " sent Henry Martyn to India. Previous to this his heart had been deeply stirred by the missionary sermons of his pastor, the Rev. Charles Simeon, but it was the self-denying life and heroic labors of the " Missionary- of the Wilderness " that gave him courage to break the dearest ties of earth and bury himself in a heathen land. This same " Life of Brainerd " was also the means of inspiring Samuel Marsden to undertake his great work for New Zealand. While sailing across the seas to take up his heavy task as chaplain to the convicts of New South Wales, he read the story of Brainerd's work. So deep was the impression made that, in addition to his appointed duties, he began to work for the Maoris also.
John Williams, like Henry Martyn, owed his first interest in missions to his pastor, the Rev. Matthew Wilks, whose faithful sermons on the subject stirred his very soul. When an appeal came for helpers he responded eagerly, and at the age of twenty-one sailed away to the island field where he was to earn the title " Apostle
m
HOW TO INTEREST THE INDIVIDUAL
of the South Seas " and win a martyr's crown.
Two famous missionaries, Fidelia Fiske and John Coleridge Patteson, decided to go to the foreign field while listening to the addresses of returned missionaries. Miss Fiske's interest dated back to the departure of her uncle, Pliny Fiske, for the Holy Land, when she was but three years old; later, at Mount Holyoke, she came under Mary Lyon's magnetic influence, but it was the appeal of Dr. Perkins that led her to offer herself for Persia. Bishop Patteson's interest also began at an early age through hearing stories of missionary heroism related in his home. But it was while at Eton that he first heard God's voice calling him to the foreign field. One Sunday afternoon, in company with his fellow-students, he went to hear Bishop Selwyn tell of his work in the Southern Seas. As he listened to the burning words of the great missionary he determined to follow in his steps. Twelve years later he accompanied him to his distant field.
Trying to persuade others to go as mission- aries— working for missions, it might be called — led Hans Egede and Melinda Rankin to be- 67
HOLDING THE ROPES
come missionaries themselves. From the day that Hans Egede found an old book containing the chronicles of the long-lost colony of Eric the Red, he began to urge upon his countrymen the duty of sending missionaries to Greenland. But by and by, perceiving that it did not look well for him to urge others to go while he remained at home, he determined to undertake the work himself. After the close of the Mexican War, Miss Rankin tried in vain, by the use of tongue and pen, to arouse the churches of the United States to a sense of their duty to the Mexicans. But at last she was led to exclaim : " God help- ing me, I'll go myself ! "
It was giving to missions that won Cyrus Hamlin, founder of Robert College, to the mis- sionary cause. The turning-point in his career dates back to an annual muster day — always a great holiday in his New England home — when, after a hard struggle, he dropped into a mis- sionary box, for the education of a heathen boy, the whole of seven cents, given him by his mother to spend as he pleased. In consequence of his generosity he was obliged to go without his dinner. Long years after he declared, in his quaint way, that he " came out of that mission- 68
HOW TO INTEREST THE INDIVIDUAL
ary box," and with him five other missionaries who went to his church and dropped pennies into this self-same box.
Robert Morrison and James Gilmour are notable examples of men who became great mis- sionaries, not as a result of any striking ex- ternal incident, but simply from a desire to obey the " last command of Christ." The study of their Bibles made them missionaries. The pole- star of Morrison's life was duty, and it was a solemn sense of his duty to his Lord, and his duty to the heathen that led him to devote his life to China. Gilmour's decision was made during his college course. Two questions de- manded an answer — how to serve God and where. In response to the first, he entered the ministry ; in response to the second, he became a mission- ary. Common sense, he says, told him to go where the work was most abundant and laborers most scarce. " But," he adds, " I go as a mis- sionary, not that I may follow the dictates of common sense, but that I may obey that com- mand of Christ, ' Go into all the world and preach.' "
John G. Paton, whose autobiography has sent many a missionary to the field, attributes
69
HOLDING THE ROPES
his interest in missions to the prayers of his father and mother at the family altar. When he decided to become a missionary, they said to him : " When you were given to us, we laid you upon the altar, our first born, to be consecrated, if God saw fit, as a missionary of the cross, and it has been our constant prayer that you might be prepared, qualified, and led to this very de- cision."
SOME PRACTICAL LESSONS
There are many lessons to be learned from this study of the impelling forces that led noble men and earnest women to choose foreign mis- sions as a life-work. First, there is the prac- tical lesson of how to interest others. The in- stances given show that hearts are touched and impulses implanted in many different ways. Pictures, books, maps, stories, sermons, tracts, addresses, writing missionary papers, doing mis- sionary work, giving missionary money, study- ing the Bible, prayer — each in turn has been the means, under God, of sending one or more great workers to the field.
The same means used by the Christian workers of to-day will, with God's blessing, 70
HOW TO INTEREST THE INDIVIDUAL
produce similar results. This was proved by the testimonies given at the Ohio State Chris- tian Endeavor Convention, held in Zanesville in 1902. At a conference conducted by the writer the young people were asked to tell, very briefly, what first interested them in missions. A large number of responses were given, among them the following :
"Writing missionary papers and studying missions in
a study class."
" Helping to support a boy in a mission school."
" Realizing God's love for all mankind."
" Fulfilling the dying request of my mother to see
that her missionary money was paid."
" The influence of my teacher at school, who was pre- paring to go to the foreign land where she is now at
work."
" Reading missionary periodicals that came into our
home."
"Writing a paper on child-widows in India."
" Coming into contact with missionaries from the
field." " A course of lectures delivered by Dr. Schaff at
Lane Seminary."
" Reading missionary letters received by a neighbor."
" Contact with Student Volunteers."
" Hearing missionary addresses at conventions."
Then there is the lesson of individual responsi- bility. It is worthy of note that the majority
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HOLDING THE ROPES
of these great missionaries received their in- spiration by contact with some one soul ablaze with missionary zeal. The lives of Paton, Mackay, Duff, and Hamlin teach the duty and responsibility of parents in the home, those of Martyn and Williams the privilege and power of the pastor in the pulpit. The experiences of Eliza Agnew and Dr. Krapf reveal opportu- nities little dreamed of that are open to the school-teacher who is faithful to his Lord. The calls of Patteson and Judson, Marsden, Living- stone, and Scudder give a hint of the tremen- dous influence exerted by missionary writers and speakers, and, above all, by the returned mis- sionary from the field.
The susceptibility of the child mind to receive life-impressions is another lesson that must not be overlooked. Miss Fiske was only three years old, and Dr. Duff but four, when their interest in missions began, and Eliza Agnew formed her life-purpose at the age of eight. Sunday- school teachers, Junior workers, and leaders of children's mission bands should keep this con- stantly in mind.
Still another lesson is the lesson of encourage- ment. Missionary workers are prone to be dis- 72
HOW TO INTEREST THE INDIVIDUAL
couraged because so little fruit appears as the result of all their toil. Yet seed faithfully sown, and carefully watered by prayer, will sooner or later yield an abundant harvest and receive a rich reward. The parents, teachers, pastors, writers, and speakers who so deeply im- pressed the strong young souls of earlier days little knew what great results were to come from their humble efforts. Nor do you. If you are faithful to your trust God may use you to in- spire some soul to do a work in the future as great and as glorious as any that has been wrought in the past.
73
flDtesionarp Graining in tbe 1bome
The missionary training of children should begin, first of all, in the home. Nowhere can so strong and sure a foundation for missionary interest and activity be laid as here. " I believe there ought to be education in missions from the cradle," says Dr. Pierson, " and then, as the child's mind and heart are inspired with a desire for the uplifting of mankind, the fire to be fed with fuel appropriate to the measure of the child's intelligence."
Too little importance has been attached to this matter and too little stress laid upon it. We have had books and articles, addresses and conferences galore, on how to interest the young people in the Christian Endeavor Society and kindred organizations, but practically nothing on how to interest the little people in the home. Yet this is a matter of primary importance. On it depends, to a great extent, the solution of 74
MISSIONARY TRAINING IN THE HOME
the whole missionary problem. Note the sig- nificant words of Mr. John R. Pepper, of the International Sunday-school Lesson Committee, uttered before the New Orleans Missionary Con- ference in 1901 :
I verily believe that the heathen nations can be con- verted to the religion of Jesus Christ in one generation if the Church will but rear a generation to do the work. . . . I am profoundly impressed with the fact that we will never have an irresistible, all-conquering line of royal givers of gold, silver, or selves, until we rear them, and the first lesson of this culture in real, honest heart-yearning for the salvation of the whole world must be received in the springs and fountains of early child- hood, if we would see the largest yield therefrom.
There are three great reasons worthy of care- ful consideration why little children should be early trained in avenues of service to Christ and the lost world He came to save: 1. For the good of the child itself. 2. For the sake of what it can accomplish for the cause. 3. To fit it for the responsibilities of the future. Each of these will be briefly considered as follows :
I. THE GOOD OF THE CHILD ITSELF !
In these days when snares and pitfalls for the young abound on every hand, all active, 75
HOLDING THE ROPES
loving interest that a child can be induced to take in a great and noble cause that absorbs its thought and demands from it a portion of both time and money, is a positive safeguard to it. Then, too, the building of character begins at a very early age, and if that character is to be good and true and noble, the highest ideals should be laid upon it during the plastic period when the child is most easily molded. On this point Dr. Pierson has spoken most powerfully as follows :
Nothing is so subtly fatal to all true symmetry of char- acter as simple selfishness. There is as truly peril in a self-indulgent home as in a positively vicious one. Let a child begin by being pampered, petted, indulged, taught to gratify whims and selfish impulses, and you have given a carnal tendency to the whole life. Now there is this precious fruit of very early training in the missionary spirit, that your boy or girl gets another center of revo- lution outside of self. Others' wants and woes are thought of, and the penny that would be wasted on sweets is saved for the missionary box. Where mission- ary songs are sung at the cradle and prayers for the heathen are taught to lisping lips at the mother's knee, where simple facts about the awful needs of pagan homes and hearts are fed to the children as food for thought and tonic for self-denial, and the habit is thus early im- parted of looking beyond personal comfort and pleasure and feeling sympathy for lost souls, a new and strange
76
MISSIONARY TRAINING IN THE HOME
quality is given to character. It is no strange thing, therefore, that in homes where a true missionary atmos- phere is habitually breathed, we find children insensibly growing up to devote themselves and their substance to God.
II. WHAT THE CHILD CAN ACCOMPLISH FOR THE CAUSE
Children, even very little children, are a greater factor in missionary work than we real- ize. What they actually accomplish is by no means inconsiderable, and far greater than we give them credit for. If their efforts should suddenly cease, many a missionary wheel would stop revolving. Since the day when the Lord Jesus used a little lad's five loaves and two small fishes to feed the hungry multitude He has been using children's gifts to bless the world. The figures are not at hand to show the amount given to missions by the children of Christen- dom, but it is undoubtedly a vast sum. In pro- portion to their income, children are the largest givers in the world. Nor are their prayers to be despised. Few among older Christians pray with the simple faith and loving confidence of a little child. If only the curtain were drawn aside, we should probably find that many of the
77
HOLDING THE ROPES
blessings granted to the cause of missions have been given in answer to the prayers of Christ's own little ones. " Thank God for bairns' prayers," wrote James Chalmers from New Guinea ; " I like best the prayers of children."
III. TRAINING THE CHILD TO BEAR THE RESPON- SIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE
A study of missionary biography shows that many of those who have done the most for the cause received their first missionary inspira- tion from their parents in the home. The im- pressions gained during the formative period of childhood are never really lost, and seed sown in the nursery, tho it may lie dormant for years, will at length spring up and bear abundant fruit. This was the case with Robert Moffat, David Livingstone, Alexander Duff, Cyrus Hamlin, Jacob Chamberlain, and other great missionary heroes. It is also true of many whose work has been to " hold the ropes " at home.
It is a solemn thought, freighted with no little responsibility, that from among the children in our homes to-day must come the great mission- aries and missionary givers of to-morrow. Ere 78
MISSIONARY TRAINING IN THE HOME
long these little ones, now so dependent upon our care, are to be entrusted with the money power of the Church, and upon them will rest the burden of preaching Christ in all the earth. There are endless possibilities wrapped up in their young lives. Dr. Lyman Abbott once used this illustration:
I pluck an acorn from the greensward, and hold it to my ear, and this is what it says to me:
II By and by birds will come and nest in me. By and by I will furnish shade for the cattle. By and by I will provide warmth for the home in the pleasant fire. By and by I will be shelter from the storm to those who are under the roof. By and by I will be the strong ribs of a great vessel, and the tempest will beat against me in vain while I carry men across the Atlantic."
" Oh, foolish little acorn, wilt thou be all this ? " I ask. And the little acorn answers: "Yes; God and I."
Borrowing Dr. Abbott's thought, Dr. J. R. Miller has applied it to a little child. We in turn apply it to the missionary possibilities of a little child.
I look into the face of a company of little children, and I hear a whisper, saying:
" By and by I will be a blessing to many. By and by I will give money to the Lord Jesus for His work. By and by I will teach many to love the cause of missions.
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By and by I will cross the ocean to carry the Gospel to those who have it not. By and by I will turn many from worshiping idols to serve the living God. By and by I shall finish my course and be among the glorified with my Redeemer."
"You, frail, powerless little one?" I ask. And the little child makes answer : " Yes ; Christ and I."
SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
The responsibility for missionary training in the home lies, of course, largely with the parents, yet it has frequently devolved upon some other member of the household!. Count Zinzendorf, the illustrious " father of modern missions," owed his early training to his grandmother, the gifted and pious Baroness von Gersdorf, while the Earl of Shaftesbury, the staunch advocate of missions both at home and abroad, attributed his first interest in things spiritual to his devoted old nurse, Maria Millis. It is, however, .the parents' rightful privilege, and those who, for any reason, allow it to be assumed by others, neglect a great duty and miss a great reward. " Take this young child and nurse it for Me," is a command laid upon every Christian parent's heart.
The creation of a missionary atmosphere is a 80
MISSIONARY TRAINING IN THE HOME
matter of primary importance. A child reared in a home where missionary books and maga- zines crowd the library table, where missionary maps and pictures adorn the walls, and where prayer for missions is daily offered at the family altar, unconsciously imbibes the missionary spirit, even tho no direct influence is brought to bear upon it. " I have always believed in missions," said an earnest Christian woman not long ago ; " it would have been impossible for one brought up in our home to do otherwise."
The history of missions furnishes no more beautiful picture of early missionary training than that of Mackay, of Uganda. Both parents were deeply interested in missions, espe- cially in Africa, where Livingstone was then making his great explorations. The " Proceed- ings of the Royal Geographical Society " came regularly to the home, and the works of Living- stone, Speke, and Grant were purchased as soon as published. On a map in the study the father traced with his boy the course of the newly dis- covered rivers, and explained the important part missionaries were taking in the opening up of the great continent.
On the long Sabbath evenings, when the 81
HOLDING THE ROPES
father was preaching at some distant kirk, the mother taught the boy. The lessons were from the Bible and the catechism. If they had been well learned, the reward was a thrilling mission- ary story that filled his young heart with mis- sionary zeal. " Would you like me to go to Africa, mother? " he asked on one of these memorable occasions. " Not unless God prepares you for it, my boy," was her reply ; " but if the call comes, see that you do not neglect it." Small wonder is it that in after days the boy became, to borrow Stanley's phrase, " the great- est missionary since Livingstone."
Among the chief delights of childhood are stories, games, and pictures. These should be preempted for the missionary cause, and made to do duty as a means of imparting missionary inspiration and instruction.
1. Stories. — Missionary literature abounds in fascinating stories of strange lands and peoples, and thrilling adventures of mission- aries among them. Little children will sit en- tranced while such stories are either read or told to them, and stories heard at mother's knee are rarely, if ever, forgotten. With many parents the problem is where to find 82
MISSIONARY TRAINING IN THE HOME
suitable material. As long as the child is will- ing to take his reading second hand, the solu- tion is not difficult, for almost every mission- ary magazine and book contains one or more stories that can be retold in language suitable to the childish comprehension. But at the age of seven or eight, when the average American child begins to evince a desire to read for itself, the problem grows more difficult, for there are almost no missionary books suitable for begin- ners. Herein lies the great lack in missionary literature. There are, of course, many excellent children's magazines and papers which should be in every home, but, as a rule, a child loves a book better than a paper. Twenty years ago there was a similar lack in secular literature, but in recent years many gifted pens have been at work, and there is now a long list of most at- tractive books for beginners on a great variety of topics. It is to be hoped that the need may soon be met in missionary literature also.
Of books especially attractive to children, " The Story of John G. Paton " undoubtedly heads the list. One little lad, whose mother ap- plied to the writer for a book to interest him in missions, was so delighted with it that he insisted
HOLDING THE ROPES
on hearing all of it twice, and begged his mother " not to stop reading the part about the sinking of the well until he had heard it a thousand times ! "
Egerton R. Young's " On the Indian Trail " and "My Dogs in the Northland," S. M. and A. E. Zwemer's " Topsy-Turvy Land," and Hannington's " Peril and Adventure in Central Africa," are also great favorites. Hamlin's " My Life and Times," Chamberlain's "In the Tiger Jungle," and "The Cobra's Den," Hotchkiss' " Sketches from the Dark Continent," Williams' " Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands," Gale's " Korean Sketches " and " Mackay of Uganda," by his sister, are gold-mines of stories attractive to little folks, tho they also include much that is beyond their comprehension. Tho not espe- cially missionary in character, Carpenter's " Geographical Reader of Asia," Jane Andrews' " Seven Little Sisters," and Isaac Taylor Head- land's " Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes " and " The Chinese Boy and Girl," are invaluable in creating an interest in foreign lands and peoples.
2. Games. — Playing missionary games is one of the best ways of imparting missionary in- 84
MISSIONARY TRAINING IN THE HOME
struction in the home. It is said that knowledge gained in play is more easily acquired and longer retained than that gained in any other way. A prominent educator declares that his whole life has felt the impress of the old game of " Authors," played in his childhood, and attributes to it much of his love for books. And many a student of the Word is ready to testify to having gained his first knowledge of Bible char- acters through the Scripture games played in the home circle on Sunday afternoons. Missionary games similar to these would do much to remedy the woful ignorance which prevails concerning great missionary heroes and their notable achievements. Unfortunately there are very few missionary games available. Simple ones can, however, be easily made at home.1 In the matter of both books and games English so- cieties are far in advance of our own. The Church Missionary Society provides a fine array of printed matter for little people, including missionary alphabets, painting-books, and pic- ture-books for the little ones in the nursery, and missionary lotto and other games for those who are more advanced.
i For suggestions along this line see Chapter XI. 85
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ounce of picture is worth a ton of talk." This is, of course, a mere hyperbole, yet so great is the influence of pictures that it de- mands thoughtful attention from all parents who seek to train their little ones aright. Two illustrations suffice to show their power. Not long ago there came to the Home of the Friend- less, in one of our Western cities, a beautiful and accomplished girl, brought there from a Christian home of wealth and refinement by her bent and broken-hearted father. When the matron, in accordance with her custom, ques- tioned the girl concerning the cause of her downfall, she answered, with sobs and bitter tears : " It was a picture, a nude figure, in my father's dining-room. It ruined me and broke my parents' hearts."
In marked contrast to this sad story of an impure picture that so terribly wrecked a life, is that of Count Zinzendorf and the Ecce Homo of Sternberg, showing the power of a pure and noble picture to uplift a soul. In 1719 the young count, who was destined by his uncle for a brilliant social career, was sent on a tour of foreign travel to complete his education and
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MISSIONARY TRAINING IN THE HOME
wean him from his devotion to the service of God. It was a time of testing; but as the young nobleman stood before the famous paint- ing in the Dusscldorf Gallery and gazed into the sad, expressive face of the crucified Re- deemer, he renewed his consecration vows and returned home resolved to serve God as never before.
The power of pictures to plant a missionary purpose in the heart of a child is shown in the lives of Duff, of India, and Richardson, of Madagascar, both great heroes of the Cross. The former traced his first desire to be a mis- sionary to pictures of idols shown him by his father at the age of four; the latter to a pic- ture of the martyrdom of the native Christians of Madagascar, shown him by his teacher at the age of seven.
The wealth of pictures that make our present- day books and magazines so attractive consti- tute one of the best aids to the study of mis- sions, and are a great delight to children. They can be used in many ways. By clipping them and pasting them in an ordinary scrap-book, very pretty picture-books can be made. Those pictures that are worthy of it may be mounted
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on cardboard and framed in narrow molding or passe partout. Especially to be commended are the Orient Pictures issued by the American Bap- tist Missionary Union. Printed on heavy paper, and reproduced from the best missionary photo- graphs available, they are true works of art, and worthy of a place in any home. Curios, as well as pictures, have a place in the missionary training of the young. For this reason a mis- sionary museum is an excellent thing, especially for boys, in whom the collective spirit is usually so pronounced. A stamp collection, which brings the boy in touch with every foreign field, might form a part of this.
Hand in hand with missionary instruction in the home must go practical training in mission- ary work. If the child's missionary develop- ment is to be complete, it must be early taught to give its pennies to the Lord Jesus for His work, and to pray for the children of foreign lands and the missionaries who work among them. In the matter of giving, American mothers may learn a lesson from their Hawaiian sisters. In the early days of Christianity in the islands it was the custom of many a mother to put a bright coin in her baby's hand and hold it over 88
MISSIONARY TRAINING IN THE HOME
the contribution-box. If the tiny fingers held on to the shining piece, she gently shook it until it fell, with a merry ring, into the box below. Thus trained, the Hawaiians became noted for their liberality. Surely a plan that worked so well will bear transplanting.
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VI
Ube Missionary Xibrarp
HOW TO GET IT AND HOW TO USE IT
The rapid growth of missionary literature during the nineteenth century has undoubtedly been one of the chief factors in the marvelous development of missionary interest in recent years. Information has been the key of in- terest, unlocking hearts and pocketbooks, send- ing missionaries to the field, and causing money to pour into missionary treasuries. It is a sig- nificant fact that the missionary society in Great Britain (the Church Missionary Society), which expends the largest sums on missionary print- ing, has also the largest income f r missionary work.
During the first eighteen centuries of the Christian era the literature of missions was limited indeed. Dr. Pierson has called our at- tention to the fact that when Christ gave His last command there was not one Christian book 90
THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY
in existence. " The Church had no literature for nearly a century, and had to wait fifteen cen- turies for a printing-press and three more for any missionary literature outside of the Acts of the Apostles." But during the past one hun- dred years so many gifted pens have been at work that there is now a vast catalog of books on missions, that are intensely interesting and of a high order of literary merit. To make these books easy of access to the Church, and to bring individual Christians into contact with them, is the purpose of the missionary library.
HOW TO SECURE A LIBRARY
Missionary books, tho well printed, attract- ively bound, and finely illustrated, are, as a rule, so inexpensive that no church need be with- out at least a small missionary library. Even churches in remote rural districts may, through well-directed effort, come into the possession of enough books to assist in preparing programs and make possible the formation of a study- class or reading-circle.
The best way to introduce the subject is to devote an evening to the importance of mission-
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ary reading and the corresponding need of a library. Call it " An Evening with Missionary Books," and make the program as bright and attractive as possible. Have some one give " A Chat About Missionary Books," conduct an open parliament on " The Most Interesting Mis- sionary Book," and have selections read from some of the most famous books.
Having thus introduced the subject, the next step is to secure the books. There are several methods of doing this, each of which has proved successful in many churches:
1. Start a subscription paper and ask for contributions of money in sums ranging from five cents upward.
2. Make a list of all the books desired, with the price of each, and canvass the congregation for persons willing to donate one volume. Strange to say, many who would refuse money will readily agree to buy a book. In some churches the desired result has been obtained by printing the list in the church calendar or pub- lishing it on a bulletin-board. It is a good plan to ask the donors of the books to read them be- fore putting them in the library.
3. A Christian Endeavor society in one of
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THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY
the larger cities secured a fine library by giving a book social. The missionary committee wrote to a prominent publishing house, and asked them to send a selection of their best missionary books on approval. At the social these books were put upon a table, and the members of the society were urged to examine them and buy the most attractive ones for the library.
4. Another plan is to ask some one person in the church to give the library. Another is to devote part of the regular funds of the society to the purpose. These are undoubtedly the easiest ways, but probably not the best. On the principle that people care most for what costs them something, interest in a library given by many will be far greater than in one given by an individual or by the society as a whole.
5. In churches where it seems impossible to get either money or books, it is a good plan to ask those who have missionary books in their own libraries either to lend them for a limited time or give them outright. In this way the nucleus of a library may be formed that will in time lead to better things.
Having obtained the library, it is important to keep it up to date by the addition of bright
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new books as they are issued from the press; otherwise interest in it will lag. In some so- cieties a fund for this purpose is created by charging five cents for each book read and a fine of a cent a day for each book overdue.
THE KIND OF BOOKS TO BUY
Great care must be exercised in selecting books for the library, especially when they must be limited in number. Books suitable for the pur- pose may be broadly divided into six classes, each of which should be represented by one or more volumes :
1. Books on methods of work for the mission- ary committee. There are now a number of small and inexpensive ones that are almost in- dispensable to the missionary worker.
2. Historical books, such as Barnes' " Two Thousand Years of Missions Before Carey " and Leonard's " A Hundred Years of Missions." Besides these the library should contain a his- tory of missions in its own denomination, such as Speer's " Presbyterian Foreign Missions," or Merriam's " A History of American Baptist Missions."
3. Biographies of great missionaries. Since
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THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY
this is the most fruitful of all missionary litera- ture, it should be largely represented in the library. At the head of the list all will prob- ably unite in placing Paton's matchless volumes, tho Blakie's " Personal Life of David Living- stone," Hamlin's " My Life and Times," Griffis' " Verbeck, of Japan," and many others, are scarcely less popular. Bryan's " Life of John Kenneth Mackenzie " has a double value, giving not only the story of a great life, but also vivid pictures of medical missionary work in China.
4. Books descriptive of foreign lands and people. These include such delightful books as Gale's " Korean Sketches," Denning's " Mosaics from India," and Smith's " Chinese Character- istics." Under this head, too, come books of travel. These must be chosen with special care, for many of them give wrong impressions of missionary work and incorrect information about missionary lands. Some of them, however, are perfectly reliable and much too valuable to be omitted. It was Cook's " Voyages," an early book of travels, that fed Carey's missionary im- pulse and inspired the great wave of interest throughout Great Britain that culminated in the rjurehase of the Duff, and the sending out 95
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of the first band of missionaries to the South Seas in 1796.
5. Stories of missionary work in heathen lands. These are often as fascinating as the most romantic fiction. They include such thrilling books as Young's " On the Indian Trail," Pierson's " Miracles of Missions," and Chamberlain's " In the Tiger Jungle " and " The Cobra's Den."
6. Books of missionary fiction founded upon fact. These are invaluable, appealing to a class of readers that nothing else will touch. " The Bishop's Conversion," " The Sign of the Cross in Madagascar," " A Chinese Quaker," and others of a similar character undoubtedly have a great mission to perform.
Two classes of books it would be well to avoid : large and expensive volumes that are of value mainly to specialists, and old and uninteresting books that are of little use to anybody. Because a book is old, however, it is not necessarily un- interesting. " Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands " was written by John Will- iams three-quarters of a century ago, yet few books of recent date surpass it in interest.
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THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY
HOW TO USE THE LIBRARY
The first requisite to a well-managed library is a good librarian, upon whose energy and en- thusiasm much of its success depends. The ideal librarian should be thoroughly interested in missions and well acquainted with missionary books, willing to assist those in search of ma- terial for papers and talks, and able to suggest books to individual readers suited to their taste and likely to win their attention.
The library should be kept in a prominent place, easy of access to all, either on a shelf or in a case without doors, so that the books can be examined and taken out at pleasure. If the case has doors, either keep them unlocked or take them off altogether. This may occasion- ally result in the loss of a book, but it is better to lose a few books than to bury them in a closed case where they are seldom or never used.
But while it is wise to make the books easy of access, strict rules should be made requiring them to be returned within a given time — say, two weeks, as in other libraries, with a possible ex- tension, provided no one is waiting for the book. 97
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All books should be marked with the name of the church or society, and a careful record kept of the dates on which they are taken out and the name of the person taking them.
The books should be kept uncovered — at least until the bindings become worn and unsightly from use. On this point Mr. Harlan P. Beach says : " I have learned from our college work that it is not best to cover missionary books. If you cover them you put a coffin around them, and that is the end of them."
Having secured the library and put it in good running order, the next problem is how to get the books read. The old adage, " You may take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink," finds its parallel in the missionary com- mittee that leads a society up to a well-filled case of attractive books, but can not induce any one to read them.
But such a committee need not despair. Ex- perience proves that by persistent effort and the use of tactful methods an appetite for mission- ary literature can be created that will make the books in demand. The results that follow are so great and so lasting as to be worth all the effort expended. " One good missionary book 98
THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY
carefully read," says a wise worker, " is of more permanent value than a dozen speeches."
The first thing for the missionary committee to do is to set a good example by reading the books themselves. Otherwise, as Professor Amos R. Wells wittily says, " they will be in the position of a bald-headed man selling a hair- restorer ! " Having faithfully taken this first step, the committee will be in a position to put into execution some of the schemes devised by missionary workers to induce people to read. Here are a dozen plans, each of which has been tried with good success :
1. When planning programs for the meet- ings, provide a number of topics that necessitate the use of missionary books. In assigning these to the members of the society, furnish with them a list of references to books in the library where suitable material may be found.
2. Print lists of all the interesting missionary books available, not only in the missionary li- brary, but in the Sunday-school and public libraries as well, and distribute them among the young people. Then ask them to pledge them- selves to read a given number in a given time — one a month, four a year, or two during the
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summer vacation. It will add to the interest to keep a record of all the books read, either in a blank-book or on a sheet of cardboard hanging on the wall.
3. Make short, bright book reviews or book summaries a feature of the program, and when new books are added to the library, give " book notices " of them, calling attention to their most attractive features.
4. Professor Wells makes the following good suggestion : " Have a bold placard staring people in the face in the prayer-meeting room, bearing on it the words, ' Have you read " The Cobra's Den " ? ' or whatever book it is desired to push at the time."
5. At the close of some missionary meeting, or at a missionary social, put all the books in the library on a table and ask those present to examine them. Turning the leaves and look- ing at the pictures will often lead people to read the books.
6. Organize a missionary reading-circle to meet successively at different houses for the pur- pose of reading aloud some interesting book. This is an excellent way to develop a taste for missionary literature. So also is the study-
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class, which provides for the thorough study of one book, and necessitates frequent reference to others.
7. Have selections from the most popular books read at missionary meetings and mission- ary socials. Nowhere can better material for the missionary elocutionist be found than here. For the missionary meeting the following selec- tions would be both entertaining and appro- priate :
"The Sinking of the Well," from "The Story of John G. Paton."
" God on the Rock," from " On the Indian Trail."
" In the Tiger Jungle," from Jacob Chamberlain's well- known book.
" A Sabbath-keeping Baker," from " My Life and Times."
"A Life for a Life," from "The Apostle of the North, James Evans."
" The Search for a Word," from " Sketches from the Dark Continent."
" A Snow-bound Christmas," from " Recollections of a Missionary in the Great West."
For a missionary social, nothing could be more entertaining or mirth-provoking than such readings as
"The Korean Boy," from "Korean Sketches." 101
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" Nelwang's Elopement," from " The Story of John
G. Paton."
" The Spotted Tiger Foiled," from " The Cobra's Den." " Mackay as Undertaker," from " Mackay, of
Uganda," by his sister.
8. For some missionary meeting select three books, and ask three persons each to read one of them and come prepared to relate the most thrilling experience recorded in it. For another meeting ask five persons to read five biographies and give the strongest lessons to be learned from them. Or have ten persons read ten books and give an instance of answered prayer recorded in each. Still another plan is to assign each chap- ter of a book to a different person and have it reviewed as a serial, each person giving the gist of a chapter.
9. Many who would refuse to read an entire book can be induced to read portions of one. For this purpose keep a list of references to books in which interesting chapters and para- graphs can be found.
10. The pastor can do much to promote mis- sionary reading by suggesting interesting books to be read. It was the custom of Dr. Arthur Mitchell to take a book and read it and master
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THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY
it, and then give his people the most striking incidents in it, clothing them in his own lan- guage. The result was that his people were filled with missionary zeal, and each church he served as pastor became a leader in missionary work.
11. Distributing the following questions among the young people, or discussing them at some meeting, will reveal to them how much time they devote to works of fiction and how little to books on missions, and perhaps induce them to pursue a better course:
How many novels have you read? How many mis- sionary books?
What novel did you read last? What missionary book?
What novel do you expect to read next? What mis- sionary book?
12. The " Unanimous Library " scheme de- vised by Mr. W. L. Amerman, of New York City, is an excellent one that could be used to advantage everywhere. The idea is for each society to buy a book (for obvious reasons it is best to select a small one), with the understand- ing that it is to be read by every member of the society. In order to " make it unanimous,"
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some are induced to read it who would not other- wise do so. In pursuance of this plan a large number of Christian Endeavor societies in the New York City Union bought a little library of four small books and endeavored to get them read by all their members. The results were surprising. In one church where there were three societies (junior, intermediate, and senior) one book was read by four hundred and thirty- eight different persons within a given time.
UTILIZING THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
If a free public library is accessible, the ma- terial in it should be utilized. The number of volumes on strictly missionary topics is usually somewhat limited in public libraries, but the de- partments of history, biography, travel, eth- nology, and sociology contain a great wealth of material that is invaluable to the student of mis- sions. In most libraries this material is little used, largely because it is unknown.
By concerted action on the part of the mis- sionary workers of any community, the quantity of missionary literature in the public library may be considerably enlarged and its circulation greatly increased. Here are some of the privi-
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THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY
leges which have been sought and obtained in many large libraries that might be secured by missionary workers everywhere:
1. A special catalog of all the books bear- ing directly or indirectly on the subject of mis- sions.
2. The massing of all books bearing on mis- sions in a special alcove — temporarily, if not permanently.
3. One or more shelves devoted to strictly missionary books.
4. The addition of new books, from time to time, recommended by missionary workers and needed by them for special work.
5. A special rack in the reading-room, upon which current numbers of the leading missionary magazines may be found.
In many States there is now a well-developed system of traveling libraries, by means of which a good assortment of books may be obtained for the, cost of transportation. These libraries, too, should be utilized by missionary workers, espe- cially in localities where there is no public li- brary and the books accessible are limited in number.
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VII
XTbe iTOMsston Stufcs Class
There are three ways of diffusing missionary information in use at the present time — the mis- sionary meeting, the reading circle, and the study class ; and the greatest of these is the study class.
The missionary meeting is, and ever will be, the best agency for reaching large numbers and sowing broadcast the seeds of missionary enthu- siasm. But the information presented is, al- most of necessity, fragmentary and incomplete, and so little in the way of individual effort is called forth that the knowledge gained is likely to be the acquisition of the few who take part rather than of the society as a whole. The read- ing.circle is, in some respects, better than the mis- sionary meeting, but it is defective in that it requires but little exercise of the mental facul- ties, and fails to stimulate individual research. The knowledge gained is rarely a permanent acquisition; like all desultory reading, it seldom
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makes a lasting impression on the mind. The study class stands preeminent in that it requires systematic study on the part of every member of the class. Its great value lies in the fact that it possesses the rare quality of producing mis- sionary leaders. Some one has called it the " best of all manufactories of missionary work- ers," and such, indeed, it has proved wherever it has been tried under favorable circumstances. The quantity of seed sown is not so great as in the missionary meeting, but a larger proportion bears fruit. If a church lacks missionary lead- ers— and where is the church that does not ? — the best remedy is to organize a study class, not to take the place of the missionary meeting, but to supplement it, very much as classes for Bible study supplement the devotional meeting and the public preaching of the Word.
THE ORIGIN OF THE MISSION STUDY CLASS
The mission study class, in its present form, is of comparatively recent origin. In reality, however, it dates back to the students of Andover College, nearly a century ago, who, stimulated by the Haystack Heroes, made the study of mis- sions a prominent feature of their meetings.
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Their example was followed, to a limited extent, by students in other colleges throughout the cen- tury. After the organization of the Intercol- legiate Young Men's Christian Association the idea became more prominent, and in the year 1891 an impetus was given to it .by the pub- lication of a series of outline mission studies in the organ of the association.
The honor of establishing organized work in systematic mission study belongs, however, to the Student Volunteer Movement. In February, 1893, when the Student Volunteer, the organ of the movement, was first issued, a series of foreign mission studies was begun, and the formation of classes in every college urged. A year later, the outline system having proved unsatisfactory, the use of text-books was adopted, and the office of educational secretary created. Since 1895 this office has been filled with rare ability by the Rev. Harlan P. Beach, formerly a mis- sionary to China. The growth of the work in ten years has been phenomenal. Twenty-six courses of study have been prepared, and mis- sionary libraries, costing tens of thousands of dollars, have been introduced into the colleges. An average of five thousand students a year 108
THE MISSION STUDY CLASS
have been enrolled in study classes, and text- books have been called for at the rate of ten thousand copies a year. The result has been not only the volunteering of a considerable num- ber of young men and women, but an increased intelligence in missions on the part of can- didates offering themselves to the various Boards.
The great success achieved among the students led to the adoption of systematic mission study by several denominations, the text-books being those of the Student Volunteer Movement, with special denominational features added. Next the women took it up, and at a conference of all the Women's Boards of the United States and Canada, the course for women's societies, known as the " United Study of Missions," was decided upon. The sale of more than fifty thousand copies of the first two text-books of the series speaks eloquently of the favor with which they have been received. Early in 1902 the Young People's Missionary Movement fell into line, and announced a series of text-books for young peo- ple, to be known as the " Forward Mission Study Courses." Stimulated by the Silver Bay Con- ferences of 1902 and 1903, and pushed by the 109
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denominational boards, the work is growing with great rapidity. During the first year ten thou- sand young people were enrolled in classes, and the next year, within two months of its publica- tion Mr. Beach's biographical text-book on China reached a sale of nearly twenty thousand copies. Such a vast army of students, young people, and women, concentrating time and thought on mission study, certainly argues well for the future. Gratifying reports of increased interest and enlarged giving are already coming in, and should the work continue it will un- doubtedly usher in one of the greatest revivals of missionary enthusiasm in the history of the Church.
STEPS PRELIMINARY TO ORGANIZATION
In organizing a mission study class, especially where such work is attempted for the first time, there are many points which should be thor- oughly discussed by the committee in charge be- fore the matter is publicly announced.
Time. Experience proves that it is unwise to
combine the study class with any other meeting.
Wherever possible, a separate session of from
sixty to ninety minutes should be devoted to it,
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the day and hour to be determined by local con- ditions. The result will be smaller classes, but more efficient work. The sessions should be held weekly until the completion of the course, rather than fortnightly or monthly. This brings them close enough together to sustain the interest, yet far enough apart to admit of thorough prep- aration. It will be found easier to secure mem- bers for a class that meets once a week for a brief period than for one that meets once a month during a large part of a year.
The separate session, held weekly, tho emi- nently desirable, is not absolutely essential to success, and no society should give up the idea of organizing a class because ideal conditions can not be secured. The Advance Club of Rockf ord, 111., an undenominational association of Chris- tian women, organized for missionary study, has achieved magnificent success with meetings held once a fortnight, and many a woman's society has done good work by devoting six of the regu- lar monthly meetings of the year to the United Study of Missions lessons. Witness also the notable work accomplished by the Baptist Young People's Union through the use of the Conquest Missionary Courses, which provide 111
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twelve lessons a year, to be used once a month at the regular meeting of the young people's so- ciety. Good work has also been done in a few in- stances by devoting the church prayer-meeting or the young people's meeting to the work for a period of six or eight consecutive or alternate weeks.
Place. The place of meeting can best be de- termined by the size and character of the class. For small classes a private house, centrally lo- cated, is undoubtedly best. For large classes the church is better, especially if a well-lighted, well- ventilated room is available. If possible, the class should be seated around tables to facilitate the taking of notes.
Membership. If the class is too large, actual study is next to impossible. Experts declare that the enrolment should never exceed ten or twelve, and that if more apply, it is better to start another class. Some of the most successful classes have had from three to five members only. It is well to remember that quality is better than quantity, and admit only those who are thor- oughly in earnest. It is a fatal mistake to urge any one to join on the plea that little or no work will be required. In order that the nature 112
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of the class and the requirements of membership may be fully understood, some pledge, such as the following, may be used:
1. I will be present at every meeting of the class, unless prevented by unforeseen circumstances.
2. I will secure a copy of the text-book to be used.
3. I will endeavor to devote not less than
minutes to the study of each lesson.
4. I will prepare the special work assigned me to the best of my ability.
5. I will pray daily for the spread of Christ's King- dom in the earth.
The Leader. One thing essential to success- ful study-class work is a competent leader. The necessary qualifications for this all-important office are three:
1. A deep and abiding interest in missions. " Let him who would move and convince others," says Carlyle, " be first moved and convinced himself."
2. Ability to teach, rather than to lecture. The class will profit by the work in direct pro- portion to their own intellectual effort.
3. Willingness to devote time to thf necessary study. An extended knowledge of missionary history and a wide acquaintance with missionary literature are not essential, but a good leader
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must have a thorough knowledge of the text- book chosen. To give opportunity for thor- ough preparation, both text-book and leader should be chosen long in advance of the organi- zation of the class.
The question of leadership is often a perplex- ing one. A common error is that of asking the pastor or some prominent church official who is not specially qualified for the work to undertake it. No matter how broad his previous knowledge of missions, unless the leader has teaching ability and time to master the text-book, the result will be a lamentable failure.
Course of Study. For beginners in syste- matic mission study a text-book should invari- ably be used. The lists of questions, references to other literature, and outlines of study which they furnish simplify the work both for teacher and class. With experienced leaders and ma- ture classes, especially those having access to large libraries, a syllabus may be used instead of a text-book. Excellent text-books have been prepared by the Student Volunteers, the Women's United Study Committee, and the Young People's Forward Mission Study Com- mittee. These treat of great mission fields, great 114
THE MISSION STUDY CLASS
missionaries, periods of missionary history, medical missions, and other phases of missionary work at home and abroad.
With such a wealth of text-books available, many classes will be perplexed to know how to make a wise selection. For those who have never before attempted systematic mission study, a short biographical course, such as Beach's " Knights of the Labarum," or Taylor's " Price of Africa," is by far the best. These are less difficult and take less time than the study of a mission field or a period of missionary history, and require no previous knowledge to make them interesting. Biography is the most fruitful of all missionary literature and is calcu- lated to develop interest and arouse enthusi- asm more quickly than any other form of study.
ORGANIZING THE CLASS
Having fully discussed the foregoing points, the next step is to secure members for the class. Perhaps the best way to do this is by personal invitation to those who give large promise of future usefulness. Another way is to devote one session of the young people's society to a mis- 115
HOLDING THE ROPES
twelve lessons a year, to be used once a month at the regular meeting of the young people's so- ciety. Good work has also been done in a few in- stances by devoting the church prayer-meeting or the young people's meeting to the work for a period of six or eight consecutive or alternate weeks.
Place. The place of meeting can best be de- termined by the size and character of the class. For small classes a private house, centrally lo- cated, is undoubtedly best. For large classes the church is better, especially if a well-lighted, well- ventilated room is available. If possible, the class should be seated around tables to facilitate the taking of notes.
Membership. If the class is too large, actual study is next to impossible. Experts declare that the enrolment should never exceed ten or twelve, and that if more apply, it is better to start another class. Some of the most successful classes have had from three to five members only. It is well to remember that quality is better than quantity, and admit only those who are thor- oughly in earnest. It is a fatal mistake to urge any one to join on the plea that little or no work will be required. In order that the nature
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THE MISSION STUDY CLASS
of the class and the requirements of membership may be fully understood, some pledge, such as the following, may be used:
1. I will be present at every meeting of the class, unless prevented by unforeseen circumstances.
2. I will secure a copy of the text-book to be used.
3. I will endeavor to devote not less than
minutes to the study of each lesson.
4. I will prepare the special work assigned me to the best of my ability.
5. I will pray daily for the spread of Christ's King- dom in the earth.
The Leader. One thing essential to success- ful study-class work is a competent leader. The necessary qualifications for this all-important office are three:
1. A deep and abiding interest in missions. " Let him who would move and convince others," says Carlyle, " be first moved and convinced himself."
2. Ability to teach, rather than to lecture. The class will profit by the work in direct pro- portion to their own intellectual effort.
3. Willingness to devote time to thp necessary study. An extended knowledge of missionary history and a wide acquaintance with missionary literature are not essential, but a good leader
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asked to be on the lookout for photographs, curios, or other objects that would illustrate the lessons and add interest to them.
ORDER OF EXERCISES
The program for the lesson hour will depend largely on the length of the sessions, the experi- ence of the leader, and the ability of the class. The following schedule, prepared by Dr. T. H. P. Sailer, Educational Secretary of the Presby- terian Board of Foreign Missions, and an acknowledged expert in study-class work, is probably the best yet devised :
1. Scripture Reading. — Select a brief passage that brings out some one thought connected with the lesson.
2. Prayer. — Let the member, who should be notified in advance, seek to be brief but definite.
3. Assignment of the Next Lesson. — Let the leader state clearly the subject of the next lesson, and the pages of the text-book to be studied. Let him indicate the subjects of most importance, telling upon what to concentrate, and what to skim or omit. Let him give out questions requiring independent thought. Assignments to individuals (see Nos. 4 and 7) should be made as largely as possible in writing, and given out either before or after the meeting.
4. Review. — Let a member, previously appointed, give in not over three minutes (a) a brief review of the last lesson, mentioning only the points of the greatest im-
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THE MISSION STUDY CLASS
portance, together with a conclusion to be drawn from each; or (b) a still more condensed review of the course from the beginning, giving one or two thoughts, rather than facts, connected with the lesson.
5. Personal Impressions. — Let each member mention in a sentence what was personally most impressive in the last lesson.
6. Questions on the Advance Lesson by the Leader. — Upon the skill with which this is done success in teach- ing depends. The assignment at the previous lesson should be closely followed.
7. Papers. — Have two or three (never more) papers or talks by members previously appointed, introduced where most appropriate.
8. Debate. — If it can be ascertained by a show of hands that members have differed in opinion on any point in the lesson, an impromptu debate might be arranged.
9. Closing Impressions. — Let the leader sum up and try to leave a sense of individual responsibility.
10. Closing Prayer. — A number of sentence prayers may be called for.
A NOTABLE MISSION STUDY CAMPAIGN
During the winter of 1902-3 the missionary committee of the New York City Christian En- deavor Union carried on a mission study cam- paign which produced great results, and is worthy of imitation. In his annual report of June, 1903, Mr. W. L. Amerman, the efficient chairman of the missionary committee, tells of the work as follows :
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Last year's successful effort for the " unanimous " reading of several selected missionary books afforded en- couragement and preparation for something far more difficult — a campaign for the study of a single book, " The Price of Africa."
To supply the first requisite, teachers or leaders, plans were made immediately after the return of our dele- gates from the Silver Bay Conference, in August, 1902, which resulted in the formation, in October, of six normal classes, practically one in each district, led by expert teachers. The executive committee of the Union made a liberal appropriation for printed matter and other helps, and for compensating any of these teachers in cases where the use of time was involved which could not otherwise have been available.
An average number of fifty-six students attended each of the eight or more sessions of these normal classes, twenty-five of whom, after January 1st, organized in their own societies a second series of classes, and pursued the same course, enrolling nearly two hundred students, and generating widespread interest. Many details of this campaign, for which we have not space here, may be found in a disseminating article in the June, 1903, num- ber of the Assembly Herald, published by the Presby- terian Board.
The work of the Sixth District will serve to illustrate that in others, and certainly deserves a special paragraph. The leader of the normal class was Miss Miriam L. Taylor, who had formerly been missionary chairman of the district. Six of the nine members of the class later organized circles of their own, teaching the same course, the attendance averaging eight per session. The interest and diligence shown were very gratifying. In two cases these latter students have begun to lead study classes on
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THE MISSION STUDY CLASS
the same lines, making the third series, popularly known as " the grandchildren.'1 Commencement exercises were held by the normal class with good effect, and another gathering celebrated the completion of the course by the second set of circles. Individual societies report much increased interest in the cause of missions as a result of this work.
Next year's campaign will be upon similar lines. Nor- mal classes may not be required, but two general series of circles will be arranged, one beginning in October and one in January.
Such a mission study campaign could be con- ducted anywhere. The work of the Sixth Dis- trict, as outlined by Mr. Amerman, shows how well the plan is adapted to small cities as well as large ones. There are few places where the service of an expert teacher could not be secured to lead a normal class of the representatives of the young people's societies or the women's so- cieties. These in turn could organize classes in their own churches or societies.
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VIII
/HMssions in tbe 5unfca£=scbool
Of all the organizations within the Church, none offers so promising a field for fostering missionary interest and prosecuting missionary work as the Sunday-school. It is a permanent institution, found everywhere, and its member- ship embraces both sexes and all ages — boys as well as girls, men as well as women. Nowhere can so large and representative a number be reached as here.
The Sunday-school is, too, the logical place for laying the foundations for missionary work. The Bible is its text-book, and the Bible is essen- tially a missionary book. The universal salva- tion of mankind is one of its great central themes, occupying large space in both Old and New Testaments.
Yet to a great extent the Sunday-school is a neglected factor in missionary work. In his re- cent book, " The Evangelization of the World 122
MISSIONS IN SUNDAY-SCHOOL
in this Generation," John R. Mott declares that " it is, in some respects, the largest undeveloped resource of the Church."
Three causes can be found for this: (1) Until recently the mission boards have put forth little or no systematic effort to introduce the study of missions into the Sunday-school. (2) With few exceptions, the great leaders of Sun- day-school work have had a mistaken idea that missionary teaching in the Sunday-school is somewhat of a departure from the avowed pur- pose of the Sunday-school to teach the Word of God. (3) The average Sunday-school worker cares so little about the great work our Lord has laid upon the Church that he feels no obli- gation whatever to train those under his care along missionary lines. It is a strange fact that, while no one who openly violates any of the Ten Commandments is allowed to teach in the Sunday-school, thousands are welcomed to the ranks who are utterly indifferent and openly disobedient to the Last Command. The writer has personally known of a superintendent who, in the face of the overwhelming testimony to the contrary, declared it impossible for a China- man to be a true convert to Christ, and a teacher 123
HOLDING THE ROPES
who regarded the whole scheme of missions as a foolish and useless absurdity. In selecting of- ficers and teachers, it would be well to remember the words of the late B. F. Jacobs :
" A Sunday-school worker who is not a mis- sionary worker is out of place."
In many a Sunday-school the text-book is the Bible, with missions practically eliminated from its pages. The result is that in the mind of the average Christian, even tho he has attended Sunday-school faithfully all the days of his life, there is no connection between the extension of God's kingdom, foretold in the Bible, and the progress of God's work in the world to-day. To him the great promises and prophecies of the coming of the Kingdom convey no assurance of the ultimate triumph of world-wide missions. This was demonstrated in the summer of 1900, during the Boxer uprising, when not only the world, but multitudes in the Church, predicted the complete annihilation of missions in China. Yet the Word of God clearly teaches that the kingdoms of the earth (China included) are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Many who glibly quote Judson's fa- mous words, " The prospects are as bright as the 124
MISSIONS IN SUNDAY-SCHOOL
promises of God," would be confused if asked to repeat some of the promises the great apostle to the Burmans had in mind.
Some missionary leaders feel that the lack of missionary teaching in the Sunday-school can only be remedied by special missionary lessons, assigned by the International Lesson Committee. Others feel that special lessons are neither neces- sary nor desirable, since in the regular lessons of almost every quarter opportunities for teaching missions occur with great frequency. It could hardly be otherwise with lessons taken from a book so saturated with the spirit of missions as the Bible. The trouble is not so much with the lessons as with those who teach them. The average teacher, even when willing, knows little or nothing about missions and is, therefore, unable to teach a missionary lesson success- fully.
In view of this deplorable fact, training the teachers and firing them with missionary zeal would seem to be a better remedy. This could, perhaps, be accomplished through the teachers' meeting by appointing some competent leader to suggest methods of teaching the missionary lessons whenever they occur. Missionary maga- 125
HOLDING THE ROPES
zines and Sunday-school journals could also render good assistance by devoting space each month to the missionary aspect of the Sunday- school lessons and furnishing material to make them interesting. This was a regular feature of one prominent missionary magazine some years ago, but unfortunately it has been discontinued. The devoting of a column to missions in the Sunday-school journals of the Methodist Epis- copal churches, both North and South, is a step in the right direction.
Teaching what the Bible says about missions, is, however, not sufficient — the Sunday-school must know something of missions in the world to- day. The children should study, not only the Acts of the Apostles of old, but also the acts of the great army of new apostles that God has raised up for the evangelization of the world; not only the lives of the grand old heroes of Bible times, but also the lives of the great mis- sionary heroes of modern times.
In many schools study of modern missions is provided for by devoting an entire session once a quarter to special missionary exercises. In others a certain Sunday in each month is desig- nated as Missionary Sunday. The lesson is
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MISSIONS IN SUNDAY-SCHOOL
taught as usual, but the collection is for mis- sions and the opening and closing exercises are missionary in character. The first plan is good, the second far better. The observance of a monthly missionary Sunday in no way interferes with the regular work of the school, yet the sub- ject of missions is made a special feature at twelve sessions in the year.
Missionary study in the Sunday-school should begin in the primary'department, or kindergar- ten class, if there is one. Some schools begin with the babies of the " cradle roll," on the as- sumption that no child is too young to be taught to give. Mite-boxes are sent to the babies, with the request that the parents see that a gift is dropped in each week.
Experience proves that even very young chil- dren are capable of comprehending and remem- bering stories of missionary heroes and their work. A primary teacher who recently delighted her children with stories from the life of John G. Paton was much gratified to learn, during the week following, that one little fellow, not more than five years old, had given his mother a graphic account of the sinking of the well on Aniwa.
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PLANS FOR MISSIONARY SUNDAY
Rightly conducted, Missionary Sunday be- comes the brightest Sunday in the month, a day to which the children look forward with eager longing and keenest interest. The following suggestions are offered in the hope that many schools may be induced to regularly observe such a day :
1. Maps. — Every Sunday-school should own a large missionary map of the world for use in its missionary exercises. It is not wise to keep it in view all the time, for it will prove a far greater attraction if used only on special occa- sions. But the children should always find it in place on Missionary Sunday.
Such a map may be used in many ways. If the mission fields are studied month by month, the stations should be marked by inserting little gold-headed fasteners, such as are used to brad papers together. At the end of a year the map will be dotted over with them, showing at a glance where the missionaries are at work.
Another map plan that never fails to please is taking imaginary journeys to and from the mis- sion fields, or tracing the actual journey of some 128
MISSIONS IN SUNDAY-SCHOOL
real missionary, by means of colored cords stretched from point to point.
The fields or stations to which the school has sent money should also be marked on the map, using gold stars or tiny flags for the purpose. This plan, used in Ralph Wells' school in New York City, greatly delighted the children, and had no small influence in increasing their gifts.
2. Music. — The singing of stirring mission- ary hymns should be a feature of both opening and closing exercises. A few of the best hymns should be memorized, so that they can be sung without books. It is a good plan, too, to con- nect hymns with the passages of Scripture upon which they are based. It makes the children think, and impresses the lesson of the hymn upon the memory. Thus, before announcing the hymn, " Jesus shall reign where'er the sun," read parts of Ps. 72, and ask the school to name the hymn it suggests. " Christ for the world we sing, the world to Christ we bring," takes on new meaning when connected with John iii:16 and Ps. ii : 8, the first text telling that God gave Christ to the world, the second that He will give the world to Christ.
Hymns connected with great events on the 129
HOLDING THE ROPES
mission field will also prove inspiring. " Jesus, I my cross have taken," will convey a stronger lesson than ever before when the children learn that Sooboonagam Ammal, a high-caste Hindu girl who gave up all for Christ, committed it to memory and sang it at her baptism because it so fully expressed her feelings.1
3. Supplemental Lessons. — In up-to-date schools, where a supplemental course of Bible study is in use, the lessons on Missionary Sunday should have to do with missions. Such questions as the following should be asked and the answers memorized:
" What is the Great Commission? "
" What did the Duke of Wellington call ' Our Marching Orders ' ? "
" Where are we to witness for Christ ? "
" What inheritance did the Father promise to the Son?"
" What promises point to the final success of missions? "
" What command did Christ give about pray- ing for laborers? " '
i For the missionary stories of other hymns see chap- ter iii.
2 Many of the suggestions made in chapter i. are appro- priate for use in the Sunday-school.
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MISSIONS IN SUNDAY-SCHOOL
4. Prayer. — Missionary Sunday affords a great opportunity for training children to pray for missions. Dr. A. C. Thompson asks : " Is it too much for even young children to plead in the fullest sense of the word, 6 Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done in earth [in all the earth] as it is in heaven ' ? "
The Jews had a saying, " He prays not at all in whose prayers there is no mention of the kingdom of heaven." The large measure of truth there is in this may be learned from a study of the model prayer our Lord gave to His disciples. There should, therefore, be prayer for the world-wide spread of the Gospel at every session of the Sunday-school. This is customary throughout the Moravian Church, and should be in all denominations. The prayers on Missionary Sunday especially should be marked by brief, simple petitions, such as every child can comprehend. And these petitions should be for definite things — for money, for laborers, for special objects supported by the school, for children in heathen lands, and for individual missionaries by name. The children should be urged, too, to pray daily for missions in their homes.
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5. Talks on Missions. — During the closing exercises, following the lesson, from ten to twenty minutes should be given to short, bright talks on missionary topics. These may be mis- cellaneous, or a series so closely related as to deserve the name of systematic missionary study.
In many schools the topics for the monthly talks are the mission fields of the denomination to which the school belongs. Study of this kind can be made intensely interesting to children, es- pecially if wise use is made of pictures, curios, and maps. Dressing children in native costume and having them sing native hymns form pleas- ing innovations.
Such talks on missions, when faithfully given, and accompanied by prayer, have influenced many young lives and sent many a missionary to the field. A notable example of this is found in the autobiography of James Chalmers, the Hero-martyr of New Guinea, who says:
I was almost fifteen years of age when I came to the great decision of my life. I remember it well. Our Sunday-school class had been held in the vestry as usual. The lesson was finished, and we had marched back into the chapel to sing, answer questions, and to listen to a
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MISSIONS IN SUNDAY-SCHOOL
short address. I was sitting at the head of the seat, and can even now see Mr. Meikle [the superintendent] taking from his breast-pocket a copy of the United Presbyterian Record, and hear him say that he was going to read an interesting letter to us from a missionary in Fiji. The letter was read. It spoke of cannibalism, and of the power of the Gospel, and at the close of the reading, looking over his spectacles, and with wet eyes, he said, " I wonder if there is a boy here this afternoon who will yet become a missionary, and by-and-by bring the Gos- pel to the cannibals?" And the response of my heart was, " Yes, God helping me, I will." So impressed was I that I spoke to no one, but went right away towards home. The impression became greater, the further I went, until I got to the bridge over the Aray above the mill, and near to the Black Bull. There I went over the wall attached to the bridge, and kneeling down prayed God to accept of me, and make me a missionary to the heathen.
Hero Sunday. — Another plan that can be used to advantage during an entire year is the celebration of missionaries' birthdays, very much as authors' birthdays are celebrated in the pub- lic schools. For this purpose select twelve great missionary heroes, assigning each to the month in which his birthday falls. On Missionary Sun- day— perhaps it would be better to call it Hero Sunday during this year — give a very brief out- line of the hero's life, and follow it with short, bright stories or anecdotes of his work. Chil- 133
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dren will enjoy these far better than a compre- hensive, detailed sketch, and remember them twice as well. At the close have the school memo- rize some famous saying of the hero of the day.1 Missionary " memory gems " are well worth learning.2
Pictures of the missionary, either a large one to hang on the wall, or small ones to distribute among the classes, add much to the interest, as do also curios and music from the land in which he worked.
The following list is suggested for schools de- siring to carry out this plan :
January — Cyrus Hamlin February — Titus Coan March — David Livingstone April — Bishop Patteson May — John G. Paton June — Allen Gardiner July — Samuel Marsden August — William Carey September — Marcus Whitman October — Alexander Mackay
i Quotations from great missionaries will be found in chapter xiii.
2 Another plan for teaching the names and achieve- ments of missionary heroes will be found in chapter xi.
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November — John Eliot i December — Robert Moffat
THE MONEY POWER OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL
The financial possibilities of the Sunday- school are great beyond computation. Mr. Mott says:
In 1890 the number of children in the Sunday-schools of Protestant lands exceeded 22,000,000. If they were trained to give even two cents a week per member, it would yield an amount greater than the present total missionary gifts of Christendom. That this is not an unreasonable estimate is proved by the actual practise in many schools.
Wherever systematic effort has been made to interest schools in missionary giving the results have been surprising. The children of the American Board raised $46,000 for the Morn- ing Star, contributing it in ten-cent shares. The children of England built the John Will- iams, and gave $29,000 besides to other ships of the London Missionary Society ; the children of Scotland built the David Williams, and the
i Eliot's birthday is unknown, but tradition places it in November. Since no great missionary seems to have been born in that month, his name may well be used to fill the vacant space.
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children of Australia gave $25,000 to the Day- spring, John G. Paton's missionary ship. In 1902 the Sunday-schools of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, North, raised $400,000 for mis- sions, about one-third of the sum contributed by the entire denomination.
These facts go to show that the Sunday- school is a veritable gold-mine, capable of yield- ing large returns for missionary work. It is un- fortunate that, in most denominations, it is a mine that is being worked to a limited extent only. This cuts off a large source of revenue from the mission boards, and, worse still, de- prives the children of that training in benevo- lence essential to their growth in grace, and so important in view of the fact that, ere long, they will be in control of the money power of the Church.
On the other hand, it is not well to lay too much stress on the financial side, for men as well as money are needed for the work, and the Sun- day-school must be trained to furnish both.
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IX
Ubc flDones problem
Money is an important factor in winning the world to Christ. Without it the wheels of mis- sionary activity would soon cease revolving. With it, in sufficient quantities, the work could be widely extended and rapidly pushed in all directions. " One thing alone hinders the prog- ress of the Kingdom," says the Rev. W. D. Sex- ton, " and that one thing is lack of money. The whole world is ready and waiting for the Gospel, the Boards of the Church are organized to meet the need, and men are offering them- selves for the work; but the treasuries are empty, the officers compelled to call a halt, and the whole line of Christ's army forced to rest upon its arms."
The relation of money to missions is a vital
one. The gold of the universe is not sufficient
to purchase pardon for even one immortal
soul — " Ye know that ye were not redeemed with
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corruptible things as silver and gold " — yet in a sense money can buy salvation for millions of Christless souls. It bears much the same rela- tion to soul-saving that it does to life-saving. A bank-note would make a very poor plaster to alleviate bodily pain, and it is powerless to wipe away the stains of sin, yet in the one case it can effect a cure by commanding the skill of the physician and the potency of the drug, and in the other by sending forth the heralds of the Cross and scattering broadcast the leaves of the Book which are for the healing of the na- tions.
Giving the Gospel to every creature is the greatest work in the world, the most colossal enterprise ever undertaken by man. For its suc- cessful prosecution it necessarily requires vast sums of money — not vaster, however, than the Church is abundantly able to supply. Owing to the rapid increase in the financial resources of Protestant Christians during the last half cen- tury, the money power of the Church is practi- cally unlimited. It is estimated that in the United States alone the wealth of the evangeli- cal Church members aggregates more than twenty billion dollars, and that it is increasing
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THE MONEY PROBLEM
daily at an amazing rate. A mere fraction of this sum would suffice, with God's help, to give the Gospel to every creature within a brief period of time.
Yet no phase of the missionary problem is more difficult to solve than the financial one. Notwithstanding the enormous money power of the Church, there are few missionary organiza- tions that are not perplexed concerning money, and seriously hampered for lack of funds ; and of the inadequate amounts that find their way into missionary treasuries as the result of end- less effort, a large proportion is given grudg- ingly and of necessity — wrested from unwilling purses, sometimes by methods dishonoring to Christ and belittling to the cause of missions. There is surely something wrong with the whole system of missionary finance.
But difficult as it is, the money problem is not incapable of solution. The Moravians solved it long ago, and so did Pastor Harms. " If the Moravian standard were reached by the other Reformed churches," says Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, " they would contribute £140,000,000 a year." The Central Presbyterian Church of New York City is solving the problem at the
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present time; so is the First Presbyterian Church of Wichita, Kansas ; so is an increas- ingly large number of churches, young peoples' societies, and Sunday-schools that have brought their gifts up to an almost ideal standard. How has it been done? In every instance prayer has been the key. Yet not prayer that sits by with folded hands and waits for God to perform miracles, but prayer accompanied by tireless effort and faithful work.
SOME SECRETS OF SUCCESS
A thorough study of the underlying causes of the remarkable results attained in individual churches and societies has revealed the following secrets of success, which should be thoughtfully pondered :
1. The inculcation, through prayer, the study of the Word and the dissemination of mis- sionary information, of a spirit of obedience to Christ's command to give the Gospel to every creature. This should always be the first step in the solution of the money problem. It is a serious mistake to push the financial side before laying the foundations for a deep and abiding interest in the cause. In too many churches 140
THE MONEY PROBLEM
m-i-s-s-i-o-n-s spells money. The people hear nothing whatever of the work, save in connec- tion with the contribution-box. On this point two well-known missionary leaders have spoken forcibly as follows:
Great harm is done by hammering on the money ques- tion when hearts are not touched and news of the work is not given. If I became pastor of a very narrow- minded and anti-missionary church, I am inclined to think that I would not ask for an offering for mis- sions until the people proposed it. But they would have to take the facts, or stay at home, or have a farewell sermon. — Rev. John- W. Conklin, Field Secretary of the Reformed Church in America Board of Missions.
Mission literature, mission meetings, and mission preaching have had so much of the ring of the dollar in them that people have begun to shun them. We who push the work must never lose sight of the dollar, of course, but the sooner we learn to bait the hook, so that people will not see the silver until they are on it, the better it will be for the work. We should have more mission sermons that people do not know are mission sermons, more missionary meetings without collections, more deepening of the spiritual life, more to interest and instruct pleasantly without bringing up the idea of finance — until missions have such a hold on the people that they will not shrink from " closing the bargain " when we name to them the price. — Alva M. Kerr, Treas- urer of the Board of Missions of the Christian Church.
2. Thorough instruction concerning stew- 141
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ardship. This is the second step in solving the money problem. The great majority of professing Christians have not as yet learned even the first principles of Christian giving. Not many, perhaps, go as far as the old woman who thanked the Lord she had been a church-member fifty years and it had never cost her a cent, but comparatively few recog- nize God's claim upon their money, and render an amount adequate to the benefits received. Yet the Word of God clearly teaches that money is a trust and that we are stewards responsible for the wise use of every penny entrusted to our care. When Christians realize this there will be no more deficits in the treasury of the Lord. A Baptist pastor who was recently asked to give the secret of his remarkable suc- cess in promoting Christian giving, said:
Our method is based on the thorough indoctrination of the people in the matter of stewardship. That work which can only be done by the pastor in sermons, Bible- readings, question-boxes, prayer-meeting talks, etc., really requires many consecutive weeks of hard and painstaking labor. But once done it is the foundation on which everything is built. There is no sure and quick way. It is all work and work with God's Word, brought home to the consciences of the people.
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3. The promotion of systematic and propor- tionate giving. The principle of stewardship involves the practise of systematic and propor- tionate giving — systematic giving being the setting apart of a definite sum regularly and from principle, rather than spasmodically and from impulse, and proportionate giving being the systematic offering of a fixed percentage of the income to the Lord. The difference between the two is illustrated by the story of the young man who decided to give fifty cents a week to missions. His salary at the time was $10 a week. In the course of a few years it was in- creased to $50, yet he still continued to give fifty cents — no more, no less. This was sys- tematic giving, but not proportionate. The amount he gave away bore no relation whatever to the amount he was receiving.
Wherever systematic and proportionate giv- ing is faithfully practised there is money enough and to spare. The percentage given must, of course, be left to the individual conscience, but God's Word seems clearly to indicate that the tenth is the minimum proportion. In a little pamphlet telling how the First Presbyterian Church of Wichita, Kansas, increased its con- 143
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tributions from $500 to $5,500 per annum, the pastor, the Rev. Charles E. Bradt, says :
I hold constantly before my people the Scriptural idea of stewardship — namely, that all we have is entrusted of God, to be used for the extension of His Kingdom and the salvation of men through the preaching and teaching of Jesus Christ; that, however poor, they should pay into the Lord's treasury not less than a tenth of their income; this tenth to go to distinctively Christian lines of work; that the tenth is only the beginning of what most persons should contribute.
4. Enlisting every Christian in the work. Enlarging the number of contributors is one of the most potent ways of increasing the revenue for missions. If every Christian, young and old, rich and poor, could be induced to give even a small amount, the money problem would be quickly solved. If the one hundred and forty million Protestant Christians in the world gave an average of five cents a wreek — the price of a cigar, a street-car fare, or a glass of soda — it would aggregate more than $360,000,000 a year! Too much reliance has been placed on the large gifts of the few, too little on the small contributions of the many. Dr. Josiah Strong tells of a church that took up a collection of $1,100 for home missions. Of this sum, $600 144
THE MONEY PROBLEM
came from one member and $300 from another, leaving but $200 from the remainder of the congregation. The people congratulated them- selves on their generosity, but in reality they had not done well. By carefully and systematically " gathering up the fragments " that remained, the amount might easily have been doubled. Small gifts are needed as well as large ones — the one no less than the other. Even in the sight of man ten dimes aggregate as much as one dollar, and in the sight of God they are often far more precious. It was the mite of the widow, not the millions of a merchant prince, that received the commendation of the Master — not because it was a mite, but because it represented rare self-sacrifice and true de- votion.
5. Appealing to right motives for missionary giving. This is a matter of primary impor- tance, for motive largely determines both the quantity and quality of missionary money. Appeals should be based on love to Christ and obedience to His command rather than on har- rowing stories of terrible suffering in heathen lands. Compassion is a legitimate motive, but owing to the innate selfishness of man it is apt to 145
HOLDING THE ROPES
be shortlived. Dr. William Ashmore used to tell a story that illustrates this. A wealthy old lady who lived in much comfort awoke one morning to find it bitterly cold and the fire gone out in her room. " Mary," she said to her maid, " I am afraid those people in the alley are suffer- ing. When you have lighted my fire and given me my breakfast, you may carry them a bucket of coal and a basket of food." An hour later, when a cheerful fire blazed on her hearth, she said, as she sipped her hot coffee in bed: " Mary, you need not take anything to the people in the alley. The weather has mod- erated so much they can not be suffering now." Appeals based on pastoral pride, church repu- tation, or denominational loyalty, can not foster true liberality. Dr. Pierson declares that gifts secured in this way are not gifts at all, but simply purchase moneys, and illustrates his point as follows :
If you give a hundred dollars because your neighbor has given the same, and you are too proud to seem behind him, you have given nothing; you have simply bought your own respectability. Again, if you give a hundred dollars to have your name appear in the published list of generous donors, you have given nothing; you have 'paid so much for popular applause.
146
THE MONEY PROBLEM
6- Reviving the spirit of self-sacrifice. Com- paratively few Christians of the present day know the meaning of the word sacrifice from practical experience. This is largely because there is little in twentieth-century Christianity to call it forth. " It is a real sacrifice to give my tenth," said a Christian woman recently, " and I do not feel that my church is in special need of sacrifice." The missionary on the field, however, is expected to make great sacrifices for the salvation of the world; why not the well- to-do Christians at home? The same obliga- tion rests upon both. In the sight of God the millionaire Christian has no more right to a mansion on Fifth Avenue than the humble mis- sionary to a palace in India. When Christians at home practise the same self-denial as the missionary on the field there will be no money problem to solve.
7. Giving money instead of raising it. One of the most serious mistakes of the past has been the raising of money for missions by means of fairs and festivals, lectures, concerts, and what-not. In the first place, they do not pay very well, and, in the second they are dia- metrically opposed to the methods taught in
147
HOLDING THE ROPES
the Word. Imagine the church at Antioch eating ice-cream or giving a concert to help pay the expenses of Paul's missionary work ! In a recent article in the Assembly Herald, Mr. John Willis Baer says :
Money for the Lord's work: shall we give it, or shall we raise it? When money is wanted, usually the first resort is not to " fasting and prayers, but to festivals and fairs." This is raising money, not giving it. I appeal for a spirit of consecration which will compel us to give more and raise less. The net result in the end will be very much more money available for the Lord's work.
8. Assuming the support of a missionary. Chaining churches and societies at home to needy fields of work abroad is proving one of the most fruitful ways of increasing missionary revenue. During the last few years the Missions Boards have changed their policy of insist- ing that all contributions shall be paid into the treasury without restriction as to object. This is, perhaps, the ideal way, but human nature is weak, and the average man is more easily in- terested in concrete giving to a special object than in abstract giving to a general fund. Wherever a church or society has assumed the 148
THE MONEY PROBLEM
support of a missionary, undertaken the erec- tion of a building, or taken a share in the work of a station, the increase in contributions has been very great, ranging, in many cases, from fifty to twenty-five hundred per cent. There are, of course, drawbacks to the plan, but the burden of proof goes to show that the disad- vantages are overbalanced by the advantages.
9. The adoption of a systematic and busi- ness-like method of collecting funds. This is one of the essentials of success. Too many societies simply pass the basket at their meet- ings, the members giving or not, as they please, and too many churches depend upon an annual collection, which is at best a precarious plan. If the pastor is not specially interested, and no notice is given beforehand, the people come un- prepared to give. If the weather is bad, or an epidemic of sickness prevails, or many persons are away from home, the percentage of at- tendance is small and the offering correspond- ingly poor. Unless special effort is made to reach the absentees (and this is seldom done) the result is a loss which is never retrieved.
1.49
HOLDING THE ROPES
SUCCESSFUL METHODS OF COLLECTING FUNDS
Almost every successful method of collecting money for missions is based on a system of definite pledges, payable once a week or once a month. The reason for this lies in the fact tho small sums frequently contributed amount in the end to a surprising total, they are much more easily secured than larger sums paid at one time. Thus two cents a week is more readily promised than $1 a year, yet in reality it amounts to four cents more. And ten cents a week seems a trifling sum compared with $5 a year. Many will cheerfully give the former sum to whom the latter would seem an impos- sibility.
Two cents a week. The simplest of all pledge systems is known as the two-cents-a-week plan. It has been widely and successfully used as a starting-point in systematic giving by women's organizations and young people's so- cieties, and its vindication lies in the enormous sums that have been paid into the treasury as a result of its use. The giving of a penny a week — two cents in our money — was first pro- posed by William Carey in his famous Enquiry, 150
THE MONEY PROBLEM
published in 1792. It is a pitifully small sum, yet largely in excess of the average amount given for missions. " The churches, whether by themselves or by societies," says Dr. George Smith, " have yet to organize themselves up to the level of Carey's penny a week."
Five times two is ten. An enlargement of the two-cents-a-week plan, devised by Mr. W. L. Amerman, and successfully used by many Christian Endeavor societies, is known as the five-times-two-is-ten plan. It is based on the principle that the best way to interest people in missions is to put them to work, and that the best results in giving come from the col- lection of small contributions regularly from many people. In the five-times-two-is-ten plan each person takes a pledge to give two cents a week himself, and collect a like amount from four other persons, preferably those who are not already giving to missions. Ten collectors constitute a division, and are assigned to a divi- sion treasurer, who thus becomes responsible for ten times ten cents — a dollar a week. " The first year we tried it," said Mr. Amerman, " we had fifty members of our Christian Endeavor Society and fifty outsiders working on it — one hundred 151
HOLDING THE ROPES
in all. At the end of the year the receipts amounted to about $500. Here were one hun- dred workers influencing four hundred people — a total of five hundred doing something for missions."
Proportion pledges. Societies that have al- ready taken the first steps in learning to give should introduce a system of pledges in which the amounts promised are proportionate to the ability of the giver. The usual method is to circulate pledge-cards with blank spaces for the name, address, and amount contributed. When these are signed and returned, the subscriber is furnished with a series of envelopes, or a mite- box, in which to deposit his offerings.
Taking shares. Where the support of a mis- sionary is assumed or other special work under- taken, it is a good plan to divide the amount needed into shares and issue certificates of stock. The value of this plan was demonstrated half a century ago, when the Congregational Sunday- school children built the Morning Star, con- tributing the entire cost in ten-cent shares. There are many still living who attribute their first interest in missions to part-ownership in the little vessel, and still cherish the worn and 152
THE MONEY PROBLEM
faded certificates issued to subscribers years ago. That the share plan is still workable is proved by the experience of the Thirteenth Street Presbyterian Church of New York City. A few years ago, being in need of $850 for the support of a missionary, a blackboard was divided into one hundred and seventy squares, each one representing ten cents a week, or $5 a year. This was displayed at the church prayer- meeting, and the members asked to take the shares. As each share was taken an X was placed in a square. In less than an hour every square was filled, the whole amount having been quickly and enthusiastically promised. In an- other church where the share plan was used, the unique idea was conceived of making the shares equivalent to the salary of the missionary for one day.
The treasurer. The success of every system of collecting funds depends largely upon the committee in charge. The treasurer, espe- cially, must thoroughly understand his business. Upon him devolves the duty of keeping strict accounts, making clear and accurate reports, and preventing payments from becoming irreg- ular. Reminding people of their obligations 153
HOLDING THE ROPES
and keeping them up to their promises is the most difficult part of the task. This, however, can be easily accomplished by issuing a report in which numbers appear instead of names. This plan was successfully tried in the Christian En- deavor Society of the First Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Ohio. When the pledge- cards were signed they were handed at once to the treasurer, who entered them on his books, and assigned a special number to each. Sets of envelopes were then given out, bearing these numbers instead of the names. At the end of the term (the pledges called for six monthly payments) the treasurer mimeographed a re- port, showing what each number had pledged and paid in, and sent a copy to each member of the society. As no one knew the identity of the numbers save the treasurer and the individuals to whom they had been assigned, no exception was taken to the publicity of the published report ; but those who were in arrears promptly paid what they owed.
154
THE MONEY PROBLEM
REPORT OF Y. P. S. C. E. MISSIONARY FUND
TERM ENDING JUNE 30, 1900
|
Amount |
Total |
Total |
|
|
Number |
Pledgbd PER |
Amount |
Amount |
|
Month |
Pledged |
Paid |
|
|
1 |
$0.25 |
$1.50 |
$1.50 |
|
2 |
50 |
3.00 |
3.00 |
|
3 |
10 |
60 |
60 |
|
4 |
1.00 |
6.00 |
8.00 |
|
5 |
8 |
48 |
60 |
|
6 |
5 |
30 |
30 |
|
7 |
3.00 |
18.00 |
18.00 |
|
8 |
25 |
1.50 |
50 |
|
9 |
0 |
0 |
2.00 |
|
10 |
10 |
60 |
0 |
|
11 |
15 |
90 |
90 |
|
12 |
60 |
3.60 |
3.60 |
|
Totals . . |
$6.08 |
$36.48 |
$39.00 |
Amount pledged Amount paid, not pledged Amount pledged, not paid Total amount received
$36.48
4.12
1.60
39.00
R-
Trea&urer.
155
X
practical Morfe for /HMs9ionar£ Societies
A missionary society, to attain the highest ideals of efficiency, should have both food and exercise. In spiritual growth as well as phys- ical, these two things are essential to perfect development. Yet in many societies this fact is totally ignored. Food of the best quality, served in the most appetizing manner, is pro- vided in abundance, but rarely, if ever, is there exercise enough to make it digest well. For this reason many a society that might be large and active is small and weak, and in a state of lethargy from which it seems impossible to arouse it.
In the old days God greatly blessed the work of willing hands and put a high value upon it. It is a significant fact that in the strongest Old Testament texts about consecration the mar- ginal reading of the word is " fill the hand." Thus, Moses says, in Exodus xxxii : 29, " Fill
156
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES
your hands to-day to the Lord, that He may be- stow a blessing upon you this day," and David asks, in I. Chronicles xxix: 5, "Who, then, is willing to fill his hand this day unto the Lord? " In the building of the tabernacle there was need not only of gold, silver, and precious stones, fragrant woods, sweet spices, and anointing oils, but of the blue and purple and scarlet, the fine linen and the goats' hair, which the wise- hearted women spun with their hands. In the building of the spiritual Kingdom of our Lord to-day there is a place for the work of the hands as well as of the heart and brain.
There are thousands of societies within the Church — women's, young people's, and chil- dren's— that are already rendering noble serv- ice along the line of practical work for missions, but there are thousands of others that are neg- lecting it. In the hope of enlisting these, the following plans are outlined.
HOME MISSIONARY BOXES
Sending boxes of clothing, table-linen, and bedding to home missionaries is such an im- portant part of the work that every society should have a share in it. Supplies of this kind 157
HOLDING THE ROPES
are most acceptable to these overworked and underpaid servants of the Church, and in many cases are an absolute necessity to them. The salaries they receive are usually inadequate un- less supplemented by a well-filled box.
By applying to its denominational Board of Home Missions any society can secure the name of a missionary in need of such assistance, to- gether with a list of things needed, the number in the family, measurements for clothing, and sizes for hats and shoes. Filling such a box is not only a great pleasure and a sacred privilege, but also a solemn obligation which should not bo carelessly assumed. Sore disappointment, and in some cases bitter suffering, has resulted from societies undertaking such work and doing it inadequately. The Home Mission Monthly re- cently published two letters which illustrate this. One was from a minister in a section of the West where the winters are very cold. He had asked for a coat and overcoat, but the church was un- able to provide these because it was sending out five other boxes at the same time! Most of the articles sent were second hand, and notwith- standing the careful measurements given, many of them were much too small to be of use. Yet 158
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES
the missionary adds : " We are extremely thank- ful for what has been given, and have so in- formed the givers."
The other letter came from the wife of a mis- sionary who had felt obliged to give up his work because of the impossibility of supporting his family on the salary received. At the urgent request of the Presbytery, however, he con- sented to remain and ask for a box, hoping that, with its assistance, he could keep the wolf from the door. But, alas ! when it came it proved to be of little value. With the exception of a small list of bedding and a few articles of underwear, everything in it was not only second hand, but so much worn and soiled as to be unfit for use. Besides this, many things were too small by several sizes. The writer adds:
I trust you will not think we are complaining at all, for we are not; but we are very much disappointed, and the children had looked forward with so much pleasure to the box for their new clothes, and not one thing for them. We don't know what we are to do, as our salary is so small that we haven't money to get necessary cloth- ing. Do not understand me to say that I object to a part of it being second hand. Anything that is good, and can be made over for myself or the children, I would gladly receive. I suppose the ladies did the best they could, and I have thanked them for their kindness.
159
HOLDING THE ROPES
In marked contrast to these inadequate and disappointing boxes are the countless well-filled ones that are a source of great delight and un- told comfort to their recipients. To be ideal, a box should contain not only every article asked for by the missionary, correct in measure- ment, and either new or only slightly worn, but also a roll of rag-carpet, books for every mem- ber of the family, candy and toys for the chil- dren, and little things to brighten the home — a picture to hang on the wall, a bright bit of drapery for the mantel, a new cover for the couch-cushion, an embroidered centerpiece or a dainty bit of china for the tea-table. Some so- cieties have a beautiful custom of putting an envelope containing a bank-note into the vest pocket of the missionary's suit and pinning another to the dress of his wife.
In societies where box work is new, or the in- terest in it lagging, it is a good plan to have some one read " God's Box," " The Box from St. Mark's," or some similar story, showing the need of such work and the blessings it carries with it. Another good plan in vogue in many societies is to display the contents of the box at the mid-week prayer-service shortly before it is 160
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES
packed. This not only serves to create an in- terest in the box and the missionary to whom it is going, but also prepares the way for a more intelligent interest in the letter of acknowledg- ment that sooner or later will be received.
Boxes should be sent by freight, prepaid, and fully covered by insurance. Neglect of the lat- ter point is likely to result in serious loss. A well-filled box, valued at more than $200, sent out by a society that neglected to insure it, was completely destroyed in a wreck. All that could be collected from the railroad company was $20 — less than one-tenth of its value.
Boxes of clothing somewhat different from the foregoing are very acceptable in home mis- sionary schools, especially among the freedmen of the South, where it is often a problem to pro- vide clothing for students too poor to buy it for themselves. Second-hand shoes and gar- ments of all kinds, too much worn to be sent to a home missionary family, can be utilized here. " We can use anything }rou are pleased to send," writes the superintendent of one of these schools ; " shoes, pieces of carpet, small pieces for quilts, anything along the line of house- furnishing or wearing apparel. We have needy
161
HOLDING THE ROPES
boys, ranging from six to eighteen ; girls like- wise. They are taught in the sewing-classes to mend, darn, cut, and fit, and do all kinds of plain sewing. The pupils will make over ma- terial, and find use for whatever is sent."
DISTRIBUTING GOOD LITERATURE
In Christian homes throughout the land there are large quantities of books and papers lying idle that would be invaluable to the missionary in the field. Collecting and distributing these is excellent work for any society. In an ad- dress recently delivered at Northfield, the Rev. Charles W. Gordon (" Ralph Connor") said:
I believe in literature. I used to carry in my saddle- bags loads of illustrated papers and magazines, and all the miners' shacks were decorated with them. They were always glad to see me with that pile at my back. In our country [Canada] we owe a very great deal to an or- ganization which was set in motion by Lady Aberdeen — the " Aberdeen Society," which gathers magazines from all the towns and cities in eastern Canada, and sends them out to missionaries and others in the West.
Supplies of literature for distribution can be obtained by public notices from the pulpit, sup- plemented by private solicitation. Everything sent in should be carefully sorted, and all that is 162
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES
worthless or hurtful in tendency be cast aside and burned. Books not in good condition should be carefully mended, and all that are worn or faded in appearance be brightened by the addition of neat covers of percaline or cam- bric in various tints and shades.
Part of this literature may be reserved for city missionary work, but the bulk of it should be sent to needy portions of the great home missionary field. A box containing forty or fifty books suitable for a Sunday-school library, sent out West or down South, would be a great help to some struggling little Sunday-school, es- pecially if it is in a district destitute of good reading-matter. One society that sent out sev- eral such libraries found that they had been the means of keeping three Sunday-schools open all the winter in a region where no other religious services were held. It had been customary to close the schools for several months each year on account of the severity of the weather, but such was the eagerness of the people to read the books that they were willing to brave both storm and cold in order to obtain them.
Boxes of papers and magazines are, as Ralph Connor says, of great service to missionaries in 163
HOLDING THE ROPES
rough mining districts and on the frontier. The address of some worker to whom they may he sent can be obtained by writing to the denomi- national Boards of Home Missions, or to the headquarters of the American Sunday-school Union in Philadelphia. Mailing copies of papers or magazines to individual addresses regularly once a week or once a month is a very helpful plan. Names and addresses will be gladly furnished by any home missionary. One young girl to whom a copy of the Herald and Presbyter was sent every week wrote that it was the only paper received in her neighborhood, and that it was eagerly read from cover to cover, not only in her own home, but in several others to which it was loaned in turn. Those who have a wealth of literature in their homes and hear the postman's knock three times a day, little guess of the dearth of reading-mat- ter in these less-favored homes, nor of the inter- est and pleasure excited by the advent of a piece of mail-matter regularly once a week.
FOREIGN MISSIONARY BOXES
Sending boxes of small articles, suitable for Christmas gifts and school prizes, to mission-
164
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES
aries in the foreign field is fascinating work, but not always advisable on account of the ex- pense involved. The cost of transportation is so heavy that it frequently exceeds the value of the contents of the box. Thus, a missionary in India reports having paid $30 freight on a box worth much less than that amount, and a worker in Japan tells of receiving one containing a lot of old Sunday-school quarterlies, a few picture papers, and some antiquated Sunday-school books, such as her father read when a child. Nothing could be used excepting a few of the picture papers, yet the freight amounted to several dollars.
So grievous has been the experience of the missionaries, and so serious the waste of money, that many missionary leaders discourage the idea of sending such boxes at all. Others, know- ing that there are societies in America that need the stimulus of such work and missionaries on the field that need such help, advocate it strongly. Perhaps the wisest course is not to omit it entirely, but to do it in so judicious and economical a way that it will cease to be un- profitable. Societies undertaking such work should give careful attention to the following 165
HOLDING THE ROPES
directions, which the writer is enabled to give after an extended correspondence with the va- rious Women's Boards.
1. Do not take money from the treasury, either to purchase articles for the box or to pay the cost of transportation. Many of the things called for can be provided without cost from materials found in every household, and, as large and expensive things are less useful than small and inexpensive ones, those that must be purchased can easily be secured as donations from the members of the society. A very good plan is to give a mission-box party and make the admission any article needed — a small toy, a box of marbles, a towel, or a spool of thread.
2. Do not send worn-out articles or old books. These are quite useless, as are also garments of any kind unless specially asked for by the mis- sionary. Things that melt should never be sent to warm countries unless protected in some way. One box that went to India was a total loss, be- cause it contained a large quantity of soap, which melted and spoiled the entire contents.
3. Do not forget that the needs of the fields differ greatly. Things that are useful in one country are comparatively useless in another.
166
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES
The following articles, however, seem to be wanted everywhere: Smal1 work-bags, needles, pins, needle-books, thimbles, scissors, spool cot- ton, lead and slate pencils, pens, crayons, erasers, small note-books, writing-pads, beads of all kinds, picture-books, scrap-books, Christ- mas-tree decorations, balls, marbles, tops, knives, mouth-organs, remnants of pretty calico or other material two or three yards in length ; cut and basted patchwork four or five inches square, for teaching the children to sew ; hand- kerchiefs, towels, combs, brushes, and cakes of soap, each wrapped in a wash-cloth.
Dolls are .in universal demand, and are greatly prized in every missionary land. They should be about nine inches in length and strong enough to stand fairly rough handling. Those sent to Oriental countries should have dark hair and eyes, as light hair and blue eyes are not ad- mired in either dolls or people. " I don't want this light-haired dolly," sobbed a little girl in India ; " only ugly old women have light hair ! " The dolls should be simply dressed in clothes that will wash, and that can be taken off and put on again. They should, too, be dressed in gay colors (the gayer the better), but never in
167
HOLDING THE ROPES
white, as in many lands this is the symbol of mourning. They should all be about the same grade, for there are never enough handsome ones in elaborate costumes to go around, and two or three children can not be favored above the rest. Tiny dolls, not more than a finger in length, dressed in ribbon, are regarded as great prizes by the kindergarten children.
Picture-cards of all kinds are also in great demand, and can be used in unlimited quantities. It is usually best to send them by mail, carefully and strongly tied, and with the postage fully paid. Care should be taken to send nothing ob- jectionable. Missionaries can not use advertise- ments for liquor or tobacco, comic cards which might be misunderstood, nude figures, or pic- tures of women in corsets or low-neck dresses. Where there is writing on the back of a card, clean white paper should be pasted over it.
4. Select for packing a strong wooden box, made of boards at least one-half or three-quar- ters of an inch thick, free from knot-holes and well joined. Scrape off all marks, either of ink or paper pasted on, and line it with tar paper or some waterproof material. Table oilcloth is recommended, because it is so useful afterward. 168
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES
Pack the box closely and carefully, so that noth- ing can rattle around and be broken. Do not fill empty spaces and corners with old paper, but use instead small towels, dusters, wash- cloths, or remnants of material of any kind.
5. Send the box, not direct to the mission field, but to the headquarters of the Mission Board, where it will become part of a general shipment and be forwarded at much less cost than if sent alone. Accompanying the box should be a letter sent by mail, containing the receipt from the railroad or express company, and a list of its contents with estimated values, for use in the custom-houses of foreign ports. All expenses of transportation and duty should be met by those who send the box. The slender salary of the missionary must not be allowed even to share in this burden. Some Mission Boards wisely refuse to forward boxes that are not prepaid, unless an order is shown from the missionary. The cost of sending is usually made up of three items: 1. Transportation from the local society to the Mission Board, which must be prepaid. 2. Transportation from the Mission Board to the missionary, which can be paid as soon as notification is re-
169
HOLDING THE ROPES
ceived of the amount. 3. Charges for duty, which usually can only be met at the other end. To make the gift complete, the society should ask the missionary for this bill and make re- imbursement as soon as possible.
This work undoubtedly involves a great deal of time and trouble and no little expense, yet in some fields at least, it is work that pays. " Think of the help to the missionaries," writes a worker in India, " think of the encouragement to the teacher and the scholar, and be not weary in this grand work, making people on both sides of the globe happier and better."
WONDER-BAGS
Filling a wonder-bag is delightful work for any society that desires to brighten the life of an individual missionary or a missionary fam- ily, either on the home or foreign field. This consists of a large bag filled with gifts and let- ters which are to be drawn out, not all at once, but at certain specified times — once or twice a week, or on special dates, according to direc- tions. The bag itself should be made of cre- tonne, denim, or canvas, and finished with draw- strings of tape or ribbon. As it will be useful 170
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES
afterward, it should be not only strong and durable, but pretty and attractive. Wrap each gift in tissue paper, mark it with the name of the donor and tie it with narrow ribbon, leaving one end long enough to be used in drawing it out of the bag. Pack the parcels carefully, placing heavier ones at the bottom, and let the long ends of the ribbons hang out at the top. Gifts appropriate for special days, such as Christmas, New Year's, Easter Sunday, Fourth of July, the missionary's birthday, " a weary day," or a " discouraged day," may be desig- nated by tiny cards attached to their ribbons.
The California Yearly Meeting of Friends recently sent wonder-bags to their missionaries in the Kotzebue Mission in Northern Alaska, wTho receive mail but once a year, and wrork so much of the time in cold and darkness. Each bag contained fifty-two articles, one of which was to be drawn out every Wednesday, at the time of the mid-week service, when the church at home is remembering them in prayer.
In selecting gifts for a wonder-bag it is well to remember that whatever would please a friend at home wrould be acceptable to the missionary in the field. There seems to be an impression
171
HOLDING THE ROPES
abroad that being a missionary makes one so heavenly minded and so " other-worldly " that the love of the beautiful is entirely lost. But this is not so. " Do send me a pretty blue dress," wrote the wife of a home missionary who had been asked to tell frankly just what she longed for ; " I am so tired of the dull browns and somber blacks that come every year in the box." People seem to think, too, that mission- aries care for nothing but religious literature. Some years ago, being in search of a bright, new book for a friend in India — something that would rest and refresh her, and take her mind off the depressing sights and sounds of her work — the writer appealed to a clerk in a book- store for help. She thought a while, and then brought out a copy of " Pilgrim's Progress," saying she could think of nothing else appro- priate unless it was a Bible ! " Pilgrim's Prog- ress " was good, and the missionary loved it dearly, but for the purpose in view " Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch," with its whole- some fun and sunny philosophy, would have been far better.
172
XI
WLho'8 TKIlbo in /HMssfons
One of the serious hindrances to the cause of missions is the deplorable ignorance which pre- vails in the Church concerning great mission- aries and their notable achievements. The large majority of professing Christians do not even know the names of the great heroes of the Cross that have gone forth, at the command of Christ, to plant the Gospel in heathen lands. " Every boy of fifteen is familiar with the achievements of army and navy heroes," said S. Earl Taylor at the Ecumenical Conference, " but if a com- pany of young people is asked to name the he- roes of the Cross, embarrassing silence follows."
Missionary heroes, with perhaps a few excep- tions, have never been the world's heroes ; but they are God's heroes, and the children of the Church should be taught at least their names. To assist in this, the following list of questions has been prepared, the answers to which are the 173
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names of great missionaries. These questions can be used in many ways, among them the fol- lowing :
1. Once a month, on Missionary Sunday, have the children of the Sabbath-school learn from three to five of the questions and answers, and at the end of the year conduct a review of the whole. If there is time, a short, bright story might be told about each missionary, and one of his famous sayings be committed to memory.
2. Print or mimeograph the questions on slips of paper, distribute them in the Sunday-school or young people's society, and offer a mission- ary curio or book to the one handing in the best list of answers by a given date. This is an ex- cellent plan for pastors and Sunday-school superintendents.
3. For a missionary social prepare lists of questions, with spaces for answers opposite, and give one to each guest, together with a pencil. At the end of a specified time (half an hour or more) read the correct answers and have the guests correct their papers. If desired, a suit- able prize may be awarded to the victor. An- other way is to select as many of the questions
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as there are persons present, and write them on cards tied with narrow ribbon. Pin these on the guests, and have them make lists of the mission- aries represented. Paper and pencils must, of course, be provided for this purpose.
4. A very instructive game, appropriate both for the mission band and the home circle on Sun- day afternoon, can be made by writing fifty of the most important questions on plain white cards. In playing the game, seat the children around the table in a circle and deal out the cards until each has the same number — two, three, or four, as seems best. Place the remain- der of the pack on the table, face downward. Let A (the first player) ask B (the player on his right) the question on one of the cards. If B can answer correctly, he takes the card and A draws another from the pack. If B fails to an- swer, A passes the question to C (the next player on the right), and so on around the cir- cle. Whoever gives the answer gets the card. The one who holds the most cards at the end wins the game. Another way to use the game is to choose a leader and give him all the cards. Then let him ask the questions, one at a time, and call for volunteer answers. The one an- 175
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swering first gets the card. It is sometimes a good plan to conduct the game like a spelling- match.
QUESTIONS ON AFRICA
Who was the first missionary to South Africa? George Schmidt, the Moravian Brother.
What skeptical Dutch physician became a Christian and went to Africa as a missionary when over fifty years of age? Theodosius Vanderkemp.
What great missionary was the means of attracting David Livingstone to Africa? Robert Moffat, the " Hero of Kuruman."
What schoolmaster, in seven years' time, formed the rescued slaves of Regent's Town into a model Chris- tain community? William Johnson, of Sierra Leone.
Who discovered Kenia, the highest mountain in Africa? Johann Ludwig Krapf, a German missionary.
Who discovered Kilimanjaro, the great snow-capped peak of equatorial Africa? Johann Rebmann, a German missionary.
Who was the greatest discoverer of the nineteenth cen- tury? David Livingstone, a medical missionary.
Who was the first black bishop of Africa in modern times? Samuel Adjai Crowther, Bishop of the Niger.
Who was the first leader of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa? Charles Frederick Mackenzie, the " Martyr of the Zambesi."
Whom did Stanley pronounce " the greatest missionary since Livingstone " ? Alexander M. Mackay, the en- gineer-missionary.
Whose last words were: "Tell the king that I die for the Baganda, and purchase the road to Uganda with
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my life " ? James Hannington, the " Martyr-bishop of Uganda."
What heroic French missionary has labored for more than forty years among the Basutas on the Upper Zam- besi? Francois Coillard.
What family gave to Kongoland six of its members, each of whom lies in an African grave? The Comber family.
To what missionary on the Kongo were pentecostal blessings granted when he stopped preaching the Law and began to proclaim the Gospel? Henry Richards, the " Hero of Banza Manteke."
What world evangelist who preached the Gospel in every continent endeavored to establish self-supporting missions in Africa? Bishop William Taylor, the "Flam- ing Torch."
What African ruler is a strict prohibitionist — " prob- ably the only royal prohibitionist in the Dark Conti- nent"? Khama, the "Temperance Apostle of South Africa."
Who translated the first Bible printed in America? John Eliot, the " Apostle of the Red Men."
What prominent colonial family, through five suc- cessive generations, engaged in mission work among the Indians? The Mayhew family.
Who was the most gifted native missionary of the eighteenth century? Samson Occum, the Indian preacher of New England.
What missionary to the Indians gave the longest and most effective term of service? David Zeisberger, the "Apostle to the Delawares."
What devout young missionary to the Indians spent
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much time in the woods alone with God, interceding for his work? David Brainerd, the "Missionary of the Wil- derness."
Who invented the Cree syllabic alphabet, by means of which thousands of Indians have been taught to read the Word of God? James Evans, the "Apostle of the North."
WTho opened the first wagon-road across the Rocky Mountains? Marcus Whitman, the "Hero-martyr of Oregon."
WTho established a model village of Christian Indians in Alaska ? William Duncan, the " Hero of Metlakahtla."
Who founded missions in Alaska? Dr. Sheldon Jack- son, now United States Commissioner of Education in Alaska.
Who is the first native missionary to Alaska? Ed- ward Marsden, a Tsimshean Indian.
Who has greatly enriched missionary literature by his stories of work among the Cree and Salteaux Indians? Egerton R. Young.
What famous frontier bishop was a life-long friend of the Indians of his diocese? Henry Whipple, the first Bishop of Minnesota.
What Austrian nobleman of the seventeenth century laid aside title and estates to become a missionary to Dutch Guiana? Baron Von Welz, the "Apostle to the Gentiles."
What officer of the Royal English Navy was a pioneer missionary to two continents? Allen Gardiner, the " Hero-martyr of South America."
Who laid the foundations of Protestant missions in Mexico? Melinda Rankin.
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Who baptized the first Protestant convert in China, and ordained the first native Chinese evangelist? Robert Morrison, the " Apostle of China."
What Scotch shepherd shared with Morrison the honor of translating the entire Bible into the Chinese tongue? William Milne, the second Protestant missionary to China.
What learned missionary to China served as Commo- dore Perry's interpreter on his famous entry into Japan? S. Wells Williams, author of " The Middle Kingdom."
What early missionary to China obtained a government position and carried on a great work at his own expense? Karl Giitzlaff.
Who "opened China at the point of his surgeon's lancet " ? Peter Parker, the first medical missionary to China.
Who founded the "largest mission to the largest mis- sion field in the world " ? J. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission.
What Scotch evangelist spent twenty years touring through China dressed in native costume? William C. Burns.
Who established the first Protestant mission in Cen- tral China? Griffith John, at Hankow.
Who won great favor for medical missions in China by his successful treatment of the wife of Li Hung Chang? John Kenneth Mackenzie, the " Beloved Physician of Tien-tsin."
Who invented a system of characters by which the blind in China can be easily taught to read? William H. Murray, of Peking.
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Who spent twenty years in lonely wanderings among the nomad Mongols? James Gilmour, the "Hero of Mongolia."
Under whose leadership has Manchuria become one of the most hopeful fields in China? John Ross.
Who made the first missionary journey to preach the Gospel in Europe? The apostle Paul.
Who laid the foundations of Teutonic literature by in- venting an alphabet and translating the Bible? Ulfilas, the " Apostle to the Goths."
What soldier-missionary became the " Apostle of the Gauls " ? Martin, of Tours.
What missionary of Scottish birth accomplished the evangelization of Ireland? Patrick, of Tara.
What missionary of Irish birth won Scotland for Christ? Columba, of Iona.
Whom did Gregory the Great send to England to Christianize the Anglo-Saxons? Augustine, of Canter- bury.
What English missionary laid the foundations of Christian civilization in Germany? Boniface, the " Apostle of Germany."
Who was the first medical missionary? Anskar, the " Apostle of the North."
WThat artist-missionary painted a picture of the Last Judgment which led to the establishment of Christianity among the Slavs? Methodius, with his brother Cyril, the " Apostles of the Slavs."
What Scotch pastor of an English church, while on a vacation in Paris, heard a Macedonian cry that led him to establish a great Protestant mission in France? Robert W. McAll, founder of the McAll Mission.
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INDIA
Who were the first Protestant missionaries to India? Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Pliitschau.
Who was the most prominent figure in India during the latter half of the eighteenth century? Christian Friedrieh Schwartz, the "Councillor of Tan j ore."
WTho was the greatest scholar in India in the early part of the ninetenth century? William Carey, the "Father of Organized Missions."
Who composed the " Serampore Trio " ? William Carey, Joshua Marshman, and William Ward.
Who was the first woman missionary to India? Han- nah Marshman.
Who is called the greatest of American missionaries to foreign lands? Adoniram Judson, the "Apostle of Burma."
Who were the first American women to go as foreign missionaries? Ann Hazeltine Judson and Harriet At- wood Newell.
Who wrote the greatest of all missionary hymns? Reignald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta.
Who was the most eloquent missionary orator of the nineteenth century? Alexander Duff, pioneer of higher education in India.
Who was the first American physician to become a medical missionary? Dr. John Scudder.
Who trained so many native girls that she was called the "Mother of a Thousand Daughters" in Ceylon? Eliza Agnew, principal of Ooodooville Seminary for forty years.
Who " opened the zenanas of India at the point of an embroidery needle " ? Hannah Catherine Mullens.
Who established the Indian Witness, one of the most
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important Christian periodicals of India? James Mills Thoburn, M. E. Bishop of India and Malaysia.
Who founded the first woman's college in India? Isa- bella Thoburn, at Lucknow.
Who was the first woman to go as a medical mission- ary? Dr. Clara Swain, of Barielly, India.
Who was pastor of the largest Baptist church in the world at the close of the nineteenth century? John Everett Clough, the " Hero of Ongole."
What veteran missionary is called " The Prince of India's Story-tellers " ? Jacob Chamberlain, of the Arcot Mission.
What American missionary who contracted leprosy in India is devoting her life to the lepers of Chandag? Mary Reed.
Who has the most remarkable memory of any woman in the world ? Pundita Ramabai, the " Hindu Widows' Champion."
THE ISLANDS
Who was the founder of Godthaab, the capital of Greenland? Hans Egede, the "Apostle of Greenland."
What chaplain of a convict colony in Australia intro- duced Christianity among the Maori cannibals? Samuel Marsden, the " Apostle of New Zealand."
Whose first duty on the mission field was to bury the heads, hands, and feet of eighty victims of a cannibal feast? James Calvert, of Fiji.
WThat missionary is said to have won the greatest number of converts to Christ of any since the days of the apostles ? John Williams, the " Apostle of the South Seas."
Whose memorial tablet bears these words: "When he landed in 1848 there were no Christians here; when he
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left in 1873 there were no heathens " ? John Geddie, of Anietyum.
Who was pastor of the largest church in the world in the middle of the nineteenth century? Titus Coan, of Hilo, Hawaiian Islands.
Whom did Robert Louis Stevenson wish to outlive, that he might write his biography? James Chalmers, the "Martyr of New Guinea."
Whose diocese in the South Seas, through an error in transcribing, was the largest ever assigned to one bishop? George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of New Zealand.
What Eton schoolboy, who become a great missionary, was saved from a tragic death by Queen Victoria? John Coleridge Patteson, the " Martyr-bishop of Melanesia."
Among modern missionaries, whose life furnishes the greatest number of miraculous deliverances from danger? John G. Paton, the " Hero of the New Hebrides."
WTho celebrated the twelfth anniversary of his arrival on the mission field by partaking of the Lord's Supper with twelve hundred of his converts? George Leslie Mackay, the " Hero of Formosa."
Who first preached the Gospel in Japan? Francis Xavier, the " Apostle of the Indies."
Who founded the Imperial University of Tokio and served as confidential adviser to the Japanese govern- ment for nearly fifteen years? Guido F. Verbeck, "A Man Without a Country."
Who compiled the great Japanese-English Dictionary and was the chief translator of the Japanese Bible? James C. Hepburn, the first medical missionary to Japan.
WThat native Japanese, educated in America, was
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founder of the Doshisha, the great Christian college of Japan? Joseph Hardy Neesiraa.
MOHAMMEDAN LANDS
Who was the first missionary to the Moslems? Ray- mund Lull.
What chaplain of the East India Company was the first missionary to Moslems in modern times? Henry Martyn, in Persia.
Who founded a famous school for Nestorian girls at Urumia? Fidelia Fiske, of Persia.
What medical missionary, who completed the transla- tion of the Arabic Bible, was regarded as the greatest Arabic scholar in the world? Cornelius Van Dyck, of Beirut, Syria.
What missionary to Syria gave to the world the most important and trustworthy of all books on the Holy Land? William M. Thomson, author of the "Land and the Book."
WTho is the first woman to whom permission was granted to practise medicine in the Turkish Empire? Mary Pierson Eddy, medical missionary to Syria.
Who founded Robert College, the great Christian Col- lege at Constantinople? Cyrus Hamlin, missionary to Turkey.
What daughter of an English archbishop devoted her life to work among the children of Cairo? Mary Whateley, the "Lady of the Book."
What champion bicycle-rider and eminent scholar of Great Britain founded a mission to the Moslems of Arabia? Ion Keith-Falconer, the "Martyr of Aden."
MISCELLANEOUS
What ancestor of the present Empress of India was 184
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the first Protestant king to support and originate mis- sions to the heathen? Frederic IV., of Denmark.
Who published the first regular missionary periodical? Augustus Herman Francke, professor in the University of Halle.
Who laid the foundations for the missionary activity of the Moravian Church? Count Zinzendorf, the " Father of Modern Missions."
Who conducted a prayer-meeting in the shelter of a haystack that resulted in the birth of the first Ameri- can missionary society? Samuel J. Mills, the "Father of American Missions."
WThat American college president exerted so strong an influence for missions that more than seventy of her pupils became foreign missionaries? Mary Lyon, of Mount Holyoke.
What popular English authoress devoted the proceeds of one novel to fitting out a missionary ship, and of another to building a missionary college in New Zealand? Charlotte M. Yonge.
Who were the only two medical missionaries in the world at the close of the eighteenth century? John Thomas in India, and Theodosius Vanderkemp in South Africa.
What Moravian family, through six successive genera- tions, has sent representatives to the foreign mission field? The Bonisch-Stach family.
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XII
Great Statesmen In tbe Witnesses1
I. TESTIMONIES OF AMERICAN STATESMEN TO THE VALUE AND SUCCESS OF FOREIGN MISSIONS
At the opening evening session of the Ecu- menical Conference, held in New York in 1900, there sat upon the platform three great Ameri- can statesmen — William McKinley, Benjamin Harrison, and Theodore Roosevelt. It is worthy of note that the great occasion that brought together these three Presidents of the
i This exercise was prepared at the suggestion of the Rev. Henry N. Cobb, D. D., Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America. It is designed to meet the objections to missions that have multiplied so rapidly of late, especially in regard to the Boxer outbreak and the capture of Miss Stone. Missions need no apology. They stand on the authority of our Lord Himself. Yet it will undoubtedly influence many, especially among the men, to hear statesmen of high rank and unquestioned ability testifying to the value and success of foreign missionary work.
Write the testimonies on slips of paper, and distribute them before the meeting begins to persons who will read
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United States — past, present, and future — was a missionary meeting. President McKinley and Governor Roosevelt were there to extend to the delegates and missionaries the respective wel- comes of the nation and the state, while General Harrison served in an official capacity as Hon- orary President of the Conference. Each of these three great men was a soldier in addition to being a statesman, having won distinction on the battlefield as well as in the halls of state. No one could charge them with being dreamers or sentimentalists, yet each was there to give strong and hearty testimony to the value of Christian missions — testimony that carried added weight because it was not the perfunc- tory utterance of public officials, but the hearty tribute of Christian men, known to be regular in church attendance and sincere in their observ- ance of religious rites. In his address of wel- come, President McKinley said in part:
them clearly and distinctly. In conducting the exercise the leader should give all explanatory notes — the names of the statesmen, their official positions, etc., calling on those who hold the slips for the testimonials only. This exercise would be especially appropriate for meetings held on or near McKinley's birthday, which occurs on the 29th day of January.
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I am glad of the opportunity to offer without stint my tribute of praise and respect to the missionary effort which has wrought such wonderful triumphs for civili- zation. The story of Christian missions is one of thrilling interest and marvelous results. The services and sacri- fices of missionaries for their fellow men constitute one of the most glorious pages of the world's history. The missionary, of whatever church or ecclesiastical body, who devotes his life to the service of the Master and of men, carrying the torch of truth and enlightenment, de- serves the gratitude, the support, and the homage of man- kind. The noble, self-effacing, willing ministers of peace and good will should be classed with the world's heroes. . . . Who can estimate their value to the progress of nations? Their contribution to the onward and upward march of humanity is beyond all calculation. They have inculcated industry and taught the various trades. They have promoted concord and unity, and brought races and nations closer together. They have made men better. They have increased the regard for home; have strengthened the sacred ties of family; have made the community well ordered, and their work has been a potent influence in the development of law and the establishment of government.
Governor Roosevelt's address included the following testimony to the value of mission work among the American Indians:
It has not been my good fortune to be able to see at close range the work done in foreign missions, techni- cally so termed, but it was once my privilege to see, close up, the work done in a branch of mission work that is,
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in every sense but the technical, foreign missionary work — I mean work on the Indian reservations of the West. ... I became so interested in it that I trav- eled all over the reservations to see what was being done, especially by the missionaries, because it needed no time at all to see that the great factors in the uplifting of the Indians were the men who were teaching them to be Christian citizens. When I came back I wished it had been in my power to convey my experiences to those people — often well-meaning people — who speak about the inefficiency of foreign missions. I think if they could have realized but the tenth part of the work that had been done they would understand that no more practi- cal work, no work more productive of fruit for civiliza- tion, could exist than the work being carried on by the men and women who give their lives to preaching the gospel of Christ to mankind.
In responding to the addresses of welcome given by President McKinley and Governor Roosevelt, General Harrison, whose utterances throughout the Conference were especially not- able, gave this testimony to the law-abiding character of missionary work:
The Church is not a revolutionary hooter. The Church of God, as it was started on its way by its Lord and Master, did not stir up rebellion, did not set men against their governing officers. " Tribute to whom tribute is due." Let Caesar have his tribute. Respect for our magistrates, as the representatives of the chief magisterial power above, our Gospel teaches. And these
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missionaries going into these foreign lands do not go to disturb the political conditions of the states they enter. Not at all. They preach no crusade, incite no rebellion, but work by instilling the principles of the Gospel of Christ — the doctrine of the purity of man; that God made of one blood all people; that not titles, nor rulers, nor the outer things at all, but the heart is the seat of judgment and esteem; and this doctrine, working its quiet way through the world, will yet bring in the King- dom that is promised.
No class of men are better able to judge the work of foreign missions than the diplomatists who serve our country in foreign lands. Being, as a rule, men of high character and standing, and having abundant opportunity to see for themselves, they may be regarded as expert witnesses upon whose testimony it is safe to rely. In an address delivered by Colonel Denby on his return from China, where he served as United States Minister from 1885 to 1898, he says:
I have made a study of missionary work in China. I took a man-of-war and visited almost every open port in the empire. At each one of the places I visited I in- spected every mission station. At the schools the schol- ars were arrayed before me and examined. I went through the missionary hospitals. I attended synods and church services. I saw missionaries in their homes; I saw them all, Catholic and Protestant, and I have the same opinion of them all. They are all doing good work;
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they merit all the support that philanthropy can give them. I do not stint my commendation, nor halt, nor stammer about work that ought to be done at home in- stead of abroad. I make no comparisons. I unquali- fiedly and in the strongest language that tongue can utter give to these men and women who are living and dying in China and in the Far East my full and unadul- terated commendation. My doctrine is to tell, if I can, the simple truth about them, and when that is known, the caviling, the depreciation, the sneering, which too often accompany comments on missionary work, will disappear; they will stand before the world, as they ought to stand, as benefactors of the people among whom their lives are spent, and forerunners of the commerce of the world.
In a communication to the Boston Herald the Hon. George F. Seward, who served for many years as Consul-General to China, and from 1876 to 1880 as United States Minister there, says:
During my twenty years' stay in China I always con- gratulated myself on the fact that the missionaries were there. There were good men and able men among the merchants and officials, but it was the missionary who ex- hibited the foreigner in benevolent work, as having other aims than those which may be justly called selfish. The good done by missionaries in the way of education, of medical relief, and of other charities, can not be over- estimated. If in China there were none other than mis- sionary influence, the building of that great people would go forward securely. I have the profoundest admiration
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for the missionary as I have known him. He is a power for good and peace, not for evil.
On his return to his home in Minneapolis the Hon. John Goodnow, Consul-General of the United States at Shanghai, who achieved much distinction by his skilful conduct of affairs dur- ing the commotions in China in 1900, was greeted by a large company, who listened to an account of his experiences with intense interest. Though not regarded as having any special in- terest in missionaries, he paid this tribute to their work :
The thing that makes us most popular in China is the work of our missionaries. The fact that the American nation and the American people stand in better rela- tions toward the Chinese nation and people is due almost wholly to these facts: First, the work of the missionaries proper, by preaching the Word; second, the splendid work of the medical missionaries with their hospital ser- vice, where thousands and thousands of poor natives are treated and cared for; and, thirdly, to the fact, com- monly recognized by the Chinese of intelligence, that the American people do not want Chinese territory.
The Hon. John W. Foster, formerly United States Secretary of State, and Minister in turn to Mexico, Russia, and Spain, and who served by invitation of the Emperor of China as counselor
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for China in making a treaty with Japan, in the Missionary Herald for October, 1900, says:
My observation is that the mass of people in China do not object to the missionaries. As a class, the Chinese are not fanatics in religion, and if other causes had not operated to awaken a national hostility to foreigners, the missionaries would have been left free to combat Bud- dhism and Taoism, and carry on their work of establish- ing schools and hospitals. . . . China stands in great need of Christianity. The teachings of Confucius, among the wisest of non-Christian philosophers, has had unlimited sway for twenty-five centuries; and this highest type of pagan ethics has produced a people the most superstitious and a government the most corrupt and in- efficient. Confucianism must be pronounced a failure. The hope of this people and its government is in Chris- tianity.
General Lew Wallace, author of " Bcn-Hur," and formerly United States Minister to Turkey, says:
When I went to Turkey I was prejudiced against mis- sionaries, but my views of them and their work have completely changed. I found them to be an admirable body of men doing a wonderful educational and civiliz- ing work outside of their strictly religious work. . . . When abroad in the East I have found the best and truest friends among the missionaries located in Con- stantinople. I have often been asked; "What of the missionaries of the East? Are they true, and do they serve their Master?" And I have always been a swift
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witness to say — and I say it now solemnly and emphati- cally— that if anywhere on the face of this earth there exists a band of devout men and women it is there.
Hon. E. F. Noyes, United States Minister to Turkey, reporting on the relations between our country and the Ottoman Empire, wrote thus:
The salutary influence of American missionaries and teachers in the Turkish Empire can not possibly be over- rated. By actual observation I know that wherever a conspicuously intelligent and enterprising man or woman is found in the East, one imbued with the spirit of mod- ern civilization, it is always found that he or she was educated at an American school or college in Constanti- nople, Alexandria, Cairo, Asyoot, or Beirut. With the educational influences comes a demand for the refine- ments and comforts of civilized life. The Arab youth who has graduated at the college in Beirut is no longer content to live in a mud-pen, clothe himself in filthy rags or not at all, and to live on sugar-cane.
In his valuable book, " Persia and the Per- sians," Hon. S. G. W. Benjamin, formerly United States Minister to Persia, writes as follows :
The American missionaries have now been laboring fifty years in Persia. There are captious persons who ask, " Well, how many converts have they made ? Would they not do more by staying at home? " Altho this is not a fair way to judge of the value and results of missions,
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I have no hesitation in affirming that the missionaries in Persia have made as many converts as an equal number of clergymen in the United States during the same pe- riod. . . . American missions in Persia may be slow, but they are an enduring influence both for secular as well as for religious progress. Their growth is cumu- lative and their power is mighty.
In 1882 the Hon. Elisha H. Allen, Hawaiian Minister to the United States, and for twenty years Chief-Justice and Chancellor of the Island Kingdom, gave this testimony:
I have a very high appreciation of the great work which the American Board has accomplished. No one can fully appreciate it unless by a visit to the country which has been blessed by its labors. ... It was a great triumph to have saved the nation, and to have brought it within the family of nations, which was so important to Christian civilization and to the commerce of the world, and more especially of the United States.
Hon. David B. Sickles, for five years United States Consul at Bangkok, gave the following testimony to the value of missions in Siam :
The American missionaries in Siam, whom I have ob- served for several years, have accomplished a work of greater magnitude and importance than can be realized by those who are not familiar with its character. Largely through their influence slavery is being abolished, and the degrading custom of bodily prostration is not now
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compulsory. Wholesome and equitable laws have been proclaimed, criminals have been punished by civilized methods, literature and art have been encouraged by the King and ministers, an educational institution has been established by the government, and reforms have been inaugurated in all its departments. . . . Before I went to the Far East I was strongly prejudiced against the missionary enterprise and against foreign mission- aries; but after a careful examination of their work, I became convinced of its immense value.
In a recent number of the Independent, the Hon. Hamilton King, United States Consul- General to Siam, gave a glowing account of mission work among the Laos, as he saw it dur- ing a journey through their country. He says:
In this field the influences of Christian civilization, divorced to a very large degree from those evils that generally go hand in hand with it, have been brought to bear upon the Oriental mind through the agency of the Christian mission alone. As we approached the city of Chiengmai, where the work has been longest in opera- tion, it was interesting to mark the external evidences of improvement that greeted us. Each day the women that we met were more neat and trim in appearance; their faces wore a more hopeful look, and they bore the mark of better things in their lives. The roads became better. Better-tilled fields, better-kept fences, better houses, more thrifty homes, and a general improvement in all that goes to make up a prosperous and thrifty people were evident in this province. On the morning after my
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arrival, as I stood before an audience of six hundred people in the commodious church, I said to myself: " This is the best thing I have seen in Siam. The Gospel has the right hold upon this people's lives, and is lift- ing them."
The Hon. John Barrett, United States Min- ister to Siam from 1894 to 1898, who was with Dewey at Manila, and is now serving as Com- missioner-General to Asia for the St. Louis World's Fair, loses no opportunity to say a good word for missions. In an address de- livered before the New Orleans Missionary Con- ference, in 1901, he spoke as follows:
Going out to Asia seven years ago, as United States Minister to Siam, I was in a degree prejudiced against missionaries. Returning to America six years later, I was convinced of the practical value and importance of their work. Four years' official residence in Siam, a year or more in China and Japan, and another in the Philippines, aroused me to an appreciation of America's mighty responsibilities and opportunities, missionary and commercial, in the Far East. . . . Summarizing in briefest terms possible some points in favor of mission- ary work from a layman's point of view, we enumerate the following: 1. In my experience as a United States minister one hundred and fifty missionaries scattered over a land as large as the German Empire gave me less trouble than fifteen business men or merchants. 2. Everywhere they go, in Siam or Burma, in China or Japan, they tend to raise the moral tone of the commu-
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nity where they settle. 3. They are the pioneers in edu- cation, starting the first practical schools and higher in- stitutions of learning, teaching along lines that develop the spirit of true citizenship as well as of Christianity. 4. They develop the idea of patriotism, of individual re- sponsibility in the welfare of the State. 5. They carry on an extensive medical and surgical work, build hos- pitals, and encourage sanitary measures, and have been the chief agency throughout Asia to check the spread of diseases like smallpox, cholera, and the plague. 6. They do a great work of charity and teach the idea of self- help among masses otherwise doomed to starvation and cruel slavery. 7. They are helpful in preparing the way for legitimate commercial expansion, and almost in- variably precede the merchant in penetrating the in- terior. 8. They have done more than either commerce or diplomacy to develop respect for American character and manhood among the countless ignorant millions of Asia. 9. They are a necessity to the Asiatic statesmen and people to provide them with that instruction and in- formation required to undertake genuine progress and development.
II. TESTIMONIES OF BRITISH STATESMEN
The testimony of British statesmen to the value of foreign missions is fully as strong as that of American statesmen, and is especially notable in view of the following conviction embodied by the directors of the East India Company in a resolution passed in Parliament in 1793:
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The sending of missionaries into our Eastern posses- sions is the maddest, most extravagant, most expensive, most unwarrantable project that was ever proposed by a lunatic enthusiast. Such a plan is pernicious, impolitic, unprofitable, unsalutary, dangerous, unfruitful, fan- tastic. It is opposed to all reason and sound policy; it endangers the peace and security of our possessions!
Less than one hundred years later, at a pub- lic meeting in London, Lord John Lawrence, the greatest of all the English Viceroys of India, said:
Notwithstanding all that the English people have done to benefit India, the missionaries have done more than all other agencies combined.
In an address delivered at Tan j ore, Lord Napier, Governor of Madras, said:
The benefits of missionary enterprise are felt in three directions — in converting, civilizing, and teaching the Indian people. It is not easy to overrate the value in this vast empire of a class of Englishmen of pious lives and disinterested labors, living and moving in the most forsaken places, walking between the government and the people, with devotion to both, the friends of right, the adversaries of wrong, impartial spectators of good and evil.
In a lecture on " Christianity Suited to all Forms of Civilization," delivered in London,
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Sir Bartle Frere, formerly Governor of Bom- bay, said:
Whatever you may have been told to the contrary, I assure you that the teaching of Christianity among one hundred and sixty millions of civilized, industrious Hin- dus and Mohammedans in India is effecting changes, moral, social, and political, which for extent and rapidity of effect are far more extraordinary than any- thing you or your fathers have witnessed in modern Europe.
Sir Richard Temple, who spent thirty years in India, and filled the offices of Commissioner of the Central Provinces, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, Governor of Bombay, and Finance Minister of India, says in his book entitled " In- dia in 1880":
Missionaries have often afforded to the government and to its officers information which could not have been so well obtained otherwise. They have done much to eluci- date before their countrymen, and before the world, the customs, the institutions, and the feelings of the natives. They have contributed greatly to the culture of the vernacular language, and many of them, as scholars, historians, sociologists, or lexicographers, have held a high place in Oriental literature, and have written books of lasting fame and utility.
In a meeting held in Calcutta shortly before 200
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his return to England, Sir Augustus Rivers Thompson, Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, said:
In my judgment, Christian missionaries have done more real and lasting good to the people of India than all other agencies combined. They have been the salt of the country and the true saviors of the empire.
Sir Charles Aitchison, Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, a man of large and varied official experience in India, says:
From a purely administrative point of view, I should deplore the drying up of Christian liberality to missions in this country as a most lamentable check to social and moral progress, and a grievous injury to the best in- terests of the people.
In an article contributed to the Nineteenth Century, Sir William Hunter, the distinguished Indian administrator, says :
The careless onlooker may have no particular convic- tions on the subject, and flippant persons may ridicule religious effort in India as elsewhere. But I think few Indian administrators have passed through high office, and had to deal with difficult problems of British gov- ernment in that assembly, without feeling the value of the work done by the missionaries.
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In the first of a series of addresses on Foreign Missions delivered at Cornhill in March, 1903, Sir Mackworth Young, late Lieutenant-Gov- ernor of the Punjab, spoke as follows:
Forty years' experience of the Indian Civil Service has brought me to the conclusion that power in India has been entrusted to Great Britain for the propagation of Christianity. I regard the work done by missionary agencies in India to exceed in importance all the work done by the Indian Government since its commence- ment.
General Sir Charles Warren, Governor of Natal, whose special mission was the pacification of Zululand and Bechuanaland, gave this testi- mony:
For the preservation of peace between the colonists and the natives, one missionary is worth more than a whole battalion of soldiers.
In an address delivered in Glasgow, Henry E. O'Neill, Esq., British Consul at Mozambique, spoke thus:
I must say that my experience of ten years in Africa has convinced me that mission work is one of the most powerful and useful instruments we possess for the pacification of the country and the suppression of the slave-trade.
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III. TESTIMONIES OF GREAT STATESMEN OF HEATHEN LANDS
To these remarkable testimonies of eminent statesmen in Christian lands may be added those of the great statesmen of heathen lands, who have expressed their appreciation of the work of Christian missionaries in behalf of their countrymen. Among these is that of Li Hung Chang, whom General Grant pronounced one of the four greatest statesmen of the world in his day. During his visit to the United States in 1896 Li Hung Chang received a deputation from the American missionary societies at the Hotel Waldorf. In response to an address pre- sented by Dr. Ellinwood, the great viceroy spoke as follows :
The missionaries have not sought for pecuniary gains at the hands of our people. They have not been se- cret emissaries of diplomatic schemes. Their labors have no political significance, and the last, not the least, if I might be permitted to add, they have not interfered with or usurped the rights of the territorial authorities. . . . A man is composed of soul, intellect, and body; I highly appreciate that your eminent Boards, in your arduous and much esteemed work in China, have neg- lected none of th§ three. I need not say much about the first, being an unknowable mystery of which our great
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Confucius had only an active knowledge. As for intel- lect, you have started numerous educational establish- ments which have served as the best means to enable our countrymen to acquire a fair knowledge of the modern arts and sciences of the West. As for the material part of our constitution, your societies have started hospitals and dispensaries to save not only the soul, but the bodies of our countrymen. I have also to add that in the time of famine in some of the provinces you have done your best to the greatest number of sufferers to keep their bodies and souls together.
Marquis Ito, Japan's great statesman, upon whom Yale University conferred a degree dur- ing his recent visit to America, gratefully ac- knowledges his country's indebtedness to mis- sions. He says:
Japan's progress and development are largely due to the influence of missionaries exerted in right directions when Japan was first studying the outer world.
Chulalongkorn, King of Siam, who is re- garded as the most humane and progressive monarch in the East, is a firm friend and stanch supporter of missions in his kingdom. He says :
American missionaries have done more to advance the welfare of my country and people than any other foreign influence.
Added to this word from the king is this testi- 204
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mony from Prince Damrong, Minister of the Interior, addressed to the Hon. Hamilton King, United States Minister to Siam:
I want to say to you that we have great respect for your American missionaries in our country, and appre- ciate very highly the work they are doing for our people. I want this to be understood by every one; and if you are in a position to let it be known to your countrymen, I wish you would say this for me. I have just now more especially in mind my visit to Chieng-mai. The work of your people is excellent. I can not say too much in praise of the medical missionaries there especially.
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XIII
Great Ubougbts from ZlDaster /llMsstonarf es
The stirring words of great missionaries have been called " the battle-cries of the Church." Together with the notable utterances of promi- nent workers in the home land, they have done much to advance the cause of missions. They can be used in missionary meetings with very good effect, especially if the selections are from various sources and all along one line of thought. The following suggestions may be helpful :
1. Ask the members of the society to come prepared to give missionary quotations in re- sponse to their names at roll-call.
2. Write out a score or more of quotations on slips of paper and number them. Distribute these at the meeting, and have them read at appropriate times, calling for them by number.
3. Select a dozen of the most famous quota- tions and read them one at a time, calling on those present to give the author of each. This
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makes a test exercise that is both interesting and effective.
4. Select several strong, terse quotations, and use them as wall-mottoes to adorn the room in which the meetings are held. They can either be painted on muslin or cut from card- board and tacked into place.
5. Use one of the most striking quotations as a motto for the year's work.
6. For missionary teas or other social mis- sionary gatherings, souvenirs appropriate to the topic for the da}' can be made, and the quotations used in connection with them. For example, at a meeting on Siam tiny flags of red ribbon may be made, and a white elephant cut in outline from white paper pasted on one side, and a slip of paper bearing a missionary quota- tion on the other. Chinese flags (a black dragon on a yellow ground) and Japanese flags (a red circle on a white ground) can be easily made in a similar manner. For a meeting on Africa, small outline-maps may be cut from stiff black paper, and a quotation put on the back of each. For a Christmas meeting, tiny stars or bells cut from cardboard are pretty and appropriate.
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THE MISSIONARY OBLIGATION
The conversion of the world is the will of Christ, and therefore it is our bounden duty and service. — Bishop Selwyn.
" Here am I ; send me — to the first man I meet or to the remotest heathen " — this is the appropriate response of every Christian to the call of God. — Augustus C. Thompson.
That land is henceforth my country which most needs the Gospel. — Count Zinzendorf.
While vast continents are shrouded in almost utter darkness, and hundreds of millions suffer the horrors of heathenism or of Islam, the burden of proof lies upon you to show that the circumstances in which God has placed you were meant by Him to keep you out of the foreign field. — Ion Keith-Falcoxer.
I can not, I dare not, go up to judgment till I have done the utmost God enables me to do to diffuse His glory through the world. — Asahel Grant.
Tho you and I are very little beings, we must not rest satisfied till we have made our influence extend to the remotest corner of this ruined world. — Samuel J. Mills.
I tell you, fellow Christians, your love has a broken wing if it can not fly across the ocean. — Maltbie Bab- cock.
It is manly to love one's country. It is Godlike to love the world. — J. W. Conklin.
Our Savior has given a commandment to preach the Gospel even to the ends of the earth. He will provide for the fulfilment of His own purpose. Let us only obey! — Allen Gardiner.
It was not so much a call to India that I received as an acceptance for India. — Bishop Thoburn.
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There was a time when I had no care or concern for the heathen; that was when I had none for my own soul. When by the grace of God I was led to care for my own soul, I began to care for them. In my closet I said : " O Lord, silver and gold have I none. What I have I give: I offer Thee myself! Wilt Thou accept the gift?" — Alexander Duff.
Every young man and woman should be a junior part- ner with the Lord Jesus for the salvation of the world. — Jacob Chamberlain.
We are the children of the converts of foreign mis- sionaries, and fairness means that I must do to others as men once did for me. — Maltbie Babcock.
Some can go, most can give, all can pray. — Anon.
" Look to your marching orders. How do they read?1' — The Duke of Wellington to a young cvrate who spoke disparagingly of foreign missions.
THE CHURCH AND WORLD-WIDE MISSIONS
The Church which ceases to be evangelistic will soon cease to be evangelical. — Alexander Duff.
The Church of Christ will be incomplete as long as the representatives of any people, nation, or tongue are outside its pale. — Alfred Oates.
Every man, woman, and child in heathen darkness is a challenge to the Church. — S. Earl Taylor.
It is my deep conviction, and I say it again, that if the Church of Christ were what she ought to be, twenty years would not pass away until the story of the Cross would be uttered in the ears of every living man. — Simeon H. Calhoun.
Every church should support two pastors — one for the thousands at home, the other for the millions abroad. — Jacob Chameerlain.
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We are playing at missions. — Alexander Duff.
The Church has been divided into three classes — mis- sion, omission, and anti-mission. — Anon.
The greatest hindrances to the evangelization of the world are those within the Church. — John R. Mott.
In foreign missions the Church of Christ has found its touchstone, its supreme test, its ultimate vindication. — Caroline Atwater Mason.
The Church has no other purpose in existence, no other end to serve save the great end of giving the Gospel to the world. — Bishop Hendrix.
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM
We can not serve God and mammon, but we can serve God with mammon. — Robert E. Speer.
At the present time one thing alone hinders the prog- ress of Christ's Kingdom, and that one thing is the lack of money. — W. D. Sexton.
There is money enough in the hands of church mem- bers to sow every acre of the earth with the seed of truth. — Josiah Strong.
There is needed one more revival among Christians, a revival of Christian giving. When that revival comes, the Kingdom of God will come in a day. — Horace Bush- nell.
Christians should regard money as a trust. They are stewards of Jesus Christ for everything they have, and they ought to see His image and superscription on every dollar they possess. — Theodore L. Cuyler.
The man who prays " Thy Kingdom come," and does not give some just proportion of his income to promote the Kingdom, is a conscious or unconscious hypocrite. — Francis E. Clark.
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Nine-tenths with God are worth far more than ten- tenths without God. — President J. W. Bashford.
A deified appetite outranks a crucified Christ. — F. T. Bayley.
I am tired of hearing people talk about raising money; it is time for us to give it. — John Willis Baer.
The best way to raise missionary money: Put your hand in your pocket, get a good grip on it, then raise it! — Miss Wishard.
More consecrated money — money which has passed through the mint of prayer and faith and self-denial for the Lord's sake — is the greatest demand of our time. — A. J. Gordon.
Give until you feel it, and then give until you don't feel it. — Mary Lyon.
prayer and missions
Let us advance upon our knees. — Joseph Hardy Nee si ma.
Whoever prays most, helps most. — William Goodell.
Prayer and missions as as inseparable as faith and works. — John R. Mott.
Every step in the progress of missions is directly traceable to prayer. It has been the preparation for every new triumph and the secret of all success. — Arthur T. Pierson.
He prays not at all in whose prayers there is no men- tion of the Kingdom of God. — Jewish Proverb.
He who faithfully prays at home does as much for foreign missions as the man on the field, for the nearest way to the heart of a Hindu or Chinaman is by way of the throne of God. — Eugene Stock.
He who embraces in his prayer the widest circle of his
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fellow creatures is most in sympathy with the mind of God. — Dean Gouldburn.
Thank God for bairns' prayers. I like best the prayers of children. — James Chalmers.
Unprayed for I feel like a diver at the bottom of a river with no air to breathe, or like a fireman on a blazing building with an empty hose. — James Gil- mour.
Every element in the missionary problem depends for its solution upon prayer. — Robert E. Speer.
Prayer and pains through faith in Jesus Christ will do anything. — John Eliot.
medical missions
I am a missionary, heart and soul. God had an only Son, and He was a missionary and a physician. A poor imitation of Him I am, or wish to be. In this service I hope to live, and in it I wish to die. — David Living- stone.
The medical missionary is a missionary and a half. — Robert Moffat.
Medical missionary work is the golden key that is to-day unlocking many of the most strongly barred fortresses of Satan. — Irene H. Barnes.
There is certainly no such field for evangelistic work as the wards of a hospital in a land like China. — John Kenneth Mackenzie.
The history of medical missions is the justification of medical missions. — Encyclopedia of Missions.
All genuine missionary work must in the highest sense be a healing work. — Alexander Mackay.
The work of medical missions must not be advocated simply as a life-saving agency. Without the Bible in one hand, the medicine-case is not wanted in the other.
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The objective point of the work must be soul-winning. — Dr. Anna W. Fearn, China.
HINDRANCES TO MISSIONS
The Gospel has no greater enemy on the West Coast of Africa than rum. — Dr. Polhemus.
Satan has no better agent to destroy the African than foreign liquor. — Henry Richards.
In the Kongo Free State the battle will be between the bottle and the Bible.— F. P. Noble.
Africa, robbed of her children, rifled of her treasures, lies prostrate before the rapine and greed of the Chris- tian nations of the world. A slave-pen and battle-field for ages, Christian nations — instead of binding up her wounds, like the good Samaritan; instead of passing by and leaving her alone, like Levite and priest — have come to her with ten thousand ship-loads of rum, hell's masterpiece of damnation. — Charles Satchell Morris.
The slave-trade has been to Africa a great evil, but the evils of the rum-trade are far worse. I would rather my countrymen were in slavery and kept away from drink, than that drink should be let loose upon them. — Rev. James Johnson, a native African pastor.
The accursed drink traffic has been one of the greatest hindrances to the spread of civilization and Christianity in heathen lands. — H. Grattan Guinness.
Christian nations have held out to the heathen races the Bible in one hand and the bottle in the other, and the bottle has sent ten to perdition where the Bible has brought one to Jesus Christ. — Theodore L. Cuyler.
The men who like Paul have gone to heathen lands with the message, "We seek not yours, but you," have been hindered by those who, coming after, have reversed the message. Ruin and other corrupting agencies come
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in with our boasted civilization, and the feeble races wither before the hot breath of the white man's vices. — Benjamin Harrison, at the Ecumenical Conference.
Our consecration of life, property, strength, to the conversion of China's millions is largely neutralized by the ill-omened opium traffic. — T. G. Selby.
From ancient times to the present day there has never been such a stream of evil and misery as has come down upon China in her receiving the curse of opium. — Sien Lien-Li, a Chinese government official.
Oh, the evils of opium ! The slave-trade was bad ; the drink is bad; the licensing of vice is bad; but the opium traffic is the sum of all villanies. — J. Hudson Taylor.
The devil hovers over India with his hands full of poppy seeds. — Anon.
failure and success
The word " discouragement " is not found in the dic- tionary of the Kingdom of Heaven. Never let yourself use the word if you have God's work to do. — Melinda Rankin.
It is a mark of Christianity to attempt the impossible, and through God's blessing gloriously achieve the same. — Judson Smith.
We can do it if we will. — Samuel J. Mills.
A true missionary never knows defeat. — A. A. Fulton.
I refuse to be disappointed; I will only praise. — James Hannington.
While God gives me strength, failure shall not daunt me. — Allen Gardiner.
Let me fail in trying to do something rather than to sit still and do nothing. — Cyrus Hamlin.
Our remedies frequently fail; but Christ as the remedy for sin never fails. — John Kenneth Mackenzie.
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Do what you can in the strength of God and leave the results in His hands. — Johank Ludwig Krapf.
There are two little words in our language which I always admired — " try " and " trust." Until you try you know not what you can or can not effect; and if you make your trials in the exercise of trust in God, moun- tains of imaginary difficulties will vanish as you ap- proach them, and facilities which you never anticipated will be afforded. — John Williams.
China has no sorrow that Christ's message can not cure; India has no problem it can not solve; Japan no question it can not answer; Africa no darkness it can not dispel. — Judson Smith.
Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God. — William Carey.
Get close to the hearts you would win for Christ. Let your heart be entwined with their hearts; let no barrier come between you and the souls you would reach. — George L. Pilkington.
Kindness is the key to the human heart, whether it be that of savage or civilized man. — John Williams.
And this also I learned, that the power of gentleness is irresistible. — Henry Martyn.
Results must be left in the hands of God. — Bishop Selwyn.
Even if I never see a native converted, God may design, by my patience and continuance in the work, to encourage future missionaries. — Henry Martyn.
Prayer and pains, through faith in Jesus Christ, will do anything. — John Eliot.
Nothing earthly will make me give up my work in despair. I encourage myself in the Lord my God and go forward. — David Livingstone.
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INDIRECT BENEFITS OF MISSIONS
Missionaries to a barbarous people deserve a vote of thanks from the commercial world. — Robert Moffat.
Few are aware how much we owe the missionaries. We must look to them not a little for aid in our efforts to advance further science. — Louis Agassiz.
Foreign missions are not only foreign missions, they are home missions, purifying the home life with that larger conception of charity, redeeming the home life with that worthier conception of Christ, which they teach and give. — David H. Greer.
As the commercial and even the political life of modern nations depends upon the extent and persistency of their foreign trade, so does the life and prosperity of the home Church depend upon the extent and energy with which she prosecutes her foreign missionary enter- prise.— George F. Pentecost.
MISSIONARY LANDS AND LABORS
When China is moved it will change the face of the globe. — Napoleon at St. Helena.
It is a great step toward the Christianization of our planet if Christianity gain an entrance into China. — Neander.
Rock, rock, when wilt thou open to my Savior? — Francis Xavier, at Sancian, while seeking an entrance to China.
The great bars are gone and China is open; not the rim of China, but China. This great empire is sure to be one of the dominant world-powers in the future. In working for China we are working for all nations and for coming ages. — Chauncey Goodrich.
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Win China to Christ, and the most powerful strong- hold of Satan upon earth will have fallen. — Mr. Wong.
China is under the hammer, and the devil is an active bidder. — A Missionary to China.
China may seem walled around against the admission of the Word of God; but we have as good ground to believe that all its bulwarks shall fall before it as Joshua had respecting the walls of Jericho. — Robert Morrison.
All I pray for is that I may patiently await God's good pleasure, and, whether I live or die, it may be for His glory. I trust poor Fuegia and South America will not be abandoned. — Last journal of Allen Gardiner.
THE IMPORTANCE OF HOME MISSIONS
Our plea is not, " America for America's sake," but " America for the world's sake." If this generation is faithful to its trust, America is to become God's right arm in his battle with the world's ignorance and oppres- sion and sin. — Josiaii Strong.
It is ours either to be the grave in which the hopes of the world shall be entombed, or the pillar of cloud which shall pilot the race onward to millennial glory. — Alex- ander Hamilton.
Five hundred years of time in the process of the world's salvation may depend on the next twenty years of United States history. — Austin Phelps.
America Christianized means the world Christianized. — Professor Hoppin, of Yale.
America is another name for opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of Divine providence in behalf of the human race. — R. W. Emerson.
Love of God and love of country are the two noblest passions in a human heart. And these two unite in home missions. A man without a country is an exile in the
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world, and a man without God is an orphan in eternity. — Henry Van Dyke.
If America fail, the world will fail. — Professor Park, of Andover.
As America goes, so goes the world in all that is vital to its moral welfare. — Austin Phelps.
heroic devotion to the service of CHRIST
I declare, now that I am dying, I would not have spent my life otherwise for the whole world. — David Brainerd.
If I had a thousand lives to live, Africa should have them all. — Charles Frederick Mackenzie.
Tho a thousand fall, let not Africa be given up. — Melville Cox, as he lay dying urith African fever.
Had I ten thousand lives, I would willingly offer them up for the sake of one poor negro. — William A. B. Johnson.
Tell the king, Mwanga, that I die for the Baganda, and purchase the road to Uganda with my life. — Last words of James Hannington.
Tell the committee that in East Africa there is the lonely grave of one member of the mission connected with your society. This is an indication that you have begun the conflict in this part of the world; and since the conquests of the Church are won over the graves of many of its members, you may be all the more assured that the time has come when you are called to work for the conversion of Africa. Think not of the victims who, in this glorious warfare, may suffer or fall; only press forward until East and West Africa are united in Christ. — Johann Ludwig Krapf, after the death of his wife and infant daughter.
If I thought anything would prevent my dying for China, the thought would crush me. — Samuel Dyer.
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I have been in India twenty years, and if I had twenty lives to live I would give i^iem all to that sin-cursed land. — Mrs. J. C. Archibald.
Recall the twenty-one years, give me back all its ex- perience, give me its shipwrecks, give me its standings in the face of death, give it me surrounded with savages with spears and clubs, give it me back again, with spears flying about me, with the club knocking me to the ground, give it me back, and I will still be your mis- sionary ! — James Chalmers.
My heart burns for the deliverance of Africa. — Alex- ander Mackay.
I see no business in life but the work of Christ, neither do I desire any employment in all eternity but His service. — Hexry Martyx.
Even if no one should be benefited and no fruits fol- low my efforts, yet I will go, for I must obey my Savior's call. — Leoxard Dober, the first Moravian Missionary.
I want the wings of an angel and the voice of a trum- pet, that I may preach the Gospel in the East and in the West, in the North and in the South. — Thomas Coke.
My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All, I again dedicate my whole self to Thee. — David Livixgstoxe, in his jour- nal on his last birthday, save one.
Death alone will put a stop to my efforts. — David Livixgstoxe.
I have one passion; it is He, He alone. — Couxt Zix- zexdorf.
Now let me burn out for God. — Hexry Martyx.
If I had a thousand souls and they were worth any- thing, I would give them all to God. — David Braixerd.
Here am I, Lord, send me; send me to the ends of the earth; send me to the rough, the savage pagans of the
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wilderness; send me from all that is called comfort in the earth; send me even to death itself if it be but in Thy service and to promote Thy kingdom. — David Brainerd.
missionaries' mottoes and covenants
Fidelity, Perspicuity, and Simplicity. — Morrison's Motto.
Be thou mine, dear Savior, and I will be Thine. — Zin- zendorf's Covenant, entered upon at the age of four years.
Turning care into prayer. — The favorite expression of John Hunt, of Fiji.
I'll tell the Master. — Miss Agnew's words in time of perplexity or trial.
Having set my hand to the plow, my resolution was peremptorily taken, the Lord helping me, never to look back any more, and never to make a half-hearted work of it. Having chosen missionary labor in India, I gave myself wholly up to it in the destination of my own mind. I united or wedded myself to it in a covenant, the ties of which should be severed only by death. — Duff's Covenant.
Christ is conquering; Christ is reigning; Christ is tri- umphing.-— Charlemagne's Motto.
I will place no value on anything I have or may pos- sess, except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ. If anything I have will advance the interests of that King- dom, it shall be given up or kept, as by keeping or giving it I shall most promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes, both of time and eternity. May grace be given me to adhere to this! — Livingstone's resolution made in young manhood.
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MISCELLANEOUS
Facts are the fingers of God. To know the facts of modern missions is the necessary condition of intelligent interest. — Arthur T. Pierson.
Information is the true foundation of missionary in- terest. Special appeals will arouse enthusiasm for a time, but it will not last. — Charles Cuthbert Hall.
The greatest foes of missions are prejudice and in- difference, and ignorance is the mother of them both. — A non.
Those that do most for the heathen abroad are those that do most for the heathen at home. — John G. Paton.
If you want to serve your race, go where no one else will go and do what no one else will do. — Mary Lyon.
Whatever Providence gives you to do, do it with all you heart. — Fidelia Fiske.
The lesson of the missionary is the enchanter's wand. — Charles Darwin.
He who loves not lives not; he who lives by the Life can not die. — Raymond Lull.
A true disciple inquires not whether a fact is agreeable to his own reason, but whether it is in the Book. — Adoniram Judson.
Emotion is no substitute for action. You love Africa? "God so loved that He gave" — what? Superfluities? Leavings? That which cost Him nothing? — George L.
PlLKINGTON.
Men who live near to God, and are willing to suffer anything for Christ's sake without being proud of it, these are the men we want. — Adoniram Judson.
It is how we live more than where we live. — Fidelia Fiske.
I shall not live to see it, but I may hear of it in heaven,
221
HOLDING THE ROPES
that New Zealand, with all its cannibalism and idolatry, will yet set an example of Christianity to some of the nations now before her in civilization. — Samuel Marsden.
Everywhere God's strong hand was busy during the nineteenth century, preparing a highway among the nations of the world for his spiritual and eternal king- dom on the earth. — James S. Dennis.
Gospel and commerce — but it must be Gospel first. Wherever there has been the slightest spark of civiliza- tion in the Southern Seas it has been because the Gospel has been preached there. Civilization! The rampart can only be stormed by those who carry the Cross. — James Chalmers.
No missionary is better employed than the competent translator. — Canon Edmunds.
Were I to go to heaven to-morrow I should do what I do to-day. — John Eliot.
To learn facts takes pains and patience, but nothing save holiness commands such homage as a thorough mastery of facts. It is the rarest and costliest product in the mental market. — Arthur T. Pierson.
The spirit of missions is the spirit of the Master — the very essence of true religion. — David Livingstone.
Men in the most difficult and dangerous fields should be the best armed and the best equipped. — James Gil- mour.
wise answers of master missionaries " Mr. Morrison," asked the owner of the ship on which the great " Apostle to China " was about to sail for Canton, " do you really expect to make an impression on the idolatry of the Chinese Empire?"
" No, sir ! " answered Morrison with dignified stern- ness. " No, sir ; but I expect God will."
222
MASTER MISSIONARIES
" My imperial master, the Czar," said a Russian official to Dr. Shauffler on one occasion, " will never allow Protestantism to set foot in Turkey."
" My imperial Master, Christ," replied the great mis- sionary calmly, " will never ask the Czar of Russia where He may set His foot or plant His kingdom."
" Do you not think, Dr. Carey," asked a Governor-Gen- eral of one of the provinces of India, " that it would be wrong to force the Hindus to be Christians?"
" My lord," was the reply, " the thing is impossible ; we may indeed force men to be hypocrites, but no power on earth can force them to become Christians."
"What can I do for Christ?" Bishop Selwyn was once asked.
" Go where He is not and take Him with you," was the wise reply.
" Goodell, we will have to leave," said Hamlin to his fellow-missionary in 1851, when the Sultan of Turkey ordered the expulsion of the missionaries; "the Sultan has issued an edict and the British ambassador and the American consul both say it is no use to resist."
" Hamlin," replied Goodell, " the Sultan of the uni- verse can change all this."
Next day, suddenly and unexpectedly, the Sultan died, and the edict was heard of no more.
"What are the prospects in Burma?" Adoniram Jud- son was asked.
" The prospects are as bright as the promises of God," was his reply.
223
HOLDING THE ROPES
" What are the discouragements in your work ? " Dr. John Scudder was asked while at home on furlough.
" I do not know the word," he replied ; " I long ago erased it from my vocabulary."
" Was it faith or love that influenced you most in going to Burma? " Judson was once asked.
" There was in me at that time little of either," the great missionary replied ; " but in thinking of what did influence me, I remember a time out in the woods be- hind Andover when I was almost disheartened. Every- thing looked dark. No one had gone out from this country. The way was not open. The field was far distant, and in an unhealthy climate. I knew not what to do. All at once Christ's ' last command ' seemed to come to my heart directly from heaven. I could doubt no longer, but determined on the spot to obey it at all hazards for the sake of 'pleasing the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord wants you for missionaries, He will send that word home to your hearts. If He does so, you neglect it at your peril."
" Have you ever repented being a missionary?" Henry Martyn said to Vanderkemp in his old age.
" I would not exchange my work for a kingdom," was the heroic reply.
224
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