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 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE 
 
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 THE GIFT OF 
 
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 1891 
 
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 ,. 3 1924 029 338 245 
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The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029338245 
 
CHURCHMAN'S EDITION 
 
 THE WHY AND HOW 
 OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 Helps for the study class leaders using this book may be obtained by 
 corresponding with the Educational Secretary, at the Church Missions House, 
 aSi Fourth Avenue, New York City. 
 
CHURCHMAN'S EDITION 
 
 THE WHY AND HOW 
 OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN 
 
 New York 
 
 DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF 
 
 THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN 
 
 THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 1909 
 
Copyright, ipog, by 
 
 Young People's Missionary Movement 
 
 of the United States and Canada 
 
TO THE 
 
 FRIENDS IX THE HOME 
 
 CHTRCKES WHO HA\-E LOYALLY 
 
 SrSTAIXED THE CAVSE OF FOREIGN 
 
 MISSIONS. NOT ONLY BY THEIR 
 
 GIFTS. BUT BY THEIR 
 
 SYMPATHY AND 
 
 PRAYERS 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Preface to the Churchman's Edition ix 
 
 Preface xi 
 
 I The Foreign Missionary Motive and Aim. . I 
 
 II Foreign Missionary Administration 29 
 
 III Quahfications and Appointment 71 
 
 IV The Financial Support of the Missionary 
 
 Enterprise 93 
 
 V The Missionary at Work 123 
 
 VI The Native Church 151 
 
 VII The Missionary Enterprise and its Critics . 187 
 
 VIII The Spirit of the Missionary 221 
 
 IX The Home Church and the Enterprise 245 
 
 Vll 
 
PREFACE TO THE CHURCHMAN'S 
 EDITION 
 
 This edition of The Why and How of For- 
 eign Missions is made possible through the 
 courtesy and kind permission of the author, and 
 of the Young People's Missionary Movement. 
 Slight changes in phraseology have been made 
 here and there throughout the book. The chap- 
 ters on "Foreign Missionary Administration" 
 and "The Native Church" have been largely 
 rewritten in order to present the details of our 
 missionary administration. 
 
 Everett P. Smith, 
 
 Educational Secretary, Domestic and For- 
 eign Missionary Society. 
 Church Missions House, New York City. 
 
 Epiphany, 1909. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book has been prepared in compliance 
 with a request of the Young People's Mis- 
 sionary Movement for a succinct statement of 
 those aspects of the modern foreign mission- 
 ary enterprise which are of special interest to 
 laymen, in a form adapted to the needs of busy 
 people and of mission study classes. It there- 
 fore discusses the chief motives that prompt 
 to foreign missionary effort, the objects that 
 are sought, the methods of handling and ad- 
 ministering funds, the kind of persons who are 
 appointed to missionary service, the work that 
 they are doing, the difficulties they encounter, 
 the spirit they manifest, and the objections and 
 criticisms which disturb so many people at 
 home. Prominence is given to the large prob- 
 lems which are involved in the magnitude of 
 the foreign missionary enterprise, and in the 
 changing world conditions caused not only by 
 the religious but by the political, commercial, 
 and intellectual movements of our age. 
 
 Those who are familiar with the author's 
 larger book, The Foreign Missionary, will 
 note that much of the material of this book has 
 been taken from that volume. The present 
 work, however, is not a condensation of the 
 
xii Preface 
 
 larger one, nor is it intended to take its place. 
 The idea in this book is simply to take such 
 parts of The Foreign Missionary as may be 
 of special interest to laymen who desire a 
 brief statement of the essential elements of 
 the foreign missionary movement, leaving 
 The Foreign Missionary^ not only as a work of 
 reference, but as a preferable volume for 
 student volunteers and missionaries. 
 
 I gladly acknowledge valuable assistance 
 from the Editorial Committee of the Young 
 People's Missionary Movement in adapting 
 this book to the use of mission study classes. 
 
 Arthur Judson Brown. 
 New York City, 
 
 June I, 1908. 
 
THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
 MOTIVE AND AIM 
 
e goal of history is the redemption of the world, 
 consummation of all missionary endeavor will be 
 1 the knowledge of Jesus Christ has become uni- 
 .1. Hence, the aim of missions is to make Jesus 
 it known to every creature, so that he may have 
 itelligent opportunity to accept him as his Savior. 
 
 — J. Ross Stevenson 
 , to sum the matter up, the Christian missionary 
 /e. is threefold. We are summoned by God in 
 it to join with him in doing that work of saving 
 : toward men which is nearest to his heart, and 
 annot refuse : loyalty to God and Christ constrains 
 We have received in Christ the best good in life, 
 are impelled from within to impart it: love to 
 constrains us. The world needs the gift, and needs 
 w : and the tremendous want constrains us. The 
 fold motive is justified by present facts and by 
 al realities, and there is nothing that can legiti- 
 ly deprive it of its force, except the full accom- 
 ment of the end. No special views are needed 
 iforce the motive. Taking the world exactly as 
 and as all sound knowledge finds it, the motive 
 ifficient. But it is a spiritual motive, and must 
 fore be spiritually discerned. 
 
 — William Newton Clarke 
 
THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
 MOTIVE AND AIM 
 
 RECENT years have seen some change of 
 emphasis in the motives which prompt 
 men to engage in the foreign missionary en- 
 terprise. Some motives that stirred our 
 fathers are not as strongly operative to-day, 
 but others have emerged that were then but 
 vaguely discerned. 
 
 It is now generally recognized that mission 
 work must be prosecuted amid changed con- 
 ditions. Our constituency has a knowledge of 
 the non-christian world that in the past it did 
 not have. Men in our churches are no longer 
 so ignorant of other peoples. Books and mag- 
 azine articles have dissipated the mystery of 
 the Orient. Electricity enables the newspapers 
 to tell us every morning what occurred yester- 
 day in Seoul and Peking, in Rangoon and 
 Teheran. Our treatment of the Chinese and 
 the Negro testify to the fact that race preju- 
 dice is still strong. Nevertheless, the white 
 man does not look down upon the men of 
 other races as he did a century ago. He recog- 
 
 3 
 
 Change of 
 Emphasis 
 
 A New 
 World-view 
 
4 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 nizes more clearly the good qualities which 
 some of the non-christian peoples possess. He 
 hears more of the industry of the Chinese and 
 the intellect of the Hindu. This recognition is 
 not unmingled with fear. No white man of to- 
 day despises the Japanese, certainly not in 
 Russia; nor can any one view with unconcern 
 the evidences of awakening national life among 
 the teeming myriads of the Orient, 
 musions The transition from the' first century of Pro- 
 ^^^ * testant missions to the second century is 
 attended by no more significant change 
 than this. People at home are no longer under 
 illusions as to what non-christians are, and 
 they, in turn, are no longer under illusions as 
 to what we are. The romance of missions in 
 the popular mind has been largely dispelled. 
 The missionary is no longer a hero to the 
 average Christian, but a man with a message 
 to his fellow man. 
 Mlllfona'iTr There are, too, certain movements of theo- 
 obiigation logical thought which must be considered. 
 Whatever we may think of them, we cannot 
 ignore their prevalence, nor should we argue 
 that they are inconsistent with missionary in- 
 terest. No man should be allowed to feel that 
 he is exempt from the missionary obligation 
 because he is not influenced by our particular 
 motive, or because he adopts a different inter- 
 pretation of Bible teaching regarding certain 
 
Foreign Missionary Motive 5 
 
 doctrines. We may deplore his interpretation, 
 but we cannot admit that it releases him from 
 the duty of cooperating in this work. Every 
 man who believes in a just and loving personal 
 God and receives the benefits of Christianity, 
 whether he shares our theological convictions 
 or not, should aid in the effort to communicate 
 those benefits to races that have not received 
 them. 
 
 Changes in the political and economic life MotilTcS^ters 
 of the world, in the attitude of the Christian '°christ 
 nations toward the non-christian, and their at- 
 titude in turn toward us, do not impair the 
 primary missionary motive. Rather do they 
 increase it. No changes that have taken place 
 or that can possibly take place can set aside the 
 great central facts that Jesus Christ is the 
 temporal and eternal salvation of men, and 
 that it is the duty of those who know him to 
 tell others about him. There may be questions 
 as to method, but no objection lies against the 
 essential enterprise that does not lie with equal 
 force against the fundamental truths of the 
 Christian religion. Through all the tumult of 
 theological strife, the one figure that is stand- 
 ing out more and more clearly and command- 
 ingly before men is the figure of the Son of 
 Man, the Divine and Eternal Son of the Ever- 
 Living God. In him is the true unity of the 
 race and around him cluster its noblest activi- 
 
6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 ties. No matter how much Christians may 
 differ as to other things, they will be more 
 and more agreed as to the imperative duty and 
 the inspiring privilege of preaching Jesus 
 Christ to the whole world. 
 Primary and Foreign missionarv motives may be divided 
 
 Secondary . • , • . j j 
 
 Motives into two mam classes, pnrnary and secondary, 
 though this classification is arbitrary and 
 though there may be difference of opinion as 
 to the class to which certain motives properly 
 belong. The primary motives, as we conceive 
 them, are three. 
 A Genuine i. The Soul's Experience in Christ. In 
 
 Christian . , . . ^ . , , .,, 
 
 Experience proportion as this IS genume and deep, will we 
 desire to communicate it to others. Propaga- 
 tion is a law of the spiritual life. The genius 
 of Christianity is expansive. Ruskin reminds 
 us of Southey's statement that no man was 
 ever yet convinced of any momentous truth 
 Mfithout feeling in hitnself the power as well as 
 the desire of communicating it. That was an 
 exquisite touch of regenerated nature, and one 
 beautifully illustrative of the promptings of a 
 normal Christian experience, which led An- 
 drew, after he rose from Jesus' feet, to find 
 first his own brother, Simon, and say unto 
 him: "We have found the Messiah. . . . 
 He brought him unto Jesus." No external 
 authority, however commanding, can take the 
 place of this internal motive. 
 
Foreign Missionary Motive 7 
 
 People who say that they do not beUeve in fo^"u15cat'e 
 foreign missions are usually quite unconscious 
 of the indictment which they bring against their 
 own spiritual experience. The man who has 
 no religion of his own that he values of course 
 is not interested in the effort to make it known 
 to others. One may be simply ignorant of the 
 content of his faith or the real character of 
 the missionary movement, but as a rule those 
 who know the real meaning of the Christian 
 experience are conscious of an overmastering- 
 impulse to communicate it to others. 
 
 2. The World's Need of Christ. He who ^^.^f^ 
 has knowledge that is essential to his fellow 
 men is under obligation to convey that knowl- 
 edge to them. It makes no difference who 
 those men are, or where they live, or whether 
 they are conscious of their need, or how much 
 inconvenience or expense he may incur in 
 reaching them. The fact that he can help them 
 is reason why he should help them. This is 
 an essential part of the foreign missionary im- 
 pulse. We have the revelation of God which 
 is potential of a civilization that benefits man, 
 an education that fits him for higher useful- 
 ness, a scientific knowledge that enlarges his 
 powers, a medical skill that alleviates his suf- 
 ferings, and above all a relation to Jesus Christ 
 that not only lends new dignity to this earthly 
 life but that saves his soul and prepares him 
 
8 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Breadth of 
 Soul Required 
 
 Salvation Still 
 the Aim 
 
 for eternal companionship with God. "In 
 none other is there salvation." Therefore, we 
 must convey this gospel to the world. There 
 is no worthy reason for being concerned about 
 the salvation of the man next to us which is 
 not equally applicable to the man five thousand 
 miles away. 
 
 "It is hard to realize this concerning those 
 who are so distant?" Precisely; foreign mis- 
 sionary interest presupposes breadth of soul. 
 Any one can love his own family, but it takes 
 a high-souled man to love all men. He who 
 has that which the world needs is debtor to the 
 world. The true disciple would feel this even 
 if Christ had spoken no command. The mis- 
 sionary impulse would have stirred him to 
 spontaneous action. Christ simply voiced the 
 highest and holiest dictates of the human heart 
 when he summoned his followers to missionary 
 activity. The question whether the heathen 
 really need Christ may be answered by the 
 counter-question : Do we need him ? and the 
 intensity of our desire to tell them of Christ 
 will be in proportion to the intensity of our 
 own sense of need. 
 
 We do not hear as much as our fathers 
 heard of the motive of salvation of the heathen. 
 Our age prefers to dwell upon the blessings of 
 faith rather than upon the consequences of un- 
 belief. And yet if we believe that Christ is our 
 
Foreign Missionary Motive 9 
 
 "life," it is impossible to avoid the conclusion 
 that to be without Christ is death. Reason as 
 well as revelation tells us that man has sinned, 
 that "the wages of sin is death," and that this 
 truth is as applicable to Asia and Africa as to 
 Europe and America. We grant that it is 
 possible that some who have never heard of 
 Christ may be saved. The Spirit of God is 
 not shut up to the methods that have been re- 
 vealed to us. He works when and where and 
 how he pleases. In ways unknown to us, he 
 may apply the benefits of redemption to those 
 who, without opportunity to accept the historic 
 Christ, may live up to the light they have. 
 Missionaries tell us that they seldom find such 
 cases; but we should not dogmatize regarding 
 every individual of the millions who have never 
 been approached. 
 
 Taking non-christian peoples as we know Nin-christun 
 them, however, it is sorrowfully, irrefutably Pe°p'e 
 true that they are living in known sin, and 
 that by no possible stretch of charity can they 
 be considered beyond the necessity for the re- 
 vealed gospel. Various statements and figures 
 are used in the New Testament to express the 
 condition of those who know not Christ, but 
 whether they are interpreted literally or figur- 
 atively, their fundamental meaning is plain. 
 Jesus came "to save," and salvation is from 
 something. A charitable hope that some are 
 
lo Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 living like the pious Hebrews before the in- 
 carnation does not lessen our duty to give them 
 the clearer knowledge, which, like Simeon of 
 old, they would eagerly welcome, nor does it 
 modify in the least our obligation toward the 
 masses who are living on a lower level. The 
 Light shines for all, and those who see it must 
 spread the tidings; for every man, however 
 degraded, is 
 
 "Heir of the same inheritance, 
 
 Child of the self-same God. 
 He hath but stumbled in the path 
 We have in weakness trod." 
 
 Command 3- The Command of Christ. The circum- 
 stances were inexpressibly solemn. He had ris- 
 en from the dead and was about to ascend to 
 the Father. But ere he left his disciples, he said' 
 unto them : "All authority hath been given 
 unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye there- 
 fore, and make disciples of all the nations, 
 baptizing them into the name of the Father 
 and of the Son and the Holy Spirit: teach- 
 ing them to observe all things whatsoever I 
 commanded you: and lo, I am with you al- 
 ways, even unto the end of the world.'" A 
 little later, he reiterated the charge: "Ye 
 shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and 
 in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the utter- 
 
 * Matt, xxviii. 18-20. 
 
Foreign Missionary Motive ii 
 
 most part of the earth.'" "And he lifted .up 
 his hands and blessed them"^ "And a cloud 
 received him out of their sight."^ 
 
 There is no gainsaying that command. ^ompXnr" 
 Whether we consider the Person who gave it, °"^" 
 the circumstances in which it was given, or 
 the duty imposed, we must regard it as the 
 weightiest of utterances. If it were the only 
 motive, foreign missionary work would be a 
 mechanical performance of duty, the mission- 
 ary merely an obedient soldier; but taken in 
 connection with the preceding motives, it adds 
 the impressive sanctions of divine authority. 
 It is the bugle call which, to the true soldier, 
 never loses its thrilling, response-compelling 
 power. It is not a request; not a suggestion. 
 Still less does it invite debate. It leaves noth- 
 ing to our choice. It is an order, comprehen- 
 sive and unequivocal, a clear, peremptory, 
 categorical imperative: "Go!" 
 
 No one can read the New Testament with- ^hSu^glS""' 
 out seeing that the evangelization of the world ^^"^*- 
 was the supreme thought of Christ. He came 
 into the world to save it. He sought, not 
 merely for the rich and influential, but for 
 men as men, irrespective of their wealth or 
 position. When the blind beggar cried out to 
 him for help, he said unto him: "Go thy 
 way ; thy faith has made thee whole."* When 
 
 'Acts i. 8. 2Luice xxiv. so- *Acts i. 9. *Markx. 52. 
 
12 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 he saw the famishing multitude, he "had com- 
 passion on them, because they were as sheep 
 not having a shepherd."^ He could not bear 
 to see men perish, and the thought of it caused 
 him keenest agony. He was himself a mis- 
 sionary, and his entire ministry was a mis- 
 sionary ministry. While his earthly life was 
 confined to Palestine, he made it clear that 
 the scope of his purpose was world-wide. He 
 plainly said: "Other sheep I have, which are 
 not of this fold: them also I must bring, and 
 they shall hear my voice."^ He declared that 
 "God so loved the world that he gave his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on 
 him should not perish, but have eternal life."^ 
 He taught the sublime truth of the Fatherhood 
 of God and the brotherhood of man. He 
 broke down the partition wall between Jew 
 and Gentile. In an age when men regarded 
 men of other races as foes, he said: "Love 
 your enemies." He showed the race-proud 
 Jews that the Samaritan was their "neighbor." 
 Going "into the borders of Tyre and 
 Sidon," he saved a poor Syroplicenician wom- 
 an.* From heaven he gave Paul his com- 
 mission to the Gentiles. With a vision of 
 world conquest, he exclaimed: "I say unto 
 you, that many shall come from the east and 
 the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, 
 
 iMarkvi. 34. » John x. i6. 'Johniii. i6. 'Mark vii. 24-26, 
 
Foreign Missionary Motive 13 
 
 and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heav- 
 en."^ "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
 will draw all men unto myself."^ 
 
 And still the world's evangelization is his ^hlugffsTifi 
 supreme thought. He is "the same yesterday 
 and to-day, yea and for ever." He knows no 
 distinction of race or caste. He loves men, 
 and, as Phelps has said, the most attractive 
 spots to him are "those which are crowded 
 with the densest masses of human beings." 
 Now, as of old, the Son of Man looks upon a 
 sorrowing, dying world with pity unutterable. 
 This is the attitude of the divine heart. 
 Christ said that when the prodigal "was yet 
 afar off, his father saw him, and was moved 
 with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck 
 and kissed him." Seeing him "afar off" of 
 course means that he was looking for him, 
 gazing often and with fatherly yearning far 
 down the road on which he hoped and prayed 
 and knew that the wanderer would soon some. 
 
 His love seeks the most distant. We com- sailatfon 
 placently imagine that God loves us more °*^'*" 
 than any other people; but the Shepherd who 
 left the ninety and nine sheep in the wilder- 
 ness and sought the one that was lost is surely 
 most tenderly solicitous, not about us in our 
 comfortable, gospel-lightened homes, but about 
 the oppressed blacks of Africa and the starv- 
 
 iMatt, viii. ii. 2 John xii. 32. 
 
14 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 ing millions of India. Whoever fancies that 
 God does not love all men and that Christ does 
 not desire the salvation of all men but dimly 
 sees the truth. Jehovah is the God of the 
 whole earth. Christ "is the propitiation for 
 our sins; and not for ours only, but also for 
 the whole world."^ 
 The Heresy of giuce the salvation of men is Christ's su- 
 
 Disobeuience _ _ . . 
 
 preme thought, it should be ours. How is it 
 possible for one who professes to follow Christ 
 not to believe in missions, when missions are 
 simply the organized effort to carry out the 
 will of the Master ? Men talk about heresy as 
 if it related only to the creed. Jesus said, "I 
 and the Father are one;" but he also said, 
 "Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
 gospel to the whole creation." Is it not as 
 heretical to deny one statement as the other? 
 Failure to do the will of Christ emasculates 
 the essential idea of the Church. There may 
 be a noble edifice, a large congregation, bril- 
 liant oratory, inspiring music ; but if the Mas- 
 ter's call is not heard and heeded, it cannot 
 be a church of the living God. 
 unlhrVstfan Thosc who are solicitous about the salva- 
 tion of the heathen who die without having 
 heard of Christ may well add some concern 
 about the salvation of professed Christians 
 who, with the Bible in their hands, the com- 
 
 * I John ii. 2. 
 
Foreign Missionary Motive 15 
 
 mand of Christ sounding in their ears, and the 
 condition of the lost world before their eyes, 
 manifest but languid interest in the effort to 
 save the world. It is difficult to understand 
 how those who profess to serve Christ can be 
 indifferent to the most important work which 
 Christ has committed to his followers, or 
 how they can expect his blessing while they 
 neglect his specific injunction. "If a man love 
 me, he will keep my word," said Christ^ ; and 
 the word is, "Go, preach." These words 
 surely mean that Christ intended every one 
 of his disciples to have some part in the ef- 
 fort to make the gospel known to all men, 
 either by personally going or by giving 
 toward the support of those who do go. The 
 obligation is laid upon the conscience of every 
 Christian. This majestic enterprise is of di- 
 vine authority. When a young clergyman 
 asked the Duke of Wellington whether he did 
 not deem it useless to attempt to convert India, 
 the great general sternly replied, "What are 
 your marching orders, sir?" If we believe in 
 Christ, we must believe in foreign missions. 
 
 Foreign missions, therefore, is not a side ff'fhl wh^Ye* 
 issue, the object of an occasional "collection" ; 
 it is the supreme duty of the Church, the main 
 work of the Church. So the first disciples un- 
 derstood it, for they immediately went forth 
 
 • John xiv. 23. 
 
 Church 
 
i6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 as missionaries. -It is interesting to note that 
 the word "apostle" is derived from a Greek 
 word which means one sent forth, a messenger, 
 and that the word "missionary" come: 
 from an original which is simply the Latin 
 equivalent of the Greek apostle. The foreign 
 missionary, like the apostles, goes away from 
 home to preach the gospel to the scattered na- 
 tions of the earth ; and nothing brings us closer 
 to the spirit and practise of the early Church 
 than the comparison of the missionary methods 
 of to-day with those of the New Testament. 
 
 Creation""'' ^^ ^^V ^^^^ ^^ awed by the majesty of 
 Christ's declaration; a lonely Nazarene, sur- 
 rounded by a handful of humble followers, 
 calmly bidding them carry his teaching to the 
 most distant nations. They were not to con- 
 fine their efforts to their own country. "The 
 whole creation" must be reached. No excep- 
 tions are to be made. Christ did not say, 
 "Teach all nations, save those that you deem 
 beneath you;" nor did he say, "Preach to 
 every creature, except the Hindu and Buddhist 
 and Mohammedan, who have religions of their 
 own." He made the scope of his command 
 absolutely universal. 
 
 A Redeemed jt ig the purposc of God, Said Paul, "to 
 reconcile all things unto himself." We should 
 never lose sight of the grandeur of this con- 
 ception. Christianity is not a life-boat sent 
 
Foreign Missionary Motive 
 
 17 
 
 Secondary 
 Motives 
 
 out to a sinking ship to rescue a few passen- 
 gers and let the rest go to the bottom. It will 
 save all the passengers, unless they refuse to be 
 saved, and it will save the ship. The Church 
 looks to a redeemed earth. Let us hope and 
 ,pray and work for nothing short of that stu- 
 ipendous consummation. Limiting the grace 
 of God, doubting its adequacy for all men, act- 
 ing as if it were for America and not for 
 Africa and the islands of the sea, are sins 
 against the Holy Ghost. 
 
 These are and ever must remain the pri- 
 mary motives of the missionary enterprise. 
 There are others, however, of a secondary 
 character, which are influential with many 
 people and which may be briefly enumerated. 
 
 I. In many ways the missionary is "the ad- civilization 
 vance agent of civilization." As the product 
 of centuries of Christian civilization, with all 
 its customs and ideals, he appears in a rude 
 village in Africa. He opposes slavery, polyg- 
 amy, cannibalism, and infanticide. He teaches 
 the boys to be honest, sober, and thrifty; the 
 girls to be pure, intelligent, and industrious. 
 He induces the natives to cover their nakedness, 
 to build houses, and to till the soil. He in- 
 culcates and exemplifies the social and civic 
 virtues. His own home and his treatment of 
 his wife and daughters are object-lessons in a 
 community which has always treated woman 
 
i8 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 as a slave. The inertia of long-established 
 heathenism is hard to overcome, but slowly it 
 yields to the new power, and the beginning of 
 civilized society gradually appears. Volumes 
 might be filled with the testimonies of states- 
 men, travelers, and military and naval officers 
 to the value of missionary work from this 
 view-point, and the cumulative power of this 
 class of evidence is doubtless a large factor 
 in the growing respect for missions in the 
 public mind. This motive appeals more par- 
 ticularly to persons of the intellectual type. 
 Philanthropy 2. The philanthropic motive is stirred 
 by the consciousness of human brotherhood 
 and the natural desire to relieve the 
 appalling suffering and ignorance which prevail 
 throughout the heathen world. Christ is the 
 Great Physician now as of old. As we see 
 the prevalence of disease and misery, the un- 
 tended ulcers, the sightless eyes to which the 
 surgeon's skill could bring light, the pain- 
 racked limbs pierced with red-hot needles to 
 kill the alleged demon that causes the suffer- 
 ing, and the fevered bodies that are made ten 
 times worse by the superstitious and 
 bungling methods of treatment, our sympa- 
 thies are profoundly moved, and we freely 
 give and labor that such agony may be alle- 
 viated. Medical missions with their hospitals 
 and dispensaries strongly appeal to this mo- 
 
Results 
 
 Foreign Missionary Motive 19 
 
 tive, as do also educational missions with their 
 teaching of the principles of better living. 
 The gospel itself is sometimes preached and 
 supported from this motive, for it is plain 
 that the sufferings of men are diminished and 
 the dignity and the worth of life increased by 
 the application of the principles of Chris- 
 tianity to human society. This motive appeals 
 strongly to those of the emotional type. Desire for 
 
 3. The argument from results is the most 
 decisive with many people of the utilitarian 
 t)rpe. They want to see that their money ac- 
 complishes something, to know that their in- 
 vestment is yielding tangible return. They 
 eagerly scan missionary reports to ascertain 
 how many converts have been made, how 
 many pupils are being taught, how many 
 patients are being treated. Telling them 
 of successes achieved is the surest method 
 of inducing them to increase their gifts. 
 Mission boards often find it difficult to 
 sustain interest in apparently unproductive 
 fields, but comparatively easy to arouse en- 
 thusiasm for fields in which converts are 
 quickly made. The Churches are eager and 
 even impatient for results. Fortunately, in 
 many lands results have been achieved on such 
 a scale as to satisfy this demand. But in other 
 lands not less important weary years have had 
 to be spent in preparing the soil and sowing 
 
20 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 the seed, and hard-working missionaries have 
 been half disheartened by the insistent popular 
 demand for accounts of baptisms before the 
 harvest-time has fairly come. 
 The|e jwotives There is, apparently, a growing disposition 
 Emphasized ^q gxalt this wholc class of motives. The basis 
 of the missionary appeal has noticeably 
 changed within the last generation. Our com- 
 mercial, humanitarian, and practical age is 
 more impressed by the physical and the tem- 
 poral than the actual and the utilitarian. The 
 idea of saving men for the present world ap- 
 peals more strongly than the idea of saving 
 them for the next world, and missionary ser- 
 mons and addresses give large emphasis to 
 these motives. We need not and should not 
 undervalue them. They are real. It is legiti- 
 mate and Christian to seek the temporal wel- 
 fare of our fellow men, to alleviate their dis- 
 tresses, to exalt woman, and to purify society. 
 It is, moreover, true and to the credit of the 
 missionary enterprise that it widens the area of 
 the world's useful knowledge, introduces the 
 conveniences and necessities of Christian civ- 
 ilization, and promotes wealth and power; 
 while it is certainly reasonable that those who 
 toil should desire to see some results from 
 their labor and be encouraged and incited to 
 renewed diligence by the inspiring record of 
 achievements. 
 
Foreign Missionary Motive 21 
 
 But these motives are nevertheless distinctly Ym^°^l^^^^ 
 secondary. The benefits mentioned are ef- 
 fects of the missionary enterprise rather than 
 primary motives for it, and the true Christian 
 would still be obliged to give and pray and 
 work for the evangelization of the world, even 
 if not one of these motives existed. More- 
 over, with the wider diffusion of knowledge, 
 some of these considerations are becoming 
 relatively less important. Japan, India, and 
 the Philippines have schools which give ex- 
 cellent secular training, and philanthropic in- 
 stitutions under secular auspices, though un- 
 doubtedly due to Christian influences, are be- 
 ginning to come into existence. As for civil- 
 ization, some non-christian lands already have 
 civilizations of their own, more ancient than 
 ours, and, so far as moral questions are not 
 involved, quite as well adapted to their needs, 
 while our own civilization is not by any means 
 wholly Christian. Whether men are civilized 
 or not, we must continue our missionary work. 
 The achievements of a hundred years of mis- 
 sionary effort are encouraging; but if they 
 were not, our duty would not be affected. We 
 are to do what is right, though we never see 
 visible results. Christ's life was a failure, 
 from the view-point of his own generation ; so 
 were the efforts of Paul and Peter and 
 Stephen; but later generations saw the rich 
 
22 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 fruitage. Lilce them, the true missionary toils 
 from motives that are independent of present 
 appearances. He knows that he is working 
 with God, for God, and in obedience to God, 
 and, with Faber, he is confident that in the 
 
 ' "He always wins who sides with God; 
 With Him no chance is lost." 
 
 i^'tilnd "" ^'''* It is important that we should have a clear 
 idea of the aim of the missionary enterprise. 
 Of course, all know in a general way that it 
 is proposed to "convert the heathen"; but be- 
 yond that, many who support the work and 
 even some who apply for appointment appear 
 to have only vague ideas. But the missionary 
 movement is not a mere crusade. It has cer- 
 tain definite aims, and these aims must be 
 kept clearly in mind if the work is to be in- 
 telligently and efficiently done. 
 savfJr°°°' First of all, the aim is to present Christ so 
 intelligently to men that they will accept him 
 as their personal Savior. 
 Tnt^mllStiy Emphasis should be laid upon the word "in- 
 Known telligently." This idea excludes the hurried 
 and superficial presentation of the gospel. It 
 is not enough to go into a non-christian com- 
 munity, proclaim Christ for a few days or 
 months, and then pass on, in the belief that 
 we have discharged our responsibility. Even 
 Americans and Europeans with all their gen- 
 
Foreign Missionary Aim 23 
 
 eral knowledge do not grasp new ideas so 
 quickly as that, and we cannot reasonably ex- 
 pect other races to do so. To a large part of 
 the non-christian world, Christ is still un- 
 known, even by name, and a great majority 
 of those who have heard of him know him only 
 in such a general way as most people in this 
 country have heard of Mencius or Zoro- 
 aster. Of his real character and relation to 
 men, they know nothing, nor does it ever oc- 
 cur to them that they are under any obliga- 
 tion to him. Moreover, what little they have 
 heard of him as a historical personage is be- 
 clouded and distorted by all the inherited and 
 hostile presumptions of age-old prejudices, 
 superstitions, and spiritual deadness. In such 
 circumstances to make Christ intelligently 
 known is apt to be a long and perhaps a weari- 
 some effort. Bishop Boone in China toiled ten 
 years before his heart was gladdened by one 
 solitary convert. Tyler in South Africa saw 
 fifteen laborious years pass before the first Zulu 
 accepted Christ, while Gilmour preached for 
 twenty years in Mongolia before visible results 
 appeared. After the Asiatic mind once fairly 
 grasps the new truth, progress usually becomes 
 more rapid ; but at first, and sometimes for long 
 periods, it is apt to be painfully slow. The mis- 
 sionary and the Church that supports him often 
 have need of patience. 
 
24 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 Spiritual End In ursine emphasis on the evangelistic 
 
 in View oo ^ ' J c 1 p 
 
 phases of the wortc, we are not unmindful of 
 the value of other forms of missionary activity. 
 The missionary is following the example of 
 Christ in alleviating the bodily sufferings of 
 men, while it is absolutely necessary to trans- 
 late and print the Bible, to create a Christian 
 literature, to teach the young and to train them 
 for leadership in the coming Church. Man 
 must be influenced at every stage of his career 
 and shown that Christianity is adapted to his 
 present state as well as to his future life. 
 Nevertheless, hospitals and schools and 
 presses are means, not ends. They are of 
 value just in proportion as they aid the evangel- 
 istic effort, either by widening its opportunity 
 or by conserving its results. The aim is not 
 philanthropic or educational or literary, but 
 spiritual. It is a new birth, an internal, not 
 an external transformation, that men most 
 vitally need. The external transformation will 
 follow, 
 church'^^"""^ ^^^^ personal presentation of Christ with a 
 view to men's acceptance of him as Savior is 
 to issue as soon as possible in the organization 
 of converts into self-propagating, self-sup- 
 porting, and self-governing churches. This is 
 a vital part of the missionary aim. Chris- 
 tianity will not control a nation's life as long as 
 it is an exotic. It must become an indigenous 
 
Foreign Missionary Aim 25 
 
 growth. To this end, effort must be put forth 
 to develop the independent energies of the 
 converts. The new convert is usually a spirit- 
 ual child, and like a physical child, he must 
 be for a time "under tutors and governors"; 
 but the instruction looks to the development 
 of self-reliant character. In the words of 
 Lawrence: "God's great agent for the 
 spread of his kingdom is the Church, 
 . . and missions exist distinctly for 
 the Church. , . . Then the Church of each 
 land, thus planted, must win its own people to 
 Christ."! 
 
 SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THE QUESTIONS 
 
 Most of these questions are thought questions. That 
 is, they require for their answers some original think- 
 ing. This form of question has been chosen for in- 
 sertion in the text-book (i) because questions which 
 constitute a mere memory test of the facts of the text 
 can easily be constructed by any leader or member who 
 makes an outline of the principal facts, and (2) be- 
 cause mere memory questions, although they have their 
 uses, yield far less than thought questions either in 
 mental development or in permanent impression. In 
 some cases complete answers will be found in the text- 
 book; usually statements that will serve as a basis for 
 inference; but a few questions appeal solely to the 
 general knowledge and common sense of the student. 
 The greatest sources of inspiration and growth will 
 be, not what the text-book adds to the student, but 
 
 'Lawrence, Modern Missions in the East, 31. 
 
what the student adds to the text-book; the formei 
 only a means to the latter. 
 
 In using these questions, therefore, let the leader f 
 gather from the chapter or from previous chapt 
 all that relates to the subject. It will be found pre 
 able to jot down this material so that it will be 
 under the eye at once; then think, using freely all 
 knowledge, mental power, and reference books av 
 able. For the sake of definiteness, conclusions sho 
 be written out. It is not supposed that the aver 
 leader will be able to answer all these questions sa 
 factorily; otherwise, there would be little left for 
 class session. The main purpose of the session is 
 compare imperfect results and arrive at greater cc 
 pleteness by comparison and discussion. 
 
 It is not probable that the entire list of questi 
 will be used in any one case, especially when the i 
 sions last only an hour. The length of the session, 
 maturity of the class, and the taste of the leader ■ 
 all influence the selection that will be made. In m 
 cases the greatest value of these questions will be 
 suggest others that will be better. Some of the qi 
 tions will require more mature thought and should 
 made the basis of discussion. 
 
 There has been no attempt to follow the order 
 paragraphs in the text-book in more than a gem 
 way. 
 
 QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER I 
 
 Aim : To Determine an Adequate Aim for Fore 
 Missions Based Upon Adequate Perso: 
 Motives 
 
 1. What is your definition of a Christian? 
 
 2. What are the principal privileges of the Ch 
 tian life? Arrange in the order of their 
 portance. 
 
Foreign Missionary Aim 27 
 
 3. How do they seem to you to compare in value 
 with mental or physical benefits? 
 
 4. To what part of mankind are these privileges 
 open? 
 
 5. Is there anything in the nature of these privi- 
 leges that would especially lead you to share 
 them? 
 
 6. What would you take to permit your sister, 
 or daughter, to grow up from infancy in heath- 
 en society? 
 
 7. Would she not have a chance of being saved, 
 if she lived up to the light she had? 
 
 8. Would you be satisfied to have her merely sur- 
 rounded by the influences of Christian society? 
 
 g. What would she miss by not having a person- 
 al knowledge of Christ? 
 
 10. What parts of the world seem to you to be 
 in the most need of Christianity? 
 
 11. What do you understand to be the purpose 
 for which Christ came into the world? 
 
 12. How wide-reaching was this purpose? 
 
 13. What place did it have in his thoughts? 
 
 14. How did he expect it to be carried out? 
 
 13. What passages of Scripture can you quote in 
 support of your opinions on the last three 
 questions ? 
 
 -16. What do you consider the principal personal 
 obligations resting on every Christian? 
 
 17. What is the relation of these obligations to the 
 privileges of the Christian life? 
 
 18. What claim has foreign missions upon Chris- 
 tians who happen to be interested in other 
 things instead? 
 
 19. What place ought it to occupy in the prayer 
 and giving and service of the average Chris- 
 tian at home? 
 
20. Word what seems to you the strongest motive 
 for pursuing the work of foreign missions. 
 
 21. Are there any reasons why the responsibility 
 of the present generation is greater than that 
 of those that are past? 
 
 22. Tell all the things you would need to know and 
 do, in order to make Christ intelligently known 
 in a heathen village, where he had never been 
 preached. 
 
 23. Would it be sufficient to make a correct state- 
 ment of the way of salvation just once to each 
 individual in the village? 
 
 24. Would you consider that you had fulfilled your 
 Christian duty to your own brother when you 
 had done that much for him? 
 
 23. What is there in the two cases that is not 
 parallel ? 
 
 26. Should we expect our missionaries in person 
 to make Christ intelligently known to each 
 individual of the heathen world? 
 
 27. By what agency will the mass of the non- 
 christian world be evangelized? 
 
 28. What is the principal aim of the foreign 
 missionary force? 
 
 29. To what extent will the civilizing motive 
 contribute to this aim? 
 
 30. To what extent, the philanthropic motive? 
 
 31. In what way might the desire for results 
 hinder the complete realization of this aim? 
 
 32. In view of the combined motives for foreign 
 missionary work, how does its claim on the 
 individual Christian and on the Christian 
 Church seem to you to compare with that of 
 other causes? 
 
FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
 ADMINISTRATION 
 
 29 
 
le great problem in the administration of missions 
 3 combine in due proportions decentralization in 
 conduct of details and centralization in the settle- 
 t of principles. On the importance of the former 
 re agreed ; but not on the value of the latter. There 
 sometimes been a tendency to resent the control 
 I central body on the ground that its members 
 lot know the mission as well as those actually in 
 field. To a large extent, however, the reverse 
 le case. The central body, no doubt, cannot know 
 details of any one particular mission so w.ell as 
 missionaries in that mission; but those missionaries 
 know their own mission, while the central body 
 know, and often does know, the missions of 
 society generally, and in considering questions of 
 ionary policy and method the experiences of several 
 ions is often the best guide for the administration 
 ny one of them. Moreover, the central body gen- 
 ;y comprises not only clergymen and laymen in 
 home Church who have made a careful study of 
 missionary problems, but also retired missionaries 
 ong experience from different parts of the world, 
 civil and military officers who have been the friends 
 supporters of missions in the countries where they 
 ed, particularly in India. — Eugene Stock 
 
 30 
 
w 
 
 II 
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
 ADMINISTRATION 
 
 ORLD evangelization being the supreme a central 
 work of the Church, the method of ad- Necessary 
 
 ministration should be commensurate in scope 
 and dignity with the task to be performed. 
 Such a work cannot be properly done by in- 
 dividuals, nor by congregations acting separate- 
 ly. It is too vast, the distance toO' great, the 
 single act too small. Local churches do not 
 have the experience in dealing with mission- 
 ary problems, nor the comprehensive knowledge 
 of details necessary for the proper conduct of 
 such an enterprise. Moreover, the individual 
 may die or lose his money. The single church 
 may become indifferent or discouraged. Even 
 if neither of these alternatives happened, the 
 work would lack stability. It would be fitful, 
 sporadic, too largely dependent upon accidental 
 knowledge or temporary emotion. A chance 
 newspaper article or a visit from some enthu- 
 siastic missionary might direct a disproportion- 
 ate stream, of gifts tO' one fiield, while others 
 equally or perhaps more important would be 
 neglected. The wise expenditure of large sums 
 31 
 
32 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 of money in far distant lands, the checks and 
 safeguards essential to prudent control, the 
 equitable distribution of workers and forms of 
 work, the proper balancing of interests between 
 widely-scattered and isolated points, the for- 
 mulation of principles of mission policy — all 
 these require a central administrative agency, 
 operftlons"' ForcigTi missionary, work is in remote 
 lands, in different languages, among diverse 
 peoples. It is, moreover, a varied and com- 
 plex work, including not only churches, but 
 day-schools, boarding schools, industrial 
 schools, normal schools; colleges, academic, 
 medical, and theological; inquirers' classes, 
 hospitals, and dispensaries; the translation, 
 publishing, and selling of books and tracts; 
 the purchase and care of property; the health 
 and homes and furloughs of missionaries; 
 fluctuating currencies of many kinds ; negotia- 
 tions with governments; and a mass of details 
 little understood by the home Church. Prob- 
 lems and interrelations with other work are 
 involved, which are entirely beyond the ex- 
 perience of the home minister, and which call 
 for an expert knowledge, only possible to one 
 who devotes his entire time to their acquisi- 
 tion. 
 K??'^ Dr.Cust says that "the conduct of mis- 
 sions in heathen and Mohammedan countries 
 has already risen to the dignity of a science. 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 33 
 
 only to be learned by long and continuous prac- 
 tise, discussion, reading, and reflection; it is 
 the occupation of the whole life and of many 
 hours of each day of many able men selected for 
 the particular purpose by the turns of their own 
 minds, and the conviction of their colleagues 
 that they have a special fitness for the duty." 
 
 Mr. Wm. T. Ellis, who made a special in- So'ns'" 
 vestigation of missionary work in 1907, 
 wrote from; Japan: "My own observation 
 leads me to conclude that independent mis- 
 sions make more stir in the homeland, 
 where the money is being raised, than they do 
 here. They are usually temporary, since 
 they depend upon one man. . . . The only 
 effectual missionary work that can be pursued 
 is that conducted on a broad basis and a long- 
 continued plan by the great Churches of Japan 
 and of Christian lands." 
 
 It is neither safe nor businesslike for the Eme"pSe 
 Church to leave such an undertaking to out- 
 siders. The Lord's work as well as man's 
 work calls for business methods. The Church 
 must take up this matter itself. It must form 
 some responsible agency, whose outlook is 
 over the whole field, and through which indi- 
 viduals and churches may work collectively 
 and to the best advantage; some lens which 
 shall gather up all the scattered rays of local 
 effort and focus them where they are needed; 
 
34 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 some institution which, though "men may come 
 and men may go," shall itself "go on forever." 
 substsmtiai Upon the necessity of a central administra- 
 
 oSErations tion for foreign missionary enterprise all re- 
 Atoinistration ligio^s bodics are agreed. And in all large 
 missionary societies there is substantial agree- 
 ment in important matters. Those with, which 
 •we are most concerned as Churchmen are the 
 two great societies within the Church of Eng- 
 land and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary 
 Society which is our own Church in America 
 in its organized missionary capacity. 
 MilsSn Board ■"■" ^7°^' largely through the efforts of the 
 Rev. Thomas Bray, Commissary of the Bishop 
 of London in Virginia, The Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts 
 was formed within the Church of England to 
 minister among settlers in the North American 
 colonies, and to plant the Church among the 
 native tribes that surrounded them. For al- 
 most a century it sent missionaries throughout 
 the American colonies, founding churches, 
 ministering to scattered groups of Church peo- 
 ple, and urging the Church of England to send 
 Bishops to organize the work and to bring order 
 and discipline into the missions. At the time of 
 the American Revolution, almost all the clergy 
 of our Church were missionaries of the S. P. 
 G., and that Society had expended $2,000,000 
 for missions in America. 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 35 
 
 Work among the Indians was begun early, fmin^Sdlans 
 but because of the recurring warfare and the 
 consequent prejudice against missionary work 
 on the part of both Indian and colonist this part 
 of the original plan was postponed so far as 
 the United States was concerned. 
 
 The Society entered Central America in 1784 iXrld" 
 and Western Africa in 1752. It is of special in- 
 terest to us to note that the Rev. Thomas 
 Thompson, the missionary of the S. P. G. in 
 Monmouth County, New Jersey, volunteered 
 for service in Africa in 1752 and was the first 
 missionary to the Guinea Coast. Australia was 
 reached in 1793; the East Indies in 1820, and 
 other British colonies as they were established 
 from time to time. North China was entered 
 in 1863 and Japan in 1873. 
 
 The Society has been spreading and strength- Nummary 
 ening its work ever since. In 1907 it had 
 2,440 stations; 905 foreign missionaries, of 
 whom 640 are ordained, 207 ordained natives, 
 and 84,000 communicants. Its receipts from 
 contributions in 1908 were $933,065. 
 
 The Church Missionary Society for Africa Sj|,Vonf^* 
 and the East was founded in 1 799, its founders society 
 saying: "As the S. P. C. K. and the S. P. G. 
 confine their labors to the British plantations 
 in America and the West Indies, there seems 
 to be still wanting in the established Church 
 a Society for sending missionaries tO' the con- 
 
36 Why and How, of Foreign Missions 
 
 tinent of Africa and other parts of the heathen 
 world." Therefore "the persons present at this 
 meeting do form a Society for that purpose." 
 Ffith':^"' III 1853 at a general meeting the "Policy of 
 Announced Pajth" was formally announced as follows: 
 "The Committee state in the presence of this 
 vast meeting and before the Church at large, 
 their willingness to accept any number of true 
 missionaries who may appear to be called of 
 God to the work. They will send out any 
 number, trusting to the Lord of the harvest, 
 whose is the silver and the gold, to supply their 
 treasury with the funds for this blessed and 
 glorious undertaking." 
 Its Later This "Policv of Faith," enunciated in i8si, 
 
 Fortunes •' , , , . , . 
 
 afterward forgotten; abandoned entirely m 
 1865, with the result of seven years' famine; 
 partially acted upon in 1 874-1 876, and dropped 
 in 1877, with financial difficulties resulting; 
 adopted as a new thing in 1887, showed in the 
 following seven years the doubling of the mis- 
 sion staff, the payment of all expenses and the 
 payment of a £20,000 mortgage, and was re- 
 affirmed in 1902. 
 DeJlio%ent The Church Missionary Society began the 
 work of its principal missions in the following 
 order: West Africa, 1804; India, 181 3; New 
 Zealand, 1814; Indians in British North Amer- 
 ica, 1822; China, 1844; Palestine, 185 1 ; Japan, 
 1859 ; and Uganda, 1876. The Society in 1907 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 2>7 
 
 had 86 1 foreign missionaries, 8,131 ordained 
 native workers and 97,489 communicants. 
 
 Preparations for the Domestic and Foreign 
 Missionary Society of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church in the United 
 States of America 
 
 The missionary obligation was recognized by ^ariy Domestic 
 the General Convention in 1 789 by "An Act of Movements 
 the General Convention" for supporting mis- 
 sionaries to preach the gospel in the frontiers of 
 the United States, with annual sermons and 
 offerings for this purpose. No immediate ac- 
 tion was taken by the Church as a whole to 
 carry out this resolution; but local missionary 
 societies were organized : The Committee for 
 the Propagation of the Gospel in New York 
 State was formed toward the end of the i8th 
 century, and Philander Chase, afterwards our 
 pioneer western Bishop, was one of the earliest 
 missionaries. In 181 2, the Society for the 
 Advancement of Christianity in Pennsylvania 
 was formed largely through the efforts of the 
 Rev. Jackson Kemper. In 18 16 the Protestant 
 Episcopal Missionary Society of Pennsylvania 
 was founded, and was the first organization to 
 work beyond the limits of its State. 
 
 In 1816, the Rev. Joseph Andrus volunteered andth°e'c. m. s. 
 
38 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 for foreign missionary service, and in this con- 
 nection Bishop Griswold and others proposed 
 that he be sent to Ceylon by the C. M. S. and 
 be supported by a society in the United States 
 to be organized as a branch of the C. M. S. 
 The Secretary of the C. M. S. rephed, in 1817: 
 "The Committee have thought that the most 
 effectual way of raising the missionary zeal in 
 America would be the formation of a Church 
 Missionary Society in the Episcopal Church in 
 the United States, which however small in be- 
 ginning might ultimately so increase as to pro- 
 duce the most extensive good. Should the 
 formation of an American Episcopal Mission- 
 ary Society be accomplished, the Committee of 
 the Church Missionary Society authorize you 
 to draw on me for the sum of Two Hundred 
 Pounds to encourage the contributions of the 
 friends of the Episcopal Church and the com- 
 munity at large." In accordance with these 
 suggestions, in 1820, a Committee of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Missionary Society of 
 Pennsylvania, composed of the Revs. Messrs. 
 Kemper, Muhlenberg, and Boyd, urged the for- 
 mation of a general missionary society of the 
 •whole Episcopal Church to work in the two 
 fields, the foreign and domestic. As a result of 
 these and other influences, at a special meeting 
 of the General Convention in 1821, the Do- 
 mestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 39 
 
 Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
 States of America was organized. 
 
 Our debt to the S. P. G. was not forgotten t°h"/l.°p.°G. ^"^ 
 on this occasion by Bishop White, who, as 
 spokesman for the Board of Directors, pro- 
 claimed to the American Church that, "We 
 stand in a relation to our brethren in the new 
 states not unlike that which before the revolu- 
 tion the Episcopal population in the Atlantic 
 provinces stood toward their parent Church in 
 England. What was then the conduct of that 
 Church toward the forefathers of those who 
 are now invited to imitate them in their benefi- 
 cence? It was that she extended her fostering 
 care to persons in their migration to the then 
 uncultivated wilderness of the new world, and 
 that she organized a society in which the pre- 
 lates took the lead, being sustained by the most 
 distinguished of the clergy of the whole realm." 
 
 The missionary example and help of the 
 S. P. G. in the past and the active interest of 
 the C. M. S. in the formation of the Domestic 
 and Foreign Missionary Society have linked, 
 with gratitude, all our mission work with that 
 of the Church of England. 
 
 The Society's first Constitution declared that, S^/|hurch' '" 
 "It shall be composed of the Bishops of the 'jSisionary 
 Protestant Episcopal Church and the members ^^p"'*'' 
 of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies of 
 the General Convention of the said Church for 
 
 Grateful Bonds 
 
40 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 the time being, and of such other persons as 
 shall contribute by subscription three dollars or 
 more annually to the objects of the institution 
 during the continuance of such contributions, 
 and of such as shall contribute at once thirty 
 dollars, which contributions shall constitute 
 them members for life. Members who pay 
 fifty dollars on subscribing shall be denomi- 
 nated patrons of the Society." It will be seen 
 that the new Society being created by and 
 composed of the official representatives of the 
 whole Church was essentially that Church act- 
 ing in its missionary capacity. The full reali- 
 zation of this fact came gradually, 
 comprehends^ At first thc Church provided for the joining 
 Membership of its Missiouary Society by the payment of 
 contributions or dues, and did not fully rec- 
 ognize its obligation to send out into the mis- 
 sion field Bishops as its representatives, fully 
 qualified to act for the Church in the organiza- 
 tion of new centers of corporate Christian life. 
 But the conviction of the essential identity of 
 the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society 
 with the Church grew, and in the memorable 
 Convention of 1835, Article II of the Con- 
 stitution was changed to read, "The Society 
 shall be considered as comprehending' all per- 
 sons who are members of the Church." 
 Supervision of This realization of the true membership of 
 the missionary society was paralleled by the 
 
 New Fields 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 41 
 
 recognition of the fact that it is the business of 
 the whole Church to send Bishops to mission 
 fields instead of waiting for the formation of 
 missions and their growth in strength and 
 number sufficient to organize a diocese. The 
 General Convention therefore elected the Rev. 
 Jackson Kemper as Missionary Bishop of Mis- 
 souri and Indiana, with jurisdiction in the 
 Northwest. This included everything west of 
 the Ohio except Michigan and Illinois. 
 
 Sixteen years before Bishop Chase had been |up°p"rt° °^ 
 elected Bishop of Ohio and two years before R^^^e^i^d 
 James Otey had been made Bishop of Ten- 
 nessee by conventions of five presbyters and a 
 few laymen. Both had been consecrated and 
 had supported themselves and their work as 
 best they could. The General Convention of 
 1835 recognized this condition to have been 
 an anomaly to the extent of voting tO' recognize 
 the consecration and dioceses of these Bishops 
 and to take some financial responsibility for 
 their work. 
 
 The same Convention sent the Rev. Henry Zniln^^n'^ 
 Lockwood and the Rev. Francis R. Hansen to 
 China as the first foreign missionaries, rec- 
 ognizing still further the world-wide responsi- 
 bility of the whole Church. 
 
 In 1904 a still further recognition of the Direltiln 
 Church as the one divinely constituted mission- 
 ary organization was given when the Church 
 
42 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 decided to elect for herself at each General 
 Convention executive heads of the Domestic 
 and ForeigTi Missionary Society in the persons 
 of its General Secretary and its Treasurer. 
 Extracts from "j There shall be a Board of Missions for 
 Article II ^jj^g purpose of exercising the administrative 
 
 functions of the Society, the members of which 
 shall be triennially chosen and appointed by the 
 General Convention of the Church. 
 
 "2. The Presiding Bishop shall be ex officio 
 the President of the Board of Missions. Fifteen 
 other Bishops, fifteen Presbyters, and fifteen 
 Laymen shall complete the active membership 
 of the Board. The Board thus constituted 
 shall exercise all the corporate powers of the 
 Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society; its 
 members shall remain in office until their suc- 
 cessors are chosen, and they shall have power 
 to fill any vacancies that may occur in their 
 number, save when a vacancy occurs within 
 three months of a meeting of the General Con- 
 vention. 
 
 "3. The Board of Missions shall elect a Vice- 
 President, who, in the absence of the President, 
 ex officio, shall preside at all meetings. 
 
 "4. The Bishops of this Church, other than 
 those chosen for active membership, shall be 
 honorary members of the Board, with all the 
 rights and privileges of the elected members, 
 except the right to vote." 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 43 
 The majority of the members of a board Board Member« 
 
 •' •' Necessarily 
 
 usually live in or near the city in which the Localized 
 board is located, because "experience has 
 proved that a few men, each of whom can be 
 easily reached, all of whom have a vital in- 
 terest in the trusts confided to them, will per- 
 form any given labor more efficiently than a 
 large board whose members are so diffused as 
 to beseldom collected, or as to forget the claims 
 of a duty whose immediate field is far away." 
 
 But though the members of a board are ilg°a1lou°'' 
 chosen from one part of the country, they are Bo^dr^ °^ 
 not sectional in spirit. There are no wiser min- 
 isters in the country than those who are on our 
 boards of foreign missions. There are no more 
 sagacious business men than the lay members 
 of those boards. Those who' sneer at mission 
 boards forget that they are composed not only 
 of distinguished clergymen, but of bank presi- 
 dents, successful merchants, railroad directors, 
 great lawyers, managers of large corporations 
 — men who in the commercial world are recog- 
 nized as authorities and are implicitly trusted. 
 Is their judgment of less value when they deal 
 with the extension of the kingdom of God? 
 
 Bishop Francis was a missionary in Japan o°5,';'^oard"f 
 for many years. Admiral Mahan was trained Missions 
 in international questions and familiar with 
 conditions in the Orient. Two other members 
 of the Board and the General Secretary have 
 
44 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 recently visited the Far East, and the general 
 policy of the Board encourages such trips for 
 its secretaries. Mr. George C. Thomas re- 
 signed from the banking firm of Drexel and 
 Company, in order to continue his Church work 
 when forbidden by his physician to do both. 
 Lawyers and business men, rectors of large 
 parishes, and prominent Bishops give their 
 valuable time and pay all their own travel- 
 ing expenses to attend the meetings of the 
 Board in New York. This is no small item, if 
 a man comes from Chicago, St. Paul, or other 
 distant points, 
 woir'^"'''^'"^ These men devote much time and labor to 
 the affairs of the Board, leaving their own 
 work, often at great inconvenience, to attend 
 board and committee meetings, earnestly and 
 prayerfully considering the things that pertain 
 to this sacred cause. Yet they receive no com- 
 pensation whatever, freely giving the Church 
 the benefit of their ripe experience and business 
 capacity. It would be necessary to pay a large 
 sum to command their services for any other 
 cause, if indeed they could be commanded at 
 all. One of them has said: "I could not be 
 hired to do this work for $5,000 a year, but I 
 will do it gratuitously for the sake of Christ 
 and my brethren." The Church owes much to 
 the Board. Its members are unselfishly and 
 self-sacrificingly administering the great trust 
 
Duties Defined 
 
 Foreign Missionary Administration 45 
 
 that has been committed to them, and though 
 they may make occasional mistakes, their loy- 
 alty, devotion, and intelligence are a reasonable 
 guaranty that they will wisely serve the cause 
 that is as dear to them as to others. 
 
 The Church in its General Convention elects gm""" ^ the 
 the General Secretary and the Treasurer. They Por'^ig"" ^"^ 
 nominate their respective assistants to the IJJcYety"^'^ 
 Board of Missions for election as follows : The 
 Associate, Corresponding, and Educational 
 Secretaries, and the Assistant Treasurer. 
 
 The principal duties of these officers are de- 
 fined by the by-laws as follows, in Article II : 
 
 "The General Secretary shall be the Execu- 2ecreu!ry 
 tive Officer of the Board; to superintend its 
 operations, to collect and give information in 
 regard to its work, to devise and recommend 
 plans of operation, and, in general, to execute 
 the purposes of the Board in his proper sphere, 
 submitting all his measures, before their adop- 
 tion for its approval, except that in cases of 
 emergency he may act with the approval of 
 the Advisory Committee, all such action to be 
 reported to the Board at its next meeting. 
 
 "The Associate Secretary shall assist the Gen- te«°e'tary 
 eral Secretary in his work and under him have 
 charge of the office of the Board, attending to 
 all the details of the same. He shall carefully 
 preserve the minutes and records of the Board, 
 and deliver them to his successor, and perform 
 
46 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Corresponding 
 Secretary 
 
 Educational 
 Secretary 
 
 Treasurer and 
 
 Assistant 
 
 Treasurer 
 
 such other duties as may be assigned to him. 
 He shall be the custodian of the seal of the 
 Society, and when authorized to do so, by reso- 
 lution of the Board of Missions, shall affix the 
 seal to any document and prove the same. 
 
 "The Corresponding Secretary shall assist 
 the General Secretary in his work, shall have 
 charge of the correspondence of the Board 
 under his direction, and shall edit such publica- 
 tions as the Society may authorize, with such 
 assistance as the Board may, from time to time, 
 determine to be necessary, and also fulfil the 
 duties of the Associate Secretary in the case of 
 his absence. He shall present the cause of 
 missions as he may be directed to do by the 
 Board of Missions or the General Secretary, 
 with a view of awakening interest in the mis- 
 sionary work of the Church. 
 
 "The Educational Secretary shall assist the 
 General Secretary in his work; shall organize 
 and direct mission study classes and prepare 
 courses of study for the same.' He shall present 
 the cause of missions as he may be directed to 
 do by the Board of Missions or the General 
 Secretary, with a view to awakening interest 
 in the missionary work of the Church." 
 
 The duties of the Treasurer and Assistant 
 Treasurer are carefully detailed in the By-laws. 
 They are such as are customary, and every 
 precaution is required of them which will safe- 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 47 
 
 guard the keeping and the payment of funds in 
 accordance with the action of the Board of 
 Missions. It is also provided that, "The Treas- 
 urer shall present to the Board monthly a full 
 and accurate account of the receipts and dis- 
 bursements, and of the state of the Treasury." 
 This report is always accompanied by a writ- 
 ten certificate as to its accuracy from a public 
 auditor not connected with the Society. 
 
 "The offices of one of our great societies are J^'H'^'ork 
 as busy a hive of workers as any financial or 
 mercantile institution. Receipts of sums vary- 
 ing from a few cents to thousands of dollars, 
 and in many cases aggregating over a million, 
 are recorded, acknowledged, cared for; ac- 
 counts are kept with every variety of manu- 
 facturer and merchant; payments are made 
 through the great banking houses of Europe 
 and Asia to thousands of agents in every coun- 
 try, American and foreign ; correspondence 
 affecting not merely the spiritual but temporal 
 welfare of thousands upon thousands of people, 
 is carefully considered and filed away for refer- 
 ence at any moment; books are published in 
 widely different languages; large investments 
 in real estate and in buildings are made ; diplo- 
 matic questions, sometimes of immense im- 
 portance, are considered. In fact, there is prob- 
 ably no other organization in the world, except 
 a national government, that carries on so varied 
 
When the 
 Board of 
 Missions Meets 
 
 Standing 
 Committees 
 
 Method of Work 
 
 The Board 
 
 Meeting 
 
 48 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 and as important lines of business as does a 
 foreign missionary society."^ 
 
 On the second Tuesday of every month 
 (with three exceptions) the ofifices at the Mis- 
 sion House are filled all the morning with mem- 
 bers of the Board meeting with their respective 
 standing committees, to consider and prepare 
 the business of the Society and the requests of 
 its missionaries, for rapid and intelligent con- 
 sideration by the Board of Missions at its ses- 
 sion in the afternoon. 
 
 There are ten Standing Committees, namely : 
 An Advisory Committee, Committees on Trust 
 Funds, on Domestic Missions, on China and 
 Japan, on Africa and Hayti, on Porto Rico, 
 Honolulu, The Philippine Islands, Mexico, 
 Brazil and Cuba, on Work Among the Negroes, 
 on Missionary Meetings, on Mission Study and 
 Mission Study Literature, and a Committee on 
 Audit and Finance. 
 
 Each committee at its meetings has before it 
 all letters received since the previous Board 
 meeting which come within its scope. One of 
 the Secretaries of the Board meets with each 
 committee to give further information if de- 
 sired, and each committee reports and recom- 
 mends resolutions on such matters as require 
 the action of the Board. 
 
 In the afternoon members of all committees 
 
 'Dr. Edwin M. Bliss. 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 49 
 
 meet as the Board of Missions to receive and 
 act upon the reports of committees. The chair- 
 man of each committee in presenting its report 
 is ready and is frequently asked to give further 
 particulars and reasons for the resolutions 
 presented. 
 
 The dioceses and missionary districts of the Jepirtmentr^ 
 United States of America have been grouped 
 into eight departments, to secure a more com- 
 plete cooperation between the Board of Mis- 
 sions and the Church in various sections of the 
 country. The Department has power to or- 
 ganize a Missionary Council auxiliary to the 
 Board of Missions, composed of all the Bishops 
 officially resident within the Department, and 
 of four clerical and four lay representatives 
 elected by each of the several dioceses and mis- 
 sionary districts within the department. Each 
 department may select a representative other 
 than the Department Secretary, who shall have 
 the right to attend all meetings of the Board of 
 Missions with the privileges of the floor, but 
 without the right to vote. It has the right to 
 promote the holding of missionary meetings 
 and to take all such measures to foster mis- 
 sionary interests within the department as are 
 not inconsistent with the Constitution and 
 Canons of the General Convention or of any 
 diocese or missionary district within the de- 
 partment. 
 
50 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Department 
 Secretaries 
 
 Early 
 
 Auxiliaries 
 of the Board 
 
 Woman's 
 Auxiliary 
 
 Junior 
 
 Department of 
 the Woman's 
 Auxiliary 
 
 Each department has the right through its 
 Council to elect, subject to the approval of the 
 Board of Missions, a Department Secretary, 
 whose compensation is fixed and paid by the 
 Board. He holds office during its pleasure, and 
 works under its direction. 
 
 In the early history of the Domestic and 
 Foreign Missionary Society, much of the time 
 of the Secretaries was given to the work of 
 organizing local auxiliary societies of men and 
 women. Among the earliest of these, the So- 
 ciety's Annual Report mentions eleven local 
 auxiliaries, eight of which were "Female Mis- 
 sionary Auxiliaries." Diocesan societies in the 
 interest of dififerent parts of the mission field 
 were formed later. 
 
 In 1 87 1 the Woman's Auxiliary was created 
 by the General Convention, as a general auxili- 
 ary to the Board of Missions. The several 
 diocesan societies became its branches, and 
 other branches were formed, until now every 
 diocese and missionary district has its or- 
 ganized branch. Its purpose to promote prayer, 
 study, work, and giving for missions has been 
 well fulfilled, and its strength can be inferred 
 from the fact that in 1907 its Triennial United 
 Offering, which is given over and above its 
 regular work and gifts, amounted to $224,000. 
 
 In 1889 the General Convention, sitting as 
 the Boiard of Missions, authorized the Junior 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 51 
 
 Department of the Woman's Auxiliary to en- 
 list the children and young people of the Church 
 in missionary service. Manual work, mission 
 study, intercessory prayer, securing volunteers, 
 and systematic giving are emphasized. 
 
 Organized in i860 as an independent So- chSroh"^""" 
 ciety, the American Church Missionary Society ^J|fet°y ^"^^ 
 became an auxiliary of the Domestic and For- 
 eign Missionary Society in 1877, and in 1906 
 turned over to it the virork in Cuba and Brazil. 
 
 In October, 1898, the Sunday schools con- 
 tributing to the Lenten Offering were recog- l^hoo""''*^ 
 nized as the Sunday School Auxiliary to the ^"tHe Board 
 Board of Missions. Its gifts are made chiefly °f Missions 
 during Lent, when special mite boxes are dis- 
 tributed for the purpose. Many schools, how- 
 ever, begin their offering in Advent, and some 
 keep adding to it throughout the year. Mis- 
 sionary instruction during the Sunday school 
 session and at other times, the circulating of 
 missionary books, pamphlets, and the Chil- 
 dren's Number of The Spirit of Missions, are 
 the methods used to develop interest in the 
 offering. The amounts given each year have 
 increased remarkably. In 1878, the first offer- 
 ing was $7,000; in 1894, the seventeenth 
 offering was $59,000 ; in 1902, the twenty-fifth 
 offering was $110,000; in 1908, the thirty-first 
 offering was $137,000, which was given hy 
 3,801 schools. 
 
52 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 M^lsioS'Sa Foreign countries were occupied by the 
 Occupied Church through the Domestic and Foreign 
 Missionary Society as follows : Greece, 1830- 
 1898; Crete, 1837-1843; Persia, 1835-1850; 
 Texas (then a foreign country), 1838-1845; 
 South America, 1859-1864, and from 1906 to 
 the present time. Africa was entered in 1835, 
 China in 1835, Japan in 1859, and Haiti in 
 1865. 
 opinldb'"* The American Church Missionary Society 
 cru'rcT" entered Cuba in 1888, Brazil in 1889, Haiti in 
 s'ocYefy "'' 1 861 ; and after doing a valuable work, in 1865 
 turned over to the Domestic and Foreign Mis- 
 sionary Society, for its administration, the 
 Haitian work, and the work in Cuba and Brazil 
 in 1905. 
 S^mestTc'/nd"* ^hcrc wcrc in the year 1908, 248 foreign 
 Missionary missionarics, of whom ^6 had been ordained, 
 Society in 1908 and also 818 native workers, of whom 131 were 
 ordained, and in all the 371 stations there were 
 11,170 communicants. 
 ifnan"ciai I" ^hc handling of money great care is taken. 
 Methods Ylot only is every dollar received promptly 
 acknowledged to the giver, but a public report 
 is made in the annual report and copies are 
 freely given to any who request them. 
 
 The majority of the members and officers 
 of the Board are or have been- rectors, and 
 the others are members and contributing lay 
 officers of churches. They know, therefore, 
 
 A Sacred Trust 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 53 
 
 apart from the board's correspondence, that 
 the money they receive comes, not only from 
 the rich, but from the poor; that it includes 
 the widow's mite, the workingman's hard- 
 earned wage, and that it is followed on its 
 mission of blessing by the prayers of loving 
 hearts. So the board regards that money as 
 a sacred thing, a trust to be expended with 
 more than ordinary care. 
 
 Some expenditure for administration is, of Administration 
 
 ^ ' txpenditure 
 
 course, indispensable. The work could not indispensable 
 be carried on without it, for a board must 
 have offices and the facilities for doing its work. 
 The scale of administration is largely deter- 
 mined by the ideas of the Church which, the 
 board represents and the work that it is re- 
 quired to do. It is hardly fair to cite the low 
 administrative expense of certain independent 
 agencies, for they do not assume such responsi- 
 bilities for the maintenance of their mission- 
 aries as the Church boards. The churches want 
 their missionaries adequately supported for a 
 life-work, and that involves an administrative 
 agency commensurate in expensiveness with 
 the obligations that must be assumed. Still, the 
 cost of administration of the great mission 
 boards is surprisingly low. The exact percent- 
 age varies, as some have free rentals and un- 
 paid agents, and as the cost of stimulating the 
 churches is not always considered administra- 
 
54 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 tive. In general, It may be said that the 
 amount for administration proper ranges from 
 five to eight per cent. That is, it takes but 
 Httle more than the value of a foreign postage 
 stamp to send a dollar to Asia or Africa. 
 Low*co°i? Is there any mercantile concern doing a great 
 business and requiring the services of a large 
 number of persons scattered all over the world, 
 whose percentage of expenditure for adminis- 
 tration is so low? Professor Henry van Dyke 
 once made inquiries of several large corpora- 
 tions, railway, manufacturing, and mercantile, 
 and he found that the average cost of adminis- 
 tration was 12.75 P^r cent, while in one great 
 establishment it rose to twenty per cent. The 
 manager of one of the large department stores 
 in New York told me that his expense for ad- 
 ministration was twenty-two per cent, and he 
 expressed astonishment that the board's cost 
 was only about one quarter of that. The cases 
 are not entirely parallel; but after making all 
 reasonable allowance for differences, the essen- 
 tial fact remains that the cost of missionary 
 administration is remarkably low. About nine- 
 ty-five cents out of every dollar go to the 
 work in some form. Dr. John Hall, of New 
 York, once said: "I have been closely con- 
 nected with the work for more than a quarter 
 of a century, and I do not hesitate to say that 
 it would be difficult to find elsewhere as much 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 55 
 
 work done at so moderate a cost as in our mis- 
 sion boards." 
 
 It is more difficult than many might ?f"Debt° 
 imagine to manage a great board so as to avoid 
 debt. The work, being conducted on so large 
 a scale and over so vast a territory, cannot be 
 hurriedly adjusted to financial changes in the 
 United States. It has been gradually developed 
 through a long series of years, and must from 
 its nature be stable. A board cannot end its 
 work with the year and begin the next year on 
 a different basis. It operates in distant lands, 
 some so remote that from four to six months 
 are required for the mere interchange of letters. 
 Plans and pledges must therefore be made far 
 in advance. In these circumstances, it is not 
 easy to forecast the future ; but the boards must 
 do so, or try to. 
 
 Moreover, missionaries are sent out for a poUcJifowaM 
 life service. They cannot be discharged at any Missionaries 
 time, as a merchant discharges a clerk. True, 
 the board reserves the right of recall; but it 
 justly feels that it should not exercise it, save 
 for serious cause in the missionary himself. 
 Foreign missionaries, too, are not situated like 
 home missionaries — among people of their own 
 race, with partially self-supporting congrega- 
 tions behind them, and with larger churches 
 within call, in case their board fails them. They 
 are thousands of miles away, among different 
 
Uncertainty 
 of Income 
 
 Reserve 
 Deposits 
 
 56 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 and often hostile races, and with usually no 
 local resource. In such circumstances, the 
 board simply cannot abandon them. It must 
 pay their salaries and pay them promptly; and 
 it does so. The boards have retrenched in 
 many other ways, but the foreign missionary 
 has received his full salary, and that, too, the 
 very day it was due. We believe that the home 
 churches will sustain the boards in that policy, 
 that they do not want them to send a forlorn 
 hope into Asia and Africa, and then desert it. 
 This policy, however, while only just to the 
 missionaries, involves risk to the boards. 
 
 Another difficulty experienced by the boards 
 is the uncertainty of income. The churches 
 will not pay in advance. The average church 
 does not even make pledges, and has no ade- 
 quate system of raising money. The tide of 
 beneficence ebbs and flows in the most startling 
 ways, and of course the board is often in danger 
 of debt. 
 
 To meet payments in the early months of the 
 fiscal year when the contributions are light and 
 when the appropriations must be paid in regu- 
 lar amounts every month a fund for reserve 
 deposits was given and set aside in order that 
 the board might thus be spared the necessity 
 of borrowing money, which had been found 
 unavoidable until these reserves were estab- 
 lished. As an illustration, in the first six 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 57 
 
 months of 1908 the appropriations were $520,- 
 000, while the contributions were only $237,- 
 000, and the Reserve Deposits were provided 
 to help tide over such a period. Suppose some 
 unforeseen emergency had occurred in the last 
 two months to diminish the gifts that were nor- 
 mally expected at that period — a financial 
 panic, a Saint Louis flood, or a San Francisco 
 earthquake — debt would^ have been inevitable 
 but for this fund. 
 
 The Bishops, as the leaders in the field, must Ippropriati( 
 have a definite assurance from the Board of 
 Missions of the amount of money they may 
 expect for their work during each missionary 
 year — September i to August 31. In May of 
 each year the Board of Missions makes its ap- 
 propriations for the year beginning with the 
 next September. That is, it notifies each 
 Bishop of the amount it has assigned for the 
 support of workers and the extension of the 
 work in his diocese or district. Appropria- 
 tions once made by the Board have all the value 
 of promissory notes. The offerings of the year 
 may be insufiicient to pay them, but the Board 
 must make good its promises. In 1908 the 
 Board made appropriations as follows : 
 
 1. At Home — To 42 dioceses and 22 mis- 
 sionary districts, with a total staff of 1,195 
 workers. 
 
 2. Abroad — To 9 missionary districts, with 
 
58 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 a total staff of 248 Americans and other for- 
 eigners and 818 native helpers. 
 
 The appropriations for work at home and 
 abroad during the year September i, 1908, to 
 August 31, 1909, were $1,076,520.31. 
 men^KaT'""" The Board of Missions does not divide 
 money that has already been given. It is 
 obliged to make appropriations in the expecta- 
 tion and hope that the amount it guarantees to 
 the Bishops will be given through it, by the 
 congregations all over the country. In order 
 that each congregation may know its share of 
 the support of our missions, the General Con- 
 vention in San Francisco in October, 1901, in- 
 structed the Board of Missions to divide the 
 missionary budget each year among the dio- 
 ceses and districts. This is known as the Ap- 
 portionment Plan. 
 Ap^ruonment ^^ Order to determine the share of each dio- 
 isMade (.ggg ^j^g Board of Missions ascertains, from the 
 
 diocesan journal, the average of the total re- 
 ceipts of all the congregations in the diocese for 
 five years. The dioceses are then grouped into 
 classes. Then the dioceses in each class are 
 asked to give a certain percentage of their total 
 receipts, the wealthiest dioceses giving the 
 largest percentage, usually 5}^ per cent. The 
 dioceses in each succeeding class give smaller 
 percentages of their total receipts and so on 
 down the list to the poorer dioceses whose total 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 59 
 
 receipts are less than $50,000. They give tlie 
 smallest percentage, usually 2^4 per cent. The 
 diocesan authorities are then expected to 
 divide these smaller amounts among the con- 
 gregations, and the clergyman in charge of each 
 congregation is asked to make known the 
 amount suggested as the congregational offer- 
 ing, so that every member of every congrega- 
 tion in the country may know just how much 
 the congregation is asked to give, in order that 
 the Church's Mission may be adequately main- 
 tained. 
 
 The apportionment is not a tax or an assess- Apportionment 
 ment. Neither is it intended to be taken as a 
 measure of the giving ability of any diocese or 
 congregation. It is simply an endeavor to 
 divide fairly among all members of the Church 
 an expense common to all. Many congrega- 
 tions are able to give more than their apportion- 
 ment and take pride in doing so. 
 
 In 1908 the offerings for missions from Achievements 
 congregations were $241,000 larger than in 
 1901. The total of contributions from parishes 
 and individuals under the Apportionment Plan, 
 during the seven years in which it has been in 
 use has been very largely increased and the 
 figures are about double those of seven years 
 ago. In 1901 they were $235,993.81. In 1907 
 they were $466,976.75. In 1908 they were 
 $477,322.58, or a gain the past year of $10,- 
 
 Under the 
 
 Apportionment 
 
 Plan 
 
6o Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 345.83; or a gain as compared with 1901 of 
 $241,328.77. In the seven years also the num- 
 ber of contributing parishes has more than 
 doubled. In 1902, the first year of the Appor- 
 tionment, eight dioceses and ten missionary dis- 
 tricts completed their apportionments; a total 
 of eighteen. In 1908 twenty-one dioceses and 
 twenty-six missionary districts completed their 
 apportionments ; a total of forty-seven. 
 R^Titf/lo The perplexities of administration are great- 
 
 speciai Objects j^ increased by the special object system. The 
 basal reason for giving should not, of course, 
 lie in a particular person or institution,, but in 
 the considerations that were stated in the chap- 
 ter on "The Foreign Missionary Motive." 
 However, giving to objects aside from the au- 
 thorized work by the boards themselves can be 
 so safeguarded as to be helpful. It often makes 
 the cause concrete and strengthens the sense of 
 responsibility for its maintenance. The inclina- 
 tions of earnest and friendly people to main- 
 tain the work by special object giving should 
 not be indiscriminately opposed, but wisely 
 guided. Within proper limits, they, may be 
 made to subserve wise ends, 
 ^ffiffs™*"' Constituents and missionaries should under- 
 stand that the object of the boards in desiring 
 to control gifts is simply in the interest of the 
 work : that they wish to have the Lord's money 
 used to the best advantage, and that they have 
 
 Desirable 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 6i 
 
 no disposition to alter the direction of a desig- 
 nated gift, but only to safeguard the interests 
 of the cause and to provide for emergencies and 
 for necessary changes. 
 
 The perplexities of special object giving are SJ^^sudgM ^'"^^ 
 increased by the disposition of many people to 
 give to objects outside of the authorized budget. 
 Bishops with their councils of advice carefully 
 consider the work that should be done and for- 
 ward their estimates to the board. On the 
 basis of these estimates, the board makes "the 
 regular grants," pledging in them the largest 
 sum that there appears to be a reasonable prob- 
 ability will be received. Plainly, therefore, the 
 first duty of givers, if they would truly serve 
 the work, is toward these grants, since they 
 include the objects which the missionaries 
 themselves have decided to be of first import- 
 ance. Therefore, to demand that money shall 
 be applied to some other purpose is virtually 
 to insist upon giving to the less, rather than 
 to the more important work. 
 
 "It is a singular fact," observes Dr. E. E. {j^lf^irabTe 
 Strong, "that so many donors fancy that they 
 can get information as to the best use to be 
 made of their gifts through individual appeals, 
 rather than by taking the united judgment of 
 the missionaries on the ground and the execu- 
 tive committees at home." The effort to evan- 
 gelize the world must not degenerate into a 
 
62 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 sporadic and spasmodic individualism. A 
 board cannot spend $50,000 this year on a 
 mission which has happened to have several 
 good speakers at home on furlough, and $30,- 
 000 the next year because the furloughed mis- 
 sionaries from that field v^^ere ill or ineffective 
 on the platform. The scale on which money 
 should be expended in a given field cannot be 
 wholly determined by the amount of money 
 offered for it, or the varying degree of success 
 which a missionary may have in presenting it 
 to home audiences, or the newspaper articles 
 that may happen to interest a reader; but it 
 must be decided by the relative needs of that 
 field, the funds that are available for the whole 
 enterprise, and the policy that has been adopted 
 by the board. Otherwise, demoralizing ele- 
 ments of uncertainty and inequality are in- 
 troduced. 
 Perplexities There are, moreover, administrative per- 
 
 and Dangers ,...',. ' . , . , 
 
 plexities mvolved m such excessively special- 
 ized giving. Suppose a citizen should refuse 
 to contribute toward the expenses of his com- 
 munity unless his money could be applied to the 
 grading of the street in front of his house, or 
 to the salary of the teacher who instructs his 
 children. How could the administration of 
 any municipality be conducted, if each man in- 
 sisted on having some particular item- of city 
 expenditure assigned to him;? The donor does 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 63 
 
 not usually suspect the difficulties in his selec- 
 tion of a special object. He naturally chooses 
 the most attractive phases of the work, while 
 others less attractive but equally important are 
 ignored. 
 
 Whenever for personal association or other |Pntributions 
 reasons any one asks the Board of Missions to 
 send a gift to some missionary or some par- 
 ticular object not already supported by an ap- 
 propriation of the Board, or when the giver 
 wishes to send an additional gift to some person 
 or object receiving an appropriation from the 
 Board, which shall be over and above whatever 
 appropriation is received, this extra gift is 
 called a "Special." 
 
 "Specials." do not apply on the apportion- How Applied 
 ment, since the Board of Missions cannot use 
 special gifts to pay the appropriations, but must 
 send them to the fields named by the donor, in 
 addition to the appropriation. 
 
 The Board of Missions provides for the ?o°^iffbu«ons 
 natural and proper wish of contributors to give 
 to particular objects by assigning on request, 
 some object already included within the An- 
 nual Appropriation to an individual donor as 
 his share of the obligation of the whole Church. 
 They differ from specials in the fact that the 
 gifts are for objects included in the budget of 
 appropriations, and help the Church to meet 
 the obligations it has assumed through its 
 
64 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 agent, the Board. Designated offerings are 
 therefore properly credited to the parish or 
 diocesan apportionment. Under this plan 
 money is received, not for an individual scholar 
 or patient or native worker, but for a share of 
 the cost of a particular school or hospital or 
 station. Larger gifts may be designated for 
 the maintenance of an institution, or of an en- 
 tire mission station. Arrangements of this 
 character are made in consultation with the 
 Corresponding Secretary. 
 sitrsfactiM Plans such as these are proving satisfactory 
 alike to givers, the Board, and the missionaries. 
 It allows a flexible use of mission funds in ac- 
 cordance with the best judgment of the mission- 
 aries and the changing necessities of the work, 
 provides a support for all departments and not 
 simply for a few, makes it possible to furnish 
 adequate information, gives room for steady 
 advance of interest and gifts, instead of fixing 
 limits, and insures the continuance of the gift 
 to the permanent work uninfluenced by changes 
 in personnel. 
 otmnd^ Viewing missionary administration as a 
 whole, there is undoubtedly occasional ground 
 for criticism. Every board would admit that, 
 in deciding a myriad of perplexing questions, 
 many of them delicate and difficult and on 
 which good men differ, some errors of judg- 
 ment occur. The attitude of officers and mem- 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 65 
 
 bers should be one of openness of mind toward 
 such modifications of policy or method as 
 conditions may require. The fact that they did 
 a thing last year is not a conclusive reason 
 why they should do it next year. Emerson 
 says that consistency is the virtue of small 
 minds'. We should do what we believe to be 
 right before God to-day, whether or not it is 
 what we did yesterday. The man who cannot 
 change his mind, when conditions have 
 changed, is not fit to be an administrator of 
 a great enterprise. He is worse than a weak 
 man, for the latter is amenable to advice, 
 while the former is as inaccessible to reason as 
 a mule. It is probable, however, that if any 
 one were to make a list of the real defects in 
 present administrative methods, he would read- 
 ily learn on inquiry that the boards already 
 know those defects and that they are earn- 
 estly striving to remedy them. Dr. William 
 N. Clarke expresses the following opinion : 
 
 "The sharpest criticism usually comes from fndlS'utuai 
 those who know the work only from the out- Dtsfrlw" 
 side, and have no idea either of its real magni- 
 tude or of the immense complications that it 
 involves. Large parts of the work of mission- 
 ary boards imply matters that are confidential 
 in their nature. A certain amount of reserve is 
 absolutely required by justice and by the in- 
 terests of the work. Matters that can be openly 
 
66 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 discussed are often fully intelligible only to 
 those who know great classes of surrounding 
 facts. When a society or board is blamed about 
 some occurrence on the foreign field, there is 
 almost sure to be involved some personal matter 
 in which prejudice for or against some one may 
 easily mislead an outside judgment, and even 
 in the inner circle a just and wise judgment 
 requires the utmost caution. All administrative 
 work is of course justly open to candid and 
 reasonable criticism, and no missionary society 
 expects-or asks to escape it; but there are com- 
 paratively few persons whoi are thoroughly 
 qualified to criticize the administration of the 
 great missionary organizations except in a very 
 general way. Even for those who have inti- 
 mate knowledge enough to be capable of in- 
 telligent criticism, it often proves far easier to 
 see faults in the policy of the great societies 
 than to propose radical improvements upon 
 their general method of administration. It is a 
 case wbere correction even of acknowledged 
 faults, though it be ever so much desired, is 
 often beset with unsuspected difficulty. Hence, 
 the case is one that evidently calls for mutual 
 confidence and loyal cooperation among those 
 who are interested together in missions. . . . 
 The fact ought to be taken more closely home 
 to the popular Christian heart that a mission- 
 ary society is conducting a work of exception- 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 67 
 
 al magnitude and difficulty, under conditions 
 that render misjudgment of its doings ex- 
 tremely easy; and that its officers deserve 
 sympathetic and respectful judgment from all 
 their brethren."^ 
 
 All the boards are giving increasing atten- ^'rectfon* 
 tion to the principles of an intelligent and com- 
 prehensive policy. They feel that the days of 
 sentimentalism in foreign missions have passed. 
 They are not conducting a crusade, but a set- 
 tled .campaign, and they are planning it with 
 such skill and prudence as they possess. They 
 study the broad principles of missions, read the 
 lessons of twenty centuries of missionary effort, 
 abandon plans that have been found defective 
 and adopt new ones which promise better re- 
 sults. Every year, the officers and representa- 
 tives of about fifty boards of the United States 
 and Canada meet for conference as to the best 
 methods for carrying on missionary operations, 
 and an amount of care and thought is given to 
 the whole subject that would surprise the aver- 
 age critic. The boards are earnestly trying to 
 administer this great trust wisely, economic- 
 ally, and effectively, and on sound business and 
 scientific as well as religious principles. 
 
 It will be seen from all that has been said afVailh 
 that there is no ground for the assumption of 
 some that the work of a Church board is not 
 
 ^A Study of Christian Missions, 128, 134, 135. 
 
68 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 a faith work. At the beginning of each year, 
 the board makes and guarantees its appropri- 
 ations solely on the faith that God will move 
 the Church to provide the necessary money. 
 Since he has ordained that this work shall be 
 supported by the gifts of his people, it is fair 
 to assume that he will bless them when they 
 move unitedly and prayerfully for the accom- 
 plishment of the chief work that he has laid 
 upon them, and that he is quite as apt to guide 
 the men whom the Church "looks out" as "of 
 good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom" 
 and appoints "over this business," as he is to 
 guide any independent agency or individual, 
 however sincere or enthusiastic. 
 Th^'ough"prayer These men regard the work as of divine au- 
 thority and of beneficent character. They 
 reverently look to the Holy Spirit as the ad- 
 ministrator of the enterprise, believing that 
 their chief reliance must be upon his guidance. 
 They realize that God is not limited to human 
 methods, and that the failure of a cherished 
 plan may not argue injury to the cause, but 
 only defects in the plan. They feel that their 
 only safety is to keep close to Christ and to 
 seek to know his will. Prayer, therefore, be- 
 gins and pervades all deliberations, and wings 
 every appeal for funds. Heavy as are the anx- 
 ieties and responsibilities, every board counts it 
 an honor and a privilege to represent the 
 
Foreign Missionary Administration 69 
 
 Church of God in the administration of this 
 noblest of all Christian activities. 
 
 QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER II 
 
 Aim : To Understand the Machinery that has been 
 Created by the Church for Carrying out its Aim 
 
 1. How would foreign missionary work be con- 
 ducted if we had no denominational mission- 
 ary boards? 
 
 2. Why would it not be possible at present to 
 have a single board, representing the entire 
 Christian Church? 
 
 3. What would be the advantages of having each 
 parish conduct its work on the foreign field 
 directly, and separately? 
 
 4. What would be the disadvantages of this ar- 
 rangement ? 
 
 5. How, in this case, would a missionary secure 
 appointment, if his own congregation was un- 
 able to send him out? 
 
 6. How would the work on the field compare in 
 equipment with that which is now conducted 
 by the Board? 
 
 7. Sum up all the advantages of denominational 
 boards as effective missionary agencies, over 
 separate congregations and independent so- 
 cieties. 
 
 8. Sum up the principal features of the work of 
 the Board of Missions, considered as a business 
 enterprise. 
 
 9. How does it seem to you to compare in mag- 
 nitude and difiiculty with that of the other 
 boards of the Church? 
 
 10. What sort of men should be secured as secre- 
 taries of boards of foreign missions? 
 
yo Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 11. Name some of the principal subjects that 
 board secretaries ought to be acquainted with. 
 
 12. What kind of salaries should they receive? 
 
 13. What are the arguments for increased economy 
 in the administration of the Board of Missions? 
 
 14. What are the arguments for larger expendi- 
 ture? 
 
 15. How is a board to advertise its work effective- 
 ly, and yet escape the criticism of extrava- 
 gance ? 
 
 16. What is the Apportionment and what has it 
 done? 
 
 17. What are the arguments for and against giving 
 "Specials" for objects outside the budget? 
 
 18. What is a "designated offering" ? 
 
 19. Under what circumstances should missionaries 
 on furlough be permitted to solicit money for 
 their own work? 
 
 20. What knowledge should a person have, in 
 order to pass intelligent criticism on a board 
 of foreign missions? 
 
 21. What are the three principal difficulties, in the 
 order of their importance, that boards have 
 to meet? 
 
 22. What ways can you suggest of meeting these 
 difficulties ? 
 
 23. What is the part of the individual parish in the 
 matter? 
 
 24. What is the part of the individual Christian? 
 
QUALIFICATIONS AND 
 APPOINTMENT 
 
 71 
 
The first point that I shall emphasize refers to your 
 physical nature. You will want to take with you to 
 your field of labor a sound, healthy, vigorous, and 
 normally developed body. — George Scholl 
 
 Let the most thoroughly disciplined faculties and 
 the noblest powers of the Christian world be con- 
 secrated to work of such a character. We do not plead 
 for' missionaries to go forth to teach science, but for 
 missionaries who possess a scientific mind; not for 
 men to proclaim or teach the philosophies of the world, 
 but for men who have as a part of their equipment a 
 philosophic mind. — S. H. Wainright 
 
 In the first place, only a man whose mind is per- 
 vaded by the immediate personal presence of the Holy 
 Spirit can reveal Christ to those seeking him. The 
 first great work which we have in any mission field is 
 that of making Christ known to the people. 
 
 — James M. Thoburn 
 
 In the mission field abroad, as in fact at home, too, 
 character counts for more than learning, for more 
 than skill. Character, humanly speaking, is almost 
 everything. — Eugene Stock 
 
 72 
 
I 
 
 III 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS AND 
 
 APPOINTMENT 
 
 T is a mistake to suppose that any nice, pious carefui 
 youth can become a foreign missionary, candidates 
 The critic who imagines that weaiiHngs or 
 milksops can be appointed, might apply for ap- 
 pointment himself and see. Large churches, 
 after spending a year or more in considering 
 scores of highly recommended ministers, some- 
 times give a unanimous call to an unworthy 
 man. So a board occasionally errs. But as a 
 rule, the rigorous methods now employed 
 quickly reject incompetent candidates, while 
 the increasing missionary interest in colleges 
 and seminaries gives the choicest material to 
 select from. The boards do not appoint the 
 pale enthusiast or the romantic young lady to 
 the foreign field, but the sturdy, practical, ener- 
 getic man of affairs, the woman of poise and 
 sense and character. It is not the policy to send 
 a multitude of common men, but a compara- 
 tively small number of picked men, the highest 
 types of our Anglo-Saxon Christian character 
 and culture. Imitating the example of the 
 church at Antioch in setting apart as foreign 
 73 
 
74 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Tests Imposed 
 
 Qualifications 
 
 Health 
 
 missionaries Paul and Barnabas, the modern 
 Church selects the best that apply for this serv- 
 ice. The result is that foreign missionaries are 
 fast becoming a picked class, far above the 
 average in intelligence, character, and devo- 
 tion. 
 
 We vi^ould not give the impression that the 
 boards insist upon an impracticable standard, 
 nor should modesty deter any young man or 
 vifoman from applying. The tests imposed are 
 not merely scholastic. Sometimes the honor 
 members of a graduating class have been re- 
 jected and men of lesser academic distinction 
 appointed, because investigation has shown 
 that the latter gave better promise of real use- 
 fulness. High grades sometimes coexist with 
 serious defects of character. Many of the 
 prize men of our colleges are never heard of in 
 after life, while others, who, like General 
 Grant, made no special miark as students, have 
 developed splendid qualities. 
 
 It may be well to indicate the qualifications 
 that are required, not only for the guidance of 
 young people who are contemplating applica- 
 tion, but for the information of la}mien who 
 may not be familiar with the subject, and who 
 often hear misleading statements regarding it. 
 
 Foreign missionaries often live and work 
 in such trying climates, amid such insanitary 
 surroundings, exposed to such malignant dis- 
 
Qualifications and Appointment 
 
 75 
 
 eases, and under such nervous strain, that only 
 men and women of sound constitution and 
 vigorous health should be appointed. It is im- 
 portant therefore to ascertain whether one is 
 free from physical defects or tendencies that 
 might shorten life. This question is one to be 
 determined, not by the applicant, but by a phy- 
 sician, and the board insists on a rigid examina- 
 tion, usually by a physician of its own selection. 
 
 After thirty, one's ability to acquire a free, ^ge Limits 
 colloquial use of a foreign tongue rapidly di- 
 minishes. Moreover, one's ability to adapt 
 himself to a different environment becomes 
 less easy as the years pass. It is better that 
 the transfer to new conditions and the study 
 of a difficult language should begin before 
 either the physical or intellectual life becomes 
 so fixed that it is hard to acquire new things. 
 The probable duration of effective service also 
 shortens rapidly as one moves toward middle 
 life. For these reasons, the boards do not 
 like to accept any one over thirty-three, un- 
 less other qualifications are exceptionally high, 
 in which case the age of acceptance is occasion- 
 ally extended to thirty-five. 
 
 Graduation from both college and profes- Education 
 sional school is ordinarily required in men, 
 and at least a high school training in women. 
 The boards insist, too, that the student's 
 record shall be such as to show that he pos- 
 
76 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 sesses more than average intellectual ability. 
 A considerable part of the work of the mis- 
 sionary is intellectual. His daily problems re- 
 quire a trained mind. Moreover, in many 
 fields he comes into contact with natives whose 
 mental acumen is by no means contemptible. 
 While, therefore, a board will not reject a 
 candidate because he does not stand near the 
 head of his class, it will reject him if his grades 
 indicate mediocrity. The considerations that 
 occasionally lead the Church at home to ordain 
 a man who has not had a full course may lead 
 a board to send one to the foreign field, but 
 such cases are exceptions. 
 Those Without Graduates of technical schools are needed 
 
 Theological 
 
 Training yearly by the Board of Missions. Physicians 
 
 are nearly always in demand. Colleges and 
 boarding-schools frequently call for recruits 
 who are specially qualified for teaching. Some- 
 times mechanical and electrical engineers are 
 needed for special chairs. Several boards have 
 sought graduates of industrial and agricultural 
 colleges for industrial schools. Hospitals often 
 ask for trained nurses to act as matrons and 
 head nurses. Mission presses call for superin- 
 tendents who understand printing, while some 
 of the larger missions can use to excellent ad- 
 vantage laymen of commercial experience as 
 treasurers, builders, and business agents. Of 
 course the number that can be used in some 
 
Qualifications and Appointment 'j'j 
 
 of these ways is not great. The all-round 
 candidate who can do anything that is assigned 
 him is in chief demand. 
 
 The boards make careful inquiry as to exec- |bfiit"y'^° 
 utive ability and force of character. Many a 
 man can do good service in the homeland who 
 could not succeed on the foreign field. The 
 duties of a missionary are not like those of a 
 pastor at home, who usually succeeds to an 
 established work, who finds methods already so 
 largely determined that his duty is rather one 
 of modification than, of origination, and who 
 has wise counselors in his church officers. The 
 missionary's functions are rather those of a 
 superintendent. He must be a leader and or- 
 ganizer. Mere piety will not make a mission- 
 ary, any more than mere patriotism will make 
 an ambassador. The boards lay stress on 
 energy, initiative, and self-reliance. They in- 
 quire whether the candidate has qualities of 
 leadership and whether, in general, he is a 
 strong man. 
 
 Common sense is a much rarer quality than 
 might be supposed, and not a few candidates 
 go down under the searching inquiries that the 
 boards make regarding it. Some brilliant men 
 lack the balance of judgment, the homely good 
 sense, that are indispensable in a useful mis- 
 sionary. The foreign missionary must deal 
 with a variety of problems and conditions that 
 
 Common Sense 
 
78 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 call for the practical man as distinguished from 
 the visionary. The direction of native helpers, 
 the expenditure of considerable sums of money, 
 the superintendence of building operations, the 
 settlement of the questions that are constantly 
 arising among native Christians, the adjust- 
 ment to all sorts of persons and conditions — 
 these and other matters that might be 
 mentioned cannot be prudently commit- 
 ted to unbalanced men, however pious or 
 healthy or intellectual. Governor Brown, 
 of Georgia, used to say that "if the Lord 
 has left judgment out of a man, there is 
 no way of getting it in." The mission field 
 is not the place for the dreamer, the crank, the 
 mere enthusiast. The quality of good sense 
 is so often developed in the school of privation 
 that some of the best missionaries have been 
 men who were forced by poverty to work 
 their own way through college, for the 
 necessity that was thus laid upon them de- 
 veloped those qualities of alertness, self-re- 
 liance, and good sense that are of high value in 
 missionary life. 
 peSstence^ The missiouary movement is not a spas- 
 Necessary modic crusadc. It is not an easy life. The 
 romantic halo about it is chiefly in books. It 
 should not be entered upon, therefore, by 
 those who are prone to rapid alternations of 
 feeling, or who' are easily discouraged, or who 
 
Qualifications and Appointment 79 
 
 are incapable of persevering toil. The stu- 
 dent who has volunteered under the impulse 
 of emotional excitement should give his new 
 purpose a reasonable testing period before 
 making application for appointment. The 
 man who is always conceiving great projects 
 and never carrying them out is another type 
 that is not desired. Most of the boards have 
 had experience with such missionaries and 
 they do not want any more. The man of 
 patient persistence in well-doing, who does 
 not easily lose heart, who courageously and 
 inflexibly sticks toi his work, however dis- 
 couraging it may be, the man who, like Gen- 
 eral Grant, "proposes to fight it out on this 
 line if it takes all summer," is the type that 
 is wanted for missionary service. Mission- 
 ary employment is expected tO' be for life, and 
 no one should apply who is not willing to con- 
 secrate himself irrevocably to it, who can- 
 not make light of privations and "endure 
 hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 
 A veteran missionary, in asking for an asso- 
 ciate, wrote: "Send us a despiser of difficul- 
 ties, who will not be discouraged under the 
 most adverse circumstances, who will unite 
 unflinching courage with consummate tact, 
 know how to do impossible things and main- 
 tain a pertinacity that borders on stubborn- 
 ness with a suavity of manners that softens 
 
8o Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Agreeable 
 Temperament 
 
 Cheerfulness 
 
 asperity." That is expecting a good deal of 
 human nature, but it indicates the ideal that 
 we have in mind. 
 
 Ability to work harmoniously with others 
 is a prime qualification. The mission circle is 
 the very worst place in the world for a quar- 
 relsome man or woman. One such mission- 
 ary will wreck the happiness and perhaps the 
 efficiency of a whole station. No degree of 
 ability or force of character can make a mis- 
 sionary of that type tolerable. Indeed, the 
 stronger he is the more trouble he makes. 
 Then there is the man, or the woman, who 
 takes personal offense when his or her plans 
 are opposed. Most troublesome of all is the 
 type of Christian who is so certain that God 
 has, in answer to prayer, shown him what 
 ought to be done, that he is wholly inaccessi- 
 ble to the arguments of others. It does not 
 occur to him that his associates also pray and 
 that God may guide them as well as him. A 
 vast amount of unregenerate pugnacity and 
 narrow-mindedness in this world passes for 
 "fidelity to the truth as I see it." 
 
 A cheerful spirit is as essential as ability to 
 work with others. Some otherwise very ex- 
 cellent people are by temperament despondent. 
 They magnify difficulties and imagine them 
 where they do not exist at all. Present to 
 them any proposal, and they will see all the 
 
Qualifications and Appointment 8i 
 
 objections to it first. They never weary of 
 bemoaning the shortcomings of their fellow 
 Christians. They walk about Zion and mark 
 the defects thereof and tell them to the public. 
 They remind one of the old Scotch elder, who 
 lugubriously said of his church of three hun- 
 dred members: "There be nae real Christians 
 here except masel' an' Sandy, an' some- 
 times I hae ma doots aboot Sandy." "Good 
 Lord, deliver us!" is the prayer of the mis- 
 sionaries already on the field regarding all 
 these types. 
 
 The candidate who holds opinions of doc- Soct^hTarvlew 
 trine or polity that are not in accord with 
 those of the Church with which he would be 
 associated as a missionary falls under the 
 general head of incompatibility. Variance of 
 this kind may be, and ordinarily is, held from 
 thoroughly praiseworthy motives, and it is 
 not the province of a board to attempt to con- 
 vince the candidate that he is wrong or to 
 bring any pressure whatever to bear upon 
 him to change his views. It simply notes the 
 fact that the candidate probably could not 
 harmonize with missionaries who hold a dif- 
 ferent position. This objection would not, of 
 course, apply to those variations of belief that 
 are within the recognized limits of evangelical 
 faith as held by the Church to which the can- 
 didate belongs. In no denomination is the 
 
82 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 ministry entirely homogeneous as to questions 
 of doctrine, nor do the boards insist that the 
 missionary body shall be. There are the same 
 differences of this kind among missionaries 
 that are to be found at home. We are refer- 
 ring now to those questions that would dif- 
 ferentiate a candidate from, the whole body of 
 his associates and introduce embarrassing 
 complications among them. Hobbies or ec- 
 centricities of any kind are considered more 
 or less objectionable as tending to divide those 
 who ought not to be divided and to affect in- 
 juriously the influence of the missionary body 
 upon the natives, who are always quick to ob- 
 serve and to comment upon such differences. 
 Marriage J)- jg ^ mistake to supposc that the boards 
 insist upon marriage. Indeed, some boards re- 
 quire their men to go out single, but permit 
 them to marry after learning the language 
 and proving their fitness for missionai-y life. 
 Other boards advise this course, but leave it 
 to the judgment of the candidate. The ob- 
 jections to deferring marriage do not, as a 
 rule, relate to the work, but come from fam- 
 ilies on the field, who do not feel prepared to 
 board young men. Traders and Roman 
 Catholic priests usually keep "bachelors' 
 hall," and where a couple of young mission- 
 aries are together, there is no valid reason 
 why they cannot do so for a year or two if 
 
Qualifications and Appointment 83 
 
 necessary. No Protestant board advocates 
 the celibacy of missionaries. All appoint 
 married men; but almost all have certain 
 forms of work that can better be done, for a 
 time at least, by single men. A candidate, 
 therefore, who has not already arranged for 
 marriage, need not feel that he is under any 
 pressure to do so. If, after a few years on 
 the field, he wishes to marry, the board will 
 have pleasure in sending his fiancee to bim, 
 provided, of course, she is found tO' possess 
 the necessary qualifications for missionary life. 
 So many missionaries and friends are con- 
 stantly coming and going, that there is seldom 
 any difficulty in finding suitable companion- 
 ship for the young ladies on the journey. 
 
 The fiancee must make a separate applica- i^l'ali^e"^'^"' 
 tion, and it will be as carefully investigated as 
 that of the man whom she is to marry. No 
 woman should go to the foreign field simply 
 because she is the wife of a missionary. Life 
 in a heathen land is sO' trying, from the view- 
 point of home standards, that the wife who 
 is not in deep spiritual sympathy with her 
 husband's missionary work and purpose will 
 almost certainly become lonely, discontented, 
 and depressed. She may successfully figbt 
 against this for a time, but in -the end she 
 will not only become unhappy herself, but she 
 will probably make her husband unhappy, 
 
84 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 "Wives of 
 Missionaries 
 
 Children 
 
 while it is not improbable that her health will 
 give way and that he will be compelled to 
 give up his life's plans and return home with 
 an invalid wife. Most of the boards have had 
 such costly experiences of this kind that they 
 are disposed to make careful inquiry regards 
 ing the qualifications of those who expect to 
 become the wives of missionaries. 
 
 The wives of missionaries are regarded as 
 associate missionaries, uniting with their hus- 
 bands in desire and efifort to give the gospel 
 to the unevangelized. It is expected that, so 
 far as is consistent with their strength and 
 household duties, they will learn the language 
 and take part in missionary work. 
 
 So many candidates have to be declined on 
 account of their families that it is proper to 
 add that, while the boards cordially recognize 
 their privilege and duty in relation to chil- 
 dren that are born on the field, the boards hesi- 
 tate where there are children prior to appli- 
 cation for appointment. It costs much more 
 to transport such families to the field and 
 more to house them after their arrival. A 
 mother finds it difficult to get the time and 
 strength for language study, and there is al- 
 ways a possibility that such missionaries will 
 have to resign because they find the foreign 
 field unfavorable to the health of their chil- 
 dren. Ordinarily, therefore, most boards do 
 
Qualifications and Appointment 85 
 
 not like to appoint candidates who already 
 have children, though they do this in excep- 
 tional cases. 
 
 It need hardly be said that if any one of cha'/act°r and 
 the qualifications that have been mentioned is spiritual Life 
 more indispensable than the others, it is spir- 
 itual life. No matter how^ healthy or able or 
 well educated, the successful candidate must 
 have a sound, well-developed Christian char- 
 acter. The boards do not commission mere 
 physicians or school-teachers, but missionaries. 
 The medical graduate who simply wishes to 
 practise his profession in a great mission hos- 
 pital in Asia, the professor whose ambition is 
 only to build up a flourishing school, the youth 
 who wants to see strange lands and peoples or 
 who is animated by the spirit of adventure, 
 are not wanted. Missionary work in all its 
 forms is distinctly spiritual in spirit and aim. 
 David Livingstone, when asked what were 
 the chief requirements of a successful mis- 
 sionary, gave as the first: "A goodly por- 
 tion of God's own loving yearnings over the 
 souls of the heathen." The boards, therefore, 
 place great stress on the candidate's spiritual 
 experience and his motives for seeking mis- 
 sionary service. The missionary should be 
 above everything else a spiritual guide. In- 
 quiries on this point are carefully made, and 
 if there is reason to doubt the spiritual influ- 
 
86 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 other Desirable 
 Qualities 
 
 Encouragement 
 to Applicants 
 
 ence of a candidate, he is certain to be de- 
 clined. 
 
 Other considerations may emerge in par- 
 ticular cases. Some experience in teaching or 
 Christian work, and a knowledge of music in 
 women candidates and of bookkeeping in 
 men, while not usually required, add to the 
 attractiveness of an application. The quali- 
 fications that have been mentioned, however, 
 are those that are generally sought for by the 
 boards. Taken together in this way they may 
 appear to constitute a formidable list ; but this 
 enumeration should not ease the conscience 
 of any young man or woman who is consider- 
 ing the question of going to the foreign 
 field. 
 
 Ill health, imperfect education, dependent 
 relatives, inability to work harmoniously with 
 others, and age that forbids hope of acquir- 
 ing a difficult language are valid reasons for 
 not applying; but unless some such positive 
 disqualification is known to exist, the proper 
 course is to correspond with the secretary of 
 the board and he will gladly give all needed 
 counsel. A general sense of unfitness for so 
 noble a calling is not an adequate reason for 
 failure to apply. Such modesty is apt to be 
 the refuge of those who are quite willing to 
 have an excuse to stay at home. One should 
 not be deterred because of reports that men 
 
Qualifications and Appointment 87 
 
 are being rejected for want of funds or for 
 any other reason. The financial situation 
 may have changed, or an unexpected vacancy 
 may have occurred. The fact that an appar- 
 ently good man of one's acquaintance has 
 been declined is not necessarily a reason for 
 discouragement, for the board may have dis- 
 covered some defect that his friends did not 
 suspect, or the trouble may have been with 
 his fiancee. No matter what one hears, if he 
 feels that he ought to go to the foreign field, 
 he should send in his application and place 
 upon the board the responsibility of dealing 
 with it. 
 
 There is no disgrace in being rejected, for oI^eiLctim 
 it will readily be seen that a number of the 
 reasons mentioned above may be providential 
 in character, and, while hindering one's going 
 to the foreign field, might not hinder a suc- 
 cessful life for Christ in the homeland. More- 
 over, the boards consider all applications as 
 confidential, so that the fact of rejection need 
 not be known beyond the limited circle of the 
 friends whose private opinions it is necessary 
 for the board to seek. 
 
 The procedure in making application is MaUng"'" 
 simple — ^write to the General Secretary of the Application 
 Board for a set of application blanks and all 
 needful information. The secretary, on re- 
 ceiving the formal application, corresponds with 
 
Conference at 
 leadquarters 
 
 88 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 those who know the candidate. Some boards 
 have a printed list of questions for this pur- 
 pose, as they have learned from experience 
 that, while most people will tell the truth, 
 they will not tell all the truth unless definite 
 questions are asked and a specific answer in- 
 sisted upon. The time required for this investi- 
 gation is ordinarily about two or three months, 
 though in special cases it may vary. 
 
 As a further precaution, a few of the boards 
 have adopted the plan of bringing newly ap- 
 pointed missionaries to their headquarters for 
 a conference of a week or ten days. These 
 conferences have proved to be of great interest 
 and value, enabling the secretaries to pass the 
 appointees in careful review before going to 
 the field, establishing at the outset relations of 
 personal friendship, acquainting the new mis- 
 sionary with some of the lessons of missionary 
 experience and the main features of missionary 
 policy, and clarifying his opinions on a number 
 of important matters, 
 isionarycaii How may One know whether he is called 
 of God to be a missionary? The divine sum- 
 mons is made known in a variety of ways. 
 Some men are conscious of a call almost as 
 distinct and commanding as that of the 
 Apostle Paul. Probably few have such an 
 experience, and the lack of it should not be 
 regarded as an indication that one has no 
 
Qualifications and Appointment 89 
 
 call to missionary service. God's will is often 
 macie known in quieter ways. Many theo- 
 logical students make the mistake of assum- 
 ing that the absence of an external peremptory 
 call means that they should stay at home. 
 The result is that scores look for home pas- 
 torates because they "have no call to go 
 abroad." The assumption should be just the 
 reverse. If God calls a man to preach the 
 gospel at all, surely the presumption is in favor 
 of the field where the work is the greatest 
 and the workers are fewest. With an aver- 
 age of one minister for every 514 people at 
 home and candidates thronging every vacant 
 pulpit, while abroad there is an average of 
 but one for every 174,000 of the population; 
 with all the doors of opportunity wide open 
 and the mission boards vainly appealing for 
 more men — it is preposterous for the average 
 student to assume that he should stay in 
 America unless a voice from heaven summons 
 him to go to the needy millions of Asia or 
 Africa. In the language of Keith-Falconer: 
 "While vast continents are shrouded in al- 
 most utter darkness, and hundreds of millions 
 suffer the horrors of heathenism or of Islam, 
 the burden of proof lies upon you to show that 
 the circumstances in which God has placed you 
 were meant by him to keep you out of the 
 foreign mission field." 
 
90 Why and How of Foreigfn Missions 
 
 ^f'Need" The plea that there are needs at home is 
 mere quibbhng, in view not only of the facts 
 already stated, but of the further fact that 
 about ninety-eight out of every hundred 
 students are staying at home. It is probably 
 fair to say of any given student that there is 
 no need of him in the home field that is at all 
 commensurate with the need of him on the 
 foreign field. His proper attitude therefore 
 should not be, "Why should I go as a foreign 
 missionary?" but "Why should I not go?" 
 The late James Gilmour, the famous itinerant 
 missionary to the Mongol tribes, wrote of this 
 period in his student life: "Even on the low 
 ground of common sense I seemed to be called 
 to be a missionary. Is the kingdom a harvest 
 field? Then I thought it reasonable that 
 I should seek the work where the work was 
 most abundant and the workers fewest." 
 "This was the plain common-sense process by 
 which that apostle to Mongolia readied a de- 
 cision as to duty." 
 
Qualifications and Appointment 91 
 
 QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IIIi 
 
 Aim : To Understand What Sort of Persons are 
 Needed for Foreign Missionary Work and How 
 They are Appointed 
 
 1. Make out a list of questions which you think 
 a board should submit to missionary candidates 
 on the subject of physical qualifications. 
 
 2. What answers to these questions would you 
 accept as satisfactory? 
 
 3. Make out a list of questions on the subject of 
 educational and mental qualifications, and indi- 
 cate satisfactory answers. 
 
 4. Make out a list on the subject of personal 
 character and ability, and indicate satisfactory 
 answers. 
 
 5. Make out a list on the subject of spiritual 
 qualifications, with satisfactory answers. 
 
 6. To what persons, besides the candidate, would 
 you apply for information on these topics? 
 
 7. What questions would you put to these others 
 that you would not put to the candidate? 
 
 8. Under which head would you consider it most 
 important to have strongly favorable testi- 
 mony? 
 
 g. Under which head would you be most prepared 
 
 to accept testimony not altogether favorable? 
 10. Would you accept a candidate who was not a 
 successful missionary at home? 
 
 I Churchmen desiring to know the requirements of candidates 
 for the foreign field should write the General Secretary of the 
 Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, 281 Fourth Avenue, 
 New York City. 
 
92 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 11. What sort of courses would you advise a 
 college freshman to take in preparation for 
 the foreign field? 
 
 12. What special work would you recommend for 
 a theological student? 
 
 13. What special work, for a medical student? 
 
 14. What sort of training would you advise for 
 a young woman volunteer sixteen years of age 
 during the time that must intervene before she 
 went to the field? 
 
 15. Whose fault is it that the average ability of 
 missionaries is not higher? 
 
 16. What besides personal qualifications might 
 lead an application to be accepted at one time 
 and rejected at another? 
 
 17. What advantage is it for a board to have more 
 candidates than it can send out? 
 
 18. What percentage of persons in the United 
 States do you think have the necessary phys- 
 ical qualifications for foreign missionary serv- 
 ice? 
 
 19. What percentage have the necessary mental 
 and educational qualifications? 
 
 20. What percentage have the necessary qualifica- 
 tions as to character and ability? 
 
 21. What percentage have the necessary spiritual 
 qualifications ? 
 
 22. What percentage possess all these qualifica- 
 tions in the required degree? 
 
 23. What measure of responsibility do you think 
 rests upon this last-named class? 
 
Qualifications and Appointment 93 
 
 24. Name what you consider to be valid reasons 
 for those well qualified for the foreign field 
 to remain at home. 
 
 25. What constitutes a call to the foreign field? 
 
 26. Should those qualified assume that they ought 
 to stay at home unless they have a special call 
 to go abroad or that they ought to go unless 
 they have a special call to stay? 
 
 27. What proportion of those who ought to go 
 abroad do you think actually do go? 
 
 28. What measures can you suggest for securing 
 the volunteers that are needed and that ought 
 to respond? 
 
 29. What would you tell a person who suspected 
 he was called to the foreign field but who was 
 not yet willing to make a decision? 
 
 30. What would you tell a person who was will- 
 ing to go but who seemed hardly to possess 
 the proper qualifications? 
 
 31. What responsibilities rest on those not qualified 
 to go abroad or hindered for valid reasons? 
 
 32. How much compared with those who go to 
 the field ought they to be willing to sacrifice 
 for the cause? 
 
THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF THE 
 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 95 
 
The Church ought to regard the provision of am- 
 ple funds for the prosecution of its great campaign as a 
 matter of course, as its most elementary duty. But 
 it should give much more than subscriptions and col- 
 lections. It should give keen and eager interest, un- 
 failing sympathy, intelligent and fervent prayer. That 
 is "support of missions." —Eugene Stock 
 
 If it were possible to secure a general consensus 
 of judgment from a large number of people as to how 
 a missionary ought to live in order to exert the most 
 profound and permanent influence over the people 
 to whom he is sent, there would probably be practical 
 unanimity in the conclusion that he ought not to live 
 in what is called "luxury," even if such privileges were 
 to be provided by the missionary society that supports 
 him. . . . There are many who have formed in their 
 minds a conception of the missionary living rudely, 
 without any of the common comforts of life, enduring 
 the severest hardships and perils amid most forbidding 
 surroundings. This conception has become so thor- 
 oughly fixed in the minds of many good Christians in 
 civilized countries, that it is something of a shock to 
 them to know that the missionary ordinarily lives in a 
 comfortable house with a good roof over his head, and 
 a comfortable bed to sleep upon at night, and that he 
 has daily sufiicient food for the proper nourishment of 
 his body. ^-James L. Barton 
 
 96 
 
IV 
 
 THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OP THE 
 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 
 THIS is a subject that interests the lay- tii^^iSs°S,T 
 man who gives as well as the student 
 who volunteers. There is special reason for 
 discussing it, because it is often misunder- 
 stood. 
 
 It should be borne in mind at the outset support Rather 
 
 than 
 
 that the prmciple is support rather than com- compensation 
 pensation. Inquiry is made as to the cost 
 of a reasonably comfortable living, and a sum 
 is assigned that covers that cost. The amount 
 varies in different fields, as the cost of living 
 varies. A married man gets more than a single 
 man, because two are to be supported 
 instead of one. The birth of a child brings 
 a small additional allowance, usually $ioo 
 a year, because it means an increased expendi- 
 ture. This is sometimes criticised, but any 
 parent in the United States can give a critic 
 valuable information as to whether a child can 
 be fed, clothed, and educated on $ioo a year. 
 
 Most of the boards make a flat rate for |^'^^?fed 
 all the missionaries of a given region, pay- 
 ing the same amount to the new recruit as 
 97 
 
98 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 to the veteran. Other boards grade salaries 
 according to length of service, paying a mini- 
 mum amount for the first term, a little larger 
 sum for the second term, and a still larger 
 one for the third. This plan is growing 
 in favor, as it recognizes the fact that expenses 
 increase with enlarging work and family; 
 but no distinction is ever made on the ground 
 of relative ability or responsibility. The most 
 famous preacher, the president of a great uni- 
 versity, and the superintendent of the largest 
 hospital, receive precisely the same salary as 
 the humblest member of the mission. 
 Clergymen, educators, and physicians are all 
 paid the same salaries. Single men usually re- 
 ceive a little more than single women, not be- 
 cause they are considered as worth more, but 
 because it costs them more to live, as they more 
 often require separate establishments, while 
 single women can usually live with some family 
 or in a school. 
 
 laia^""^^^ It will be seen that it is not possible to 
 state any particular figure that would apply 
 to all fields. The salary varies with length of 
 service from $750 to $1,100 for a single mis- 
 sionary and $1,250 to $1,750 for a married one. 
 This is not designed to cover house accom- 
 modations, which are provided in addition. 
 
 Iquat'e Scale '^^^ ^^^^^ °^ support is intended to be ade- 
 quate to the needs of a Christian worker who 
 
Support of Missionary Enterprise 99 
 
 is not luxurious in his tastes, and the promised 
 sum is promptly paid. It covers, however, 
 only reasonable needs, and while ministers in 
 this country may look forward to an increase, 
 sometimes to large figures, the most eminent 
 foreign missionary expects only modest 
 support to the day of his death. Other 
 foreigners in non-christian lands are paid far 
 more liberally than missionaries. It is as true 
 now as when Macaulay wrote, that "all 
 English labor in India, from the labor of the 
 governor-general and the commander-in 
 chief down to that of a groom or a watch- 
 maker, must be paid for at a higher rate than 
 at home. No man will be banished, and ban- 
 ished to the torrid zone, for nothing." 
 
 Business men, who have commercial deal- vvorlfera 
 ings with Asia and Africa, say that they have ^y contrast 
 to pay three times the salaries that are paid 
 in America, in order to induce their clerks 
 and agents to stay abroad. One of the latter 
 is reported to have said that he "would rather 
 hang on to a lamp-post in the United States 
 than to have an estate and a palace amid the 
 heat and dust and snakes and dirt and fevers 
 and fleas of a typical Oriental country." Such 
 discomforts do not characterize all mission 
 lands, but they do characterize many of them. 
 The fact that some restless adventurers pre- 
 fer an African jungle or an Asiatic port does 
 
loo Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 not invalidate the statement that the average 
 man will not live amid such conditions unless 
 he is tempted by the hope of rich gains. But 
 missionaries like Bishop Brent, Bishop Kin- 
 solving and the Rev. Dr. W. C. Brown, of 
 Brazil, the late Bishops Ingle and Schereschew- 
 sky, educators like the Rev. Dr. F. L. H. Pott, 
 and physicians like Dr. W. H. Boone, and 
 dozens of other distinguished missionaries, who 
 could have commanded large salaries at home, 
 have only received the ordinary missionary 
 stipend. Dr. Boone, for example, gave up a 
 practise yielding thousands of dollars a year to 
 become a missionary at a salary of as many 
 hundreds. 
 
 Nor has the missionary the local resources 
 of the home missionary. He cannot accept 
 money from native Christians for his personal 
 use without exposing himself to the charge of 
 mercenary motives in coming among them. It 
 is hard enough at best for them to understand 
 his disinterestedness. He must be able to say : 
 "I seek not yours, but you." Therefore if he 
 earns money, he turns it over to the board, so 
 careful is he to avoid even the appearance of 
 self-seeking, 
 suppues ^^ ^^ misleading to say that "a dollar will 
 Abroad go further in a heathen land than in America." 
 It may, perhaps, in the purchase of some na- 
 tive supplies, but not in the articles which 
 
 No Local 
 Resources 
 
Support of Missionary Enterprise loi 
 
 Europeans and Americans deem necessary. 
 Tiie average mission land does not produce the 
 kinds of food and clothing that a white man 
 has to use, and the missionary must usually 
 buy in the homeland, paying the same price 
 that the average American at home pays and, 
 in addition, the cost of freight across a con- 
 tinent or an ocean, usually both. True, he 
 can sometimes purchase a part of his supplies 
 at a local store at exorbitant prices; but as a 
 rule he finds it cheaper to buy his food and 
 clothing in London, New York, or Chicago. 
 
 The change in economic conditions in re- ofLWhig^ ^°^' 
 cent years has seriously affected the missionary. 
 The cost of living has risen as rapidly 
 on the foreign field as at home, but the salaries 
 have risen very little or not at all. A 
 committee of the Laos Mission writes : "The 
 cost of vegetables, fruit, chickens, eggs, fuel, 
 and coolie hire has doubled, and in some cases 
 trebled, within the past twelve years. There 
 has also been a constant advance in the prices 
 of meat and milk. We do not mention such 
 luxuries as Irish potatoes, which sell at $24 
 per bushel (too dear for a missionary's 
 purse) ; nor ham, which sells at sixty cents 
 per pound." 
 
 This upward movement is spreading all over imlrica^"""' 
 the world. A missionary in South America 
 writes : "Multiply American prices of shoes 
 
102 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 by two and a half, clothing by two, 
 cheap cloth by three, underclothes by four, 
 hats by three, and you will have the prices of 
 the same qualities of the same articles 
 here." 
 M"li"n''a°r°es It should bc bomc in mind, too, that the 
 to Give missionary has many calls upon his charity. 
 Rectors of large' city churches know how 
 numerous such calls are at home. But there 
 is probably no other Christian worker in the 
 world upon whom they press so heavily as the 
 foreign missionary. He is among multitudes 
 of poverty-stricken people. There are no 
 charitable agencies, as at home, to which they 
 can be referred, nor are there well-to-do lay- 
 men who can help in bearing the burden. The 
 sick and starving are continually appealing 
 to him. Moreover, as he organizes the con- 
 verts into churches, he wishes to impress upon 
 them the duty of giving as a Christian grace, 
 and in order to make his teaching effective, he 
 must set the example. We do not know of 
 any missionary who gives less than one tenth 
 of his salary in these ways, and many give a 
 much larger proportion. If Christians at 
 home would give as liberally as missionaries, 
 the whole enterprise would be far more gen- 
 erously supported, 
 crltfcum ^ In the light of these facts, the absurdity of 
 the criticism that "missionaries live in luxury" 
 
Support of Missionary Enterprise 103 
 
 will readily be seen. Missionaries who 
 can "live in luxury" in such circumstances 
 must be remarkable financiers. The fact is 
 that the missionary is seldom able to save 
 anything, and if he breaks down, he becomes 
 dependent. 
 
 Globe-trotters who have eagerly accepted stXments 
 missionary hospitality have sometimes been 
 guilty of base ingratitude in their accounts of 
 it. Oppressed by their loneliness and hungry 
 for tidings from the homeland, the mission- 
 ary and his wife heartily welcome the visitor 
 and, in honor of the occasion, bring out their 
 little household treasures, put on their best 
 clothes, and prepare a dinner far better than 
 they ordinarily have or than they can really 
 afford. Then the guest goes away to prate 
 about the extravagance of missionaries. A 
 friend once gave Mrs. Hepburn of Japan a 
 large turkey, a costly gift in Japan. That 
 very day, an American traveler called with a 
 letter of introduction. She invited him to 
 dinner, and he wrote home, and his statement 
 was printed in several newspapers, that the 
 most expensive meal he had eaten in his tour 
 around the world was at the table of a foreign 
 missionary ! 
 
 "But I hear that a certain missionary keeps QulstfoT°* 
 four servants while I can afford but one!" 
 cries a wife in America. Allow us to suggest 
 
104 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 some considerations which may not have oc- 
 curred to this wife. 
 
 Native First, hcr one servant doing- general house- 
 
 Methods ' , 1 i r 
 
 Unavoidable -work mcans as much help as four servants 
 
 mean in a heathen land. A cook in India will 
 
 do nothing but cook; a sweeper nothing but 
 
 sweep; a water-drawer nothing but draw 
 
 water; and so on through the whole list, each 
 
 one, moreover, performing his task in a spirit 
 
 the reverse of strenuous. A cook would die 
 
 rather than touch a broom, for he would break 
 
 his caste. "If," writes a missionary wife, 
 
 "my own pleasure were consulted, I would 
 
 certainly prefer working in my own home to 
 
 visiting dirty homes infested with vermin and 
 
 offensive odors. It seems a little strange 
 
 that the missionary who pays her servants out 
 
 of her own salary is so much blamed for what 
 
 she would gladly help if she could." 
 
 Our Municipal Second, cousidcr, too, that at home we all 
 
 Arrangements , • ^ i. l • j: -i i 
 
 Aid Us have many assistants whose services we fail to 
 
 take into account in comparing ourselves with 
 foreign missionaries. The mail-carrier de- 
 livers our mail without cost to us; but the 
 missionary usually has to hire some one to get 
 his mail from the post-office, which is probably 
 miles away. We can travel on a street- 
 car or a railway train; but the mission- 
 ary must employ coolies to carry him in a 
 chair or wheel him in a barrow or row him in 
 
Support of Missionary Enterprise 105 
 
 a boat to his preaching appointments in out- 
 lying villages. The city policeman patrols 
 our street; but the foreigner in Asia and 
 Africa must engage a watchman or have all 
 his belongings stolen. The grocer calls at our 
 house for orders and delivers the goods; but 
 the missionary must have a native to do his 
 marketing, as in many cases the native shop- 
 keepers will ask a foreigner several times 
 what they would ask their own people, and 
 will come down to a reasonable figure only 
 after hours of wearisome haggling; for time 
 is no object to an Oriental. Our complex and 
 highly developed civilization in Europe and 
 America enables the average man to avail 
 himself daily of the labors of scores of others. 
 The missionary, living in more primitive con- 
 ditions, must hire servants, or neglect his work 
 and spend the greater part of his time doing 
 things himself that natives can do just as well 
 and at smaller cost. 
 
 Third, the foreign missionary, living as he Mu^st be°K"pt 
 does in lands where hotels are few and vile 
 and where Oriental ideas of hospitality pre- 
 vail, is forced to keep open house for all 
 comers. The occasional traveler and the con- 
 stantly passing and repassing missionaries of 
 his own and other churches must be freely 
 entertained. The natives, too, call in ap- 
 palling numbers. The host, like Abraham of 
 
io6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Higher Claims 
 Upon Mission 
 Workers 
 
 Living *'As the 
 Natives Do" 
 
 old, must hasten to set meat and drink before 
 every guest, for failure to do so would be 
 deemed a breach of hospitality and an offense 
 which would probably end the missionary's 
 influence. A missionary's wife in Syria says 
 that she often had twenty to meals and a hun- 
 dred callers in a single day, all of whom had 
 to be served with cakes and coffee or lemonade. 
 Another in China had 4,580 women visitors in 
 one year, besides men and children. Tea had 
 to be provided for all that host. 
 
 Fourth, would it be common sense to send 
 an educated Christian woman as a foreign 
 missionary, and then force her to spend her 
 time in cooking meals and washing dishes, 
 when she can hire native servants who are 
 glad to do that work for a few cents a day? 
 Julian Ralph, writing from Asia on this sub- 
 ject, says : "I demand that the missionaries 
 keep servants. They are paid to give their 
 time to missionary work, and, especially in 
 the case of a wife and mother, I claim she has 
 no right to do housework, sewing, and similar 
 work and give only her leisure from such 
 things to that service for which she has a regu- 
 lar salary." 
 
 Some people innocently ask, "Why don't 
 missionaries live as the natives do?" Such 
 people probably do not know how the natives 
 live. An African fastens a yard of calico 
 
Support of Missionary Enterprise 107 
 
 around his waist, ties a string of beads about 
 his neck, and fancies himself dressed for all 
 occasions. Bare-headed, bare-chested, and 
 bare-footed, he exposes himself to the fierce 
 rays of the tropical sun, and when night 
 comes, with its chill air and drenching dew, 
 he sleeps upon the ground. An American 
 doing that would be smitten with African fever 
 within twenty-four hours. A Chinese lives 
 contentedly and works hard on a handful 
 of rice a day, and in a dark, unventilated 
 room, not much larger than the kennel in 
 which the reader keeps his dog. Would the 
 critic live that way? Could he? A typical 
 heathen woman does all the drudgery of the 
 household, collects fuel, tills the fields, and 
 secures and prepares the food. Do the critics 
 at home want their wives to do such work? 
 Burmese children run around naked until they 
 are about ten years of age. Would we allow 
 our children to do so ? 
 
 Live as a heathen does? The heathen does fufficii^nt 
 not live. The death-rate of heathenism is Argument 
 appalling. The men die of consumption and 
 pneumonia and fevers and cholera and small- 
 pox. The children are carried off in regi- 
 ments by diphtheria and measles and scarlet 
 fever and cholera infantum; while as for the 
 women, at the age of forty, when the English 
 and American woman is in the full splendor 
 
io8 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 of her beauty, the typical heathen woman is 
 old and withered, 
 n Experiment jf any critic really imagines that he could 
 live as the heathen live, let him try it. Let 
 him build a hut in his back yard — no floor but 
 the beaten earth, no windows but latticed or 
 paper-covered openings, no bed but a hard 
 platform, no stove but an open fire in the 
 middle of the room, no chimney but a hole in 
 the roof through which the smoke rises and 
 the wind and rain and snow fall, and no fuel 
 but manure mixed with grass, made into 
 cakes by his wife or daughter and dried in the 
 sun. For food, let him buy three bushels of 
 corn. It will sustain life for several weeks 
 and cost but a dollar. Have the wife pound 
 it between two stones, mix it with water, and 
 bake it in the ashes. Then let him eat corn for 
 breakfast and corn for dinner and corn for 
 supper, and the next day eat corn for breakfast 
 and corn for dinner and corn for supper, and 
 before many days have passed, even the most 
 obtuse critic will know why the foreign mis- 
 sionary does not and cannot live as the natives 
 do. 
 Eclnom°y ^ No, the boards are not going to ask foreign 
 missionaries to live as the natives do. The mis- 
 sionary is a civilized man and he needs some 
 things that the uncivilized man does without. 
 Making all due allowance for exceptional 
 
Support of Missionary Enterprise 109 
 
 places, it still remains true that the 
 average foreign missionary lives and works 
 under a strain which few at home realize, 
 and it would be folly to compel him to adopt 
 a mode of life that would wreck his consti- 
 tution in a few years. Common sense dictates 
 that, having incurred the expense of sending 
 him out, he should be so equipped that he 
 may be able to do the work for which 
 he was sent. The disastrous experience of 
 the American army in Cuba taught the gov- 
 ernment that it is poor policy to economize in 
 the support of soldiers. A division of in- 
 valids is worth little in a campaign. Shall the 
 Church be less wise in taking reasonable care 
 of its men ? 
 
 We grant that there are richer natives who st°ndSrd°* 
 live on a much better scale ; but their expendi- 
 tures are so great that a missionary could not 
 possibly equal them. The Chinese mandarin 
 and the East Indian noble often spend money 
 lavishly; but even then, their ideas of comfort 
 differ so widely from ours that their homes 
 could scarcely be deemed ideal by the average 
 American. Thousands of young men in Eng- 
 land have pleasanter bedrooms than the Em- 
 peror of China, and the average mechanic in 
 the United States has a more comfortably 
 warmed house than a samurai of Japan, in 
 spite of the costly furs that lie on his floor and 
 
no Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 the elaborate carvings that adorn his room. 
 The food and general manner of Hfe of the 
 wealthier classes in Asia would quickly under- 
 mine the health of a European or American. 
 ft'o^'oBe^"^ It is said that the missionaries of certain 
 Disregarded independent organizations are not maintained 
 as are the missionaries of the denominational 
 boards. This is an error, so far as the best 
 of these societies are concerned. The actual 
 salary may be smaller, but there are allow- 
 ances that the denominational boards do not 
 make, so that the net result to the missionary 
 is practically the same. There are, however, 
 independent societies of which the statement 
 is true; but the frequent result is suffering 
 that ought to have been avoided, or else, as 
 one missionary writes, "The independent 
 missionary cultivates friendly relations with 
 some neighboring board missionary ; his calls, 
 by a singular coincidence, usually happening 
 about meal-time." A disregard of means 
 that God has provided is neither religion nor 
 business. The Christian at home has no right 
 to demand all the good things of life for him- 
 self — comfortable house, abimdant food, ade- 
 quate clothing — and then insist that his per- 
 sonal representative in preaching the gospel 
 abroad shall be half-starved. If it is a Chris- 
 tian's duty to live like a tramp without visible 
 means of support, let the home rector and lay- 
 
Support of Missionary Enterprise iii 
 
 man set the example. It is easier to do it 
 here than in a heathen land and less dangerous 
 to health. 
 
 It should be remembered, too, that the mis- Jom^in"'""^!^ 
 sionary represents not only a superior religion object-iesson 
 but, in some lands at least, the more decent 
 style of living which has resulted from that 
 religion. It is, though a subordinate, yet a 
 real part of his mission to exemplify this. His 
 better house and mode of living are them- 
 selves an object-lesson of the uplifting influ- 
 ence of Christianity. He would be untrue to 
 his faith if he abdicated the function of a 
 Christian gentleman and lived like a barbarian. 
 He goes out to bring the heathen up to his 
 level, not to go down to theirs. 
 
 Nor would personal degradation be more saSfice^ 
 likely to win the natives to Christianity. 
 Dr. John Forman, of India, made a per- 
 sistent effort to live like the natives. He 
 rented a small room, wore cheap clothes, and 
 ate the simplest food. He writes: "What I 
 had longed for was to get near the people, to 
 convince them that I really was working only 
 for their salvation and that I was denying my- 
 self for them. I was never more thoroughly 
 earnest about anything I undertook, and never 
 have I felt that I made a more dismal failure. 
 Everything turned out just as I had not ex- 
 pected. They seemed to regard me as nothing 
 
112 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 but poor white trash. The idea that I had 
 voluntarily given up anything or was denying 
 myself never occurred to them. I was still 
 the same government ofificial, only had not 
 succeeded in getting a very remunerative posi- 
 tion. I had less influence instead of more. 
 I met with a great deal of opposition, a vast 
 amount of ridicule, and had no end of yelling, 
 hooting, and hand-clapping from the small 
 boys, but my success seemed to end there." 
 ?f lYving'*''"'*^^ The fact is that an American simply cannot 
 equal an East Indian fakir in his mode of 
 living. The latter sprinkles himself with 
 ashes, begs his frugal meals, wears nothing 
 but a loin-cloth, subjects himself to frightful 
 austerities, performs his devotions in public 
 places, and never washes himself. The plainest 
 living possible to a foreigner impresses the 
 natives as luxurious in comparison with their 
 own devotees, and therefore has absolutely no 
 good effect upon them. 
 wreJked^w"^ Some missionaries, who do not believe in 
 Wrong Theories boards or fixcd Salaries, have gone out inde- 
 pendently, with the intention of supporting 
 themselves by teaching or some other kind of 
 work, or of subsisting on the direct sponta- 
 neous gifts of individuals or local churches at 
 home. The results have usually been disas- 
 trous. Dr. Lawrence said that it seemed to 
 him "that India was literary strewn with the 
 
A Mission 
 Board the 
 
 Support of Missionary Enterprise 113 
 
 wrecks of mission work begun by such inde- 
 pendent missionaries, but for one reason and 
 another abandoned. Much the same is proving 
 true of Africa." 
 
 A missionary who has no means of his own 
 cannot Hve in Asia or Africa without a salary. ^^^* Agency 
 He cannot reasonably expect the poverty- 
 stricken natives to support him. If he sup- 
 ports himself, he must toil in a way that will 
 undermine his health, secularize his life, and 
 probably expose him to the charge of mer- 
 cenary motives. If he depends upon a salary 
 from home, a board is the best agency for its 
 collection and payment. A missionary once 
 declined to receive further salary from his 
 board on the ground that the Holy Spirit had 
 directed him "to trust the Lord to support 
 him by the voluntary gifts of his people." 
 Such a request indicates a confusion of ideas. 
 Does not the Lord provide money that his 
 people send through a board? It is not a 
 question whether a missionary shall receive 
 money for his support; it is whether he shall 
 receive it in the orderly way that the people 
 of God, led by his Spirit, have instituted. A 
 Christian worker who refuses a salary either 
 receives a larger sum than he ought to have, 
 with the attendant injustice to givers and 
 waste of the Lord's money, or he receives 
 less than he ought to get, with the attendant 
 
114 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 A Sensible Vie-w 
 
 Regular salary 
 Payments 
 
 injury to his own health and wrong to those 
 who are dependent upon him. When Mr. 
 Moody conducted a series of meetings in a 
 certain city, he agreed to a definite payment for 
 his services, and all believed him to be both 
 pious and sensible. Another evangelist, a 
 year or two later, refused to enter into any 
 financial compact or to allow any collections 
 or subscription papers, stating that he would 
 take only what the Spirit of God prompted 
 the people to give. The result was not. only 
 embarrassment for the committee in charge, 
 but, in the end, a considerably larger sum than 
 he ought to have had. 
 
 It appears reasonable to insist that if a mis- 
 sionary ought to go to the foreign field at 
 all, the home Church ought to send him and 
 maintain him, unless he has a personal income 
 that suffices for his wants, and that gifts for 
 his support should be sent through the estab- 
 lished agency of the Church to which he be- 
 longs. Faith and piety are consistent with 
 common sense. 
 
 The question has often been mooted 
 whether a board, instead of guaranteeing the 
 missionary a fixed salary, should not simply 
 send him his proportion of whatever sum it 
 may receive. But the receipts of all the boards 
 come in very irregularly and seldom equal ex- 
 penditures for the first eight months of a fiscal 
 
Support of Missionary Enterprise 115 
 
 year. If a board simply distributed receipts 
 as they came in, the missionaries would not 
 have enough to live upon for two thirds of the 
 year. They would suffer for the necessaries 
 of life, or they would have to run up debts 
 that would seriously compromise their mission- 
 ary reputation. 
 
 The plan impresses us as visionary and un- M^lfsf car^J 
 businesslike. No sensible layman would ^^' ^'^"^ 
 dream of conducting his business on any such 
 basis. Nor should we expect grocers and 
 butchers and clothiers of heathen or Chris- 
 tian lands to supply missionaries with the 
 necessaries of life, with the understanding 
 that they will be paid for, if the Lord 
 moves his people to provide the funds. If 
 that scheme is a good one, why should it not 
 be made equally applicable to ministers at 
 home ? There is no valid reason why it should 
 be confined to the foreign missionaries. We 
 believe that the only sound principle, both in 
 faith and in business, is that the Church 
 shotild, through a duly constituted board, as- 
 sume responsibility for the support of the mis- 
 sionaries that it sends out. When God calls 
 men to go, he calls his people to send. If there 
 is financial risk to be taken, the Church should 
 take it. It is neither fair nor Christian to un- 
 load its proper responsibilities upon the already: 
 over-burdened missionaries. 
 
ii6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 M°s"lln°ries Information about the houses of missionaries 
 Luxu^°ous is frequently desired, especially 'by those who 
 have been disturbed by statements that they are 
 equal to the houses of native noblemen. A 
 similar statement might be made about the 
 houses of many American mechanics. We 
 do not deny that the missionary's dwelling 
 often appears palatial in comparison with 
 the wretched hovels in which the natives 
 herd like rabbits in a warren. Shattered 
 health and rapidly fiilled cemeteries have 
 taught missionaries that, if they are to live, 
 they must go a little apart from the mal- 
 odorous, insanitary, human pigsty, with its 
 rotting garbage and open cesspools, select a 
 site high enough to afford natural drainage, 
 and build a house with a sufficient number of 
 cubic feet of space for the persons who are to 
 occupy it. Then the natural taste of the hus- 
 band leads him to make a little lawn and to 
 set out a few shrubs and flowers, while in- 
 doors his wife sensibly makes everything as 
 cozy and attractive as she can with the means 
 at her disposal. As it is supposed to be a 
 home for life, articles by gift and purchase are 
 gradually accumulated, and it really becomes 
 a pretty place in time. Contrasting as it does 
 with the miserable habitations of a heathen 
 city, it attracts attention ; but its attractiveness 
 is not due to the lavish expenditure of money, 
 
Support of Missionary Enterprise 117 
 
 but to the good taste and inventiveness of a 
 cultivated, intelligent family. 
 
 The visitor approaching Fusan, Korea, is Good Fomme 
 apt to remark upon the buildings that stand '° ^"^*° 
 conspicuously upon the hill, and to hear a 
 sneer about the selfishness and ostentation of 
 missionaries in selecting the best sites. The 
 facts are that virhen the missionaries went to 
 Fusan, they could not afford to buy in the 
 city, and they took the hill site because it was 
 unoccupied and cheap, paying just $75 for the 
 whole tract on which church, hospital, and 
 residences now stand. The owner was glad 
 to get that price, as the land was then prac- 
 tically valueless. That time has proved it to 
 be the best site in Fusan, and that the mission 
 occupation of it led others to seek the neigh- 
 borhood so that the place is now valuable, is 
 simply a tribute to the good judgment of the 
 missionaries. 
 
 Another illustration occurred in Persia, "Paiac?" 
 where the missionaries were accused of hav- 
 ing for a summer resort at Lake Urumia 
 "one of the finest palaces in all the land." 
 The "palace" referred to was an old, 
 abandoned one-story and basement mud build- 
 ing, which the owner was delighted to sell to 
 the missionaries for $80. They fixed it up 
 as best they could with a private gift of $170 
 from a kind-hearted lady in St. Louis, and then 
 
Ii8 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 the several missionary famihes of Urumia took 
 turns in occupying it for a few weeks during 
 the heated term. 
 Average Cost A few missionary residences in different 
 
 of Missionary , ., , , , , , • r 
 
 Residences lands havc been built by wealthy relatives for 
 particular missionaries, and occasionally one 
 is built as a memorial for a deceased friend. 
 But the average missionary residence costs 
 from $2,500 to $3,000, including land. Build- 
 ing in most fields is quite as expensive as at 
 home. Indeed lumber, glass, and hardware 
 can often be imported from England or 
 America cheaper than they can be bought on 
 the field. Many missionary houses in China 
 and Korea contain Oregon lumber, Pittsburg 
 windows, and Birmingham metals. The 
 reader can therefore judge for himself how 
 palatial such a place must be. The average 
 missionary residence is about like the home 
 of a country clergyman or school-teacher in 
 England and America; though in the tropics, 
 the fertility of the soil, the luxuriance of palms 
 and foliage-plants, and the cheapness of labor 
 make it easier for the missionary to have 
 beautiful grounds. 
 
Support of Missionary Enterprise irg 
 
 QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IV 
 
 Aim : To Understand Why Missionaries Receive the 
 Salaries They Do 
 
 1. In the Society of Friends, the ministers receive 
 no salaries. What are the advantages of this 
 arrangement ? 
 
 2. What are the principal arguments against it? 
 
 3. If the ministry is to be salaried, what prin- 
 ciples should determine the amount each indi- 
 vidual is to receive? 
 
 4. How ought the homes of ministers to compare 
 with those of their congregations? 
 
 5. What possible abuses of the system should 
 be guarded against? 
 
 6. Is a congregation which desires an able man 
 justified in offering an "attractive" salary? 
 
 7. To what extent should the principles which 
 govern the support of ministers -at home apply 
 to missionaries on the foreign field? 
 
 8. What arguments can you give for paying mis- 
 sionaries smaller salaries than the average 
 home minister? 
 
 9. What arguments can you give for paying them 
 larger salaries? 
 
 10. What likelihood is there that any one would 
 become a foreign missionary from sordid 
 motives ? 
 
 11. Name the principal sacrifices that a missionary 
 is called upon to make. 
 
I20 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 12. What salary would compensate you for these 
 sacrifices if you had no heart interest in the 
 work? 
 
 13. What would you judge as to the relative at- 
 tractiveness of the ministry at home and on the 
 foreign field from the relative numbers in each 
 calling? 
 
 14. What percentage of the missionary force do 
 you think would have received larger salaries 
 if they had remained at home? 
 
 15. In what degree of "luxury" ought a mission- 
 ary to live? 
 
 16. What are the arguments for and against as 
 attractive a Western home as his salary per- 
 mits? 
 
 17. Would it be true economy for the missionary's 
 wife to have no servants and do her own 
 housework? 
 
 18. In what expense is the board involved when 
 a missionary breaks down? 
 
 19. How long would it be before, a new volunteer 
 would equal a retiring missionary in efficiency? 
 
 20. From a business standpoint what is the relative 
 importance of care of health by a missionary 
 and a home minister? 
 
 21. Do you think that critics would really remain 
 satisfied if missionaries lived as the natives do? 
 
 22. What are the arguments for and against self' 
 support by missionaries? 
 
Support of Missionary Enterprise 121 
 
 23. Would it ordinarily take more or less time 
 for an American to earn his support in this 
 country than in China? 
 
 24. How much longer would it take to build up 
 a strong native church if the missionaries gave 
 only the time not required for self-support to 
 the work? 
 
 25. Would the missionary force be increased in 
 efficiency if the policy of self-supporting mis- 
 sionaries were adopted? 
 
 26. What is there in the case of the Apostle Paul 
 that is not parallel? 
 
 27. Is the Christian Church really too poor to pro- 
 vide a support for missionaries? 
 
 28. Where does the responsibility rest for seeing 
 that the missionary enterprise is properly fi- 
 nanced ? 
 
 29. What money do you think you have invested 
 more economically and profitably than that 
 which you have given to foreign missions? 
 
THE MISSIONARY AT WORK 
 
 133 
 
The practical value of educational missions may be 
 inferred from an incident in the work of certain mis- 
 sionaries in the interior of Africa. They gave them- 
 selves wholly to evangelistic work without any effort at 
 education, under the mistaken idea that proclaiming 
 the gospel to those who had not heard it was the be- 
 ginning and the end of missionary endeavor. After 
 years of faithful preaching, the gospels were translated 
 into the native language, when it was discovered that 
 none could read! — Wilson S. Naylor 
 
 In some missions the evangelistic agency has been 
 overshadowed by some other department of activity. 
 While the importance of the other agencies must not 
 be minimized, the neglect of presenting the gospel would 
 be disastrous to the whole missionary enterprise. 
 Among the people every effort must be made to heal 
 their physical ills, to care for them in distress, to teach 
 them the means of obtaining an honest living, to raise 
 up an intelligent and efficient leadership, yet it must 
 be borne in mind that the dominating purpose of mis- 
 sions is to make Christ preeminent in the lives of the 
 millions. If any department may be magnified it is 
 the evangelistic, but unquestionably the wiser plan is to 
 have all these vital agencies permeated with the spirit 
 of winning the allegiance of the people to the Master. 
 
 — lames M. Thoburn 
 
 124 
 
V 
 THE MISSIONARY AT WORK 
 
 THE variety and scope of the foreign mis- ^^^.^^•""^•y'' 
 sionary's work are in sharp contrast 
 with the work of the minister at home. The 
 latter hardly realizes to what an extent his 
 efforts are reinforced by the results of cen- 
 turies of religious teaching. These helps do 
 not exist in most non-christian lands, and 
 therefore the missionary must create them. 
 He must found not only churches, but schools, 
 hospitals, printing-presses, kindergartens, or- 
 phanages, and the various other kinds of 
 Christian and benevolent work carried on in 
 this country. He must train up a native min- 
 istry, erect buildings, translate and print 
 books and tracts and catechisms. The 
 gospel must be so presented as to touch 
 the lives of men at many points, and 
 they must be helped in making the adaptation 
 to new conditions. In some lands, the mis- 
 sionary must even teach the men how to make 
 clothing, to build houses, and to cultivate the 
 soil ; while his wife must show the women how 
 to sew and to cook, to care for children and 
 to make a decent home. 
 
 I2S 
 
126 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 wide°Ranee'^ The phrase "missionary at work" is there- 
 fore not a misnomer. Those who imagine 
 that "missionaries have an easy time" little 
 realize the heavy and persistent toil that is in- 
 volved in missionary effort. Foreign mis- 
 sionaries are among the hardest worked men 
 in the world. Much of this work, too, is done 
 in unfavorable climates and amid conditions 
 that tell heavily upon the strength and 
 nerves. The typical hospital, with work 
 enough for two or three physicians, has but 
 one medical missionary, and he must perform 
 every operation and attend every sick patient, 
 save for such native assistants as he may be 
 able to snatch a little time to train. Schools, 
 which at home would have a half dozen oi' 
 more teachers, have but one or two. The or- 
 dained missionary often finds himself obliged 
 to unite the adaptability of a jack-of -all- 
 trades to the functions of an archbishop. 
 Efnes*'"'" The ordinary work of the foreign mission- 
 ary is along four main lines. Probably the 
 first impression of the traveler is of the 
 
 Educational Work 
 
 S«'cwidren°^ This is partly because it is represented by 
 institutions that are more conspicuous, partly 
 because children are much in evidence in a 
 typical heathen city. They are sweet-faced, 
 bright-eyed children, to whom one is in- 
 
The Missionary at Work 127 
 
 stinctively drawn. One hears the patter of 
 their wooden sandals in the streets of Japan. 
 He sees their quaintly grave faces in the rice- 
 fields of China. He never wearies of watch- 
 ing their brown, chubby little bodies on the 
 river banks of Siam. His heart aches as he 
 sees their emaciated limbs and wan looks in 
 India. Everywhere their features are so ex- 
 pressive, that he feels that they ought to have 
 a better chance in life and that he ought to 
 help them to get it, while new meaning irradi- 
 ates the words: "It is not the will of your 
 Father .... that one of these little ones 
 should perish." 
 
 In this spirit, one of the first and most lov- |hei°Beneficent 
 ing duties of the missionary is to gather these service 
 children into schools and to teach them for 
 this life and the life to come. Day-schools of 
 primary grade are, of course, the most nu- 
 merous and they reach myriads of little ones. 
 Above them are the boarding-schools, where 
 children are under the continuous care of the 
 missionary. If he be a benefactor of the race 
 who makes two blades of grass grow where 
 one grew before, what shall be said of the mis- 
 sionary who takes a half-naked urchin out of 
 the squalor of a mud hut, where both sexes 
 and all ages herd like pigs, teaches him to 
 bathe himself, to respect woman, to -tell the 
 truth, to earn an honest living, and to serve 
 
128 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 God. It means even more for the girls than 
 for the boys, for heathenism, which venerates 
 animals, despises women. In sacred Benares, 
 India, I saw a man make reverent way for a 
 cow, and a little farther on roughly push a 
 woman out of his path. I saw monkeys in 
 the protected luxury of a temple, while at its 
 gates starving girls begged for bread. Is 
 there any work more Christlike than the 
 gathering of these neglected ones into clean 
 dormitories and showing them the meaning of 
 virtue, of industry, and of that which does not 
 exist throughout all the pagan world, except 
 where the gospel has made it, a pure, sweet 
 Christian home? 
 Higher Schools Colleges and normal, medical, and theolog- 
 ical schools take the more promising grad- 
 uates of the boarding-schools and train them 
 for special work among their own people. 
 The equipment of these institutions is often 
 very humble as compared with the magnifi- 
 cent buildings of many of our home colleges; 
 but we may safely challenge Europe and 
 America to show colleges which have achieved 
 more solid results with such limited resources. 
 Many a mission college turns out well-trained 
 men on an income that would hardly keep a 
 home university in lights and fuel. 
 Fnifu^cr These schools and colleges are exerting an 
 enormous influence. They lead many students 
 
The Missionary at Work 129 
 
 to Christ. They undermine the superstitions 
 and dispel the prejudices of many who are 
 not immediately converted. They give the 
 missionary access to new villages and zenanas 
 and familiarize the heathen mind with Chris- 
 tian conceptions. They often form the most 
 effective means of reaching the upper 
 classes. Scores of mission schools are edu- 
 cating the sons and daughters of officials, 
 noblemen, and in some countries, of royal 
 princes. 
 
 An interesting illustration of the oppor- ^^^ ^y ^ ^'^"'^ 
 tunities thus created occurred in Bangkok, 
 Siam. A nobleman, whom the missionary 
 had vainly tried to lead to Christ, sent his 
 only son to the Christian Boys' High School. 
 A year or two later, in an epidemic of cholera, 
 the boy died. The missionary gently told the 
 stricken parents of the Good Shepherd, who 
 sometimes took a lamb in his arms to induce 
 the sheep to follow him. Deeply moved, the 
 father sketched an outline of the incident and 
 bade an artist paint it. He showed us the 
 picture : a shepherd, with a kindly face, carry- 
 ing a lamb in his bosom, while afar off two 
 sheep, which had been walking away, were 
 turning with wistful eyes to follow their 
 loved one. "Now," said the nobleman, "I 
 want to give 10,000 Heals to build a church 
 in recognition of God's dealings with me 
 
130 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 through my boy." And we said: It is as 
 true now as of old that "a little child shall 
 lead them." 
 i"gfy cSrisTian ' All missioH schools are uncompromisingly 
 Christian. The Bible is the chief text-book. 
 Jesus is the great Teacher. Prayer is the 
 atmosphere. Japan tested missionary fidelity 
 to this position. All avenues of preferment 
 lead from the schools which have government 
 recognition. The mission schools were thus 
 recognized ; but one day, the Minister of State 
 for Education issued an order forbidding any 
 religious instruction in schools approved by 
 the government. The missionaries had to 
 choose that day whom they would serve. 
 Severance from the government system of 
 education meant that students would be, in 
 effect, debarred from the university and from 
 many positions that are coveted by the pa- 
 triotic Japanese. But the missionaries and the 
 boards said : "We cannot use missionary 
 funds to give the young people of Asia a 
 purely secular education; we are here for 
 Christ's sake, and for his only." The result 
 was that some schools had to be closed and 
 that the attendance of others dwindled from 
 hundreds to dozens. It looked for a time as 
 if the end of mission educational work in 
 Japan had come; but a mighty protest went 
 up from the Christian people of all lands. 
 
The Missionary at Work 131 
 
 The public opinion of Christendom, to which 
 Japan is keenly sensitive, made her statesmen 
 feel that a backward step had been taken. 
 The order was not enforced, and to-day the 
 mission schools are fuller than ever and with 
 a tremendously enhanced influence, because 
 in the hour of emergency, they would not buy 
 the favor of the state at the cost of their 
 faith. The missionary repudiates the state- 
 ment of a professor at home that "the uni- 
 versity is not responsible for the character of 
 its graduates." Character is precisely what 
 mission institutions are responsible for, and 
 in the schools and colleges on the foreign field, 
 the Church is producing it. 
 
 The hope of the future is largely in these frlfudPcl °°"'" 
 schools. In many lands, the missionary en- 
 counters an opposition from adults that can 
 only be compared to a wall. It is often diffi- 
 cult to break down that wall by direct attack; 
 for inherited prejudices, social, business, and 
 religious associations, and that fixity of char- 
 acter which usually comes with mature years 
 in every land combine to make it hard to in- 
 duce an adult to abandon the faith of his an- 
 cestors. The mission school undermines that 
 wall. It takes character at a plastic period 
 and shapes it for the future. 
 
 The opening of Asia to the influences of AmSn^^Asiatic 
 the modern world and the development of f^"*'""' 
 
132 Why and How, of Foreign. Missions 
 
 the native churches give special emphasis to 
 the question of higher education. The need 
 is emphasized by the fact that leading Asiatic 
 nations are beginning to appreciate the im- 
 portance of Western learning and are estab- 
 lishing colleges of their own. Hindu, Bud- 
 dhist, and Moslem institutions will not, of 
 course, train men for Christian leadership. The 
 Churches must provide the needed facilities or 
 see their young men go to schools dominated 
 by antichristian influences. That the boards 
 and the missions realize this is seen in the 
 fact that there are now on the foreign field no 
 less than 29,000 mission schools, of which 
 more than 1,300 are of the higher grades, the 
 total number of pupils being 1,304,905. 
 
 Another department of missionary ac- 
 tivity is 
 
 Literary Work ' ' ' 
 
 History has proved that a knowledge of 
 the Word of God is indispensable to intelli- 
 gent and permanent faith. Therefore one of 
 the duties of the missionary is to translate the 
 Bible into the vernacular. We often hear that 
 the Bible is now accessible to practically all 
 the nations of the earth. It is true, and the 
 missionary is the one who has made it so. 
 Tracls ^"^ "^''^'^ translation, however, is not all of this 
 work. Many books and tracts must be pre- 
 
 Bible 
 Translation 
 
The Missionary at Work 133 
 
 pared. Most of the literature of the heathen 
 world is unclean. There are, indeed, some ex- 
 cellent writings in the sacred books of Hin- 
 duism, Buddhism, and Confucianism; but at 
 their best, they are merely ethical and 
 are intermingled with a vast mass of error, 
 puerility, and superstition. The books in 
 common circulation are usually saturated 
 with heathenism, if not actual immorality. The 
 missionary, therefore, must create a Christian 
 literature. This involves both translation and 
 original composition. 
 
 Publishing has to follow preparation. Mission Presses 
 
 Many lands had no printing-presses when the 
 missionary arrived; so he had to create and 
 operate them. He was among the first to 
 see the providential significance of movable 
 type and the application of steam to the print- 
 ing-press. To-day, 160 presses are conducted 
 by the Protestant mission boards in various 
 parts of the world, and they issue annually 
 about 400,000,000 pages of a Christian liter- 
 ature and the Word of God. The mission 
 presses in Shanghai are exerting an enormous 
 influence on the thought of one third of the 
 human race, one of them printing over 97,000,- 
 000 pages a year. An interesting illustra- 
 tion of this occurred when 10,000 Christian 
 women of China presented a copy of the New 
 Testament, bound in silver and gold, to the 
 
134 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Empress Dowager on her sixtieth birthday. 
 The gift excited so much interest in the im- 
 perial palace that the Emperor purchased a 
 copy for his own use. 
 Faf-«^aching That Chinese Bible has gone into many a 
 yanien as well as into myriads of humble 
 homes. A medical missionary, calling on the 
 late Viceroy Li Hung-chang, found him read- 
 ing a New Testament printed on the Shanghai 
 mission press, and when a servant took the 
 book away as the physician entered, the 
 Viceroy said : "Do not put that in the library, 
 take it to my bedroom, I will read it again." 
 The mission press in Beirut, Syria, is prob- 
 ably doing as much as all other agencies com- 
 bined to influence the Mohammedan world; 
 for there the Bible is printed in the language 
 that is spoken by two hundred million souls. 
 Scriptures and explanatory books and tracts 
 go forth from that unpretentious building, 
 which are read not only in Syria and Pales- 
 tine, but in Asia Minor, Arabia, Egypt, 
 Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, India, and among 
 the Arabic speaking colonies of North and 
 South America. 
 Bible Societies The Bible Socictics give valuable coopera- 
 tion in this department of mission work, pay- 
 ing the cost of printing the Scriptures, and, 
 through their agents and colporteurs, aiding 
 greatly in distributing them. These Societies 
 
The Missionary at Work 135 
 
 should therefore be considered an integral 
 and a very important part of this large de-- 
 velopment of missionary effort. 
 
 Emphasis may properly be laid upon literary p°^"i^^'^^ 
 work as a missionary agency. The peoples of Message 
 Asia are not so much accustomed to public 
 discourse as Western races. The priests 
 of the native religions seldom or never 
 preach, and it is much more difficult to influ- 
 ence people in that way than it is in England 
 and America. The Chinese, in particular, are 
 preeminently a people of books. Buddhism 
 converted them, not by preaching, but by litera- 
 ture. The essay, the pamphlet, the placard, 
 and more recently the newspaper, are 
 the common means of disseminating ideas. 
 Christianity must make a larger use of this 
 method if it is to supersede Buddhism and 
 Confucianism. 
 
 The printed Bible goes where the living Sisemmation 
 voice cannot be heard. It brings its truths to 
 men in the quiet hour. The force of its mes- 
 sage is never lessened by controversy or per- 
 verted by error. Within a century, over 200,- 
 000,000 copies of the Bible have been printed 
 in 360 different languages. If every mission- 
 ary were to be banished, God's Word would 
 remain in Asia, a mighty and indestructible 
 power, operating as silently as the sunshine, 
 but containing within itself the stupendous 
 
136 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 potency of a world's regeneration. To-day, 
 the Persian and the Hottentot, the Korean and 
 the Siamese are reading in their own tongues 
 that "He is able to save them to the utter- 
 most that come unto God by him," and we 
 know that God's Word shall not return unto 
 him void. 
 
 A phase of missions that touches all hearts 
 
 is the 
 
 Medical Work 
 
 Example Christ himsclf set the example by minister- 
 
 of Christ ': ■' 
 
 ing to the sick. Indeed, he cited among the 
 proofs of his Messiahship that "the blind re- 
 ceive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers 
 are cleansed, and the deaf hear." Twenty- 
 four of his thirty-six recorded miracles were 
 of physical healing, and there must have been 
 scores of others, for we read that "all they 
 that had any sick .... brought them 
 unto him ; and he laid his hands on every one 
 of them, and healed them." So medical work 
 is an essential part of our Christian service in 
 heathen lands. We cannot "pass by on the 
 other side" those countless sufferers or shut 
 our ears to their cries of agony. 
 A^^ravatedby Nou-christiau lands are lands of pain. All 
 Superstition i\iq diseascs and injuries common in America, 
 and others far more dreadful, are intensified 
 by ignorance, filth, and superstition. An 
 Oriental tour fills the mind with ghastly 
 
The Missionary at Work 137 
 
 memories of. sightless eyeballs, scrofulous 
 limbs, and festering ulcers. If our child is 
 ill, a physician's understanding of the case 
 and its remedy, the sympathy of friends, and 
 the sweet comforts of the gospel, make the 
 sick chamber a place of peace and probable 
 recovery. But in most heathen lands, illness 
 is believed to be caused by a demon that has 
 gotten into the body, and the treatment is an 
 effort to expel it. Drums are beaten or horns 
 blown beside the sufferer, in the hope that 
 they will frghten away the demon. Hot 
 fires are built to scorch it out, and of course 
 the fierce heat adds to the distress of the pa- 
 tient. Sometimes even worse methods are 
 employed. "What are those scars which so 
 thickly dot the body?" we asked Dr. Neal, in 
 China, as he examined a wan, pitiful little 
 girl who had been brought in. "Places where 
 hot needles have been thrust in to kill the 
 spirit which is believed to have caused the 
 pain," was the startling reply. "What a hor- 
 rible foot!" we ejaculated, as we looked with 
 Dr. Avison in Korea on a poor fellow who 
 had hobbled into our room. A fall had made 
 a bruise. A native doctor had told him that 
 a demon had taken possession of it and that 
 he should smear it with oil and set it on fire. 
 Dirt and flies had aggravated the resultant 
 sore, till the foot was literally rotting away. 
 
138 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Wonderful The horrors of superstitious maltreatment 
 of the sick and injured are relieved in many- 
 lands only by medical missionaries who walk 
 through those regions of pain in the name 
 and spirit of the Great Physician, cleansing 
 filthy ulcers, straightening deformed limbs, 
 giving light to darkened eyes, healing fevered 
 bodies, robbing death of its sting and the 
 grave of its victory, and showing to weary 
 multitudes that 
 
 "Thy touch has still its ancient power, 
 No word from thee can fruitless fall." 
 
 Heroic Minittry jj^ ^j^g Syrian city of Hums we saw the sick 
 flock go to Dr. Harris as of old they doubtless 
 flocked to Christ, and he gave such relief to 
 scores of sufferers that men who would have 
 stoned a preacher reverently listened to the 
 physician while he talked to them of Christ. 
 The day we entered Allahabad, India, 170 
 people died of the plague. Corpses were 
 hourly carried through the streets. Shops 
 were closed. The authorities, finding that 
 preventive measures provoked dangerous 
 riots, helplessly allowed the pestilence to run 
 unchecked. Half the population had fled ; but 
 the medical missionary stood heroically at her 
 post, freely going among the sick and dying, 
 responding both by day and night to every 
 appeal for help, giving what aid was possible 
 
The Missionary at Work 139 
 
 in that swiftly fatal scourge, and telling all 
 of the healing of the soul in Christ. Few men 
 anywhere will touch a leper, but the medical 
 missionaries lovingly seek them in a score of 
 places, mitigating the horrors of a disease for 
 which no cure is known and faithfully apply- 
 ing the remedy for the soul's leprosy. 
 
 A total of over 1,100 hospitals and dispen- Anjmpressivo 
 saries are being maintained on the foreign field 
 by the Protestants and Anglicans, treating 
 yearly about 2,500,000 patients. No other 
 phase of mission work has done more to soften 
 hearts and to open doors, no other been more 
 fruitful in spiritual results. Standing in one 
 of those humble buildings and watching the 
 tender ministries to suffering, one feels sure 
 that God loves the place, and he rejoices that 
 in Asia as well as in America, men can say: 
 
 "The healing of the seamless dress 
 
 Is by our bed of pain; 
 We touch him in life's throng and press, 
 And we are whole again." 
 
 ^ 
 
 An unqualified statement that the fourth 0"^°^' 
 department of missionary activity is Kvangeiistic 
 
 Evangelistic Work 
 
 might give a wrong impression, for all forms 
 of work are supposed to be evangelistic in 
 
140 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 spirit and in aim. Educational work is de- 
 signed to reach the children for Christ and 
 to train men for the ministry and other 
 forms of Christian work. Literary work pre- 
 pares and publishes the Bible and a helpful 
 literature, that all may know the gospel 
 by the printed page as well - as by the 
 spoken word. Medical work is intended not 
 only to relieve suffering, but to do it in Christ's 
 name and in such ways that the patients will 
 accept Christ. There remains, however, much 
 work that is distinctively evangelistic. Its mag- 
 nitude may be inferred from the fact that there 
 are now no less than 1 1,000 organized churches 
 and a large number of unorganized congrega- 
 tions, with 1,816,450 adult communicants and 
 4,351,138 adherents, of whom 1,272,383 are 
 enrolled inquirers, 
 uinlratfols^""* The direct preaching of the gospel naturally 
 has a prominent place. There is an increasing 
 number of churches in which there are stated 
 sermons; but the main evangelistic work is 
 done in less pretentious, though not less ef- 
 fective ways. The message is proclaimed in 
 humble street chapels, in crowded bazaars, in 
 secluded zenanas, from house to house, and 
 on long country tours. The itinerations 
 often occupy several months and include 
 the visitation of hundreds of villages. All 
 sorts of conveyances are used. Elephants, 
 
The Missionary at Work 141 
 
 camels, horses, mules, donkeys, canoes, 
 launches, schooners, house-boats, wheelbar- 
 rows, jinrikishas, bandy-carts, bicycles, and 
 railroad trains, all serve the missionary's pur- 
 pose as occasion offers, while not infrequently 
 he travels on foot. 
 
 There are no bounds to the zeal of the itiner- zeaious tou 
 ant missionary. A toilsome journey on ele- 
 phants through the jungles of Laos brought 
 us to Saturday night with the weary ejacula- 
 tion: "Now we can have a day of rest!" 
 The next morning we slept late; but the mis- 
 sionaries did not, for they spent an hour be- 
 fore breakfast in a neighboring village, dis- 
 tributing tracts and inviting the people to 
 come to a service at our camp at ten o'clock. 
 It was an impressive service — under a spread- 
 ing bo tree, with the mighty forest about us, 
 monkeys curiously peering through the 
 tangled vines, the huge elephants browsing on 
 the bamboo tips behind us, and the wonder- 
 ing people sitting on the ground, while one 
 of the missionaries told the deathless story of 
 redeeming love. The other missionary. Dr. 
 Daniel McGilvary, was not present. Seventy- 
 four years old though he was, he had walked 
 three miles under a scorching sun to another 
 village, and was preaching there. And we 
 said: "If that is the way the missionaries 
 rest, what do they do when they work?" 
 
142 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Fw'em''' This is but a sample of the evangelistic 
 fidelity that we saw everywhere. Missionaries 
 whose immediate assignments are to medical 
 or educational work take their turns in coun- 
 try touring. A physician in Africa never did 
 a better thing for Christ than on a trip of 
 which he wrote : 
 A Recruittne "J returned last week from a tour of seven- 
 
 lour 
 
 teen days through the Utum country. The wet 
 season was at its worst. All the rivers were 
 flooded and the swamps were terrible to get 
 through. Almost every day, I waded in water 
 waist deep, sometimes for hours at a time. 
 Much of my trip was through a country 
 from which we had never been able to get 
 any schoolboys, as the people were afraid to 
 let them go so far from home and with white 
 men of whom they knew but little. I went 
 with the determination not only to preach the 
 gospel, but to bring back with me some boys 
 for our school. I knew if I could get a few 
 for a start, we would get plenty in years to 
 come. The Lord answered my prayers, and 
 vi^hen we marched back through streams and 
 forests, about seventy prospective pupils went 
 with me. That long line of children, so 
 ignorant and needy, some footsore and weary, 
 marching away from their homes of darkness 
 and sin towards the light of the dear Savior 
 who died for them, was a sight which would 
 
The Missionary at Work 143 
 
 move a heart of stone. Sometimes a mother 
 in parting from her child would follow along 
 for miles and then take me by the hands, and 
 with tears rolling down her cheeks, say: 
 'Doctor, that is my only child, you will take 
 good care of him, won't you ?' Human nature 
 is very much the same here as elsewhere." 
 
 Claims of Other Work 
 
 Reform movements in a community natu- Movements 
 rally grow out of spiritual work, but there is a 
 difference of opinion as to the missionary's 
 direct relation to them. Some urge that the 
 missionary should not concern himself at all 
 with such movements, his efforts being to instil 
 in the minds of men the formative principles 
 of the Christian religion and then leave these 
 to work their legitimate results through saved 
 men. 
 
 Others, however, insist that the missionary o/f"e"*'°" 
 cannot be indifferent to the practical applica- P«ctieai Gospei 
 tion of the gospel to human society; that 
 when orphans in India are starving, his efforts 
 should include bread as well as exhortations; 
 that when opium-smoking in China is an 
 effectual bar to the entrance of the gos- 
 pel, the missionary should ally himself with 
 the effort to remove that bar; and that where 
 the blind, the insane, the deaf and dumb are 
 entirely neglected, the missionary who passes 
 
144 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 "by on the other side" exposes himself to 
 the indignant censure which Christ visited 
 upon the heartless, hypocritical priest and 
 Levite. 
 Its Cure of It sceiTis to US that the mediate course is 
 
 Many Evils 
 
 the proper one. The gospel was mtended to 
 save men both for this life and for the life 
 to come, and when a missionary goes among 
 people who are wholly ignorant of the bear- 
 ings of the gospel upon human life, it is surely 
 within his province to show them how to live 
 in time as well as eternity. This, as a matter 
 of fact, is what the missionaries are doing. 
 It is no small evidence of the value of mission 
 work that missionaries have founded and are 
 maintaining 333 asylums of various kinds for 
 the afflicted and dependent classes. Though 
 reform movements are results rather than ob- 
 jects of the missionary enterprise, they are 
 nevertheless of value. Missionaries have done 
 more than all others combined to lessen the 
 evils of slavery, infanticide, intemperance, 
 concubinage, opium-smoking, the degradation 
 of woman, and kindred evils. 
 AbSiuhed A signal instance of the usefulness of the 
 in siam missionary in matters of reform occurred in 
 Siam. Gambling is the national vice. It was 
 licensed and even encouraged by the govern- 
 ment. The demoralizing consequences can be 
 readily understood. This vice was vigorously 
 
The Missionary at Work 145 
 
 combatted by the missionaries, led by the 
 Rev. Eugene P. Dunlap and powerfully rein- 
 forced by the Hon. Hamilton King, the Ameri- 
 can minister. They frankly represented to the 
 king that gambling was inimical to the best 
 interests of Siam and that the money that the 
 government derived from it was obtained at a 
 ruinous cost to character and legitimate in- 
 dustry. The king listened, and the result was 
 the issuance of a royal decree, January, 1905, 
 ordering the abolition of these gambling con- 
 cessions by April, 1907. 
 
 Another illustration occurred in Shanghai, paSifn ^i chtak" 
 China, where there are about 20,000 Chinese 
 prostitutes. Distressed by their pitiful lot, 
 Mrs. George F. Fitch opened a rescue home 
 to which the slave girls could flee for refuge. 
 The home has attracted wide attention and 
 it witnesses powerfully for Christ. A high 
 official visited it one day with his wife, and 
 as he noted the sweet ministries to the fallen, 
 he marveled and said to his wife: "Nobody 
 but Jesus' people would do this." That sen- 
 tence vividly expresses the world-wide dif- 
 ference between the Christian and the non- 
 christian. It is at once an indictment of Con- 
 fucianism and a justification of missions. 
 Nobody but "Jesus' people" are doing these 
 things. 
 
 It is apparent from all that has been said Time Required 
 
14/6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 that the working out of so vast a movement 
 as the missionary enterprise will require time. 
 This is not a crusade whose object is to be at- 
 tained by a magnificent spurt. Error and 
 superstition are interwoven with the whole 
 social and political fabric of the non-christian 
 world and they are not to be overturned in a 
 day. "We are," observes Benjamin Kidd, 
 "in the midst of habits and institutions from 
 which our civilization is separated by a long 
 interval of development, where progress up- 
 ward must be a long, slow process, must pro- 
 ceed on native lines, and must be the effect of 
 the example and prestige of higher standards 
 rather than the result of ruder methods." 
 Long Process Most great rcconstructions of society have 
 
 m Europe ° •' 
 
 come slowly, and religious transformations 
 have been no exception. Christianity was 
 three hundred years in conquering Rome, and 
 even then the Roman world was far from com- 
 plete conversion. The gospel has been operat- 
 ing on the peoples of northern Europe and 
 their descendants for more than a thousand 
 years, and no Christian feels that the work 
 is done. It is to be hoped that other peoples 
 will not take as much time as we took; but 
 we cannot reasonably expect that a few decades 
 will suffice. 
 oppSsitilfn but Moreover, we must count now on more 
 Certain Victory gtrenuous Opposition from the non-christian 
 
The Missionary at Work 147 
 
 religions. At first, they were contemptuously 
 indifferent to the missionaries. But as the 
 priests see more clearly what radical changes 
 Christianity involves, that it is "turning the 
 world upside down," contempt and indiffer- 
 ence are .giving place to alarm. The ethnic 
 faiths are therefore setting themselves in battle 
 array. It would be foolish to ignore their 
 power, foolish to imagine that we are seeing 
 the last of Buddhism in Japan and Siam, of 
 Confucianism in China, of Hinduism in 
 India, and of Mohammedanism in Turkey. 
 Heathenism will die hard. The world, the 
 flesh, and the devil are in Asia as well as in 
 America, and are fighting more fiercely. It 
 is no holiday task to which we have set our- 
 selves. It is a gigantic struggle in which there 
 are against us "the principalities, the powers, 
 the world rulers of this darkness." Need have 
 we of patience, of determination, of "the 
 strength of his might" and "the whole armor 
 of God." We must sternly face our task in 
 the spirit of the man of whom Browning said : 
 He 
 
 "... never turned his back but marched 
 breast-forward ; 
 
 Never doubted clouds would break; 
 Never dreamed, though right were worsted, 
 
 wrong would triumph; 
 Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 
 
 Sleep to wake." 
 
148 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 The issue is not doubtful, for, "If God is for 
 us, who is against us?" 
 
 QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER V 
 
 Aim : To Realize the Variety and Value of the 
 Work Included in the Foreign Missionary 
 Enterprise 
 
 1. Write out all the forms of work engaged in by 
 missionaries mentioned in the chapter and sug- 
 gested to you by reflection. 
 
 2. How many of these are ordinarily engaged in 
 by ministers at home? 
 
 3. How does the task of the missionary as a whole 
 compare in magnitude and difficulty with that 
 of the average minister at home? 
 
 4. In the light of the work needed, reconsider 
 your opinion on the subject of the most de- 
 sirable qualifications for a missionary. 
 
 5. Reconsider your opinion as to the way in 
 which missionary training should differ from 
 that of the minister at home. 
 
 6. Need a missionary be qualified along all these 
 lines in order to be useful? 
 
 7. In preparing to teach a class of heathen 
 children, what things ought a missionary to 
 try to find out about their home life? Why? 
 
 8. What, about their personal ideas and atti- 
 tudes? 
 
 9. What, about any past instruction they may 
 have received? 
 
The Missionary at Work 149 
 
 10. What would it he desirable to know about the 
 local surroundings and society? 
 
 11. In what way should the curriculum in a mis^ 
 sionary school differ from that of schools 
 of the same grade in this country? 
 
 12. What are some of the difficulties that a mis- 
 sionary teacher must expect to encounter? 
 
 13. What should be his principal educational aims ? 
 
 14. In view of the aim of missionary work, why 
 is it so important for the missionary to es- 
 tablish elementary schools? 
 
 15. Why are higher schools necessary? 
 
 16. What are the advantages of boarding-schools 
 over day-schools? 
 
 17. What things besides the language ought a mis- 
 sionary to know in order to be a successful 
 translator ? 
 
 18. What advantages has the literary over any 
 other of the forms of work? 
 
 19. What various kinds of literature ought to be 
 distributed in order to build up a strong native 
 Church ? 
 
 20. What are the special advantages of medical 
 work as a missionary agency? 
 
 21. What measures would you take to secure the 
 greatest evangelistic efficiency in a dispensary 
 and hospital? 
 
 22. In what ways should missionary addresses 
 differ from sermons in this country? 
 
 23. What things ought the missionary to study 
 in preparing his addresses? 
 
150 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 24. Why is it important for him to be well ac- 
 quainted with local customs? 
 
 25. What special advantages has the evangelistic 
 missionary over those engaged in other forms 
 of work? 
 
 26. Which of these four forms of work does most 
 on the whole to build up the native Church? 
 Give several reasons for your opinion. 
 
 27. In what ways is each of these forms a nec- 
 essary supplement to the other three? 
 
 28. Has Christianity a message only for the in- 
 dividual, or for society as well? 
 
 29. Have Christians in this country any duty to 
 society except to evangelize it? 
 
 30. What should be the attitude of the mission- 
 ary toward non-christian society as a whole? 
 
 31. What reasons have we for believing that the 
 progress of Christianity on the foreign field 
 will be more rapid than it was in Europe? 
 
 32. Sum up the principal needs of the work on 
 the field. 
 
THE NATIVE CHURCH 
 
 151 
 
As to mission Church administration, for the sake of 
 the future of the Church the missionary should train 
 the churches with a view to speedy self-government and 
 self-propagation. Some missionaries possessed of a 
 strong individuality assume in themselves all the func- 
 tions of the executive; they are in themselves Bishop, 
 priest, deacon; and with their strong personality and 
 fulness of energy they have not the patience to bend 
 to the drudgery of training natives; therefore they take 
 all of the responsibility upon themselves. But this only 
 means disaster in the future, for when the strong man 
 leaves the field, his work falls to pieces. For the sake 
 of the Church and for the future of the Church we 
 must subordinate self and selfish tendencies and bend 
 our energies to get the best we can out of the native 
 Christians. — Frederick Galpin 
 
 The use of mission funds should be limited to the 
 support of missionaries, the issue of literature, the 
 founding of schools and hospitals and their support, 
 and some help in the erection of church buildings. Con- 
 verts should from the first be instructed in the necessity 
 of sharing the burdens of Church work. The self-sup- 
 port of native churches should be facilitated by sim- 
 plicity of organization, to the extent even, if necessary, 
 of delaying for a time the full development of the 
 pastorate. — George B. Winton 
 
 IS2 
 
T 
 
 VI 
 THE NATIVE CHURCH 
 HE development of a native Church is c°™?'"°''=^°*= 
 
 '^ and Adherents, 
 
 one of the most encouraging results of pjjftestanf"* 
 foreign missionary effort. The number of 
 adult communicants on the foreign field is now 
 (1908) 1,816,450. There are, besides, 1,272,383 
 adults who, having professed their faith in 
 Christ, have been enrolled as catechumens and 
 inquirers and are under special instruction with 
 a view to full membership in the near future, 
 while adherents number 4,351,138. The word 
 "adherent" has a more definite meaning on the 
 foreign, field than at home, for it usually signi- 
 fies that a member of a non-christian com- 
 munity has publicly separated himself, in name 
 and position at least, from the religion of his 
 country, and though not yet ready, in the judg- 
 ment of the missionaries, to be baptized, he 
 attends the church, and is willing to be known 
 by his neighbors as a Christian. 
 
 This already considerable native Church is ^'J||Ji°"^o^fey 
 growing at the rate of nearly 150,000 com- 
 municants a year. The development of such a 
 Church naturally brings into prominence cer- 
 IS3 
 
154 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 tain questions of mission policy. We have al- 
 ready seen that the aim of the missionary enter- 
 prise includes the development of an indigenous 
 native Church. To this end, the native Church 
 must be trained to self-propagation, self-sup- 
 port, and self-government. 
 
 Self-propagation Self-propagation is insisted upon as soon as 
 converts appear. They are taught from the 
 beginning that as soon as they become Chris- 
 tians, the missionary motive should become 
 operative within them, and that they are under 
 precisely the same obligation as Christians in 
 Europe and America to give the knowledge of 
 Christ to others. 
 
 chHs'?andPaSi This was the way Christ himself worked 
 during his earthly ministry. He preached both 
 to individuals and to multitudes wherever and 
 whenever he had opportunity; but one of his 
 chief efforts was to train up a band of disciples 
 to perpetuate and extend the work after his de- 
 parture. Paul also worked in this way. He 
 would go to a city, preach the gospel, gather a 
 band of disciples, organize themi into a church, 
 remain long enough to get them fairly started, 
 and then go elsewhere. 
 May^Take'' "^ The modern missionary will have to remain 
 a good deal longer than Paul did, for he does 
 not find such prepared conditions as the great 
 apostle found in the Jews of the dispersion. A 
 land may be evangelized in a generation, but 
 
 Centuries 
 
The Native Church 155 
 
 the Christianizing of it may be the toilsome 
 process of centuries. Moreover, when the ob- 
 ject has been attained in one country, the re- 
 sponsibiHty of the missionary and of the home 
 Church will not cease, but simply be transferred 
 to other populations. It is a long campaign 
 upon which we have entered, but we should 
 resolutely keep our purpose in mind. 
 
 This is not only wise in itself from the view- a;fi°s?wze° 
 point of the success and permanence of the Missionaries 
 work, but it is absolutely necessary from the ^'°°* 
 view-point of the men and money that are 
 available. It is impossible for the Churches of 
 Europe and America to send out and maintain 
 enough missionaries to preach the gospel effec- 
 tively to all of the thousand millions of the 
 unevangelized world. To attempt this would 
 be as foolish as it would be for a government 
 to make an army out of major-generals, while 
 making no provision for subalterns, non-com- 
 missioned officers, and privates. 
 
 Appeals to flood the foreign field with mis- workeVs'Must 
 sionaries ignore the part that the native mImm*'"' 
 Church is to play in its evangelization. They 
 apparently assume that the native Christians 
 have no responsibility for making Christ known 
 to their countrymen, or that they will not dis- 
 charge it, and that the entire burden of evan- 
 gelizing rests so exclusively upon foreigners 
 that the people will never hear the gospel unless 
 
156 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 great numbers of white men are sent to preach 
 it. Such an assumption is fundamentally 
 wrong. The native worker is better for this 
 direct evangelism anyway. He can live more 
 economically than a foreigner, and he has a 
 knowledge of native idioms and ways of think- 
 ing and manners and customs that no foreigner 
 can ever obtain. Moreover, there is no gulf 
 of race between him and his countrymen. 
 There is much about the Asiatic and the 
 African that will ever remain inscrutable to the 
 American and the European. The former, in 
 particular, is apt to be secretive and to make 
 his outward manner a mask behind which there 
 may be thoughts wholly unsuspected by a for- 
 eigner. But the native helper is able to get 
 behind that mask, and just because he is a na- 
 tive, and probably one of superior force of 
 character, the people will be more influenced by 
 him than by the missionary. 
 ArTM°d7bT The late Bishop Ingle, of Hankow, said that 
 Native Helpers ^j^g backbone of his work was the native clergy. 
 Another of our experienced missionaries in the 
 same region said recently : "I cannot remember 
 having baptized any one who was not brought 
 to me by a native Christian, except those who 
 came to our schools as pupils. All foreign mis- 
 sionaries say with Saint Paul, concerning the'r 
 native leaders, 'Now we Hv« if ye stand fast in 
 the Lord.' " 
 
The Native Church 
 
 157 
 
 This is not meant to minimize the need of 
 reinforcements. The present force is far too 
 small for effective superintendence in many 
 fields. The home Church should not relax its 
 efforts to provide a more adequate supply of 
 foreign workers; but while it is doing this, 
 the missions should give more persistent effort 
 to the development of a native agency, and so 
 hasten the establishment of the native Church. 
 
 We are not unmindful of the practical diffi- 
 culties that beset this problem. In hardly any 
 other part of the mission work is there so much 
 need of prudence. Hundreds of natives want 
 employment who are quite unfiit for it. Nor is 
 every one who is willing to work without pay 
 qualified for efficient service. But these diffi- 
 culties, and others that might be mentioned, 
 can be overcome. The more successful the 
 work, the more essential it is to develop the 
 native ministry that is indispensable to conserve 
 the evangelistic results already attained and 
 which we hope to attain in yet larger measure 
 in the future. The work will not be self-sup- 
 porting in any proper sense, but on the contrary 
 will become ruinously expensive if a large part 
 of it must continue to be performed by foreign 
 missionaries instead of by a native ministry 
 supported by the people. 
 
 The native Church should be led to self- 
 support as well as self-propagation. Here, 
 
 Missionary 
 Reinforcements 
 Still Needed 
 
 Prudence 
 Required in 
 Using Native 
 Ministry 
 
 Native Self- 
 support Also 
 Desirable 
 
IS8 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 also, the difficulties are formidable. The mis- 
 sionary goes to the heathen representing not 
 only a superior, but a more expensive type of 
 civilization. His scale of living, while mod- 
 erate from our view-point, appears to them 
 princely. Centuries of abject poverty and of 
 despotic government have predisposed most 
 Orientals to accept with eagerness whatever 
 is given them. Accustomed to living, or 
 rather half-starving, on an income of from 
 thirty to one hundred dollars a year, the na- 
 tive regards the missionary on a salary of 
 $i,ooo not only as an individual of wealth, 
 but as the representative of untold riches in 
 the homeland. He is therefore tempted to go 
 to him for the sake of the loaves and fishes, 
 and this temptation is enormously strength- 
 ened if he gets the impression that the mis- 
 sionary may employ him as a helper, or that 
 some individual or society in America may 
 support him. 
 us^M^ney""" The missionary, in turn, is tempted to the 
 free use of money by the wretchedness of the 
 people and by the prospect of the visible re- 
 sults which may be temporarily secured by a 
 liberal financial policy. Would-be converts 
 flock to him in such circumstances; many 
 helpers can be hired to apparent advantage, 
 and buildings can be cheaply rented and fur- 
 nished. But if he yields to the temptation, 
 
 Freely 
 
The Native Church 159 
 
 "he puts himself and the young Church in a 
 false relation at the outset. It is better to 
 teach the converts to make their own arrange- 
 ments, the missionary guiding by advice from 
 his larger experience of their probable require- 
 ments, and only in the last resort giving pe- 
 cuniary help."^ 
 
 On this point we must be increasingly firm. Mus't'^Nit" 
 Leading an able-bodied man to Christ does fupport°^ 
 not involve responsibility for his temporal 
 support. He made his living before his con- 
 version; why should he not do so after it? 
 Persecution may hinder him for a time; but 
 better far that he should suffer a little than 
 that he should be pauperized at the outset. 
 Christianity does not unnerve a man. It in- 
 creases his ability to fight the battles of life. 
 No native should be allowed to get the im- 
 pression that if he becomes a Christian, he 
 will be given work and a salary, even though 
 the work be so sacred a one as preaching the 
 gospel. 
 
 Our duty is to start Christianity in Asia, fo^'chaJLTJr^' 
 not to carry it, to give the gospel, to found 
 its institutions, to aid them so far as necessary 
 in their infancy, but to insist that as soon as 
 practicable they shall stand upon their own 
 feet. We must be patient and reasonable; 
 
 1 Gibson, Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South 
 China, 193. 
 
i6o Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 for now, as of old, it is the common people 
 who hear Christ gladly, and in Asia the com- 
 mon people are pitifully poor. We must not 
 withdraw aid so rapidly as to injure the work. 
 But the spirit of self-help is as vital to char- 
 acter abroad as it is at home. Strength comes 
 with independence, and we must not devital- 
 ize the Christians of Asia by indiscriminate 
 and unnecessary charity. 
 fo^'Native"^ There is of course a legitimate use of for- 
 toe°&?af eign money in the earlier stages of the work. 
 
 Infancy must be helped. The boards should 
 make such appropriations as an equitable dis- 
 tribution of funds will permit for the employ- 
 ment of native evangelists and helpers; but 
 the number should be limited to real needs 
 and the salary should be only that which will 
 enable them to live near the plane of their 
 countrymen, while they should be made to un- 
 derstand clearly that this pecuniary arrange- 
 ment is temporary. We must insist, in season 
 and out of season, line upon line and precept 
 upon precept, that while the missionary, being 
 a foreigner, will be maintained by the people of 
 America, the native workers must not look to 
 the boards, but to their own people, for their 
 permanent support. It will take a long time 
 to reach it, but the ideal should be foreign 
 money for foreign missionaries and native 
 money for native workers. 
 
The Native Church l6i 
 
 We should resist the temptation to an arti- siif-sS^p^'Snf 
 ficial growth which the free use of money can c''"'''^'' 
 beget. A Church developed by foreign money 
 is built on quicksand. One self-reliant Church 
 is worth more to the cause of Christ than a 
 dozen dependent ones. There must, of course, 
 be due regard to local conditions. Neither 
 the missions nor the boards should violently 
 revolutionize in fields where the opposite pol- 
 icy has been long pursued. Self-support can- 
 not be attained by immediately discharging 
 all native helpers, or by so reducing the work 
 that nothing will be left to support. Change 
 must be gradual; but no land will ever be 
 evangelized until it has a self-supporting na- 
 tive Church. Let us work and give and pray 
 for this essential aim of missionary effort. 
 
 In this connection it may be well to state idurating 
 that appeals made in the United States by in- goulTtry'"*'''^ 
 dividual Orientals for financial assistance in 
 order that each may "return and preach the 
 gospel to his own people," should be referred 
 to the proper missionary board for investiga- 
 tion and action. Only natives of strong Chris- 
 tian character and thorough Christian educa- 
 tion in native mission schools are likely to be 
 made better missionaries by a foreign educa- 
 tion. Only those whose special gifts point to 
 the probability of their rising to leading po- 
 sitions in the native Church, requiring unusu- 
 
i52 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Self- 
 government 
 
 ally wide understanding of national and re- 
 ligious problems, need the most complete 
 education possible. For such men the Mission- 
 ary Bishop and the Board of Missions are glad 
 to secure a postgraduate course in the United 
 States. Experience has shown that native con- 
 verts can be most economically and effectively 
 trained for Christian work in their own country 
 in the institutions which are now in operation 
 in almost every mission field, and which have 
 been founded at considerable expense chiefly 
 for this purpose. 
 
 The self-government of the native Church 
 Also an Aim [g a^ equally essential part of the missionary 
 aim, though it may not be so quickly realized. 
 Nevertheless, its ultimate attainment should 
 shape our policy, and the native Church should 
 be stimulated to self-support and self-propa- 
 gation by being frequently reminded that both 
 are indispensable prerequisities to independ- 
 ence. It is as idle in Asia as in America to 
 imagine that men can live on the money of 
 others without ultimately becoming dependent 
 upon them. 
 
 As for the missionary, he should frankly 
 say of the native Church what John the Bap- 
 tist said of Christ: "He must increase, but 
 I must decrease." If there is ever to be a 
 self-supporting, self-governing, and self-prop- 
 agating native Church, we must anticipate the 
 
 Increasing 
 Control by the 
 Native Church 
 
The Native ChurcH 163 
 
 time when it will be in entire control. More 
 and more definitely should missionary policy 
 recognize the part that this growing Church 
 ought to have in the work. In the past, the 
 typical missionary has been primarily an 
 evangelist to the heathen. He had to be, for 
 his was often the only voice from which the 
 message could be heard. The mission has 
 been paramount and has been expected to run 
 everything. Whatever was wanted, the board 
 was asked to supply. But a native Church has 
 now been created, and from now on we must 
 concede its due share of responsibility for 
 making the gospel known and for directing 
 the general work. Many things need to be 
 done in non-christian lands which it is not 
 the function of the boards to do. Our busi- 
 ness is to plant Christianity and help to get it 
 started, and then educate it to take care of 
 itself. 
 
 It is true that, in some lands, the native Mu'ste'e^"'^" 
 Church is yet in its infancy, and that it should StmSi^hTn*'"' 
 have aid and counsel; but we should hold Authority 
 resolutely in view the principle that the mis- 
 sion is a temporary and diminishingly author- 
 itative body, and that the native Church is a 
 permanent and increasingly authoritative body. 
 Even though the mission remains a century 
 or more, as it must in some lands, this funda- 
 mental distinction should not be overlooked. 
 
i64 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Imbarralment It takcs a great (leal of grace for the mis- 
 to Missionaries gjonary, after having been the supreme au- 
 thority for years, to accept a place subordin- 
 ate to that of the natives whom he has trained. 
 Missionaries in some fields already find them- 
 selves in this position, and they would hardly 
 be human if they did not feel uncomfortable. 
 The spirit of independence has become so in- 
 tense in Japan that many of the native leaders 
 •would have the Church refuse to recognize a 
 congregation or preacher that receives foreign 
 aid. Such a spirit of self-sacrificing inde- 
 pendence is far more hopeful than flabby and 
 supine acquiescence in external leadership. We 
 cannot, however, view some phases of the situ- 
 ation without anxiety, nor can we fail to dis- 
 cern how embarrassing the position of the 
 missionaries must be. 
 Mamta^'^ The time required for each group of native 
 Christians to develop into an independent na- 
 tional Church depends upon racial and national 
 characteristics, upon economic conditions, and 
 upon local environment. The relative strength 
 of the impulses for self-support, extension, and 
 self-government varies in dififerent mission 
 fields, but the triple aim is never forgotten by 
 the missionaries and boards. Illustrations of 
 this will be given in brief sketches of the 
 work of the Church in Africa, Brazil, China, 
 and Japan. 
 
The Native Church 165 
 
 The Church in Liberia, Africa 
 
 In Liberia, white Bishops, clergy, and S°Vit'e workers 
 teachers trained a staff of native workers and 
 built up a Church. Every mission churchyard 
 and many a missionary in the United States, 
 who has broken down in Liberia, testifies to the 
 cost of the work. The Liberian Church may 
 well be proud of its martyrs. As a result of 
 their work, the Bishop, the clergy, and other 
 mission workers, with the exception of the 
 principal and two teachers of Saint John's 
 School, Cape Mount, in 1908, were all negroes, 
 making a complete native ministry. 
 
 The Church is fully organized and in self- chSrch°rnd' 
 government is similar to one of our missionary ^""""y 
 districts in the United States. The financial 
 resources of the Church and State in Liberia 
 have developed slowly. The Republic is not 
 rich; its citizens who came from the United 
 States brought little or no capital, and several 
 generations of slavery had not tended to de- 
 velop the habit of self-support. The native 
 tribes that the Liberian colonists found on their 
 arrival have been gradually absorbed into the 
 Republic, but they brought no working capital 
 into the community. The people as a whole, 
 through dread of political interference, have 
 passed laws making it difficult for white men 
 to make business investments in their country. 
 
1 66 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Under such conditions wealth in the Church, 
 as in the State, grows slowly. 
 Problem of Advocates of sclf-cxtension in the Liberian 
 
 Self-extension 
 
 Church have met some of the objections that 
 advocates of missions to the American Indians 
 met in the early days of Jamestown and that 
 Bishop Whipple met in Minnesota, when set- 
 tlements were few and Indians many, prejudice 
 strong and misunderstandings mutual. The 
 political relations of colonists and native tribes 
 have made Church extension difficult for the 
 Liberian Church. But the effort for self-ex- 
 tension is growing and many of the best clergy 
 are men of native tribes. 
 
 The Church in Brazil 
 
 DeieiopSInf The work of the Brazilian Church was be- 
 gun in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, in 1889, 
 by two clergy just graduated from the Virginia 
 Seminary. They started by establishing 
 schools, but almost immediately found that the 
 people were ready and anxious for the forma- 
 tion of churches, and the mission has developed 
 along parish rather than educational lines. 
 For the first sixteen years the mission was sup- 
 ported by the American Church Missionary So- 
 ciety, at the end of which time the financial re- 
 sponsibility of the work was accepted by the 
 Board of Missions. 
 
The Native Church 167 
 
 As early as the year 1897, the Brazihan ctar"""' 
 mission had tai<:en the form of an organized o>'e«'''^a"°" 
 Church, holding an annual council in which 
 representative laymen sat with the foreign and 
 native clergy. Local canons were adopted and 
 plans formed for carrying on the work. 
 
 In another respect the Brazilian work has B°g?nnin" "^ 
 differed from that in the Far East. It was 
 not a mission of the American Episcopal 
 Church, but an independent national Church, 
 for which a Bishop, elected by its own synod, 
 was consecrated by the bishops of the American 
 Church, very much as our first Bishop Seabury 
 was elected by the representatives of the con- 
 gregations in this country in 1784, and con- 
 secrated for the Church in the United States 
 by the bishops of the Scottish Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 In 1898 the Rev. Lucien Lee Kinsolving was Kin^ofving 
 chosen by his fellow workers to be the first 
 Bishop of Southern Brazil, and in 1899 re- 
 ceived consecration under the authority of the 
 House of Bishops. In 1907 the Brazilian 
 Church decided to ask the Church in the United 
 States, through the General Convention, to 
 accept the work in Brazil as one of its mis- 
 sions. The General Convention, meeting in 
 Richmond in October, 1907, agreed to do this. 
 Bishop Kinsolving resigned as a bishop of the 
 Church in Brazil and was elected by the Gen- 
 
i68 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 eral Convention as Missionary Bishop of Bra- 
 zil. He still retains the title, Bishop of South- 
 ern Brazil, although the whole Republic, not 
 only the single state of Rio Grande do Sul as 
 formerly, is now the field of the American 
 Church. 
 «i"chu?c°h In 1908 the communicants numbered more 
 than a thousand, and yearly contributions of 
 the churches and mission stations were more 
 than ten thousand dollars ; one parish was self- 
 supporting and two were rapidly approaching 
 that state. Altogether there were seven 
 churches and nine chapels, for the construction 
 of which liberal offerings had been made in 
 the field. The rate at which the Church has 
 been extending itself is indicated by the fact 
 that although at no time in the history of the 
 mission were there more than five foreign 
 clergy in the field, the native clergy in 1908 
 numbered nine and there were seven study- 
 ing for the ministry. The Church in Brazil 
 draws from all sorts and conditions of men. 
 But she appeals more especially to the artisans 
 and the smaller merclaants, the people that 
 constitute the hope and the heart of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 The Church in China 
 
 fn thl"''^°" For many years, the missionaries have en- 
 
 chinese Church deavorcd to inculcatc ideas of self-support, and 
 
 the churches have responded with varying 
 
The Native Church 169 
 
 degrees of readiness. In nearly all our con- 
 gregations, weekly offerings are taken for the 
 support of the work. Pledges are made an- 
 nually for the support of the parish, but in 
 many cases the response has not been all that 
 could be wished. In igo8 a missionary, writes : 
 "In some places, the spirit of independence 
 has taken hold of the people, and they are 
 anxious to do all they can for themselves. This 
 is especially true in Shanghai and Hankow. 
 One congregation in Shanghai is entirely self- 
 supporting, and another nearly so. In Hankow 
 the Cathedral congregation suddenly seized 
 the idea that the Chtirch was their own, and 
 the contributions jumped in one year from less 
 than a fourth to more than a half of their ex- 
 penses." 
 
 "Most of our congregations contribute much fpeSarobj'ects 
 more freely for special objects. The repairing 
 of churches and the building of new ones, the 
 purchase of land for cemeteries or other pur- 
 poses are readily and generously contributed 
 to. Special contributions are taken for special 
 objects from time to time. A list of such ob- 
 jects with suggested dates on which collections 
 should be taken was prepared by the Bishop 
 and sent to all clergy. These objects include 
 the Apportionment, Church extension in the 
 Missionary Districts, Missions in Japan, the 
 Bible and Tract Societies to which we are in- 
 
170 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Recent Method 
 to Promote 
 Giving 
 
 Self- 
 government 
 in the 
 Chinese Church 
 
 At Shanghai 
 and Hankovvr 
 
 debted for most of our Christian literature, and 
 some other objects." 
 
 An important step was taken at the Synod 
 of Hankow in 1908. Among the provisional 
 canons adopted was one which limited the right 
 of lay delegates to vote at future synods to 
 those parishes which had paid a certain small 
 proportion of their parochial expenses. It 
 should be mentioned that in most places the 
 financial ability .of the congregations is not 
 great. In Hankow and Shanghai and a few 
 other places there are a number of young men, 
 graduates of our schools, who are in receipt of 
 very good salaries. Many of them give 
 liberally, but aside from them few of the con- 
 verts have much to give. The poor give quite 
 as liberally in proportion to their ability as the 
 rich. 
 
 From the beginning of our work the training 
 of the clergy has had a most important place 
 and our clergy have always had their share in 
 the government of the Church. No court for 
 the trial of any offense has ever been consti- 
 tuted where tlie Chinese were not represented. 
 Fortunately few such courts have been needed. 
 The organization of the Church has always 
 proceeded on the assumption that the Chinese 
 would ultimately have full control. 
 
 Shanghai has had a convocation without 
 legislative power for some years past. There 
 
The Native Church 171 
 
 have been meetings in Hankow for various 
 classes of w^orkers, but there has been nothing 
 of the nature of a synod until February, 1908. 
 A meeting was held then in February, con- 
 sisting of all the clergy, Chinese and foreign, 
 together with lay representatives from the va- 
 rious parishes and representatives from among 
 the catechists and school-teachers. A constitu- 
 tion and canons were provisionally adopted. 
 The conventions will be triennial, as the in- 
 conveniences of travel are great. 
 
 In national organization the Church workers ofgLnlzlition 
 in China are making progress. For a number 
 of years the Bishops held meetings at which 
 they were attended by chaplains. Then in 1908 
 a meeting was held to which the foreign clergy 
 of the various districts, English and American, 
 elected delegates — two besides the Bishop from 
 each district. This meeting has done much 
 toward the organization of the national 
 Church. A meeting is to be held next year at 
 which Chinese and foreign representatives are 
 to be present. Doubtless that meeting will be 
 able to do something definite in the way of 
 organization. There are two great difficulties 
 in the way. One is language. The people of 
 South China, where there are very strong Eng- 
 lish missions, speak languages which are not 
 understood by each and still less by men from 
 the northern and central provinces. For this 
 
172 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 first meeting the discussions are to be in Eng- 
 lish with interpreters where needed. Though 
 there would be more people at the conference 
 understanding and speaking Mandarin, English 
 is the only language in which we can be sure 
 of interpreters. The other difficulty is the 
 great variety in Church development, from the 
 highly organized and largely self-supporting 
 missions of the south to the missions of the 
 north and west where there are very few clergy 
 and no self-supporting congregations. Our 
 own mission is, both geographically and as re- 
 gards development, in a middle position, 
 fn thr'^°^'°° From the beginning a large part of the con- 
 
 chinese Church ycrts havc been brought in as a result of the 
 work of the Chinese. Most of our converts are 
 first brought to the Church by friends who have 
 already become Christians. The teaching of 
 inquirers and catechumens is entirely in the 
 hands of the Chinese clergy and catechists. 
 Very few foreigners get time to do much 
 preaching to the heathen. They are almost ex- 
 clusively occupied in organization and in teach- 
 ing and preaching to the regular congregations 
 of Christians. One missionary writes : "I hard- 
 ly baptized a convert whom I knew before he 
 was an admitted catechumen except schoolboys 
 and some of my servants. They are as a rule 
 brought in by other converts, instructed by the 
 catechists and Chinese clergy, and only ex- 
 
The Native Church 173 
 
 amined and baptized by the foreigner, and even 
 this is frequently done by the Chinese clergy." 
 
 So in every important aspect of the work the 
 preparation of an independent Church develops, 
 and the Sung Kung, Wei, as the Church in 
 China is called, will, in God's good time, grow 
 from the position of a foreign mission to that 
 of another national branch of the Church. 
 
 The Church in Japan 
 
 In the first stage of the mission work, the Growfh^^^°^ 
 clergy of course were all foreigners, and they 
 had to do all the clerical and evangelistic work 
 whicli was done. During this brief period, 
 the missionary was in the same relation toward 
 several Japanese congregations that a clergy- 
 man would be in this country. Not only was 
 the preaching and the conduct of service under 
 his direction, but the whole pastoral work was 
 in his hands. 
 
 In the second stage of the work the mis- fhewljfk^^* °* 
 sionaries had the oversight and direction of 
 native workers. The work of the missionary 
 under these conditions, if he had, as he usually 
 did, a number of stations or congregations 
 under his charge, was more nearly like that of 
 a bishop than that of a clergyman in charge of 
 a church in this country. He visited his con- 
 gregations from time to time, administered the 
 sacraments, and when he was present did such 
 
174 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 other work as seemed desirable to do; but the 
 Japanese helper was usually resident, and upon 
 him naturally aiid necessarily fell the chief bur- 
 den of the work. If he were incompetent, the 
 missionary could do little. If he were com- 
 petent, much might be done. But it was very 
 seldom that a Japanese worker could be of any 
 special value unless he was fitted tO' work in a 
 great part independently. It can be seen that 
 such a condition as this could be only tem- 
 porary. The early missionaries had need of 
 assistance, and missionaries were tempted to 
 hurry Japanese into the work to assist them 
 without the education and other preparation 
 which men ought to have to do such work. 
 The Further What remains to be done is that work 
 
 stage 
 
 should progress further on the lines on which 
 it has developed already; that the Japanese 
 Church should have as soon as possible native 
 pastors who even while deacons are not under 
 the jurisdiction of any priest, nor eventually of 
 any foreign bishop ; and that unordained Japa- 
 nese evangelists should also be under the direc- 
 tion of the Japanese clergy. This is true to 
 some extent already and it is only lack of 
 numbers that prevents all such work passing 
 into Japanese hands. 
 sefKo'kwTi The present situation as to the native Church 
 in Japan is that the Apostolic Church is already 
 there under the name of the Nippon SeiKokwai. 
 
The Native Church' 175 
 
 So far as its organization is concerned it is in- 
 dependent now. It has no closer ecclesiastical 
 connection with the Church of England or with 
 our American Church than these have with 
 one another. It is simply in communion with 
 both. Its constitution is more or less modeled 
 upon that of the American Church, but the 
 American Church had nothing to do with its 
 formation and has no power to change or 
 modify it in any way. It was established by 
 a synod which consisted of all the clergy, na- 
 tive and foreign, and representatives of the 
 laity, among whom there were in the first 
 synod, several foreigners. There have never 
 been any foreign lay delegates in any subse- 
 quent synod. 
 
 The relation of the foreign missionary to the p|„i: 
 
 Relation of 
 
 .e°. 
 
 Japanese Church is unique. As missionaries, Mistionaries 
 or as Bishops or clergy of the American 
 Church, they have no standing whatever; but 
 the Japanese Church has recognized the Eng- 
 lish and American Bishops and clergy as being, 
 in consequence of their relation to the home 
 Church, and to the mission work before the 
 time of the establishment of the Nippon Sei 
 Kokwai as Bishops and clergy for the time be- 
 ing of the Japanese Church. 
 
 Every Bishop and every foreign clergyman cha?Mter 
 before he can take his place as delegate or con- 
 stituent member of a synod of the Japanese 
 
176 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Church, must first sign a statement promising 
 conformity to the doctrine, discipline, and 
 worship of that Church. Our missionaries in 
 Japan to-day have therefore a dual relation. 
 The Bishop is the Bishop of the American 
 Church, working, so far as his relation to that 
 Church is concerned, under the Constitution 
 and Canons of the American Church. He is 
 also Bishop for the time being of the Japanese 
 Church, and in his relation to that he is under 
 the Constitution and Canons of that Church. 
 In the same way, the missionary is, so far as 
 his relation to the home Church is concerned, 
 governed only by the law of the home Church, 
 and so far as his relation to the Japanese 
 Church is concerned, only by the law of the 
 Japanese Church. Out of this there arises a 
 double set of institutions in the mission field. 
 Jndthl^''"'' So far as the American Church is concerned, 
 c^^ch^" each district has its Bishop, its council of ad- 
 vice, composed of Japanese and foreigners, and 
 its convocation. The Bishop, because of his 
 dual relation, has all the authority of a Bishop 
 in both the Japanese and American Churches. 
 He is also the sole representative of the Mis- 
 sionary Society in its financial relations, and 
 he, in conjunction with the Board of Missions, 
 controls all expenditures within the limits of the 
 appropriation. He has also the power of ap- 
 pointment and removal of foreign missionaries 
 
The Native Church 177 
 
 within the field. Where native workers receive 
 their salaries through the Board of Missions, 
 he has the same power of appointment and re- 
 moval; and, in addition, as being sole repre- 
 sentative of the body which employs them, has 
 power within the limits of the funds at his 
 discretion to increase, diminish, or discontinue 
 their salaries. 
 
 Returning to the Nippon Sei Kokwai, it has ||vernment 
 at present (1908), first of all, its six Mission- Nippon sei 
 ary Districts under two American and four ^°^'"^^ 
 English Bishops, which coincide, so far as the 
 American Districts of Tokyo and Kyoto are 
 concerned, with the Japanese Districts of North 
 Tokyo and Kyoto, because the American 
 Church accepts these Japanese Districts as its 
 own sphere of operations. None of these six 
 districts are dioceses in the strict sense, and 
 yet they come nearer the status of dioceses than 
 our American Missionary Districts either at 
 home or abroad. Each has its own District 
 Council, which meets annually as a matter of 
 constitutional right. It has legislative power in 
 the same manner and to about the same degree 
 as an American diocese, and on the whole falls 
 short of the status of the latter only in its ina- 
 bility to elect its own Bishop. 
 
 In each district there is a standing com- commltrel'"^ 
 mittee. It has powers exercised by standing 
 committees in this country, with some addi- 
 
The Local 
 Synod 
 
 178 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 tions, the tendency of the Japanese Church 
 being a little more to centralization than pre- 
 vails here. 
 
 The local Synod corresponding to our Dio- 
 cesan Conventions, consists of the Bishop, who 
 presides, all of the Japanese clergy and as 
 many of the foreign clergy as have the Bishop's 
 license, and have signed the promise of confor- 
 mity to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of 
 the Japanese Church, together with evangelists 
 in pastoral charge of congregations, and lay 
 delegates from each congregation having more 
 than a certain number of communicants. Usu- 
 ally, smaller congregations can unite to send 
 a joint delegate. In the Synod thus constituted, 
 the Bishop at the present time is a foreigner, 
 the clergy part foreign and part Japanese, with 
 the Japanese in most districts in the majority, 
 while the lay delegates are entirely Japanese. 
 
 The General Synod of the Japanese Church 
 corresponds to our General Convention, and 
 like it meets every three years. It is com- 
 posed of the present foreign Bishops, of 
 clerical delegates who are elected by the clergy 
 at the district Synod, and of lay delegates who 
 are elected by the laity. Of the clerical dele- 
 gates a pretty large majority are now Japanese. 
 The lay delegates are all Japanese. 
 
 This mingling together of foreigners who 
 are supported and controlled by foreign 
 
The Native Church 179 
 
 churches with natives is one of the things 
 that Hmits the actual and complete independ- 
 ence of the Japanese Church. It is only in the 
 lay vote of the synods that purely Japanese 
 opinions and convictions are represented. On 
 the whole, however, the Japanese clergy being 
 in the majority in most districts, the clerical 
 vote comes reasonably near representing Japa- 
 nese opinion. With the episcopal vote, it is of 
 course different. The Bishops are all for- 
 eigners. They are men who are as well ac- 
 quainted with Japanese conditions and the 
 Japanese Church as 'is possible. They are not 
 Japanese and cannot be expected to represent 
 the Japanese Church, although for the time 
 being, they govern it as Bishops and help to 
 govern it as members of the synods. It is here 
 then, in the episcopate, that the Japanese 
 Church is furthest removed from independence. 
 The last synod, however, passed in 1908 a 
 canon which looks to a change here. This 
 canon provides that whenever in any given 
 locality there are six self-supporting congrega- 
 tions, they may take action toward tlie forma- 
 tion of a diocese. This action is reported to 
 the Standing Committee of the whole Church, 
 whose duty it is to investigate the matter and 
 report to the next General Synod. If the Gen- 
 eral Synod authorizes the erection of the dio- 
 cese, it will then have the right to elect its 
 
i8o Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Bishop. His consecration would be asked from 
 Bishops of the American or English Churches. 
 lestJwIS'"' How soon the Church in Japan will be in- 
 japanese dependent, it is impossible to say. The initia- 
 tive in these matters rests where it ought to 
 rest, with the Japanese Church. The power 
 rests also with them. Although that Church 
 includes, as a part of its working force, foreign 
 Bishops and other clergy having full status in 
 that Church, yet as an organization it is en- 
 tirely independent, and was so recognized by 
 our own General Convention in 1886. 
 Transition The futurc of the mission work in Japan 
 must certainly be, that under whatever form of 
 Church government, the missionaries must be 
 helpers, not rulers. It will be seen, then, that 
 the one remaining step of progress toward the 
 independence of the Japanese Church is largely 
 a matter of persons rather than of institutions. 
 The organization is there. What remains is to 
 substitute Japanese for foreigners in the epis- 
 copate, to put foreigners under the control of 
 the Japanese Bishops, and eventually to let all 
 the ordinary clerical work pass into Japanese 
 hands, 
 in^ the^Nippon The independence of the Japanese Church is 
 delayed also by its scanty financial resources. 
 Progress toward self-support has been slower 
 than in other departments, and rightly so. 
 There have always been doctrinaires who main- 
 
 Sei Kokwai 
 
The Native Church 
 
 i»i 
 
 tain that a native Church ought to be self- 
 supporting from the beginning. The particular 
 way in which self-support can be helped, how- 
 ever, varies according to local circumstances. 
 Very often foreign help, wisely applied, is the 
 most efficient method of bringing about self- 
 support. Take, for example, Christ Church, 
 Osaka (now self-supporting), built as a chapel 
 to Saint Timothy's School, more than twenty- 
 five years ago. It holds twenty-five benches, 
 each six feet long. In Christ Church, want 
 of space makes it necessary to have a rule that 
 children shall not be allowed to accompany 
 their parents to the services. It is hard for a 
 Japanese mission station to attain self-support 
 in a building too small properly to hold a con- 
 gregation that was large enough to support it- 
 self. Can any reasonable person maintain that 
 it would pauperize the Japanese Church or 
 hinder its self-support, if they had temporary 
 and sufficient help in providing adequate church 
 buildings ? 
 
 The great difficulty in the way of Japanese 
 self-support is not so much want of will as 
 want of means. For the most part, the people 
 of means are not in the Christian Church. So 
 far as intelligence and education are con- 
 cerned, the membership of our Churches, and 
 of Protestant Churches, is far above the aver- 
 age of the country. No better single proof of 
 
 National Chu 
 Lacks Means 
 
1 82 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 that can be found than this, that in the first 
 Japanese Pariiament, thirteen out of the 300 
 elected members were Christians, though there 
 was only one Christian to every 400 of the 
 population. And so among ofhcials, profes- 
 sional men, students, and the like, the propor- 
 tion of Christians has been for a long time 
 much greater than among the population at 
 large. But the Christians for the most part are 
 young people, with young families, and small 
 incomes. That such congregations as these 
 should be expected to build churches such as 
 are needed for their work in a city like Osaka, 
 with more than a million people, or like Tokyo, 
 with nearly two millions, is not reasonable. In 
 both places, land is expensive, and churches 
 must be substantially built to guard against 
 fire. No one, however, disputes the fact that 
 every native Church ought to be self-support- 
 ing as soon, and to as large a degree, as pos- 
 sible. 
 Can for°"*' If the Japanese Church cannot yet be inde- 
 pendent in the work of its churches, still less 
 can it be expected to be so in Christian educa- 
 tion. In such institutions as Saint Paul's Col- 
 lege, Tokyo, is now the great opportunity for 
 Churchmen in the United States to help for- 
 ward the cause of self-support by training up 
 men to lead the Japanese Church. How many 
 colleges in America are self-supporting, and 
 
 Assistance 
 
The Native Church 183 
 
 how important are they to Church and State? 
 It is not the withholding of money at this stage 
 of development that will accomplish the pur- 
 pose, but rather the judicious use of money at 
 the right time and in the right place. 
 
 The Church in Japan is doing much in this seif-extension 
 direction through the personal service of its 
 members to win their fellow countrymen to 
 Christianity. The blind believer of one of our 
 missions, who for a long time refused to be 
 baptized, because he did not dare to become a 
 Christian on account of his blindness, thinking 
 he could not be a missionary, is a dramatic in- 
 stance of the sense of responsibility which per- 
 meates members of the Japanese Church. Nor 
 are there lacking brilliant instances to show the 
 sense of personal responsibility as a Christian 
 to spread Christianity. The Holy Trinity Or- 
 phanage and School for Feeble-minded Chil- 
 dren was begun and carried on by Mr. Ishii 
 for so many years simply because he knew the 
 need, and was ready to give all he owned to 
 supply it. Similarly, the Widely Loving So- 
 ciety, an Orphanage started and carried on by 
 the Kobashi family, was also founded as an 
 individual philanthropy, and shows the flower- 
 ing of Christianity in a Japanese household. 
 Again, the Church School of Miss Ume Tsuda, 
 is not a diocesan institution, but is the success- 
 ful missionary venture of a gentlewoman of 
 
184 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Japan, who sees the need of young girls about 
 her for all that Christianity can give, and is 
 supplying it. Instances like these, where in- 
 dividuals having spent their money, keep giv- 
 ing their lives, indicate the vitality in the Japa- 
 nese Church of the Christian instinct to Chris- 
 tianize others. No wonder that the Nippon Sei 
 Kokwai, by sending and supporting one of its 
 own clergy as a missionary to the Japanese in 
 Formosa, has also given an example of a sense 
 of corporate responsibility and gratitude for 
 God's truth. 
 
 QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VI 
 
 Aim : To Understand the Problems Involved in the 
 Great Aim of Foreign Missions 
 
 1. If the heathen and Moslem world be esti- 
 mated at 1,000,000,000, what number of them 
 are still unreached? 
 
 2. If we have less than 8,000,000 communicants 
 and adherents in Anglican and Protestant mis- 
 sions at present, how long would it take at the 
 same rate to Christianize the world?' 
 
 3. What should be the missionary policy in order 
 to accelerate this rate of progress? 
 
 4. Sum up all the advantages that the foreign 
 missionary has over the native as a missionary. 
 
 5. Sum up all the advantages which the native 
 has over the foreigner as a missionary. 
 
 6. In view of these relative advantages, how 
 should the work be divided between the mis- 
 sionary and the native? 
 
The Native Chtarcli 185 
 
 7. What is the relative importance to the mission- 
 ary of these three forms of work: (i) Preach- 
 ing to the unevangelized ; (2) teaching the 
 inquirers; (3) training native workers. 
 
 8. In view of your answer to the last question, 
 what sort of training ought the missionary 
 candidate to receive? 
 
 9. To what extent ouglit the missionary policy 
 to be followed by the clergy at home? 
 
 10. What special methods^ would you employ to 
 render the native Church self-propagating? 
 
 11. In what ways can the educational work co- 
 operate in rendering the native Church self- 
 propagating ? 
 
 12. In what ways can the literary work cooperate ? 
 
 13. If you were a missionary, would you feel justi- 
 fied in suggesting the duty of giving to a 
 convert who had not one tenth of the com- 
 forts of life which you enjoyed? 
 
 14. At what point should the subject of giving 
 be presented to the native convert? 
 
 15. What things that the native Church would 
 otherwise be deprived of should be supplied 
 from the mission funds? 
 
 16. What things would it be better for the native 
 Church to forego until it can pay for them 
 itself? 
 
 17. Give the arguments for and against a free 
 use of mission funds in the support of the 
 native Church. 
 
 18. What measures would you take to increase 
 self-support in a native congregation that had 
 been backward in this respect? 
 
i86 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 19. In what ways do self-support, self-propagation, 
 and self-government stimulate each other in the 
 Nippon Sei Kokwai, and the Sung Kung Wei? 
 
 20. How does the emphasis on various methods of 
 missionary work in Liberia differ from that in 
 Brazil, and why? 
 
 21. In what ways is the missionary better fitted 
 than the native to govern the native Church? 
 
 22. What are the principal dangers in allowing the 
 native Church too much self-government? 
 
 23. What are the principal dangers of allowing the 
 native Church too little self-government? 
 
 24. What measures would you take as a mission- 
 ary to avoid both of these classes of dangers? 
 
 25. What can you do as a Churchman in regard 
 to the organization of national Churches? 
 
THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 AND ITS CRITICS 
 
 187 
 
Many men who at home moved in good society and 
 were active members in a Christian church, are now 
 living in some Eastern city in a manner that dis- 
 graces the name of our English civilization. Some 
 native critics, seeing this, say: "Christianity will not 
 endure exportation to the East." It cannot be expected 
 that among such as these, who know no Sabbath, and 
 who have abandoned, for the present at least, restraint 
 against intemperance and impurity, there will be found 
 any who do not hate the very name missionary be- 
 cause of the condemning conscience that the suggestion 
 arouses in themselves. — James L. Barton 
 
 The longer one stays in India the more evidence one 
 has that the future well-being of this country, and above 
 all, the extension, permanence, and quality of British 
 influence, depend largely upon the progress of missions. 
 
 — James Bryce 
 
 The enemies of foreign missions have spoken taunt- 
 ingly of the slowness of the work and of its great 
 and disproportionate cost, and we have too exclusively 
 consoled ourselves and answered the criticism by the 
 suggestion that with God a thousand years are as one 
 day. We should not lose sight of the other side of that 
 truth — one day with him is as a thousand years. God 
 has not set a uniform pace for himself in the work of 
 bringing in the kingdom of his Son. He will hasten 
 it in his day. The stride of his Church shall be so 
 quickened that commerce will be the laggard. Love 
 shall outrun greed. — Benjamin Harrison 
 
 1 88 
 
VII 
 
 THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE AND 
 ITS CRITICS 
 
 THE purity of the missionary's motive, crMcUm 
 the unselfishness of his work, do not Legitimate 
 exempt him from criticism, nor should they. 
 Any enterprise which depends upon public sup- 
 port is a fair object of criticism. Boards and 
 missionaries are human and have their share of 
 human infirmities. They have a right to in- 
 sist that criticism shall be honest; but within 
 that limit, any one has a right to scrutinize 
 their methods and work and to express his 
 conclusions with entire frankness. 
 
 Critics should remember, however, that the Ma1fe''Mi°takes 
 foreign missionary enterprise deals with agents ^"^^'"bie 
 who are not mechanical instruments or sol- 
 diers amenable to military discipline, but liv- 
 ing, intelligent men and women who, like 
 critics, are fallible; who are scattered all over 
 the world ; whose acts often appear strange be- 
 cause determined by conditions which people 
 at home do not understand ; and that some mis- 
 takes are inevitable when men of one race 
 attempt to live among and influence those 
 of a different race. We shall know everything 
 
Four Classes 
 of Criticisms 
 
 From Friends 
 
 From Those 
 Who Are 
 Ignorant 
 
 190 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 and do things just right when we get to heaven; 
 but on earth we must feel our way along and 
 learn by experience. Home enterprises, busi- 
 ness, educational, philanthropic, and religious, 
 are exposed to a constant fire of criticism, some 
 of it just. It is notorious that men conducting 
 them often blunder, and that the result is fre- 
 quently waste, duplication, and even failure. 
 Why then should we demand perfection of 
 foreign missionaries, especially when their 
 work is conducted under difficulties far more 
 numerous and formidable? We do not object 
 to the fact of criticism; we simply urge that 
 it be reasonable and made with due regard 
 to conditions. 
 
 Criticism of missionaries and their work may 
 be roughly divided into four classes : 
 
 First, those which come from friends of 
 the work who see defects, or think that they 
 do. Some of these criticisms are undoubtedly 
 just, and should be heeded. Others are based 
 on misapprehensions, and should elicit tem- 
 perate explanations. The attitude of the boards 
 and the missionaries toward this whole class of 
 critics should be that of the inspired writer 
 who said: "Faithful are the wounds of a 
 friend." 
 
 Second, criticisms which come from those 
 who are ignorant of the real character, aims, 
 and work of the missionary and the methods 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 191 
 
 of mission boards. This is a large class. There 
 are many people who have never seen mission- 
 ary work, or met a missionary, or read a mis- 
 sionary book, but who, seeing in the news- 
 papers or hearing from some friend the class 
 of criticisms to which reference has just been 
 made, jump to the conclusion that they are 
 true. 
 
 The increasing interest in Asia and the com- Qfobe-uotter'y 
 parative ease with which it can now be visited 
 are rapidly enlarging the stream of foreign 
 travelers. Unfortunately, many of them are 
 mere globe-trotters, knowing little and caring 
 less about missionaries, people who at home are 
 only languidly interested in Church work and 
 who do not know what religious effort is being 
 put forth in their own city. Abroad, they 
 usually confine their visits to the port cities 
 and capitals, and become acquainted only at 
 the foreign hotels and clubs. They seldom 
 look up foreign missions and missionary work, 
 but get their impressions from more or less 
 irreligious and dissolute traders and profes- 
 sional guides. What they do see of missions 
 sometimes misleads them. Typical mission 
 work can seldom be seen in a port city. 
 The natives often exhibit the worst traits of 
 their own race, or are spoiled by the evil ex- 
 ample of the dissolute foreign community. The 
 mission buildings are apt to be memorials or 
 
192 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 other special gifts, and give a misleading im- 
 pression as to the scale of missionary expendi- 
 ture. Hearing the sneers at the clubs and ho- 
 tels, and without going near the missionary 
 himself, the globe-trotter carries away slanders, 
 which, on his return, are sensationally paraded 
 in the newspapers and eagerly swallowed by a 
 gullible public. The Hon. Edwin H. Conger, 
 former American Minister to China, wrote: 
 "The attacks upon missionaries by sensational 
 press correspondents and globe-girdling trav- 
 elers have invariably been made without knowl- 
 edge or investigation, and nine tenths of them 
 are the veriest libel and the grossest slander." 
 Cross- It is often interesting to propound some 
 
 questioning *^ r x" 
 
 a Critic questions to such a critic. An American mer- 
 chant returned from China to say that mis- 
 sions were a failure. Whereupon his pastor 
 proceeded to interrogate him. "What city 
 of China did you visit?" "Canton," was the 
 reply. "What did you find in our mission 
 schools which impressed you as so faulty?" 
 The merchant confessed that he had not seen 
 any schools. "And yet," said the pastor, "our 
 board alone has in Canton a normal school, 
 a theological seminary, a large boarding- 
 school for girls, and several day-schools, while 
 other denominations also have schools. Well, 
 what was there about the mission churches 
 which so displeased you?" Again the mer- 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 193 
 
 chant was forced to confess his ignorance; he 
 did not Itnow that there was a church in Can- 
 ton till his pastor told him that there were, in 
 and near the city, scores of churches and 
 chapels, some of them very large, and with 
 preaching not only every Sunday but, in some 
 instances, every day. 
 
 "But surely you were interested in the hos- F^'h" 
 
 •' ^ Disclosures 
 
 pitals," queried the worker. "One of the largest 
 hospitals in Asia stands in a conspicuous posi- 
 tion on the river front, while the woman's 
 hospital in another part of the city is also a 
 great plant, with a medical college and a 
 nurses' training school connected with it." 
 Incredible as it may seem, he knew absolutely 
 nothing about these beneficent institutions. 
 Further inquiries elicited the admission that 
 the critic knew nothing of the orphanage, or 
 the school for the blind, or the refuge for 
 the insane, and that he had made no effort 
 whatever to become acquainted with the mis- 
 sionaries. He was a little embarrassed by 
 this time, but his questioner could not refrain 
 from telling him the old story about the Eng- 
 lish army officer and the foreign missionary 
 who met on an ocean steamer. The army of- 
 ficer had contemptuously said that he had lived 
 in India thirty years and had never seen a na- 
 tive Christian. Shortly afterward, he recited 
 with gusto his success in tiger-hunting, de- 
 
194 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 daring that he had killed no less than nine 
 tigers. "Pardon me," gently said the mis- 
 sionary, "did I understand you to say that 
 you have killed nine tigers in India?" "Yes, 
 sir," replied the colonel. "Now that is remark- 
 able," continued the missionary, "for I have 
 lived in India for thirty years and have never 
 seen a tiger." "Perhaps, sir," sneered the col- 
 onel, "you were not looking for tigers." "Pre- 
 cisely," was the answer of the missionary, 
 "and may not that have been the reason why 
 you never saw any native converts?" 
 omwarfshow" When Mr. Stead got the impression that "If 
 Christ came to Chicago," with its thousands of 
 churches and Christian institutions of every 
 kind, he would find little but vice and crime, 
 it is not surprising that the casual traveler sees 
 few external signs of Christianity in a populous 
 pagan city. It was Christ himself who said: 
 "The kingdom of God cometh not with obser- 
 vation," or as the margin reads, "not with out- 
 ward show." 
 Without'" Third, criticisms which are based on want 
 to'?hf'''' of sympathy with the fundamental motives 
 Misswnary ^^d aims of the missionafy enterprise. It is 
 sometimes wholesome for those who live in a 
 missionary environment to ascertain how their 
 methods appear to people who are outside of 
 that environment. Attention may thus be called 
 to defects which would otherwise escape no- 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 195 
 
 tice. Men, however, who are opposed, not 
 merely to certain methods, but to the essen- 
 tial character of the movement itself can hardly 
 be considered fair critics. They will never 
 be silenced, because they are inaccessible to the 
 Christian argument. Their criticisms have been 
 demolished over and over again, but they re- 
 appear unabashed within a month. Even 
 when their objections are overcome, their op- 
 position remains. Critics of this class will 
 always ridicule the effort to propagate a re- 
 ligion which they do not practise. They do 
 not confine their criticisms to the missionary, 
 but sneer at churches at home, declaring that 
 ministers are hirelings and communicants hypo- 
 crites. It does not necessarily follow that 
 the criticisms of such men are unfounded ; but 
 "it is within the right of the missionary to 
 protest against being arraigned by judges 
 habitually hostile to him, and it is within the 
 right of the public to scrutinize the pronounce- 
 ments of such judgments with much suspicion." 
 
 Some of the critics of this class live in Jof^eiga' 
 Europe and America, but many of them reside by widliy 
 in the treaty ports of non-christian lands. We iTymen 
 do not mean that the foreign colonies in the 
 concessions are wholly composed of such men. 
 They include, on the contrary, some ex- 
 cellent people to whose sympathy and help- 
 fulness the missionaries are greatly indebted. 
 
196 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 We are not quoting missionaries, however, but 
 widely traveled laymen in the statement that 
 the life of the typical foreigner in Asia is such 
 that a missionary cannot consistently join in 
 it, no matter how cordial his desire to be on 
 friendly terms with his countrymen. Col- 
 quhoun declares that foreigners in China go 
 to get money and then return, do not learn 
 the language, have little intercourse with na- 
 tives and know little about them. Mr. Fred- 
 erick McCormick, for six years Associated 
 Press correspondent in China, says that "the 
 foreign communities are not in China, but at 
 China," simply "ranged on the shore" ; that 
 "they carry on their relations with China 
 through a go-between native" ; that their "so- 
 ciety is centered about a club, of which the 
 most conspicuous elements are the bar, race- 
 track, and book-maker" ; and that "the life, 
 for the most part, of the communities is in 
 direct antagonism to that of missionaries" 
 who live and work among the Chinese. 
 wh?sl''°°'' Fourth, criticisms which spring from con- 
 c"onfliir fiicting interests. Such are the objections 
 which originate with traders who sell rum in 
 Africa and opium in China, who traffic in the 
 virtue of native girls, or entice away coolies 
 under specious "contracts" which result in 
 virtual slavery. Some regions have long been 
 infested by men of this infamous type, and 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 197 
 
 while some of their nefarious practises have 
 been broken up, others still continue. Almost 
 every port city in non-christian lands has dens 
 of vice which are kept by white men or women 
 and which pander to the lowest passions. Men 
 of this kind are, of course, virulent haters of 
 missionaries. Charles Darwin asserted that 
 "the foreign travelers and residents in the 
 South Sea Islands, who write with such hos- 
 tility to missions there, are men who find the 
 missionary an obstacle to the accomplishment 
 of their evil purposes." There are, too, native 
 priests who, like the silversmiths of Ephesus, 
 find their craft in danger, and circulate false- 
 hoods regarding missionaries as political plot- 
 ters or adepts in witchcraft. It is not uncom- 
 mon in Chinese cities for placards to be con- 
 spicuously posted, charging missionaries with 
 boiling and eating Chinese babies. 
 
 Let us now take up some current criticisms, lu^rlnt 
 Several of the most common have already criticisms 
 been considered in connection with other chap- 
 ters, and need not be repeated here. 
 
 "Missionaries are inferior men." The man l'nfci.^|r°""'^^ 
 who makes this objection simply shows that 
 he does not know missionaries or that he is 
 generalizing from some -exceptional individual. 
 There are undoubtedly missionaries who say 
 and do foolish things, just as some of us 
 at home do, and once in a while one proves 
 
198 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 to be incompetent. Ninety-four per cent, of the 
 business men of the United States are said 
 to fail at some time in their Hves. Why, then, 
 should a few missionary failures be deemed 
 an adequate ground for condemning the whole 
 class ? The reader who hears criticisms which 
 impress him as seriotts should demand names 
 and particulars and forward them to the board 
 with which the missionary is connected. The 
 boards have neither desire nor motive to shield 
 misconduct. They will promptly investigate 
 and take such action as the facts may justify. 
 fe'slfmony Travelers and officials like Charles Darwin, 
 Lord Lawrence, Sir Harry H. Johnston, Sir 
 Robert Hart, Sir Mortimer Durand, the Hon. 
 John W. Foster, the Hon. William Jennings 
 Bryan, Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, the Hon. 
 Charles Denby, and scores of others, have 
 borne high testimony to the worth of mission- 
 aries. Those who do not confine their observa- 
 tions to treaty-port hotels or draw upon their 
 imagination for facts, but who have eyes to 
 see and ears to hear the mighty forces which 
 are gradually inaugurating a new era in Asia, 
 report that the real missionary is an educated, 
 devoted man, the highest type of Christian 
 character, and that in the spirit of the Master, 
 he heals the sick,- teaches the young, translates 
 the Bible, creates a wholesome literature, and 
 inculcates those great truths of the Christian 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 199 
 
 religion to which Europe and America owe 
 whatever of true greatness they possess. No 
 one is perfect, but the man whO' can write 
 only evil of such men and women does so at 
 the expense either of his intelligence or his 
 candor. 
 
 "Converts are not genuine, but are attracted efnui!^""^ "^"^ 
 to the missionary by the hope of employment 
 or support." The number of native communi- 
 cants in connection with foreign rhissionary 
 churches is 1,816,450, besides 1,272,383 en- 
 . rolled catechumens ; but the total number of 
 native agents is only 95,876, many of whom 
 are paid either wholly or in part by the native 
 Christians themselves. Making all due allow- 
 ance for others who are employed as servants 
 or who receive assistance in schools, the num- 
 ber who are aided in any way by the foreigner 
 is relatively insignificant. The great body of 
 native Christians have no financial motive 
 whatever for confessing Christ. The Hon. 
 Charles Denby, for thirteen years American 
 Minister at Peking, has reminded the world 
 that during the Boxer uprising, "the province 
 of Chih-li furnished 6,200 Chinese who re- 
 mained true to their faith in spite of danger, 
 suffering, and impending death. It is said 
 that 15,000 converts were killed during the 
 riots, and not as many as two per cent, of them 
 apostatized. In the face of these facts, the 
 
200 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 old allegation that the Chinese converts are 
 treacherous, venal, and untrue, must be re- 
 nounced. Let us not call them 'rice Christians' 
 any more." 
 Needless "Missiouaries needlessly irritate the Chinese 
 
 Irritation -' 
 
 Aroused ijy interfering v^rith native lawsuits." A dif- 
 ference should be observed here between 
 the practise of the European Roman 
 Catholic missionaries and the American 
 Protestant missionaries. The former champion 
 the cause of their converts, particularly when 
 they believe that lawsuits are instigated by the 
 opponents of Christianity. It is the policy 
 of the Protestant boards and missions to dis- 
 courage such interference, and the missionaries 
 themselves are more and more clearly seeing 
 the imprudence of it. Comparatively seldom 
 now does a Protestant missionary give ofifense 
 in this matter. 
 "Missionaries "Missionarics are universally hated by the 
 
 Hated by , -^ -' 
 
 Natives" natives, while the ordinary foreigner is toler- 
 ated." This is grossly untrue. The mission- 
 aries are far more popular with the people than 
 any other foreigners. They travel freely, un- 
 armed and unprotected, and it is comparatively 
 seldom that they are molested. When they 
 are attacked, it is by a class of ruffians who, 
 in the slums of an American city, attack a Chi- 
 nese gentleman on the streets. Imperial edicts 
 have specifically declared that "the Chinese 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 201 
 
 A Prefect's 
 Words 
 
 Government .... is not opposed to the 
 work of the missions." It would be easy to 
 fill pages with extrkcts from edicts commend- 
 ing the missionaries and their work. In 1895, 
 the Prefect of Nanking issued a proclamation 
 which included the following passage : 
 
 "Now having examined the doctrine halls 
 in every place pertaining to the prefecture, 
 we find that there have been established free 
 schools where the poor children of China may 
 receive instruction; hospitals where Chinamen 
 may freely receive healing; that the mission- 
 aries are all really good; not only do they not 
 take the people's possessions, but they do not 
 seem to desire men's praise. Although China- 
 men are pleased to do good, there are none 
 who equal the missionaries." 
 
 During their visits in America, both Viceroy gfgh offici^^*^ 
 Li Hung-chang and Viceroy Tuan Fong freely 
 expressed their gratitude for the services of 
 the missionaries, the latter declaring that "the 
 awakening of China may be traced in no small 
 measure to the hands of the missionaries ; they 
 have borne the light of Western civilization to 
 every nook and corner of the Empire." In 
 1900, the people of Paoting fu murdered the 
 missionaries ; but they soon realized their mis- 
 take, gave land for a better station site, and 
 presented to the new mission hospital a silk 
 banner on which was worked in letters of gold : 
 
202 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Hon, Charles 
 
 Denby's 
 
 Statement 
 
 "This place bestows grace on the Chinese peo- 
 ple." In the same city, a high official visited 
 the mission church and, seeing the ten com- 
 mandments upon the wall, said to the mission- 
 aries : "If you can get that teaching into 
 the minds of my soldiers they will be good 
 soldiers. I see now one notable characteristic 
 of Christianity : it seems to have the power to 
 go out from oneself to others; it is not self- 
 centered, but works for others." 
 
 The Hon. Charles Denby, late American 
 Minister to China, probably was as competent 
 to pronounce upon this question as any one, 
 and he wrote : "On an analysis of the bitter an- 
 tichristian movement, we find that it is largely 
 to be explained as primarily antiforeign; that 
 is, largely directed against missionaries solely 
 as foreigners, not solely as teachers of a foreign 
 religion. The missionaries, in the vast majority 
 of cases, are loved by those Chinese with whom 
 they succeed in establishing intimate relations, 
 and they are almost universally respected by 
 all classes in the communities in which they are 
 well known." 
 
 A large volume would be required to quote 
 frSS^RSe"" the appreciative words of Asiatic and African 
 offiS ^"^ princes, nobles, magistrates, and people, wher- 
 ever they have become acquainted with the 
 real character and objects of the missionaries 
 and have been able to separate them from the 
 
 Further 
 Marks of 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 203 
 
 white men who have political or commercial 
 designs. Hardly a month passes without some 
 substantial token of this appreciation in the 
 form of gifts to mission institutions. The 
 Empress Dowager of China, the Mikado of 
 Japan, the Emperor of Korea, the King of 
 Siam, East Indian, African, and South Sea 
 princes without number, and even Moslems, 
 have made such gifts ; while scores of officials, 
 like the Chinese Governors of Shan-tung and 
 Formosa and the Siamese Minister of the In- 
 terior, have tried to secure missionaries for the 
 presidency of government colleges or for other 
 responsible posts. 
 
 "Missionaries make trouble for their own "'",'='«>''»''" 
 
 Make Trouble 
 
 governments." The Hon. William H. Taft, forxheirown 
 
 o _ ^ ' Governments " 
 
 while Secretary of War, in an address in New 
 York City, April 20, 1908, referred to this 
 criticism and emphatically denounced it as un- 
 founded. Well-informed government officials 
 do not complain about missionaries as a class, 
 though they may sometimes object to 
 the indiscretion of a particular individual. 
 Suppose the missionary does occasionally need 
 protection; he is a citizen, and what kind of 
 a government is it which refuses to protect its 
 citizens in their lawful undertakings ? No one 
 questions the right of a trader, however dis- 
 solute, to go wherever he pleases and to be 
 defended by his country in case of danger. 
 
204 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Has not a missionary an equal right to the 
 benefits of his flag? The Hon. John Barrett, 
 formerly American Minister to Siam, says that 
 150 mission workers gave him less trouble in 
 five years than fifteen merchants gave him in 
 five months. 
 I'njS'/e^inT"*^ "Missionaries injure and denationalize their 
 The5-'co"nverts '• convcrts." Christianity never injured or de- 
 nationalized any one. It simply made him 
 a better man — more honest, more intelligent, 
 more charitable, more loyal to his own country. 
 Why should it injure an Asiatic or African 
 to stop worshiping demons and to begin wor- 
 shiping the true God ; to renounce drunkenness, 
 immorality, and laziness, and become a sober, 
 moral, and industrious citizen? The fact is 
 that native Christians in Asia and Africa are 
 the very best element in the population. The 
 Chinese Government made a large grant for 
 indemnity for the lives of the Chinese Chris- 
 tians who were murdered during the Boxer 
 uprising. How much it meant to the poor 
 survivors will be understood from the fact that 
 the share of the Christians in a single county 
 was 10,000 taeh. But none of the Christians 
 in that county would accept the indemnity. 
 They took compensation only for the property 
 they had lost ; but they gave one tenth of that 
 to support several Chinese evangelists to preach 
 the gospel to their former persecutors, and 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 205 
 
 afterward they tried to raise a fund to pay 
 back to the government the indemnity that 
 they did receive. Such a course indicates both 
 genuineness of faith and loyalty to the Em- 
 peror. 
 
 An illustration of this is found in the way 
 St. John's College, Shanghai, has been develop- 
 ing patriotism in its students. This appears not 
 only in the St. John's College Echo, the college 
 paper, and in the songs and festivities of the 
 students, but also after they graduate in their 
 willingness to sacrifice for the good of the com- 
 munity and in their bright vision of the great- 
 ness and the opportunities before their country. 
 
 "There is much to be done in our own land, at"^Home '?°^'"' 
 and charity begins at home." One might urge 
 with equal truth that education begins with the 
 alphabet ; but it ends there only with the feeble- 
 minded. A New York rector says that we 
 ought to give less for foreign missions and 
 more for the conversion of "the foreigners 
 within the shade of our churches." If, how- 
 ever, he had looked into the Report of the 
 Charity Organization Society of New York, 
 he would have found a list of 3,330 religious 
 and philanthropic agencies in his own city. 
 The first time I visited New York's slum dis- 
 trict, I was amazed by the number of missions. 
 A high authority declares that "there is no 
 other city in the world, except London, where 
 
2o6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 more is being done to point the lost to the Son 
 of God than in New York." 
 
 workereat'"' Many have seen the statement that St. 
 
 Home Louis has one church for 2,800 of population, 
 
 Chicago one for 2,081, Boston one for 1,600, 
 and Minneapolis one for 1,054. In the United 
 States there are about 197,000 Protestant 
 churches, or one for every 380 of the non- 
 Catholic population, one Protestant minister 
 for 514, one Christian worker for seventy-five, 
 and one communicant for four. Talk about 
 the relative needs of the United States! In 
 a town of 8,000 people, there are three Presby- 
 terian, three United Presbyterian, three Metho- 
 dist, two Episcopal churches, and one Christian 
 church. "For every missionary Protestants 
 send abroad they hold seventy-six at home." A 
 million Americans are engaged in distinctively 
 religious work, about 150,000 of whom devote 
 themselves to it as a separate profession. In 
 the light of these facts, the statement that "the 
 Church cannot see the misery which is under 
 her own nose at home" appears rather absurd. 
 Abroad"" How is it abroad ? In South America there 
 is only one ordained missionary for 154,000 
 people; in Africa and India, for 186,000; in 
 Siam, for 200,000 ; and in China, for 603,000 ! 
 Dr. Arthur Mitchell wrote of a journey of 
 only twenty-four hours from Hang-chou to 
 Shanghai: "I was absolutely awestruck and 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 207 
 
 dumb as I steamed past city after city, great 
 and populous, one of whicli was a walled city 
 of 300,000 souls, without one missionary of 
 any Christian denomination whatever, and 
 without so much as a native Christian helper 
 or teacher of any kind. That silent moon- 
 light night, as I passed unnoticed by those 
 long, dark battlements shutting in their pagan 
 multitudes, was one of the most solemn of 
 my life ; and the hours of daylight, when other 
 cities, still larger than many of our American 
 capitals, were continually coming into view, 
 and the teeming populations of the canals and 
 rivers and villages and fields and roads were 
 before my eyes, kept adding to the burden of 
 the night." 
 
 As for money, the running expenses of all Expenditures 
 the churches in the United States absorbed Inl'Xb'road 
 $158,000,000 in 1900. In New York City 
 alone they were $8,995,000. These figures are 
 exclusive of the cost of new structures, general 
 charities, mission contributions, and other ob- 
 jects. The cost of maintaining the Protestant 
 Episcopal churches in the United States for 
 that year was $14,606,000; Presbyterian, $20,- 
 375,000; Baptist, $12,348,000; Methodist, 
 $26,267,000; and Roman Catholic, $31,185,- 
 000.^ Almost fabulous sums are given to col- 
 leges and libraries and philanthropic institu- 
 
 1 Christendom Anno Domini, igoi. Vol. I, S33. 534. 
 
2o8 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 tions in America; two men, Mr. John. D. 
 Rockefeller and Mr. Andrew Carnegie, hav- 
 ing contributed over $200,000,000 within 
 less than two decades, the former bestowing 
 $32,000,000 on the General Education Board 
 in a single gift. The yearly aggregate of large 
 individual gifts to educational and charitable 
 institutions is over $150,000,000. How much 
 of this enormous sum goes to foreign missions 
 has not been separately estimated ; but the total 
 income of all the boards in the country 
 is only $8,972,418, and as the bulk of that 
 comes in small sums from congregations, it is 
 evident that but little, if any, more than $1,- 
 000,000 of these large individual gifts goes 
 abroad. In general, our home churches spend 
 ninety-four cents in America for every six 
 cents that they give for the evangelization of 
 the world. Of England and Ireland, it is said 
 that the income of their churches approximates 
 $150,000,000, and that of this immense sum 
 only $8,000,000 is spent on missions to the 
 heathen. 
 Christianity's jj. jg ^ruc that thcrc are unconverted people 
 MJfvimem^s ^t homc ; but what would be thought of a busi- 
 ness man who declined to sell goods outside 
 of his own city until all its inhabitants used 
 them? The fact that some Americans are ir- 
 religious does not lesson our obligation to give 
 the gospel to the world. If the early Church 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 209 
 
 had refused to send the gospel to other nations 
 until its own nation was converted, Chris- 
 tianity would have died in its cradle, for the 
 land in which it originated was never really 
 Christianized and is to-day Mohammedan. The 
 argument that our own land is not yet evangel- 
 ized would have made the church at Antioch 
 disobey the command of the Holy Spirit to 
 send forth Paul and Barnabas. It would have 
 kept Augustine of Canterbury from carry- 
 ing the gospel to England. It would have 
 prevented the founding of churches in America, 
 and would, to-day, cripple all our home mis- 
 sionary work, since there is no other part of 
 the United States more godless than the East- 
 ern States where the gospel has been known 
 the longest. Christ did not tell his disciples 
 to withhold his faith from other nations until 
 they had converted Palestine ; he told them to 
 go at once into all the world and preach the 
 gospel to the whole creation ; and it is because 
 they obeyed that command that we have the 
 gospel to-day. 
 
 The argument that we ought to convert SoVcon?ned^' 
 America first because it would then convert the t" America 
 world, is one of those glittering generalities 
 that do not bear analysis. America has had 
 the gospel for- two hundred years, and is not 
 converted yet. England has had it more than 
 a thousand years, and is as far from conver 
 
210 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 sion as America. How long will it be at this 
 rate before our homelands will be saved? 
 Must countless millions die without Christ, 
 while we are trying to win white men, 
 most of whom have heard of him hundreds 
 of times? Not so did Christ direct his disci- 
 ples. He did not tell them that the best way to 
 influence the world was to regenerate their 
 own land, though such an argument would 
 have had greater force than it has now. He 
 sent them out with orders to preach at once 
 not only at home but abroad. It is the duty of 
 American Christians to seek to convert 
 America, and the British Christians to seek to 
 convert Great Britain. But that is not their 
 only duty, just as the conversion of Palestine 
 was not the only duty of the early Church. 
 I am not urging neglect of our responsibilities 
 at home, but simply replying to the frequent 
 objection that they are a reason why 
 subordinate attention should be given to our 
 responsibilities abroad. The Christian of to- 
 day, like the Christian of the first century, 
 ,has a God-ordained mission to the world which 
 cannot wait upon the indifference or hostility of 
 people at home. 
 Tn''I/Absurdi?y Indeed no nation ever will be wholly Chris- 
 tianized, for not only will there always be in- 
 dividuals who refuse or neglect to accept 
 Christ, but before any one generation can be 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 211 
 
 converted, a new generation of young people 
 will have grown up and the work must thus 
 be ever beginning anew. The argument, there- 
 fore, that we should not preach the gospel 
 to other nations until our own has been con- 
 verted issues in an absurdity, since it would 
 perpetually confine Christianity to those na- 
 tions which already have it and would forever 
 forbid its extension. 
 
 "Missionaries are forcing another civiliza- "''""'''s 
 
 "^ An Alien 
 
 tion on lands which already have civilizations p'^'"^2t!°°" 
 
 •' Upon Them 
 
 of their own that are adapted to their needs." 
 No other objection is more common and no 
 other is more baseless. The missionary does 
 not force his civilization upon the natives, nor 
 does he interfere with native customs, except 
 when they are morally wrong. A higher type 
 of civilization does indeed follow the labors 
 of the missionaries ; but this is an incidental 
 result, not an object. Even if it were other- 
 wise, the Hon. Charles Denby expresses the 
 opinion that, "if by means of gentle persuasion 
 we can introduce Western modes and methods 
 into China, we are simply doing for her what 
 has been done, in one way or another, for every 
 nation on the globe." As for forcing religion, 
 no native is obliged to become a Christian ^^"^^%°^ 
 against his will. The missionary simply of- 
 fers and explains the gospel. Surely he has as 
 much right to do this as English and American 
 
212 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 "Their 
 Religions 
 Are Good 
 Enough •' 
 
 The Need 
 in China 
 
 manufacturers have to offer and explain their 
 flour and cotton and machinery and liquor. 
 "To talk to persons who choose to listen; to 
 throw open wide the doors of chapels where 
 natives who desire may hear the Christian faith 
 explained and urged upon their attention; to 
 sell at half-cost or to give the Bible and Chris- 
 tian literature freely to those who may care to 
 read ; to heal the sick without cost ; to instruct 
 children whose parents are desirous that they 
 should receive education — surely none of these 
 constitute methods or practises to which the 
 word 'force' may be applied, under any allow- 
 able use of the English language."^ 
 
 "The religions of other races are good 
 enough for them." Then they are "good 
 enough" for us, for the peoples of "other races" 
 are our fellow men, with the needs of our com- 
 mon humanity. We have not heard, however, 
 of any critic who believes that Islam or Hin- 
 duism or Buddhism are "good enough" for 
 Europeans and Americans, and we have scant 
 respect for the Pharisaism which asserts that 
 they will suffice for the Persians and East 
 Indians and Chinese. 
 
 The Chinese are justly considered the strong- 
 est of the non-christian races, but Chang Chih- 
 tung. Viceroy of Hu-peh and Hu-nan, writes 
 with sorr ow of "lethargy, sensuality, and 
 
 • The Hon. Chester Holcombe. 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 213 
 
 vice," and he frankly adds: "Confucianism, 
 as now practised, is inadequate to lift us from 
 the present plight."^ The Emperor himself 
 recognized the justice of this characterization, 
 for he declared in an imperial rescript that he 
 had "carefully inspected the volume" and that 
 "it embodies a fair and candid statement 
 of facts." Answering a question whether it 
 is worth while to send foreign teachers to sup- 
 plant the old religions by Christianity, the Hon. 
 Charles Denby wrote: "As Buddhism un- 
 doubtedly exercises a salutary influence on the 
 national life of China, so the introduction of 
 Christianity now will instruct, improve, and 
 elevate the Buddhists. The adoption of 
 Christianity means to the Chinese a new educa- 
 tion. He becomes mentally regenerate. He 
 abandons senseless and hoary superstitions. 
 His reasoning powers are awakened. He 
 learns to think. The world has not yet dis- 
 covered any plan for the spreading of civiliza- 
 tion which is comparable to the propagation 
 of Christianity." 
 
 It is difficult to understand how an Ameri- fnd'fhe^""^ 
 can or European who inherits all the blessings 
 of our Christian faith, can deny those bless- 
 ings to the rest of the world. Christianity 
 found the white man's ancestors in the forests 
 and swamps of northern Europe, considerably 
 
 •Chang Chih-tung, China's Only Hope, 74, 75. 9S. 96, 123, i4S. 
 
 White Man's 
 Ancestors 
 
214 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 lower in the scale of civilization than the Chi- 
 nese and Japanese of to-day. Jerome wrote 
 that when "a boy, living in Gaul, he beheld 
 the Scots, a people in Britain, eating human 
 flesh; though there were plenty of cattle and 
 sheep at their disposal, yet they would prefer 
 a ham of the herdsman or a slice of the female 
 breast as a luxury." The gospel of Christ 
 brought us out of the pit of barbarism. Why 
 should we doubt its power to do for other 
 races what it has done for ours ? 
 i^'fbr'AiT'' '^^^ notion that each nations's religion is 
 best for it, and should, therefore, not be dis- 
 turbed, is never made by those who have a 
 proper understanding of Christianity or of its 
 relation to the race. It is based upon the old 
 paganism which believed that each tribe had 
 its own god who was its special champion 
 against all the other gods. Such an idea is 
 not only false in itself, but it is directly con- 
 trary to the teachings of Christ, who declared 
 that his gospel was for all men and that it 
 was the supreme duty of his followers to carry 
 it to all men. 
 ^m^jISl" "Missionaries are accomplishing very little." 
 This objection might fairly offset the objection 
 that missionaries are making revolutionary 
 changes. Both cannot be true. The fact is 
 that missionary work is remarkably successful, 
 and more so now than ever before. 
 
 Very Little ' 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 215 
 
 The justification of foreign mission effort SeateVilfcrease 
 is not dependent upon tabulated results, but Exfected 
 it is nevertheless interesting to note them. The 
 natural presumptions would be that Christian- 
 ity would make very slow progress in a heathen 
 land, for it is regarded with suspicion as an 
 alien faith. It is opposed by a powerful priest- 
 hood and at variance with long-established cus- 
 toms. Family ties, social position, caste preju- 
 dice, combine to keep one from confessing 
 Christ. It would not be reasonable, therefore, 
 to expect as high a percentage of increase as 
 at home, where centuries of Christian work 
 have prepared the soil and created an atmos- 
 phere, where Christianity is popular and 
 worldly motives blend with religious to attract 
 men to the Church. 
 
 But what are the comparative facts? The GllSrin^the 
 average annual increase of the Protestant ^ore'en F'=w 
 Churches in America is .0283 per cent.,' while 
 the increase on the foreign field is .0685 per 
 cent.^ The government census in India shows 
 that while the population from 1891 to 1901 
 increased two and a half per cent., the Protes- 
 tant Church membership increased fifty per 
 cent. The gain in China in twenty years has 
 been over 100 per cent.* The first Protestant 
 
 'Dr. H. K. Carroll, The Christian Advocate, 1903-1908. 
 2 Dr. D. L. Leonard, Missionary Review of the World, 1903 -1908, 
 'From 80,682, in 1887, to 191,985, in 1906, not counting 136,120 
 catechumens. 
 
2i6 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 missionary arrived in the PhiHppine Islands in 
 1899; within nine years about 30,000 adult 
 communicants were received. In 1886, the 
 Korea missionaries reported the first convert. 
 Seven years later, there were only about 100 
 in the whole country. Now there are 120,000 
 Christians. While not all mission fields have 
 been as fruitful as those that have been men- 
 tioned, the general rate of progress is excellent, 
 the number of baptisms in foreign mission 
 lands in 1907 being 141,127. 
 withou't* In spite of the advantages in Europe and 
 Parallel America — historic associations, favorable pub- 
 lic opinion, splendid churches, numerous 
 workers — Christianity is making more rapid 
 progress on the foreign field than in the home 
 field. We have been working in heathen lands 
 only about a hundred years, in most fields far 
 less than this, and yet the number of converts 
 is already greater than the number of Chris- 
 tians in the Roman Empire at the end of the 
 first century. No other work in the world is so 
 successful and no other yields such large re- 
 turns for the expenditures made. 
 T«n"hrnt""'' "To sneer at missionaries," said Canon Far- 
 rar, — "a thing so cheap and so easy to do — 
 has always been the fashion of libertines and 
 cynics and worldings. So far from having 
 failed, there is no work of God which has re- 
 ceived so absolute, so unprecedented a blessing. 
 
 Conclusion 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 217 
 
 To talk of missionaries as a failure is to talk 
 at once like an ignorant and faithless man." 
 
 QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VII 
 
 Aim : To Estimate the Value of the Current Criti- 
 cisms Against Missionaries 
 
 1. What are the principal difficulties encountered 
 by the foreign missionary that are not ordi- 
 narily found at home? Arrange these in order 
 of importance. 
 
 2. How well prepared are the social customs of 
 non-christian lands to fit in with a religion like 
 Christianity ? 
 
 3. In what ways do the differences of traditions 
 and ideals tend toward misunderstanding be- 
 tween the people of the East and the West? 
 
 4. How long and under what circumstances do 
 you think a man ought to study problems 
 created by these difficulties in orHer to criticise 
 them intelligently? 
 
 5. Is there any class of persons who have better 
 opportunities than the missionaries to study 
 these problems intelligently? 
 
 6. For what reasons is the average missionary 
 better qualified to understand the people than 
 the average trader or diplomat? 
 
 7. What arrangements have missionaries on the 
 field for exchanging views with one another 
 and shaping broad policies? 
 
 8. What criticisms have you heard from those 
 who were earnest friends of the enterprise? 
 
2i8 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 9. Do these criticisms involve the general body 
 of missionaries, or only certain individuals? 
 
 10. Are these criticisms more serious than those 
 passed by earnest Christians on methods of 
 work at home? 
 
 11. Do they justify failure to support the enter- 
 prise? 
 
 12. Which body do you think has the best right 
 to criticize the other, the missionaries or the 
 home Church? 
 
 13. What credentials have we a right to demand 
 from critics of missions? 
 
 14. What questions would you ask of a globe- 
 trotter who returned with an unfavorable im- 
 pression of missionary work? 
 
 15. Why is it that so many casual travelers re- 
 ceive such impressions? 
 
 16. If some missionaries are really inferior men, 
 do you think it is the fault of the denomina- 
 tional boards? 
 
 17. What wise and practicable measures at pres- 
 eitt neglected would you suggest to raise the 
 standard of the missionary body? 
 
 18. What percentage of Church members in this 
 country do you consider "genuine"? 
 
 19. Do you think a larger percentage would endure 
 martyrdom for Christ than was true of the 
 Chinese Christians ? 
 
 20. What special motives has the missionary more 
 than all other foreigners for cultivating the 
 friendship of the people among whom he 
 works ? 
 
Missionary Enterprise and Its Critics 219 
 
 21. What more than others have missionaries done 
 for the communities in which they live? 
 
 22. Would we be justified in witholding Chris- 
 tianity from a nation, even if the presentation 
 of it should arouse hatred in some individ- 
 uals? 
 
 23. How would you solve the problem of deliv- 
 ering a man from degrading national customs, 
 without denationalizing him in any way? 
 
 24. Was the Church at home more or less strong 
 than it is to-day when the Holy Spirit sent out 
 Barnabas and Paul? 
 
 25. What would you consider a fair distribution 
 of workers and money between the 80,000,000 
 of our population at home and the over 300,- 
 000,000 of the non-christian world, for whom 
 the Christians of America may justly be held 
 responsible ? 
 
 26. If God really intended Christ for the whole 
 world, which has the better reason to complain 
 of neglect, the Church at home or the Church 
 abroad? 
 
 27. Why is the civilization of Christendom supe- 
 rior to that of the non-christian world? 
 
 28. What has Christianity done for the civiliza- 
 tion of Europe? 
 
 29. Will the Christ who has been a blessing to 
 Europe be a curse to Asia and Africa? 
 
 30. How do you account for the fact that Chris- 
 tianity progresses more rapidly on the foreign 
 field than at home, if the work is not well- 
 pleasing to God? 
 
THE SPIRIT OF THE MISSIONARY 
 
Mrs. Judson chose to give up her children for her 
 Lord's poor children in Burma; and after many a long 
 tender caress, she had bidden them good-by, and the 
 great steamer turned her prow toward the open sea. 
 The almost broken-hearted mother stood and watched 
 the vessel until through the mist in her eyes it had 
 ceased to be even a speck on the distant horizon, and 
 then turning into her room sank into her chair and 
 exclaimed : "All this I do for the sake of my Lord." 
 
 — Charles B. Galloway 
 
 To this is added the decision to spend that life of 
 chosen poverty in a foreign land, in most cases, amid 
 unfavorable surroundings, far away from personal 
 friends, among people who misunderstand his motives 
 and misinterpret his acts. In his life the missionary 
 faces with the people the uncertainties of pestilence, and 
 he is always amid the insanitary conditions of uncivil- 
 ized lands. Whatever may be said, viewed from a 
 merely physical standpoint, the life of the missionary is 
 full of personal sacrifice from beginning to end. 
 
 — James L. Barton 
 
 Tell Horace's mother to tell my boy Horace that 
 his father's last wish is that, when he is twenty-five 
 years of age, he may come to China as a missionary. 
 
 — Horace Tracy Pitkin 
 
VIII 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE MISSIONARY 
 
 WE join the missionary in protesting ^■^^1%'^"^^^ 
 against the impression that he is essen- christians 
 tially different from other good men. There 
 is no halo about his head. He is not a saint on 
 a pedestal. He does not stand with clasped 
 hands and uplifted eyes, gazing rapturously in- 
 to heaven. We have met more than a thou- 
 sand missionaries, and we have been impressed 
 by the fact that they are neither angels nor 
 ascetics, but able, sensible, and devoted Chris- 
 tian workers. The typical missionary is more 
 like a high-grade Christian business man of 
 the homeland than a professional cleric. He 
 is preeminently a man of affairs. He makes 
 no pathetic plea for sympathy for himself, but 
 he wants cooperation in his work, and to have 
 people at home feel that the work is theirs as 
 well as his. 
 
 The physical hardships of missionary life Ha^dLlfips, in 
 are less than are commonly supposed. Steam oecZ^ll^^' 
 and electricity have materially lessened the iso- 
 lation that was once so trying. Mail, which 
 a generation ago arrived only once in six 
 223 
 
224 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 months, now comes once or twice a week. 
 Swift steamers bring many conveniences of 
 civilization that were formerly unobtainable. 
 The average missionary has a comfortable 
 house and sufficient food and clothing. His 
 labors, too, have been lightened in important 
 respects by the toil of his predecessors. He 
 finds languages reduced to written form, text- 
 books to aid him in his studies, and a variety 
 of substantial helps of other kinds. 
 itm°Abound There are many fields, however, where con- 
 ditions are not so pleasant. Those who com- 
 plain of a New York August can hardly 
 realize the meaning of an Indian hot season, 
 when life is almost unendurable by night as 
 well as by day for months at a time. The West- 
 ern world is appalled by a case of bubonic 
 plague on an arriving ship, and it frantically 
 quarantines and disinfects ever)rthing and 
 everybody from the suspected country ; but dur- 
 ing all those awful months when plague raged 
 unchecked in India, the missionaries steadily 
 toiled at their posts. We are panic-stricken 
 if cholera is reported in New York harbor 
 or yellow fever in New Orleans; but cholera 
 nearly always prevails in Siam, and yellow 
 fever in Brazil, while smallpox is so common in 
 Africa that it does not cause remark. Sanita- 
 tion means much to the Anglo-Saxon; but, 
 save in Japan, the Asiatic knows little about 
 
Spirit of the Missionary 225 
 
 it and the African nothing at all. What would 
 be the condition of an American city if there 
 were no sewers or paved streets, if garbage 
 were left to rot in the sun, and all offal were 
 thrown into the streets? That is actually 
 the condition in the villages of Africa 
 and in most of the cities of Asia, except 
 where the foreigner has forced the natives to 
 clean up. Several years ago a Methodist 
 Bishop solemnly affirmed that he identified 
 seventy-two distinct smells in Peking. The 
 city is cleaner now, but it cannot be called 
 sanitary yet, while the native cities of Chefoo 
 and Shanghai appall the visitor by their nasti- 
 ness. Everywhere in the interior vermin liter- 
 ally swarms in the native inns, and usually in 
 the homes of the people. 
 
 But while the physical hardships are less Hwdliips 
 than are commonly supposed, the mental hard- 
 ships are greater. 
 
 First among these is loneliness. This is Loneliness 
 not felt so much in the port cities, for there are 
 foreign communities, occasional visitors, and 
 frequent communication with the rest of the 
 world. But in the interior the isolation is 
 very depressing. Letters from home friends 
 which were at first numerous, gradually become 
 less frequent, till relatives and board secretaries 
 become almost the only correspondents and the 
 lonely missionary feels that he is forgotten by 
 
226 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 the world of which he was once a part — "out 
 of sight, out of mind." 
 ESvVronmenT "^t home, too, whilc wc Erc conscious of a 
 Lacking downward pressure, we are also conscious of 
 
 a sustaining and uplifting force. Few of us 
 realize to what an extent we are upborne by en- 
 vironment. There is everything to buoy us 
 up — the companionship of friends, the re- 
 straints of a wholesome public sentiment, and 
 the inspiration of many meetings and confer- 
 ences. We are situated morally, as one is 
 sometimes situated physically, in a crowd, so 
 wedged in that he cannot fall. But on the 
 foreign field there is little to hold one up and 
 much to pull him down. There is no public 
 Christian sentiment to sustain, few associa- 
 tions to cheer, no support from large numbers 
 of neighboring friends and ministers. 
 stSn^**"* It is desperately hard to stand alone, and 
 the missionary must often stand alone. All 
 the customs of the country are against him; 
 all its standards below him. He receives 
 nothing, but is expected to give everything. 
 There is a constant strain upon his sympathies 
 and his spiritual vitality, with nothing to feed 
 the springs of his own spiritual life. The ten- 
 dencies are down, down, always down. The 
 man who lives in an interior city of China or 
 Africa may be compared to the workman who 
 toiled in the caissons of the great bridge over 
 
spirit of the Missionary 227 
 
 the East River, New York, where the pressure 
 of the unnatural atmosphere affected the 
 heart and lungs and imagination to the point 
 of utter collapse. In the words of Benjamin 
 Kidd: 
 
 "In climatic conditions which are a burden Phlsiro?^ 
 to him ; in the midst of races in a different and *'"' Tropics 
 lower stage of development; divorced from 
 the influences which have produced him, from 
 the moral and political environment from 
 which he sprang, the white man does not in 
 the end, in such circumstances, tend so much 
 to raise the level of the races amongst whom 
 he has made his unnatural home, as he tends 
 himself to sink slowly to the level around him. 
 In the tropics, the white man lives and works 
 only as a diver lives and works under water. 
 Alike in a moral, in an ethical, and in a political 
 sense, the atmosphere he breathes must be that 
 of another region than that which produced 
 him and to which he belongs. Neither physic- 
 ally, morally, nor politically, can he be ac- 
 climatized in the tropics. The people among 
 whom he lives and works are often separated 
 from him by thousands of years of develop- 
 ment." 
 
 Then there is the weary monotony of mis- MU°°ona?y°Life 
 sionary life. The novelty of new scenes soon 
 wears off, and the missionary is confronted 
 by prosaic realities. It is impossible for the 
 
228 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 minister in the United States to understand the 
 depressing sameness of life in the interior of 
 China. The few associates of the missionary 
 are subject to the debilitating influences which 
 depress him. It is difficult for any woman in 
 America to know what it means for Mrs. A. 
 to live from one year's end to another without 
 seeing another white woman except Mrs. B., 
 who, though a devoted missionary, is not ex- 
 actly the person that Mrs. A. would have 
 chosen for an intimate associate if she had been 
 consulted. We at home can choose our friends, 
 and if Mr. X. is not congenial, we do not have 
 to be intimate with him; but the missionary 
 has no choice. He must accept the intimacy 
 of the family assigned to his station whether 
 he likes it or not. 
 chndren"" ''""" '^^^ separation from children is harder still. 
 There comes a time in the life of every mis- 
 sionary parent when he realizes that he cannot 
 properly educate his child amid the appallingly 
 unfavorable conditions of a heathen land. The 
 whole tone of society is so low that it is all 
 that the missionary can possibly do to keep 
 himself up to the level of the homeland. In- 
 deed, he is painfully conscious that he fre- 
 quently fails to do it, and that one of the urgent 
 necessities of a furlough is not so much to get 
 physical rest, as to tone himself up again men- 
 tally and spiritually in a Christian atmosphere. 
 
Spirit of the Missionary 
 
 229 
 
 What then can be expected for his immature 
 child but degeneration? 
 
 The average missionary therefore must 
 send his children to the homeland to be edu- 
 cated. We hope that none of the mothers 
 who read these pages will ever have occasion 
 to' know what a heart strain is involved in 
 placing ten thousand miles in distance and 
 years in time between parent and child. There 
 are chambers of the human heart that are never 
 opened save by a baby's hand. After the ten- 
 drils of the soul's affection have wound round 
 a child, after a soft, tiny hand has been felt 
 on the face, and the little one's life has literally 
 grown into that of the parent, separation is a 
 fearful wrench. 
 
 There is, too, the distress which every sensi- 
 tive mind feels in looking upon suffering that 
 one is unable to relieve. Sir William Hunter 
 said that there are a hundred millions of peo- 
 ple in India who never know the sensation of a 
 full stomach. An equally great number in 
 China live so near starvation that a drought or 
 a flood precipitates an appalling famine. All 
 over Asia, one sees disease and bodily injury 
 so untended, or what is worse, mistended, that 
 the resultant condition is as dreadful as it is 
 intolerable. Dr. John G. Kerr of Canton was 
 so overcome by the sufferings of the neglected 
 insane in that great city that he could not 
 
 The Wrench to 
 Parents' Hearts 
 
 Unrellevable 
 Distress 
 
230 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 endure them, and when he could not 
 get help from America, he started an 
 asylum at his own risk. Mrs. A. T. Mills 
 of Chefoo felt driven to the same course by 
 the pitiful condition of deaf-mute children. 
 Heathenism is grievously hard on the poor and 
 the sick and the crippled, while the woes' of 
 women in maternity are awful beyond descrip- 
 tion. Yet, amid such daily scenes, the mission- 
 ary must live. 
 Debl^Binr'v^ce Then there is the mental suffering which 
 and Immorality comcs to any purc-miudcd man or woman in 
 constant contact with the most debasing forms 
 of sin. Most Asiatics have no sense of wrong 
 regarding many of the matters that we have 
 been taught to regard as evil. They are un- 
 truthful and immoral. The first chapter of the 
 Epistle to the Romans is still a literal descrip- 
 tion of heathenism. Its society is utterly 
 rotten, and nowhere else in all Asia is it more 
 licentious than in Japan, which is lauded as 
 the most intelligent and advanced of all Asiatic 
 nations. We do not forget that there is immor- 
 ality in America, but here it is compelled to 
 lurk in secret places. It is opposed not only 
 by the Churches, but by civil law and public 
 sentiment. In Asia, vice is public and shame- 
 less, enshirined in the very temples. We saw 
 the filthiest representations of it in the great 
 Lama Temple in the capital of China. India, 
 
Spirit of the Missionary 231 
 
 which boasts of its ancient civilization, makesi 
 its most sacred places literally reek with vice. 
 The missionary often finds his own motives 
 grossly misjudged by hostile priests and pru- 
 rient people. The typical Asiatic scoffs at the 
 idea that the missionaries come to him for an 
 unselfish purpose. A single man is often mis- 
 understood; a single woman is nearly always 
 misunderstood. Heathen customs do not pro- 
 vide for the pure unmarried woman, and 
 charges are freely circulated, and sometimes 
 placarded on walls or buildings, in ways that 
 are most trying. 
 
 The soul in such an atmosphere feels as if fuffoMting 
 it would suffocate. The pressure of abnormal Atmosphere 
 conditions tends to debilitation. It sets nerves 
 on edge and exposes to diseases, mental as 
 well as physical. 
 
 Another phase of the strain of missionary spiritual Burden 
 life is the spiritual burden. To look upon 
 myriads of human beings who are bearing life's 
 loads unaided and meeting life's sorrows un- 
 helped, to offer them the assistance that they 
 need for time and for eternity, and to have 
 the offer fall upon deaf ears — this is a grievous 
 thing. Nothing in the missionary life is harder 
 than this for the man or the woman who has 
 gone to the foreign field from true missionary 
 motives. It is akin to the strain that broke 
 Christ's heart in three years; for it was this 
 
232 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 that killed him, and not alone the nails or the 
 spear. 
 Physical Danger -pjjg factor of physical danger is not so 
 common now as formerly, but it is not wanting, 
 even to-day. There are martyrs' graves in 
 India, China, Africa, Persia, Turkey, and the 
 South Sea Islands. In some lands, missionaries 
 are insolently denied the rights guaranteed 
 by treaty to every American citizen. Their 
 property is destroyed, their work hampered, 
 their freedom of movement limited, their very 
 lives menaced. 
 M^is^ionaries '^^^^ critic impatiently asks : "Why do mis- 
 hIw Thei'r^ siouaries persist in remaining at their posts, 
 Posts when they know that they are jeopardizing 
 
 their lives and bringing anxiety to their rela- 
 tives and embarrassment to their government? 
 Why do they not fly to the safer ports, as the 
 British and American consuls often advise 
 them to do ? 
 Soldier Spirit Why? Partly for the same reason that the 
 Spartans did not retreat at Thermopylae, that 
 the engineer does not jump when he sees that 
 death is ahead, that the mother does not think 
 of herself when her boy is stricken with diph- 
 theria. Shall the missionaries leave the native 
 Christians to be scattered, the mission build- 
 ings to be destroyed, the labor of years to be 
 undone, the Christian name disgraced? The 
 missionary is a soldier; his station is the post 
 
spirit of the Missionary 233 
 
 of duty. James Chalmers of New Guinea, of 
 whom Robert Louis Stevenson said: "He's 
 as big as a church," and who was finally 
 clubbed to death and eaten by cannibals, de- 
 clared that "the word 'sacrifice' ought never 
 to be used in Christ's service." And in a 
 speech in Exeter Hall fifteen years before his 
 death, he exclaimed: "Recall the twenty-one 
 years, give me back all its experiences, give 
 me its shipwrecks, give me its standing in the 
 face of death, give it me surrounded with sav- 
 ages with spears and clubs, give it me back 
 with the spears flying about me, with the club 
 knocking me to the ground — give it me back, 
 and I will still be your missionary." 
 
 Such missionaries form the "far-flung battle ?han™trioHc 
 line" of the Church of God. The patriotism 
 of Briton and American is stirred by the 
 thought that the sun never sets on their do- 
 minions; but a holier inspiration should thrill 
 them as they realize that the sun never sets 
 on their missionaries, who journey through 
 heat and cold, and dust and mud, burned by 
 the midday sun, drenched by sudden storms, 
 eating unaccustomed food, sleeping in vermin- 
 infested huts, enduring every privation incident 
 to travel in uncivilized lands — and yet, in 
 spite of all, instructing native helpers and 
 church officers, settling disputes, visiting the 
 dying, comforting the sorrowing, and above 
 
234 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 all and in all preaching the glad tidings of the 
 kingdom of God. It can be truly said of them : 
 
 "There is no place they have not been, 
 The men of deeds and destiny; 
 
 No spot so wild they have not seen, 
 And measured it with dauntless eye. 
 
 They in a common danger shared, 
 
 Nor shrunk from toil, nor want, nor pain.'' 
 
 Unparalleled Missionary annals abound with inspiring in- 
 stances of devotion. The last act of Dr. 
 Eleanor Chesnut, one of the martyrs at Lien- 
 chou, China, was to tear of? a portion of the 
 skirt of her dress and bind up an ugly gash on 
 the head of a Chinese boy, who had been ac- 
 cidentally injured by the mob. The dying words 
 of Mrs. Machle were a plea to her murderers 
 to accept Christ. The last letter of Mr. Peale 
 was such a large-hearted expression of sym- 
 pathy with the Chinese that the Chinese min- 
 ister at Washington wrote : "His words seem 
 to me to have a prophetic ring ; in his untimely 
 death, America has lost a noble son and China 
 a true friend." The , first message of Dr. 
 Machle, after the tragedy which cost the lives 
 of his wife and daughter, was not a demand 
 for revenge, but a vow to consecrate the re- 
 mainder of his life to the welfare of the 
 Chinese. 
 foyTnVh^work ^omc moral triumphs are greater than the 
 physical victories of war. A medical mission- 
 
Spirit of the Missionary 235 
 
 ary in Persia refused a palace and a princely 
 income as personal physician to the Shah, say- 
 ing : "I came to Persia to relieve the distresses 
 of the poor in the name of Jesus." An educa- 
 tor in China declined the high-salaried presi- 
 dency of an imperial university, giving as his 
 reason : "I want to translate the Bible and to 
 preach the gospel and to train up Christian 
 ministers." An old man in Syria rode horse- 
 back eight hours in a wintry storm to adminis- 
 ter the communion in a mountain village. 
 Another in Siam pushed his little boat up lonely 
 rivers swarming with crocodiles, and tramped 
 through snake and tiger-infested jungles, that 
 he might preach Christ. Still another in Laos 
 forgot his threescore and ten years and made 
 a solitary six months' journey that he might 
 take to distant peoples the tidings of the gospel. 
 Twenty-six days he was drenched with dew 
 and rain, ten times he had to swim his pony 
 across rivers, four days he wearily tramped 
 because his horse was too jaded to bear him. 
 A young woman in India walks painfully from 
 house to house under a blazing sun, but writes : 
 "This is a delightful work, it is good to be foot- 
 sore in such a cause." Another in Syria stands 
 in a little gallery of a room containing about 
 ten people, besides cows and goats; the 
 mud floor reeking with dampness, the roof 
 dripping tiny waterfalls of rain, the air heavy 
 
Pathetic Scenes 
 
 236 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 with smoke, the missionary herself racked with 
 cough and flushed with fever; but tenderly 
 treating two hundred patients a week and writ- 
 ing: "I am very thankful to record God's 
 goodness to me ; I do not believe that ever be- 
 fore into one person's life came such opportuni- 
 ties as I enjoy." A physician in Korea 
 cleanses loathsome ulcers, opens the eyes of 
 the blind, and makes the lame to walk. A 
 refined woman in China makes regular visits 
 to a leper colony and ministers lovingly to re- 
 pulsive sufferers with sightless eyes and rotting 
 limbs. 
 
 And then the scene changes and a sick hus- 
 band in Turkey asks that the photograph of 
 his wife and children may be hung close to 
 his bed, that he might gaze with inexpressible 
 yearning into the faces of far-off dear ones 
 whom he never expects to see again in the 
 flesh. Alfred Marling, seventy miles from 
 a physician, dies in the furnace of African 
 fever, singing: 
 
 "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds!"- 
 
 A mother in a Syrian shed lines a rude box, 
 places in it the still form of her child, sends 
 it away for distant burial ; and then goes back 
 to her sick husband and tries to keep up a brave 
 face and not let him know that her heart is 
 breaking. There are little groups of moving 
 
spirit of the Missionary 237 
 
 people — husbands following to far-off ceme- 
 teries the hallowed dust of their wives, widows 
 walking behind the coffins of their husbands, 
 Rachel mothers weeping for their children and 
 "refusing to be comforted because they were 
 not." "Six weeks after my arrival in China," 
 a missionary writes, "my wife, though but 
 shortly before in America adjudged physically 
 sound, died after only a week's illness. The 
 memories of the cold, bleak, January morning 
 when we laid her in that lonely grave upon the 
 hillside will not soon fade from my mind. 
 What a mournful little procession it was that 
 passed through the streets of hostile Tsi-nan f u 
 that day ! With but half a dozen of my new- 
 found friends, I followed the plain coffin borne 
 by coolies, whose jargon seemed all the more 
 unsympathetic because I did not understand 
 it. Oh ! the unspeakable desolation that sweeps 
 over a little community such as many of our 
 mission stations are, when death invades its 
 feeble ranks. And then there must be borne 
 the stifled wail reechoing from America three 
 months later!" 
 
 Who can think unmoved of that missionary wfaow"""" 
 widow, who, when her husband died at an in- '"Siam 
 terior station of Siam, and there was no place 
 nearer than Bangkok where the body could 
 be buried, caused the coffin to be placed in a 
 native boat, leaving a space of eighteen inches 
 
238 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 wide and eight feet long on each side. She 
 sat on one side and a friend on the other, and 
 the native boatmen pushed the craft out upon 
 the river. That was eight o'clock Friday- 
 morning. All day they journeyed under the 
 blazing tropical sun, and the reader can imagine 
 what that meant both to the living and 
 the dead. When darkness fell, the stars surely 
 looked down in pity upon that stricken widow 
 crouching so close to the dead body of her 
 husband that she could not avoid touching his 
 coffin. It was not until two o'clock Saturday 
 afternoon that the pitiful ride ended at 
 Bangkok. Flesh and blood could not have 
 borne such a strain, if God had not heard the 
 dying petition of the husband, who, foreseeing 
 the coming sorrow, had brokenly prayed: 
 "Lord, help her!" 
 D°°d at°Home ^^^ along the missionary picket-line are the 
 graves of the fallen. Since, two generations 
 ago, Dr. Lowrie buried his wife in India, and 
 Mrs. Reed saw her husband's body weighted 
 with shot and lowered into the ocean, hun- 
 dreds have laid down their lives. When the 
 soldiers of our country die in a foreign land, 
 a grateful nation brings their bodies home at 
 public expense. After the Spanish-American 
 war, a funeral ship entered New York harbor, 
 amid the booming of minute guns from forts 
 and ships. Two days later, public buildings 
 
Spirit of the Missionary 239 
 
 were closed and ensigns were hung at half- 
 mast, while the honored dust was borne 
 through the nation's capital to historic Arling- 
 ton. A vast multitude thronged the beautiful 
 city of the dead. As the flag-draped coffins ap- 
 peared, a ghostly voice seemed to say to the 
 silent host : "Hats off, gentlemen ! for yonder 
 come the riderless steeds, the reversed arms, the 
 muffled drums. Something is here for tears." 
 The President, admirals, generals, statesmen, 
 diplomats, bared their heads. The weird music 
 of "The Dead March" melted into the sweeter 
 strains of "Nearer, my God, to Thee." The 
 parting volleys were fired. Clearly and sol- 
 emnly the bugler sounded taps, and the multi- 
 tude turned away with tear-dimmed eyes to 
 talk of a noble monument to commemorate the 
 lives of heroes. 
 
 But the dead soldiers of the cross lie where Ji^°Ji'y,„y 
 they fell on our lonely missionary outposts — Graves 
 amid the jungles of Africa, in the swamps of 
 Siam, beside the rivers of China, and under the 
 palm-trees of India. If we may adapt the 
 words of Mary H. Kingsley to a class that 
 she did not have in mind : "I trust that those 
 at home will give all honor to the men still 
 working in Africa, or rotting in the weed- 
 grown, snake-infested cemeteries and the forest 
 swamps — men whose battles have been fought 
 out on lonely beaches far away from home and 
 
240 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 friends and often from another white 
 man's help, sometimes with savages, but 
 more often with a more deadly foe, with none 
 of the anodyne to death and danger given by 
 the companionship of hundreds of fellow sol- 
 diers in a fight with a foe you can see, but with 
 a foe you can see only incarnate in the dreams 
 of your delirium, which runs as a poison in 
 burning veins and aching brain — the dread 
 West Coast fever." 
 Workers""' Edward Everett Hale's poem, "All Souls," 
 eloquently voices the debt which succeeding 
 generations owe to the courage and fidelity 
 of the forgotten missionary as well as to the 
 pioneer settler: 
 
 "What was his name? I do not know his name: 
 I only know he heard God's voice and came, 
 Brought all he loved across the sea, 
 To live and work for God — and me; 
 Felled the ungracious oak. 
 Dragged from the soil 
 With torrid toil 
 Thrice gnarled roots and stubborn rock, 
 With plenty piled the haggard mountainside, 
 And at the end, without memorial, died; 
 No blaring trumpet sounded out his fame; 
 He lived, he died; I do not know his name. 
 
 "No form of bronze and no memorial stones 
 Show me the place where lie his moldering bones. 
 Only a cheerful city stands, 
 Built by his hardened hands; 
 
spirit of the Missionary 241 
 
 Only ten thousand homes, 
 Where every day 
 The cheerful play 
 Of love and hope and courage conies. 
 These are his monument and these alone; 
 There is no form of bronze and no memorial stone." 
 
 QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Aim : To Appkeciate that Spirit Which Alone Is 
 Sufficient for the Missionary in His Surround- 
 ings 
 
 1. In what ways is the life of the ordinary mis- 
 sionary similar to that of minister, physician, 
 or teacher at home? 
 
 2. Mention a number of ways in which obstacles 
 that confronted the earlier missionaries have 
 been removed. 
 
 3. Name the three principal physical discomforts 
 of the average missionary in the tropics. 
 
 4. Mention the same of the average missionary 
 in the temperate zone. 
 
 3. What difference in this respect is there between 
 those working in civilized and uncivilized re- 
 gions? 
 
 6. Name all the classes of persons with whom 
 you have helpful social intercourse. 
 
 7. What are the principal things that render this 
 intercourse pleasant and helpful? 
 
 8. To what extent are you conscious of common 
 sympathies with your fellow citizens? 
 
 9. How do your privileges in this respect com- 
 pare with those of the average missionary? 
 
242 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 10. Which of his social deprivations would be 
 hardest for you? 
 
 11. How does the average missionary compare 
 with the average minister at home in oppor- 
 tunities for intellectual stimulus? 
 
 12. What are the things from which you derive 
 most spiritual inspiration and help? 
 
 13. How much of these are available for the mis- 
 sionary at a small station? 
 
 14. Try to estimate what you owe to the silent 
 influence of earnest men in your community. 
 
 15. Try to estimate what you owe to pubhc 
 opinion. 
 
 16. What effect would it have upon you to be 
 constantly surrounded by distress which you 
 were unable to relieve? 
 
 17. Why would you hesitate to have a brother of 
 yours live in a community that was lacking in 
 high moral ideals ? 
 
 18. Try to estimate the moral strain upon those 
 living in heathen communities without a mis- 
 sionary purpose. 
 
 19. What do you think would be the effect on 
 yourself of having to preach for months or 
 years at a time without results? 
 
 20. How, in your opinion, would the average 
 critic of missionary work succeed in overcom- 
 ing these obstacles? 
 
 21. Was Christ ignorant of the difficulty of the 
 task when he ordered his disciples to teach 
 all nations? 
 
Spirit of the Missionary 243 
 
 22. If you were starting as a missionary, what 
 resolves would you make as to your personal 
 spiritual life ? 
 
 23. What resolves would you make as to your 
 attitude toward your fellow missionaries? 
 
 24. What, as to your attitude toward the native 
 Christians ? 
 
 25. What, as to your attitude toward the non- 
 christian natives? 
 
 26. To what extent would these resolves be useful 
 for Christians at home? 
 
 27. Name the principal things that bring spiritual 
 stimulus to the missionaries on the field. 
 
 28. What are the principal things that you would 
 include in a full definition of the missionary 
 spirit? 
 
 29. What is the reward to those who overcome 
 all these obstacles? 
 
THE HOME CHURCH AND THE 
 ENTERPRISE 
 
 245 
 
I don't know anything that will commit the Church 
 of Christ more completely to the devotional life, that 
 will take it more often to the throne of God, that will 
 give it more permanently and consistently a sense of 
 the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ, than this habitual 
 confronting of the Church's task in the world. 
 
 — William Douglas Mackenzie 
 
 When we once see that systematic benevolence is the 
 most wide-reaching embodiment of spiritual energy 
 and the most Godlike expression of it, we conclude that 
 our next business as an organization is to cultivate 
 systematic benevolence. Ours is an educational move- 
 ment. The great test and sign of advancing culture is 
 systematic instead of spasmodic expression of the soul. 
 
 — L. Call Barnes 
 
 Not alone are the workers to come and be equipped 
 by prayer; it is only by prayer that we shall call forth 
 the great energies by which the world is to be evangel- 
 ized. I believe as earnestly as any man in sending out 
 adequate numbers of missionaries from America, but 
 it is not by these men and women that the world is to 
 be evangelized. If we lay on these men and women the 
 whole work of evangelizing the world, the product will 
 not be worth the outlay. . . . And only by prayer 
 will great leaders be raised up in the native Churches, 
 and it is for these leaders that we are waiting 
 now in the missionary enterprise. As far as the 
 native Churches have had such leaders, during the 
 century that is gone, they had them as men of prayer 
 who were supported by prayer. 
 
 — Robert E. Speer 
 
 246 
 
IX 
 
 THE HOME CHURCH AND THE 
 ENTERPRISE 
 
 WE have considered the phases of the for- cSnsfde^d"*''' 
 eign missionary enterprise which are 
 most important from the view-point of the 
 home Christian. We have seen that the mo- 
 tives for the prosecution of the work are those 
 which form a necessary part of true Christian 
 character, and that they make their claim upon 
 every true follower of Christ. We have noted 
 that a vital part of the aim of foreign missions 
 is to place every land where it can do its own 
 home mission work, on a basis which was 
 reached by the nations of Christendom cen- 
 turies ago. The work of foreign missions will 
 be done in China long before China is Chris- 
 tianized as far as America. We merely wish to 
 make it possible for China to Christianize 
 herself. 
 
 We have studied the administration of the Meaning To t/s? 
 boards,, and found that they observe every 
 reasonable precaution in securing such econ- 
 omy as is consistent with efificiency, both as to 
 office expenses and as to the support of mis- 
 sionaries on the field. The money contributed 
 247 
 
248 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 by the Church is being conscientiously used. 
 We have explained the qualifications required 
 in candidates and the care with which they are 
 selected. Then we have seen the missionary 
 at work among the distinctive conditions that 
 confront him. We have observed the problems 
 involved in the establishment of a self-propa- 
 gating, self-supporting, self-governing native 
 Church — the goal of missionary endeavor. We 
 have examined the criticisms of missionaries 
 which are more or less current, and found them 
 to be for the most part products either of mis- 
 understanding or of antichristian prejudice. 
 Finally, we have shown something of the spirit 
 of the missionary, a spirit which we are under 
 equal obligation to exhibit. And now the ques- 
 tion arises : What concern have we in all these 
 things ? 
 of^obfigaXn The foreign missionary enterprise is not the 
 exclusive business of the workers on the field, 
 nor of the boards at home, nor does it rest 
 solely upon rectors or members of local mis- 
 sionary societies. It rests upon every indi- 
 vidual Christian. The responsibilities and privi- 
 leges of the Christian life are inseparable, and 
 no one who repudiates the former has any right 
 to claim the latter. If our nation were en- 
 gaged in a righteous war, and there came a 
 special call for troops, those best qualified to 
 go would feel the obligation to respond, while 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 249 
 
 enormous appropriations of funds would be 
 ungrudgingly made. If the first supply of 
 troops proved inadequate, if our armies were 
 defeated and the national treasury exhausted, 
 it is safe to say that many would offer their 
 services who were not well fitted to go and 
 could ill be spared at home, while great finan- 
 cial sacrifices would be freely made by all 
 classes of citizens in furnishing the necessary 
 funds. Only the need would measure the 
 supply. We feel that, whatever the cost, 
 our flag must be supported when it goes forth 
 to war. In like manner, the need of the foreign 
 missionary campaign ordered by Christ is the 
 measure of the obligation of the Church. By 
 a claim even higher than that of patriotism, 
 we have a right to expect that the needs will be 
 met. 
 
 What are the needs? In the first place, Jj^elfd^"" 
 the force on the field must be greatly in- 
 creased. Making all due allowance for the 
 duty of the growing native churches, we ought 
 to have at least one man missionary for every 
 50,000 of the 1,000,000,000 people of the non- 
 christian world, besides a proportionate num- 
 ber of women workers. The present force con- 
 sists of only 8,537 ^^^> clerical and lay, and 
 this number includes the sick, the aged, re- 
 cruits learning the language, and the consider- 
 able number always absent on furlough. It is 
 
250 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Enlarged 
 Giving Required 
 
 A Possible Goal 
 
 safe to say that the effective force of men does 
 not exceed 7,000, or one for every 142,857 of 
 the population. This means that the average 
 board would need to multiply its force nearly 
 three times in order to provide one man for 
 every 50,000 people living in non-christian 
 countries. 
 
 To support this increase, the present rate 
 of giving must be proportionately enlarged. 
 Each man represents an annual cost of ap- 
 proximately $2,000, this sum covering not 
 only his support and that of his family, but 
 his outfit, traveling expenses, and the addi- 
 tional work which he calls into existence. 
 Thus, 14,000 more men would involve an in- 
 creased expenditure of $28,000,000 a year, 
 and this would take no account of the property 
 that would be I'equired for the residences, 
 colleges, boarding-schools, theological sem- 
 inaries, hospitals, and printing-presses which 
 would have to be provided and equipped. 
 
 If volunteers and funds are to be provided 
 on an adequate scale, the home Church must 
 be kept informed and aroused to the need. 
 What we lack is not ability, but interest. A 
 thoroughly awakened Church could accomplish 
 a large part of the aim of foreign missions 
 in a generation. If all congregations and in- 
 dividuals would do in proportion to their abil- 
 ity what some congregations and individuals 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 251 
 
 are already doing, some of us might live to 
 see the successful termination of the foreign 
 missionary enterprise; that is, each land, not 
 indeed completely Christianized, but equipped 
 with a native Church able to handle its own 
 problems. The key to the present situation, 
 therefore, is found ultimately in the interest 
 of the home Church. Interest depends on the 
 right sort of knowledge. Our first need is for 
 a campaign of education. 
 
 The three main agencies of education are Ichoof^"'" 
 the home, the school, and the church. It has 
 come about that the first-named does very little 
 that is systematic, and that the two latter have 
 divided the field, one taking secular and the 
 other religious instruction. Whatever the 
 shortcomings of the school, it is at least at- 
 tacking its problems in earnest. It does its 
 work on a vast scale and expects taxpayers 
 to furnish it with adequate equipment. It 
 claims all the children of school-going age for 
 twenty to thirty hours each week, and pro- 
 vides trained and salaried teachers for their 
 instruction. If there is one thing to which the 
 American people are thoroughly committed, 
 it is secular education, and they view these 
 efforts and meet these demands with supreme 
 satisfaction. 
 
 When we turn to religious education, S^Re'l|'|iouV 
 we find that much less is being done. The Education 
 
252 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Sunday-school is a regular institution in every 
 section of the country, and an immense army 
 of scholars assembles every week. Millions 
 of quarterlies and other lesson helps are printed 
 annually, and county, state, and national or- 
 ganizations hold numerous conventions to dis- 
 cuss problems and arouse enthusiasm. We 
 have great cause for gratitude to God for all 
 that has been accomplished in the religious 
 instruction of our children and young people; 
 but in comparison with secular education we 
 must admit that there are three conspicuous 
 weaknesses in the system. 
 
 Tlmf*'^'"* I. Religious education receives only a frac- 
 tion of the time that the secular school obtains, 
 the period available for class work being only 
 one fortieth as long. If we consider education 
 as the handing down of a body of information, 
 the secular school has certainly more to com- 
 municate, especially in these latter days. But 
 if the main purpose of education is to help 
 us to be and do, rather than merely to know, 
 the relative importance of the religious side 
 of education is greatly increased. In any 
 event, half or three quarters of an hour once a 
 week does not afford sufficient time. 
 
 Rlfatiyeiy 2. Teachcrs receive far less training for 
 religious than for secular work. Small as 
 are the salaries of the teachers in public 
 schools, they are not paid over to those al- 
 
 Untrained 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 253 
 
 together without quaHfication. On the other 
 hand, while the body of Sunday-school teachers 
 includes some of the most able and cultured 
 people in the country, it also includes many 
 who could never pass the public school 
 test. In some localities, teachers are in such 
 demand that any one willing to take a class 
 is pressed into service, and no questions are 
 asked. 
 
 3. The curriculum of the Sunday-school cS?rUuhfm * 
 is yet very meager. This is almost a neces- 
 sary consequence of the two other weaknesses. 
 There is time for only one thing, which of 
 course is the Bible, and owing to the general 
 lack of trained teachers even this is too often 
 not presented in any richness of content. All 
 other subjects are virtually excluded. 
 
 From the missionary view-point, these ?h^|''^ ^" 
 weaknesses are most grievous. They mean weaknesses 
 that millions of children pass through our 
 Sunday-schools without any adequate instruc- 
 tion on the greatest task of the Christian 
 Church, that millions of our young people and 
 adults are to-day without any more consecutive 
 ideas on the subject than they may have picked 
 up in merely occasional missionary sermons, 
 or in the too fugitive treatment of missionary 
 meetings. How shall we reach these persons 
 with clear, connected, and inspiring missionary 
 instruction ? 
 
254 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 MZfon°Ludy The mission study class has been found a 
 Class g^gj^^ j^gjp jjj ^.jjg solution of this difficult prob- 
 
 lem. It avoids the time difficulty by holding 
 separate sessions for short weekly courses, at 
 hours that prove most convenient to the small 
 groups composing them. It is gradually sup- 
 plying a body of persons who know something 
 about missions and are able to teach others. It 
 will probably be for some time to come the 
 best way of reaching young people and adults 
 with systematic missionary instruction. By 
 filling its members with knowledge and en- 
 thusiasm it will help to make it practicable to 
 introduce an effective study of missions into 
 the Sunday-school. Sunday-school teachers of 
 every church should be strongly urged to enter 
 a mission study class each year to get a vision 
 of some field or phase of the missionary enter- 
 prise. Even under present conditions, they 
 will then have plenty of opportunity to develop 
 missionary spirit in their scholars. Without 
 such a vision, there is no likelihood that they 
 will accomplish anything under any conditions, 
 however favorable. 
 LMde?s^°' We must spread systematic mission study 
 among all classes in the church, and especially 
 seek to bring under its influence those who 
 appear likely to become future leaders. If the 
 study and discussion of the facts presented in 
 this book have helped you, you owe it to the 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 255 
 
 church to share what you have received with 
 others by trying to enroll them as members 
 of new classes. You may feel ill-qualified to 
 lead such a class, but the subject, rather than 
 your ability in presenting it, may arouse those 
 who will render to the cause a greater service 
 than is ever permitted to you. A series of sum- 
 mer conferences and winter institutes are held 
 every year for the express purpose of training 
 leaders in more effective methods of work, and 
 are suggestive and inspiring. 
 
 The systematic study of. missions which has 0/ Thu* '^'^'"^ 
 arisen in the past few years is one of the Propaganda 
 most promising signs of the times. It should 
 be pushed until no congregation is without 
 one or more study classes for the training of 
 its Sunday-school teachers and the inspira- 
 tion of its workers. After the way in which 
 we have neglected this subject in the past, 
 we owe it a generous apportionment of time 
 and pains. A strong study class should prove 
 a power-house for all sorts of missionary ef- 
 fort in the church. It should lead to instruct- 
 ive and enthusiastic missionary meetings, to 
 campaigns of missionary reading, to the intro- 
 duction of missionary exercises and supple- 
 mentary instruction in the Sunday-school, to 
 the formation of mission bands, and to in- 
 creased prayer and giving and service on the 
 part of all the church. 
 
256 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 Average Annual WhCH it COmCS tO giving, WC HlUSt faCC 
 
 the fact that the church members' average an- 
 nual gift for foreign missions is less than one 
 dollar per capita. Only about half of the mem- 
 bership of the average church participates in 
 the gifts for missions, and many rectors make 
 no adequate effort to reach the other half. A 
 committee of one denomination reported, a few 
 years ago, that nine tenths of the contributions 
 were made by one tenth of the membership. 
 Some whole churches give nothing at all, and 
 others give only through the women's societies, 
 the pastor and all his officers standing help- 
 lessly or indifferently aloof. The plea that they 
 are small and weak reminds one of some little 
 home missionary churches, mere handfuls of 
 poor people, who send offerings for every 
 one of the boards of the Church. A feeble 
 congregation is made stronger by doing what 
 it can. The individual Christian needs to be 
 educated as to his relation to the world-wide 
 mission of the Son of God and to give propor- 
 tionately and prayerfully towards it, whether 
 he is rich or poor, in a small church or a large 
 one. 
 Church""'^''"'" ^^ ^'^^^ ^ congregation had reason to as- 
 sign local burdens as an excuse for neglecting 
 foreign missions, it was the little church at 
 Antioch when the Holy Ghost said : "Separate 
 me Barnabas and Saul for the work where- 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 257 
 
 unto I have called them." It was the only 
 church in a large and wicked city. No church 
 in all Eur6pe or America has a greater work 
 at home, in proportion to its i-esources. The 
 devoted little band, however, never flinched; 
 but "when they had fasted and prayed and 
 laid their hands on them, they sent them 
 away." Why should not the modern Church, 
 with its vastly greater strength, equal the faith 
 and courage of the church at Antioch ? 
 
 No sympathy should be wasted over the ExcuTe-xhe 
 common excuse that people do not have the |o^j°a|t 
 money that is required. They have it in 
 abundance, and they prove it by spending it 
 freely on things that minister to their pleasure. 
 If some have too many other burdens, they 
 should diminish them. The evangelization of 
 the world is too important an enter- 
 prise to take what is left after everything else 
 has been provided for. Many commercial en- 
 terprises employ more men and expend more 
 money than the Church would need for the 
 evangelization of the world. Business men 
 do not hesitate to attempt the most colossal 
 things in secular affairs. Not. content with 
 the trade of America, they are competing with 
 other nations for the trade of the world. The 
 foreign commerce of the United States now 
 runs up to billions of dollars a year. On every 
 side, we hear of big buildings, big ships, big 
 
258 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 A Sensible 
 Standard 
 
 Moravian 
 Example 
 
 factories, big steel plants, which cost immense 
 sums. 
 
 Why then should it be deemed fanciful for 
 the Church to attempt to raise for the evangeli- 
 zation of the world a sum which many of its 
 members would not regard as impracticable 
 for a secular enterprise? Shall we work for 
 our own enrichment on a vast scale and work 
 for God and our fellow men on a small one? 
 Surely the Church is able to do this thing. 
 I grant that not all the wealth of which we 
 hear so much is tributary to foreign missions, 
 that many Church members are in moderate 
 circumstances and that some of them are poor. 
 I remember, too, that there is Christian work 
 at home which must be supported. The fact 
 remains, however, that intelligent, prayerful, 
 systematic, proportionate giving on the part 
 of poor and rich alike would provide ample 
 funds, without injustice to any family or home 
 obligations. There are thousands of Chris- 
 tians who do not hesitate to incur personal ex- 
 penditures for a hundred times the amount that 
 they give to foreign missions. 
 
 The Moravian Church sets an excellent 
 example to Christendom as to what can be 
 done when Christians have the right ideas. 
 Most of its members are poor, but it supports 
 one missionary for every sixty of its member- 
 ship; whereas among Baptists, Congregation- 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 259 
 
 alists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, with far 
 greater wealth, it takes an average of 6,146 
 members to support one missionary. Allowing 
 for the aid that Mpravian missions receive 
 from the members of other Churches, the fact 
 remains that, if all Protestant Churches would 
 send out missionaries in the same proportion 
 as the Moravians, there would be half a million 
 missionaries on the field, a number far in 
 excess of the number that it would be wise to 
 send. 
 
 We need not go into questions of method JJ^J^°| ^ 
 of raising money. Effective ways of doing a 
 thing will be easily found by one who is 
 determined to do it. The boards will gladly 
 send detailed information to all who ask for 
 it. The important thing is to have a method, 
 and to work it in such a way as to secure 
 some offering from every individual, not neces- 
 sarily large in amount, but proportionate to 
 ability, and to reach the absentees as well as 
 those who are present. 
 
 We protest, however, against "the two-cent- ^^fi|''""°*f 
 a-week" plea. It does not secure the gift of 
 the poor, it benumbs the liberality of the rich, 
 and it belittles the whole enterprise. Fancy 
 a minister standing before a congregation, 
 whose typical member is wearing $50 worth of 
 clothing and $25 worth of jewelry, whose 
 household furniture has cost several thousand 
 
26o Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 dollars, who smokes from ten to fifty cents' 
 worth of tobacco a day, and who commands 
 not only the conveniences, but many of the 
 luxuries of" life — fancy telling such a 
 man that his foreign missionary responsibilities 
 are met by a gift of two cents a week! He 
 spends more than that for blacking his shoes. 
 A proportionate gift for the average layman 
 is not pennies at all, nor even silver, but bills 
 or checks. 
 S"1ft"^^'"' ^^ insist, too, that missionary operations 
 have gone about as far as they can go in de- 
 pendence upon the passing-the-hat method 
 among those who happen to be present at a 
 given service. Inquiry in a certain State de- 
 veloped the fact that only forty per cent, of 
 the reported membership attended church on a 
 Sunday morning of average weather condi- 
 tions. Business men who are present seldom 
 carry much cash on their persons. Large 
 givers never have proportionate sums with 
 them. If, in response to an appeal, they empty 
 their pockets, they are doing all they can do, 
 or, at any rate, all they will do under that 
 system. This is an era of large private gifts. 
 Almost every week we hear of some one be- 
 stowing $100,000 or $1,000,000 on a college 
 or library or hospital. The chief dependence 
 of our educational and charitable institutions 
 is upon contributions of this character. Is it 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 261 
 
 not almost farcical for the Church to endeavor 
 to maintain churches, hospitals, schools, 
 colleges, theological seminaries, printing- 
 presses, and a host of missionaries and native 
 helpers, by plate collections as an annual inci- 
 dent of public service? If we are to give the 
 gospel to the world we must raise money for 
 missions as we raise it for other big enter- 
 prises, by subscription. The wisest pastors are 
 calling for pledges instead of cash. A man 
 who would unblushingly slip a quarter into a 
 collection basket would never dream of sign- 
 ing a card for such a sum. We have passed 
 the canal-boat and stage-coach days in foreign 
 missions as well as in transportation. • We 
 must now have money in larger surrs Our 
 laymen are doing big things in business. Why 
 should they not do big things for God ? 
 
 Each church should have a committee of '^??'™'"" 
 
 01 Laymen 
 
 laymen to cooperate with the rector in promot- 
 ing foreign missionary interest and increas- 
 ing foreign missionary gifts in the congre- 
 gation. This committee should do among the 
 men of the church what the woman's society 
 does so well among the women. Experience 
 has shown that the men will make prompt re- 
 sponse, if intelligent and systernatic effort is 
 put forth to reach them. 
 
 Whenever an effort is made to increase gifts ILfwefrf Home 
 for foreign missions, there are some who raise ^""^ Foreign 
 
262 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 a hue and cry about the alleged diversion of 
 funds from home enterprises. A Presbytery 
 not long ago refused to permit a missionary 
 campaign within its bounds, on the ground 
 that it would interfere with gifts for other 
 causes. Yet official reports showed that this 
 Presbytery was giving nearly ten times as 
 much to home objects as to foreign. There 
 is a great work to be done in the homeland, 
 but it is not helped in the least by opposition 
 to foreign missions. Giving to world evangeli- 
 zation enlarges the mind, broadens the sympa- 
 thies, and so opens the springs of benevolence 
 that those who do most for foreign missions 
 are usually the very ones who do most for 
 home missions. Mr. Jacob A. Riis, who has 
 toiled :^, indefatigably for the poor people of 
 New York City, says that "for every dollar 
 you give away to convert the heathen abroad, 
 God gives you ten dollars' worth of purpose 
 to deal with your heathen at home." "A reli- 
 gion," adds Dr. Clarke, "cannot be really* 
 strengthened at home by declining to extend 
 its blessings abroad. It is a complete mis- 
 understanding of Christianity to suppose that 
 some Christian Church or country, by concen- 
 trating its attention and labors upon itself, can 
 so accumulate power as to be able to turn in 
 full vigor to do its Christian work for others 
 at some later date. It was said long ago that 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 263 
 
 Christianity is a commodity of which the more 
 we export the more we have at home. It is 
 equally true that the less we export the less 
 we may find at home." 
 
 The rector has the chief responsibility in Responsibility 
 this effort to arouse the Church. But not all 
 pastors are meeting their obligations in this 
 matter, and even the most zealous pastor can 
 accomplish little without the support of his 
 members. The first advance move may need 
 to come from some one in the congregation. 
 The work must be done whether the pastor 
 is willing to occupy his rightful place of leader- 
 ship or not. 
 
 Appeals should not be based solely on finan- cons'iderat™^s'' 
 cial necessities. The cause is cheapened by 
 too much begging and pleading. The fact 
 that an enterprise wants money is not a suffi- 
 cient reason why it should receive it, nor is 
 the begging argument apt to secure anything 
 more than the beggar's temporary dole. Do 
 not apologize or talk about "the needs of the 
 board." As the late President Harrison pith- 
 ily said: "The man whose grocery bills are 
 unpaid might just as well talk about the needs 
 of his butler. Present your need, the needs 
 of the Church, the needs of the world, those 
 claims which Church membership implies and 
 which are more than life in that personal re- 
 lation with the great Head of the Church." 
 
Personal 
 Devotion 
 
 264 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 If hearers complain : "Missions, missions, al- 
 ways missions" ; reply in the notable words of 
 Bishop Doane of Albany: "Yes, always mis- 
 sions, because they are the life-blood, the heart- 
 beat, the lungs-breath of the body of Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 There are many persons who can contribute 
 judgmem'^ but little money to the missionary cause, who 
 are able to render service of positive value by 
 devoting their energies to stimulating in- 
 terest in the Church. Work of this kind may 
 count for more in the end than large gifts that 
 are now being received. Two things should 
 be kept in mind to this end. First, the service 
 should be offered in the same spirit of sacri- 
 fice which we expect our missionaries on the 
 field to manifest. The worker should not be 
 discouraged if the obstacles are at first very 
 great, but should work and pray the way 
 through to success. In the second place, great 
 care must be taken to avoid alienating people 
 by tactless behavior. We often see persons 
 of undoubted zeal and consecration who make 
 the cause they espouse a byword in the com- 
 munity on account of the methods they employ 
 to advertise it. It would be a good thing if 
 we could see ourselves more frequently as 
 others see us; the nearest approach to this is 
 the candid advice of friends who have sound 
 judgment. 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 265 
 
 We must keq) prominent before the Church Ji°'cholen ones 
 the call to life-service on the field. There are 
 so many who are not free to go or who are 
 not fit to go, that the burden of proof rests 
 heavily upon those who have the qualifica- 
 tions to show that they are exempt. Num- 
 bers of young men and women who have no 
 obligation that would prevent them from ac- 
 cepting a lucrative business position in a 
 foreign land and whom the boards would be 
 glad to appoint drift into other lines of work 
 every year, largely because the claims of 
 foreign missionary service have never been 
 personally brought to their attention. If any 
 of us would feel gratified at having obtained 
 for some young friend the opportunity to earn 
 a good salary, we should feel that we had con- 
 ferred a much greater favor by enabling him 
 to have a personal share in the spread of the 
 kingdom of God abroad. If the end of life 
 is use and not gain, we should seek positions 
 of the greatest usefulness both for ourselves 
 and for others. 
 
 Studying, giving, and preaching, however, Fr'aVingChul-ch 
 will be of little avail unless praying accom- 
 panies and pervades them. The foreign mis- 
 sionary enterprise is essentially spiritual in 
 character, and the prayers of the home Church 
 are a real asset in conducting it. Therefore, 
 "Pray without ceasing." 
 
2 66 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 worid^wldo It is sadly true, however, that many profess- 
 Remembrance jj,g Christians never pray for the missionary 
 enterprise from one year's end to the other, 
 except unconsciously as they utter the Lord's 
 prayer. What excuse can they give? Either 
 disbelief in the power of prayer or sheer ig- 
 norance and lack of interest would seem to be 
 the only possible answers. The latter may be 
 your fault or mine. There is greatly needed 
 some systematic effort to develop a praying 
 Church. Foreign missions should have a 
 stated place in the private and family prayer 
 of every Christian. It already has such a place 
 in thousands of homes. Many of the boards 
 publish year-books in which missionaries' 
 names and some phase of their work appear 
 in connection with each day of the year. Such 
 daily remembrance, especially if supplemented 
 by information to be found in the yearly re- 
 port of the board and the missionary maga- 
 zines of the Church, will in time give one a 
 sympathetic knowledge of the whole field and 
 bring no small cheer to the lonely workers far 
 away. Englishmen exulted in the fact that, 
 at a given hour on the day of Queen Vic- 
 toria's Jubilee, June 20, 1897, "God save the 
 Queen" was sung in all the churches and on 
 all the ships of the British empire, so that 
 with the progress of the sun, jubilant voices 
 upraised the national anthem westward over 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 267 
 
 oceans and continents until the mighty chorus 
 rolled around the world. In like manner, if 
 Christians in the homeland were to lift their 
 voices in prayer for missions every morning, 
 the entire globe would be belted daily with 
 never-ending petitions to God. 
 
 Such praying constitutes a more vital ele- |^th*uBUsmat 
 ment in missionary success than is commonly victl>^5!broad 
 supposed. The faith of the four friends who 
 brought the palsied man to Christ was one 
 of the essential factors in the miracle of grace 
 that followed. "And Jesus seeing their faith, 
 saith unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy 
 sins are forgiven." The very largeness 
 of the enterprise summons us to a mighty con- 
 fidence in God. Foreign missions is the great- 
 est task in the world, but we are not conduct- 
 ing it alone. It was laid upon us by him who 
 declared that "all authority" was given unto 
 him and that he would be with his disciples "al- 
 ways." He is strong in power and infinite 
 in resources, "able to save," and he calls us 
 to be co-workers with him. Enthusiasm and 
 determination in our response will spell victory 
 abroad. 
 
 The Church may well consider the relation 
 of spiritual power to missionary zeal. It is 
 a fundamental law of the kingdom that power 
 is given to be used for others. Talents must 
 not be hid in napkins and buried. 
 
 Power Given 
 for Use 
 
2 68 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 The^jHoij Spirit jhc Ncw Testament makes this very clear. 
 
 Early Witnesses -pjjg j^QJy Spirit was givcn in order that the 
 disciples might become witnesses. "^ Before 
 Pentecost, they had no interest in world 
 evangelization; but when the Holy Spirit 
 came upon them, they became evangelists to a 
 man. The remainder of the Book of Acts is a 
 wonderful record of evangelistic spirit and ex- 
 tension. The early Church was preeminently 
 a missionary Church and its members pro- 
 claimed the gospel in almost every part of the 
 then known world, 
 s^'rit^'ulriife ■'■^ would be interesting to cite in detail the 
 Attended by iHustratious incarnated in Ulfilas, Columba, 
 
 Missionary ' ' 
 
 Advance Raymuud Lull, and Von Welz. Significant 
 also from this view-point is the rise of Pietism 
 with its luminous names of Francke and 
 Spener, Ziegenbalg and Schwartz. Zinzendorf 
 and Moravianism, Wesley and Methodism, 
 have their place in such a study, for without 
 them we could hardly understand the new era 
 of missions which began with Carey. In 
 America, the work of Brainerd and Edwards 
 was directly related to a new baptism of the 
 Holy Spirit. It was not an accident that sev- 
 eral of the missionary organizations of the 
 nineteenth century were born during the great 
 revivals of the first two decades, or a mere 
 coincidence that the forward movement in 
 
 'John XV. 26, 27; xvi, 7, 8; Acts i. 8. 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 269 
 
 missions that characterized the closing years 
 of that century dated from the extraordinary 
 revivals of 1875-6. The teaching of history 
 on this subject is unbroken. Every deepen- 
 ing of the spiritual life has been followed 
 by a new effort to give the gospel to the 
 world; but there is no record anywhere of the 
 Holy Spirit's power remaining with any 
 Church which did not use it in witnessing 
 for Christ. 
 
 Here is one cause of the poverty of spiritual Mlfsfuve'^More 
 life. The Church is living too much for itself. ■^"'^ ^^'"^ 
 God has already given it enough power to 
 evangelize Europe and America half a dozen 
 times over. Is it reasonable to suppose that 
 he will increase that power simply for this 
 purpose? This suggests the remedy both for 
 a low spiritual vitality at home and the com- 
 parative failure to support the missionary en- 
 terprise on an adequate scale. The Church 
 must be spiritually quickened. Foreign mis- 
 sions is primarily a spiritual movement and 
 only spiritual people will adequately maintain 
 it. Dr. Arthur Mitchell was wont to say: 
 "The cause of foreign missions goes down to 
 the roots of the spiritual life, and we need 
 look for no abundance of fruit until that life 
 is enriched." When Henry Martyn, as he 
 lay burning with fever in Persia, received a 
 letter asking how the missionary interest of 
 
270 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 the Church at home could be increased, the dy- 
 ing saint replied: "Tell them to live more 
 with Christ; to catch more of his spirit; for 
 the spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions, 
 and the nearer we get to him the more in- 
 tensely missionary we must become." 
 top?rYtite Ncvcr bcforc has the summons been so im- 
 summons perativc as it is to-day. Practically the whole 
 non-christian world is now accessible. Men 
 in other sphere^ are recognizing the oppor- 
 tunity. Governments are pressing into the open 
 doors and straining every nerve to influence 
 these awakening nations. Business firms in 
 Europe and America are keenly alive to the 
 situation and are sending their agents to the 
 remotest parts of the earth. The Greek and 
 Roman Catholic Churches are pouring priests 
 and brothers, monks and nuns, into heathen 
 lands and spending vast sums in equipping 
 them with churches and schools. The Moham- 
 medans are flooding Africa with zealous mis- 
 sionaries. We should show equal loyalty and 
 redouble our efforts, that we may mold these 
 new conditions before hostile influences 
 become established. It is not a rhetori- 
 cal figure, but the sober truth that it 
 would take treble the sum that the Churches 
 are now giving to handle the situation in an 
 adequate way. We must apply business com- 
 mon sense to our missionary undertakings. 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 271 
 
 Each Church should immediately consider ifwtwm""" 
 its distinct missionary responsibility and effect- 
 ively plan to meet it. Many Churches are al- 
 ready doing this, and the others should follow 
 their example. There is no valid reason why 
 every city and village on the planet should not 
 hear the gospel within the next fifty years, and 
 have, too, a native Church so far developed 
 that it could assume the chief duty of com- 
 pleting the work. This is the tremendous 
 question of the day: Will the Church rise to 
 the opportunity which confronts her? The 
 cause of Christ is straitened, not by the Holy 
 Spirit, not by the heathen, but only by our- 
 selves. We believe, with Father Hecker, that 
 "a body of free men, who love God with all 
 their might, and yet know how to cling to- 
 gether, could conquer this modern world of 
 ours." "We can do it if we will." 
 
 We are not prophets, but as we face the crowSiSe' 
 future, may we not see a vision, not the base- Movement 
 less dream of the enthusiast, but the reason- 
 able expectation of those who believe that the 
 divine Hand guides the destinies of men? 
 This vision is that the movement for the 
 evangelization of the world will grow to more 
 and more majestic proportions until all men 
 shall know the Lord. Reports from widely 
 separated fields amply justify this vision. 
 Every mail is burdened with them. Apart 
 
272 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 from the rapidly increasing number of con- 
 verts, there are unmistakable signs that a great 
 movement has begun. The very fact that 
 heathen systems are passing from indifference 
 to hostility and feel obliged to conceal their 
 coarser practises and to emphasize their better 
 features is a tribute to the growing power of 
 Christianity. Society in Asia is becoming 
 more ashamed of open vice. Standards of con- 
 duct are growing purer. The character of 
 Christ is universally conceded to be the loftiest 
 in history. What Benjamin Kidd calls the al- 
 truistic ideas of Christianity have been liberated 
 in non-christian nations and they are slowly 
 but surely transforming them. The traveler 
 in those vast continents becomes con- 
 scious of the working of mighty forces that 
 are creating conditions more favorable to the 
 rapid triumph of the gospel. He is impressed, 
 not so much by the actual number of those 
 already converted, as by the strength of the 
 current which is sweeping majestically toward 
 the goals of God. He feels, with Gibson, that 
 the situation is satisfactory; not that we are 
 contented with ourselves or with our work, 
 but that "a crucial experiment has been 
 made. We know what can be done and can 
 predict results." We see that we are in the 
 trend of the divine purpose and that "his day 
 is marching on." 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 273 
 
 "May the constraining memories of the Eove'K°e?iifg 
 cross of Christ and that great love wherewith Nothing Back 
 he loved us be so in us that we may pass that 
 love on to those who are perishing. May 
 he touch all our hearts with the spirit of self- 
 sacrifice and with the inspiration of that love 
 of his which, when he came to redeem the 
 world, kept nothing back!"^ 
 
 QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IX 
 
 Aim : To Realize the Personal Responsibility of 
 Ourselves and Other Christians at Home 
 
 1. Summarize as strikingly as possible a single 
 conclusion you have reached from each of the 
 preceding chapters. 
 
 2. In view of the need of the work, state what 
 you consider to be the duty of the average 
 Christian. 
 
 3. Compare the cost of the foreign missionary 
 enterprise in men and money with that of 
 the American navy. 
 
 4. Which is worse, a citizen who dodges his 
 taxes, or a Christian who dodges his foreign 
 missionary obligation? Give reasons for your 
 view. 
 
 5. What proportion of the 20,000,000 members of 
 evangelical Churches in the United States 
 would need to go abroad to supply the need 
 for men? 
 
 1 Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop. 
 
2 74 Why and How of Foreign Missions 
 
 6. What would be the weekly assessment on each 
 Church member to raise the additional funds 
 needed? 
 
 7. How does the fact that so many are ignorant 
 or indifferent affect the responsibility of those 
 who know something about foreign missions 
 and are interested in it? 
 
 8. What place ought a subject so important as 
 foreign missions to have in the education of 
 every Christian? 
 
 g. How does it seem to you to compare in im- 
 portance with ancient history? 
 
 10. How can we secure more time for religious 
 education ? 
 
 11. How can we secure teachers with better train- 
 ing? 
 
 12. Arrange the subjects that should be included 
 in the curriculum of religious education in the 
 order of their importance. 
 
 13. What are the principal advantages of the mis- 
 sion study class as an educational agency? 
 
 14. What special responsibility do you think rests 
 upon those who have been members of a mis- 
 sion study class? 
 
 IS- Write out what you think might be done in 
 organizing mission study classes in your own 
 congregation. 
 
 16. What do you consider the principal reason 
 why comparatively so little money is given to 
 foreign missions? 
 
Home Church and Enterprise 275 
 
 17- What plans do you think would be most ef- 
 fective in increasing the amount given by your 
 own congregation? 
 
 18. What are the principal motives that should be 
 urged ill making an appeal for money for for- 
 eign missions? 
 
 rg. Mention several ways in which a home Chris- 
 tian of limited means might aid the missionary 
 enterprise. 
 
 20. What missionary organization ought each local 
 congregation to have? 
 
 21. What systematic methods should the local con- 
 gregation adopt to raise up volunteers for the 
 foreign field? 
 
 '22. How personal do you think you have a right 
 to become in suggesting foreign missionary 
 service to another? 
 
 23. What good excuses can you give for not pray- 
 ing for foreign missions? 
 
 24. What methods can you suggest for promoting 
 prayer for foreign missions in a community? 
 
 25. What suggestions for subjects of prayer have 
 you gained from this course? 
 
 26. In what ways will interest in foreign missions 
 help home missions? 
 
 27. Is any other cause so neglected in proportion 
 to its importance as is foreign missions? 
 
 28. Sum up the principal needs of the foreign 
 missionary enterprise. 
 
 29. Which of these needs in your opinion is being 
 most adequately and which least adequately 
 met? 
 
 30. Why (Sre these needs especially urgent just