? t *sr> V; 9 . *v • ;* 1 * o—- — % ♦ - * The Christ! % Movement IN THE UNIVERSITIES OP America Eti rope anil Asia .. . .ADDRESSES BY JOHN R. MpTT JAMES B. REYNOLDS . .. LUTHER D. WISHARD . ., — THE CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF AMERICA, EUROPE AND ASIA. ADDRESSES BY JOHN R. MOTT, JAMES B. REYNOLDS, and LUTHER D, WISHARD. DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITIES’ CONGRESS, HELD UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE WORLD’S CONGRESS AUXILIARY OF THE WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. CHICAGO. R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1893. PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS. 40 East Twenty-Third St , New York. a THE OMNIPRESENCE, I HAD ALMOST SAID THE OMNIPOTENCE, OF THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION IS THE GREAT FACT IN THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF OUR COLLEGES TO-DAY.” ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK, Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2020 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/christianmovemenOOunse INTRODUCTION. The most significant fact in the history of the Christian Church during the last quarter of the century is the revival of vital piety in the uni¬ versities and colleges of America. This revival has not been spasmodic and emotional, but has grown steadily and healthfully, taking hold of the personal lives and moulding the characters of the students until it has wrought a revolution in the sentiment and life of the great student body. This body of seventy thousand men comprises the pick and flower of American young man¬ hood. To-day at least fifty-five per cent of them are professed disciples of Jesus Christ, while ninety per cent are, by inheritance and sympathy, Christians. In the whole body of American young men not over five per cent are professing Christians. The taunt of the infidel, that the Christian religion is losing its hold on the educated men of our day, is a lie. The pro¬ portion of avowed Christians among the students is ten times as great as that among the whole body of young Americans. This revival has taken corporate form in the Inter-Collegiate Young Men’s Christian Asso- 5 6 INTRODUCTION. ciation, and in the Students’ Volunteer Move¬ ment for Foreign Missions, which is a branch of the Association. It has banded the students of America together for Christ and the spread of His kingdom. It has not been content with this, it has sent ambassadors across the sea with words of Chris¬ tian greeting and exhortation to the students of the universities of Europe, who have welcomed them and have enlisted in the movement. With that grand and compelling enthusiasm which conquers all difficulties and refuses to believe any good thing impossible, that irresist¬ ible and dauntless purpose which one has called “The madness of young men,” the International Committee of the Young Men’s Christian Asso¬ ciations has invaded Asia, and, in spite of dis¬ tances, boundaries and strange tongues, has, through its messengers and heralds, proclaimed to the great host of students in those far lands the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of men through His Son Jesus Christ. The story of this great movement reads like a romance, but is, in truth, history. It stirs the blood and lifts up the heart, and we doubt not that all who read it here will, with us, thank God and take courage. James L. Houghteling. Chicago, August 10, 1893. CONTENTS. Page. The American Inter-Collegiate Young Men’s Christian Association. John R. Mott . g Facts and Forces in the Religious Life of the Universities of Europe. James B. Rey¬ nolds . 17 Christianity in the Universities of Asia. Luther D. Wishard. 28 — . ' ■ . ■ - THE AMERICAN INTER-COLLEGIATE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. John R. Mott. The Greatest Student Movement in the World. It is a striking fact that the tie of associated Christian effort has united more college men than any other bond. We have all felt the enthusiasm of the athletic spirit which is spread¬ ing so rapidly through the colleges of the country, but we can think of no athletic organiza¬ tion which brings together representatives of more than thirty colleges. We have been im¬ pressed with the intense competition in connec¬ tion with the contests of the Inter-State Ora¬ torical Association, and recognize that it has stimulated more interest in oratory and debating in this than in any other section, but we remem¬ ber that this association includes only a part of the institutions of higher learning in the few states of the upper Mississippi Valley. The extension of the college fraternity system has been remarkable, but there is no fraternity as yet which has chapters in one hundred institutions. Is it not, therefore, significant that there is a religious organization which unites in its member- 9 10 AMERICA. ship fully 30,000 students in 450 of the Amer¬ ican and Canadian colleges and universities ? The Inter-Collegiate Young Men’s Christian Association is truly the greatest student move¬ ment on this continent. Further, Professor Henry Drummond was right when, speaking of this movement less than two weeks ago, he said: “There is nothing like it among the students of the world.” Rapid Extension. The growth of this movement has been very rapid. Only sixteen years ago, when a few students at Princeton conceived the idea of an inter-collegiate Christian movement, there were less than thirty college Christian associations in existence. Now there are more than that in the single state of Pennsylvania, or of Ohio, or of Illinois. In the Yale association alone last year there were very nearly, if not quite, as many college men as there were in 1877 in all the Christian associations of America. There must be causes to explain the marked development of this movement and its hold on so many thousands of college men. We shall find adequate reasons if we examine its purpose. What is the purpose of the Inter-Collegiate Young Men’s Christian Association ? To Win Students to Christ. In the first place, this movement strives to AMERICA. I I lead college men to become followers of Jesus Christ. During the sixteen years of its life, at least twenty thousand students have been led through its efforts to become Christians. Within the college year which has just closed, over twenty-eight hundred men made this supreme decision—a larger number than during any other year in the history of American colleges. Do we catch the real meaning of these figures ? A bishop of one of our churches said to me: “ If you save one college man for God you place in this world a force which will coun¬ teract the influence of a thousand illiterate, vicious men/’ Thus on this line of their pur¬ pose alone the associations are dealing not in addition but in multiplication. Guards Hen against Temptation. The work of this movement does not cease when it leads a student to accept Christ. It only begins then. It seeks to guard him. Against what ? Against the many bodily temptations which beset the college man as fiercely as any other young man; and, moreover, against the more subtle and insidious temptations in the realm of the intellect which assail college men as no other class of men. This phase of the association’s purpose is often characterized as “higher ground work.” In Mr. Sayford’s terse language, it recognizes that the great need in the 12 AMERICA. colleges is “more man rather than more men.” The association, by its quiet yet determined influ¬ ence, wages uncompromising warfare against intemperance, gambling, impurity, dishonesty, infidelity, and hypocrisy. President Jordan, of Stanford University, told me when I was on the Coast, that this object of the organization, to say nothing of the others, appealed to him as one of very great importance. Develops Men Spiritually. In order that men may be guarded against the forces of evil within and without, the associa¬ tions lay great emphasis on the development of the spiritual life. Various efforts are put forth in this direction—chief among them, the promo¬ tion of Bible study. Even five years ago there were probably not more than two thousand young men in voluntary Bible classes. Last year there were nearly eight thousand in such classes —an increase of three thousand over the preced¬ ing year. Reference to Bible study suggests what is being done by the associations to hasten the introduction of the study of the English Bible into the college curricula of this country. Already they have accomplished this in the case of several leading institutions. It is an item of unusual significance that within the past few months two of the state universities have taken this advance step. AMERICA. 13 Training for Christian Service. Involved in the development of college men spiritually is a further object of the associations —to train them for Christian service. The asso¬ ciations insist that the Christian college graduate, no matter what his life-work is to be, should make his influence tell as a Christian leader in his community. During the last sixteen years over sixty thousand students have gone out from these associations into business and professional life, not only recognizing this responsibility, but in a majority of cases actually assuming it. They are just becoming the lay leaders of laymen in this age of laymen. It would be difficult to over¬ estimate the value of this contribution to the Christian forces of our day. Devotion of Life to Christian Work. The college associations are not satisfied, how¬ ever, with training men for Christian service as laymen only. Their aim is to so present the claims of the ministry, foreign missions, associa¬ tion work, and city missions, as to induce many of the students who are best qualified to devote their entire time to such forms of Christian work. Since its inception the inter-collegiate movement has influenced three thousand of its members to enter the ministry. Of the five thousand young men in the colleges of the United States and Canada who expect to enter the ministry, it is 14 AMERICA. safe to say that a very large number have been influenced in their decision by the association. This object of the association has made possible another wonderful result within the last seven years. It has given rise to the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions, which is to-day an organic department of the Inter-Collegiate Young Men’s Christian Association. The Volun¬ teer Movement includes thousands of students who have decided to become foreign missionaries. Over six hundred of their number have already sailed to the foreign field, under the auspices of the church missionary societies. With how much more force may we not now repeat the question which Dr. McCosh asked concerning this volun¬ teer movement before it had been in progress a year: ‘’Has any such offering of living young men and women been presented in our age, in our country, in any age, or in any country, since the day of Pentecost ?” World Wide Union of Christian Students. The fundamental purpose of the inter-col¬ legiate movement is to unite the Christian students of the world. It is uniting the Christian students of all sections of our continent; so that more and more they are coming to recognize that in the realm of Christian activity there cannot be Dominion and Republic, North and South, East and West: “ but Christ is all, and in all.” It is AMERICA. 15 uniting all classes of Christian students; so that the academy student and the post-graduate, the law student, the medical student, and the one in the divinity hall have a common purpose as they enter the conflicts of the world. It is uniting the organized bodies of Christian students of all lands. Gladstone, in his lecture on “ The Work of Universities,” speaking of the influence of the universities in the Middle Ages, says: “They established, so to speak, a telegraph for the mind; and all the elements of intellectual cul¬ ture, scattered throughout Europe, were brought by them into near communion. They established a brotherhood of the understanding.” So, I have often thought, this inter-collegiate move¬ ment has established a telegraph in things spiritual, and the different ideas concerning Christian life and work and study wrought out in the experience of groups of Christian students scattered all over the world, have been brought by it into near communion. It has established a student brotherhood in Jesus Christ. More than all this, yet involved in it, this movement, as no other agency, is uniting in spirit the various denominations of the Church of Christ. It is firmly planted in the colleges and universities of forty or more of the leading evangelical denom¬ inations. In its ranks to-day are the coming ministry of the Church in North America. They i6 AMERICA. are working together in harmony and with power. So they will continue to do as they leave college walls. They already present the most telling object lesson in Christian unity that the world affords. Never after these years of Christian fellowship and associated effort within the college will they cease to demonstrate to the world that “There is one body and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one bap¬ tism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.” Christ the Centre of the Movement. The great uniting force of the inter-collegiate movement is Jesus Christ. Without apology or compromise this movement exalts Him as Lord. He alone affords a sufficient explanation of its rapid extension, its marked development, and its enduring achievements. The associations go to Him for the methods which succeed. Of Him they catch the spirit that overcomes. From Him they draw their life. Linked to Him they shall abide, for “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and forever.” FACTS AND FORCES IN THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF THE UNIVERSITIES OF EUROPE. James B. Reynolds. In describing the religious life of the univer- rities of Europe, two broad distinctions must be drawn between their spirit and that in the higher institutions of learning in America. One results from the general difference of life and thought in America and in Europe, the other is incidental to the political and educational systems of the two countries. In America thought is expressed through activity, in Europe activity through thought. In America, if a man makes a discovery he imme¬ diately embodies it in a machine, or he organizes a society and launches a propaganda to sustain it. In Europe, he merely writes a book, and trusts to the diffusion of knowledge to make it known. In America this is reflected in the practical organizing spirit found among the students. Awakened life leads at once to earnest endeavor. In Europe it more probably leads to serious thought among those immediately affected. This produces greater conscientious¬ ness and deeper spirituality, but is much less certain to achieve a “forward movement.” 17 1 8 EUROPE. Again, the large university centres of Europe exercise more influence over the smaller ones than in America, and this influence is conserva¬ tive, tending to retain old institutions and to check new movements. The American president of a college in which the entire faculty consists of his conjugal partner and himself, will discourse on “our peculiar heritage,” “the university spirit,” and “our special mission,” almost wholly disregarding the example of more pretentious institutions in the immediate or remote vicinity. In Europe, the universities of Paris, Berlin and Vienna have an overweaning influence, and their example counts for more than that of any univer¬ sity in this country. For both of these reasons a new movement in Europe acts more slowly, and its results are much less susceptible of tabu¬ lation, because less organic and less visible. Yet movement in religion, as in other matters, has been steady if slow. The efforts of men with high purpose and a missionary spirit have told there as here. Though the Latin tongue no longer serves as a medium of communication for the scholarly world, the scientific demand that the. scholar shall look for knowledge to every part of the world has opened the door to the influx of spiritual truth and spiritual life. Some sectarian views may be advanced by strengthen¬ ing local prejudice and elevating national bar- EUROPE. 19 iiers, but such outlooks see Christ only on one side, and the great structure of Christendom only at a corner. The last ten years have witnessed an opening of many doors to the reception of a more active Christian spirit in the universities of Europe, and the initiation of many practical religious movements. I shall present these move¬ ments according to their most notable manifesta¬ tions. Extension of Christian Fellowship. Five years ago Oxford and Cambridge were the only universities in all Europe from which delegates met regularly to consider their com¬ mon Christian interests, and even there it was only among a certain element in the Established Church. The question of developing such rela¬ tions seems never seriously to have been raised, or, if raised, to have been abandoned as imprac¬ ticable. In visiting a leading university in North¬ ern Europe I was surprised by the request to begin with an account of the religious activities of the nearest university as the most certain topic of interest to the audience of students. The objection that it was an impertinence for one who had come four thousand miles to begin by inform¬ ing them with regard to the condition of their nearest neighbors was overruled, and when the advice was followed it was found that no inap¬ propriateness was felt, and I was immediately 20 EUROPE. accepted as an authority. At the close of the meeting numerous questions were asked of the stranger regarding their sister university, in which the students seemed to feel an interest only equaled by their ignorance. Yet this very spirit showed the time was ripe for a change. In different countries I found men already desiring a union of the Christian students in the continental universities. My three years of visitation among the universities of Europe, and constant communication of the best tidings from one place to another, seemed to stimulate this aroused interest. An equally potent factor was the visitation of strong delegations of foreign students to our annual Students’ Conference at Northfield, Massachusetts. In different years England, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, France, Germany and Holland were represented. In several countries advice was asked about opening similar national conferences of students. The annual conference between the Christian students of Oxford and Cambridge broadened its basis at home, and extended invitations to the universities of Ireland and Scotland, which were promptly and cordially accepted. As a result these gather¬ ings gained in influence and spiritual power. In Scandinavia two summer conferences of students have been held. Large delegations were present from Copenhagen, Christiania, Upsala and Lund. EUROPE. 21 The attendance at the first numbered one hundred and seventy. The second was still larger. The former gathering was held in Denmark; the lat¬ ter, strangely enough, on an old warship anchor¬ ed in the harbor of Christiania. The students bunked below decks, and responded to the bells for meetings on the quarter-deck. Fellowship and good feeling abounded, and the results were most decided and beneficial. In Germany, during the last three years, annual conferences of students have been held, with an attendance of fifty to seventy-five uni¬ versity men. Though not so large as those of Scandinavia, they represented a triumph over greater difficulties, and were nearly, if not quite, as significant. These all showed “the larger heart, the broader view,” and the deepened sense of real Christian brotherhood. Work Within the University. Much of quiet, personal effort cannot be recorded. Such work will always be done wherever a single student has a strong sense of the blessing of the Gospel to himself and a reali¬ zation of his personal responsibility to share the best gifts. United effort is more visible. In such the influences of the conferences appeared as a notable factor. When seventy-six students from Christiania came to the first Scandinavian conference they immediately asked themselves, 22 EUROPE. “Has Christianity such a strength in our Univer¬ sity as would be represented even by the united effort of this delegation?” and they were com¬ pelled to admit that it had not. This resulted in strengthening the local associations or unions and in an enlargement of their membership. Another result was the same which has been the best fruit of these gatherings in our country, namely, the comparing of notes, which led to the discovery that the local work was generally very one-sided, many things not being done which might be done. In one university one good movement was being carried on, in another a different line of effort was being emphasized. Both had a place in each. A work which had obtained marked success and met a spiritual need was certainly worth trying. This produced a careful consideration of the place which a Chris¬ tian association should occupy in a university, and a careful examination of the voluntary religious privileges which should and could be provided by the students themselves. An emphasis of the duty to new students has led to special efforts in Glasgow, Christiania and Paris. Berlin has strengthened Bible study and provided general gatherings for students, which have been largely attended. The Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Union in spite of many hindrances has sought to broaden its fellowship and work. At Paris a stu- EUROPE. 23 dent Christian centre has been established in the midst of the Latin Quarter, where strangers may come and receive counsel and help, and where men like-minded may gain spiritual strength to resist the temptations and dissipations of such city life. As a movement of independent strength may be named the weekly gatherings of students in Edinburgh addressed by Prof. Henry Drummond, of Glasgow. These meetings are held during the winter, and have an average attendance of five hundred to six hundred students. Many have gained from them a spiritual quickening, not a few have found here the true Light which lighten¬ ed the whole world, and large numbers have been influenced to go out into the byways and hedges and work for their less fortunate brethren. Dub¬ lin has been quickened in similar lines, and now the good tidings of successful endeavor pass more easily from one place to another. Work Outside the University. The spirit which awakened much of the activ¬ ity described was a thoughtful one. Life and ac¬ tion have been stimulated by a more vital theol¬ ogy. Likewise a new school of political economy has aroused interest in human conditions and in¬ spired reform measures of a new character. Po¬ litical science as well as Christianity has begun to teach the brotherhood of man. In the universi- 24 EUROPE. ties men gathering inspiration and knowledge from both sources have sought in the midst of their studies or of their professional careers to give something of themselves to their fellow men. College missions have sprung up at Oxford and Cambridge. Students of several other universi¬ ties are showing increased enthusiasm in ' such effort. It seems stronger than much similar work in the past in that men are devoting to it scien¬ tific as well as earnest enthusiasm. They inform themselves on the principles of sound philanthropy, correct sociology and good government, and aid their fellow men in every sphere of life. They seek to impart a new motive, the Christian motive of life, but also to teach people how to live, believing this to be essential, and that with¬ out such aid religious exhortation to the poor is little more than mockery. This spirit is most embodied in the University Settlements whose idea is to gather small groups of university men in one of the poorest quarters of the city in which they live. Neighborly friend¬ ship is the basis of all work. The Settlement be¬ comes primarily a social centre. Educational, religious, moral and philanthropic efforts are un¬ dertaken as circumstances may offer. The gen¬ eral principle is followed to supplement rather than compete with existing agencies of reform. Toynbee Hall, Oxford House and Mansfield EUROPE. 25 House in London, and the Settlements of Glas¬ gow and Edinburgh are the best exponents of this movement. At Amsterdam, Holland, a sim¬ ilar house has been founded. In Berlin the ques¬ tion is being agitated, while in Copenhagen and Upsala voluntary educational work of value is done among the poor by the students. This work is growing and its caution and modesty are two of its most hopeful characteristics. In these movements the united Christian en¬ deavor of the students of Europe at the present time is best summarized. Marked deficiencies might be noticed ; skepticism is rife; immorality abounds; pessimism casts a pall of hopelessness over many of the brightest minds, and these evils are deeply rooted. Each has its complete philos¬ ophy to which its followers subscribe without shame or concealment. But the Christian move¬ ments are also grounded in strong philosophy and deep convictions. They possess likewise enthu¬ siasm and unselfish consecration which the others lack. Comparing the student Christian movement in Europe with that in America, we find in Europe stronger thought, in America greater practical efficiency. Each has contributed of its best to the other. The visits of Rev. B. F. Meyer, Prof. Henry Drummond and Rev. Monroe Gibson, as well as the foreign student delegations, to North- 26 EUROPE. field, have strengthened the spiritual thought of those gatherings. The University Extension and Settlement movements have come to us from across the ocean. On the other hand, the example of the Chris¬ tian union of our university men through the College Young Men’s Christian Association has done much to bring the Christian students of Europe together. The Student Volunteer Mis¬ sionary Movement now has its traveling secretary in Great Britain. In my own tour of three years I visited forty-four universities having 87,527 stu¬ dents, was present and spoke at most of the con¬ ferences I have named, helped in the foundation of the Paris Students’ Association, and saw it firmly established after much wavering. At one university I was told that the mere communication of facts and suggestions as to their adaptation to European needs had produced an epoch in the religious history of the institution. For the con¬ ferences I found that Northfield experience ena¬ bled me to give valuable aid in the preliminary arrangements which guaranteed their success. Such aid was welcomed and even earnestly so¬ licited. These samples of the work done are quoted merely to show the benefit of having one of our representatives in the field. I believe our student work should be permanently represented in Eu- EUROPE. 2 ; rope. We have annually three thousand American students in Germany; one thousand American students are found every year in Paris. Others gather at Vienna, Rome, Geneva and Montpellier. Our interest in them alone should be sufficient to demand such a worker. He would be able to bring them in contact with the best Christian forces in the universities where they might study besides aiding them directly. He would also continue the cooperative Christian relations with the Stu¬ dent Associations in the European universities themselves. He would have opportunities such as I have enjoyed to introduce to our Associa¬ tions European university men coming to this country to reside, and thus to start them in the right direction. And in the future, as well as in the past, our mutual experience would be mutually beneficial. Let us keep open avenues of communication, ear¬ nestly seeking the best gifts of the experience of our maturer neighbors, and exerting ourselves that we may impart the best results of our own active and changing life. CHRISTIANITY IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF ASIA. Luther D. Wishard. Influence of Student Class. Asia’s chief imports from the West are religion, commerce and education. Were the more intelligent Oriental, who does not regard money as the summum bonum, called upon to ex¬ press his opinion of the three in terms of com¬ parison, he would doubtless respond, “ Religion good, commerce better, education best.” Certain it is that he has imported nothing from the West which is so widely incorporated into Asiatic life as our systems of education. The student class already constitutes a large and influential element in the population. One hundred thousand is not an over-estimate of the number of undergraduates in the higher educa¬ tional institutions. The influence of educated men in the East is best exhibited by the facts that in China a literary degree has for centuries been the almost indispensable passport to political office; in Japan it is said that the political movement which set up a new government in 1868, was a school-boys revolution ; in India, the mightiest 28 ASIA. 29 secular agency in the leveling of caste is the school; in Turkey, one of the high . officials recently declared that Robert College had cost the Empire its best province, Bulgaria. If it be true in America that an educated man influences one hundred times as many persons as an unedu¬ cated, it is probably true in Asia that an educated man influences one thousand times as many as an uneducated. Can the Church of the West render the people of Asia a greater service than to confer upon their students the comprehensive purpose, the well-tried methods and abundant results of the College Young Men’s Christian Association ? The missionaries commonly be¬ lieve that when those leading young men are fully charged with the missionary spirit, which is the crowning characteristic of the Association, they will sweep the continent with an evange¬ listic movement which will accomplish more in a generation than foreigners can effect in a cen¬ tury. Beginning of the Association in Asia. Ten years ago it was believed and asserted that this Student’s Christian Movement is too vast in its possibilities for good to be limited to any country or continent. It did not enter into the mind of the most sanguine supporter of the movement, however, to conceive of the rapidity which was destined to mark its spread. To-day 30 ASIA. over five hundred Student’s Young Men’s Chris¬ tian Associations are organized in thirteen countries in America, Europe, Asia and Africa, with a membership exceeding thirty thousand. While we in America were pondering the steps adapted to its introduction in the East, the Asso¬ ciation sprang up spontaneously in Ceylon, China and Japan. The fact that the associations in the first two countries were formed with the assist¬ ance of Messrs. Sanders and Beach, missionaries to those countries, was an earnest of the prin¬ cipal part which the missionary body was des¬ tined to perform in the extension of the move¬ ment. Missionaries abroad and missionary sec¬ retaries at home have been consulted, and their counsel ever deferred to in the promotion of the enterprise from its very beginning. Tour of Investigation. The calls from missionaries for men to propa¬ gate the movement at the leading educational centres of Asia, and the endorsement of the call by missionary secretaries, were regarded as strong guarantees of the feasibility of the move¬ ment. It was felt, however, that nothing short of a thorough tour of investigation would furnish information which was needed to impart confi¬ dence to those who should be asked to go to the front and those who should be asked to support the work financially. The tour consumed forty- ASIA. 31 five months, over thirty-one of which were devoted to Japan, China, Malaysia, Siam, Burmah, Ceylon, India, Arabia, Syria, the Cau¬ casus, Persia, Kurdistan, Asia Minor and Cy¬ prus. A month was spent in Egypt, and two months in mission fields in Europe. We vis¬ ited two hundred and sixteen mission stations in twenty mission lands. Our tour covered not only the points adjacent to the coast, but was extended to many important points in the interior, the latter involving overland travel as far as from New York to San Francisco. One journey of over a thousand miles was made in the saddle, the route being from the southern boundary line of Russia across northwestern Persia, Kurdistan and Asia Minor to the Mediterranean Sea. At least nine hundred and sixty missionaries were met personally, beside three hundred others who were publicly addressed. Thousands of students were addressed publicly and hundreds conversed with at most of the leading educational centres in the East. Numerous interviews were held with oriental business men, government officials, pastors and church members. No pains were spared to get at the exact facts concerning the condition of the new Church in Asia, and the ripeness of the time for the organization of this new department of Christian enterprise. 32 ASIA. Conditions Favorable to Spread of Christianity. Nearly three years’ contact with eastern stu¬ dents revealed conditions favorable to their reception of Christianity if propagated by stu¬ dents from the West. Education is rapidly depriving them of their old religious beliefs. They are becoming deeply interested in the problems of self-government, and are impressed by the fact that Christianity alone is the religion of self-governing peoples. They are kindly disposed toward western students; the latter have given them their highly valued educational systems, and many eminent educators; and they are not unwilling to hear what we have to say in defence of a religion whose strongholds are our universities. The homogeneity of the student world is a fact of deep significance. Oriental and occidental students are more alike than unlike. This is largely accounted for by the fact that the new educational systems of the Orient were established and are still, in many quarters, directed by western educators. Social and religious movements may therefore be ex¬ pected to spread from students of the West to those of the East more rapidly than from any other class in the West to the corresponding class in the East. When Christianity is once firmly anchored in the university life of Asia, the spirit of conservatism, which so strongly marks oriental character, will hold it forever. ASIA. 33 Religious Crisis in the Universities. There is a fact of terrible import characteristic of the present condition of the, educated young men of Asia. They are so chagrined to find that they and their fathers have been deceived by false systems of so-called supernaturalism that they are in danger of completely recoiling from all supernaturalism ; their natural tendency to skepticism is strengthened by the materialism which is setting in upon them from the West like a flood; they will not wait upon the slow pace at which we are at present approaching them with the gospel; they will make an irrevocable decision soon; it is now or never for the edu¬ cated young men of Asia; and as for the masses of the people, we tremble when we think that as go the universities of Asia so goes Asia. The following are but a few of the many facts which can be produced in evidence of the asser¬ tion that now is the accepted time for a wide spread and aggressive Christian movement among the students of Asia. Christianity in the Christian Colleges. In the first place, Christianity is firmly intrenched in nearly all of the Christian colleges of Japan, China, Persia, Burmah, Ceylon, Turkey and Egypt, and in some of those in India. As a rule, the majority of the students in the Chris¬ tian schools in all of these countries, except 34 ASIA. India, are Christian communicants. You may say this is to be expected. Very true, but this is a fact that could not be affirmed of our Chris¬ tian colleges in America at the beginning of the century. Christianity in the Government Colleges. Again, the number of Christians in at least seven of the leading government colleges of Japan is greater than were found in our leading Christian colleges a century ago ; careful inquiry revealed the fact that one-fourteenth of the three thousand students in the seven most prominent government colleges in Japan were Christian men. Readiness of Students to Accept Christ. I found a readiness on the part of students, especially in Japan, which I have rarely seen equaled in America, to respond to the appeal to accept Christ as Lord and Saviour. At the close of a series of addresses followed by personal interviews, in the Doshisha University in Kyoto, one hundred and three students in one day were, after careful examination, admitted to the Church, and forty more on the next communion Sabbath ; thirty took a similar stand at the Union College in Tokyo, and twenty-five in the preparatory school in Kumamoto. Seven students made a public confession of Christ in the Methodist College in Foochow, China. There were also conversions in colleges in India, Ceylon and Asia Minor sufficient to justify the belief that a ASIA. 35 wide-spread and well-organized evangelistic movement, under the auspices of the Associa¬ tion conducted by the students themselves, will be most fruitful in results. I have never known of an all-night students’ prayer meeting in America, but such a meeting was held during my visit in Kumamoto, unknown to me until the following morning. Ripeness for Organization. The students of Asia are ripe for organization. There are already forty-two Students’ Young Men’s Christian Associations in Asia, fifteen of which are in Japan, eleven of them in Japanese government colleges; the balance are scattered through China, India, Ceylon, Syria, Persia, Kurdistan and Asia Minor. The Association is the only Christian agency thus far tolerated in government schools. The most thoroughly organized students’ association visited by me is in Tungchou, near Peking; in addition to all of the departments of work usually organized in behalf of the students in the college, this asso¬ ciation of Chinese students conducts a foreign missionary meeting every month, to study the progress of Christianity throughout the world; they have become so interested in the cause that they have assumed the support of a student in a school in Africa, who is preparing for a life of Christian work among his people. Napoleon 36 ASIA. said: “Whoever moves China will move the world.” Christ is moving China, and already a little section of China is beginning to move a section of the Dark Continent. It was my privilege to cooperate with David McConaughy in introducing this work to the students of India. We began by visiting small groups of students in the various colleges in Madras; we said to them: “Fellow students, thirty centuries ago our Aryan fathers dwelt together as brothers in the same tents in Central Asia. After many generations of fellowship they separated; our fathers journeyed westward and overspread Europe and the then undiscov¬ ered country of America ; your fathers journeyed southward down the slopes of the Himalayas and peopled Hindustan. We have come to know in recent years that you are our brothers; that the same racial blood unites us; and we have had a great longing to see you and renew the old asso¬ ciations which our fathers had a hundred genera¬ tions ago. Will you receive us, and shall we not unite in a fellowship which even death cannot break ? and shall we not work together for the eternal welfare of the young men of India and America and the world ? They did receive us ; I have never had a warmer greeting. A few nights later we held a large meeting in one of the largest halls of the city; it was filled with a ASIA. 37 splendid audience of the best young men of Madras. The meeting was opened by singing “All hail the power of Jesus’ name!” and as the students of India sang it that night, to the old English tune, and the words rang out again and again, “Crown Him! crown Him! crown Him! crown Him Lord of All! ” it was a shout of tri¬ umph. I thought of Cromwell’s soldiers singing as they went into battle, and felt that if India’s young men would enter the great spiritual con¬ flict before them with the faith of the old Iron¬ sides the battle would be short and the victory sure. National Organization. The readiness of the students of Asia for na¬ tional organization is a sign of great promise. The first National Conference of students in Asia I conducted in Kyoto, Japan during the summer of 1889. Five hundred men were present, repre¬ senting ten government and twelve Christian col¬ leges ; the conference has been maintained an¬ nually, and there are now two conferences, one in the central and one in the southern island. India has a national convention and organization; Cey¬ lon has the same; I also conducted similar con¬ ferences in Persia and Asia Minor. During the past five years there have been fourteen conferences in Asia, with an attendance of at least twenty-one hundred educated young ASIA. 38 men, representing not less than forty-five col¬ leges. The influences proceeding from such meet¬ ings along the lives of such men are simply ines¬ timable. Guarantees of Permanence. The human agencies through which the Spirit of God is evidently moving to insure the perma¬ nence of this movement are: First, men who are commissioned by the Inter¬ national Committee of Young Men’s Christian As¬ sociations of North America to organize and de¬ velop the Association. Messrs. Swift and Miller in Japan, McConaughy and White in India, and Clark in Brazil, are the advance guard of a band of at least twenty-five men who are and soon will be called to occupy the strategic educational centres in Asia, Africa and South America. With openings for twenty-five men already in sight, we must be prepared to respond to calls for several times that number should the increasing needs of the work demand them. Five men are needed at once for Peking and Shanghai, China; Madras, India; Ceylon and Asiatic Turkey. China has waited two years and Ceylon three. The men can be found if the money can be secured. Buildings are being secured, which are a guar¬ antee of permanence. Bombay, India, Osaka, Japan, and Aintab, Asia Minor, have good build- ASIA. 39 ings, and Tokyo soon will have two buildings, one for students and one for young business men. There are also one or two other buildings and build¬ ings enterprises, one in Kyoto, Japan. The most urgent need along this line is in Madras, India, where a building not to exceed thirty thousand dollars in cost, is needed, which will serve not only as a home for the association, but a training school to prepare Indian young men for the general secretary¬ ships of the large number of associations which are rapidly forming throughout the empire. The building fund for Tokyo was headed by a subscription of twenty-five thousand dollars, the gift of a business man in the South. Where is the man who will start the Madras building fund with a liberal contribution ? An urgent call also comes from Tokyo for fifteen hundred dollars for the erec¬ tion of a Christian boarding house for students ; the city is thronged with students from country towns, who fall easy prey to the immoral influences sur¬ rounding the tea houses. A building rented for this purpose has proved so helpful in guarding young men that a permanent home is now asked for; are there not men whose boys have been reclaimed or guarded from a life of shame by the Association in America who will make a thank- offering by providing the students of Tokyo with several such homes ? 40 ASIA. Purpose of Movement Hlustrated. The purpose of this movement is best illus¬ trated by an incident which occurred one evening at the close of a large meeting of students which I had addressed in Osaka, Japan. As I walked to the station in company with a couple of mis¬ sionaries, I overheard rapid footsteps approaching us, and looking around I saw a young man, a stu¬ dent, trying to overtake us; when he reached us he began talking in eager tones ; in response to my request one of the missionaries interpreted his inquiry. He asked, “Who is that Wonderful Per¬ son? How can I learn more about Him?” I had been speaking of the early ministry of our Lord and His contact with young men. It ap¬ peared that the youth had never clearly heard of the Saviour, and my address being directed to Christians, had not explained to him His divine character, nor had he retained His name; so like the old prophet, he called Him “Wonderful”— “that Wonderful Person.” He was invited to at¬ tend a Bible class conducted by one of the mis¬ sionaries, and when I next visited Osaka I heard that the young man was learning that He whom he called “Wonderful” is “the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” The mission of the Association will not be fulfilled un¬ til the name and work of that Wonderful Person shall have been declared to every young man throughout the world. ASIA. 41 Evangelization of All Young Men. The relation of this students’ movement to all young men is a matter upon which my theme forbids me to enter. Suffice it to say that the movement contemplates the enlistment of the educated young men in a well organized, wide¬ spread effort in behalf of all classes of young men. Already one hundred and forty of the one hundred and eighty-five associations in non- Christian lands are outside of the universities. The secretaries whom the International Com¬ mittee has sent out are charged with definite responsibility in behalf of the young business men as well as students. The National Council of Great Britain has also sent out two men, one to Bombay, and one to Egypt and Palestine, to organize work among this class. Already two university graduates, Mr. Bulbulian of Asiatic Turkey, and Mr. Niwa of Japan, are devoting themselves to the general secretaryship of the Young Men’s Christian Associations in the cities of Aintab and Tokyo. These pioneer secretaries will doubtless be followed by many others as the work advances. Men Whose Hearts God Has Touched. The marvelous opportunity confronting us calls for two bands of consecrated men: first, a limited number who can go to the front and hold the most important centres of influence, the 42 ASIA. universities; second, a much larger band of men, who, while possessing the spirit of obedience which takes men to the front, are willing to re¬ main at the base of supplies, and give to the support of the work until they feel the sacrifice of giving as keenly as the other class feel the sacrifice of going. With two such bands of “men whose hearts God has touched,” a preliminary work can be accomplished before the old century is rung out which will insure the evangelization of the world by the Church of the first generation of the twentieth century. ‘ ■