THE CALL OF THE WORLD BV 2060 .D65 1 Q1 t; • E * DOUGHTY BV 2060 .D65 1915 Doughty, William Ellison, 1873- The call of the world The Call of the World OR, EVERT MAN'S SUPREME OPPORTUNITT BY W. E. DOUGHTY EDUCATIONAL SECRETARY, LAYMEN 's MISSIONARY MOVEMENT Revised Edition NEW YORK MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 191S PDBLISHBD JOINTLY BY MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT AND LAYMEN'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT CONTENTS FOREWORD CHAPTER I THE WIDENING SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRIST WORLD CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY An accessible world, 2 — A plastic world, 4 — A changing world, 4 — Increase in Christian populations, 9 — Spread of English language, 9 — Geographical control of the world, 11. THE MULTIPLYING AGENCIES OF THE KINGDOM The number and growing efficiency of missionary societies, 13 — Resulting in unity and cooperation, 14 — A science of missions, 14 — The application of the principles of strat- egy, 15 — The number of missionaries, 17 — Money, 18 — Translation of Scriptures, 19. SIGNS OF WORLD-WIDE VICTORY Progress by centuries, 20 — Recent victories, 21 — The native Church, 25 — Humanitarian institutions, 2^ — Social recon- struction, 27 — Conclusion, 29. CHAPTER II THE CHALLENGE OF A GREAT TASK Unity of the race 34 — Explanation of terms, 34 — America's home problem, yj — Mexico, 43 — South America, 44 — Af- rica, 47— Asia, 50 — Near East, 50 — Central Asia, 52 — India, 53 — Bhutan and Nepal, 55 — Indo-China, 55 — ^Japan, 55 — Korea, 56— China, 56 — Summary, 59. iii iv Contents CHAPTER III AMERICA'S POSITION IN THE WORLD BATTLE The United States and Canada, a Common World Task, 66 America's position of leadership shown by strategic loca- tion AND OTHER GEOGRAPHICAL C«NDITIONS. America faces the two great oceans, 67 — Is near to unde- veloped parts of the world, 68 — Has many world harbors, 68 — Navigable rivers, 69 — Is isolated from other command- ing powers, 69. AMERICA HAS QUALITIES OP CHARACTER NEEDED FOR A WORLD TASK The pioneers, 70 — Mechanical genius, 71 — Public school, 72 — The home missionary, 72 — Home of world movements, 73. AMERICA HAS RESOURCES FOR A WORLD TASK Size, 75 — Mineral resources, 77 — Railroads, 77 — Wealth, 78 — Agricultural products, 79. AMERICA MUST HAVE VISION AND CONSECRATION ADEQUATE TO HER TASK A Spiritual enterprise, 82 — America's share of the world task, 83 — Men and money needed, 84. CHAPTER IV A MAN'S RESPONSE TO THE WORLD APPEAL Efficiency experts, 87 — A fourfold program, 89 — Widening HORIZON, 90 — Studying the Church, 92 — The missionary committee, 93 — Un with holding consecration, 95 — Princi- ples of stewardship, 98 — Methods, loi — Unending prayer, 103 — Calls forth and energizes movements, 106 — Finds a way out in hours of crisis, 107 — Fills gaps in thin line of battle, 107— Togo's telegram, 109. FOREWORD The four questions which the author has most fre- quently heard in discussing world problems with men are the following: What progress is the missionary enterprise making? How much remains to be done? What is America's share of world responsibility? How can men relate themselves in a practical way to the spread of Christianity throughout the world? It is to give a brief answer to these four fundamental questions that the following pages have been prepared for use in Missionary Discussion Groups, Men's Bible Classes, Brotherhoods, Missionary Committees, and groups of Sunday School Officers and Teachers. It is also confidently expected that many men who cannot meet to discuss these problems in any of the groups men- tioned will read and study the book in private. In pre- paring the manuscript the author has had in mind a large number of men who are now or should become public advocates of missions. The book presents in- formation which they may use in addresses. Many of the facts given have been taken from the Report of the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, The World Atlas of Christian Missions, The Statesman's Year Book, 1912, The Decisive Hour of Christian Mis- sions, by John R. Mott, and The Unoccupied Mission Fields of Africa and Asia, by S. M. Zwemer. V vi Foreword The author is indebted to his friend, the Rev. W. R. Dobyns, D.D., of St. Joseph, Missouri, for the design on the cover. It is the hope of the writer that the reading and dis- cussion of the topics outlined in these pages will inspire many men to undertake to master the world plans of Christ and lead them to enthrone at the center of life the missionary purpose — the one purpose around which a man may build all the facts of his life and to which he may cling and let everything else go when he is hard pressed. New York, September, 1912. THE CALL OF THE WORLD CHAPTER I THE WIDENING SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRIST IN THE WORLD In a discussion concerning the elements of an effec- tive speech, Dr. C. H. Patton, of the American Board, gave the following outline : An effective speech must be made up of Facts, Big facts, Human facts. Related facts. These suggestions apply not only to speeches but to any case which is to make an effective appeal to men. What subject is there which so perfectly illustrates the principles stated by Dr. Patton as the missionary theme? Nowhere else in all the realm of thinking and action are there such big, human, related facts as in the enterprise which has for its goal the world-wide propagation and naturalization of Christianity. Christian business men are constantly asking certain pertinent questions about any business undertaking. Is it honest? Is it safe? Will it pay? Is it big enough to be worth while? Will it succeed? Will it last? Men have a right to ask such questions about busi- I 2 The Call of the World ness. They have an equal right to make the same thorough and searching investigation of the proposition to evangeHze the world. Confident of the power of the cause to capture and hold men when once it has had a chance at them, believing that this is the greatest case that has ever challenged the manhood of the world, some of the evidences of the widening sovereignty of Christ in the world are marshaled here. The Scriptures unmis- takably indicate that God has pledged universal do- minion to his Son. The facts which follow are concrete illustrations of the truth of the missionary principles of the Bible. The gathering momentum of the Kingdom makes an irresistible appeal. For convenience the facts may be grouped under three general heads: World Conditions Favorable to the Spread of Christianity The Multiplying Agencies of the Kingdom Signs of World-Wide Victory I. World Conditions Favorable to the Spread of Christianity An Accessible World. — i. Improved means of inter- communication. That we live in a contracting world is strikingly illustrated by the fact that when Robert Mor- rison went to China it took him seventy-eight days to reach New York from England, and four months to go from New York to China. Hunter Corbett, of China, who was six months on his way the first time he took the trip, made the journey a few months ago in twenty- one days. It is now possible to go from Peking to Lon- The Widening Sovereignty of Christ 3 don in twelve and one-half days over the Trans-Siberian Railroad. A recent journey around the world was made in less than thirty-six days. When Jules Verne published Around the World in Eighty Days, the journey described was laughed at as an' impossible feat. To-day it is pos- sible to circle the globe in less than one half the time of which Jules Verne wrote in his book. It took the old Greeks forty days to go the length of the Mediterranean Sea in their swiftest triremes. The greatest stretch of open water in the world is 10,000 miles in the Pacific Ocean. There are vessels afloat to-day that can traverse the 10,000 miles in one half the time that it took the old Greeks to go the length of the Mediterranean Sea. 2. The nations of the earth are accessible because of changed sentiment. There are to-day no lands in the world which are closed entirely to modern influence and only a few which do not at least tolerate the Christian missionary with his advanced ideas of civilization and progress. It is difficult to estimate the amazing changes in senti- ment in lands where missionaries have been at work even for a generation, as in Korea, or for a century or more, as in India or China. It is unthinkable that there should ever be another Chinese wall shutting out all world contact. Edicts in force as late as 1870 ordering the death of Christians in Japan are now exhibited only as relics of a buried past. The twentieth century is making hermit nations impos- sible. 3. A mental attitude has been created in the non- Christian world which nothing but Christ can satisfy. This may be only an indefinite restlessness and dissatis- 4 The Call of the World faction with existing conditions in many cases, but it is apparently true that the principles of the Christian gospel have created an altogether new mental attitude in the world. It is stated by one of the great missionary authorities in India that there are millions of people in that land who are intellectually converted to the gospel who have not yet yielded personal allegiance to Christ. This mental attitude is an enormous asset to the Kingdom. A Plastic World. — The nations of our day are plas- tic to a degree never before witnessed. Heat, pressure, and decay, are some of the forces which make physical substances plastic. There are intellectual and moral and spiritual forces which produce a like effect on men and nations. As great heat applied to metal fuses it, so the ideas and forces of the twentieth century have fused the non-Christian world. Pressure, such as foreign aggres- sion, world commerce, and modern science have helped to bring about the present plastic state in vast sections of the world. Added to these two and accompanying them are the forces of disintegration and decay in the old religions, old forms of government, and the customs and habits of centuries. In itself this present remark- able state of the non-Christian world has no moral quality. The significant thing is that, while nations are in a plastic state, they offer special opportunity to put the stamp of Christianity on them before they harden again, and to determine the direction their civilization shall take by building into them the principles of Chris- tian civilization and the Christian faith. A Changing World. — One of the most impressive evidences that the leaven of Christian civilization is at The Widening Sovereignty of Christ e work in the non-Christian world is the fact that there are wide-spread changes taking place. God has been shaping and preparing the nations in the interests of a world-wide gospel. The extent and character of these changes make the present the most momentous hour in the history of the non-Christian world. The extent of the changes may best be illustrated by comparing the present awakening with other great his- toric movements of the last two thousand years. In naming the epoch-making movements of the Christian Era the following could not be omitted: The Renais- sance, The Mohammedan Conquest, The Crusades, The Reformation, The American Revolution, The French Revolution, The Wesleyan Revival, and The Rise of Popular Governments. On examination it is discovered that each of these movements was confined to a com- paratively limited geographical area, one or two of the countries of Europe, or certain racial sections such as the Anglo-Saxon, or the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, or, as in the case of the American Revolution, England and America. While these move- ments were all of far-reaching significance they affected directly only a few countries. But to-day all Asia is awake, Africa is stirring with life as never before, and the South American lands are in the midst of a period of commercial activity and of progress unparalleled. In- stead of a limited area millions of square miles are in the midst of far-reaching changes. The great awakenings of the last twenty centuries in- fluenced directly only a few millions of people in con- trast with the awakening of to-day which affects THREE FOURTHS OF THE HUMAN RACE, 6 The Call of the World From the standpoint of the vast populations involved as well as of the immense territory affected the world has never seen an awakening of such magnitude as that which is taking place in our time. In character also the present movement is eclipsing all former awakenings in history. One of the most satis- factory ways of measuring the power of any movement is to analyze it in relation to the fundamental institu- tions of society. Reducing civilization to its simplest terms society is built around five great institutions. In one column the institutions are named, in the other the human relations which each represents. The Home — social. The State — political. The Shop — commercial. The School — educational. The Church — religious. While the illustration must not be carried too far, yet in a striking way it is true that the great awakenings of the last two thousand years have been characterized by only one or two central and controlling principles. The Renaissance was an intellectual awakening, thus chang- ing the educational life of Europe. The Reformation was religious and profoundly influenced the Church. The Rise of Popular Governments was political and be- gan a new era for the state. So on through the list. By way of contrast, we are to-day in the midst of an awakening which radically affects all these fundamental institutions of society. In China, for example, a move- ment is in progress which is not simply affecting the state, or the social life, or the religious character of The Widening Sovereignty of Christ 7 the people, but is transforming all five of the funda- mental institutions of life. As Dr. J. E. Williams, of Nanking University, puts it: "If we could conceive of the Renaissance of learning after the dark ages, the in- terest in literature that came with the study of Latin and Greek, and the awakening of thought that followed upon the discovery of new worlds — material and intellectual — and then add to this the new forces of the Reformation, the reconstruction of men's moral and religious ideas and ideals and the recovery of the right of the individ- ual conscience, and if to these we could conceive as added the French Revolution — the break-up of all that men had regarded as final in social and political organi- zation; and if to these again could be added the move- ment of modern science, which began with Lord Bacon's Novum Organum — and the application of the inductive method in the discovery of the forces and laws of na- ture; and, if further we could conceive of these great forces as operating, not at different times, in different countries, through a period of several centuries, but as combined and concentrated in a brief decade or two in one country upon a great people, we should have a more adequate conception of the magnitude and significance of the present Revolution in China." A significant fact is that most of the revolutionary forces and agencies which have brought about the awakening have come from Christian lands. The most powerful single force at work has been the missionary. He has carried with him the finest ideals of Western civilization, and has been able in an unusual way to bring the latest ideas in all realms of life to bear upon the non-Christian world. A condition exists which Pro- 8 The Call of the World fessor Ross, in The Changing Chinese, a book which it will pay every man to read, finely describes in the fol- lowing words : ^The crucifixion was two hundred and eighty years old before Christianity won toleration in the Roman Em- pire. It was one hundred and twenty-eight years after Luther's defiance before the permanence of the Protes- tant Reformation was assured. After the discovery of the New World one hundred and fifteen years elapsed before the first English colony was planted here. No one who saw the beginning of these great, slow, historic movements could grasp their full import or witness their culmination. But nowadays world processes are tele- scoped and history is made at aviation speed." All this makes it clear that we have come to an hour of crisis in the relations between Christendom and the non-Christian world. What is a crisis but a point of time in the history of the human race when great issues are at stake, when there is an unprecedented break-up of civilizations, when Christian nations must make great de- cisions about their relations with the non-Christian world. We find everywhere conditions that are passing and that will not return. It is the time of all times for men who love Christ to make him known to the ends of the earth. The situation is summarized in *'The Mes- sage of the Edinburgh Conference," in the following lan- guage: "The next ten years will, in all probability, constitute a turning-point in human history, and may be of more critical importance in determining the spiritual evolution of mankind than many centuries of ordinary experience. If those years are wasted, havoc may be wrought that centuries will not be able to repair. On The Widening Sovereignty of Christ 9 the other hand, if they are rightly used, they may be among the most glorious in Christian history." The Increase of Populations in Christian Countries. — At the beginning of the nineteenth century the entire population of the United States and Canada was only about 5 millions ; to-day it is 100 millions. In the same period of time the populations of Europe have increased from 170 to 450 millions. During this same hundred years the population in some parts of the non-Christian world has declined, in others remained stationary, or the growth has been very slow. While the birth rate is much greater in many non-Christian lands, the cheap- ness of human life, the lack of sanitary and other con- ditions for safeguarding life greatly increase the death rate. The population of the world at the end of the eighteenth century was estimated to be approximately 1,000 millions. During the nineteenth century the num- bers increased by about 600 millions. Europe and North America together increased in population by nearly 400 millions during that century. These figures for the world are only estimates but are given by the most reliable students of such matters. While exact figures for the non-Christian world cannot be given, the sig- nificant fact is that there has been a marvelous expan- sion of Christian nations within the last one hundred years, far outstripping the expansion of other parts of the world. The nations which know most of Christ and his gospel have increased in numbers as well as in power out of all proportion to the rest of mankind. The Spread of the English Language. — We quote from a leaflet entitled "The Seven Wonders of the Mod- ern Missionary World/' by Dr. A. W. Halsey. lo The Call of the World "The spread of the English language is one of the wonders of the age. The English language is spoken at the present time by nearly 200,000,000 people; each year sees large additions to the group of English-speak- ing peoples. In the Philippines more people to-day speak the English language than spoke the Spanish language after three hundred years of Spanish rule. "In all higher education in India, English is com- pulsory; in the secondary schools in India, English is taught. In China, the government has made English a part of the regular curriculum. In Japan, the students are eager to learn English. It is the avenue through which the missionary frequently is able to reach the educated classes. In Syria, one of the boys in the class- room wrote on the blackboard, 'God is love' in his own language, thirty boys followed, each writing the text in his own language ; yet these boys sooner or later will all speak the English language. A speaker at the Edin- burgh Conference declared that some missionaries read the Lord's command as though it were written 'Go and teach all nations the English language.* Macaulay says that whoever knows the English language has 'ready access to the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and stored in the course of ninety generations.' The English language is the language of liberty, of law, of morals, of high ideals. The English Bible, which has molded Anglo-Saxon civilization, is making no small impress on world civili- zation. "The Greek language became the vehicle in which the gospel story was borne to the educated world of the first century. The English language seems destined The Widening Sovereignty of Christ h in the providence of God to be the bearer of the gospel to the races of the twentieth century." The following table indicates the remarkable growth during the nineteenth century of the English language as compared with other tongues. The estimates are given by Mulhall and John Bartholomew of Edinburgh and appear in the 1912 World Almanac. 1801 1901 French 31,450,000 52,100,000 German 30,320,000 84,200,000 Italian 15,070,000 34,000,000 Spanish 26,190,000 46,500,000 Portuguese 7,480,000 15,000,000 Russian 30,770,000 85,000,000 English 20,520,000 130,300,000 In the light of these figures the total given by Dr. Halsey quoted above is perhaps too high. It will be seen, however, that the number speaking German has multiplied nearly threefold and the number of those speaking English six and a half times in the century un- der review. Since an overwhelming majority of mis- sionaries speak either English or German or both, the significance of the spread of these languages is apparent. The Geographical Control of the World. — One of the most inspiring evidences of the widening sovereignty of Christ is that he has passed over the control of the territory of the world to the Christian nations. Taking Gulick's The Growth of the Kingdom of God, in 1600 only 7 per cent, of the territory of the world was con- trolled by Christian nations, but to-day 82 per cent., so that the growth of Christian control has passed in three 12 The Call of the World hundred years from 7 per cent, to 82 per cent., while the control of non-Christian nations has decreased from 93 per cent, to 18 per cent. The increasing control of the world by Christian na- tions is due in no small measure to the fact that they are masters of most of the great waterways and highways of the world. The Suez and Panama Canals and the Khai- bar Pass in India are striking illustrations. In 1800, four hundred millions of people were gov- erned by Catholic and Protestant Christian powers; in 1912 at least one thousand millions, or two and a half times as many as were thus governed in 1800. In 1500, there were no Protestant political powers in the world. To-day, England, Germany, and the United States rule over about six hundred millions of the population of the world. These three Protestant powers alone now have dominion over more millions of people than are ruled over by all the non-Christian nations of the world added together. The Mohammedan world furnishes a startling illus- tration of this shifting control of the world. A few generations ago Mohammedan political and religious control were coextensive. To-day over three fourths of the Mohammedans of the world live in lands which they do not rule politically. The passing of Mohammedan political dominion from Africa is of profound signifi- cance for that continent. France has extended and con- solidated her African possessions by taking Algeria and establishing a protectorate over Morocco, which is one of the greatest strongholds of orthodox Mohammedan- ism. Italy has now taken full control of Tripoli. Only a few of the forty or more millions of Moham- The Widening Sovereignty of Christ 13 medans in Africa are under Moslem political rule. Italy has already begun the construction of 400 miles of rail- way in Tripoli. In Algiers and down through the Sa- hara toward the Sudan the steel lines are being laid by France. God is evidently preparing his people for a great advance among Mohammedans. The great ques- tion now is whether his Church will be equal to the emergency. 11. The Multiplying Agencies of the Kingdom The Number and Growing Efficiency of Missionary Societies. — More than two hundred years ago Bar- tholomew Ziegenbalg and his colaborer Pliitschau were ordained missionaries to India in the city of Copenhagen ; and two years later, in 1707, at Tranquebar, the first Protestant Church of the non-Christian world was es- tablished in South India among the Tamil people. Later the great Schwartz and others carried on the work re- sulting in the founding of the missionary work of the present day in India. At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were two important missionary organizations in Great Britain. On the continent the Lutherans and Moravians were struggling heroically in the carrying on of their mis- sionary operations. There were scarcely more than a dozen missionary societies altogether in the whole world, either well established or just beginning. It was a very small and feeble list of organizations compared with that of the present day. The Edinburgh Missionary Conference reported that there were 994 missionary organizations in Christendom in 1910. These have nearly all come into existence within the century. 14 The Call of the World Among the indications of increased efficiency the fol- lowing may be named : 1. Unity and Cooperation. It has been well said that "The three dominant notes of our time are unity, reality, and universality." That there is a growing spirit of unity in the home Church is illustrated by the way the mission boards are cooperating in the work of the inter- denominational missionary movements, by the growing number of interdenominational training-schools for mis- sionary candidates, and by organizations like the Home Missions Council and the Foreign Missions Conference of North America in which there is interchange of ideas and plans and methods among the leaders of the home and foreign missionary activities. Nowhere have Christian unity and practical coopera- tion made greater progress than in the foreign missions of American Churches. In several lands there are now conspicuous illustrations of the practical working of this spirit in the organization of union colleges, theological seminaries and training schools and in united campaigns of many different kinds. In Korea a union hymnal was issued some time ago and the first edition of 24,000 copies was sold within the first few weeks. In this same land, in dividing the terri- tory between the different missions, the Methodists and Presbyterians exchanged several thousand converts, and now, Korean Christians moving from a territory occupied by one mission into that occupied by another automati- cally transfer their membership to the other denomination. 2. The Science of Missions. Modern Missionary lead- ers are doing much to create an interest in and to develop the science of missions. The Edinburgh Conference took The Widening Sovereignty of Christ 15 a great advance step when it appointed the Continuation Committee. This committee represents Christendom in making a scientific, continuous and united study of mis- sions. The International Review of Missions, a. quart- erly magazine, is the Committee's organ for reporting investigations to the Christian world. The committee has appointed a number of commissions which are at work on the various problems of missions. Their reports from time to time are awaited with great interest. 3. The Principles of Strategy. There never has been a time in the history of the missionary enterprise when the principles of strategy in the promotion of missions were so well understood and applied as to-day. The Edinburgh Missionary Conference called special attention to these strategic principles and pointed out how they apply to the evangelization of the world. The application of these principles is another evidence of the fact that the leaders of the Church are facing in a thor- oughgoing way, not a fragment of the plans of Christ, but his total program for the world. Some of these principles are quoted here: (i) "Accessibility, openness, and willingness to attend to the gospel message. During the past ten years the people of pagan Africa have been peculiarly ready to listen to the presentation of the facts and arguments of the Christian religion. (2) "The responsiveness of the field. Korea and Man- churia are examples of nations in which the people of every community show readiness to yield to the claims of Christ when presented to them. (3) 'The presence or concentration of large numbers of people. Obviously, the Chengtu plain of the western- l6 The Call of the World most province of China, with its population of 1,700 to the square mile, or the densely populated valleys of the Ganges and lower Nile, should receive attention com- mensurate with the massing of the people. (4) ''Previous neglect. With a gospel intended for all mankind the policy of the Church should be influenced by the existence of any totally unoccupied field, like extensive tracts of the Sudan. (5) "Conditions of gross ignorance, social degrada- tion, and spiritual need. Christ came in a special sense to seek and to save that which was lost, and the history of the Christian Church has abundantly shown how the blessing of God has attended efforts to reach the most unfortunate and depressed classes and peoples, such as the Pacific Islanders, the outcasts of India, the lepers, and the aboriginal tribes of the East Indies. (6) "As has already been made plain, the Church, while recognizing the importance of advancing along lines of largest immediate promise, should, under divine guidance, direct special attention to the most difficult fields of the non-Christian world. In the light of this principle, Mos- lem lands present an irresistible appeal to the Church. (7) "The prospective power and usefulness of a nation as a factor in the establishment of Christ's kingdom in the world, and the probable weight of its example as an influence over other nations. Japan is especially fitted to become, in intellectual and moral matters no less than in material civilization, the leader of the Orient. This attaches transcendent importance to its attitude toward Christianity. (8) "The principle of urgency should as a rule have the right of way; that is, if there is to-day an opportu- nity to reach a people or section which in all probability The Widening Sovereignty of Christ 17 will soon be gone, the Church should enter the door at once; for example, if there is danger that the field may be preoccupied by other religions or by influences adverse to Christianity. Equatorial Africa in a most striking de- gree is just now such a battle-ground. It is plain to every observer that unless Christianity extends its min- istry to tribes throughout this part of Africa the ground will in a short time be occupied by Mohammedanism." Increase in the Number of Missionaries. — Not only does the expanding spirit of conquest express itself in organizations to extend Christianity, but also in the in- creasing number of lives that are dedicated to the service. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the mis- sionary force was a mere handful. There was not one representative of the churches of North America any- where in the non-Christian world. The Buddhist world and the Brahmin world were closed, and the millions of the Mohammedan world were practically untouched. The vast regions of South America and Africa were almost unknown. To-day there is an army of 26,000 mission- aries, counting wives, or about 19,000 missionary fami- lies and single missionaries scattered over all the conti- nents, and in almost every country of the world. In North America the evidence of the growth of con- viction regarding foreign missions is seen in the follow- ing record of the Student Volunteer Movement. In the report made by that Movement every four years the fol- lowing facts appear: Number of Volunteers Sailed 1898-1902 780 1902-1906 1,000 1906-1910 1,286 i8 The Call of the World In the quadrennium 1910-1914 a total of 1,489 student volunteers from the United States and Canada sailed — Gifts for Foreign Missions 1891-1914 W ^ % '98 00 02 m t)6 '08 '10 12 U / 54JLAK),U0U -; yji^UKj,uuu -I oftrinnnon J. e\tL r\n/'\ r\r\r\ r 20,000.000 J. <^AC)nC)(Y)C) - -^ ' oo noo oon •' OAAAHAAf^ 1 ft 000 Of)0 \/ "' -I .lAnnnrw^n -^ • ^' L ^i4nnnooo ,. v......^ r i^\)\JU,\AJU ^ fonnnonn /_ lOOOOOOO ^ -* _ ft r\f\r\ r\00 ^^^ 6000000 ■92 '54 '96 98 00 02 04 '06 D8 10 '12 H Dotted line represents gifts of Christendom Solid line represents ^ts of United States (^Canada nearly twice as many as went out from the universities and colleges of all other Christian nations combined. Money Devoted to Missions. — One hundred years ago the total contributions to the foreign missionary en- The Widening Sovereignty of Christ 19 terprise from all the Christians of the world amounted to about $100,000 annually. To-day the regular annual income is nearly $35,000,000, or 350 times as much per year as one hundred years ago. Great build- ings are being erected at a cost of millions of additional capital to house colleges and hospitals and printing- presses and all other institutions necessary for the propa- ganda. In 1911 these special contributions from North America amounted to at least five millions of dollars. In all this vast enterprise the cost of administration at the home base averages only about 8 per cent, of the total of the regular receipts. The cost of all other big business is much higher than this. There are perhaps some cases where the efficiency of the mission Boards would be increased if more money was spent on the cul- tivation of the home constituency. Translation of the Scriptures. — The Bible is the missionary's book, and translated into the language of the people is an indispensable aid to his work. The Bible Societies on both sides of the Atlantic have done and are doing a magnificent and enduring work the bene- fits of which all the churches are reaping. In 1800 the Scriptures were translated into 66 languages ; to-day the Scriptures in part or in whole are available in more than 500 languages and dialects. One of the most striking intellectual achievements of the world has been made by the missionaries in the translation of the Scriptures, to say nothing of their tremendous contribution to science and all the branches of knowledge by the reduction of languages to writing, by the translation of text-books, and by the publication of many other books in the ver- naculars. When it is remembered that the Edinburgh 20 The Call of the World Conference declared that there are 843 languages and dialects in Africa alone and that only about 100 of them have been reduced to writing, a glimpse is given of the magnitude of the intellectual task remaining before the battle is won. The difficulties have been very great. Milne, a colaborer of Morrison, has this to say regard- ing the learning of the Chinese language : "To learn Chinese is work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah!'* III. Signs of World-wide Victory Progress by Centuries. — ^The following table used by Gulick in The Growth of the Kingdom of God, indi- cates the onward sweep of Christianity throughout the last two thousand years. Of this table Gulick says: "The table does not give the number of professed Chris- tians or church-members, but only the number of those who may be fairly said to have accepted the Christian standards of moral life whether attempting and profes- sing to live up to them or not. The word 'Christianity' is used in its broadest, loosest sense." The first column includes the period to the end of the century named. The second column gives the number of millions of Christians of all faiths: 2nd century 2 millions loth century 50 millions 15th century 100 millions i8th century 200 millions 19th century 500 millions The Widening Sovereignty of Christ 21 A glance at these figures reveals the following inspir- ing facts. The number of Christians reported at the end of ten centuries was doubled in the next five centuries. The total was doubled again in the next three hundred years. At the end of the nineteenth century the number was two and a half times as great as at the end of the pre- vious eighteen centuries. Recent Victories. — While the survey of the prog- ress of the kingdom by centuries just given is inspiring, recent years have witnessed an unprecedented response to the Christian appeal. Looking at America first we discover that one hundred years ago there were 364,872 communicant members of the Protestant churches out of a population of 5,305,925, or one in fourteen. To-day one in four of the population is identified with the Protestant church. These are not nominal Christians, as in the paragraph above, but actual Protestant church-members. These figures make it clear that the forces of aggressive Christianity in America have realized a tremendous return on their investment. If we include Catholic and all other religious bodies the total communicant members reach 38 millions in round numbers, or about two fifths of the total population. One hundred years ago only one in ten of the college students in America was a communicant member of the Church; to-day practically every other college student is a member of some church. It is certainly encouraging that fifty per cent, of that small fraction of our popula- tion which will furnish an enormous percentage of the leaders are church-members to-day, or five times as large a proportion as a hundred years ago. 22 The Call of the World The situation in the non-Christian world to-day is summed up, on the basis of the statistics in the chart be- low, as follows : It took about ninety years to gain the World MissionProgress GAIK IN PROTESTANT COMMUNICANTS SINCE I800 IN THE FOREIGN FIELD - 1800 1850 1880 1892 1900 1914 zaooo 211,000 857.0(p O 1,225.000 1 800 1850, First 50 years _ Average Annual • GaiTx. 1.800 1850 1880. Hexx 30 years □ Average Annual Gain 21.50O 1880-1900,Nat20vcaw □ Average Armual Gain 25.600 19001914,Nextl4yeaw □ Av