PAM. 
 
 MISC. 
 
 Reasons 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 Mission Study Class 
 
 Published by the Domestic and Foreign 
 Missionary Society of the Prot¬ 
 estant Episcopal Church, 
 
 381 Fourth Avenue, 
 
 New York 
 
 
 No. 3020 
 
 ‘2M. S. P. Nov. '08. 
 
Missions the Most Important 
 Subject on Earth 
 
 F oe, the world, the carrying out or 
 the neglect of Christ’s mis¬ 
 sionary plan means the differ¬ 
 ence between having the whole 
 of the human race or about one-third of 
 it working with the spiritual uplift and 
 power that the message of Christ gives. 
 
 Eor the individual it means, speaking 
 broadly, the difference between love and 
 fear as a life motive, between doubt and 
 a joyful certainty of life’s goal. 
 
 For God it means (1) whether His 
 children who know Him love Him 
 enough to obey Him, and (2) whether 
 the children who need Him are given the 
 chance to know Him. 
 
 Mission Study a Logical Necessity 
 
 The word ^‘missions” stands for our 
 way and our share in giving the mes¬ 
 sage of God to men, women and chil¬ 
 dren who have a right to know it. 
 
 Concerning missions there are these 
 possibilities—either they succeed or they 
 do not. It is a question of fact. And 
 if missions do not succeed it is either 
 
because there is something wrong with 
 the way they are administered and sup¬ 
 ported or because they cannot succeed in 
 any case. 
 
 Take up these suppositions one by one: 
 
 1. If missions do not succeed be¬ 
 cause they cannot, we must stop them. 
 But to stop them we must know about 
 them in order to prove their failure to 
 many enthusiasts who believe in them. 
 Therefore you must study. 
 
 2. If missions do not succeed be¬ 
 cause they are inadequately supported or 
 unwisely administered, we must make 
 changes. But wise reforms cannot be 
 planned in ignorance of the conditions, 
 and all new measures must be urged by 
 intelligent advocates. Therefore, again 
 we must study. 
 
 3. If missions succeed we must 
 support them to the limit of our 
 ability. Support means far more than 
 the gift of money. We must defend 
 them from unfair criticism, commend 
 them by informing the ignorant, extend 
 them by prayer, by gifts and by the in¬ 
 fluence of our whole personality. To do 
 this, our knowledge of missions should 
 be accurate, up-to-date, interesting, and 
 completely at our command. Therefore, 
 in this case also, we must study. 
 
The challenge is the same to the op¬ 
 ponents, the reformers and the sup¬ 
 porters of missions. Study is, for them 
 all, a logical necessity. 
 
 Mission Study an Intellectual 
 
 The complexity of the subject as well 
 as its importance demands study. 
 Imagine yourself trying to understand 
 mediaeval history without a knowledge of 
 its great religious movements, and you 
 will not make the same blunder about 
 present-day history. Disregard of cur¬ 
 rent events, even though they be re¬ 
 ligious events, is not safe. The Asso¬ 
 ciated Press brings the ends of the earth 
 to our breakfast table. Their affairs 
 have become ours through political and 
 commercial development until we can¬ 
 not afford to ignore them. 
 
 Mission Study a Patriotic 
 
 Necessity 
 
 Oriental coolies, smuggled opium, the 
 Philippine policy, the sale of Indian 
 lands, the Mormon ^‘apostle’’ in the 
 Senate, and lynchings in the South and 
 North and West lead straight to the sub¬ 
 ject of missions. 
 
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The Sermon on the Mount can rob 
 race contact of danger, but the details 
 of applying that message, even to a 
 single race, are complex. Its application 
 to many competing and prejudiced 
 races is far more difficult; and the in¬ 
 crease of race contact is inevitable. 
 Home missionary work deals not only 
 with the white men in the growing west, 
 but with the Eskimo race, with the 
 multiplying Indian and African races, 
 with Spaniards, Chinese, Japanese, 
 Malays and Hawaiians. These present 
 complicated problems worth the atten¬ 
 tion of any student. 
 
 But the patriot must not let the 
 words ^ffiome” and ‘‘foreign” blind his 
 eyes to China and Japan. By the oc¬ 
 cupation of Manila we brought the 
 United States 400 miles nearer to China 
 than is Yokohama. And lest we take 
 too much comfort in the breadth of the 
 Pacific Ocean, Dr. Josiah Strong re¬ 
 minds us that, “A 21-knot vessel can 
 steam the 10,000 miles from Cape Horn 
 to Yokohama, the longest diameter of 
 the Pacific, in twenty days, which is one- 
 half the time it took the old Greek to 
 go from Phoenicia to the Pillars of 
 Hercules.” 
 
 For all practical purposes this makes 
 
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tlie size of the Pacific half that of the 
 ancient Mediterranean Sea, and the na¬ 
 tions around it twice as near each other. 
 The patriot measures the earth in every 
 direction, notices that it has grown very 
 small, and makes the study of world 
 problems a part of his patriotism. 
 
 Mission Study a Spiritual 
 Necessity 
 
 When intercommunication forces us 
 into race contact with non-Christian peo¬ 
 ples, their touch challenges at once the 
 reality of the fatherhood of God and 
 the brotherhood of man. What is God’s 
 relationship and ours to these people? 
 
 A God who would be content to be 
 monopolized by one-third of the world’s 
 population to the exclusion of the rest 
 would be an absurdity. Even the man 
 who says he “does not believe in for¬ 
 eign missions” would lose all reverence 
 for such a Deity. Entirely apart from 
 the example of Christ and without His 
 command we are under spiritual com¬ 
 pulsion to make God’s Kingdom world¬ 
 wide. If God is not able to supply the 
 soul-craving of any and every man He 
 is less than our ideal, and no longer our 
 God. 
 
 A man who expects to monopolize a 
 
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spiritual truth soon finds it slipping 
 from his comprehension. If we are not 
 eager to share with every man our 
 knowledge of our Heavenly Father, we 
 are unworthy to he His children. The 
 story that once there was a native con¬ 
 vert who was so proud to be the only 
 Christian in the village that he would 
 not allow any further teaching in it, is 
 the natural invention of the disbeliever 
 in missions, who is himself acting on the 
 same principle. The legend is its own 
 refutation, for such a native would no 
 more be a real convert than the disbe¬ 
 liever in missions is a real Christian. 
 
 But do the facts sustain our belief? 
 Can we go to the most degraded tribe 
 on earth, to the worst wretch in it, and 
 say with confidence, ^‘My God shall 
 supply all your needs according to the 
 riches of His glory in Christ Jesus”? 
 Mission study supplies definite proof 
 that we can. It fills the mind 
 with modern, concrete instances that 
 dispel doubts, and enable each of 
 us to say with St. Paul in the 
 certainty of knowledge, “I am not 
 ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it 
 is the power of God unto salvation to 
 every one that believeth.” 
 
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Class Organization a Necessity 
 for the Average Student 
 
 Most people, if their study is to be 
 systematic and thorough, require three 
 things: (1) Books, including a com¬ 
 prehensive text-book, and a number of 
 reference books at a low price. (2) 
 Companionship with those who are con¬ 
 genial and united in the desire to study 
 the subject. (3) Guidance that stim¬ 
 ulates and draws out their thought 
 rather than their memories. It secures 
 free expression of opinion, and before 
 the end of each lesson draws from the 
 class a definite conclusion related to the 
 aim of the entire course of study. 
 
 Practically this means: A mission 
 study class that follows one of the offi¬ 
 cial courses whose large adoption makes 
 possible low prices for text-books and 
 reference library. It means, also, 
 a class that has the typical character¬ 
 istics of a limited membership of 
 earnest people, a devotional and studious 
 spirit, a method that is neither recita¬ 
 tion nor lecture, but an informal discus¬ 
 sion based upon a common knowledge 
 of the facts of the lesson and emiched 
 by the results of individual reading in 
 the reference library. For the guid- 
 
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ance of leaders, tlie Mission Study 
 Manual has been published, explaining 
 the qualifications and development of a 
 class leader and the way to organize and 
 conduct the classes. Special pamphlets 
 have also been prepared for teachers of 
 each of the official courses which show 
 how an individuality can be given to 
 each lesson, contributing to the aim of 
 the entire course. Summer conferences 
 are held in various parts of the country 
 for the express purpose of training 
 parish and diocesan leaders to teach the 
 new courses recommended for the com¬ 
 ing year. Missionary institutes in large 
 metropolitan centres and normal mis¬ 
 sion study classes in hundreds of cities 
 apply and extend this training during 
 the following winter. 
 
 The Mission Study Class a Joy 
 
 True, it reveals forgetfulness of 
 spiritual things and misdirected energy, 
 even in the United States, which our 
 country must pay for in the future by a 
 long struggle to overtake the great re¬ 
 ligious opportunities that have slipped 
 past her. It is also true that the study 
 of non-Christian countries discovers 
 spiritual and physical suffering which 
 
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are unparalleled. The study of mis¬ 
 sions in our cities reveals poverty and 
 crowding and slums; but the study of 
 missions in foreign countries shows us 
 all these evils without the relief that 
 comes from the fruits of Christianity-— 
 the orphan asylum, the almshouse, the 
 hospital and the other forms of char¬ 
 itable institutions. We see the suffer¬ 
 ing of bereavement where there is little 
 or no belief in a personal immortality, 
 and consequently little expectation of a 
 future meeting with friends who have 
 died. We realize as never before what 
 suffering is caused by tyranny un¬ 
 checked by the restraints of Christian 
 standards and laws. And we become 
 aware of the spiritual pain of strong 
 men who are trying ‘ffo live up to their 
 light” without the help of the compelling 
 motive of love and loyalty to Christ. 
 
 However, if the mission study class 
 showed only such evils their contempla¬ 
 tion would bring us useless pain. But 
 when a deeper study shows not merely in 
 theory, but in practical application, the 
 power of God to reach this suffering and 
 supply these cravings of soul, the mis¬ 
 sion study class becomes a joy. For al¬ 
 though “the dark places of the earth are 
 full of the habitations of cruelty,” “the 
 
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people that walked in darkness have seen 
 a great light.” The clearest vision 
 given by the study class and its 
 strongest impressions, are not that of 
 the suffering and struggle of man, but 
 of the love of Almighty God and His 
 power to satisfy man’s soul. Added to 
 this comes the marvellous revelation that 
 God has condescended to let us help 
 Him. We are not limited to a sight of 
 His mercy; we can become part of it. 
 We enter into God’s plan for the world’s 
 salvation and find the joy of the confiict 
 greater than the joy of the vision. By 
 becoming part of the conflict, we become 
 the companions of the Christ; and en¬ 
 tering with Him into the depths of 
 human suffering, we can tread* with Him 
 the paths of heroism, and rise with 
 Him to spiritual heights otherwise un¬ 
 known. When we are reaching out with 
 Him to teach and to disciple all na¬ 
 tions, He surprises us with the complete 
 fulfilment of His promise to be with us 
 to the end of the world. The vision of 
 the distant goal is made concrete by vic¬ 
 tories in the approach to it. And we 
 look forward with the joyful knowledge 
 that when the end is reached we shall 
 have had a share in our Master’s fight 
 that won the final triumph. 
 
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