‘samt? (219 Amertean Beard '' SS ne INTE Qual iricationy Hs OER In ANA ( 19 Candidates. for Misstonary'' Appointment ot Prepared by Officers and Approved by the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions (Printed not Published] BOSTON, 1906 & Intellectual Qualifications desired in Candidates for Mission- ary Appointment. In order to answer many inquiries raised in the minds of young people ‘who ‘afé eoentemplating missionary work, the American Board has pre- pared the following statement as to the intellectual equipment sought for in missionary candidates. This is not a series of rules or enactments but a general declaration of what is desired in a fully trained candidate for missionary service under the Board. Special candidates are occasionally required for some distinctive place and service, but these are so mani- festly an exception that they are not mentioned here. Proper spiritual equipment is assumed in the cases under discussion. There are in general four distinct classes of foreign missionaries: 2 1. Ordained men or general mis- sionaries. 2. Physicians, both men and wo- men. 3. Wives. 4. Single women. In addition to these, a few unor- dained men are appointed as business agents, industrial workers, and teach- ers. There is also an increasing call for trained nurses. As a general rule, it is expected that all applicants for missionary ser- vice shall have meritoriously com- pleted a full college course. This has not always been insisted upon in the case of the women, nor has it in the case of physicians. The increas- ing demands upon all missionaries render it more and more desirable that all shall be college trained. All appointments for every position are made for life service. There are no appointments of any kind for a term of years. Itshould be said, however, that in connection with some of the mission colleges, occasionally a col- lege graduate is employed for a term 3 service of from three to five years. Such are not ‘‘appointed’’ but simply ““employed,’’ and the number needed is not large — only, upon an average, of one or two each year. There is practically no place for appointment under the Board of men who have completed only a college course. Most of the teachers in mission colleges are natives. All missionaries sent out for educational positions, require a more complete training than any ordinary college course can furnish. As a general rule, the regularly appointed mission- ary needs to have such a complete education, especially collegiate and theological, that he can fill any vacancy in the mission that is liable to occur; and take up any line of work that may be thrown upon him. I. Ordained Men. As the work of missions is primari- ly religious, it is of the greatest im- portance that the missionary sent out shall have secured the best possible training in Theology. Whatever else he may have had,— apart from medi- 4 cine,— this is essential. If one is to teach in a college, his influence will be stronger and his equipment for service more complete, if he is a graduate of a theological school. In fact, this is almost essential for the college work alone. But the chances are that the same men will need to take some work also in a theological school or with a theological class. In that case, a theological training is. indispensable. Biblical teaching is a part of all mission college work. ‘This must be done thoroughly and _ scientifically and requires scientific training in pre- paration. We can therefore say that all missionaries should have a college training, and all except doctors should have a thorough theological training as well. In many cases, post graduate work, after the theo- logical course, of from one to two years, is strongly advised. ‘There is no short-cut course for foreign mis- sionary work. The American Board does not appoint and send out assist- ants. All assistants are trained on 5 the field. The Board wants only leaders in every sense of the word. More and more our missionaries are forced to be directors and leaders of native leaders and organizers of mis- sionary operations. This work of organizing, directing and leading is demanded of every missionary in a greater or less degree. Il. Physicians. The missionary physician needs to stand at the head of his profession. Some of the reasons for this are: 1. He is a mizsstonary physician who, by the practice of his profession, expects to exhibit the virtue and graces of Christianity. He should make the. best revelation possible of that for which Christianity stands, and this he can do only by being the . best possible physician and surgeon. A poor doctor must always be a poor professional exponent of a perfect religion. 2. The missionary physician is usually locatedin a place remote from other physicians and is wholly de- pendent upon himself. He cannot 6 usually call in other physicians for consultation in emergency cases. He must make his own diagnosis and treat the case alone. The responsi- bility is heavy and the shoulders that bear it must needs be broad and strong. 3. In most cases the missionary physician is the only medical help for the missionaries who come under his care. If he is only partially trained or indifferently equipped, precious missionary life is imperilled. 4. The cases that come to a mis- sionary doctor cover almost every form of disease and accident known tomen. No case can be turned over toa specialist neighbor. Every suf- fering son of man must be helped to the limit of the power of the Chris- tian doctor who must be something of a specialist in every department of medicine and surgery. The mission- ary physician must treat diseases of the eye, throat, lungs, abdomen, nerves, and everything else, and be ready to perform a great variety of operations — and that, too, with only 7 native assistants, often not well trained. This requires, not only the broadest training and hospital experi- ence at the outset, but demands con- tinual reading and study. In view of these and other similar considerations, the one who expects to equip himself for foreign medical missionary service, should plan to take a complete college course, fol- lowed by a thorough medical course of not less than four years. When the medical course is completed, from one to two years of hospital practice of wide range is of supreme import- ance. When this course of study and practice is creditably finished, the candidate has a right to consider himself professionally equipped to enter upon his career as a medical missionary. Such a training ought to fit one for service in any country. Without such a course, no one can be fully equipped. There is a wrong impression preva- lent as to the relative value of the med- ical and the ordained missionary. Most Boards send out from eight to ten 8 ordained men to one physician and there is little prospect of a change in this proportion, The demand for medical missionaries must diminish as Christian native physicians are trained upon the field. The theologi- ~ cally trained men are most in demand all of the time. III. Wives. This is a more difficult subject to treat. The ‘‘wives’’ referred to, will be, for the most part, the companions of the ordained men and the medical missionaries. In order to be of the greatest service to their husbands and that they may be prepared to enter most fully into the work done by their husbands, a college course or its equivalent, is desirable. This is not insisted upon, but if a thorough intellectual equipment can be added to all other virtues, the value of future. service will be enhanced. It is always of value if the wife has had some experience and training in the care of the sick, and especially if she is familiar with the ordinary treat- ment of some of the diseases of 9 women and children. The wife’s work is to be primarily in and through the home. First she keeps her own home, in which the women of the country always find a hearty welcome, and then she carries some of the blessings of that home to the women who live all about her. The wife is pre-eminently a home builder, but always as a companion and co- worker with her husband. IV. Single Women. These comprise three classes, not always distinctly separated. 1. The evangelistic worker. 2. The teacher. 3. The physician. For each class thorough mental training is essential. Many who have never had even the equivalent of a college course of train- ing have done and can do most effi- cient evangelistic work among the women of the East. It is imperative that all must master thoroughly the vernacular of the women among whom they work, and even to do this, a trained mind is essential. Let no college graduate think that her training is too thorough for this kind of work. 10 There are a great variety of teach- ing positions in the mission field. The grade of girls’ schools in all the East is continually rising. Many of these have now assumed college rank, and the missionary who takes a posi- tion in one of these institutions, re- quires a college degree and even post graduatestudy. Native female teach- ers in the lower schools are frequent- ly themselves college graduates, while most of the teachers in the primary and intermediate schools are trained native girls. The American missionary woman, who has charge of these teachers and assumes the general control of such schools, in order to hold her position and com- mand the full confidence and respect of the educated native teachers, should have a college training or its full equivalent. The necessity of such a training is becoming increas- ingly apparent. The woman missionary physician stands in the same need of a thorough medical training as is demanded for the male physician. No woman phy- 11 sician ought to contemplate medical work in the mission field upon a lower intellectual and _ professional equipment than is demanded for suc- cessful medical practice in the United States. Occasionally an industrial mission- ary is needed. For the most part the industrial workmen are raised up on the field, the missionary in charge of that department having charge also of other missionary work. Some of the most aggressive and successful industrial missionaries under the American Board have had the full college and theological courses and devote only a part of their time to the industrial problems. ‘They engage their skilled specialists and superin- tendents in the country. A few men have been appointed and sent out to the mission fields as business agents. These act as mis- sion treasurers and devote themselves very largely to the business side of missions, thus relieving the regular ordained missionaries. Such men keep the mission accounts, receive 12 and pay out mission funds, look after the construction of buildings, and transact, under the mission and in its name, much of the mission business. With rare exception no men are ap- pointed to teaching positions. Most of the teachers in mission colleges are trained natives. Their number should increase rather than diminish. Mis- sionaries in charge of educational institutions are necessarily fully equipped with a complete theological training. Occasionally, to a few of these colleges, a man is sent for a term of from three to five years as a teacher. In most instances a full college course has been regarded as adequate intellectual training for these places, but it is recognized that if to this a theological course is added, the teacher’s influence and power are largely increased. To some it may seem that these re- quirements are too severe, and that because of them many a good man and woman will be prevented from going into foreign missionary service. There is no doubt that if require- 13 ments were lower, many who are now detained at home, would go out. Experience has shown that in most cases —and we acknowledge that there have been some marked excep- tions — the work abroad can be best strengthened by refusing to send out partially trained and equipped men and women. Foreign work is so many-sided and the demands upon the missionary are so multitudinous and exacting, that even the best equipped are constantly compelled to acknowledge their insufficiency for it all. It has been demonstrated upon the field (and the missionaries there are in hearty accord with the idea), that the work demands only the best trained men and women of broad culture, thorough mental discipline, and genuine Christian experience. All this preparation can but come to naught if underneath it all there is not a passion, born of the Spirit, to make Jesus Christ known to men. Without a conscious oneness with Christ in his purpose to redeem the world, and a willingness to share his 14 burdens, and even to be partakers with him in his sufferings and death, intellectual culture can accomplish little. We must have men and women moved by the one mighty im- pulse to make Jesus Christ known to the world. If this is lacking, noth- ing is sufficient. veal shea ee ar Ht. “fF 4 = een rt rae lik