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 THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE 
 for the MISSIONARY PASSION 
 
 REV. FRANK MASON NORTH, D.D. 
 
There Is No Substitute for the 
 Missionary Passion: 
 
 A STUDY OF THE PRESENT SITUATION 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 By 
 
 Rev. FRANK MASON NORTH, D.D. 
 
 Foreign Missions Conference of North America 
 25 Madison Avenue - - - New York City 
 
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION 
 
 The International Review of Missions, January, 1926 
 
 Published quarterly, $2.50 per 
 annum. On sale Committee 
 of Reference and Counsel, 25 
 Madison Avenue, New York City. 
 
 Price, 15 cents each 
 
THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE 
 MISSIONARY PASSION: 
 
 A STUDY OF THE PRESENT SITUATION 
 IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 By Rev. Frank Mason North, D.D. 
 
 The title carries both the thesis and the conclusion. 
 There will be found in this paper no subtle approaches 
 to an unexpected finding. The discussion deals wholly 
 with the present missionary situation in the United States. 
 It is written by way of information and reminder, and 
 assumes from beginning to end that in writing the topic I 
 have stated an axiom. If in other parts of the world there 
 are further illustrative facts they would be pertinent to 
 the theme but are not included in the present review. 
 
 The surface phenomenon with which we are painfully 
 impressed in America—the reference is wholly to the 
 United States—is the diminishing of what might be called 
 missionary momentum. The Churches have long been 
 accustomed to a minimum interest in foreign missions 
 and from the zero point or starting line have rejoiced in 
 a steady, if gradual, increase in resources for their work 
 in other lands and in the closer integration of that ‘be- 
 yond-the-horizon’ enterprise with the near-by program of 
 
 3 
 
the Churches. The impulses which have created the grow¬ 
 ing force and volume have in later years ceased to be 
 spasmodic and have so deepened and broadened both in 
 source and output that the Churches have reckoned upon 
 maintenance if not acceleration of motion, upon un¬ 
 diminished if not abundant sympathy and resources. 
 
 Just previous to the world war, and during its earlier 
 years, opportunity in practically all mission fields sharp¬ 
 ened the urgency of appeal. The leaders of every mission 
 board were alert and their constituencies expectant. The 
 celebration of the Centenary of the Missionary Society of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, which occurred in 1919, 
 was planned on a most generous scale. The other so- 
 called benevolent boards of the Church were brought into 
 a common appeal and action. The world-wide organiza¬ 
 tion was stirred to its outermost rim. On a five-year 
 basis a total subscription of over a hundred and ten mil¬ 
 lions of dollars was reported, of which in total fifty-two 
 million five hundred thousand dollars, or ten million five 
 hundred thousand dollars a year for five years, were as¬ 
 signed to the Board of Foreign Missions. This did not 
 include the amount raised annually by the Woman’s 
 Foreign Missionary Society of the Church, which in the 
 five years’ period would be between eleven and twelve 
 millions of dollars. Stimulated, at least to some extent, 
 by the purpose and plans of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, the denomination in the United States numeri¬ 
 cally the largest, whose missionary Centenary was the 
 
 4 
 
occasion of its endeavour, all the other important mis¬ 
 sionary bodies organized with enthusiasm for larger pro¬ 
 grams both in giving and expending. That the widespread 
 and generous spirit of altruism which characterized the 
 period of the war contributed very largely both to the 
 courage and the consecration of the Christian people of 
 America in their missionary enterprise is a recognized 
 phase of the psychology of the movement. 
 
 In the midst of these enlarged programs of the foreign 
 mission boards—programs which in each of the larger 
 communions included the other church boards, the Inter¬ 
 church World Movement was launched. It aimed to be, 
 and, in its organization was, an inclusive movement. All 
 phases of the organized activities of the several denomi¬ 
 nations were invited into participation. The surveys of 
 opportunties and agencies covered the entire country and 
 reached out, in a measure, into foreign mission fields. 
 The bigness of the design at the centre was felt to the 
 limit of the circumference. Hopes that had been stimu¬ 
 lated and, perhaps, disappointed in the individual de¬ 
 nominational movements, were quickened and expanded 
 by this tremendous ideal of a united effort of all the 
 Church forces. Both in America and on the foreign field 
 may be found the estimates and charts of the undertak¬ 
 ings which it was confidently believed this mighty move¬ 
 ment would make possible. The ideal was noble. The 
 purpose was sincere. The assemblage of forces was 
 extraordinary. The logic of the strategy was sound. There 
 
 5 
 
are, it is true, those who hold that the movement did not 
 escape the illusions of grandeur either at its center or in 
 some of its more remote units. But no one who was close 
 enough to see its idealism and the personal forces which 
 were promoting it can fail, if he be fair-minded, to 
 recognize in it one of the most superb attempts in the 
 history of the Church to lift her program out of the small 
 circles into the great ones and to give to latent forces 
 everywhere believed in, but nowhere fully trusted, their 
 legitimate scope and power. In its larger purposes the 
 Interchurch World Movement failed. It failed honour¬ 
 ably. But its failure shook the confidence of the Churches 
 to the remotest hamlet and dampened everywhere the 
 emerging enthusiasm of the people whatever their de¬ 
 nominational loyalty might be. 
 
 There were, at first, in the period we are reviewing, 
 large increases in the contributions for foreign missions. 
 The channels were deepened, but, relatively, the actual 
 streams are lower. The struggle of the missionary boards 
 during the three years past to maintain the larger pro¬ 
 gram and in some instances even to hold recession at the 
 former levels is grave if not alarming. 
 
 At this point it is pertinent to say a word about the 
 missionary leadership in these years of test. As one 
 whose executive responsibilities, at his own desire, have 
 been lessened, I may be permitted to express the opinion 
 that no stronger men have ever been entrusted with major 
 tasks than are those who are now directing the affairs of 
 
 6 
 
the great missionary organizations, many of whom have 
 for many years past borne the burden which the Churches 
 have placed upon them. The names of some are familiar 
 to the ruiers of nations and are known in the legislative 
 halls of the world. Many of them are cosmopolitan in 
 their experience and frequently compare notes, from per¬ 
 sonal knowledge, touching the remoter places of the 
 earth. Without exception they are honoured in the in¬ 
 fluential circles of their respective denominations and are 
 reckoned as citizens of the first rank in the communities 
 where they live. They are, for the most part, broad¬ 
 minded, in the development of the missionary policies of 
 their own Churches, and nowhere and at no time has there 
 been a stronger fellowship in high service than has 
 existed among them for the past decade. In the memories 
 of over two score years, during which by rather close 
 observation and by many most valued personal contacts 
 the spirit and capacity of the missionary leaders of our 
 American Churches have been appraised, there is no 
 record of an excellence to which the leaders of the decade 
 past must be assigned a second place. On the other hand, 
 while in devotion to their tasks they have found in their 
 predecessors men whom they might emulate but not excel, 
 in their comprehension of the issues involved in the mis¬ 
 sionary enterprise, in their alertness in meeting oppor¬ 
 tunity, in their unreserved fellowship in co-operation with 
 one another and in their initiative under unexpected ap¬ 
 peals they are unsurpassed by any who at any time have 
 
 7 
 
led the missionary forces of the Churches. 
 
 Facts are irritating, especially when they are in the 
 realm of finance. The pessimist welcomes them even 
 though he can be gloomy without them; the optimist 
 would be glad to ignore them, but they are stubborn, and 
 —however cheerfully, bless him!—he must deal with 
 them. The facts for the mission boards are, as already 
 indicated, that incomes have surprisingly fallen, and that 
 the real cause for the decline has not yet been fully dis¬ 
 closed. As this is written, one of the most important 
 communions in council is considering the adjustment of 
 its budget for next year to a loss of twelve hundred thou¬ 
 sand dollars. We add, with gratitude, that the great Con¬ 
 vention has made most generous pledges to meet the de¬ 
 cline. The board which makes the largest contribution 
 to foreign missions is working under a reduction to its 
 fields, throughout the world, of 40 per cent. Another 
 board, in the very front rank for liberality and devotion, 
 found itself last year with but 70 to 75 per cent of its 
 expected income. Registering a welcome recovery this 
 present year, another board recalls that two years ago it 
 was obliged to order a reduction of 25 per cent in its 
 field work. A study of the incomes of several boards 
 indicates not only the drop in income for the two or three 
 years past, but in a longer period a much slower growth 
 of income for foreign missions than for the other benevo¬ 
 lent undertakings of the Churches. The lines which by 
 diagram show the growth of the Churches’ annual invest- 
 
 s 
 
ment for local purposes, that is, what the individual 
 Churches spend upon themselves, as compared with the 
 contribution of the same Churches for foreign missions, 
 suggest nothing more apt than the race between the hare 
 and the tortoise. The striking fact is that among the 
 larger communions there seems to be no exception to this 
 deplorable trend. One is forced by these figures to think 
 in terms of general causes, or of some one cause, which 
 produces the common effect. 
 
 It is impossible to leave a financial statement just here. 
 To the record of what it is, follows inevitably the ques¬ 
 tion—why is it? The lack of dollars or of pounds means 
 much in itself, as missionary folk on both sides of the 
 sea—indeed on the shores of all the seven seas—in these 
 days know. But the implications throng about the fact 
 and refuse to be excluded. Does the fall in income indi¬ 
 cate the poverty of the people? Is it due to bad method? 
 Does it tell a story of loss of faith? Is it one of several 
 symptoms which indicate spiritual break-down? Is it 
 contagious or likely to become chronic, or is it curable? 
 This would not have been written for the sake of announc¬ 
 ing that the mission boards in the United States are short 
 of funds. The real inducement was not the opportunity 
 to state a fact but to say some things about it. To these 
 we now come. They are here written not as data for dis¬ 
 cussion, not as causes of a lamentable situation, not as 
 explanation of a group of facts, but as matters which be¬ 
 long in any survey of the conditions under which the 
 
 9 
 
missionary forces in the United States are striving to 
 carry on. 
 
 There is a great deal of money in America, more per 
 capita than ever before. It was never more widely dis¬ 
 tributed. There is a remarkable increase in savings banks 
 deposits. The production of automobiles and their use 
 would be astounding were we not so familiar with the 
 phenomena of the gas and of the wheel. Organization of 
 business shows constant expansion. It is offset, in part, 
 of course, by failures. Normally, unemployment is re¬ 
 duced to a minimum. Prices have not returned to the 
 pre-war level—in the region of New York City they are 
 between 70 and 80 per cent above the level of 1914. But 
 wages are very high. As is universally the case, it is the 
 salaried class—clerks and professional men—who feel 
 the financial strain. If the channels of missionary money 
 show low water, it is not because there is not plenty of 
 water. Other channels are bank full and some overflow 
 —in waste and in the destruction of the roads and the 
 crops. 
 
 The idealism of the people of the United States has 
 been sadly, we believe not permanently, shocked. One 
 who shared in the enthusiasm for co-operation in a war 
 that was to prevent war, who felt the urge of the altruism 
 of the men of the street, of the shop, of the counting- 
 house, of the school, of the Church for a spirited, un¬ 
 selfish world service, needs no demonstration of the dis¬ 
 aster to the morale of the nation which came when the 
 
 10 
 
nation’s leadership went into opposition and a generous 
 co-operation gave place to the bicker and barter and 
 bargaining of politics. To know the truth he has only 
 to take account of his own reactions. When the forward 
 march of America’s soul was checked, and bivouac and 
 retreat took the place of advance, the new appraisal of 
 other nations began and a new attitude toward the world 
 became painfully familiar. Race antagonisms with many 
 have deepened. A wholly needless shadow rests upon 
 our relations with Japan. ‘One hundred per cent Amer¬ 
 ican’—some of them born outside of the United States, 
 and not natives of Canada either—became prominent. 
 Organizations, some of them secret, set themselves against 
 ‘foreigners.’ It is seldom asserted, but it is a fact, that 
 insidious prejudice against foreigners, Asian or European, 
 is permeating many communities. To this there is no 
 check in law, and custom counts often for it and not 
 against it. The difficulty of appraising this influence is 
 at once apparent. It prevails, of course, chiefly in the 
 Protestant section of the population—the group from 
 which our mission resources are drawn. One may easily 
 overstress its importance. It may also be overlooked or 
 underestimated. In any case it belongs to the data we 
 are considering. 
 
 A factor in the situation, in this case wholly within the 
 Churches, is not yet in such perspective as to reward 
 exact examination. Yet in the intimate conversations of 
 the administrative officers of the boards it has an impor- 
 
 ii 
 
tant, if not a major, place. The development in any 
 communion of a larger program for foreign missions in¬ 
 evitably touches the interests of other boards of the de¬ 
 nomination. The appeal for larger contributions for 
 work beyond the horizon has in no case failed to arouse 
 the concern of those responsible for the work on the 
 hither side of it. The facts of the situation are not al¬ 
 ways clearly seen. While a half dozen home base so¬ 
 cieties, home missions, church erection, Sunday schools, 
 education, clerical pensions and the like, all in friendliest 
 contact with the home Churches, care for the interest in¬ 
 dicated in the home land, one society cares for the like 
 interests in the foreign fields. Yet that society or board 
 is reckoned as just one unit among all the rest. The 
 growing purpose to meet the problems at home has the 
 highest commendation of all students of missions. The 
 demands of new types of work increase the claims for 
 funds and the perplexity of organization. In the interest 
 of peace and the reduction of the number of appeals to 
 the same constituency the united appeal and the budget 
 system have been quite generally adopted. The result 
 has been, in many cases, the reduction of income as well 
 as of appeals. Built into a system of percentages the 
 amount available, if the budget is raised, is relatively 
 small. A foreign board which had formerly received 
 over 50 per cent of the Church’s giving for benevolent 
 purposes, now has 36 per cent. The increase in its in¬ 
 come is conditional upon the lifting of the total income. 
 
 12 
 
Individuals who would gladly give for special objects, 
 desiring to be loyal to the Church’s plan and to secure 
 for the local Church credit upon its quota, hesitate and 
 suppress the impulse to larger generosity. Congregations 
 contribute toward the budget. They escape the specific 
 offering for foreign missions and also the education and 
 stimulus that the presentation would bring. It is hard to 
 give colour to the ‘benevolent budget.’ Ever have there 
 been fascination and mystery in the lands afar. It is a 
 question whether logic is a sufficient substitute for imagi¬ 
 nation. When foreign missions come to be thought of in 
 direct connexion with the business of the Church, with 
 those familiar organizations which, however important, 
 really make appeal to individual or community self- 
 interest, the picture has lost some of its colour. In large 
 measure the united appeal gets its strength from the for¬ 
 eign mission element in it. To adopt the united appeal 
 seemed to be good business and high strategy. To find 
 the least common denominator of a dozen boards, foreign 
 missions being one, and to work the Church’s benevo¬ 
 lent program by that has seemed good mathematics, but 
 there are those in every communion where it has been 
 tried who suspect that the foreign mission unit in the 
 group suffers irreparable loss. This, it will be said, is a 
 matter of machinery. Granted. But a defective mechan¬ 
 ism lessens and mars the product. The way of escape 
 for foreign missions is being sought. It has not yet been 
 found. 
 
 13 
 
The mission fields were never before so near us as in 
 the last five years. A new disposition for communication 
 has been developed and the technique for its expression 
 is marvellous. Russia, China, South Africa, Japan, India, 
 begin the day with us. What they think of us measures 
 well up in the column with what we think of them. Men 
 from our schools, our trade centres, our pulpits, have 
 been visiting the foreign fields. The available opinion 
 on foreign affairs, including missions, is vastly increased. 
 Mission administration—with the increases in capital in¬ 
 vestment and personnel—has become big business. Wise 
 and experienced men concern themselves with it. Often 
 they bring to the boards and executive officers large rein¬ 
 forcement. It is sometimes awkward when they present 
 themselves as qualified experts after ten hours or so in a 
 given field or after a casual glance at an annual report 
 which contains a thousand items. But the boards are 
 agents of the Churches and all the members of the Church 
 form the constituency. The boards’ decisions, as to policy, 
 program, personnel, affect thousands of individuals. 
 Enthusiasm, optimism, programs (with a balance), ex¬ 
 penditure (with a margin of safety), policy (on a rising 
 income), induce little comment. When reaction comes, 
 as in the period now under our discussion, discontent as 
 to procedure and views as to what ought or ought not to 
 have been done are to be expected. When brought to 
 focus where responsible administrators can interpret or 
 modify, there is little harm. Expressed or urged where 
 
 14 
 
no information or correction can be given, they often 
 become foci for the contagion of ignorance and prejudice, 
 the range of which cannot easily be determined. When 
 one adds to this the new phases of thinking to which 
 national attitudes such as those revealed in India and 
 China and Russia force all thoughtful men, it is not 
 difficult to suspect that missionary motive may be dulled 
 and expansion in giving may be temporarily restricted. 
 If national Churches are sufficient unto themselves, why 
 help them? If in foreign mission lands the man from 
 the West is not wanted, why go? Voices, then, are heard 
 which do not come from the mountain-side in Galilee. 
 What would have been the Master’s answer had Peter, or 
 Thomas perhaps, asked ‘Shall we go and disciple nations 
 which do not bid us come?’ 
 
 One further fact must go into this record. Restlessness 
 in the theological phases of the life of the Churches in 
 America has afforded no little amusement to the unco’ 
 wise on both sides of the sea, but the humour of it is its 
 least important element. The Dayton episode would be 
 negligible and Scopes forgotten were it not for the strong 
 cross currents upon which they were but bits of flotsam 
 and jetsam. That the great communions of America are 
 doomed to continued and weakening disorder because of 
 essential theological differences probably few of their 
 leaders and none of their rank and file believe. But 
 suspicion even casually expressed deepens into distrust. 
 Intolerance inevitably breeds hatred, or what would be 
 
 15 
 
hatred if the modern temper were not on the whole so 
 amiable. To shake even inadequate foundations is peril¬ 
 ous if those resting upon them have no guidance as to the 
 processes for strengthening them, or have no idea that 
 good granite lies just at hand. After all, it is this same 
 old sinner, Intolerance, which is the star performer in 
 the melee to-day. Extremists who are unable to put 
 themselves in any other man’s place are equally disturb¬ 
 ing whether Fundamentalists or Modernists. There is 
 seen, not infrequently, a strange anomaly—an extreme 
 liberal excessively and most disagreeably intolerant, and, 
 on the other hand, a devoted and highly spiritualized 
 fundamentalist who quite certainly never heard of the 
 milk of human kindness, or, at least, has left it unused 
 so long that it has gone sour. The open discussion of 
 these theological differences has appeared, to a greater 
 or less extent, in the great assemblies of several of the 
 larger denominations. The chief injury to the missionary 
 program has not been, however, in the fair conflict in the 
 open, but in the more subtle ways of small literature, 
 small talk and the propaganda of insinuation. To a large 
 extent this goes unanswered. The integrity of missionary 
 opinion and devotion has been assailed. Absurd sug¬ 
 gestions of the heterodoxy of missionary leaders both at 
 home and abroad have been whispered. Agencies which 
 are outside of the Churches and which, since they repre¬ 
 sent no formal constituency, are free to put the accent 
 upon some special doctrine or some peculiar method of 
 
 16 
 
administration, divert support from the more regular so¬ 
 cieties. The discontent of pious ignorance and the im¬ 
 patience of a secular spirit find in the present unsettled 
 thought of the country a not unwelcome occasion for 
 withholding and for criticism. That these phenomena 
 are little more than appearances, and that they are not 
 symptoms, many are glad to believe. That the springs 
 of beneficence, especially towards the unseen people far 
 away, have felt the influence of a dry season and have 
 been running low, can hardly be denied. That the con¬ 
 ditions are permanent, I, for one, do not believe. 
 
 And now, per contra. The annual contributions for 
 foreign missions far exceed those of seven and eight 
 years ago. There were never so many missionaries on 
 the field. The world over, the range of activity has 
 widened. The zeal of our young people for service 
 abroad has not slackened though it is creating new chan¬ 
 nels for expression. Recruits ever exceed budgets. Wise 
 men and women steadily and undismayed are examining 
 the technique of administration with a view to simplicity, 
 economy and efficiency. Their work is not good material 
 for publicity and little is heard of them, but the results 
 of their patience in invention and of their fund of ex¬ 
 perience will be found all along the line. The mission¬ 
 ary leaders of the day have given good evidence of their 
 vigour and vitality. Prompt utterances, powerful and 
 far-reaching, have gone to interested governments and to 
 the missionary forces in China. They ask that, in the 
 
 17 
 
revision of the treaties, missionaries be relieved both of 
 the protection and the handicap of special rights, and 
 that the steps toward the abolition of extra-territoriality 
 be speeded up. The missionary movement may have lost 
 momentum but the missionary mind is keen; it has lost 
 neither purpose nor edge. 
 
 Many will recall the days when we said, ‘There is a 
 silent America.’ It spoke not uncertainly in the period 
 of spiritual idealism when the world war brought its 
 challenge and its test. There is a silent American Church. 
 There is often life where there is no speech. Tens of 
 millions of church members write nothing for the press, 
 and are heard neither in the council room nor on the plat¬ 
 form. To action wide and sweeping the right voice ever 
 stirs them. Millions of them do not give to foreign mis¬ 
 sions, but millions of them do. It is not candid to stress 
 the one without stressing the other. One of the boards 
 reports between fifteen and twenty thousand individuals 
 concerned in intelligent giving to specific objects. Lit¬ 
 erature, it is believed, in greater volume and in more 
 effective form than ever before reaches the people—the 
 daily press, the religious press, Sunday school journals, 
 special periodicals, tracts, booklets, church bulletins, 
 manifolded field letters, children’s stories, books of his¬ 
 tory, of adventure and of devotion. The hundreds of 
 thousands of women in the women’s missionary societies 
 and departments have relaxed neither in their faith nor 
 in their enterprise. The outstanding fact, after all, is 
 
 18 
 
\ 
 
 that there is in this vast church fellowship of believers in 
 Jesus Christ a spiritual force that cannot be repressed. 
 False ideas must be rebuked and cleared away. Many 
 year ago Canon Fremantle wrote a great book to which 
 he gave the title, The World the Subject of Redemption. 
 The notion seems to prevail in some quarters that the 
 world is the subject of, let us say, education, or reform, 
 or civilization. Confidence must rest not upon some skil¬ 
 ful contrivance but upon the Divine Man. This is not a 
 contest of cult with cult. Our concern is not preaching 
 to men about something whose chief merit lies in its 
 being better than that which they have. Here is some¬ 
 thing outside of “churchizing’ the multitudes. Here are 
 a life, a cross, a tomb, a resurrection—the redemption of 
 men from sin, infinite compassion for their weakness and 
 sorrow, victory over death, eternal life. Here and there 
 men act as though our Leader had left the field, or that 
 what He did nineteen hundred years ago ended His part 
 of it, and that the rest is our overwhelming task with Him 
 away and not caring. Is the Gospel of a Living Christ 
 a new Gospel in our generation? Does the motive which 
 moved the missionary heroes of the early days—the con¬ 
 straining love of Christ—seem too personal, too intimate, 
 for a highly organized Christianity? Would the effort 
 once again to fan into flame the missionary passion serve 
 a purpose which the cultivation of a missionary intel¬ 
 ligence and a missionary conscience leaves incomplete? 
 Frankly, ‘out of the depths,’ and out of the buffetings of 
 
 19 
 
the cross currents of modern experience, many in Amer¬ 
 ica are crying unto Him—this Living Lord. They believe 
 that ‘there is no other name.’ They discredit no organ¬ 
 ization, they decry no program, they would honour and 
 arouse the Church, but just now, with breaking hearts, 
 they are asking for the vision of Him—the Christ who 
 Lives. They believe in the throb as well as in the science 
 of missions. They urge for themselves and for others 
 that the warmth of a fervent spirit may go with the cool 
 thinking of a clear brain. 
 
 There is no substitute for the Missionary Passion. 
 
 The burning heart of our compassion for the multi¬ 
 tudes must be our Passion for Jesus Christ. 
 
 It was the compelling power in the first century. The 
 twentieth has found for it no substitute. 
 
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