f re ay \ ‘ as | { ayY} e Micsign~ ; AN PO te a8 EPPeS ee _ PASTOR'S e IMISSIONARY}/ MANUAL. PRICH, 25 CENTS. SexiF-SuppokrineG MISSIONARY PUBLICATION DEPARTMENT, iy 150 Firra AvE., New YORE. 1891. Rev. JAMES MUDGE, D.D. Tracts ana Leaflets of the Sale Supporthig: Mission- | ary Publication Department. A Iare Worte PN Te CE ee Bo 50 MurnaxantTua (Abridged)... 206+ --eers sets rees trees by $67) Aino Coats or Fire From orr THE Missrtonany ALTAR ..... twelve copies 1 00 Our GERMAN MISSIONS <: ss sss suineccunesenes ceeecess ee por Hundred 50. Frve Hoxpaep Years oF Isuam in TURKEY.........-. “ Mink ams set) MISSIONARY LiTTERATURE 6... cece cree tees teen rere eens ¢ iy 660) TRANSLATED FROM MALAYSIA. ....-ce05 sees ceerccersens “ thousand 1 00 GovamecutGn BOOKS S Ss oii ee agit ont adeemenarinn ya arom ane 50 as CaTHOHISM ON SEE UE AAG GANNON TN a ola tiertas MPT GL ghee Great VaLuE AND Success OF FOREIGN MISSIONS .........-...each 35 “Waar tur Conrerence Mrssionany Soorery oAN DO t FOR MISSIONS os cs cece cers ereeeeeee sees tees cess DOF hundred 50 BLIND DAVID ois 6 hE se ia elegy aaa iain al ea eget be 2 00 NORTH INDIA MISSION. .c0e cece reece eee es tee en ee eens ¥ ns 75 Hteou (PRpwih TO PORPEDS. cys iy cov eee ter teeer 3 eee a canmcne tnt (05 ClGsne Naame clie otc bce Seca meme eine er emingeLa maga: fea 1 00 WHAT DOES 17 COST... cece sete eet eee tees ene tees Me 60 Sucorss OF TIE GosPEL AND THE Pare or tHE NEW eae THEOLOGIES. By BisHop HURST.... +--+ esse sees . dozen 1 00 Tse Reiierous Stats OF THE Worup. By BisHop Foster “ thousand 1 00 Gop’s Tere ead m ie neice aye ee es mendes § “ hundred 50 f A Turning Story oF Misstons.....- alee elec teal BOO ‘ Epworth LeaGun CARDS 22... 06. cece ees eee eee tees x Se eerie ‘CONFERENCE MIsstONARY SERMON 1... ceeseeese cece cers " nf 2 00 Live or Bisnop HANWINGTON.......6-0+-¢ scot eess cess Bes ov aie 5 00 Ocw Narrvi PREACHERS J. <, )i5- oe eet ree eresayee ehOUsaNd (2 00 Hinpu Women AND THEIR HOMES «205 -0- + ease sees eee “ hundred 1 00 a Base, ‘ipa Snowy Ov Pari. . desea eevee eee et magrer eto CO BORS 1 O06) ie ae [uInc GHING TING soe. oe eee ee tenet ence eee das « hundred DO ee peng Conorat Exercises, “Hrs HenrraGn”.... 1... eee eee © linphaas e361 oe Ge he Dan Tarra AROn Yi ivitees yaen i h 1 00 | 4 Jo, Bune ace aieeess eens Bae 8 BR fas On nas Bis AND THE PIsiaANS see ee ca bas alae iale ise ne we ae Fe eie a 0 Ce OB EN anes ee Misstonaky CONSECRATION OF THE WHOLE CHuRoH.... .perhundred 50 ai Oux WonperFun Mrisstonany MACHINERY «...-+++++++: “ thousand 1 00 eee BIRTRDAY ENVELOPES, 4s) nid eA spams se “ hundred 25 GONVENTION HYMNS . 2b ce ec eee eee cae ates tees keer g es .each 10 Tun Districr MisstonABy CONVENTION......-.-+.: Leas per hundred 50 Hinpv We oeeOR nn Celene ee ee “Y De Geet eal Sale ke ESTRANGEMENT OF THE Mkue ma owe Geen w eae eenvahkeus ce ae Ge loos WOR MINDEALG oooh aca obey (io vey a ae meat va ee ee ec 50 *Typrrative CLaims OF THE HeaTHEN WORLD.....,-.-. 2 « 50 oa AG ae if RomMANOE OF MODERN MISSIONS ......+- 0-5 tes .twenty-five copies 7 an tg 3 REsuME OF eee Ce ODOC , es n Send orders to «MISSIONARY SECRETARIES, Bat Mes We j | oan ©), 160 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK. Re ee GNU. ae i a fal . pare DAES att ast * - PASTOR'S MisSIONARY MANU AL. BY Rev. JAMES MUDGE, D.D. MISSIONARY SOCIETY Methodist Episcopal Church, 150 FirtH Ave., NEw YORK. 1891. Press of WR, WR. McCabe & Co, | 144 Monroe Street, Chicago Pam a A : V] j : ; RO CO, Ak ssiaN- gw sy fA PREFATORY WORDS. If any apology is needed for this little book, let it be found in the following facts, which it seems proper to state as ac- counting for its production. The author, since returning in 1883 from ten years’ service as a missionary in connection with the North India Conference, has aimed to be, in the few charges which he has served, a missionary pastor at home, deeming it a plain duty, since he was providentially prevented from going back, to do all in his power to promote the cause at this end of the line. He has also been permitted to accomplish something in a wider field as continuous Secretary and Treasurer of the New England Conference Missionary Society since its reorganization in 1886. Besides this, during the past four years he has been Lecturer on Missions in the Boston University School of Theology, and is also Treasurer of the International Missionary Union. Being brought in all these relations, as well as some others not here specified, to give much time and strength to the study of missions, it appeared to him in the light of a duty to throw a small portion of the results of this study into a condensed, convenient form that might prove of service to his fellow pas- tors—especially the younger portion and those who had not paid much attention to the theme—by making it easier for them to discharge their full obligations to the missionary cause. Hence this unpretending pamphlet, which might easily have been expanded into a considerable book for the library shelves, but which, in its present shape, it is hoped, ili 1V PREFATORY WORDS. may be found of sufficient worth to lie on the study table and receive frequent consultation when missionary matters need to be considered. May the Lord bless it to the advancement of that glorious time when He whose right it is shall reign in all hearts throughout the earth! JAMES MUDGE. CLINTON, Mass., Sept. 1, 1891. CHAPTER. Ai aie CAANXR wD = Oo oe 1) r3% 14. 15. 16. 17 18. 19. 20. CONTENTS. PAGE. MISSIONARY PASTORS THE NEED OF THE HOUR......... ie DHEeNLONTHELY CONCERT OF PRAVER:...ccevercensecsectaveses II THE SUNDAY SCHOOL, MISSIONARY SOCIETY. ..........00. 18 RID Wi LO PRAISE MONEY ) FORGIVEISGI ONS 385 tcusncndewas aces hess 26 Owes LOUVEE TeCOMMON. OBJECTIONS. 0... dccccustagatee dens 35 THE CHIEF GROUNDS OF MISSIONARY OBLIGATION ..... 4O OUR MISSIONARY SOCIETY’S EVOLUTION...........:.0sceeees 44 ee AUS IL LARVAORGANTZA TIONS. .isdetctebadess ox. s¥eueeatbasss 49 Ue OMELG NAVI LGSLONS Gita herisdsnrsceestecs ts longe¥erdon ve cet 54 Cie LOM STC LISS) ONS itansea- seu seer dont re ve eso oS ANN pee 64 THE CONFERENCE MISSIONARY SOCIETY...........-..c0c000 69 SIMULTANEOUS MISSIONARY MEETINGG...... ee eee Pek Ge PMS ePORGVMISSIONARY DERMONS..%.ccces0 faa eeees0mecghs sence 76 HPOPICS/ FOR MISSIONARY ADDRESSES 2. sce. .lecesccisdenegces'es 80 NEISSIONAR Sc UELOUGHTS. IN) POBTRYV..dssissyc0cesenesssthen vse: 84 PAC ICRP MRA NL ESOT ON Sits nts scte reds» ¢s dcudarst anes nord ee wis sicinihs 94 Pee DEN GRUNT DAIVASSLONG fizecs ch sed tsb gover: tds siskb daoascooe rs 98 HEART THROBS OF MISSIONARY HEROES ...........:0ce0000s 102 THE NOBLE SPIRIT OF THE NATIVE CONVERTS........... I1O NEGGHTSeAN DT ARRO Werk OINTS tutes cess srees tense vsscpetascpeces iia ye THE PASTOR'S MISSIONARY MANUAL. I. Missionary Pastors the Need of the Hour. Tus is the closing decade of the nineteenth Christian cen- tury, a century rightly called, because of the marvelous changes produced by it in every sphere of human activity, wtihemwonderot the ages.,) ) But.the interest of.the Church, in missionary work, the noblest enterprise of all, and the most fit to create enthusiasm, does not for some reason, seem to feel the quickening pulses of the hour as much as do most other things. It advances, indeed, but the progress is far too slow. It moves, but in this period of steam and electricity to move on an ox-cart cannot be accounted satisfactory. In fact, so far as the contributions go, (and by them we best gauge the interest, ) they have for some time not kept pace with the in- crease of the numbers and wealth of the churches. Dr. Dor- chester computes that the Evangelical Protestant Church mem- bers of the United States gave to Home and Foreign Missions in 1850 one and one-tenth mills to each dollar of their property; in 1860 this sum was reduced to nine-tenths of a mill; in 1870 to eight-tenths, and in 1880 to six and a half tenths of a mill, The computation for 1890 would no doubt show a still further reduction. In 1850 thirty-five cents per member was given; in 1860 forty-eight cents; in 1870, sixty-three cents; in 1880, fifty-nine and a half cents; and in 1890 probably about the: same as in 1870, or if an increased amount not more than two cents for two decades. The Methodist Episcopal Church in 1872 gave to its Missionary Society forty-five cents for each of its lay and ministerial members; in 1888 it gave only forty-six cents, although the sixteen years had without doubt much in- creased its riches. Is there any explanation that can be found why an impulse commensurate with the calls and claims of the dying world has not been put into this enterprise ? Without attempting now an analysis of ultimate causes we affirm unhesitatingly, that the responsibility for the present deplorable indifference with reference to the evangelization of the heathen rests chief- ly upon the pastors of the home churches.. There is no diversity of opinion on this point among those who have made the matter the subject of most careful: study. They all say with Dr. Christlieb, ‘“The great difference of interest in missions in different parishes comes chiefly from the different position hh 2 THE PASTOR'S MISSTONARY MANUAL. taken by the clergy in regard to it.’’ They all agree with Dr. Pierson that ‘‘the stream rises no higher than its source, and ordinarily the measure of the pastor’s interest in the world field determines the level of his people’s interest and enthusi- asm.’’ Dr. Duff, who traveled widely, observed closely, and felt deeply on this theme, declared ‘‘The greatest obstacle to the success of missions lies in the apathy and indifference of ministers.”’ It can easily be seen why so large a responsibility is located here. ‘The ministers are the natural and appointed leaders. They create the sentiment of the congregations, and in the long run exert a molding influence on the people. The latter are in very many cases willing to be led, but they can do only a little without him to whom they rightly look for inspiration and direction. He holds the key of the situation. With tact and persistence he can bring to bear a constant pressure that will in the course of a few years transform opinion. It is per- fectly certain that little or no missionary spirit will be de- veloped in a church unless the pastor himself is full of it. If by his silence or inactivity he declares that the enterprise is of small moment the people can hardly be much blamed for fail- ing to support it. The pastor who does nothing or next to nothing, really opposes. A goodly proportion of’every con- gregation will respond generously to appeals for this cause, if such appeals are presented with enthusiasm.’ In the vast ma- jority of cases it is perfectly just to say that where there is a failure in the collection the pastor is the one chiefly at fault. He was induced to slur the matter over or take it up ina purely perfunctory and apologetic manner, and the result was only what might have been expected: a shame to him, a blight on the benevolence of his congregation, a grief to his Lord, and a defrauding of the ‘‘Greeks and barbarians’’ to whom he is as much a debtor as was the apostie Paul. It is true that a pastor who throws his soul into this thing as he ought will occasionally meet with criticism or even. op- position on the part of some of the leading men of his church. But is such a fact any reason for silence or for recreancy? Should it not rather be deemed an argument for greater earnestness? It certainly shows that previous pastors have been culpably neglectful to duly train the flock in this direc- tion, have suffered them to go on year after year ignorant of what should be the first concern of a Christian Church, But a true minister, who looks to the favor of his Master rather than of man, will say to himself, not let me be quiet about this lest I damage my popularity, not let me do as others before me have done and leave to some braver successor the task I find too hard; no, but, let me do my full duty in the THE NEED OF THE HOUR. 3 fear of God, with as much tact, to be sure, as I can command, but not with unmanly cowardice and the shirking of plain ob- ligation. The minister who fails to cultivate the missionary spirit in his charge wrongs the church in general, whose funds he cripples and whose disciplinary requirements he _ violates; wrongs his own individual church, in ways which we will shortly explain; wrongs Christ Jesus, the travail of whose soul he frustrates and whose coming he postpones; wrongs the world at large, and himself in particular most of all. He forfeits his legitimate share in the glorious triumph of the gospel and loses the welcome at heaven’s gate which he might otherwise receive from great numbers brought there out of every nation by his indirect instrumentality, even though he could not in person reach them. ‘‘The world is my parish,’’ every true minister will say, especially every lineal successor of John Wesley; the world is my parish, and no smaller sphere can answer the demands of Christ upon me; I cannot excus- ably plan for anything less than Messiah's universal enthrone- ment. He who does his utmost at home will doubtless find at the last day that his prayers and his urgency in raising the funds have been among the most powerful factors in produc- ing the glad results. Great numbers of pastors no doubt honestly think that their duty to the church immediately placed in their care will not permit them to do much for the cause in general, and especially for people in distant lands. ‘They fall into the delu- sion so common with many laymen, that whatever money or strength goes out of the parish is so much subtracted from the sum total that would otherwise be spent in the parish, and that if nothing is given to Africa or Asia there will be so much the more laid out for America’s uplifting. But all experience proves that this is not so at all, and that the missionary cause is, as Dr. Durbin used to phrase it, as much ‘‘the life of the Church at home as it is the hope of the Church abroad.’’ Nothing so ministers to a church’s true growth, gives it such edification and strength as the being drawn out of itself and acively interested in the welfare of the lost millions. Nothing so stirs the heart for home work as seeking to spread the gospel amongst those who know it not. Nothing so expands the soul and broadens the sympathies, and calls out generosity, loosing the purse strings and the heart strings, as the taking up of God’s world-wide work for prayer and study and active participation. Nothing so promotes the principle and habit of Christian stewardship and dispels selfishness as getting men filled with the grand thought of conquering the world for Christ. This will put that element of the heroic into their life 4 THE PASTOR’ SSMISSIONARY MANGAL, which is needed to rescue it from sordidness even as, thirty years ago, the saving of this nation did, lifting men above themselves in a way that no smaller purpose could possibly have done. Dr. Alden well says, ‘‘ There is no form of human need at home which would not be thoroughly supplied simply as a supplementary ‘twelve baskets full’ to a well equipped resolute endeavor first of all to feed the hungering millions of heathen lands.’’ ‘The Church will certainly do better for her own people by forgetting them in a measure than by thinking of them exclusively. It may seem like bread cast upon the > waters, but it will be surely found after many days. ‘There will be accruing as the blest result new evidence of God’s truth, new convictions of His power, new affection for. His will. Faith for larger home conquests will be strengthened by the nighty works wrought, the glorious victories won, in the lands afar. Selfishness will diminish and zeal for God’s cause in all directions dominate. We shall feel the closeness of our connection with the myriads of our fellow men. We shall learn to look upon life not from the narrow, niggardly stand- point of self-interest chiefly, but from the wider, kindlier plat- form of a generous recognition of the active brotherhood of man. The best days of the Church were the days of her greatest activity in extending the word of truth; she has flourished in proportion as she has been true to this cause ; and so it will always be. It is vain to seek a stable prosperity in any other line. No nation or individual can really succeed that lives merely or mainly to itself. Itis a sure recipe for Church decay, for choking up its channels of beneficence and shriveling up piety, to act upon the maxim, ‘‘ Charity begins and ends at home,”’ to devote all strength and time and interest and funds to local con- veniences andadornments, to get little or no information as to the needs of the great world at large, and to give little or nothing for its help. They who water are themselves watered, they who bless others are blessed ; he who shares, at God’s com- mand, ‘the little meal in the barrel will find the supply marvel- ously continued ; he who stops amid the bitter cold to rub a freezing stranger into vigor will thereby save his own life, while his heartless companion refusing to tarry passes on to destruction. Just as an army which is held within its en- trenchments and kept at spading loses heart and is practically beaten, so is it with the Church ; if it has no enterprise or as- piration for making its influence widely felt, it will spiritually decline. The sword itself well wielded is the most efficient shield. The war carried into Africa and into Asia does most for the protection of Hurope and America. Whenever the . Church has lost sight of its expansive character, its world- THE NEED OF THE HOUR. 5 encompassing commission, it has begun to lose ground. Whenever it has gone forward aggressively in obedience to the command of Christ, His spirit has been with it and all has been well. The fact is our benevolent resources are practically inex- haustible, only waiting to be drawn out, and in no other way can this so well be done as by the cultivation of the spirit of missions and the urging of the mighty motives which underlie this magnificent enterprise. ‘‘The light that shines farthest shines brightest nearest home.’’ ‘‘ We need in the West,” said a far-seeing Western clergyman at a public meeting, ‘‘a Christianity strong enough to convert the world.’’ He felt that to contend against the mighty forces there marshalled in opposition to religion nothing weak would answer. And it is true of our entire nation that only missionary piety, the strongest and clearest sort, can do the work required. To confine everything within our own boundaries would de- feat the very end sought. The streams of beneficence would dry up. Any such proposition exhibits lamentable lack of perspective, a total misapprehension of the true philosophy of giving. It is ashort-sightedness that ought to be constantly exposed, and ought by this time to be much better understood than it seems to be. The subversion of foreign missions would indeed be, as Dr. Anderson says, ‘‘ the destroying of the great wheel in the vast machine of many wheels of which our be- nevolent system is composed.’’ ‘To export religion is the best way to increase the amount available for home consumption. The church of Pastor Lewis Harms in Hermansburg, often referred to, is an illustrious example of this principle. Though composed of poor peasants and farmers, under his energetic leadership they organized themselves into a missionary society, built a ship, sent out a missionary colony from their own number to South Africa, established a training school and a missionary magazine, and soon had scores of laborers and thou- sands of converts in Zululand. Did it cripple them at home? No; the record is that during the seventeen years that Pastor Harms was spared to carry on the enterprise his parish enjoyed one long revival and ten thousand members were gathered into his church fold. Dr. Anderson tells us that in 1847 the native churches in the Sandwich Islands where the mission had been planted for 27 years and had met with remarkable success, gave alarming signs of apathy and collapse. There was a deficiency of relig- ious stimulus. It was found there, as it has been in our own country, that the motive power of home interests alone, the mere finishing up of the work already so largely done, was not of itself sufficiently strong to meet the needs of the case. ‘‘In 6 THE PASTOR SSUTSSIONARYAVANOCAL, short, it was painfully certain that the infant churches on those islands could not be raised to the level of enduring and effective working churches without a stronger religious influ- ence than could be brought to act upon them from within their own Christianized islands.’’? It was this discovery that gave rise to the missions to Micronesia, an archipelago 2000 miles westward, where native Hawaiians supported by their own churches have since been operating with the best of effects in the islands from which as well as those to which they went. It has been repeatedly proved that it is impossible for mission churches as well as others to reach their highest and truest state without some outside field of labor. To be simply recipi- ents fatally narrows and fossilizes. Dr. Ellinwood mentions a New York pastor whose congre- gation were struggling witha heavy debt, who was wise enough to urge them on that very account to enlist in outside mission work. He would not allow them, as a weaker, short- sighted leader would have done, to count themselves poor and dwell upon their burdens till all heart was taken out of them. He said, ‘‘We have so much todo among ourselves that we cannot afford to withdraw from the help of others in Christ’s name. Wecannot do even our own work selfishly. We can only succeed on the higher and broader principle of love to Christ and His common cause.’’ Would there were more such ministers! Then would there be more churches filled with power and efficiency and vigorous spiritual life. Dr. F. A. Noble of Chicago, at the great London Mission- ary Conference in 1888 gave the following item of personal ex- perience in proof of the proposition that active interest in mis- sion work helps to educate a church in liberality. He said: ‘‘ About ten years ago the providence of God led me to the pastorate of my church in Chicago. The church had hada long and severe struggle, but we were between fifty and sixty thousand dollars in debt. The men who were in it had given and given. They were compelled to meet the current ex- penses of the church, and it was as much as they could do to meet the semi-annual interest of this vast sum. After years of discouragement they had decided that they could not do anything for Foreign Missions, nor much, if anything, for Home Missions. I had been for days taking an estimate of things. I wentinto the pulpit oneSabbath. J announced the schedule of benefactions. I said, ‘We will give so much for this and so much for that. In two weeks we will take the an- nual collection in behalf of Foreign Missions. I tell you what I want you todo. I want you to give six hundred dollars.’ They looked at each other and they looked at me. The sum was so vast that they had not any words of reproach. So I es- THE NEED OF THE HOUR. ri caped. Next Sunday morning I repeated the announcement, and said, ‘Remember, next Sunday you give this six hundred dollars.’ JI heard some remarks about the new minister that had come. We took our collection. What was it? It was not six hundred but eight hundred dollars. When I took my chair the next Sunday morning it was the most astonished congregation you ever saw. What was the outcome? ‘They began to have some faith in themselves, some sort of respect for their capacity ; they found their means were not exhausted. In six years we had paid every dollar of our indebtedness, and raised our contributions up to nearly twelve thousand dollars. There is no church in this continent, or any other, which, if the minister will put his heart into it, and say, ‘Our sympa- thies must be as broad as the sympathies of Jesus Christ, our interests must be as wide as the interests of Jesus Christ,’ can- not be brought to give of its substance for foreign mission work.”’ . In view of all these facts, which might be greatly multi- plied, can any one doubt that that pastor greatly wrongs his church who, from any motive, however well meant, leads or permits it to confine its labors and prayers to its own individual wants. It is a course sure to diminish its gifts und graces, and decrease its energies and endowments. No matter if the church be feeble, let it begin at once to do something for those far poorer than itself, and it will take on strength. Dr. Samuel Miller, formerly professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, writes: ‘‘If I were asked how a church, however small or poor, would be most likely to rise and grow, I would say with confidence, let it begin in good earnest to pray and exert itself for sending the gospel to the benighted and perish- ing. However small its strength, let it rouse that little, such as it is, and engage with fervent prayer and with heartfelt love for souls, in contributing to the Lord’s treasury, and the very effort would tend to eniarge and build it up.’’ Dr. Andrew Sonmierville, of the United Presbyterian Church, Scotland, records: ‘‘ My official position for so many years as foreign secretary, and the visits which during that time I paid to sev- eral places, gave me fitting opportunity for observing the state of matters, and I often said that I scarcely knew a congrega- tion favored with a minister who took an active part in mission work, that was not prosperous.’’ To be a missionary pastor, then—that is, one carrying on his heart the welfare of the wide, wide world, as well as the little part of it within the limits of his local parish, is as plain a duty as can be conceived. Viewed from any and every aspect its obligation is imperative and pressing. It remains to ask, what will a missionary pastor do? To which the answer is, he will do his utmost to develop a mis- 8 LHE- FAST OR SALSSIONA RY a Wy GA. sionary spiritin his church. And in order to accomplish this he will disseminate information, inculcate principles, maintain an interesting monthly concert of prayer, organize his Sunday- school into a Missionary Society, and devise means for contrib- uting his full quota to the missionary treasury. The last three points we will take up in the three following chapters.