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THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
BOOKS BY JOHN R. MOTT
STRATEGIC POINTS IN THE WORLD'S CONQUEST
THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD IN THIS GENERATION
THE STUDENTS OF NORTH AMERICA UNITED
THE PASTOR AND MODERN MISSIONS
THE FUTURE LEADERSHIP OF THE CHURCH
THE DECISIVE HOUR OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE DEMANDS
MADE UPON THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN
RELATION TO NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS
BY
John R. Mott
New York
student volunteer movement
for foreign missions
1914
COPYBIGHT, 1914, BY
STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS
All rights reserved
DEC 29 1914
©CLA388908
PREFACE
The object of this book is to show that the present world situation — a situation un- precedented in opportunity, in danger and in urgency — demands from the forces of pure Christianity the development and exercise of statesmanship, the Christianization of the impact of our Western civilization on the non-Christian world, a closer and more prac- tical co-operation and unity among Chris- tians in their missionary tasks, and a far larger emphasis on the spiritual side of the stupendous undertaking of making Christ and His truth known and obeyed among all men.
Before the War broke out the bookwas written just as it now appears. That great catastrophe, however, lends a peculiar time- liness and meaning to the treatment of the subject. What a demonstration the War has furnished of the contention that the pres- ent is a time of unprecedented danger. Who
vi PREFACE
will say that the opportunity which is likely to confront the cause of Christ at the close of the struggle will not be more extensive than ever before? Changed conditions and greatly aggravated difficulties occasioned by the present upheaval will make an added call for the highest order of Christian statesmanship. What a colossal exhibition the War affords of the unchristian char- acter of much of our so-called Christian civ- ilization, and what a challenge it presents to the leaders of vital, Christlike Christianity to strive to bring in a new order wherein shall dwell righteousness, love and true peace! In view of depleted material and human re- sources, severely strained international re- lations, and broken Christian fellowship caused by the War, greatly increased force is given to the arguments for co-operation and unity. If such a policy were admittedly desirable before, it is essential now. Never before has there been such general distrust of human ability and such wide-spread recognition of the need of superhuman wis- dom, love and power to meet the world
PREFACE vii
situation. Thus, in the midst of so much that is changing and uncertain, the call is insistent that chief emphasis be placed upon the changeless facts and the limitless resources associated with the Fountain Head of spiritual life and energy — Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day and forever.
Under the auspices of Andover Theological Seminary, five of the chapters of this book were given as lectures in April, 1914, in San- ders Theater at Harvard University, and were repeated at the Boston University School of Theology. Chapter II is an address deliv- ered in January, 1914, at the Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement in Kansas City. Chapter VII is reproduced, with slight changes, from The International Review of Missions for April, 1914.
John R. Mott.
December, 1914.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. The Present World Situation 3 II. The Openness and Responsive- ness of the Non-Christian World 19
III. The Need for Statesmanship
in Christian Missions . . 59
IV. The Unchristian Aspects of the
Impact of Our Western Civ- ilization 97
V. How the Impact of Our Western Civilization may be Christianized . . 127 VI. How to Ensure Closer Co- operation and Unity on the Part of Christian Forces . 153
VII. Present Possibilities of Co- operation in the Mission Field 177
VIII. Where to Place the Chief Emphasis in the Missionary Enterprise .... 207 ix
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
The forces of pure Christianity as they face the non-Christian nations and peoples are confronting an unprecedented world situa- tion. Certainly it is unprecedented in op- portunity. In this respect there has been nothing like it in the annals of the Christian faith. There have been times when in a few countries the doors to the friendly and con- structive mission of Christianity were as wide open as they are to-day; but there never was a time when simultaneously in so many sec- tions of the world the opportunities for the extension of the Christian religion were so numerous and so extensive as at the present time. This is true in the Far East and the Near East, in Southern Asia, in the Pacific Island world, in nearly all parts of Africa and of Latin America. Moreover, so far as one can forecast the future, there is not likely to come a time when the opportunities will be
3
4 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
greater than those with which the Christian Church must deal to-day. Where, after China, is there another nation of four hun- dred millions of people to turn from an an- cient past and to swing out into the full stream of modern Christian civilization? Where after India is there another vast em- pire to be swept by the spirit of unrest and to be made peculiarly accessible to the recon- structive processes of Christianity? Where after Africa is there another continent for which Mohammedanism and Christianity can contend? Where after Turkey and the Nile Valley is there another keystone to the vast arch of the Mohammedan world, with seams of weakness which make possible the dis- rupting of the whole structure?
What lends added significance to the pres- ent situation is the fact that this unparalleled enlargement of opportunity comes at a time when the Christian Church is called upon to deal with some of the most difficult problems with which it has ever had to grapple on the home field. This is true of North America, of Western and Northern Europe, of Aus-
SIGNIFICANCE AND URGENCY 5
tralasia and South Africa. Why is it that at the very time the Christian forces have more to do than ever at the home base, they are also confronted with an immeasurably greater opportunity abroad than that which has facied any preceding generation? May it not be because God sees that there are now on the earth those with whom He can trust a situation literally world-wide in its sweep? With His all-seeing eye does He not pierce beneath the surface and recognize latent in the Christians of our day capacities for vision, for adventure, for heroism, for statesmanship and for vicariousness which, if exercised and accompanied by His own superhuman forces, make possible the meeting of this absolutely new world situation?
We are living at the most dangerous time in the history of the world. This is due to the shrinkage of the world caused by the greatly improved means of communication. In many ways the whole world now is smaller than that part of the United States east of the Mississippi River was a generation ago. It is indeed one great community; it has
6 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
become a whispering gallery. As a result, the nations and races have been brought into the most intimate contact. This has led to grave perils. One danger is the great multi- plication of friction points. Some hoped and even believed that this new century might be ushered in with universal peace and good- will among the nations and races; but more than any preceding century has this one been characterized by national and racial misunderstandings, prejudices, bitterness and strife. The mingling of peoples, the clash of civilizations, and the processes which char- acterize this scientific age have led to marked relaxing and weakening of the restraints of the social customs as well as the ethical and religious systems of non-Christian peoples. This is in itself a very grave danger.
One of the most alarming perils is that of the demoralization which takes place where two or more races are brought into contact without the restraining and trans- forming influence of a greater than human power. There is something which strange- ly yet certainly takes place under such
SIGNIFICANCE AND URGENCY 7
conditions — something which tends to draw out the worst of each race. Equally true is it that the best is called forth when the prin- ciples and spirit of vital Christianity are at such a time brought to bear on the races concerned. How true it is that in a race, as in an individual, there are not only heights that lay hold of highest heaven but depths that lay hold of deepest hell! The worst places to be found anywhere on earth are those where races have been thrown against each other without the presence and mani- festation of the superhuman forces of pure Christianity. That there is danger also of an ever-increasing consolidation of non-Chris- tian peoples against the ideals and purposes which are most distinctive to the Christian religion there can be no question. The fact that it is not an organized or formal opposi- tion conducted by systematic policy or de- sign is all the more significant.
How may these momentous perils be coun- teracted and overcome? Some still appeal for a policy of segregation. They say that the only hope of averting these alarming
8 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
dangers is to separate the races from each other. Even though such a course might have been practicable in other days, it is so no longer. It may be possible for countries like America, Canada and Australia to ex- clude Orientals from their borders, but it is not possible in this day of industrial and commercial expansion to keep the aggressive young men of Europe and America out of Asia and Africa. Moreover, the countless international contacts which have been es- tablished in recent years manifest the abso- lute futility of any attempt in this day to keep nations and peoples in water-tight com- partments.
Others argue in favor of amalgamation as a means of diminishing the dangers which so threaten the world. History, as well as pres- ent-day experience in certain parts of the world, shows that such a course would follow the line of least resistance and inevitably would be attended with results of the most serious character.
In the judgment of many leaders in dif- ferent nations, a policy of military and na-
SIGNIFICANCE AND URGENCY 9
val domination is the only hope of making the world safe. The late Sir Robert Hart showed, at the time of the Boxer uprising, that this would require a military establish- ment so colossal that it would break down the powers of the world to maintain it. This also tends to accentuate the very danger which we wish to avoid.
In every quarter of the world many put forward education as the secret of ensuring the proper well-being of the peoples and of good-will among the nations. To-day, as in the past, some of the best educated nations are those most in danger from these gravest perils. Leaders of Japan have expressed themselves with solicitude concerning the breakdown in character of men in public and commercial life. It is not surprising, there- fore, that under the auspices of the Govern- ment there was held in Japan as recently as 1911 a conference of leaders of the different religions to consider among other things what religion can do to strengthen or buttress the morals of a nation. Education alone in any country merely sharpens a man's weapons
10 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
and makes him more successful in using them. But using them for what, and against what? It was said of Lorenzo de Medici, one of the great Italian scholars, "He was cultured but corrupt; wise but cruel; spending the morn- ing writing a sonnet in praise of virtue and spending the night in vice." It matters not how well educated a man may be, if he goes out into the world with a corrupt heart, an un governed will and low ideals, he is a men- ace to society and a source of weakness to the life of his nation.
What then will afford a helpful environ- ment and ensure right feelings and relation- ships between nations and races? The only program which can meet all the alarming facts of the situation is the world-wide spread of Christianity in its purest form. In other words, this is not a matter of external ar- rangements. The disposition of men must be changed. Their motive life must be in- fluenced. The springs of conduct must be touched. Right ideals must be implanted. A new spirit must be imparted. All this is only tantamount to saying that the influence
SIGNIFICANCE AND URGENCY 11
of the life and spirit as well as the principles of Jesus Christ, the source of superhuman life and energy, must be brought to bear on all men individually and upon all their rela- tionships.
The present world situation is unprece- dented not only in opportunity and in dan- ger, but also in urgency. From the point of view of the Christian Church the present mo- ment is incomparably the most critical and urgent it has ever known. This is true be- cause so many nations just now in a plastic condition are soon to become set unchange- ably. Shall Christian or unchristian influ- ences determine their character and destiny? The answer to this question cannot be de- ferred. To delay by even a half decade facing the situation and acting upon it com- prehensively would be the most serious mis- take which Christian leaders in this genera- tion could make.
The present is a time when rising tides of nationalism and racial patriotism are surging on every hand. Wherever the world traveler may have gone in recent years he has become
12 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
very conscious of the thrill of a new life. He has found nations being reborn; he has ob- served peoples coming into their own. This growing spirit of nationality and racial patri- otism can no more be resisted than can the tides of the sea. If Christians show them- selves sympathetic with all commendable national and racial aspirations of non-Chris- tian countries, the progress of Christianity throughout the world will be greatly facili- tated; if they do not, the mission of the Christian religion will be indefinitely retarded. The startlingly rapid spread of the corrupt influences in our so-called Western civiliza- tion among non-Christian peoples constitutes another reason for prompt and urgent action on the part of the Christian Church. The cheek of the visitor from a Christian land blushes with shame as he sees in the port cities of Asia, Africa and Latin America the alarming prevalence of evils which have spread from his native land. Some of these evils are eating like gangrene into the less highly organized races of mankind. Chris- tianity has a double responsibility. It must
SIGNIFICANCE AND URGENCY 13
counteract these baneful influences wherever they have extended and it must preempt those regions of the world where these evils have not yet reached. Nothing but the power of the living Christ can arrest and turn back these tides of death.
On the other hand, the cancerous growths of the non-Christian civilizations are eating with great directness and deadliness toward the very vitals of Christendom. We cannot trifle with cancers nor can we safely ignore them. Now that the world has found itself in its unity as one body (and this is the first half generation in which this could be said), it can no longer be a matter of indifference to one part of the world-body what happens in any other part. If there be a plague spot in China or Turkey or Africa, sooner or later it must affect America, England and Ger- many. It would seem that even though a man were not a Christian he would believe in foreign missions, that is, in the spread of the knowledge and life-giving power of the Chris- tian religion, solely on grounds of patriotism. In these days it is difficult to understand the
14 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
patriotism of the citizen who does not re- gard with responsive sympathy every wise effort to release throughout the earth the spirit and motives of Christianity.
There is another dangerous process which greatly accentuates the urgency of the pres- ent situation — the process of syncretism. This would seek to combine certain truths of the Christian religion with certain good ideas of non-Christian systems of religion or ethics, but would leave out the superhuman aspects of Christianity. This is tantamount to leaving out Christianity itself. More dif- ficult to counteract and overcome than the non-Christian religions themselves are the dangers growing out of eclecticism. Its con- fusing, unsettling and paralyzing influence is felt not only in the East but also in the West, and can be met only by bringing to bear a larger number of the strongest and best equipped minds of our generation.
The present situation is immeasurably more urgent than that of other days because of the recent unparalleled triumphs of C lris- tianity. It is a remarkable fact that the
SIGNIFICANCE AND URGENCY 15
most extensive victories of Christian missions have been those of the recent past. Not even in the early days of Christianity were such striking results achieved as have accom- panied the efforts of Christian missions in Asia and Africa during the last decade. These victories have been achieved not only in the more favored parts of the world where the forces and influences of the Christian re- ligion are most concentrated, but on some of the most difficult battlefields of the Church. Unquestionably it is a time of rising spiritual tide. It is always wise to take advantage of a rising tide. More can be accomplished in a short time under such circumstances than in long, weary, discouraging periods of effort while the tide is falling. God seems to have done a hundred. years' work within the last five years. The Christians of the West must quicken their pace. The discerning traveler returning from journeys in the Eastern world to-day must be constrained to confess solici- tude, not lest the peoples of the East fail to recer . j Christ, but lest the Christians of the Wf*it lose Christ as a result of not passing
16 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
on the knowledge of Him. The Christians now living in Western lands should have a realizing sense that this present, unparalleled world situation affords not only the greatest opportunity the Church has ever known, but also, so far as they are concerned, their best and their only opportunity.
The work which centuries might have done Must crowd the hour of setting sun.
THE OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVE- NESS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD
II
THE OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVE- NESS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD
There are many and multiplying evidences that the peoples of non-Christian lands are peculiarly accessible and responsive to the message and the messengers of vital Chris- tianity. Facts could be massed showing how true this is with reference to the masses in nearly all parts of Asia and Africa, not to mention other sections of the non-Christian world. Possibly even more significant, how- ever, are the facts indicating the attitude of the educated classes toward Christ and His claims. For the present, therefore, I con- fine myself to relating certain experiences and recording impressions in connection with my recent journeys in the Near East and the Far East. In order to make more clear the marked change which has taken place, I shall follow the plan of contrasting these late ex-
19
20 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
periences and observations with those re- lated to my visits to the same lands half a generation ago. The experiences and testi- mony of countless other travelers, as well as of workers residing in the different fields, would tend to enforce greatly the conviction that at the present time there exists through- out the non-Christian world an unexampled desire to know the truth of Christ and readiness to respond to the Christian ap- peal.
On my first visit to Russia, about fifteen years ago, it was impossible to gain access to the educated classes of that great Empire. At that time had I been found in a street car with five Russian students, all of us would have been subject to arrest. The meetings were necessarily held in secret, between mid- night and four o'clock in the morning. Were I to visit Russia again under these circum- stances, I would not follow such a course — not because of personal peril, but because of the risk involved for others. During that visit, I delivered only one public address, and that in the British-American Chapel in
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 21
St. Petersburg. I was warned that even there spies would be present, and it caused me not a little perplexity to choose a subject on which I could safely speak. At last the topic " Secret Prayer," was selected. Had I spoken on any theme bearing upon organi- zation, association, international relations, or propaganda, it would have ended all my ef- forts then and there, and seriously embar- rassed the work of others who were in sym- pathy with the object of gaining access to the Russian students for the work of Christ. In striking contrast with this experience was that of my last visit to Russia, when I was given the largest freedom to conduct public evangelistic campaigns among the students and other educated classes in some of the principal cities. It was necessary to secure the largest halls in these centers to hold the multitudes of students. All the meetings, as was customary, were open to both men and women students; for in that land the students of both sexes insist on hav- ing everything in common. The women were present even at meetings where purity and
22 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
sex questions were discussed, maintaining, to use the expression of one of their number, "We have been going to the bad together; why should we not learn to climb the heights together." Admission to the meetings was by ticket, and a charge was made in order that the students might accumulate a fund with which to help fellow students who were in dire need. As a rule these large halls and theaters were crowded. The police allowed no one to stand in the aisles, but students were permitted to stand in the large area in front of the stage.
Never shall I forget those seas of Russian faces extending from the stage where I stood, back over the crowded area and to the upper- most gallery. Most of the faces bore the mark of tragedy, and the word tragedy is used advisedly, for that Russian student is an exception who does not know its meaning, either through his own personal experience or that of some member of his family. Those who best know the inner life of Russian students say that a majority of them have contemplated suicide. Indeed, more students
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 23
commit suicide each year in Russia than in all other countries combined. Each meeting lasted about three hours. Every word had to be spoken through an inter- preter. Usually I gave two or three addresses in succession, pausing a few moments be- tween the two principal addresses, during which interval the students, as is their cus- tom, drank tea and discussed the points of the address. As the meeting drew to a close, it was always difficult to get the other students to leave in order that we might come into closer and more helpful relation to those who were ready to become serious in- quirers.
Nearly all the students of Russia are agnostics. They are, as the Germans would say, confessionslos. Though they are without religion, they are, however, the most religious students I have ever met, unless it be those of India. They have a thirst to find religious truth and to experience its power. In every city large numbers of them became sincere inquirers. They listened with that intensity which fairly draws out one's soul. They not
3
24 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
only remained after the addresses to receive personal counsel and direction as to how to find Christ, but they also sought me out on all possible occasions. Though they did not know the English language and though I did not know Russian, they would follow me as I walked along the streets or rode in the street cars. They came to my hotel at an- nounced hours for interviews, and at periods when I had indicated that I wished to be left alone. They seemed to think that if they could draw near me, as the messenger of the Christian students of other lands, they might find something to quench their thirst to know the truth.
Bands of investigators of Christ and His teachings were left in each center. In some cases the number of inquirers was so great that proper provision could not be made for them. In one university center the evening before the day of my departure, I said to the audience, "All those present who would like to learn how to follow Christ as I have been setting Him forth, meet me in this hall at two o'clock to-morrow afternoon." A dif-
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 25
ficult hour had purposely been chosen in order that there might be a more searching test. To the amazement of all, literally hun- dreds came to this special meeting — a meet- ing of such intensity as characterizes gather- ings where there are present only those who are in dead earnest to discover and follow the truth. Nearly all of the large number who came decided heroically to become in- vestigators. Then I had that most trying ex- perience of having to leave these hundreds of true inquirers alone, without sympathetic and wise guides, for we had no Christian Student Movement or expert Christian leaders to whom to entrust them. Baron Nicolay, Miss Ruth Rouse, Mr. Sherwood Eddy and others have had similar experiences within the last few years.
These encouraging beginnings have been followed by the establishment of scores of Bible classes or circles. Student Christian Associations have been developed at the prin- cipal student centers, and in some cases their work has become so extensive as to necessi- tate securing and conducting foyers, that
26 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
is, suites of rooms properly equipped for the social and religious activities of the society. Many valuable apologetic books and pam- phlets have been issued and are being widely purchased and read by the students. Con- ferences of Christian leaders and workers are being conducted from year to year. Several very able Russian and foreign secretaries are devoting their entire time to the leadership of the work. In some cases the Government has granted statutes to the newly formed Student Christian Associations. Most won- derful of all, in June, 1913, this new Chris- tian Movement in the universities of Russia, made up so largely of members of the Rus- sian Orthodox Church, was received into the World's Student Christian Federation.
Colonel Roosevelt, while President, wrote me a letter to be read to the Russian students, and in it made the statement that, "No land more than Russia holds the fate of the coming years." Certainly there are many facts in support of this opinion. The Russian Em- pire stretches from ocean to ocean in that zone of power where we find such nations as
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 27
Britain, Germany, France, United States, Canada, Japan and China. It possesses more extensive undeveloped material re- sources than any other land, not excepting Canada and China. It blends the strong strains of Europe and Asia. Within its borders are found in strength those three great religions, Christianity, Judaism and Mohammedanism. Its people possess capac- ities for creative and constructive achieve- ment, as well as for heroism and suffering, which unquestionably mark them out for a great work in the world.
In the autumn of 1895, at the time of my first visit to Turkey, I tried in vain to get access to the Mohammedan students in Con- stantinople. When we started to go on board our ship to proceed toward India, we heard the firing of the rifles as Armenians were being shot down in the streets. We were told on good authority that during the few days we were there hundreds of them had stones tied to their necks and were sunk in the Bosphorus, because they had had the courage to think aloud, or to associate with
28 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
others who thus publicly expressed their opinions. Wherever I went in Turkey that year, I found the door to the Moslem stu- dents closed, and was obliged to confine my efforts to work among Christians in the mis- sion schools and colleges. Even such work had to be conducted in the most quiet man- ner.
Three years ago I revisited Turkey. The contrast in the experiences of the two visits seems almost incredible. On this last visit I went to Constantinople to help organize, at the gateway of the political capital of the Mohammedan world, a conference of the World's Student Christian Federation. Plans were explained frankly and fully to the gov- ernment authorities, and not the slightest obstacle was placed in the way. The Con- ference was attended by leaders of the Chris- tian forces among students from twenty-five different nations. Although the number of delegates was limited to about two hundred, there were represented among them over fifty branches of Protestantism. Besides these there came Coptic Christians from the
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 29
Nile Valley, Syrian Christians from the Leba- non and from India, Maronite and Roman Catholic Christians from different fields. One of the strongest delegations was that of Rus- sia, which included several members of the Orthodox Church. The other autonomous Greek Churches of Bulgaria, Servia, Ruma- nia and Greece were represented. Two Bish- ops of the Greek communities in Turkey at- tended, and the Ecumenical Patriarch him- self manifested the deepest interest in the Conference, and furthered its plans. The Ar- menian or Gregorian Church, which through its faithful witness for centuries had earned its right to join in such a gathering, was rep- resented by several of its members.
This most representative conference of all branches of Christendom was permitted to carry forward its discussions in the most open manner. Its speakers and members did not apologize for their religion. They rjet forth constructively the meaning of Chris- tianity and its world program. In addi- tion to the regular conference sessions, there were held every night in the six largest halls
30 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
obtainable in different parts of Stamboul and Pera, meetings for the educated and in- fluential classes — in one hall in the Armenian language, in one in Turkish, in another in German, in two places in French, and in still another in English. In these meetings pow- erful apologetic lectures and persuasive evan- gelistic appeals were given by professors and Christian workers from Germany, Britain and America, and their more formal ad- dresses were confirmed by testimonies given by delegates from Europe, Asia and North America. The halls were, thronged by Mos- lems and Jews, as well as by members of the Eastern Churches.
Shortly before the time for my departure from Constantinople a deputation waited upon me and urged me to hold before leaving at least one meeting near the great Moslem University in Stamboul with its eight thousand students. As my time was very limited, I had to assign for the purpose a somewhat unsatisfactory hour on the last evening of my visit. A large hall in the vicinity of the University was secured, and
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 31
when I arrived to give my address, I found the hall packed to suffocation — not only every seat and standing place being taken, even on the platform, but also in the hallways and neighboring rooms within the range of the sound of my voice. When I reached the place where I could see the audience, I noticed that many present wore green turbans. The interpreter told me that these were the most fanatical of the Mohammedan theological students. I feared there might be serious difficulty, for my theme held up Jesus Christ as the only Savior, but in no land have I had more intense and respectful attention. At the close of the address, although I wished to hasten away to meet another very late ap- pointment, I was held for nearly an hour by eager inquirers who pressed upon me with their questions which involved spiritual issues of life and death. So profoundly was I im- pressed with the ripeness of this critically im- portant field, that I have since done all I could to facilitate the sending to these stu- dents of other Christian messengers. Leading apologetic lecturers and evangelists, such as
32 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
Professor Allier of Paris, Mr. Sherwood Eddy and Mr. Robert Wilder, have, during the last three years, had still more remarkable experiences among them. In other student centers of Turkey there have been similar evidences of the marked widening of oppor- tunity among Moslems.
It is true that in the more recent past a serious reaction has set in. Many facts of a discouraging nature might be given, but against the most unfavorable considerations and circumstances there should be set in con- trast certain facts which did not exist at the time of my first visit nearly twenty years ago. For example, it is now possible for Christians to travel freely in all parts of the Empire. Christian conferences and conventions may now be held. Scores of periodicals are now published which were not then permitted, and an increasing volume of Christian litera- ture is being circulated and read. Public evangelistic meetings may be held in nearly every important center, and Mohammedans may freely attend them. More wonderful still, Christian organizations of students and
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 33
other classes may now be formed, and not infrequently Mohammedans identify them- selves with these as members. Within a year the Christian Student Movement, embracing both men's and women's sections, has been perfected and related to similar movements in other lands. Facts like these far more than counterbalance the most adverse and dis- appointing aspects of the present situation, and clearly show that within half a generation truly marvelous progress has been made. It isjiot without its advantages that the ad- vance of the cause of Christ in Turkey is attended with very great difficulties. It re- quires fiery trials to test men and to strengthen them. Church history proves that Chris- tianity advances best in the face of opposi- tion. This is the ground of confidence that the Christian religion in its most vital form is destined soon to achieve in Turkey even more notable victories.
On my first visit to North Africa about twenty years ago it proved to be impracti- cable to gain access to Mohammedan stu- dents in Cairo, the great educational capital
34 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
of the Moslem world. I had to confine my efforts in Egypt to meetings with the Coptic and Protestant Christian students. Returning to that land three years ago, I raised the question whether I might not give lectures on the power and claims of Christ to the Moslem and other Egyptian students. Representatives of Government and even some of the missionaries, while admitting that such meetings might be held, advised against holding them on the ground that they might stir up the spirit of fanaticism. Some of the more sympathetic Christian leaders were amazed at the plan proposed, which was to secure for the meetings the Abbas Theater, the largest in Egypt. As a theatrical com- pany had engaged the place for each night, it was necessary to hold our meetings at a very unfavorable hour in the afternoon fol- lowing the university work of the day. Not- withstanding this fact, the large theater, which accommodates twenty-five hundred, was overcrowded every afternoon, and after the first day it became necessary to have the help of the police to control the crowds of
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 35
students on the outside who were striving to gain admittance.
Day after day I sought to set forth, posi- tively and without equivocation, the truth as it is found in Christ, but without making any attack upon Mohammedanism. Atten- tion was fixed upon the living Christ. On the last afternoon, when the time came to give up the theater because of the play, I had not finished, and observing the close and solemn attention of the multitude present, I felt that I could not leave them without leading them further into the truth. The audience was composed largely of Moham- medan students and unbelievers from the government colleges. I put to them this in- vitation: " Those of you who would like to believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, if you could do so with intellectual honesty, meet me as soon as possible at the hall of the American Mission." Hastening through the crowded Cairo streets to the appointed place I found, to my surprise, the hall filled with students who had come in response to this invitation. There we spent a momentous
36 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
hour — an hour such as men have when none are present through idle curiosity, but be- cause of an earnest and sincere desire to re- ceive help greater than their own. We had indubitable evidences of the presence and working of the Spirit of Almighty God. Dis- cussions conducted by such skilful Christian workers as Mr. W. H. T. Gairdner and Dr. S. M. Zwemer during the last year, show that the inviting door of this intellectual Mohammedan center is still wide open.
My first visit to the student field of India lasted through the four months of the cold season of 1895-96. Conferences and public meetings were held in all the university cities. These resulted in the formation of several Christian Associations. In connec- tion with the evangelistic meetings only a few Hindu and Mohammedan students were led to become investigators of Christianity; none of them, I think, confessed Christ dur- ing my visit, although it was a source of joy to learn that two or three subsequently be- came Christians. Even these small begin- nings in that most difficult student field of
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 37
the world, the home of non-Christian relig- ions, sent me on my way greatly encouraged. On my return to India with Mr. Sherwood Eddy two years ago, I found a vastly enlarged opportunity. Again the tour embraced the five great university centers — Madras, Bom- bay, Lahore, Allahabad and Calcutta. In every place the largest theater or hall we could obtain was filled to overflowing with students. Here were audiences of crowded ranks of Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Parsees, as well as agnostics and adherents of various eclectic systems. Little bands of Christians were scattered among them. Every meeting constituted a conflict so great that at its close we went away completely exhausted. In Madras one Sunday afternoon it seemed as if everything were going against us. Many were hissing at the mention of the name of Christ. Groups of students had stationed themselves in different parts of the room to create disturbance and thus break up the meeting. At a critical stage I noticed several men leave the meeting and feared that the break-up of the meeting was im-
38 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
minent. But in a few moments there came a hush upon the vast, tumultuous assembly, and, as Christ the living Lord was exalted in the closing appeal, one was distinctly con- scious that His Spirit was moving mightily upon the consciences and hearts of men. Some months later we learned the secret of the marked manifestation of superhuman power. Those who had gone out of the meet- ing were some earnest Christian students who went behind the stage and fell upon their faces before God in fervent interces- sion. Then we understood that Christ had again stilled the tempest.
During the absorbing series of evangelistic campaigns in those few crowded weeks, hun- dreds of the keenest students of non-Chris- tian faiths decided to make a study of Christ and His teachings. This does not mean that they became converts. It does mean, how- ever, that they determined to investigate the claims of Christ, and this with an openness of mind and a sincerity of purpose which, when all the difficulties that surround them are taken into consideration, puts to shame the
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 39
indifferent, easy-going and cynical students in favored Western lands. Here and there a few individuals among all these investigators have since made an open profession by baptism. At the close of our tour in India a conference of Christian students from seventy colleges of all parts of India and Ceylon was held at Serampore, the scene of William Carey's remarkable labors. One evening at dusk Bishop Azariah, who, on the preceding Sunday in St. Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta, had been consecrated as the first Indian Bishop, baptized two Indian students who had become inquirers in our meetings in Calcutta. This took place in the Hooghly River at the very spot where a hundred years before, William Carey, after seven years of service, had baptized his first low-caste con- vert. It means far more for a few Hindus and Mohammedans in India to take such a step than it would for a thousand agnostics in the great universities of America or Eu- rope to make a public profession of faith in Christ. All over India to-day, not simply scores
4
40 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
or hundreds but thousands of the educated classes are secret inquirers. They have been intellectually convinced and their hearts have been deeply moved, as a result of the faithful and self-denying work of the mis- sionaries. What is needed is the additional impulse which will come when the Church of the West recovers and utilizes the gift of intercession. The time is at hand in the Indian Empire to secure great results from the siege work which has been going on there for so many years. This siege work has been beyond all praise. We should thank God for workers with that highest type of heroism which is willing to live and, if need be, to die doing siege work. Such workers are as much to be honored and envied as are those who actually see the walls fall. The Japanese who did the mining and countermining at Port Arthur as truly helped to achieve the wonderful victory as did those who finally swept into the fortress.
Buddhism in its purest and most aggres- sive form is found in Burma and Ceylon. It means much, therefore, that both in Ran-
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 41
goon and in Colombo, the principal student centers of these two fascinating countries, the largest halls were required to hold the Buddhist students who came together to listen to addresses setting forth the unique sufficiency of Christ to meet the deepest needs of men and nations. In these places, as in the Indian cities, hundreds were led to form the purpose to study Christ and to obey His truth. Several of their number have since pressed on to baptism. There seems to be no limit to the range of oppor- tunity for wise evangelistic effort in these fields. When one remembers the heroic la- bors and sacrifices of the early and later missionaries in Burma, one understands how unprecedented modern ingatherings have been made possible. Ceylon presents a pe- culiar appeal to the imagination and to sac- rificing devotion. It is inspiring to recall that centuries ago, from this little island as a fountain head and propagating center of Buddhism, there went forth thousands of Buddhist missionaries to storm the entire Asiatic coast. Their missionary zeal goes
42 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
far to explain the fact that Buddhism to-day has more adherents than has any other re- ligion.
On the occasion of my first journey around the world, I did not visit Korea, because at that time it had no students in the modern sense. This was also true at the time of my second world tour. When I went for the third time to the Far East, a brief visit was made to the capital, Seoul, in connection with which a memorable gathering of thousands of the most influential classes of Korean men was held in Independence Hall outside the city wall. The results achieved by the Holy Spirit that winter afternoon, when over two hundred strong men accepted Christ, con- stituted in itself a^ convincing evidence of Christianity, and revealed the marvelous character of the opportunity in Korea. On returning to the country nearly two years ago, although it was not regarded by many as a favorable time owing to strained relations between the races, I expressed the desire to have opportunity to proclaim the message of Christ to the more progressive classes of
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 43
Koreans. A large tent to accommodate three thousand was pitched for the purpose, and night after night it was densely crowded with the very men we most desired to reach. The last of these meetings continued for three hours, and after the workers had liter- ally driven away all save those who had signed cards indicating that they were serious inquirers, three hundred of these noble and lovable Korean men confessed their alle- giance to Christ in the most heroic manner. While there has recently come a time of severe testing in this land — an experience never without its great refining and strength- ening influence — the fact should not be lost sight of that the doors of Korea are still wide open. Beyond question this can be made a Christian nation if the Christian Church con- tinues to make the most of its advantage. I came away from Korea believing that if Chris- tianity were to die out in America and Eu- rope, it exists with such vitality in Korea that it would ultimately spread from there to our shores and reestablish itself.
When I first visited Japan in 1896-97, I
44 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
met with a good reception and helped to plant the Christian Student Movement both in government and in missionary colleges. During a period of three months filled with meetings, some two hundred Japanese stu- dents were led to become inquirers. Similar encouragement attended a second visit near- ly five years later. My third visit was made in connection with the Conference of the World's Student Christian Federation in 1907. At that time international deputa- tions of Christian leaders preached the Gos- pel to the educated classes in virtually every student community of the Empire, and large numbers were led to become Christian dis- ciples. Many wondered whether there would ever recur such an opportunity, but last year the doors were found to be even wider open than ever. Wherever I went the halls and churches were overcrowded with eager lis- teners, and seldom was a meeting held in which less than a hundred and fifty students decided to become inquirers. A larger pro- portion of those present at the different meetings became inquirers than in similar
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 45
meetings held among the educated classes in any other land.
Someone asked me to mention the most remarkable single experience of my recent tour throughout the Orient and I answered that, were one to judge by the character of the difficulties overcome, by the maturity and intelligence of those influenced, and by the proportion of persons who were reached, I would mention the meeting held the last night of the visit in Tokyo. It took place in the Canadian Mission Tabernacle, because that was the largest available hall in the vicinity of the Imperial University. Every place was taken, chiefly by students of the University and the First Koto Gakko. As is generally known, the Imperial University is the keystone of the Japanese educational arch and one of the most influential univer- sities in the world. It has over five thou- sand students, and these in the West would be characterized as graduate students. Their average age must be at least twenty-five. Nearly all of the professors are men of marked attainments who have taken degrees in
46 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
American or European universities. The in- fluence of this institution is felt throughout the Asiatic world and is increasingly recog- nized in the West. In the meeting that night, lasting four hours, I gave through an interpreter four addresses. At the close 370 men, a large proportion of whom were among the most mature and advanced stu- dents, indicated their purpose to study the original writings of Christianity, to pray for wisdom and courage to discover and obey the truth, and, when convinced of the truth, to follow Christ. This stands out as another evidence that Christ lives and is able to manifest Himself and to overcome language difficulties, intellectual pride and racial mis- understandings. If He be lifted up, He draws men, whether they are educated or illiterate, whether they are in the East or in the West.
When I first visited China, in the year 1896, 1 became deeply interested in the prob- lem of reaching the literati, the ancient and influential scholar class from whose ranks for two thousand years had come the leaders
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 47
of the nation. When the question was raised as to whether I might not gain access to the literati, missionaries told me that we would never live to see the day when they would be accessible to Christian effort. In report- ing on^the student field of China at that time, therefore, I characterized the Chinese literati as the Gibraltar of the student world, by which was meant an impregnable position. Five years later, on revisiting the country, a long day was spent with the presidents of seventeen missionary colleges discussing the problem of reaching the literati. At last we came to the reluctant conclusion that all that could be done would be to cultivate here and there personal relations with these scholars in their homes, and also once a year to stand at the gates where the scholars stream out at the end of their examinations and hand to them Christian literature. As for assembling the literati and thus having opportunity to influence them collectively or to draw them into any organization, that was deemed to be quite hopeless.
Again, five years later still, as I traveled
48 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
over the Chinese Empire, I found that the walls of Jericho had begun to crumble. In some places I could look through, and here and there I could reach through and clasp hands with those splendid representatives of educated China, both the ancient and modern literati. In exceptional cases it was possible to bring them together in meetings where I could appeal to them on behalf of Christ. In contrast with all this, even these promising beginnings, stand the almost un- believable incidents connected with the visit made last year.
When I reached Hongkong a deputation from Canton met me and stated that they had hired the largest theater in the country, a building holding thirty-five hundred people, for the student mass meetings to be held in that gateway city of South China. When I asked them why they had not arranged to begin the work in a smaller hall they chal- lenged me to wait and see. On going to the appointed place before the advertised hour for the opening meeting, the streets adjoining the theater were found thronged with stu-
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 49
dents, and we were told that every place in the theater was already taken. On the plat- form were seated some fifty leading Chinese officials of the Province, most of whom had studied in Japan or America. They had come to show in the most conspicuous way their sympathy with the purpose of the meetings. One night the chair was taken by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, an- other night by the Premier, and the next night by the Commissioner of Education. Each evening I gave two or three extended addresses, the meetings lasting three hours and a half. Over seven hundred students and teachers became inquirers, one-fourth of whom have been baptized and have been re- ceived into the Churches, a larger proportion than usually take this step in connection with similar efforts in universities of the West.
The next campaign took place at Tsinanfu, the capital of the Shantung Province, the Sacred Province of Confucius and Mencius. In this most conservative part of China the living God manifested His presence and power. The Governor of the Province, who
50 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
was not a Christian, granted the use of the Parliament building for the evangelistic meet- ings. As it was not equipped for lighting, we met in the afternoons. Although here as in the other centers the audiences were very- large and representative, conditions were peculiarly difficult. It was noteworthy, therefore, that at the end of the final meeting, notwithstanding very adverse cir- cumstances, over five hundred men had an- nounced their purpose to become investiga- tors of Christian truth. The meeting had lasted long and night was falling. Per- mission was given to bring in a few can- dles. It was deeply impressive to see the faces of these stalwart leaders of the new China as they rose in covenant and bowed themselves for the first time before the Jehovah of the Bible. When, exhausted, I went to my room that night I marveled at the unmistakable proof of God's living power, but could not understand it until I recalled the fact that this very Sunday was the Universal Day of Prayer for Students, and that in over forty countries earnest bands
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 51
of Christian students were remembering in special prayer this campaign, as well as the work of Christ among students in other lands.
In Peking a Buddhist temple had been secured and enlarged so that it would ac- commodate three thousand. Although the weather was bitterly cold the students and teachers came long distances from the col- leges in all parts of the great city and packed the place. Here some six hundred or more were influenced to start in the path for the discovery of Christ. They were subjected to a hard test when they were asked to assemble in the Association building, three miles dis- tant, for a farewell meeting; but among those who came four hundred indicated their def- inite acceptance of Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
While I was in Peking, the Scotch, Irish and Danish missionaries of Manchuria came to tell me that I would make a great mistake were I to leave China without visiting Muk- den, the capital of that Province. Not with- out difficulty, adjustments were made in my
52 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
program which enabled me to spend a week-end there. The Governor, a member of the ancient literati class and not a Chris- tian, learning of the intended visit, said that Mukden had no hall large enough to hold the government students who should attend these lectures on Christianity. When this word was reported to me I telegraphed the committee in Mukden to erect a large pavil- ion. The Governor hearing of this said, "We will not let this gentleman and his friends build the pavilion — I will build it." From his private means he gave the money to erect a structure which would hold five thou- sand. He then ordered that the colleges be closed, and that the students and professors attend the meetings. They came in such numbers that the place was filled to its outer limits, every seat and standing place being occupied. At each meeting I gave three evangelistic addresses, and by the end of the series, six hundred had signed cards making the three following promises:
(1) I will make a conscientious study of the four Gospels; and, that I may do this to the best
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 53
advantage, I will meet for one hour each week with others who are making the same investigation.
(2) I will pray daily to the holy God for wis- dom to find the truth, and for courage to follow it after I have discovered it.
(3) When my reason and conscience permit me to do so, I will take Christ as my Savior and Lord.
They were not given opportunity to sign the cards until after I had spent over half an hour in explaining several times the mean- ing of these three promises. As I was giving the inquirers some parting instructions, the Commissioner of Education of the Province, who had a seat on the platform through- out all the meetings, rose and asked the priv- ilege of speaking to the inquirers. As he was not a Christian, I was surprised when the in- terpreter told me that he had earnestly ex- horted them to keep the three promises, and had expressed the hope that were I to re- visit Manchuria I would not find that any of them had turned their backs upon their resolutions.
While I was having these striking ex- periences in Canton, Tsinanfu, Peking and
54 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
Mukden, Mr. Sherwood Eddy had quite as noteworthy results in other cities; in fact, it may be questioned whether there have ever been such fruitful evangelistic efforts among students in China as those put forth in Tientsin and Foochow. Mr. Eddy is at the present time contemplating the conduct of a far more extensive campaign throughout China, and, great as was the opportunity last year, it seems likely to be far greater this year.
Facts such as those here set forth could be greatly multiplied not only with reference to the countries touched in this review and con- trast but also regarding many other parts of the wide world field. They demonstrate that the cause of the Christian religion is entering upon a new age. Old things are passing away; all things are becoming new. The non-Christian nations are indeed wide open. They are more accessible than ever. Their fields are dead ripe. They are ready for the sickle. The time has come to reap on a scale which transcends anything hitherto at- tempted. The plans of the Kingdom must be
OPENNESS AND RESPONSIVENESS 55
greatly widened. The leaders of the aggres- sive forces of the Christian religion must grapple with the present marvelous world situation in a truly statesmanlike way, and in complete reliance on their superhuman re- sources.
THE NEED FOR STATESMANSHIP IN CHRISTIAN MISSIONS
Ill
THE NEED FOR STATESMANSHIP IN CHRISTIAN MISSIONS
A writer in the London Spectator stimu- lates profitable reflection by expressing the opinion that there is "one feature in the present aspect of the world which is most unusual, and that is the contrast between the magnitude of events occurring all around us, and the smallness, or rather, the second- rateness of the men supposed to guide them." The question thus raised might well be con- sidered in every calling and in every country. While the great enterprise of the world-wide extension of Christianity has afforded pos- sibly as many illustrations of able leadership and true statesmanship as any other sphere of human activity, there is no doubt that there is to-day a demand for a far larger exercise of these gifts.
Statesmen are needed in the sphere of Christian missions in order to enlarge the
60 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
plans. The enormous widening of oppor- tunity which has come in recent years on almost every mission field calls for a great enlargement of the plans of occupation. Within a few years literally hundreds of millions of people have been brought within easy reach of the forces of Christianity. The same improved means of communication which have accomplished this result have likewise exposed multitudes to the evil in- fluences of Western civilization and have facilitated the further spread of the non- Christian religions. Statesmanlike planning is essential if the Church is to measure up to an opportunity unmatched in all her history. The great growth of the missionary movement itself calls for both expansion and adaptation. The Christian Church has far greater num- bers now than a generation ago; likewise many more points of contact and avenues of influence with non-Christian peoples, and therefore vastly greater forces are to be wielded. The stupendous changes, political, social, economic and educational, which have taken place in non-Christian countries
NEED FOR STATESMANSHIP 61
make wise and necessary a revision of plans in nearly every field. Many believe the hour has struck for a truly universal mis- sionary activity. The policy for such an age as ours must be imperial to be truly Christian. In the terms of the world, the work of Christian missions is empire building, and demands imperial ideas and resources. The larger plans so imperatively demanded should also reach much further into the future. Few Churches and Missions are planning their work with reference to the inevitable demands of even the next ten years. Missionary policy has been influenced far too much by emergencies and sudden crises, and not sufficiently by the far view.
There is need also of statesmanlike leader- ship in order to improve missionary strategy, for here also there is a painful lack. When there is so much to do a paramount question is: Where at the present moment is the strengthening of the missionary force most important and most urgently required? Where the greatest battle is to be fought, there the greatest force should be concen-
62 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
trated. One such field is obviously that part of Africa where we are witnessing the most vigorous Moslem advance. In each mission field there is need of restudying the question of the wisest distribution of the forces in the light of the principles of strategy. The special studies conducted by the Christian leaders in Japan during the last two or three years, indicate the great advantages of such a policy. It is believed that similar investi- gations and resultant changes in policy would be equally rewarding in other fields. The time has come to lay plans upon such a scale and to direct strategy on such lines as are worthy of Christian leaders who expect to conquer a world.
Statesmanship is required to develop a type of evangelistic work adapted to meet the needs of the various non-Christian coun- tries. The cause of Christian education has properly commanded the best thought of an increasing number of missionaries and of mis- sionary administrators, but the evangelistic work stands quite as much in need of having bestowed upon it much original and con-
NEED FOR STATESMANSHIP 63
structive thinking. Recent experiences in China reveal the great possibilities of con- centrating the thought of leaders on methods of preparing for, conducting and following up evangelistic campaigns calculated to reach the most influential classes as well as the masses. The three-years' evangelistic cam- paign recently launched in Japan, and in which virtually all the Christian forces are uniting, is a splendid illustration of truly statesmanlike conception and plan, and should stimulate leaders in other fields to larger undertakings. There is admittedly great need of multiplying the number of well- qualified apologetic lecturers, preachers and writers who will present the claims of Christ and His program in terms which will com- mand the intellectual confidence of educated and thinking men. It will require construc- tive thinking to work out and secure the ac- ceptance of plans which will not only make possible the discovery and training of these much-needed workers, but will also release them from other responsibilities and place them where they can render this great service.
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To frame and carry out a policy for reach- ing the outcastes and the depressed masses demands statesmanlike plan and effort. This problem is a very extensive one, involving many scores of millions of people. It would be difficult to overstate the urgency of putting into operation plans more nearly adequate for reaching these neglected millions. Take, for example, the more than fifty millions of "untouchables" in India. Within a genera- tion they are to be absorbed by Hinduism, Mohammedanism and Christianity. At the National Conference, held in Calcutta under the auspices of the Continuation Committee in December, 1912, it was brought out con- clusively that a really thorough work among these depressed classes exerts a profound and favorable influence on the upper classes. In- creasing experience has shown that wherever there is a so-called mass movement, the Christian forces should be strengthened in order to deal with it promptly.
To establish and develop indigenous Churches and at the same time to relate them to the Christian Church of other lands affords
NEED FOR STATESMANSHIP 65
a field for the highest order of Christian statesmanship. It requires rare ability to understand, to appreciate and to foster in- digenous thought, customs and talents, to develop from the beginning native initiative, leadership and sense of responsibility, to en- list and train native ministers, to help solve the economic problem of new Churches, and to hold these rising Churches in vital union with the Christian Church of other lands.
Men of large gifts and furnishing are needed to meet the Christian educational opportunity now confronting us in every part of the non-Christian world. The remarkable development of vast secular or government educational systems in the Far East and Near East, as well as in other mission fields, calls for a great expansion of educational missions and for an able leadership. Think of the opportunities in China alone where it is now possible for Christian educationalists to influ- ence the standards of government education, as well as those of mission schools. To master even the elements of this problem, however, demands nothing less than statesmanship.
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In the realm of the production and dis- tribution of Christian literature, statesmen are needed. There must be a more thorough study than any hitherto made of the need for literature among non-Christians and among members of Christian communities. Here also should be mentioned that unsolved mis- sionary problem of getting competent writers released from other responsibilities, relating them to the work of literary production, and making conditions favorable for their con- tinuance in this work which underlies the largest efficiency and fruitfulness of every other phase of missionary activity. It is evi- dent also that much more comprehensive plans must be devised for bringing about desirable unification of Christian literature societies in the different fields, just as has been recently accomplished in Japan. This would ensure a more economical and effective arrangement for supplying the literature now demanded on every field.
To help create under Christian guidance the medical profession for nearly two-thirds of the inhabitants of the non-Christian world
NEED FOR STATESMANSHIP 67
can be accomplished only by leading minds. In China, for example, such men have the opportunity to provide a system for educat- ing thousands of Chinese doctors, to afford facilities for the present medical missionary forces to keep abreast of the times on the scientific side of their preparation, to increase the efficiency of the two hundred or more Christian hospitals scattered throughout the entire country, and to introduce many other agencies and institutions for the physical amelioration and betterment of the Chinese. In this connection reference is made, not to the work of the medical missionary as edu- cator, administrator or philanthropist, but to that of the statesman who is qualified to widen greatly the opportunity of all these.
To help solve the crushing social problems of non-Christian lands there must be mis- sionary statesmen. The non-Christian na- tions are honeycombed with social evils, and their peoples are bearing burdens too great to be borne. These evils are much more ex- tensive, and are intensively more obstinate than the similar problems which press upon
68 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
Christian leaders at home. Where, for ex- ample, on the home field is there a social problem comparable to that of caste in India? Where in the West is woman's lot so sad and hopeless as it is throughout the Moham- medan world? On^the mission field, as well as in Christian lands, pure Christianity is the only hope for the solution of social ills. Moreover, non-Christian countries should be saved from the social evils peculiar to the West. The industrial revolution is already spreading to the Orient, and is destined to in- crease in volume and momentum. How im- portant it is that soon there be placed at the disposal of these peoples the Christian rem- edy— the only sufficient relief for evils which are sure to follow. Why should the lands of Asia and Africa reproduce the tenement house congestion with which we are so sadly familiar in Europe and America? Why should child labor be introduced in countries like Japan? When people selfishly or thoughtlessly take the position that the social problems at home are so great and so acute as to demand undivided attention, it
NEED FOR STATESMANSHIP 69
should be pointed out that for every social service expert or leader in fields like China, India and Turkey, there are a hundred or more in North America, Great Britain and certain Continental countries.
In some respects the most serious, as well as the most distinctive, problem of our generation is the racial problem. Increasing racial misunderstandings, prejudices, fric- tion and hatred greatly hinder the spread of Christianity. For example, the gulf which separates the white and the black in South Africa threatens to be the grave of Christian ideals in that part of the world. This problem in its different aspects calls for the highest and most disinterested statesmanship.
One of the most inspiring fields of Chris- tian statesmanship is that of facilitating and guiding the movement in the direction of closer co-ordination, co-operation and unifica- tion of the Christian forces. In many fields this movement is advancing at a remarkable rate. It must have wise guidance in order that its attendant dangers may be averted or overcome. Notwithstanding the splendid
70 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
progress already being made, there is urgent demand for better co-ordination and much closer co-operation between the various Mis- sions and Churches. There should be a better correlation of the work of the sexes and of different departments of mission work, as well as of different Societies and nationalities participating in the enterprise. Too often varied and extensive missionary forces have been poured into a mission field from many sources and without reference to each other. With our many Societies, large and small, there is serious danger of scat- tering energies instead of grappling in serried strength with the mighty task. The time has come to put an end to the wastefulness and comparatively meager results caused by lack of concerted plan and effort. The state- ment made at the Edinburgh Conference that a practical plan of co-operation, entered into intelligently and adhered to loyally on the part of the missionary forces, would be more than the equivalent of doubling the number of foreign missionaries has never been controverted. As there are not less
NEED FOR STATESMANSHIP 71
than twenty-one thousand Protestant mis- sionaries, it is evident that we are dealing with a question of large dimensions, and none but leaders of large mold are capable of dealing with it adequately.
To ensure better training of missionaries who are to lead this greatest enterprise known among men, there must be more thorough and courageous thinking and action. Not one Christian college or theological seminary in ten has a curriculum and other facilities for equipping men to meet the responsibilities of the modern missionary career. Relatively speaking, no other learned profession has such poor provision for its proper training. Intending missionaries are getting ready to enter upon the most difficult and exacting work on earth. It is a task involving nothing less than the reconstruction of the non- Christian world. Moreover, the missionary movement has just entered upon a new stage. The World Missionary Conference in Edin- burgh in 1910 ushered in a better day, for the missionary problem must henceforth be treated more largely than heretofore as a
6
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problem in applied science. The missionary enterprise has taken its place among those great works which require the ablest general- ship.
To work out enlarged plans which will re- sult in an effective occupation of the unoccu- pied fields is a task that calls loudly for great leaders. The fact that there are still so many fields which can be characterized as unoccu- pied is traceable primarily to the want of Christian statesmanship. Nothing but the lack of such world-wide vision and planning would have delayed by so many centuries the accomplishment of this God-given task. Who can question that if such talents had been more fully exercised many of the totally unoccupied fields, and many of those which are partially occupied, would long since have been entered in force. The fact that entrance into certain fields is attended with such very great difficulties suggests that men of unusual power are demanded to meet and overcome them. What Hudson Taylor ac- complished at a time of greater difficulty than the present, and in a field more vast than
NEED FOR STATESMANSHIP 73
any which now remains unoccupied, should strengthen our faith to believe that the em- ployment of like powers would lead to a masterly occupation of the great unoccupied spaces of Africa and of many parts of the Mohammedan world.
First-rate statesmen are needed to bring about a more mutually helpful relation be- tween the Mission Boards at home and the administrative leaders of the Missions and Churches on the field. The great problem of the administration of missions is to com- bine in due proportions centralization in the settlement of principles and in the determin- ation of general policies on the one hand, and on the other hand the application of principles and the adaptation and working out of poli- cies. The growing independence and lead- ership of native Churches, as well as the de- velopment of co-operation between Churches and between different Missions, are introdu- cing new difficulties, thus calling for new definitions of relationships.
The service of the Mission Boards opens up a career of large scope. At a time like
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this there is imperative need of having re- lated to the missionary councils more men such as Rufus Anderson, one of the early secretaries of the American Board, and Henry Venn, a man who for over thirty years as Honorary Secretary of the Church Mis- sionary Society, exhibited to a rare degree the qualities of a great minister of state.
On every home field, quite as much as on the mission field, there is need of more men of outstanding ability and leadership to re- lease the latent energies of the home Church and to relate these to the plans of the expand- ing Kingdom. Here lies one of the largest tasks of constructive statesmanship. On its accomplishment depends the full realization of nearly every one of the other great under- takings to which attention has been called. We need only think of the boundless capaci- ties of North American and European Chris- tians for faith, for heroic achievement, for vicariousness, and for intercession, to realize the great scope there is for a most profitable exercise of the gifts of finest leadership. How true it is that the Churches everywhere are
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ready to follow the guidance of those who show themselves worthy of trust!
What should characterize the missionary statesman so much needed to meet the pres- ent world situation confronting the Christian Church? A missionary statesman is one who exhibits conspicuous wisdom and ability in the direction or management of missionary affairs. It will be well to examine the differ- ent traits that such a man should possess. Possibly no one man combines in himself all of these qualifications, but taken together they constitute an ideal which should be kept in mind.
The true missionary statesman is a man of vision, in the sense of seeing things in the large. He ever takes the larger and broader view rather than the fractional, the parochial or the provincial. It was said of Lord Cur- zon that he had acquired for himself the power of looking at Asia as a whole. This ability made him as Viceroy one of the great- est foreign ministers India ever had. The Vatican is one of the few places where they think of the world as a whole. St. Paul was a
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statesman in the sense here emphasized, for as Sir William Ramsay, in his " Pauline and Other Studies," has pointed out, he thought in terms of provinces, and his aim embraced the conquering of the Roman world, which would ultimately mean the whole world.
The missionary statesman has vision also, in the sense of looking far into the future. He is concerned not merely with the passing requirements of the hour, but with the abid- ing needs of the people and of the country. He builds not for to-day and not merely for to-morrow, but for all time. Bacon uses the word " longanimity" to characterize the quality of mind required in those who look ahead to the far-reaching consequences of present plans. There is needed on every mis- sion field among the leaders this power to anticipate, to foresee the developments of present tendencies and the outcome of forces silently at work. It was said of Washington that "he was accustomed to contemplate at a distance those critical situations in which the United States might probably be placed; and to digest, before the occasion required
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action, the line of conduct which it would be proper to observe." It reminds one of that great Scottish missionary statesman, Alex- ander Duff of India. In speaking of his mis- sionary policy, which involved long prepara- tory processes, he said: "Spurning the notion of a present day's success, and a present year's wonder, we directed our views not merely to the present but to future generations." His policy was to deal not only with separating atoms but with laying a mine which would one day explode and tear up the whole struc- ture from its lowest depths.
The missionary statesman must evince ability to grasp, define and apply correct governing principles. It is not easy to dis- cover and utilize guiding principles, especially in untried fields and in dealing with unsolved problems. Dr. Nevius of Shantung Province, China, through a long and fruitful career, demonstrated capacity to seize upon and utilize great principles. Mackay of Uganda in applying the principle of the cantilever bridge in missions (that is, the extent to which the missionary enterprise is expanded
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on the mission field is determined by the degree to which missionary interest and con- secration are developed among Christians at the home base) illustrates the point in ques- tion. Christian leaders to-day may wisely test their plans and actions by the principles enunciated by Jesus Christ.
The statesman in every sphere is one also who recognizes and observes relationships. He sees that each part of the plan is related to the other parts and must be made sub- servient to the chief object he has in view. Moreover, he evolves the particular plan in question in relation to other important plans and interests. The statesman utilizes all that will help to advance his policies. He makes the most of political, social and religious trends, movements and institutions. He always takes advantage of a rising tide. Dr. Verbeck accomplished a far larger and more enduring work for Christ in Japan by identi- fying himself sympathetically with the grow- ing national aspirations of the people than he would have accomplished had he been in- different to them. President Harada of the
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Doshisha, and Mr. J. N. Farquhar, a leader of the Christian Student Movement in In- dia, have exhibited this statesmanlike trait of seeking to build on whatever is good and true in the ancient religions and ethics of the people. Mr. K. T. Paul, as General Secretary of the National Missionary Society of India, showed great wisdom in pointing out the ad- vantages for the spread of Christianity which would result from utilizing the membership of the panchayats, that is, the small councils or administrative groups of Indian villages. The more thoroughly the missionary catches the point of view and sympathizes with the feeling of those among whom he labors, the more extensive and profound will be his in- fluence upon them. The Christian states- man shows ability to co-ordinate and unite elements or forces in order to produce the largest results. What splendid illustrations are being afforded to-day on nearly every mission field in connection with the promising union movements and enterprises. The wide and insistent demand for a larger exercise of this gift is set forth in a later chapter.
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The capacity to select and guide men, es- pecially strong men, has ever been one of the marks of great statesmen. This is set forth admirably in Rothschild's " Lincoln, Master of Men," a book which should be read and studied by all who desire to render larger service to their generation. Most foreign missionaries have unlimited scope for the exercise of this talent. From the nature of the case the foreign missionary, unlike most home missionaries, must be a trainer and leader of men. He must acquire the ability to estimate wisely varied capacities and adaptabilities for the tasks to be accom- plished. In some respects the most distinct- ive function of missionary life is this which might be called the supervisory or episcopal function.
The statesmen, both in the Church and out- side the Church, who have left the deepest mark on their generation have been men of large power of sympathy and of imagination. These terms are used almost synonymously, and imply the capacity to put oneself at the point of view of those whom one would
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help or serve. All peoples, races and classes are responsive to intelligent sympathy. A few years ago Lord Morley made a most dis- criminating remark in complaining that the English "are making administration less per- sonal, though evidence also tends to show that the Indian people are peculiarly respon- sive to sympathy and personal influence. " The thought involved in this criticism should ever be borne in mind by the missionary ad- ministrator, for it is indeed true that no states- man can be truly great without this gift of imagination. A successful Viceroy of India recently voiced a great truth for all states- men, missionary or political, to heed: "De- pend upon it, you will never rule the East except through the heart, and the moment imagination has gone out of your Asiatic policy your Empire will dwindle and decay." Wherever one travels over the non-Christian world he is impressed by the fact that those missionaries who have shown deepest sym- pathy with the people are exerting the most far-reaching influence.
The missionary statesman has an under-
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standing of the times and situations in which he finds himself and of the inherent require- ments involved. This knowledge of what is needed, this ability to judge of the time of ripeness for action, this skill in the " under- standing of the times," is an indispensable trait for the Christian leader. The elder Pitt saw in North America a chance to wrest a continent from a powerful enemy, and ably directed his policy to this end. We need William Pitts to-day in Europe and America to rouse the entire Church to see our world opportunity. The late Professor Gustav Warneck of Germany showed this character- istic in anticipating not long before his death what many now see regarding the critical op- portunity then presented in Japan; that is, he discerned before it came the new day of God's visitation. The Bishop of Madras, in his constant insistence on the urgency of reaching the " untouchables" of India, illus- trates the same trait.
The missionary statesman shows great wis- dom in planning. This is revealed in his choice of places of contact, in his modes or
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measures of approach, in the means employed to achieve the victory and in the time he chooses for the essential struggle. There is need in every country of men who will evolve a definite, comprehensive and progressive policy for taking the land for Christ. The leaders needed are men who are able to real- ize their visions. The great statesman is a master builder. He is a man of courage, of faith, and of resolution in action. Of what value would Hudson Taylor's vision of in- land China have been had he not devoted himself from the time he received it until his death to doing all in his power to realize his vision? As a result his Mission is now repre- sented by a thousand missionaries in the more neglected parts of China.
The statesman counsels with others and seeks to profit from their knowledge and ex- perience. In a sense he himself is an expert in the work of securing, testing and using the information provided by others. It is his business to use the specialist knowledge of others rather than to furnish it himself. Marshall said of Washington, " Taught to
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distrust first impressions, he sought to ac- quire all the information which was attain- able, and to hear, without prejudice, all the reasons which could be urged for or against a particular measure. His own judgment was suspended until it became necessary to de- termine, and his decisions, thus maturely- made, were seldom if ever to be shaken." The missionary statesman must be a man of judg- ment. Balance or poise of mind — sound common sense — constitutes after all possibly the chief ingredient of statesmanship. This practical good sense, while in some respects the most rare, is certainly one of the most valuable qualities of the mind. Above all, the missionary statesman forgets himself. He ever seeks large and beneficent results for others and not personal prominence and recognition. On the mission field this is evi- dent in his attitude toward the native Church and native leaders.
How may the number of missionary states- men be multiplied? How may missionary statesmanship be developed? One secret lies in missionaries and administrators of
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Missionary Societies devoting themselves to vast and overwhelmingly difficult under- takings. No man can take in God's great design for the human race and not be enlarged by the contemplation of such a purpose. Time after time one has observed men who, when they first went out to the mission field or entered upon the service of some Mission Board at home, were compara- tively small men, but who, as a result of be- coming absorbed with large plans, have been developed into men of wide vision and strong grasp. This probably explains the fact that a larger proportion of mediocre men on the mission field develop into greatness than on the home field.
Large responsibilities, great issues and great situations call out the latent powers in men and make possible the development of any gift of statesmanship within them. We often hear complaints of the lack of leader- ship manifested among native Christian workers. Possibly one reason is that the missionaries do not place full and sufficiently heavy responsibility upon them. There is
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danger, moreover, that the policy of some Mission Boards is such as to discourage the development among their own missionaries of the largest power of initiative and leader- ship. Let men become lost in the great cause of making Christ's reign co-extensive with the inhabited earth. An atmosphere of un- selfishness is essential for the development of the prophetic spirit which must characterize the true Christian statesman. The only way a man can successfully forget himself is by becoming so occupied with thoughts and plans for the betterment of others that he literally loses himself.
Intimate association of leading minds stimulates the development of statesmanlike views and action. Conferences of missionary administrators, and of missionaries or leaders of the Church, for the thorough consideration of problems and plans are to be welcomed. The influence in this direction of the Annual Conferences of representatives of Mission Boards held in North America, in the British Isles and in Germany, is increasingly observ- able. The work of the eight Commissions
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during the years preceding the Edinburgh Conference, and likewise the varied activi- ties of the Special Committees of the Con- tinuation Committee, are all tending to de- velop a larger and truer statesmanship among the leaders of the Christian forces. Visits by those who are recognized Christian states- men have a contagious influence. It would be difficult to overstate the good accom- plished in this way by the visits of Alexander Duff to Scotland and to America during his furloughs.
The thorough study of the constructive achievements of the leaders of Christianity in other fields and in other centuries will help to develop statesmanlike traits. Wise travel in foreign lands is invaluable in developing the habit of trained observation and in help- ing to acquire the keenness of outlook and balance of mind which are such important elements in statesmanship. Reference has been made to the large understanding of East- ern affairs possessed by Lord Curzon. Early in life he set himself the task of visiting and studying every important Asiatic country.
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"The East is a university," he said, "in which the scholar never takes a degree." Some of the most suggestive and helpful discussions of missionary problems, such, for example, as the book by Dr. Edward A. Lawrence, "Modern Missions in the East," were the result of comparative and comprehensive study made possible by wide travel. The close study of church history is indispensable to the understanding and solution of some of the most pressing problems of Christian mis- sions. Possibly no subject should be more studied just now by missionaries and admin- istrators, because, as Dr. J. C. Gibson pointed out in a recent conference, the Church has been through it all before. The value of the International Review of Missions and of the corresponding quarterly of the Roman Catholic Church, published in the German language, in promoting thorough consideration of missionary questions is most evident. India, China and Japan should have high grade, scientific, missionary period- icals edited by men who themselves are Chris- tian statesmen.
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In every great mission field some men should be put in a position to study the needs and the problems of the country as a whole. Moreover, there should be at least a few men in Christendom who are set apart to study and plan in the interest of the program of Christianity for the entire world. In every field among Christian workers may be found devotion, zeal, self-sacrifice and great activity, but there is dire need of men who have the power to see the situation as a whole, and who are responsible for dealing with it as a whole. Each missionary and each mis- sionary administrator is necessarily so full of his own plans and work that very few of them take the wider view. The large majority of workers are comparatively igno- rant of what is going on outside their own particular communion or field. Generally speaking, therefore, there cannot be expected from them the comprehensive outlook which is so much needed, although it should be re- iterated that within the sphere of the work or field for which they are primarily respon- sible there is large outlet for statesmanlike
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gifts. To understand and to appreciate fully the great world movements and tendencies now at work requires knowledge of more than one Christian communion, nation, or race. Better use should be made of the furloughs and of the foreign journeys of missionaries and native leaders. Dr. Gibson of China wisely calls attention to the advantages of a worker stepping outside his own work to look at it from the outside, and to study it in its larger relations.
One of the most important ways of develop- ing statesmanship in Christian missions is that of affording missionary workers ample time and other conditions favorable for think- ing upon their work and problems. Emerson calls a statesman "a scholar thinking." It takes time for prolonged reflection to develop statesmanlike vision and plan. In every land and in every Church there are men competent to do this — men with the capacity, and in a measure with the training, for true statesman- ship. * Moreover, Christian missions abound with problems and situations calling for its exercise. The trouble is that many of the
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men possessing the ability or latent capacity to become statesmen are so absorbed with executive work, and have their time so frittered away by countless details, minor en- gagements and interruptions that they are unable to secure the prolonged periods of time and the conditions favorable for quiet reflection and constructive thinking. From the nature of the case the reason why so many problems are still unsolved, and why so many situations are still unmastered is be- cause men are not thinking long enough and deeply enough.
Unceasing toil is one of the processes re- quired for the development of statesmanship. This is as true in the work of the Church as in the affairs of State. Morley speaks of the " infinite labor" of Gladstone as one of the causes of his unique leadership. Gladstone himself claimed that one thing which char- acterized his whole career was "the desire to learn." The more closely we study the habits of the leading minds in missionary affairs, the more we are impressed by the fact that their leadership, their larger understanding
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and their most distinguished services have been made possible in no small part by their prodigious toil.
A deepening acquaintance and fellowship with God and a habit of pondering His de- signs, His ways, His wishes and His resources are essential and absolutely central. The Psalmist has said that God "made known His ways to Moses, His doings unto the children of Israel." To-day among the thousands of missionary workers and leaders there are many who apparently have recognized the wonderful acts of Almighty God, but how few give one the impression that they have entered into intimate acquaintance with His ways. The statesmanship of the apostolic age had its springs in a life of communion with the living God. The founders of Christianity did not sit at the feet of men of great gifts and experience, yet they saw further and built more largely and securely than the out- standing political or religious leaders of sub- sequent centuries. Whence did they acquire their statecraft? They developed the deeper penetration, the larger understanding, the
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true self-detachment, as the Master did, through communion with God Himself. To a degree of which we have not dreamed the statesmanship of the Kingdom so imperative- ly demanded in these days depends upon fre- quent and patient waiting upon God and upon the discerning and following of His providential leadings. If there be compara- tively little in missionary planning and policy which reminds us of superhuman wisdom and power, may not the reason lie right here? In a true sense the power of Christian states- manship is God-given. Is not the missionary statesman a prophet whom God has called, and to whom He has given a vision and the power to persuade men to follow it? The one adequate missionary mind is the Spirit of God. Except as He guides, inspires and emboldens workers and movements, how futile is all our devising, but when He mani- fests His presence, wisdom and power, how the results transcend all human experiences, calculations and expectations!
THE UNCHRISTIAN ASPECTS OF THE
IMPACT OF OUR WESTERN
CIVILIZATION
IV
THE UNCHRISTIAN ASPECTS OF THE
IMPACT OF OUR WESTERN
CIVILIZATION
During the recent years there has been a vast multiplication of contacts of so-called Christian nations with non-Christian peoples. The marked improvement and the wide extension of all means of communication have had most to do with making this possible. It has been said that steam has an- nihilated nine-tenths of the space of the world and that electricity has cancelled the re- mainder. There has been an enormous growth of trade and commerce. This is im- pressively shown by a map prepared by the editor of the periodical Cotton and Finance showing the regions which have been made commercially accessible since 1890 through exploration, through treaties and through railroad and telegraph extension. An ag- gressive policy of political expansion on the
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part of European nations has served to multiply greatly the points of contact. Over three-fourths of the area of the habitable globe is under the control of civilized powers, and though vast multitudes remain non- Christian, there is scarcely a spot in which the influence of the Western nations is not felt, and in which the backward and uncivil- ized races are not being influenced by the ideas and practices of the more advanced nations.
The streams of emigration of laboring classes from the Orient and from the Near East by their direct and refluent action tend to bring the more and the less advanced civilizations into closer touch with one an- other. The growing migrations of students from land to land are of large significance owing to the fact that they represent the future leaders of the nations concerned. The prodigious activities of the secular press in all parts of the world have accomplished won- ders in bringing before readers in any one nation what is going on in other nations. The development of international law and
IMPACT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION 99
the varied offices of diplomacy are further serving to destroy the isolation of nations. The multiplication of international societies affords a striking illustration of the contrac- tion and unification of the world and also reveals one of the principal causes facilitat- ing this process. There has been held within two years in Brussels a gathering of repre- sentatives of international societies. It per- fected an organization called "The Union of International Associations." This society publishes a monthly entitled La Vie Inter- nationale. The annual report of this society gives a list of over four hundred existing in- ternational organizations, commercial, indus- trial, scientific, political, educational and social.
The countless ships of commerce, the rail- way trains moving in every direction, and these many other agencies and influences, are serving as great shuttles which are weaving the nations together into one complex web. Every day civilization is becoming more and more international. National thought, na- tional custom and national action are giving
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way in every sphere to internationalism. Races which have had nothing in common are discovering increasingly their interde- pendence, and are seeking earnestly to under- stand each other and to find ground for co-operation. For thousands of years the East and West have lived apart; but it be- comes more and more evident that their destinies are blending and that for all the future they must live together. Not except- ing the mingling of the peoples in the days of Alexander the Great, or at the time of the invasion of the Roman Empire by the north- ern nations, or at the coming together of the different civilizations in the Crusades, has there ever been a movement comparable in extent and significance with this modern spread of the civilization of the West, and the present-day intermingling of the races of mankind.
From the point of view of Christian mis- sions this marked contraction of the world and the great multiplication of points of con- tact between Western civilization and the non-Christian nations is of the largest sig-
IMPACT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION 101
nificance. It not only has immeasurably widened the opportunity of Christian mis- sions and afforded facilities which make pos- sible more prompt and efficient conduct of missionary operations, but has also enor- mously increased and intensified the diffi- culties of the task. In every part of the non-Christian world men of bad character and influence have gone to blast and destroy where missionaries have gone to save and upbuild. While on the one hand trade and colonial politics are opening the world's doors, they are, on the other hand, closing the peo- ple's hearts to the teachings of Christianity. The improved means of communication which facilitate the sending of missionaries to take to non-Christians the best that we have, also make it easier for the people of non-Christian lands to come among us and thus see much that belies and counteracts the message of the missionary. Thousands of Mohammedan traders are using the white man's roads as their trade routes, and every Moslem trader is a Mohammedan mission- ary. While the Trans-Siberian Railway, the
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Cape to Cairo Railway, the various lines reaching from the east, west and north coasts toward the heart of Africa, the German rail- ways penetrating the Asiatic Levant and the network of railways spreading over China, Southern Asia and Latin America have made hundreds of millions of the inhabitants of Asia, Africa and Latin America much more accessible to the Christian propaganda, they have at the same time exposed these multi- tudes to the devastating touch of that which is evil in Western civilization.
What are the unchristian aspects of the present-day impact of Western civilization upon the non-Christian world? One, cer- tainly, is that of the unchristian attitude and actions of Christian powers or governments. In some cases this has been exhibited in the seizure or stealing of territory. Thus ninety- six per cent, of the African continent has been parceled out among European nations. Persia has virtually been divided between two Christian powers. Other large sections in the heart of Asia have been claimed as zones of influence by European nations.
IMPACT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION 103
Considerable areas of China have been taken from her by so-called civilized powers. The history of the concessions demanded and wrung from China in her sea coast and river ports is one of which the West may well be ashamed. Through such seizure of great areas and ports in different parts of the world the men of Western lands have given notice that the yellow and black races must be obedient to their will. Such aggressions build up a high wall against the moral and religious teachings emanating from represen- tatives of these aggressive nations. Is it strange that many of the better informed of the peoples of these weaker countries say, " Christianity is the religion of the lands which have thus insulted, injured and robbed us. We want none of it."
The unchristian attitude of some Christian governments is seen in the ignoring of treaties with weaker states. Of this we have had illustration in the African and Asiatic Levant within very recent years. There is danger also that Japan may entertain similar feel- ings concerning America. One of her leading
8
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men has said in another connection that the example of Western Christian powers shows that they do not recognize any universal ethical principles in their dealings with other nations. Who can measure the harm done to Christianity and to the name of Western civilization by the self-seeking and dominat- ing political intercourse of so-called Christian powers with more backward nations! At times laws are passed or tolerated which must impress the non-Christian peoples as unjust and certainly out of harmony with the prin- ciples of the Christian religion as expounded by the missionaries. It was recently reported that there might be grave danger that such an impression would be made upon millions of the blacks of South Africa should certain proposed laws regarding the buying or selling of land by natives be carried into effect. The sending out and maintaining as officials those whose lives are a reproach and a con- tradiction to the Christian name does much to counteract the good accomplished by devoted missionaries. Notwithstanding the marked improvement in the personnel of
IMPACT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION 105
consulates and embassies of certain West- ern Christian nations, there are still far too many debasing examples among these men who represent Europe and America in Asia and Africa. The carrying of the policy of religious neutrality to extremes among peoples ruled by Western Christian nations militates strongly at times against the proper understanding and rapid spread of Christianity. Such a policy in fields like India and in the Sudan means in reality the undue favoring of Hinduism and Moham- medanism. Christianity does not require nor ask for preferential treatment but simply for equal opportunity and equal favor.
Wrong practices in commercial and in- dustrial relations present another unchristian aspect of the impact of the civilization of the West. Too often this has been shown by a policy of cruel exploitation. The Congo horrors are too recent to call for restatement. When one remembers the promises of the Christian powers which, when that state was established, solemnly engaged to watch over the preservation of the native races and to co-
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operate in the suppression of slavery, one realizes what an obstacle to the spread of Christianity has been the long record of sinful neglect. While the situation has been changed for the better in very recent years, it is still essential that all Christian govern- ments preserve an attitude of earnest vigil- ance to see that the policy of reform is faith- fully carried out. The Putumayo atrocities in Peru have afforded a still more recent example of what may go on as a result of the cupidity and cruelty of exploiters from Christian lands.
More commonly these evil practices are exhibited in the form of dishonest and un- scrupulous commercial transactions. While some Western firms have enviable names for fair dealing with backward peoples, there are other companies and organizations, including some of the great syndicates of the world, which have a most unfavorable reputation and record in this respect. Far too often the white man has cajoled, bullied, threatened and bribed the Asiatic and the African, has reaped enormous profits, and when he has
IMPACT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION 107
fallen into entanglements has called upon his Government to help him out. It has been indeed a disgraceful record. What wonder that such treatment arouses bitter resent- ment not only against individuals who are immediately responsible but also against the race and the religion of the land represented by such men.
Most frequently these very unsatisfactory commercial relations are operative through the influence of the corrupt lives of traders and merchants. This constitutes one of the greatest stumbling blocks in the way of Christianity. Scattered throughout Turkey, the Pacific Islands, all parts of Asia and other non-Christian lands are thousands of Western traders, large numbers of whom are exerting a demoralizing influence. Lord Bryce, one of the best informed and one of the most dis- cerning students of racial conditions, has thus characterized this handicap to the spread of Christianity: " Christianity has often come to them as a religion professed by adventurers, who, bearing the Christian name, have despoiled or tricked them out of their lands,
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who have exploited their mines, who have grown rich upon their labor, who have ruined them by strong drink, who have treated them with roughness and with scorn, and sometimes even with barbarity. . . . Such men are the foul scum upon the advancing wave of civilization, and they undo and un- teach by their lives what Christianity is teaching by its precepts."
The vicious practices of not a few soldiers and sailors are also akin to what has been said regarding so many of the traders. While words of highest praise should be spoken of those members of Western armies and navies who in the midst of indescribable temptations have preserved their Christian standards, the truth requires that we frankly admit the sad and tragic fact that many other repre- sentatives of these Western governments have exerted a decidedly opposite influence. One need only call attention to the zones of contamination around the cantonments in India and the too prevalent immoral practices of soldiers and sailors on shore leave when the naval vessels or army trans-
IMPACT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION 109
ports are in the ports of non-Christian countries.
The letting down of standards by many Western tourists likewise tends to undermine much of the good influence of the Christian propaganda. Here reference is made not so much to examples of extravagance and gen- eral worldliness, but rather to the question- able associations and habits of dissipation of many travelers in non-Christian lands. Moreover, the attitude of superiority which at times they manifest toward members of other races and their thoughtless and irrev- erent actions while visiting places which have sacred or inspiring associations in connection with religious or other institutions, exert a most unfortunate influence against Chris- tianity. Even when American and Euro- pean tourists do not depart from their ethical and religious standards or give them- selves to actions which belie the principles of Christianity, their failure to interest themselves in the work of the mission- aries and to identify themselves in an open way with the Christian movement
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cannot but weaken the impact of Chris- tianity.
The spread of the physical temptations and evils of the West constitutes one of the most serious aspects of the unfavorable im- pact of Western lands upon non-Christian peoples. The multiplication of points of contact with the West has introduced among these peoples new temptations as well as added intensity and virulence to old temp- tations. What a record against the fair name of a great Christian power has been its complicity in helping to fasten the opium curse upon China. In the whole history of moral reform there can be found no more inspiring example than that of the heroic and apparently remarkably successful effort of the Chinese reformers to shake off this terri- ble evil. It is a depressing fact that by far the greatest opposition which these reform- ers encountered, extending to the very recent past, was that presented by representatives of a Christian government who, with almost incredible persistency and force, stedfastly resisted the efforts to eliminate this great
IMPACT OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION 111
evil. The comprehensive, persistent and vigorous measures employed by Western firms to introduce cigarettes among the tens of millions of the youth of China is another modern illustration of the same kind. Hun- dreds of able agents have been stationed in all parts of China for this purpose; and it is said that when they enter a new place there is for days a free distribution of cigarettes, even among small boys.
The drink evil also was introduced among non-Christian peoples by emissaries from Western nations. Prior to the opening up of relations with the West this evil was com- paratively unknown in lands of the Far East, such as Japan, China and Korea. Moreover, the responsibility must ever rest upon Chris- tian nations for the introduction of liquor into all Moslem lands. It is a striking fact that Mohammedanism and Hinduism both forbid the drinking of intoxicating liquors. Christian nations have fixed upon the fol- lowers of these religions a great physical evil, have caused them to do violence to their con- science and their religion, and have blunted
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their sense of right and wrong. What must be the feelings of Christians from the West who hear, as one often does hear in Moham- medan lands, the remark " drunk as a Chris- tian." Among the pagan millions of Africa and in the Pacific Islands may be seen the worst ravages of the drink demon. It is re- ported that in Sierra Leone, Nigeria and the Gold Coast in 1911 there were imported 6,500,000 gallons of spirituous liquor of Euro- pean manufacture; and that in the Gold Coast alone a million cases of spirits are re- tailed every year. Drunkenness is on the increase in all parts of Africa. With truth, therefore, it may be said that so-called Chris- tian nations have been responsible not only for drugging China with opium but for de- bauching Africa with alcohol.
It must be admitted also that much of the gross immorality all over Asia and Africa is traceable to Western influence. Men of the West have helped to make Eastern ports what Charles Darwin in his day called " moral plague spots." Disorderly houses have in- creased in the Near East as well as in the Far
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East. The growing immorality in South Africa is traceable to the depravity of natives stimulated by contact with the evils of civili- zation. That this is true is made clear by the testimony of investigators who contrast con- ditions to-day with what they were one or two generations ago. The large number of illegiti- mate children in German Africa made neces- sary recent startling action in the Reichstag of Germany. The widespread custom among European and American traders of keeping concubines presents necessarily a terrible obstacle to the spread of Christianity. What an occasion for humiliating reflection is the fact that some of the chiefs on the Lower Congo forbid the women and girls of their towns to go to the railroad towns even to trade because they recognize that these centers are the source of unnameable evils. The pitiful conditions that obtain at the settlements in mining communities, oil fields and construction camps where European and American men are concentrated in various parts of Asia and Africa, would seem almost unbelievable to those who had not had occa-
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sion to observe the facts at first hand. It is a solemn reflection that the vices of Western life seem to work with added deadliness among the peoples of more simple civiliza- tions and of the less highly organized races, such as those of Africa, Oceania and parts of Asia.
There are certain unfavorable influences in the realm of education which are unfor- tunately traceable to so-called Christian lands. In nearly every city of the Orient and in other parts of the non-Christian world may be found works of infidel authors such as Ingersoll, Voltaire and Bradlaugh. Moreover, materialistic, agnostic and rationalistic litera- ture setting forth many of the unchristian teachings and ideas of such men as Huxley, Spencer, Nietzsche, Haeckel and Schopen- hauer has been translated and is being widely read in the vernaculars in all parts of the Far East and Near East. For example, some of the best scholars in China are en- gaged in bringing out such translations. The latest writings of destructive criticism, of theosophy and kindred cults, and of the
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philosophy of despair quickly find their way to Japan, as well as to other countries which are in touch with the West, and are repro- duced and widely circulated. Japan is cer- tainly an extraordinary welter of conflicting ideas and tendencies. Count Okuma is quoted by Commission IV of the Edinburgh Conference as saying: "Japan at present may be likened to a sea into which a hundred cur- rents of Oriental and Occidental thought have poured, and, not yet having effected a fusion, are raging wildly, tossing, warring, roaring." Attention should also be called to the de- velopment in the Far East and in Southern Asia, as well as in Latin America, and now beginning also in the Near East, of vast ex- panding systems of Western education com- pletely dominated by secularism, and, as a rule, by agnosticism. These constitute a great menace to the spread of true Christi- anity.
Another evidence of the unfavorable im- pact of Western civilization is seen in the re- laxing and breaking down of the old-time sanctions of the non-Christian civilizations.
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Non-Christian nations and peoples have one by one come to see that they must assimilate our Western knowledge and science if they are to maintain or regain their independence. Experience shows that this is likely to mean the destruction or radical transformation of most of their ancient faiths. Such an unset- tling process is attended with grave dangers. Possibly the greatest peril is that the people may be left without any restraint; that is, without any substitute for that which they have given up. This, for example, is the case with a multitude of the students of Japan. The blaze of modern science has dissolved faith in Buddhism and its ethical restraints have been thrown off. Well does it prompt the serious question of Count Okuma, " Whether we have not lost moral fiber as the result of the many new influences to which we have been subjected." The same situa- tion seems to obtain among an increasing number of the students in India, China and the Near East. Lord William Cecil takes the position that " it had been well for the world to be left with the imperfect light of
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Confucius, with the dull darkness of Bud- dhism, than to have been plunged into the hell and misery of materialism." All fair- minded observers of the conditions in non- Christian countries must admit that while certain of the old customs were immoral and bad, others had a good influence upon con- duct; that these ancient systems served to hold society together; that such commend- able virtues as they possessed rested upon old customs; but that our material civiliza- tion has broken down the old habits and methods of living, and, without doubt, has rooted out some of the wheat along with the tares. The social life of the child races of Africa, exposed to the inrush of a civilization which they cannot understand or resist, has been disintegrated, and these people have thus often been left without any restraint.
In different parts of the non-Christian world women are being placed in a most dangerous position under the influence of the woman's movement of the West. The desire for freedom has been widely imparted before the women of these nations have received the
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protection of laws and conventions which alone make possible the safeguarding of that freedom. They are emerging from many centuries of seclusion, but have not yet been prepared for the larger liberty. It is indeed most perilous to give Western material civil- ization to the peoples of Asia and Africa without at the same time strengthening their moral and spiritual forces. Western civiliza- tion disintegrates and dissolves, and, there- fore, must be dangerous unless accompanied by a constructive work which will restore and reestablish the moral and religious bases of national life. It is of transcendent impor- tance that the Christians of Europe and America shall come to see vividly that West- ern civilization has thus created in Africa and Asia social, moral and religious problems of overwhelming magnitude and gravity.
The unfavorable impression made upon the people of non-Christian lands while visiting or residing in Christian countries constitutes another serious aspect of our unchristian impact on the non-Christian world. Think of the influence exerted on the members of
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pagan African tribes who go to work in the mining compounds of South Africa. In Johannesburg, for example, natives cannot walk on the sidewalks with white men but must keep to the middle of the street with the horses and oxen. As the more indepen- dent and ambitious members of these tribes return to their people in the sub-continent or beyond the Zambesi, what damaging reports they must bear regarding the treatment they have received. We do well also to give larger heed to the feelings engendered among British Indians in South Africa and in British Columbia, among Chinese and Japanese on the Pacific Coast of America and among Las- cars visiting European ports. A Hindu in commenting on the treatment which some of his people had received in one of these Christian lands asked, " Wherein is it better than the treatment given the pariah by the Brahman?" The unsympathetic and un- kind actions and the indignities to which certain Chinese students entering ports of the United States and Canada have been subjected, or British Indian and Egyptian
9
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students in England and Scotland, or Jap- anese at times in Germany, are not forgotten. These picked young men return to live among their people, and in positions of leadership as statesmen, or as editors, teachers, or in unofficial walks of life, they constitute a great barrier to the spread of Christianity. It is not only the unchristian treatment given to foreign immigrants and travelers while in Christian lands, but also what they there see of the unchristian aspects of our civilization which likewise militates against the triumph of Christianity in the non-Christian world. As they see for themselves the shocking prac- tical denials of Christ in our commercial, in- dustrial, social and political practice they cannot but say, "If Christianity cannot drive out these devils in the lands where it has long been prevalent, why should we believe in it?" Enough has already been stated to make it evident that by far the greatest obstacle to the world-wide spread of the Christian religion is the unchristian impact of our Western civilization. That impact must be Christianized. There are not two sides to
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the question. This must be done because civilization alone will not civilize. Dr. James Stewart, who had had exceptional oppor- tunities to study the effect of the most civil- ized nations in their contact with Africa, quoted approvingly the declaration of James Chalmers of New Guinea: "I have never seen a savage whom civilization without Chris- tianity had succeeded in civilizing." Well did Dr. Stewart insist that what is needed throughout the Dark Continent is a Chris- tian civilization, "not a non-Christian one with the seven devils of the vices of modern civilization entering the house, and making the latter end worse than the beginning." What he states about Africa could be said with like force about Asia and other parts of the non-Christian world.
The impact of our Western civilization must be Christianized because that civiliza- tion as now extending misrepresents us. It is untrue to our best. We should be true to our best selves as Western nations, that is, to our Christian life and principles. We should not longer stand in a false light.
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America (and the same could be said of cer- tain other Western nations) is Christian in its foundation, Christian in its traditions, Chris- tian in its strongest elements, Christian in its predominant sentiment and aspiration. The late Justice Brewer of the United States Supreme Court declared that the United States is not a non-religious nation but a Christian nation. It is the duty, therefore, of American Christians to see that a Chris- tian impression is made upon other lands by their country.
We must Christianize our impact as West- ern nations in order to make amends for the evil which we have done. We have allowed the non-Christian peoples to see much of our worst; we are under obligation now to allow them to see more of our best. As deadly poison has been taken from our shores to these lands, so also should we bear to them the only sufficient antidote. The searching question of Lord Bryce should determine more largely our practice: " Are not we whose conquering march has destroyed the customs and beliefs of these backward races, are not
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we responsible for their future? Are not we bound to turn to account for their good these changes which we have wrought ?"
The ultimate triumph of pure Christianity in non-Christian lands depends absolutely upon Christianizing this impact. Only a Christianity powerful enough to dominate all our social, national and international life and relationships will finally commend itself to the peoples to whom we go. It should solemnize us also to remember that the triumph of Christianity on the home field equally depends upon Christianizing this impact. If we neglect any race or people which may have been tainted by evils origi- nating among us, our sin of omission will find us out. If the evils which have spread from among us to the backward lands and races are not counteracted, then inevitably there will be in return a reactive effect of the most serious character.
HOW THE IMPACT OF OUR WEST- ERN CIVILIZATION MAY BE CHRISTIANIZED
HOW THE IMPACT OF OUR WEST- ERN CIVILIZATION MAY BE CHRISTIANIZED
In view of the facts and considerations set forth in the last chapter, there is needed a large constructive policy which will result in Christianizing increasingly this impact of Western civilization upon the non-Christian world. This policy must deal with the prob- lem at home as well as abroad. On the foreign field it can best be dealt with by greatly expanding the missionary move- ment. Experience shows that this is by far the greatest single influence to counter- act the bad influences of our civilization. It also teaches that it is the course of wis- dom to preempt regions to which the evil influences may not yet have spread. Every department of missionary work is valuable
and should be enlarged, but for the pur-
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pose here in mind certain phases of the work may be more effective than others. On every field educational missions are indispensable to counteract unfavorable intellectual in- fluences exerted from Western lands. In fields like Africa, China and Turkey medical missions constitute a powerful evidence of the transforming influence of Christianity. They show its ability to re-create and build up the physical life of the people just as certain evils of the West have shown their deadly power to injure this life. Christian apologetic lectures and literature are im- peratively demanded in the educational centers of Asia and Latin America to offset the agnostic and rationalistic attacks upon the Christian positions. The spread of the Christian Student Movement, especially among the vast government student popula- tions, can possibly do more than any other one factor to influence right thinking and right relationships among the leaders of to- morrow.
Doubtless the most potent single influence exerted by the missionary is through the
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object lesson of his home. Each missionary home is a center of vital contagion. Who can measure the power of even one devoted, Christlike missionary? He is an example and a convincing apologetic of the truth of his religion. He is an interpreter to non- Christian peoples of the best side of our Western civilization. He is an ambassador of all that is most truly Christian in our life. He is a teacher and a leader of the forces of righteousness. Even in the sphere of his daily calling and of his regular missionary activity he does more than all other factors to offset the deadly influence of the unchris- tian aspects of Western civilization. It is desirable, however, that more missionaries be led to seek directly to overcome the great evils due to the unchristian impact of our civilization. Who can overstate the extent of the good accomplished by Bishop Brent by throwing himself into the antiopium propaganda, in connection with which he acquired a position of unique leadership. The influence of Livingstone in making pos- sible the abolition of the slave traffic was
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greater than that of hundreds of men of strength in other walks of life.
Special efforts should be put forth to sur- round with good influences the men who go out to represent us in commercial and other secular pursuits. These men are exposed to special temptations and dangers. Often the very climate is unfavorable to the main- tenance of the highest efficiency. Moreover, our young men are thrown in the midst of strange civilizations and removed from the restraining influence of the ideals, standards, customs, institutions and associations of Christian lands. Add to this the fact that they are often isolated from their fellows, and it is not strange that so many of them succumb to the temptations to which they are subjected. In these new lands they find virtually all the old temptations with which we are familiar in the West, but manifesting themselves, especially in the port cities of the non-Christian world, with much more intensity and subtlety. Besides these they are called upon to face certain temptations which are entirely new to them. It is not
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surprising that there are so many examples of moral collapse and wreckage, and of lapses from the Christian faith. The gravestones in the cemeteries that surround the port cities tell the story. The men who do not yield to temptation are the exceptions. In certain of these cities the young men of Europe and America who have lived there for a time and have yielded to the prevailing temptations, challenge the newcomer and predict that within so many weeks he too will become a prey to the same influences. This proves to be sadly true in far too many cases. The Young Men's Christian Association has shown itself to be an agency specially adapted to help the young men of the West under these trying circumstances. It min- isters helpfully to all sides of their nature. It affords pleasant and profitable occupations for their leisure hours. It introduces them into the best companionships and society. It opens up opportunities for unselfish serv- ice. It wages uncompromising warfare against the enemies of young men. Being a world brotherhood with branches estab-
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lished in nearly all cities of the world, it is able to pass young men on from center to center, and to introduce them to reliable and interested people everywhere. It should be more widely extended, and should be pro- vided with good buildings and able secre- taries in every port city, as well as in every other center where any considerable number of young men from the West congregate. Moreover, it is hoped that the day will come when similar facilities may be afforded for the more limited numbers of representatives of the West who gather in army and navy posts, mining camps, manufacturing centers, oil fields and political capitals.
There is need of multiplying and maintain- ing more generously ably led churches for Eu- ropean and American communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. What has been done in certain port cities of the Far East shows the rare value of this agency. Con- structive work of this kind, promoted under the guidance of the Committee on Providing Churches for Anglo-American Communities in Mission Fields, should be supported much
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more generously by the Christians of different denominations. Similar provision should be made for representatives of the countries of the Continent of Europe. There is demand also for better treatment of "the domiciled communities" in India. These communities include all persons of English blood and de- scent in whatever degree who speak English, and have made or intend to make their home in India. The Roman Catholic Church has done better in this respect than the Protes- tant bodies. During the past thirty years in India the number of its communicants among this class has greatly increased, where- as among Protestants there has been an an- nual falling off.
More missionaries should open their homes to the young men of the foreign communities. If necessary their Boards should provide them with an additional allowance to make possible the entertainment and cultivation of these young men from the West. The Boards should also instruct their new mis- sionaries so that they will recognize that they owe a Christian duty to every European and
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American, as well as to the Asiatics or Africans to whom they go. Through all these varied activities the objective should be not alone to conserve the character and faith of the young men of the West who represent us in commerce, in industry, in government service and in other relations, but also to wield them as a force in advancing the interests of Chris- tianity. To this end they should be edu- cated regarding Christian missions, and should be related to definite opportunities for service where their particular gifts and experience can be made to count most.
The official representatives of Western Christian nations or governments should maintain high Christian standards in all their dealings with the non-Christian peoples. A Christian nation should practise Chris- tianity just as truly as should an individual. It was said of Gladstone: "He resisted with his whole might the odious contention that moral progress in the relations of nations and states to one another is an illusion and a dream." John Hay wrote the name of America high in the Far East when he in-
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sisted that the Golden Rule should apply to nations as well as to individuals. President Wilson is standing with great devotion for the same policy in all international relations. Toward the non-Christian nations, whether they be strong or weak, we should exercise a spirit of restraint, of generous confidence in their good-will, and of unselfish regard for their interests. This is the secret of overcom- ing any feeling of alienation. We should treat backward races and nations with jus- tice, sympathy and kindness. No race should be regarded as inferior. The aim should be to do what is for the good of these people and not for our own selfish advantage. Ambas- sadors and consuls should be men of high character. It is nothing less than a sin to send one whose life contradicts the principles and spirit of Christianity to represent a Chris- tian land in a non-Christian country. It would be difficult to exaggerate the good accomplished by such civilians as S. Wells Williams at Peking, Consul-general Wilder in different parts of the Far East, Governor
Forbes in the Philippine Islands, or of men 10
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like the Lawrences, or like Sir Herbert Edwardes, Sir Charles Eliot and Sir Mack- worth Young in India. A worthy influence has also been exerted for all that is best in our civilization by the object lesson and testimony when visiting non-Christian lands of such men as Senator Root, Colonel Roosevelt, Lord Bryce, and Mr. Bryan.
The impact of our Western civilization must be Christianized, not only where this impact is made in the non-Christian world, but also where it is made at the home base or in the nominally Christian lands. Much more attention must be given to immigrants from the non-Christian countries. There are now in the United States about seventy-five thousand Chinese and about the same num- ber of Japanese, nearly five thousand British Indians and a few hundreds of Koreans, Fili- pinos and natives of other Oriental countries. Besides these there are large and increasing numbers from the Near Eastern fields of Asia and the needy and backward fields of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Successful efforts have been put forth on behalf of Asiatics not
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only on the Pacific Coast and in the Hawaiian Islands, but also in a number of the princi- pal cities of the East and of the Mississippi Valley. All this work should be expanded and strengthened. It is not an impossible task so to develop helpful agencies now em- ployed that virtually every one of these Asi- atic immigrants may be surrounded with definitely Christian influences.
The present is a most critical moment in the relations of countries like the United States, Canada, Australia and South Africa, to Oriental immigrants. Nothing is to be gained by minimizing the gravity of the situation. Serious as the problem is, it can be solved. How important it is that we hold the trust and friendship of Japan and China through the kindly courtesies and just treatment of their representatives among us. The Christians of America possess the key to the solution of the problem. Count Okuma was right in the statement which he made several months ago in Tokyo that this prob- lem cannot be solved by warfare, diplomacy or legislation, but only by the Christians of
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America applying their principles to these practical problems of international life. Men of the largest influence in public life must be led to give profound study to the racial problems from the point of view of Jesus Christ. This should become the subject of earnest inquiry on the part of editors, clergy- men and educators. If these leaders of thought and action have right views and are animated by the proper spirit, then the large body of citizens of the land will be led to wise action.
Nothing less than a comprehensive cam- paign of education and friendship must be waged up and down the whole land to create and maintain a right attitude and feeling toward other races. At present the attitude of most of the people is characterized too much by haughtiness, a sense of superiority and a feeling of suspicion and fear. It is evident that they think of the people of other lands and races too much as aliens. This betokens aloofness and conflicts with the Christian ideal according to which there are "no more strangers and foreigners" but only
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"fellow citizens." This lends large signifi- cance to the helpful activities of organizations like the Japan Society and like the Pan- American Union. An enormous service is also being rendered by such agencies as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Church Peace Union, the World Peace Foundation, and the American Association for International Conciliation. The visits of representatives of these societies and of ex- change professors, such as President Jordan of Leland Stanford University, Dr. Ham- ilton Mabie, ex-President Eliot, Professor Francis Peabody, Dr. Nitobe a'nd Baron Kikuchi, have been of incalculable value in promoting right thinking and feeling on the part of different races toward each other. That race will be most blessed which gives to all the other races of its very best with generous hand, not in fear and not with ulterior motives but with sincere recognition of all that is good in others and with unself- ish motives; and which in all its intercourse tries to see with the other's eyes and to sym- pathize with the other's hopes.
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Even more important is it that the Chris- tians of the West promote friendly relations among foreign students now pursuing their studies among us. There are large student migrations from non-Christian lands to the United States. While the number of Japa- nese in American schools and colleges may not be quite as large as it was in the 'SO's of the last century, nevertheless there are at the present time probably not less than twelve hundred Japanese students in these institu- tions. The number of British Indians study- ing in America is larger than ever and bids fair to continue to increase. Within a decade the number of Chinese students in American colleges and universities has increased from a few scores to over one thousand. It may surprise many to know that there are also in the colleges of the United States over fifteen hundred Latin-American students. The number from Near-Eastern countries, while not large, is growing. These foreign students will, on their return to their native lands, wield an influence out of all proportion to their number. From their ranks will come
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many of the leaders in all the more important walks of life. Happily these coming leaders of non-Christian nations are peculiarly ac- cessible and responsive to friendship while they are strangers in a strange land.
The best agency for dealing with these large and increasing numbers of foreign stu- dents is that of the Christian Student Move- ments among both men students and women students. Efficient and fruitful as has been their work in the past, the time has come when these organizations should plan more comprehensively to influence for Christ this important class of students. In individual cities or universities where large numbers of foreign students from one or more countries are concentrated, it is desirable that local secretaries be employed to give all of their time to this work, as is done, for example, in New York, Berlin and London. At certain ports of embarkation from which the stu- dents sail in largest numbers special work for foreign students should be undertaken similar to that conducted so successfully by the Young Men's Christian Association in Shang-
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hai. There a secretary for foreign students is stationed who serves these young men and women in every way in his power. There are certain ports of arrival where it is more prac- ticable to organize a helpful work on behalf of foreign students. Beginnings in such work have been made at San Francisco, New York and London. Here the new students should all be given a friendly welcome and every facility be placed at their disposal.
The principal work and influence must be brought to bear upon these strangers in the particular city or university where they spend their student life. The Christian As- sociation in each university or college where there is even one foreign student should recognize and discharge its responsibility toward him. There are hundreds of colleges in which there are from five to one hundred or more foreign students. The Association should ensure their receiving the most thoughtful attention during the opening days of their student career in a foreign land. A list of desirable boarding houses which will receive foreign students should be prepared
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and placed at the disposal of the newcomers. Care should be exercised to put them where their fellow lodgers will be of the right sort. In some of the great cities special hostels for foreign students should be established, pro- vided these be properly managed. Appro- priate social attention and special courtesies should be extended to them. Both during term time and in vacations they should be given access to some of the best homes in the country. Experience shows that this has been one of the most potent means of im- pressing for good young men and young women from foreign lands. It is gratifying to see that at the suggestion of the Christian Student Associations the homes of some of the most distinguished citizens are being opened for such purposes.
The members of the Christian Associations in the West need instruction in order to remove their ignorance and often resulting discourtesy in their relations to foreign stu- dents. Everything possible should be done to overcome race prejudice. It is shameful to hear how some foreign students have been
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treated by those who should have considered themselves as hosts and friends. These young men and young women from abroad need persons who will actually befriend them, teach them Western ways, help them to over- come their first strangeness and serve as interpreters of the best side of the life of the country in which they are sojourning. Where there is a Cosmopolitan Club it is desirable that some of the leaders of the Christian Association identify themselves with its activities, for this will serve to multiply points of helpful contact with the students of other lands and races. The foreign students should be enlisted in Bible classes, investiga- tion circles, and discussion groups for the purpose of making them acquainted with Christ and His principles. Professors and students of recognized scholastic standing, of intellectual ability, of tact and of genuine religious experience should be appointed to lead the groups. It is this intensive work which counts most.
These foreign students should be led to join the Christian Association and should be
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brought under the influence of its social service activities as well as of the work of the Church. In fact, they should be made more familiar with the spiritual side of the civiliza- tion of the country than with any other. Above all, there should be much friendly per- sonal work done with them. The best results follow from this siege work, in connection with which one Christian student comes to know in a very intimate way at least one foreign student and uses every opportunity to influence him spiritually. We should not stop short of leading these students from abroad into vital union with Christ and His Church, and into the formation of such habits as will ensure their adhering to their new purposes when they return to their native land and are exposed again to its temptations and, it may be, to its persecutions. If this campaign of friendship be made sufficiently comprehensive and continuous to embrace every foreign student who comes among us, the result will be of the most profound and far-reaching importance. Possibly no one thing can be done by Christian forces which
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will do more to accomplish our great end. In this connection attention should be called likewise to the vital importance of the leaders of the Churches and of the Christian agencies giving special attention to dis- tinguished visitors from these non-Christian countries.
More should be done to see that the right kind of men are sent out to represent Chris- tian lands in the commercial and industrial activities in the non-Christian world. From a business point of view it would be greatly to the advantage of business concerns, in selecting managers, agents and salesmen to represent them in these lands, to apply a character test as well as that of astuteness and efficiency in business matters. If even Christian business houses did their duty in this respect it would effect a marvelous change for the better in the commercial im- pact of the West. It should be burned in upon the leaders of these corporations and companies that a Christian business concern which sends out a dissolute man to represent it in a non-Christian country is disloyal to
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the Christian faith. The question is raised whether the ushering in of a better day in this respect might not best be accomplished through such an efficient interdenomina- tional agency as the Laymen's Missionary Movement. This Movement unites thou- sands of the most progressive and influential Christian laymen in all Churches. It has acquired a valuable experience which has given it the confidence of men of affairs. Were it to take hold of this matter with wis- dom and earnestness, its voice would cer- tainly be heeded.
It is of transcendent importance that all the Christian forces be brought to bear on Christianizing our own civilization at home. If we wish to wage a triumphant warfare at the front we must have no untaken forts in our rear. It is well ever to remember that keen-eyed representatives of non-Christian lands are traveling and dwelling among us and see the unchristian aspects of our social order. It is not sufficient to explain to them that these are due not to Christ but to the lack of Christ and to the lack of
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the application of His principles. A demon- stration must be afforded of His ability to conquer the areas of social injustice and neglect within our own borders. Christ must dominate our unchristian social conditions, not only because of the bad example we present through them, but also because such a victory is essential to our own largest vital- ity and helpfulness in the task of the world- wide spread of Christianity. As Robert E. Speer has pointed out, "It is vain to send out little bands over the world to preach the Gospel of purity and peace, love and power, if in our social, industrial and racial condi- tions in America we are preaching unclean- ness, strife, enmity and failure." No one can easily overstate the power of the apolo- getic which a thoroughly Christianized Amer- ica would present and exercise in the non- Christian world.
Finally, Christians must come to feel a deeper sense of personal responsibility to do all in their power to help Christianize this impact. It has become easy for Christians to avoid assuming obligation for the state
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of society or civilization, but in the light of the example and teachings of Jesus it is im- possible to escape such responsibility. There must be such an awakening and quickening of conscience among Christians throughout the Churches as shall lead to an uprising to prevent the spread of these evils among us which are contrary to Christ and His holy name and principles. In this connection there is need of Christians living more con- stantly under the sense of immediacy. If the evidence is wide-spread that the touch of Western civilization without Christianity does harm, then it is nothing less than sin- ful for Christians to say of fields like China, Turkey and Africa, as they virtually have done in the case of Japan, "we will wait until these great fields are injured before we take adequate steps to avert such a calamity." Moreover, Christians should lead in such prompt and wide expansion of the Christian religion that they may preempt vast regions to which the vices and sins of corrupt civili- zation have not yet spread. This is a mo- ment when the Gospel should come to these
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peoples both as a beneficent power protect- ing them from the deadly evils of other lands and as a pure religion releasing among them new energy and vitality.
HOW TO ENSURE CLOSER CO- OPERATION AND UNITY ON THE PART OF CHRISTIAN FORCES
11
VI
HOW TO ENSURE CLOSER CO- OPERATION AND UNITY ON THE PART OF CHRISTIAN FORCES
Christian missions present the most strik- ing example of Christian unity and co-opera- tion to be found anywhere in the world. The drawing together of Christian forces in all mission lands is one of the most charac- teristic and encouraging facts of the time. It manifests itself in many ways. It is ob- servable in the growing spirit and practice of comity. The principles of comity are now to a greater or less degree accepted and observed on virtually every mission field. It is ob- servable likewise in the plans for districting or dividing different mission fields, such as Korea, West China, Mexico and the Philip- pines. Another illustration is the countless interdenominational conferences, local, sec- tional and national, which are being held by
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missionaries and native workers on the dif- ferent fields. Certain interdenominational movements, such as the Young Men's Chris- tian Association, the Young Women's Chris- tian Association, the Christian Endeavor Society, the Sunday School Union, all of which are rendering valuable service to the Churches, illustrate and markedly promote the spirit and practice of concerted action.
Missions and Churches are co-operating increasingly in various forms of mission- ary activity. They join with freedom in all parts of the world for the translation, pub- lication and distribution of the Scriptures. In like manner they have formed scores of societies for the preparation and circulation of Christian literature. In medical educa- tion, in the preparation of medical text-books and in the conduct of hospitals they find it practicable and advantageous to join. In innumerable forms of philanthropic and Christian social betterment work they are associating their efforts. Joint action is being taken increasingly by different Christian communions in planning and conducting edu-
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cational institutions; for example, the num- ber of Christian union colleges and universi- ties is increasing at a rapid rate. Some Chris- tian bodies are finding it possible to unite even in theological education. The largest and most fruitful evangelistic campaigns owe their success to the fact that Christians of different names join forces and present a united front. Meetings for united interces- sion are becoming common throughout the mission world.
The Churches themselves are being drawn together. In some fields this takes the form of a federation of Churches. In others there has been an organic union effected by various denominations belonging to the same family; for example, the uniting of the various bodies of Anglicans in China, of Methodists in Japan, and of Presbyterians in India. On some mis- sion fields the movement toward church unity has been carried still further; for exam- ple, in South India several Churches of dif- ferent ecclesiastical families have formed the "United Church of South India." On the home field it is observable that the drawing
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together of Christians is far more advanced with reference to the foreign missionary ac- tivities than in connection with any other department of work; for instance, the Annual Conferences of representatives of the Foreign Mission Boards and their various supporting missionary movements, such as the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, the Missionary Education Movement, and the Laymen's Missionary Movement.
One of the most significant recent develop- ments in this important direction was the creation at the Edinburgh Conference of the Continuation Committee which unites, as it were, all the foreign missionary forces par- ticipating in that most notable missionary gathering ever held. In this Committee and its many Special Committees the leaders of the Missionary Societies on both sides of the Atlantic are constantly collaborating in in- vestigation and in wise ways are facilitating the work of co-ordination and co-operation. Similar committees have quite recently been organized on each of the principal mission fields of Asia to promote like common under-
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standing and action on the part of all the Missions and Churches.
Notwithstanding the really remarkable progress which has been made throughout the foreign missionary enterprise, both at the front and at the home base, the present world situation demands that the Christians of our day enter into far closer and more efficient co- operation and into a more vital unity. The magnitude of the task renders this impera- tive. With a situation which is literally world-wide in its extent and all parts of which have to be dealt with simultaneously, the only hope of coping with it with any degree of adequacy is by concerted plan and effort. The overwhelming difficulty of the undertak- ing demands more intimate co-operation and a more real unity. Face to face with the powerfully entrenched systems of the non- Christian religions nothing less than unity of spirit and action can prevail.
The unity for which Christ prayed is essen- tial to a convincing apologetic. In the pres- ence of a world which is unbelieving to an extent and to a depth which is fairly over-
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powering, we must have the mighty and con- vincing evidence which Christ obviously had in mind when He prayed that we all might be one. An unbelieving world is the price paid for a divided Christendom. Unity is not to be regarded as an end in itself but as a means to the realization of the great objective of the conversion of the world. The urgency of the world situation enforces the importance of larger co-operation and unity on the part of the Christian forces. It were an idle dream to talk of counteracting the alarming perils of our day, of entering the marvelous doors of opportunity which are ajar in every field, and of taking advantage of the many favoring influences and movements which so character- ize our time, unless we effect some more com- prehensive and efficient unification of the different divisions of the Christian army. At such a time, if ever, the trouble and the sinful waste of time, money and effort due to any overlapping or duplication should be avoided. On parts of some great mission fields there are doubtless a sufficient number of mis- sionaries to accomplish the thorough plant-
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ing of Christianity provided they were redistributed and properly related to one another by a unified plan.
The lack of unity goes far to explain the disappointing weakness in much missionary strategy. In visiting some mission fields to- day one might still receive the impression that there were thirty or more separate armies all moving toward a common goal but without a common strategy. In view of the remark- able recent victories of Christianity in the non-Christian world even without united strategy one wonders what would come to pass as a result of entering into a truer unity. It would without doubt lead to a speedy and complete occupation of the wide field.
There is growing conviction among Chris- tian leaders and thoughtful observers in dif- ferent parts of the world that it is not neces- sary or desirable to reproduce on the mission field many of the denominational and eccle- siastical differences of the West, not a few of which are occidental, incidental and un- essential, and some of which are absurd when transplanted to the Orient. It is to be
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feared that some of them are even unchris- tian, judged by Christ's principles and by results. Too often they confuse the Chris- tians, weaken testimony, and are a stumbling block to the non-Christians. Bishop Sel- wyn's words are weighty: "We make a rule never to introduce controversy among a native people. My observation, covering one-half of the Pacific Islands, has shown that wherever this law of religious unity is observed, there the Gospel is in its full un- checked and undivided power." The great object on every mission field is not to perpet- uate unnecessary denominational distinctions of Christendom, but to build up on scriptural lines the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In view of the overwhelming need for a much closer drawing together of all those en- gaged in the work of extending the Christian religion throughout the world, it is well to ponder the question, How bring about closer co-operation and unity? This question can best be answered by fixing attention upon those processes by which a larger unity may be realized. In the first place, Christians of
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different names should cultivate the habit of reminding themselves that they are one. One in union with Christ as the source of their life, one in dominant desire to become more like Him, and one in the inspiring objective to make His reign co-extensive with the entire inhabited earth — being one in these most vital things they are one, whether at times they think they are or not, and whether at times they feel that they are or not. A citizen of one country who for many years lives in some foreign land may be out of touch with much that concerns his native land and may have a very hazy idea of the require- ments of citizenship there, but this, however, does not invalidate the fact that he is still a. citizen of his country. A son may have moved from his parent's home when but a lad and have lived away from it so long that he does not remember clearly his own father and mother, and may never have seen some of his own brothers and sisters, but this does not change the fact that he is still a mem- ber of that family. It is well that Christians keep dwelling on the fact that they are one
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with all Christians who acknowledge in truth the deity of Our Lord.
Another process or duty of Christians, if they are to enter into the larger unity so much demanded, is that of sincere repentance and confession. If we dwell upon our lack of unity and love the sense of its sinfulness will deepen within us. While recognizing God's free mercies and blessings even in spite of much intolerance, uncharitableness and pride on our part, let us not obscure the fact that such things are wrong in the sight of Christ and in the light of His purposes. Not until we realize this with sufficient poignancy to bring forth fruits meet for repentance are we likely to pay the other prices which have to be paid to accomplish the drawing together of all true Christians in triumphant unity. As we think, therefore, of our sins of aloofness, self-satisfaction and haughtiness, and likewise of our sins of the tongue, let us make frank confession and turn from them. Christians should not speak lightly or superficially of the advantages of their divisions. Such bene- fits as they may think themselves able to
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trace to disunion are not so much due to division as in spite of it.
The time has come when Christians should busy themselves more with the process of considering and seeking to understand the differences which separate them from one another and the causes which have brought about these differences. It is well for a Chris- tian to make it a rule to try to put himself in the position of those who differ from him. We should also try to learn from one another. Thus we can help to develop what the Bishop of Oxford, in speaking of the Edinburgh Con- ference, so happily characterized as the at- mosphere in which "we come to loathe to differ and to determine to understand." All this lends significance to the proposal to hold within a few years a World Conference on Faith and Order. Possibly even more im- portant than this proposed conference is the thorough educational campaign in prepara- tion for it. It will be well to keep in touch with the literature issued in connection with this movement, also with such periodical lit- erature a§ the Constructive Quarterly and the
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International Review of Missions, which en- able us to obtain a better understanding of Christian bodies and agencies with which we may not seem to have much if anything in common.
The process of comprehension should also be much emphasized. What is desired, to use an expression of the Archbishop of York as amplified by the Bishop of Bombay, is "not compromise for the sake of peace and success, but comprehension for the sake of truth and life." What is needed is not the oneness and dullness and unproductivity of uniformity, but unity with diversity and free- dom; not undenominationalism but interde- nominationalism. There is all the difference in the world between the two. If the mis- sionary movement is to have really conquer- ing power it needs something much more vertebrate, something with much more rich- ness, life and power than undenominational- ism. In the unity to be promoted, therefore, we would emphasize not a minimum of belief but a maximum, preserving all that is true or vital and vitalizing. Thus we seek not to
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surrender or abolish or to minimize our differ- ences but to compose them. Differences of conviction, diversities of administration, and differences incident to historic development and racial conditions will all assume right proportions under the divine principle of the unity of the Kingdom. Such Christian unity is the supremacy of the whole over the parts. If we value rightly what we call our order, doctrines and ritual, it is not so much because these are our own that we should value them as because we honestly believe that they are true and helpful and therefore desire to have others know, appreciate, and receive help from them. Some Christians give the im- pression that they have a very small Christ. To hear them speak one would form the idea that they believe that Christ has revealed Himself wholly to their particular denomi- nation or communion or nationality. But Christ is so infinite that He requires all the Christian bodies which acknowledge Him as Lord, and all nationalities and races of the world, through which to reveal Himself and to accomplish His purposes.
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The process of transcendence is also neces- sary to the realization of the larger unity. We need to rise into the mountains and to spend more time there. Amid the great peaks of Christian experience things assume true perspective. In the mount of transfigu- ration seeing no man save Jesus only we shall be better able to discover our true relation- ship to one another. On the mount of vision also, from which we see the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord, we shall see how necessary we are to each other. The true path does not lie in treating our differences as unimportant, but in finding the higher point of view which transcends them and in which they are truly reconciled. Christians more and more will find in their common faith in God, in their common love for Christ, and in their common purpose toward mankind, a power of union which will be irresistible and triumphant.
By traveling the pathway of intercession we find ourselves drawing more closely to- gether. Christ was familiar with the prob- lem of division and disunion. His solution
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was strikingly original and unique. He sum- moned men to prayer. That there might be no ambiguity about His wish He set the example by embodying in the heart of His high priestly prayer the petition that all His followers might be one. This clearly shows that He regards the drawing together of His followers as a superhuman work, which can be accomplished only through divine assist- ance in answer to prayer. This suggests the capital distinction between His method of meeting the problem and ours. We have failed to follow His example and therefore the bringing together into vital oneness of those who bear His name has been long delayed.
Doubtless many are not praying for other Christians and for Christian unity because they have been ignorant of His clearly re- vealed will on the subject. Others have not done so because of practical unbelief. Not to pray shows they think that in some way by the use of their own schemes, numbers and power, unity can be achieved; whereas were they to give themselves to prayer it would show that they humbly and truly recognize
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that God only can accomplish this wonder- work. Many others do not pray because they have allowed themselves to become so occupied with other things that this, the most important of all means, is left unutilized. Christians everywhere should seek to develop this comparatively latent talent of interces- sion. When Christians of different names, especially those who are not in sympathy with one another, begin to pray for each other, they will find that they cannot long continue in such intercession without begin- ning to work in the direction of the answer to their own prayers.
By promoting genuine fellowship among leaders and members of various Missions and Churches the progress of the cause of co- operation and unity is greatly advanced. Real unity is based upon intimate knowledge, confidence and affection, and all this is the result of seeing much of each other in close fellowship. Unity of heart must precede any more formal unity. Christ left His disciples a unit because of the intimate fellowship which He fostered among them. The apos-
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ties and other early Christians wonderfully perpetuated this spirit. This was one of the secrets of the rapid spread of Christianity during the early generations. Even in the political relations between nations a formal treaty is not so satisfactory and vital as the entente cordialey or union of hearts. There- fore, let us welcome increasing travel by dep- utations which are visiting various mission fields, the interchange of visits between ad- ministrators of Mission Boards on both sides of the Atlantic, the multiplication of inter- denominational and international conferences of leaders of the Christian forces.
Sometimes one wonders whether so many conferences and congresses are worth while; but where they are well planned and ably led and where there is some serious and high end to serve, experience shows that they are abundantly worth while. It is not so much because of their value for legislative, educa- tional and inspirational purposes as because they serve to create an atmosphere, an atti- tude, a spirit, a disposition which make pos- sible the larger discovery of the will of God
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and the greater obedience to that will. In an interview with the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church in South India, I asked him what he considered to be the secret of bringing about Christian unity. He re- plied, "First, we must pray for it; secondly, the exercise of gentleness and courtesy; third- ly, we must see more of each other."
Christians of different communions by keeping before them the colossal task in- volved in making Christ known and obeyed throughout the world will find themselves being irresistibly drawn together. Just as a war fuses together a great and complex nation, even its differing and conflicting political parties, so a true and definite con- ception of the magnitude and difficulty of the task involved in the world's conquest will tend to bind together all those who have at heart this undertaking. It would be diffi- cult to exaggerate the federative power of a great and difficult objective. This has been shown in a most striking way by the influence of the watchword of the Student Volunteer Movement, namely, The Evangelization of
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the World in This Generation. This lofty and sublime ideal, this which one has happily called a possible impossible, has done more than any other one idea to unify the aggres- sive Christian forces among the students of all the Churches in the different nations. This goes far also to explain the mighty power for unity exerted by the Edinburgh Confer- ence which was really the first occasion when the leaders of all the missionary forces have come together to face the wholeness of the task and the oneness of the task in its infinite complexity.
Possibly in no other way more than by undertaking to do definite pieces of work together do the Christians of different bodies come to recognize the true unity which already exists between them. To do one thing unitedly suggests and makes more easily possible the doing of other things to- gether. The number of things which Chris- tians have been doing together has increased from decade to decade in a geometrical ratio. From present indications the decade which was ushered in by the Edinburgh Conference
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will transcend by far all preceding periods in the number and importance of union enter- prises undertaken by different Missions and Churches. Leaders do well, therefore, to con- tinue to look for tasks which can best and can only be done together. In all such activity the end in view will not be unity so much as the larger good to mankind which such unity makes possible. This process of doing things together serves tojbreak down divisions, to promote mutual knowledge and respect, to afford convincing evidence of the benefits of union, to remove unbelief as to its practi- cability, and to make the cause of unity truly contagious.
The great need of the hour is that for apos- tles of reconciliation. Christians must not be contented to stop with a realizing sense of the advantages of unity, with a feeling of re- sponsiveness to this noble ideal, and with an inspiring vision of what it would mean to have it spread widely throughout the world, but they must do all in their power to pro- mote unity. Each one can do much. What should characterize these apostles of unity
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and reconciliation? They should be men of catholic mind and of conciliatory spirit. They should be men of large and growing knowl- edge of church history and of reverential re- gard for God's dealings with all members of His family throughout the past. They should at the same time be men of vision who have their gaze fixed intently on a better day. They should be men of constructive ability, able to build their part into the great struc- ture. They should be men of courage and of undiscourageable enthusiasm, and, above all, they should have a passionate desire to realize the wish of our Lord. Political states- men tell us that the most difficult task of statesmanship is that of effecting treaties be- tween rival or conflicting nations, especially between those which have been at war with each other. Christ has said, "Blessed are the peacemakers." In quoting this beati- tude it is usual to emphasize the word peace, but has not the time come when the greater emphasis should be placed upon the word makers? We shall not drift into peace or unity. Christian leaders must lay aside
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their indifference, inertia and neglect with reference to this matter; they must arise, accept a burden of responsibility, and take the initiative in earnest constructive efforts to bring about a better relation between all who bear the Christian name.
PRESENT POSSIBILITIES OF CO- OPERATION IN THE MISSION FIELD
VII
PRESENT POSSIBILITIES OF CO- OPERATION IN THE MISSION FIELD
One of the principal impressions left on my mind by my recent journey through those Asiatic mission fields having in them three- fourths of the inhabitants of the non-Chris- tian world, especially by the series of twenty- one conferences of leaders over which in the name of the Continuation Committee I pre- sided, was that of the urgent necessity of closer co-operation on the part of all the Christian forces if they are to meet success- fully the present unprecedented situation throughout the Asiatic continent. At this time it is not my purpose to deal with the principles and limitations of co-operation but to fix attention on several aspects of the mis- sionary enterprise which particularly demand co-operative consideration and action.
It is desirable that the different missionary
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forces or agencies co-operate in the work of securing a comprehensive survey of the field. We did not go far in any one of the Con- tinuation Committee Conferences without discovering that we did not know enough. It became evident in the discussion of each subject that no one knew the facts with sufficient fulness and accuracy. It is not strange, therefore, that each of the twenty- one conferences voted unanimously in favor of a thoroughly scientific, united survey of the field and work in the area represented. There was also agreement that such surveys should be made periodically, the general period mentioned being once every ten years, although some urged that the interval be- tween surveys should not exceed five years. A truly comprehensive survey is essential before any adequate plan for occupation, or, in fact, before any statesmanlike action in other directions, can be determined. It will be recognized that such a gathering, arrange- ment and interpretation of the facts as is here called for, if it is to be complete and satisfactory, can best, if not only, be accom-
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 179
plished by co-operative effort. For this sur- vey the assistance of the Continuation Com- mittee, which is composed of representatives of the missionary forces of Europe and North America, will be indispensable to help dis- cover and train suitable men to conduct the surveys; to place at the disposal of the Committee on Survey in a given field the lessons of experience of similar committees in other fields; to standardize the surveys in different fields to such an extent as may be desirable; and to bring the results of the surveys to the attention of those who should be most interested. In some countries it will be best to begin by conducting a model sur- vey of one province, or district, or city; in others it may be wiser to plan at once for a complete survey of the whole country.
Co-operative consideration on the part of the various Christian bodies at work in a particular country is essential in order to determine more clearly than has ever been done what is meant by the adequate occu- pation of a field. There are few subjects on which there is more confusion of thought than
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on this one. Even missionaries of the same Society, living at a common mission station, were found to hold diametrically opposite views on the subject. It is not so surprising to find leaders of different Missions and com- munions holding widely differing views on certain aspects of the problem of occupation. Now, if we do not know where we want to go we are not likely to arrive at our destina- tion. It is doubtless too much to expect that all the Societies, or even all the missionaries of the same Society, will come to agree exactly on what is meant by the adequate occupation of a field; but it is reasonable to believe that as a result of co-operative consideration, that is, of concerted investigation and discussion, the number of theories or plans of occupa- tion can be reduced to two, three or pos- sibly four. This will be a great gain over the present confusion. Even though we find that the views and policies of occupation which certain groups of workers hold are radically different, it will be advantageous to know it. The possibilities of misunderstanding and friction will be reduced, and the fields con-
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 181
cerned are much more likely to be occupied. To facilitate clearer thinking and a much more nearly common understanding on the subject, conferences should be held both by missionaries on the field and by representa- tives of Boards at home. There also should be careful writing on the principles which should guide as to occupation and distribution, and the proper application of these principles. The completely unoccupied fields and the virtually unoccupied fields of the non-Chris- tian world challenge and require the united consideration of all the Churches. It seems highly incongruous and startling that so many centuries after Christ rose from the dead and initiated the world-wide missionary movement, it should be possible for a body of Christian leaders to assemble, as was the case at the late World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, and be confronted with facts showing so many areas totally destitute of the Gospel. This situation is all the more strange at a time when there are so many genuine Christians in the world that they might easily and fully give to all men now
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living the opportunity to learn of the living Christ. Different reasons might be given to explain why there are still so many com- pletely unoccupied fields, but is not the chief reason the fact that no one has been made responsible for pressing the facts and claims of the world's unoccupation upon the brain, conscience and will of Christendom? What is everybody's business is nobody's business. Therefore, let it be stated reverently, God has had no adequate opportunity to impress the facts upon the Church.
The united surveys which have been pro- posed must not be regarded as ends in them- selves. The Continuation Committee Con- ferences in Asia were impatient on this point. They desired that their information be brought to the attention of the home Churches and Societies with reference to securing action. The impression was received in the conferences that only a small minority of the Missionary Societies have definite and recognized plans for occupying their respect- ive fields. Moreover, it was most disap- pointing to find how few had concerned them-
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 183
selves with the matter of evolving a united plan for occupying the whole country. The time has come when the Missionary Societies should collectively make it clear and em- phatic that it is their fixed and unalterable purpose to stand for the planting of pure Christianity in every part of the non-Chris- tian world. It is undoubtedly the will of God that the whole field be occupied, and, however great and difficult the task, there are resources available in Jesus Christ and His Church sufficient to make possible the accomplishment of His perfect will.
Experience on many mission fields em- phasizes the value of co-operation in the work of evangelization. The Continuation Committee Conferences brought out clearly the fact that the most powerful and fruitful evangelistic efforts have been those in which the various Missions and Christian agencies united for this purpose. In different lands the delegates agreed on plans calling for concentration evangelistic campaigns in great centers of population, and, in some cases, over wider areas. In Japan there was un-
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animous action, at the suggestion of the Japanese Christian leaders, in favor of a three-years' nation-wide campaign. It is expected that all Churches and agencies will participate, each being free to co-operate in the ways which it deems most effective. The leaders in Japan desire the special co-opera- tion of the Missionary Societies at home in helping to select and send out able apologetic lecturers, wise evangelists and recognized au- thorities on methods of evangelization.
It is of first importance that Christian leaders in Europe and America recognize that the present is one of the days of God's visitation in Asia, and that it is preeminently the time to bring to bear our united power in intercession and in every other way which the trusted workers at the front may indicate. The statements of the Bishop of Madras and those in the findings of the Indian Conferences regarding the marvelous opportunity pre- sented just now by the mass movements in India to influence for Christ literally tens of millions who will otherwise be absorbed by Hinduism and Mohammedanism are not
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 185
exaggerations. If this be true, the situation calls for a far closer co-ordination and co- operation of the Christian forces that we may not miss the day of our visitation.
Contrary to the popular impression the present opportunity in Japan is absolutely unequaled. At the conference held there in April, 1913, two questions were put to the Japanese Christian leaders and to the mis- sionaries: "Are the educated classes as ac- cessible now as they were in the eighties? " In answering, all agreed that the educated classes are fully as accessible now as they were then. The second question was, "Are the masses as accessible and responsive now as they were then? " All the Japanese work- ers and all but two of the missionaries agreed that they are more accessible and responsive now than at that time. This fact is not generally known in the West. As the pendu- lum swings more rapidly in Japan than in most countries, this is a fact of large and urgent significance. Only prompt and con- certed effort on the part of all Societies re- lated to this field will avail.
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Far more vast and quite as urgent is the evangelistic opportunity presented to-day in China. During my three previous visits to China within the last twenty years I found nothing approaching in ripeness for evangel- istic effort the fields visited in that land last year. In South China, in North China, in East China and in the heart of China, the field among government students as well as among other classes was dead ripe unto har- vest. The Confucian reaction which has set in has not seriously contracted the oppor- tunity; in fact, it is serving the great advan- tage of compelling men to count the cost more thoroughly. It is an idle dream to think of meeting such a colossal situation as that presented by the evangelistic oppor- tunity in virtually every province of China and in the Chinese colonies by anything less than union in plan and effort on the part of Christ's messengers.
In every field there is a clamant demand for a much larger number of able native Christian workers and leaders. In fact, noth- ing short of an army of well-qualified sons
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 187
and daughters of the soil will suffice to meet the demands of the Church. What is the secret of obtaining them? While the mission schools and colleges constitute the principal recruiting ground, the agency which has proved itself most effective in influencing young men and young women to devote their lives to Christian service is the Student Chris- tian Movement. This has been shown con- clusively by the Student Volunteer Move- ment in North America, the British Isles, Australasia and South Africa, and in certain parts of the Continent. Recently the same plan has been tried in China, where during the last five years the Student Volunteer Movement has led more Chinese students to decide to enter the ministry than have been secured in as many decades before in that country, and also more than have been secured in the other non-Christian countries during the same half decade. This is a co- operative or interdenominational movement. There is something which can be secured through esprit de corps, through consciousness of unity and of strength of numbers, through
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common purpose and fellowship, and through the spirit of propaganda, and which cannot be obtained in any other way. The Missionary Societies of the West, therefore, should seek to strengthen the hands of the rising Student Christian Movements among both men and women students, in government as well as in mission schools, by allocating to this service some of their ablest and best adapted mis- sionaries and native workers.
There is a demand for better trained work- ers as well as for larger numbers. While the rank and file of the prospective native leaders had probably best be educated in the theo- logical and other training institutions of their respective Christian communions, there is a growing belief among missionaries that a selected company of the best of these stu- dents should receive advanced or post-grad- uate training in union theological colleges. To this end the missionaries and native lead- ers have voted for the establishment of a few really high-grade union theological institu- tions, similar to the one recently opened in Bangalore, India. It is believed that in ad-
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 189
vantages and facilities for training these should rank with, and if possible surpass, the theological seminaries and colleges of Chris- tian lands, thus obviating the necessity, ex- cept in very rare cases, of sending young men to Europe or America to complete their theo- logical studies. Without some such provi- sion as this in fields like India, Japan and China there is serious danger that the Church will not have leaders sufficiently well pre- pared to command the intellectual confidence and following of the educated classes. In these institutions men would be trained to take charge of the more important city parishes, to serve as teachers in theological schools, and to minister to the student class in different communities. As a rule, no one mission has a sufficient number of young men requiring such advanced training to warrant maintaining such a large and able staff of professors as would be needed in a theological institution of this rank and character. Such an enterprise should be a union effort. When deemed necessary, provision could be made by certain Christian bodies or groups of cog-
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nate denominations to provide for their own students separate facilities for worship and also for teaching their distinctive doctrines and polity.
Happily there is almost universal agree- ment among missionary administrators at home, as well as among their representatives abroad, in favor of close co-operation in the establishment and maintenance of union lan- guage schools for missionaries on the field. Among the most successful already in opera- tion are those at Lucknow, Nanking and Cairo. Not less than fourteen of these union schools are called for in the findings of the conferences recently held in Asia by the Continuation Committee. A special com- mittee of the Continuation Committee is deal- ing in a comprehensive manner with the whole subject and, in conjunction with the mission- aries and the Mission Boards, is seeking to determine the number, location and scope of schools required in the different fields and to work out the best plan for their financial support. It is evident that to ensure their highest efficiency each school will require an
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 191
able director, a highly qualified teaching staff and suitable accommodation for residences and for classes. In this connection the grow- ing importance of the recently constituted Boards of Missionary Preparation of Great Britain and of North America should be em- phasized. These boards are purely co-opera- tive enterprises, and as they gradually suc- ceed in bringing together the varied and rich experiences of all the Missionary Societies on this vital problem of the training of mission- ary candidates, the inevitable result will be a raising of the standard of requirements, and a marked increase in the efficiency of new mis- sionaries. In view of the increasingly exacting demands of the modern missionary career this united emphasis is both timely and prophetic. The problems and responsibilities of the Church in each non-Christian land suggest the need of some co-operative arrangement by which the influence of the Church in other lands may be brought to bear most helpfully. The Continuation Committee through its Special Committee on the Church in the Mis- sion Field may possibly best meet this rec-
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ognized need. It should place at the disposal of the missionaries and the native Christian leaders in each mission field the best experi- ence of other fields. It should conduct investi- gations on certain subjects, among them the following: "How can truly indigenous Churches be developed?" "What are the tendencies leading to closer co-operation or to separation between the Churches and Mis- sionary Societies of the West and the rising Churches on the mission field?" "The eco- nomic position and problems of Christianity in the various non-Christian lands." Such studies could be promoted through the activity of special commissions and also through carefully planned series of papers or magazine articles. Moreover, it will be well here and there, in such fields as China, to hold conferences to discuss these and other questions relating to the development of self- governing, self-supporting and self-propagat- ing Churches. Conferences on Faith and Order, such as have been suggested in the findings of some of the gatherings, will also be timely in certain fields.
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 193
Everything practicable should be done to strengthen the bonds of union between the new Churches in non-Christian lands and the Church Historic, the Church Universal. This point is one of cardinal importance just now, when independent Churches are springing up on every hand, and when, owing to the growing national spirit, there is danger of the development of Churches in the East which will be separate in aims and sympathies as well as in activities from the Church in the West. In this connection the importance of the study of church history should be em- phasized, among both the missionaries and the native leaders, as well as among the stu- dents in theological colleges and Bible schools. This point should be brought to the attention of those who do most to shape the curricula of the training institutions on the field. More of the best works on church history should be translated into the various vernaculars of Asia. Original works in this field of scholar- ship should be prepared, having in mind the special requirements of the developing Churches in different countries. The fact
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that many of the native Christian leaders have such a poor historical sense makes it all the more important and necessary that in this and other ways we seek to keep the growing native Churches in closer touch with the great consensus of the continuous Church of all the ages. There could be no greater danger than for native Christianity to become separate from historical, credal, ecumenical, living Christianity.
It may be well for the Continuation Com- mittee to associate with its Committee on the Church in the Mission Field an increasing number of able church historians and of those who have dealt most largely with the prob- lems involved in planting and developing the Christian Church. This Committee should also concern itself much with the problem of how best to ensure the spiritual vitality of the native Churches, and how to influence them to realize their missionary responsi- bility. The collection and dissemination of the most inspiring facts regarding the evan- gelistic outreach and spiritual achievements of the Church in different parts of the non-
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 195
Christian world would prove to be most stimulating. A great service may also be rendered from time to time by sending great and inspiring Christian leaders as visitors to lands where the Church is in special need or is subject to peculiar strain. Such a step taken just now with reference to certain parts of the Orient where an ultraliberal spirit has recently asserted itself with great power, would be most timely and wise.
The findings in every conference held in Asia reveal the need of a far better co-ordina- tion and a closer co-operation in the educa- tional work. Back of this lies the need of a well considered and well understood policy for Christian education. In not one of the twenty-one conferences was a satisfactory answer given to the following question: "Have you in this area a well thought-,out and generally accepted policy of Christian education? " We should not be satisfied until such a policy is formulated and adopted. The help of the Continuation Committee has been requested in order to increase the effi- ciency of educational missionary work in all
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its phases and grades. To this end it should, in co-operation with the Boards of Missionary- Preparation, take steps to ensure the better training of missionaries who are to engage in educational work. In every field there is a noticeable lack of men trained for this partic- ular work, that is, men who are strictly educa- tionalists and yet thoroughly missionary.
It would be a good plan if the Committee on Christian Education related to the Con- tinuation Committee would undertake to issue occasional, if not regular, bulletins, especially with educational missionaries in mind. Such a paper would do much to keep them abreast of the thought on educational problems throughout the world, and would help to raise the standard of efficiency. This committee should serve in every way in its power the missionary educational associa- tions on the different fields. This can be done by enabling them to employ expert educational directors or superintendents who would serve the interests of all Missions with- in certain areas. In any effort to increase the efficiency of the educational work, chief em-
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 197
phasis should be given to making it more pro- ductive in a truly missionary sense. To ac- complish this great result a large increase in the staff of educational missionaries is de- manded.
On every field there is imperative need of bringing about larger and more practical co- operation between the different Missions as to specific educational institutions already established or called for. In several fields the members of the Continuation Commit- tee Conferences came to unanimous agree- ment as to the number, and in some cases as to the location, of the Christian colleges and universities required to serve the inter- ests of the Christian Church. The policy embraced not only colleges for men but also those for women. It included medical colleges, normal schools, theological institu- tions and, in certain cases, secondary schools. The leaders on all these fields very much de- sire that on the home field representatives of the Missionary Societies which are chiefly concerned in the different areas be brought together in conference, that they may face
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the facts and decide what should be done to effect the co-operation so much desired. It is evident that the missionaries are prepared to go much further than most of the Boards. The co-operation of a committee, consti- tuted as is this Committee on Christian Education in connection with the Continua- tion Committee, is greatly needed to help to decide on the best plans of administration of union schools and colleges, and also on the best methods of financing them. Owing to the growth of government educational sys- tems in all parts of Asia, great not only in size, but also in efficiency and influence, Christian missions must greatly expand their educational work and raise its standards. This may involve great expenditure, for ex- pansion and efficiency are costly, but it will result in savings which in the course of the next decade will aggregate millions. It is the deep-seated conviction of all who have thought much on educational missionary problems that we are summoned irresistibly to a united policy and to corporate action, and that the more quickly and strongly the
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 199
question in its varied and practical aspects is grappled with unitedly by the representa- tives of the missionary forces, the better it will be for the interests of the Christian Church.
Those who have given most careful study to the question agree that much of the medi- cal missionary work should be conducted on the basis of co-operation. Thus the con- vention of the China Medical Missionary Association, held at Peking in January, 1913, adopted a policy calling for union in all medi- cal college work in that country and agreed upon the number, location and staff require- ments of such colleges. A similar policy has been approved in other Asiatic fields. There is also agreement in nearly every country as to the wisdom of co-operation in the planting and conduct of more of the mission hospitals. The production of text-books and other technical literature required by medical workers is obviously another matter which can best be cared for by the different Mis- sions in concert.
Even cursory investigation has revealed
14
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the fact that possibly no phase of missionary work is so poorly in hand as that dealing with Christian literature. Certainly no other de- partment is suffering more from lack of sys- tem and co-operation. The secret of the wonderful results in the translation, revision, circulation and study of the vernacular Bible is found largely in the fact that the home Societies and Churches have believed pro- foundly in such work and have co-operated earnestly in furnishing for it both men and money. Similar interest and co-operation are imperatively demanded with reference to the general Christian literature required on every mission field. Many leaders ac- knowledge this in theory, but fail to adopt and follow a policy in accord with their theory or ideal. Special attention should be given to working out the problem of the federation or unification of more of the literature socie- ties and activities in India and China, just as has been accomplished recently in Japan, where one comprehensive society now serves all the Missions and Churches. A policy should be elaborated and adopted by the
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 201
regular Missionary Societies which will make possible the employment of able editorial sec- retaries. These secretaries are needed not so much for authorship as for directorship; that is, to study the needs of the respective language areas and to discover and enlist capable writers.
Owing to the progress of education in all parts of Asia the literacy of the people is con- stantly rising. The chief religious systems are manifesting growing literary activity. Antichristian literature continues to spread from the West to the East. The native Church is growing in numbers as well as in intelligence. Owing to these and other con- siderations there is urgent need of much more extensive and serious literary activity both on the part of and on behalf of the Christian Church. There is an imperative demand for new apologists and new apologetic literature to minister to educated non-Christians. The leaders and members of the Churches also re- quire a far larger body of literature by which to enrich and strengthen faith and character and to help to qualify for Christian service.
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An examination of the Christian books avail- able in the vernacular for the Chinese, Ko- rean, or Japanese pastor or other Christian worker, in contrast with the Christian litera- ture accessible to the average clergyman in England, America, Germany or Holland, would occasion not only surprise but real solicitude, and yet we are looking to these men to build national Churches, to feed the flock, and to wage a triumphant propaganda. From the nature of the case more than nine- teen-twentieths of the Christian literature required in Asia can best be produced in co-operation. Moreover, co-operative action is required to ensure its wisest and most eco- nomical distribution.
There is special need just now of co-opera- tion with reference to the subject of mission- ary co-operation itself; that is, there is great need that workers and leaders in the mis- sionary movement, both at home and abroad, make a united or co-operative study of prob- lems and experiences in connection with co- operation. A study of the volume of findings of the Asia Conferences of 1912-13 reveals
POSSIBILITIES OF CO-OPERATION 203
literally hundreds of practical plans or pro- posals for the drawing together of the forces for common effort. The findings on co- operation, particularly of the three National Conferences, constitute a practical, sane and really masterly approach to the problem. This co-operative movement can no more be resisted than can the tides of the sea. Dis- cerning leaders do not wish to resist or to stay it, but they do see the wisdom of guiding it. They desire to make it a helpful and not a dangerous or a weakening process. They recognize that there are perils to be avoided. It is desirable that the representatives of the Societies hold from time to time conferences on co-operation similar to the one held in January, 1914, in New York, to review the progress being made in different fields in co- operative missionary enterprises, that they may learn and make available the lessons as to limitations and difficulties involved in this process, and how best to avoid or counteract possible dangers and unsatisfac- tory experiences.
WHERE TO PLACE THE CHIEF
EMPHASIS IN THE MISSIONARY
ENTERPRISE
VIII
WHERE TO PLACE THE CHIEF
EMPHASIS IN THE MISSIONARY
ENTERPRISE
On my return from my first journey around the world I placed chief emphasis upon the need of a large increase in the number of foreign missionaries. At the end of my second journey throughout the principal mis- sion fields of the world I tried to call special attention to the necessity of augmenting greatly the native arm of the service. In the light of my more recent journeys, which have taken me not only to Asiatic but also to African and Latin American fields, I am con- strained to shift the emphasis entirely from numbers to quality, and especially to the spiritual aspect of the life and activity of the workers. While thousands of well-qualified new missionaries and tens of thousands of the best furnished native leaders and workers
207
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are required to enable the Christian forces to meet the present world situation, beyond a shadow of doubt the principal requisite is that of a far greater manifestation of spiritual vitality and power in all departments of the missionary movement. This point applies with just as much force to those who further the work of the Church at home as to those responsible for its extension abroad. The world-wide expansion of pure Christianity is essentially a spiritual and a superhuman movement. Therefore, the chief emphasis throughout the entire enterprise should be placed on the spiritual.
In the aims of the missionary enterprise the spiritual should hold the central place. The aim of Christian missions is not the ex- pansion of commerce, not the extension of the spheres of political influence of Western Christian nations, not the spread of Western learning and culture, not the disintegration of the beliefs, worships and practices of non- Christian religions, not even the reproduc- tion in non-Christian lands of the organized forms of Western Christianity. The central
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 209
and governing aim is the presentation of the living Christ to all men, and doing so in such a way among each people or in each nation as will result in domesticating, naturalizing or making truly indigenous pure Christianity among them. The primary charge of the Founder of the Christian religion — a charge which has never been repealed and has not yet been fulfilled, constitutes this the initial or major aim. It is this most vital purpose — the bringing of the knowledge of the living Christ to living men — that makes possible the working out of His life in the life of a nation. This central aim of the missionary enter- prise should not be confounded with the various missionary methods, such as the planting of Christian schools and colleges, the establishing of hospitals and dispensaries, the production and distribution of Christian literature, the introduction of the countless forms of social service and of other special applications of Christianity. These and other methods and means simply multiply the opportunities for releasing divine life and energy.
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Moreover, the aim should not be confused with the results of missions. One result of medical missions in China has been the im- provement of the physical well-being of the Chinese race, but this was not the dominating aim of the early medical missionaries. One result of the founding of Robert College was to facilitate the emancipation of Bulgaria, but this was not the design of the founders of that beneficent institution. No enterprise or movement among men has yielded larger social and moral results than the missionary movement, but these results have largely been by-products of the enterprise and a necessary consequence of holding in promi- nence the central spiritual aim. The work of Christian missions is to impart divine vitality to decaying civilizations or to those characterized by low vitality. In doing so forces are liberated whose influence and out- reach no one can foretell or estimate.
The spiritual aim may well be called the governing aim; for it should determine the missionary program or policy to be followed, the methods and means to be employed, the
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 211
extent and distribution of the financial re- sources, the qualifications and expenditure of the time of the workers and the spiritual forces to be enlisted. The largest, most beneficent and most enduring results have followed where this goal has been kept clearly in view and steadfastly pursued. Many un- fortunate pages of experience in the name of missions would never have been written had this spiritual aim always been given the absolute right of way in missionary policy and practice. It is well, therefore, in all our thinking and acting that we be dominated by the conviction that only the living Christ can bring life to a dying world.
The spiritual should be uppermost in mis- sionary methods. Every method is proper which is consistent with this dominant, vital aim, and which helps to realize it. There are, of course, some methods which help more than others to attain the central spiritual end. It is wise to relate all methods to this aim and test them by it. Medical missions, edu- cational missions, industrial missions, the use of literature, social betterment projects,
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Christian homes and countless applications of Christian principles have demonstrated their right to be. They should be multiplied on a vast scale throughout the non-Christian world and should be developed to the highest possible degree of efficiency. They are abun- dantly worth while for their own sake. They are indeed evidences of Christianity. They exhibit the life of Christ and the helpfulness of Christ. "The works that I do in my Father's name, these bear witness of me." All such helpful expressions of the spirit of Christ should be encouraged. These meth- ods, however, must not be regarded as ends in themselves but as means tributary to the realization of the great objective — the bring- ing of men under the actual sway of Jesus Christ.
How easy it is to lose sight of the end in the methods or the means. A wise missionary in the Far East when asked some twenty years ago to give his opinion about the work of another prominent missionary in that part of the world, replied, "He is so absorbed with means that I am afraid that he will get tired
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 213
out before he gets to the end for which all of his means exist." That worker seems to be no nearer arriving at the true end now than he was at the time this criticism was made. Dr. Young of Arabia, after dealing with 40,000 surgical cases, said, "The curse of Islam is not to be stopped by surgery any more than immorality is to be cured by free breakfasts." Then he went on to point out that it can be overcome only by meeting its weak points and making men dissatisfied with its illogical or unreasonable basis.
It is possible for men to go out as mission- aries with the purpose to make Christ known and yet to become so busy in the work of teaching or other worthy activities that they never proclaim Christ to those over whom they have won influence. The principal of a Christian college in Asia remarked in a re- cent conference, that he did not expect to have conversions in his college in this genera- tion but simply to do the work preparatory for making conversions possible in the next generation. He then added that his home committee agreed with him that conversions
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should not be expected in the present genera- tion. It need not be pointed out that this attitude and practice is not likely to result in the desired conversions in the next genera- tion. Education alone, for example, will not evangelize the world. The many regular and established methods of missionary work, educational, medical, literary, philanthropic, are right and should be employed as convin- cing expressions of the unselfish and con- structive spirit of Christ, but it is not the expression or illustration of the spirit of Christ which converts and transforms men, but the living Christ Himself. He is the Life as well as the Way and the Truth. All other methods are to be regarded as schoolmasters pointing the way to Him. If the worker keeps this before him as the aim and goal and vital aspect of every missionary effort, then the use of any good means will abound in marvelous opportunities to present Christ. The deeper one penetrates into the problem of the non-Christian world the more one recognizes that the chief hindrance is not ignorance, disease or unfavorable en-
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 215
vironment, but deadened consciences and unredeemed wills. The proof of this is that pure Christianity meets some of its greatest obstacles in parts of the non-Christian world where ignorance and disease and other un- favorable external conditions have been most completely banished.
Some missionary methods are more highly productive than others. These may be char- acterized as the most vital processes, and in all cases where other methods are employed these vital processes should be employed with them or be related to them. The most important and productive method of all is that of relating men one by one through reasonable and vital faith to Jesus Christ. By reasonable faith is meant a faith for which men can give reasons which will stand. By vital faith is meant a faith which actually transforms life. This individual work for individuals was the method most constantly employed by Christ Himself and has ever been given a large place in the activities of the most helpful spiritual workers. It is the crowning work, the most highly multiplying
15
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work, the most enduring work. The most influential converts in India have been the product of personal siege work. The largest and most satisfactory results in conversions both in colleges and in hospitals have come from the use of the same method. In fields like Korea and Manchuria, where Chris- tianity has recently spread most widely and effectively, the secret has been that the leading of others one by one to Christ has been inculcated as one of the primary duties of the Christian convert. Gibbon assigns as one of the principal causes explaining the rapid spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire the fact that each convert regarded it as his greatest privilege and responsibility to disseminate among his acquaintances the inestimable blessings which he had received. Harnack, in his "Expansion of Christianity/' has strongly enforced this point.
Another one of the most vital methods, judged by results, is that of preaching. Wherever there have been preachers who were truly wise guides and interpreters and genuine prophets, the spiritual results have
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 217
transcended all human calculations. One of the most serious defects of the missionary enterprise and of the native Churches in nearly every field of the non-Christian world is the dearth of able gospel preachers. The time of most missionaries is so fully taken by administrative and other work that the conditions are unfavorable for the development and exercise of the pro- phetic function. This goes far to explain why there are comparatively so few great preachers among the natives; they need in- spirational models or examples. Quite as great as the need for many preachers of power for the masses is that for a larger number of very able apologetic lecturers or preachers for the educated classes.
The building up of vital indigenous Churches constitutes another method of car- dinal importance. The Christian Church is the society entrusted with the Gospel for all mankind. Through its life and work the nations are to be redeemed. It is gratifying, therefore, to observe multiplying evidences that the Church in different parts of the non-
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Christian world is becoming truly indigenous and spiritual. Whatever is done to facilitate this desired end will greatly hasten the Chris- tian conquest of the world.
The promotion of the reading and thorough study of the original writings of Christianity is likewise a method of living power. In all fields Bible study has shown power to awaken conscience. It gives the impression in some cases of having created conscience. One of the leading ministers in Japan in describing his conversion, said, "Behind the Sermon on the Mount I found the living God. My con- science was enlivened and henceforth I could do nothing wrong." A Mohammedan in Arabia, in speaking of the Gospels, said that he liked the historical parts but that the words of Jesus made him tremble. The Bible multiplies sins; that is, under the blaze of its light things come to be regarded as sinful which otherwise are condoned or regarded as right. The diffusion of the Bible and the study of its principles is a precursor of spiritual awakenings. It goes far to explain the Puri- tan paradox that with increasing holiness
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 219
grows the sense of sin. The study of the Christian Scriptures vitalizes. Emerson in speaking of the words of de Montaigne, says, "Cut these words, and they would bleed; they are vascular and alive.' ' With much greater aptness and force might these words be applied to the Christian writings. In those communities where Christ's teachings and life are most studied and applied one is remind- ed of nature in springtime. " Everything shall live whithersoever this river cometh."
The releasing of the truth of the Bible results in wonderful transformations of individuals and communities. Men are changed not simply in name or opinion but also in character and spirit. Communities are completely transformed. One need only con- trast communities in which Christ's teachings are known and obeyed with those which are ignorant of them. This is well expressed by Professor Francis G. Peabody of Harvard, in writing of a recent journey in the Near East: "I was riding one day across the Lebanon range between Damascus and the sea, and passed through many Turkish villages,
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squalid and unclean, with women veiled and children slinking from the stranger, and fields but thinly sown. Of a sudden I came upon another scene. It was a village where thrift and order prevailed, where there were flowers in the windows and unveiled women at the doors, and children calling a welcome as I passed. What did this transformation mean? It was a Christian village. Fifty years before there had been set up by the sea, at Beirtlt, the mission station of American Presby- terians. It was about fifty miles away and year by year, one mile a year, the influence of that teaching had radiated like sunshine over a darkened land; and a new way of life, a converted conduct, an assimilated civiliza- tion had become unconsciously naturalized and appropriated. The mission of Christi- anity had been fulfilled in a better way than some of its supporters had desired or dreamed. It was not the victory of a creed, but the witness of a spirit. It was not Pres- byterianism that met me, but Christ. The word had been with power: 'The Life had become the light of men.'"
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 221
The study of the Bible releases vital energy. De Quincey has divided all literature into the literature of knowledge and the literature of power. These writings are preeminently the literature of power. As a Jewess in speaking of the teachings of Jesus, remarked, "They make me wish to obey them." From what other writings have there poured forth such streams of moral energy? The maxi- mum of responsiveness to duty is found in those places where Christ's principles are best expounded and understood. It is not strange that in such communities we find men devoting themselves most truly to un- selfish service. The beneficent, reformatory, philanthropic and social betterment activi- ties are found in the lands which have come most under the influence of the Bible. In most cases where this spirit of unselfish- ness is breaking out within the sphere of other religions it may be traced indirectly if not directly to the life and principles of Christ.
Other methods should be regarded as tributary to these most vital processes or as
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furnishing points of contact or opening doors of opportunity for them. The New Testa- ment has misled us and Christ did not mean what He said if incomparably the most im- portant work in Christian missions be not that of introducing men to Him as a divine person and bringing them under His sway.
As one travels over the world he finds here and there, in foreign lands as well as at home, individual missionaries or workers who are apparently by their lives influencing the spread of Christianity far more profoundly and extensively than others. Judged by re- sults, certain individuals of this kind are achieving more than scores or hundreds of other workers possessing like general quali- fications and having like opportunities. While some of these lives which are most productive spiritually are men of prominence, others are of humble station and are comparatively un- known. One need only reflect upon the career and influence of such Christlike workers as Hudson Taylor, Pastor Ding Li-mei, and the teacher, Chang Po-ling, in China; the Hon. Yun Chi-ho of Korea; Mr. Ishii, recently de-
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 223
ceased, who was the George Muller of Japan, and the late Archbishop Nicolai of the Russian Mission in that country; Kali Charan Banurji of Calcutta, Mr. Chacko, the student worker in Madras, and Bishop Azariah of India; Donald Fraser of Livingstonia; and Baroness Wreda, the worker among the prisons of Fin- land. As the influence going forth from such lives is studied, the conviction deepens that what is needed is not so much to quadruple our numbers as to quadruple ourselves, the better to allow God to do through us what He has been doing through these and what He did through the workers in the apostolic age. One student of the early days of Christi- anity has noted that the predominant traits of the early Christians, explaining the depth and outreach of their spiritual influences, were purity, honesty, unworldliness and love of one another. As we study the lives of these more recent Christian workers, what seems to characterize them? Apparently they have all preserved the sense of divine mission. They have maintained as a reality fellowship with God. They have kept their
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sensitiveness, never becoming hardened or callous to the tragic facts of the sins and spiritual needs of those about them. They have never lost the power of sympathy or compassion. They have not stagnated intel- lectually or spiritually, but have preserved their capacity for growth. Recognizing that one of the principal qualifications of the mis- sionary is that he must have life to give, they have maintained at all costs right habits of nurture or feeding their own spiritual lives. These workers constantly remind one of the living Christ. Thus the true missionary is a missionary because he cannot help it. He has the life of Christ pulsating within him. He is like Christ not because he laboriously imitates Him but because he is so truly and constantly related to Christ that Christ's Spirit manifests Himself in and through him. The scriptural sense of glory, accord- ing to George Adam Smith, is, "God become visible." Thus these workers show forth the living God. Their lives remind men that Christ not only was, but is. "If all English- men were like Donald McLeod," said a
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 225
Hindu, " India would soon become a Chris- tian country."
Only as the workers place the chief empha- sis on the spiritual in their lives and in their work, in their plans and in all relationships, are they able to meet successfully the many spiritual dangers which beset them. The more important the career, the more numer- ous, subtle, and powerful the spiritual perils. All the home supports are removed from the life of the missionary. He lives in compara- tive isolation and loneliness. He is sur- rounded with a most depressing environ- ment. He is subjected to positive and fierce temptations. He has to maintain a high level of spiritual life without the support of visible Christian fellowship and without the con- tinual renewing and stimulus which comes from the many helps with which we are familiar at home. Great drafts are made upon his whole being by those who are look- ing to him for sympathy, guidance and leadership. Removed far from the eye of all supervising boards and supporting constitu- encies he is subjected to special dangers of
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spiritual slothfulness or slackness. There is much in his position to encourage dictatorial- ness and self-sufficiency. In the midst of such conditions nothing but a consistent and constant emphasis upon the spiritual side of life can save him from being over- come and hold him true to his high and holy purpose.
It is equally important that chief emphasis be placed upon the spiritual in the life of the home Church in its relation to the expansion of the Christian religion. One of the most crucial factors in the evangelization of the world is the state of the Church in Christian lands. This point was strongly emphasized in the opinions of the leaders of the Chris- tian forces in all lands as expressed in the in- vestigation carried on by Commission I of the World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh. There is without doubt a direct and vital con- nection between the performance of our work at the ends of the earth and the quality and fulness of our spiritual life on the home field. The missionary enterprise shares in much larger measure than is usually recognized the
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 227
ideals and spirit of the home Church and car- ries these influences into the life of the Church it creates in the non-Christian world. Cer- tainly in the initial stage of the missionary enterprise — a most critical stage — the Church at home which produces, chooses, trains, and sends out the missionary, determines the faith, ideals and practices which are being propagated.
The object lesson of the home Church also profoundly influences native Christian work- ers who come to us year by year in increasing numbers for purposes of study and investiga- tion. They, as well as unbelievers, when they see the unchristian aspects of our civili- zation— our shocking denials of Christ — must be affected by it all.
At times we may seriously question whether we have a Christianity worth propagating over the world. If there be grounds for such skepticism, however, history shows that the last thing to do under such conditions is to abandon or contract the missionary propa- ganda. We should rather augment our mis- sionary efforts, for therein lies the secret of
228 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
maintaining and increasing our vital energy. Moreover, the world of Christianity is meas- ured by what it has of Christ. In what land and in what generation has Christ been better known than in America to-day? If He be necessary to us, He is necessary to all men, and it is our solemn duty to make Him known to all men. The missionary movement exists to make Him known, to fix the attention of all men upon Him, to expose them to His influence. We say to the non-Christians, "The things in our civilization which you de- spise and of which we are ashamed are not due to Jesus Christ but to our lack of Him." To meet the present colossal world situa- tion great spiritual forces must be released. In the present generation of Christians in the West are vast capacities for sacrifice. "Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit." The secret of large fruitage so much desired and needed on every field lies in releasing this latent force of sacrifice. The spirit of Christian mis- sions is the spirit of Christ; and His spirit
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 229
was and is essentially a spirit of supreme self-sacrifice. With Him it reached further than from Gethsemane to Calvary. He lived a life of constant self-denial. His law of sacrifice His disciples gradually made their own. The Roman world was conquered by it. When will the Christians of Western lands make it their own? Great is the need of recovering the New Testament conception of discipleship. Both at the home base and on the mission field there is imperative need of a far more serious and resolute following of Christ. Christians have been prone to make the Gospel too cheap. There has not been enough patient endurance of hardness. We forget that Christ has summoned men to count the cost. Only the Cross brings heroes and martyrs. How may this spirit of sacri- fice, which is the spirit of true triumph, be developed? Not so much by calling attention to the needs and possibilities of the non- Christian world, nor by dwelling on the mag- nitude and wonder of the present opportu- nity, but by pondering the price that must be paid to meet these needs, to improve these
230 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
opportunities and to realize these possibili- ties. All followers of Christ should think deeply on what it cost Him to bring into the world the knowledge of God and the forgive- ness of sin and the life everlasting.
Another mighty spiritual force which must be far more largely released is that of faith. The whole missionary enterprise needs to be lifted up into a sphere of large dimensions, the sphere of faith in the living and the almighty God. Christians at home and abroad have been regulating their plans and activities too much by precedents and by visible resources and not enough by the ob- vious designs of God and by His invisible and boundless resources. We need to recover more largely Christ's conception of the char- acter and ability of God. Then will we be characterized more by the faith which domi- nated the Christians of the apostolic age. One of the most hopeful aspects of the present world situation is its overwhelming magni- tude and difficulty, for the history of the Church clearly shows that such conditions greatly facilitate a deepening acquaintance
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 231
with God and the discovery of His ways and the releasing of His power.
It becomes increasingly evident that the present world situation can be met only through a great manifestation of superhuman wisdom, superhuman love and superhuman power. Intercession is the means which re- leases these omnipotent forces and brings them to bear upon the missionary movement. The Church has not yet discovered, still less begun to realize, the limitless possibilities of intercession. The most alarming fact is that there are so few Christians who are devoting themselves with conviction and faithfulness to prayer on behalf of the extension of Christ's Kingdom. Well, therefore, may the question be raised, Why are there not more intercessors, and why are we ourselves not more faithful in intercession? In the case of many Christians this is due to a lack of meditation upon God and His ways of work- ing. It is impossible for anyone who honestly desires to be Christlike, to think thoroughly and conclusively upon prayer in its relation to the resources of God, and also upon the
16
232 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
deepest and most pressing needs of men, and not have the purpose take shape within him to imitate Christ in intercession as in other things.
The reason some do not give themselves to intercessory prayer is that they have fallen under the spell of insidious unbelief. This is due, on the one hand, to the scientific temper which emphasizes exclusively a certain order of nature, and, on the other, to the idea that the infinite goodness, omniscience and omni- potence of God make intercessory prayer needless. We do well to remind ourselves that if the Bible teaching and record about prayer be true, then no matter with how much mystery its practice and achievements may be surrounded, it is a central reality in human experience. At times in my own life I have had grave doubts as to the objective power of prayer. To help remove these I have readpossibly forty treatises on the sub- ject; but, while many of these were helpful, they did not of themselves ^dissolve my doubts. Among other aids to faith, I might mention two which have helped to carry me
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 233
through my difficulties into a sense of cer- tainty as to the achieving power of prayer for others. The first is the practice of interces- ision. The more one reflects upon it the more strongly will one come to believe that this form of prayer can be verified only by em- ploying it. The other thing which has in- variably helped me in moments of doubt or perplexity is the simple reflection — Jesus Christ prayed for others. Then I have said to myself, If He found this practice necessary or even desirable, what presumption to as- sume that I can do without it! Let us face the fact that not to intercede for others implies a fundamental lack of faith in God as revealed in Christ, whereas to forget our- selves in intense prayer for others is an ab- solute proof that we believe in God as a living God who is actually presiding over the affairs of men.
It is painful but necessary to add that some Christians do not devote themselves to prayer for others because they are living on a plane which violates the conditions of effect- ive intercession. It passes comprehension
234 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
how some men can expect to believe in inter- cession as the mightiest force wielded on earth, in view of what they tolerate within the chambers of their imagery, in their mo- tive life, in their attitude and spirit toward others — not to mention outbreaking sins and practices.
Without doubt, many are kept from the immeasurable possibilities of the life of inter- cession because of the difficulties which beset the path. It is not easy to forget ourselves and become absorbed in unselfish thought and prayer for others. It requires energy to exercise the imagination to such an extent that we are able to put ourselves- so sympa- thetically in the place of the man for whom we pray that we literally give ourselves to prayer on his behalf. It requires an exercise of the imagination to realize, so vividly that our very soul is moved, the mind of Christ concerning any man or cause for which we pray. David said, "I give myself unto prayer" — not simply his words or thoughts, but himself. Professor George Adam Smith once preached at Yale University a remark-
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 235
able sermon on Christ's intercession in the Garden. It will be found rewarding to read that sermon, noticing the point he makes about the nervous energy which Christ ex- pended in His intercession. While this kind of prayer, like everything else of most value, costs vitality, it is equally and happily true that under the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit, Who helps our infirmity, it may be free from all anxious striving and strain. Yes, more than this, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."! All the more, therefore, should we avoid drifting into slothfulness in habits of prayer. There is no way to make intercession easy. It will ever remain true that while the spirit may be will- ing the flesh is weak. We do well, therefore, to give no cause for the well-merited com- plaint of the prophet in the ancient time, "There is none . . . that stirreth up him- self to take hold of Thee."
Christ's concern for man, associated with His life of unbroken prayer to God on behalf of others, suggests a root reason why many otherwise loyal Christians are not more faith-
17
236 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
ful in intercession; it is because they do not sufficiently care for men, and their hearts are not sufficiently responsive to the solicitude of God on behalf of men. Think of those who are being captivated by the luxurious life of our day without realizing its consequences, of others who are already slaves of body and soul-destroying habits, of still others who are suffering from serious doubt or subtle pride or selfish and overmastering ambition. How shall a Christlike sympathy in prayer for in- dividuals like these take the place of our selfish indifference or undue absorption in other things? Our own recollection and ex- perience of temptation or failure must be used to impress upon us the needs of tempted and discouraged men. Every victory or achievement accomplished with a true sense of Christ's sufficiency and our own insuffi- ciency must impel us to exercise faith for others also. To have the most helpful rela- tions with our fellow men, and the closest fel- lowship with our Lord, who prayed for tempted Peter, we must share at any cost His present work of intercession.
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 237
The fact should not be overlooked that in- tercession does not have a larger place in the lives of Christians because of their failure to master the conditions in which they find themselves. It is desirable to have a stated and unhurried time for intercession. Our most profitable employment should not be crowded into a corner. The words of the Apostle, "That ye may give yourselves unto prayer," are rendered by Dean Alford, "That ye may have undisturbed leisure for prayer." This emphasis is especially needed in these days because of the impetuosity and restless- ness of our times. One of the chief reasons, apparently, why Christ went apart for pro- longed prayer is the very reason why many busy Christians excuse themselves — the fact that He had so much to do and that the issues at stake were so great. How much better for those of us who can control the time of going to our accustomed place of labor, to go per- chance one half -hour later, or for those of us who cannot, to retire at night a half-hour later, or, better, to rise a half-hour earlier, that we may help others by prayer — the most
238 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
effective way known among men — rather than be slaves to our present schedule and rob men of that which can be given to them only through our intercession. Let us not labor under the delusion that there will come a leisure time for unhurried retreat with God on behalf of men; for if ever that time comes, many of the occasions which demand our in- tercession will have passed. Moreover, days of special retreat invariably mean most to those who have faithfully observed from day to day the requirements of true intercession. Let us learn to utilize many unrecognized opportunities for intercession. What are some of these lost opportunities which might be transmuted into the most profitable expe- riences of life? On street cars, even when standing in the press of strangers and holding to the swaying strap; waiting at stations for trains, or in reception-rooms or outer offices for appointments or interviews; before the beginning of a religious service; or perchance during addresses, sermons or debates; some- times when our souls are especially moved, or quite as much when there seems to be
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 239
nothing to stir us to this highest calling — these are times and places for "buying up the op- portunity."
In the conferences with Christian leaders in India conducted in the name of the Con- tinuation Committee of the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, it was a special satis- faction to have with us at three of the gather- ings one of the most prominent Christian leaders in the life and thought of Great Brit- ain. Noticing that he had his hands before his eyes much of the time, I thought at first that it must be because he was seated where the light was troubling him. Then I thought that he was occupied in meditation. But later I discovered that he was giving himself almost constantly to intercession on behalf of those participating in the discussions and on behalf of the momentous interests which they were seeking to serve. Nor shall I for- get how he came to some of the evangelistic meetings with Mohammedan, Hindu and Buddhist students, and from the beginning to the close, sat bowed in prayer while I sought to proclaim the vital message. It is
240 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
my belief that to such prayer on the part of this friend and others like him are traceable the otherwise inexplicable results of these conferences and evangelistic meetings.
To nearly every person there come periods when he is set aside for a season from the activities of his regular vocation. It is a tragic fact that this experience has marked the undoing of some Christians; but what an inspiring fact, on the other hand, that it has been an open door to many another, ushering him into the most productive period of his life.
Each person must evolve the plan of using lists of objects for intercession which experi- ence shows to be most workable in his partic- ular case. We should not slavishly follow the plans of others, although presumably we may learn something from the methods of every genuine man of prayer. A plan which is the product of our own faith and experi- mentation should not be irksome. Many have heard of that wonderful Chinese Chris- tian, Ding Li-mei, famous as an evangelist and even more as a man whose attractive
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 241
character and conduct constitute a convin- cing evidence of the life of Christ in man. In recent years he has influenced the largest number of students to devote their lives to the Christian ministry ever secured by one man during the history of the Church in Asia. Those who know him best will say that the dynamic secret of his life is the central place which he gives to intercession. The last time I saw him he had recorded in a book the names of many hundreds of individual Christians from all parts of the world for whom he prayed day by day. In traveling with him from Shanghai to Dairen on our way to the conference in Mukden, I observed that he spent hours alone, either walking on the deck, or seated with this book open in his hand. Mr. Brockman says that the Student Volunteer Movement of China is the product of this man's prayers.
Some find it useful to employ mechanical devices to help keep before them the needs and opportunities for intercession. Photo- graphs of friends and workers for whom we should pray may serve as prayer reminders.
242 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
The map of the world on my working table has often helped extend the range and make more concrete the world-embracing sphere of prayer. If experience shows that a card index or other system is useful in bringing to mind our duties in executive work, why not avail ourselves of similar helps on this highest level of personal responsibility? We should be on our guard, however, lest such devices fetter our prayer-life or make it mechanical.
In view of the alarmingly small number of intercessors, and the insistent need for the work which they can do, the most important question of all to consider is, How multiply the number of intercessors? This work of increasing the volume of intercession has not received the attention it deserves, al- though the experience of all the centuries clearly points the path. Ministers and lay- men who can speak with reality and from actual experience should give addresses and talks on the subject of intercessory prayer. Here we have in mind not dissertations on the grounds of prayer, nor on the reflex benefits
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 243
of prayer, important as are these phases of the subject, but on that aspect of prayer which occupies itself with bringing definite help to other men and enterprises. Addresses on this subject, born out of sincere efforts to practise what is enjoined upon others, will have contagious power.
Wide but careful use should be made of the best literature on the subject. Pamphlets and books by such men as Andrew Murray, Dean Bosworth, Robert E. Speer and the late Professor Gustav Warneck should be pressed upon the attention of each succeeding gener- ation. There is much on this vital subject that will reward one's reading in the reports of Commission I, Commission IV, and Com- mission VI, of the World Missionary Con- ference.
Christians as they meet from time to time should interchange experiences concerning the habits and conditions most favorable for intercession and the achievements of inter- cessory prayer. Great care should be exercised to limit the speaking at such a meeting to those who will present the subject with that
244 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
reasonableness, sanity and restraint which characterize those who are reflecting real experience.
One of the best means of promoting inter- cession is that of laying before men objects which are so important and so immediate in their claims that men will realize that they must pray. This can be accomplished by writing letters devoted exclusively to the subject. An even better plan, where prac- ticable, is an interview for the express purpose of enlisting prayer. If time is well spent in personally asking for gifts of money and service, is it not even more important to fol- low this plan in order to call forth interces- sion?
Group meetings of Christians during religious conventions or in every-day life for the sole purpose of united prayer for objects of common concern will serve as training schools and propagating centers of interces- sion. This has been illustrated in times of actual crisis in all parts of the world. Once when visiting a Scandinavian university a most serious situation confronted us in a
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 245
series of special religious meetings. During the meeting, on which apparently everything hinged, a number of earnest Christians quietly withdrew and devoted themselves the entire evening to special prayer. It was, therefore, no surprise to me to see the walls of opposition fall before our eyes.
One of the encouraging facts of our day is the increase among workers of the practice of holding retreats. There is incalculable value in the going apart of men to whom have been entrusted responsibilities beyond their own strength, that they may cultivate a larger acquaintance with God and yield themselves more fully to the ways of Christ for bringing to bear the power of God upon human life.
We need to study the methods of Christ in training men; and, in this connection, there are no more impressive lessons than those which He taught His disciples by precept and by example in relation to prayer. It is a matter of regret that the book by Andrew Murray, "With Christ in the School of Prayer," is not so widely studied now as a few years ago. The truths there expounded are
246 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
worthy the closest study. It would be even better to go, as he did, to the sources — the teaching and example of Christ Himself. No man can do this persistently and obe- diently without going forth a changed man. We often say that one of the most far-reaching things Christ ever did was to train a little band of men, but we do not act as though we believed what we say. If we did believe it more of us would be sharing our thought and experiences with others and associating our- selves with them in actual intercession. This would multiply the number of intercessors in a truly Christlike way.
Above all, we ourselves must be burdened with a sense of the transcendent importance of increasing the number of men who will seek to release the power of God by prayer. The sufficient proof that we are thus bur- dened is what we do in our own secret hour of intercession. Mr. Moody used to say, "A man is what he is in the dark." We may test the strength and the purity of our desire and motive by what we do where God alone sees us. If there be genuineness and reality
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 247
there, God will have His opportunity to break out through us, and our experience as inter- cessors will become truly contagious. Are men moved to pray as a result of conscious or unconscious touch with our lives? No more searching question could be addressed to us. By the answer we give in our inmost souls, and by the steps which we take as a result of that answer, will be measured not only the quality but also the outreach of our lives.
There is greater need to-day than ever be- fore of relating the limitless power of united intercession to the missionary enterprise. A time of unexampled opportunity and crisis like the present is one of grave danger. There never has been a time when simultaneously in so many non-Christian lands the facts of need and opportunity presented such a re- markable appeal to Christendom as now. In every conference throughout Asia I was charged by those who have penetrated most deeply into the heart of the problems to press upon the Missionary Societies the imperative need of more intercession; above all, of
248 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
united intercession. In no way can those of us who are responsibly related to the mis- sionary forces better, in fact in no way can we so well, serve the deepest interests of all the Societies, Missions, and Churches as by multiplying the number of real intercessors, and by focussing the prayers of Christendom upon those great situations, wonderful open- ings, grave crises, alarming perils and re- markable movements which demand the al- mighty working of the Spirit of God. This is fundamental and central to everything else we are called upon to do. Far more impor- tant and vital than any service we may ren- der in the realm of promoting the science, strategy, efficiency, statesmanship, leader- ship and unification of the vast and complex missionary enterprise, is that of helping to release the superhuman energies of prayer, and, through uniting in this holy ministry true intercessors of all lands and of all com- munions, of helping to usher in a new era abounding in signs and wonders characteris- tic of the working of the living Christ. We should be on our guard lest we devote a dis-
WHERE TO PLACE CHIEF EMPHASIS 249
proportionate amount of time and thought to investigation and discussion and to plans for the utilization of available human forces, and not enough attention to what is immeasur- ably more important — the relating of what we do personally and corporately to the foun- tain of divine life and energy. The Christian world has the right to expect from the leaders of the missionary forces not only a more thor- ough handling of the facts and methods, but also a larger discovery of superhuman re- sources and a greater irradiation of spiritual power.
INDEX
INDEX
Africa, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 15, 19, 33, 62, 68, 69, 73, 102, 104, 105, 112, 113, 114, 117, 118, 119, 121, 128, 132, 137, 149, 187, 207
Alford, Dean, referred to, 237
Allier, Prof. R., referred to, 32
American Association for In- ternational Conciliation, 139
Anderson, Rufus, referred to, 74
Apologetics, 63, 201
Arabia, 213, 218
Asia, 3, 8, 12, 15, 19, 27, 30, 68, 75, 102, 105, 107, 112, 113, 114, 115, 118, 121, 128, 132, 136, 156, 177, 182, 184, 190, 193, 195, 198, 201, 202, 207, 213, 247
Australasia, 4, 8, 137, 187
Azariah, Bishop V. S., referred to, 39, 223
Banurji, Kali Charan, referred to, 223
Bible, distribution of, 154, 218; influence of, 219, 221; study of, 218, 221; translation of, 154
Boards of Missionary Prepara- tion, 191, 196
Bombay, Bishop of, referred to, 164
Bosworth, E. I., referred to, 243
Bradlaugh, Charles, referred to, 114
Brent, Bishop Charles H., re- ferred to, 129
Brewer, Justice, referred to, 122
Brockman, F. S., referred to, 241
Bryan, William J., referred to, 136
Bryce, Lord, quoted, 107, 122; referred to, 136
Buddhism, 40, 41, 116, 117
Buddhist missionaries, 41
Buddhist students, in Ceylon, 41; in India, 37, 41, 239
Burma, work among the stu- dents of, 40
Canton, evangelistic campaign
among students in, 48 Carey, William, referred to, 39 Carnegie Endowment for In- ternational Peace, 139 Cecil, Lord William, quoted,
116 Ceylon, 39, 40, 41; work among
students of, 40 Chacko, K. C, referred to, 223 Chalmers, Dr. James, quoted,
121 Chang Po-ling, referred to, 222 China, 4, 13, 27, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 54, 63, 65, 67, 69, 77, 83, 88, 90, 102, 103, 110, 111, 112, 114, 116, 128, 137, 149, 153, 155, 186, 187, 189, 192, 200, 210, 222; unification of
253
254 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
Christian literature societies in, 200; work among stu- dents of, 46
China Medical Missionary As- sociation, convention of, 199
Christian Endeavor Society, 154
Christian fellowship, promo- tion of, 168
Christian literature, 66; in China, 200; in India, 200; in Japan, 66; in Russia, 26; in Turkey, 32; preparation and circulation of, 154
Christianity, present oppor- tunity for spread of, 3; re- cent unparalleled triumphs of, 14; world-wide spread of, 10
Christians, capacities of pres- ent-day, 5, 74
Church federation, 155
Church history, study of, 88, 193
Church Peace Union, 139
Churches for Anglo-American Communities in Mission Fields, Committee on Pro- viding, 132
Churches on the mission field, building up of, 217
Cigarettes, free distribution of, in China, 111
Comity, principles of, observed, 153
Commercial expansion, 97
Commercial representatives in non-Christian lands, 146
Communication, improved means of, 5, 101
Conferences of Mission Boards, 86, 156
Conferences on Faith and Order, 163, 192
Confucian reaction, 186
Congo, 105, 113
Continuation Committee, 179, 195; creation of, 156; special committees of, 87, 190, 191, 194, 196, 198
Continuation Committee Con- ferences in Asia, 177, 178, 182, 183, 190, 195, 197, 202, 247; in India, 64, 184, 239; in Japan, 185
Co-operation and unity, as ex- hibited in missions, 153; between Churches, 73; be- tween Missions, 73; con- ference on, in January, 1914, 203; discussed at Edinburgh Conference, 70; importance of, 158; in distribution, publication and translation of the Scriptures, 154; lack of, 159
Cosmopolitan Club, 144
Curzon, Lord, quoted, 87; re- ferred to, 75
Darwin, Charles, quoted, 112 Denominational differences of
the West, 159 DeQuincey, Thomas, referred
to, 221 Ding Li-mei, referred to, 222,
240 "Domiciled communities," 133 Drink evil, in Africa, 112; in
Asia, 111; in Moslem lands,
111 Duff, Alexander, quoted, 77;
referred to, 87
Eclecticism, 14, 37 Eddy, Sherwood, referred to, 25, 32, 37, 54
INDEX
255
Education, inadequacy of as bulwark of morals, 9, 10
Educational missions, oppor- tunity of, 65
Edwardes, Sir Herbert, referred to, 136
Egypt, 34; work among stu- dents of, 33, 34
Eliot, Charles W., referred to, 139
Eliot, Sir Charles, referred to, 136
Emerson, R. W., quoted, 90, 219
Far East, 3, 19, 42, 65, 111, 112, 114, 115, 134, 135, 212
Farquhar, J. N., referred to, 79
Foochow, evangelistic cam- paign among students in, 54
Forbes, W. Cameron, referred to, 135
Foreign students in American colleges, 140
Fraser, Donald, referred to, 223
Gairdner, W. H. T., referred
to, 36 German Africa, illegitimate
children in, 113 Gibson, Dr. J. C, referred to,
88,90 Gladstone, William E., referred
to, 91, 134 Gold Coast, 112
Haeckel, Ernst H., referred to,
114 Harada, President, referred to,
78 Harnack, Adolph, referred to,
216 Hart, Sir Robert, referred to, 9 Hawaiian Islands, 137
Hay, John, referred to, 134 Hindu students, in India, 36,
37, 39, 239 Hinduism, 105, 111, 184 Huxley, Thomas H., referred
to, 114
Immorality, increase of, in Near East and Far East, 112; traceable to Western influence, 112
India, 4, 29, 36, 37, 39, 40, 64, 68, 69, 75, 77, 79, 81, 82, 88, 105, 108, 116, 133, 136, 155, 170, 188, 189, 200, 216, 223, 225, 239; unification of Christian literature societies in, 200; work among stu- dents of, 36
Individual work for individu- als, 215
Ingersoll, Robert G., referred to, 114
Interdenominationalism vs. un- denominationalism, 164
Internationalism, 100
Ishii, J., referred to, 222
Japan, 9, 27, 43, 49, 63, 66, 68, 78, 82, 88, 103, 111, 115, 116, 137, 149, 155, 183, 184, 185, 189, 200, 218, 223; Christian Student Movement in, 44; conference of leaders of different religions in, 9; uni- fication of Christian litera- ture societies in, 66; work among students of, 43
Japan Society, 139
Jordan, David Starr, referred to, 139
Kikuchi, Baron, referred to, 139
256 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
Korea, 42, 43, 111, 153, 216, 222; work among students of, 42
Latin America, 3, 12, 102, 115, 128, 132, 140, 207
Lawrence, Dr. Edward A., re- ferred to, 88
Lawrence, Lord, referred to, 136
Lawrence, Sir Henry M., re- ferred to, 136
Laymen's Missionary Move- ment, 147, 156
Lebanon, 29, 219
Levant, 102, 103
Lincoln, Abraham, referred to, 80
Livingstone, David, referred to, 129
Literati in China, 46, 47, 48
Literature, Christian, 66; co- operation in production of, 202; in Russia, 26; in Turkey, 32; spread of antichristian, 114, 201
Literature societies, unification of, in China, 200; in India, 200; in Japan, 66
Mabie, Hamilton W., referred
to, 139 Mackay, Alexander, referred
to, 77 Madras, Archbishop of, quoted,
170 Madras, Bishop of, referred to,
82, 184 Manchuria, 51, 53, 216; work
among students of, 51 Marshall, John, quoted, 83 Mass movement in India, 64 McLeod, Donald, referred to,
224
Medical missions, opportunity for, 66, 67
Medici, Lorenzo de, referred to, 10
Mexico, 153
Missionaries, number of Prot- estant, 71; training of, 71
Missionary Education Move- ment, 156
Missionary homes, influence of, 129; open to foreign young men, 133
Mohammedan students, in Cairo, 33, 35; in Con- stantinople, 27, 28, 31; in India, 36, 37, 39, 239
Mohammedanism, 4, 35, 105, 111, 184, 213
Montaigne, Michel E. de, referred to, 219
Moody, D. L., quoted, 246
Morley, Lord, quoted, 81, 91
Mukden, conference in, 241; evangelistic campaign among students in, 51
Murray, Andrew, referred to, 243, 245
Nationalism, rising tides of, 11 Near East, 3, 19, 65, 112, 114,
115, 116, 219 Nevius, Dr. J. L., referred to,
77 Nicolai, Archbishop, referred
to, 223 Nicolay, Baron Paul, referred
to, 25 Nietzsche, F. W., referred to,
114 Nigeria, 112 Nile Valley, 4, 29 Nitobe, Inazo, referred to, 139 Non-Christian civilizations,
cancerous growths of, 13
INDEX
257
Non-Christian lands, peoples of, accessible and responsive, 19,54
Occupation, co-operation in, 70; enlargements of plans of, 60; of unoccupied fields, 72; problem of, 180; what is meant by adequate, 179
Okuma, Count, quoted, 115, 116; referred to, 137
Opium, 110, 112, 129
Oriental immigrants, number of, in United States, 136; re- lation to, 137; work for, 136
Outcastes, policy for reaching, 64
Oxford, Bishop of, quoted, 163
Pacific Islands, 3, 107, 112, 114,
153, 160 Pan-American Union, 139 Parsee students, in India, 37 Patriotism, racial, 11 Paul, K. T., referred to, 79 Peabody, Professor Francis,
quoted, 219; referred to, 139 Peking, evangelistic campaign
among students in, 51 Periodicals, missionary, need
for, 88 Persia, referred to, 102 Peru, referred to, 106 Philippine Islands, referred
to, 135 Pitt, William, referred to, 82 Preaching as a vital method,
216 Putumayo atrocities, 106
Races, amalgamation of, 8;
segregation of, 7 Racial contact, 6, 7, 8, 69, 97,
98, 100, 110, 139
Ramsay, Sir William, referred to, 76
Reconciliation, apostles of, 172
Restraints of non-Christian civilization broken down, 1 15
Robert College, 210
Roosevelt, Col. Theodore, quoted, 26; referred to, 136
Root, Elihu, referred to, 136
Rouse, Miss Ruth, referred to, 25
Russia, 20, 21, 23, 26, 29; agnostics among, 23; in zone of power, 26; Student Christian Movement in, 25; tendency toward suicide among students of, 22; work among students of, 20
St. Paul, as a statesman, 75 Schopenhauer, Arthur, referred
to, 114 Scriptures, see Bible Selwyn, Bishop, quoted, 160 Sierra Leone, referred to, 112 Smith, George Adam, quoted,
224; sermon by, 234 Spectator, of London, quoted,
59 Speer, Robert E., quoted, 148;
referred to, 243 Spencer, Herbert, referred to,
114 Stamboul, Moslem University
in, 30 Statesmanship, shown by vision, 75, 76; by ability to grasp, define and apply cor- rect governing principles, 77; by recognizing and observing relationships, 78; by capac- ity to select and guide men, 80; by sympathy and imag- ination, 80; by understand-
258 THE PRESENT WORLD SITUATION
ing of the times, 82; by wis- dom in planning, 82; by- profiting from knowledge and experience of others, 83; by judgment, 84; develop- ment of, 84-92
Statesmen, missionary, char- acteristics of, 75; examples of, 74; needed to enlarge plans, 59; to improve mis- sionary strategy, 61; to develop evangelistic work, 62; to establish indigenous Churches, 64; to meet the educational opportunity, 65; to produce and distribute Christian literature, 66; to create the medical profession for non-Christian world, 66; to help solve social problems, 67; to help solve racial prob- lems, 69 ; to guide the move- ment toward co-operation and unity, 69; to ensure better training of mission- aries, 71; to work out plans of occupation, 72; to bring about helpful relations be- tween Mission Boards and leaders on the field, 73; as leaders at the home base, 73
Stewart, Dr. James, quoted, 121
Strategy in distribution of forces, 62
Student Christian Movement, 187, 188; among foreign stu- dents in Christian lands, 141 ; in Japan, 44; in Russia, 25; in Turkey, 33; spread of, 128
Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, 156, 187; watchword of, 170
Student Volunteer Movement of China, 187, 241
Students, foreign, accessible, 141; foreign, in American colleges, 140; migration of, 98, 140; Oriental, number of, studying in America, 140
Sudan, 105
Sunday School Union, 154
Surveys of fields called for, 178, 182
Syncretism, 14
Taylor, J. Hudson, as a states- man, 83; referred to, 72, 222
Tientsin, evangelistic campaign among students in, 54
Tokyo, Imperial University in, 45
Training of missionaries, 71
Transcendence, process of, 166
Tsinanfu, evangelistic cam- paign among students in, 49
Turkey, 4, 13, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 69, 107, 128, 149; Chris- tian Student Movement in, 33; work among students of, 27
Union colleges and universi- ties, 197
Union hospitals, 199
Union language schools, 190
Union medical schools, 197, 199
Union of International Asso- ciations, 99
Union theological colleges, need for, 188
United Church of South India, 155
Unity, Church, 155
Unity, see Co-operation
INDEX
259
Universal Day of Prayer for
Students, 50 "Untouchables," 64, 82
Vatican, 75
Venn, Henry, referred to, 74
Verbeck, Dr. Guido, referred
to, 78 Voltaire, referred to, 114
Warneck, Prof. Gustav, re- ferred to, 82, 243 Washington, George, referred
to, 76, 83 Western civilization, corrupt
influences of, 12, 60, 102,
110; unchristian aspects of,
147 Wilder, Consul-general A. P.,
referred to, 135 Wilder, Robert P., referred
to, 32 Williams, S. Wells, referred
to, 135 Wilson, President Woodrow,
referred to, 135 Woman's movement, influence
of, 117 World Conference on Faith
and Order, 163 World Missionary Conference
in Edinburgh, 1910, 70, 71,
115, 156, 163, 171, 181; re- port of Commissions of, 243; work of Commissions of, 86, 226
World Peace Foundation, 139
World Student Christian Fed- eration, Conference of 1907, 44; of 1913, 26; in Con- stantinople, 28; reception of Russian Movement into, 26
World situation, unprece- dented in opportunity, 3; in danger, 5; in urgency, 11, 14
Wreda, Baroness, referred to, 223
York, Archbishop of, referred to, 164
Young, Dr. John C, of Arabia, quoted, 213
Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation, 131, 154; in Shang- hai, 141
Young, Sir Mackworth, re- ferred to, 136
Young Women's Christian As- sociation, 154
Yun Chi-ho, referred to, 222
Zwemer, S. M., referred to, 36
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