MESSAGE AND METHOD The Report of Commission II to the Con gress on Christian WortTn Latin America Panama, February 10-20, 1916 I MESSAGE AND METHOD The Report of Commission II to the Congress on Christian Work in Latin America Panama, February 10-20, 1916 Published by The Committee on Cooperation in Latin America 25 Madison Avenue, New York City 1916 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Columbia University Libraries https://archive.org/details/messagemethodrepOOcong CONTENTS Chapter Foreword . Page • 5 I — Introduction 7 II — Relevant Facis in Latin-Amekican Civil- ization . . . . . . .II III — The Aim and Message of the Evangeitcal Churches ..... 34 IV — The Evangelical Churches and the Social Gospel . . . . -43 V — The Christian Message and the Educated Classes ...... 58 VI — The Preparation for Christian Work in Latin America . . . . *72 VII — Findings ...... 81 List of Members of the Commission . . .84 List of Correspondents ..... 86 Appendix — Questions Sent to Corresponding Members of the Commission . . . • 91 3 FOREWORD In these days of great interest in Latin America, the Panama Congress stands out preeminently as the first united effort of the Christian forces to make a careful study of the social, educational and spiritual life of these growing nations. The Congress which met at Panama was a delegated body with 304 carefully chosen repre- sentatives from more than fifty organizations, coming from twenty-two different nations. This gathering of many representative leaders of the religious life of these nations gave its time largely to the consideration of the reports of eight Commissions, one of which reported each week day of the Congress. These Commissions were as follows : I. Survey and Occupation. II. Message and Method. III. Education. IV. Literature. V. Women’s Work. VI. The Church in the Field. VII. The Home Base. VIII. Cooperation and Unity. These reports probably represent the most thorough investigation yet made of the spiritual life of Latin Amer- ica. For more than a year the Commissions, composed largely of trained students of Latin-American life and the science of missions, carried on their investigations. The preliminary drafts, prepared from hundreds of pa- pers received from Latin America in answer to inquiries, were sent in proof sheet form to some two hundred ca- pable critics, for their suggestions. In the light of these 5 criticisms the reports were rewritten. Joint meetings of members of the several Commissions were held from time to time for comparative study. The reports were finally placed in the hands of an editorial committee, which spent several weeks of diligent work on them be- fore they were printed and sent to the delegates to the Congress for their study. The presentaion of the reports at Panama made a deep impression. While all of them are to be printed in permanent form, together with the discussions at Panama, as soon as possible, there was such demand for the im- mediate and extensive circulation of the Report on Message and Method, that the Committee on Coopera- tion in Latin America has thought best to issue it in this inexpensive form. It represents the results of the Commission’s study concerning the spiritual inheritances of Latin America and its judgment as to the message that is needed by these growing nations as they face their new life. This report, with the reports of the seven other Com- missions and the discussions and addresses at Panama, will be published in three large volumes on September 1st by the Missionary Education Movement. Announce- ments of this and other publications growing out of the Congress will be found in the last pages of this booklet. Beside the work done by this Commission and its cor- respondents, large credit must be given to the editorial committee, especially to its chairman. Dr. Frank K. San- ders, and its secretary, Mr. Charles E. Fahs, for their efficient and unstinted service in the preparation of this and other reports. Robert E. Speer, Chairman of the Committee on Cooperation in Latin America. April 25, 1916. 6 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The task of this Commission is twofold, viz., (i) to draw up a brief statement of those aspects of the Chris- tian message which would seem to require special em- phasis at the present time in Latin America, and (2) to suggest methods of presenting and interpreting the mes- sage, and of most helpfully applying its truths in prac- tical ways to actual conditions in the countries concerned. The statement and suggestions are made in the light of the conspectus of the whole field as set forth in the pre- ceding report of Commission I, but they are based chiefly on independent investigations carried on by Commission II itself, through abundant correspondence and research, and through special conferences with collaborating au- thorities competent to speak for all parts of the Latin- American world. The Commission has assumed that in the sphere of fundamental religious values — the spiritual, intellectual and social needs whose satisfaction has to do with man’s right relations to God and to his fellow-man, and with the highest welfare of nations — Latin America does not differ from North America, or from any other land whether nominally Christian or non-Christian, however apparent may be the diversities in national temperament, historical experience, present status and external forms of the re- spective civilizations. Beside this recognition of the identity in all lands of fundamental religious needs growing out of common humanity and brotherhood, the Commission would urge the validity of the corresponding Christian conviction that the gospel of Christ is univer- Twofold task of the Commission Three assumptions: (1) Religious needs are everywhere the same (2) The gospel ade- quately meets these needs. 7 (3) Evangelical Christianity must impart it The discussion timely. Latin America’s new political life an earnest of a religious awakening. sally identical in its essential truths and in its power to meet the deepest needs of the soul. The gospel for Latin America, as for all the world, is a message of life — suffi- cient, abundant, inexhaustible. Furthermore, the Com- mission conceives that the right and only function, as well as the unescapable obligation, of the evangelical Churches in Latin America, as elsewhere, is faithfully to proclaim, to interpret and to practice the Christian gos- pel in its purity and fullness, in order to secure its vol- untary acceptance by those who have not received it, and to seek the application of its principles and the communi- cation of its spirit to individual, social and national life. The timeliness of the theme of this Commission is suf- ficiently indicated by mention of the wide-spread solici- tude concerning the religious life of Latin America, which, in the last few years, has emerged in many parts of the Christian world, a solicitude to which the strongest expression has been given by religious leaders, both Ro- man Catholic and Protestant, who are in immediate con- tact with the special problems existent in the republics. Scarcely less keen — despite much indifference to religious matters on the part of the educated classes — has been the interest evinced by eminent patriots, statesmen and scholars, especially in South America, who, while with- out a positive religious message themselves, are never- theless concerned as to the content and quality of the inner life of their people, and as to the religious goal to which the masses are tending. The Latin-American countries have undergone vast, and in most cases violent, political changes. During the first half of the nineteenth century all the Spanish colo- nies of the mainland from Mexico to the Argentine trans- formed themselves through conviction and insurrection into independent democracies. The close of the century saw Cuba and Porto Rico, the last of Spain’s Antillean dominions, pass from under European control. Likewise Brazil, gigantic offspring of Portugal, after passing through the successive stages of tributary dependency, autonomous kingdom and constitutional empire, became in 1889, a free democracy of federated states — the latest and largest of the southern republics. _ It were strange indeed if the new experience of political freedom and 8 national independence, which has progressed despite many unforeseen vicissitudes, should not result in deep stirrings of the religious life and in new problems for the Churches. The wrench from long-established relations and the social readjustments involved in the prosecution of national programs inherently so subversive of tradi- tion, so radically reconstructive, have had in Latin Amer- ica the usual reaction in the sphere of faith and morals. The problem of the realization of a religious life in terms comportable with true democracy has been the most difficult with which the new republics have had to deal. And it is the crux of Latin-American life to-day. Education, too, through modern literature and in sec- ular school systems under state control, aiming to em- brace the full curriculum of modern knowledge, has, in countries like Mexico, Chile, the Argentine, Uruguay and Brazil, and to a lesser extent in other countries, cut mul- titudes loose from their former intellectual moorings and created the necessity of a modern restatement of spiritual verities. Thousands of Latin America’s brightest young men, who, in the best foreign universities have pursued modern thought to its highest ranges, challenge the Church for a faith which, compatible with science and with reason, can meet the demands of the modern mind. Racial commingling, increasing foreign contact chiefly through immigration on the Atlantic seaboard and, above all, the remarkable economic development which has characterized the more prosperous regions, have given rise to new social relations with their attendant problems, and to new attitudes toward religion, which constitute a severe test of the resources of the Church. The religious question not only confronts the Latin-American peoples to-day, emerging as a vital issue from the experiences of the past; it is discerned also as an all-important element in the future national prosperity. As religion is the soul of history, the character of the coming development of Latin civilization depends in supreme degree upon the quality of its moral and spiritual life. Only upon a sound religious basis can the Latin character and the Latin culture rise to their full possibilities and fulfil their potential mission in the western hemisphere. At the present time when South America stands on Her new education will compel the restatement of faith The new economic situation requires a new moral and spiritual emphasis 9 The present moment strategic tiptoe, facing a new industrial era and preparing to ex- pand in vast commercial enterprises ; when all the repub- lics are responding to the enlarging impulses of Pan- Americanism ; when Mexico is struggling through revo- lution to a larger and purer freedom ; when Central America and the Antilles are feeling the thrill of a live- lier destiny by the opening of the Panama Canal ; when that great avenue of the seas, which, while it cuts the narrow bond that joined the two continents, thereby unites them by the more enduring ties of mutual ex* change in commodities and ideals, of international sym- pathy and friendship, of common purpose and of the common mission of Christian democracy — at such a time no question could be more important than this : In order that the Churches may adjust themselves to the new day and be an uplifting and guiding force in spiritual things, what shall be the message and the method of their min- istry ? lO CHAPTER II RELEVANT FACTS IN LATIN-AMERICAN CIVILIZATION The notes of the religious message most needed in Latin America to-day and the forms of service by which the Churches can most helpfully contribute to the welfare of the Latin-American peoples, can be determined only by accurate and sympathetic appreciation of the special conditions by which the Christian forces in the countries south of the United States are confronted. And the best way to understand these conditions is through inquiry into the historical factors which lie behind them. Noth- ing could be more gratuitous and futile than the attempt of the Panama Congress to suggest a religious program for Latin America, unless this is based on adequate knowledge of the forces and experiences which have made Latin-American civilization what it is. Of the antecedent factors upon acquaintance with which must largely depend an understanding of the pres- ent status, brief consideration will be given to the follow- ing: (i) racial complexity, (2) dominant spirit, (3) re- ligious inheritance, (4) political isolation, (5) democratic idealism. RACIAL COMPLEXITY In the twenty countries comprising the Latin-American world we do not find a homogeneous population, but a composite stock embracing various strains in differing combinations. The three main constituents are Iberian, Indian and African. The racial basis is for the most part not Spanish or Portuguese, but In- The religious message which Latin America needs must be based upon an adequate historical survey Five factors antecedent to the existing situation Population of Latin America not homogeneous but composite II The persistent Iberian element itself an amalgam Latin-American individuality a mingling of Iberian and Indian stocks dian. The Iberian colonists themselves were of widely divergent extraction, being descendants of the invaders who, in successive centuries from three continents, swarmed into the Spanish Peninsula. A student of Spanish history says of them: “On the great elevated table-land which occupies the center of Spain the original Iberian inhabitants were conquered by invading Celts with whom they were amalgamated. They were touched commercially by the Phoenicians and derived some religious ideas from the Greek colonies. They were for a period under the political influence of Carthage, yet remained distinctively Iberian. Then came the Roman invasion, strenuously opposed, persistently pushed, until at last Rome made her power and influ- ence universally felt. These Latins in turn amalgamated with the Iberians. Between these races was a true com- munity of genius and spirit. Rome introduced Chris- tianity to the Peninsula and exercised a powerful influ- ence there, yet the resultant culture was distinctively Ibe- rian. On the breaking up of the Roman Empire the Visigoths swept down upon Spain and overran the land from the Pyrenees to the pillars of Hercules. But the Gothic domination of three centuries modifled neither the polity nor the race characteristics of the Latin-Celt Ibe- rians. They ever remained foreigners to the people among whom they lived as the dominant race. The later invasion of the Moors, fanatics of another faith, and the long crusade to expel them, merely served further to amalgamate, deepen and intensify the racial spirit pre- viously established. This persistent • people became the controlling factor in framing Latin-American civiliza- tion.” The present differences in inward temperament, phys- ical appearance and general character, which distinguish the inhabitants of Latin-American countries, are in large measure explained by the early mingling of Basques with Araucanians, of Andalusians with Quechuas, of Portu- guese with Guaranis, of Castilians, Galicians and Cata- lonians with Chibchas, Aztecs, Arawaks and Caribs. In Brazil and the Caribbean islands African blood, inherited from the days of slavery, has darkened to various hues the mestizo peoples. About one-eighth of Brazil’s 12 24,000,000 are pure negroes. But on the whole, it is the Indian that everywhere prevails. Sehor Calderon classes Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay and Bolivia as Indian nations ; while he speaks of the general population as a “babel of races, so mixed that it is impossible to discover the definite outlines of the future type” and useless to look for racial unity. In Argentine, Uruguay and Chile, the Spanish racial contribution is the more prominent. An unfortunate element in this racial admixture is the fact that the Europeans who first gave direction to the new blood fusion were, for the most part, the adven- turers, freebooters, soldiers, — unprincipled, lawless, con- temptuous of moral restraint, desirous only of gold — who largely composed the colonial armies of Portugal and Spain. It was only when the conquest was well forwarded, and the colonial foundations laid, that 'the stream of higher Castilian culture came in sufficient vol- ume to offset incipient moral chaos, but too late withal to prevent an inheritance which hung as a dead weight upon the colonies. The national complexity of the Latin Americans, ex- plained by their historic origins and heritage, is reflected in moral standards and social ideals which are quite dif- ferent from those of Europe as well as of most of North America. Account must be taken of this in all attempts at religious approach. We have here a number of racial constituents, each bearing its own tradition, and all com- bining to produce a highly composite and subtle char- acter, whose mental quality must be carefully analyzed and whose motives must be clearly grasped, if the gospel is to be brought intelligently to bear upon their peculiar needs. THE DOMINANT LATIN SPIRIT As the Anglo-Saxon has established the dominant and assimilating tradition among the many mingled peoples of the United States, so the Iberian strain is uppermost in Latin America, transforming Spaniards, Portuguese, creoles, mestizos, Africans and Indians, and the more recent influx of Germans, English, Italians and even Slavs, into a people which, with all its local diversity and even its provincial antagonisms, is predominantly The earliest Spanish stock The Latin American of to-day racially distinctive Latin Americans predominantly a Latin people 13 With a spirit distinctively their own, to be sympathetically interpreted Before the Conquest there existed some promising aboriginal cults Latin. Even in the countries in which the Indian or mes- tizo population is almost solid, the ruling class has adopted and imposed the language, customs and the soul of Latin culture. This Hispanic tradition has been im- mensely accentuated and supplemented by persistent in- fluences from France and Italy. Law, religion and the sense of the artistic have emanated through Spain and Italy ; rationalism, socialism, poetic sentiment and repub- licanism have come largely from France. It is only re- cently that this Latin spirit has sought to accommodate itself to the utilitarian realities of Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, or North American commerce. Special attention must be called to the potent influence exercised upon the new democracies by France, of whose contribution South American litterateurs make the most glowing acknowl- edgment. What is important is this: France has helped to create “a new variety of the Latin spirit,” which is neither Spanish nor French, but distinctly Latin-Amer- ican. This is the mystic bond which unites insular and continental lands from the Caribbean to the Antarctic. It is that subtle element in the Southern civilization which the practical Anglo-Saxon, or North American, too often fails to appreciate. No greater problem confronts the missionary enterprise in the lands under review, in so far as its agents are Anglo-Saxons, than that of sympathetic penetration into the Latin-American spirit. It is that spirit which must largely condition the form of the Chris- tian message, even as Paul spoke the language of Greek philosophy when he preached the gospel on the Athenian Areopagus. It is the Latin-American spirit only which can point the way to a knowledge of Latin-American character, Latin-American culture, and Latin-American conscience. To these the Christian gospel must be in- telligently proclaimed. THE RELIGIOUS INHERITANCE I. Primitive Indian Faiths. First of all, we must ask what contribution, if any, the indigenous Indian faiths have made to Latin America’s religious life. The aborigines, already referred to as constituting the racial base, were possesssed of cults — 14 ranging from the crude barbarian animism of the Ama- zonian and La Plata tribes to the more elaborate poly- theisms of the great confederacies like the Incas of Peru, the Muiscas or Chibchas of Colombia, the Mayas of Central America and the Aztecs of Mexico. Before the conquest the higher cultus of the Nahuan and Incan systems had, together with much that was primitive and horrible in their worship, at- tained to exalted ethical conceptions symbolized in gor- geous ritual and embodied in systematic teaching. They had also a type of political organization, industrial de- velopment and social practices which gave them a fair place among the higher non-Christian civilizations, and which had great promise of further development. But all this fell to ruins under the conquistadores. The policy of the Spaniards was “to crush out the civilization of a conquered foe, never to absorb its useful features. No consideration was extended to established customs in re- gions where Spanish arms proved victorious, no effort made to adapt existing forms to a higher standard of moral and material progress.” * Even such gleams of light as flashed out in the ethicized and spiritualized sun- worship of the Incas, illumining the way to a pure mono- theism centered about Pachacamac, the Quichuan “cre- ator of the world,” were quite extinguished in the in- discriminate destruction visited by Pizarro on the Peru- vian slopes. While these higher tendencies of the native religions, which might have been converted into moral and spiritual capital, were broken down, the more vulgar superstitions and practices of paganism survived, being perpetuated to this day by a large proportion of the 17,000,000 Indians scattered from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego ; and not only so, but in many regions were in- corporated into the established religion which bears the name of Christ. For example, at Guadalupe, the most holy shrine in Mexico, and at Copacabana, on Lake Titi- caca, the Indians still dance before the church, perform other religious rites exactly as their pre-Christian ances- tors did, and the Church permits these practices as part of their religious pilgrimages. ‘C. E. Akers, "A History of South America,” 3. Extinguished by the Spanish conquerors The primitive under- lying paganism has survived 15 Absorbed in some cases into Roman Catholic usages The earliest missions in Latin America were royal enterprises Their control was yielded by the pope to the king of Spain The Mexicans easily confounded Aztec mythology with Roman dogma. Humboldt reported, “the Holy Ghost is the sacred eagle of the Aztecs.” The worship of the local pagan deities was transferred to the Roman saints. All that can be truthfully said is that the higher native religions were swept away, that the popular beliefs and practices of the lower cults — blind gropings, super- stitious fears, and crude ritual — have become mixed with the prevailing religion of to-day, and that at least 5,000,- 000 Indians, in remote and unexplored regions, are still as intact in their paganism as they were before the eyes of the Christian had looked upon the American shore. 2. The Roman Catholic Church. A just and adequate estimate of the greatest factor in Latin America’s religious inheritance — ^the Roman Catholic Church — would involve accurate knowledge and careful interpretation of (i) the manner of the Church’s introduction into the colonies, (2) its missionary leader- ship, (3) the spirit and methods of its development, (4) its present status and the net results of its propaganda. Only the more salient and suggestive facts can be pre- sented in the brief statement which is here outlined. (i) The Church’s Introduction. The occupation by Roman Catholic Christianity of the new world was nei- ther inaugurated nor controlled by the Roman See. In this respect it differed radically from the earlier mediaeval missions to central and northern Europe, initiated and directly administered by Gregory the Great and his suc- cessors, and dependent for their achievements upon the peaceable evangelism and statesmanship of apostolic leaders like Augustine of Canterbury, Willibrord of Frisia and Boniface of Germany. The early American mis- sions, on the contrary, were primarily an enterprise of the Spanish Crown, integrally bound up with the romance of discovery, the lust of wealth, the carnage of conquest and the violent subjugation of resisting peoples. It was not through lack of missionary zeal, but through dearth of resources and because of the dependent rela- tion of the Roman See upon the most powerful of Cath- olic states that the reigning pontiff could neither inde- pendently provide for nor direct, unhampered by civil 16 and military restrictions, the Church’s entrance into the vast new fields announced by the discoverers. He “could do nothing by himself in this immense territory; he had not the means of establishing in it the institutions neces- sary for the propagation of religion.”* So unified, how- ever, were the interests of church and state in the Span- ish Constitution that there was little consciousness of re- strictions on either side. The exigencies of colonial ex- pansion were easily reconciled with missionary propa- ganda, and missionary methods easily accommodated to government procedure. The year following Columbus’ first discovery the bull of Pope Alexander VI assigned the new territories to the sovereigns of Castile and Leon, “with free, full and absolute power, authority and juris- diction.” This donation was modified and enlarged in 1494 by the tteaty of Tordesillas, whereby the whole new world was divided between Portugal and Spain, the par- tition being ecclesiastically ratified by Pope Julius II in 1506. The bull of Julius conceded that in the regions already discovered, or which yet might be discovered, the establishment of churches, monasteries or other re- ligious institutions, as well as all ecclesiastical appoint- ments present or future, should be subject to the consent of the king.* The Spanish government became virtually the Church’s missionary society, whose sweeping commission, by the approval and authority of Rome, embraced all the func- tions of discovery, conquest, colonization, civil suze- rainty and evangelization. Apart from the clear recog- nition of this fact the early missions cannot be under- stood — they were controlled by the king. In the new America he was dominant as “the supreme patron of the Church,” vested by the pope himself with power even to veto papal action. The various orders of regular and secular clergy authorized to undertake religious service ‘Velez Sarsfield, Dalmacio, “Relaciones del Estado con la Iglesia en la antigua America Espanola,” 18; quoted by Bernard Moses, “The Spanish Dependencies in South America,” vol. ii, 206. ’ Peschel, “Die Theilung der Erde unter Papst Alexander VI and Julius II,” 13-15; Coleccion de documentos ineditos de America y Oceania, vol. xvi, 356; vol. xxxiv, 25-9. This . royal control affected the whole course of the missionary enterprise 17 Much heroism, zeal and devotion were manifested Along with inconsistent violence and bloodshed in the colonies at once found their operations limited by civil regulations. Laws were rapidly promulgated, touching all relations between the clergy and the Indian inhabitants. Viceroys, governors and bishops, as well as regular missionaries, were commanded by royal decree to convert the Indians, to root out their idolatry and their vices, to destroy or carry away their idols, and to pre- vent, if need be by severe penalties, all practice of their pagan cults. As organization proceeded, “every eccle- siastical office in America was filled by the king’s nomi- nation,” no building could be erected without the royal license, and even the provincial assemblies must be pre- sided over by a viceroy Notwithstanding the secular limitations and coercion under which the early missionaries labored and the com- promising connection between Christian Enterprise and unchristian conquest, it cannot be doubted that a far- reaching missionary interest, some of it ardently heroic and spiritually genuine, lay behind the attempt to expand the confines of the Christian world. The whole era of discovery and early settlement is shot through with a chivalric passion to win new lands and peoples for Christ and the king. The Portuguese, who were the first to reach what is now Brazil, called it “Santa Cruz” — the land of the “Holy Cross.” Columbus named “San Sal- vador” — the land of the “Holy Saviour” — the first island touched by his prows. From the first expeditions of Cortes and Pizzaro monks or priests were required to sail in every Spanish ship bound for discovery or war. Cortes was solemnly enjoined to Christianize the Mexi- cans. On his standard emblazoned with a red cross was the motto, “Friends, let us follow the cross, and under this sign, if we have faith, we shall conquer,” And with fierce but zealous inconsistency, accompanied by religious teachers, he put a nation to the sword. So, in general, “the Spanish captains fought to convert the oversea in- fidels”" with the same crusading zeal with which they had driven the Moors from Spain. The early chroni- ’ “Leyes de Indias,” lib 1, tit. 1; 13, ley, 2; tit. 14; leyes 60, 61, tit. 6, ley 1; tit. 3, ley 1. ’ F. Garcia Calderon, “Latin America: Its Rise and Pro- gress,” 52. i8 clers naively admit the place of the Church in the bloody campaigns, attributing alike the successes of military vio- lence, of industrial enslavement and of priestly en- deavor, to the blessing of God. Thus Gomara, clerical historian of Cortes, says : “Hovr much territory have our Spaniards discovered, explored and converted in sixty years of conquest ! Never did any king or people explore and subject as much in so short a time as did ours. Nor has any people accomplished or merited such success as our country, in arms and navigation as well as in the preaching of the holy gospel and the conversion of idol- aters. Wherefore, Spaniards are most worthy of praise in all parts of the world. Blessed be God who gave them such grace and powers.” ‘ The manner of the Church’s introduction into the col- onies and the conduct of the early missions is sufficiently explained by the milieu in which the movement occurred. It was not without a sincere Christian motive, exer- cised through holy lives and devoted service. Never- theless, the movement, as a whole, was a lamentable mis- representation of true Christianity. Latin America was not favored by a spontaneous, untrammeled evangelism, re- lying solely upon the appeal and power of the gospel message — a fact which is reacting in a very real way at the present time. In recent years Latin-American scholars have gone more deeply than any others into the contemporary chronicles of the colonial propaganda. In a succession of works which has been pouring from the press they have been giving expression to the revul- sion against Christianity and the Roman Church which has laid hold of the minds of multitudes as they reflect on the methods employed. Unfortunately, the good that was accomplished and the truth dispensed as precious solace to human hearts in those stormy times has largely been lost from view. (2) Missionary Leadership. The distinctively mis- sionary propaganda which stands out as a special phase of the conquest as conceived and jointly authorized by church and state, was carried on principally by the mon- *Francisco Lopez de Gomara, “Historia General de las Indias,” 337. Cn the whole the missionary movement sadly misrepresented Christianity The Roman Catholic missionaries were from the monastic orders 19 First, the Franciscans Then the Dominicans astic orders, especially the Dominicans, the Franciscans and the Jesuits. Despite their subordination to the civil power and the impeding association of their activities with the state’s brutal methods of colonial subjugation, the very nature of their task tended to develop strong personalities. The exactions of- their primitive and bar- baric environment bred in them a power of initiative, an aggressive resourcefulness, which, inspired by religious fervor, not only rose to great and original heroisms of service, but did not hesitate at conflict with secular inter- ests. In the sacrificial ardor and versatile labor with which they set themselves to win the pagan people to civilization and to the Church, the first two generations of these missionaries have never been surpassed. “There was no tropical wilderness too intricate or far-stretching for them to traverse, no water too wide for them to cross, no rock or cave too dangerous for them to climb or enter, no Indian tribe too dull or refractory for them to teach.” Into their religious conquest they put the romantic daring, the chivalrous devotion, the crusading enthusiasm of the times. The Franciscans were the first to follow the discovery, a band of twelve under Bernardo Boil, reaching His- paniola (Haiti) as early as 1493, where one of them, Marchena, the friend of Columbus, built the first church in the New World. Three Flemish brothers, led by Pedro de Gante, preceded in Mexico the great Franciscan, Valencia, who with his apostolic retinue, landing at Vera Cruz, toiled barefoot to the capital, where he was offi- cially recognized by Cortes in 1524. The Dominicans were established in Santo Domingo as early as ifiio. Two of their leaders, Pedro de Cordoba and Juan Garces, were the pioneers in what is now Venezuela. There they built the first monastery and suffered martyrdom through Indian vengeance stirred up by the violent treachery of Spanish pearl-fishers.* Both Dominicans and Franciscans, among them eminent evangelists, teachers, humanitarians, scholars, were soon found in large numbers in most of the Antillean islands, in Mexico, and in the continental settlements of the Caribbean and Pacific coasts. ‘Humbert, "Les Origines Venezueliennes.” 20 But the ablest and most enterprising missionaries of early Latin America were Jesuits. Fired with the fervor of the counter-reformation, fresh with the vigor of youth, instinct with the passion of Loyola and Xavier, this order poured itself into the colonies in the first flush of its missionary zeal. Fifteen years after their foundation in 1534, six of their number under Nobrega landed in Brazil with de Souza, the first governor of that great colonial wilderness. Soon another band reached what is now Bo- livia, and in 1577 they had established an important mis- sion on Lake Titicaca, in the shadow of the Inca ruins. Within a century they were found in almost every region of the southern continent. They were powerful in north- ern Mexico, but their chief triumphs were in Brazil and Paraguay. In the latter country, between 1610 and 1767, they had gathered in their pueblos or reductions a com- munity estimated at 100,000 Indians, whom they taught the elementary arts of civilization and the forms and tenets of the Roman faith. Such gigantic labors re- quired and developed men of herculean mold, of great tenacity of purpose, of many-sided ability, of sustaining faith and sublime consecration. The early leaders in- clude some of the most illustrious names and the choicest spirits in all the annals of missions. Appreciation of the purest and strongest Christian influences at work in the early period can best be derived from acquaintance with the life and labors of extraordinary men, like No- brega, Vieira and Anchieta of Brazil, Catadina and Ma- zeta of Paraguay, Baraze of Peru, Pedro Claver of Ven- ezuela, and Las Casas “protector of the Indians” from Santo Domingo to Chile. In such leaders Latin missions are seen at their best. (3) Spirit and Method. While we are seeking just ap- preciation and sane admiration of the personnel of the missionary leadership, we must forbear to wrest it from its true historical setting. Even the Jesuit Nobrega and the Dominican Las Casas must be studied in the light of Spanish Catholicism, just as John Hunt and David Livingstone require the background of the Methodist Re- vival of England and the Presbyterianism of Scotland. The noblest apostles to Latin America would be incom- prehensible apart from clear insight into the general spirit and method of the Church’s establishment and de- Lastly, but with greatest success, the Jesuits Many of them were remarkable missionaries Three facts assist in appraising the work of these early missionaries 21 (1) Religious propa- gation accompanied military spoliation (2) The Christianity preached was the fanatical orthodoxy of the fifteenth century velopment in the colonies. In this connection three out- standing facts command additional attention. First, in the militant, ecclesiastical autocracy of the Iberian monarchs from Ferdinand to Philip III, the tasks of peninsular government, of colonial expansion, and of the defense and propagation of the established religion at home and abroad, were inseparably related.^ This largely accounts for the sharp contradictions and dis- tressing incongruities exhibited in Spain’s acquire- ment of her dependencies, especially when the record is read as missionary history, according to the intents and decrees of pope and king. Ardent evangelism, patient in- struction, self-denying labor, humanitarian ministry and martyrdom, alternate with, and often accompany, whole- sale slaughter and cruel subjection of the natives, spolia- tion of their land, extortion of their toil and wealth.^ This situation must be frankly accepted as an expression of the spirit and method of the foremost Roman Catholic country at the dawn of the colonial era. The second fact is this : the type of Christianity trans- mitted to the oversea lands was, necessarily, the mediaeval orthodoxy of Spain. As North America received the evangelical standpoint of the English Reformation, South America received the hierarchical Romanism of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in the form and temper developed in its principal stronghold. The Cath- olicism which converted the colonies was, in its essential genius and general procedure, inevitably one with the spirit of Ferdinand and Isabella, of Jimenez and Tor- quemada, of Charles I and Philip II, of the Duke of Alva and Pius V,^ of John III, Sebastian and Cardinal Prince Henry. Multitudes in- the Peninsula were impris- oned, tortured and slain for heresy, by the authority and in the reign of the very queen who sped Columbus oversea with prayer and gold, and expressed such solici- tude for the salvation of the Indians. The whole enter- prise of the early occupation of America was contempo- ‘ Cf. Bernard Moses, “The Spanish Dependencies in South America,” vol. i, xv (Intro.). ^ Cf. C. E. Akers, “A History of South America,” 9; Cam- bridge Modern History, vol. x, 279. “Prescott, “History of the Reign of Phillip II,” vol. ii. 22 raneous with the epoch of the Spanish Inquisition, the per- secution and expulsion of the Jews, the fierce and “holy” wars against the Moriscos — all of which were included in the ecclesiastical program. The fanaticism of the nation was kindled and arrayed both to defend and to extend the faith. “The discovery of a new world, occupied by a non-Christian people, at a time when the heroic efforts to suppress the Moorish infidel had been crowned with suc- cess, appeared to the Spaniards as evidence that they were the instruments preferred by Providence in extend- ing the kingdom of heaven and earth.’” In the third place, the early missionary fervor was soon largely absorbed in the concomitant tasks of church or- ganization and the control of religious opinion. The reproduction in America of the Spanish hierarchy and institutions with all their forms and functions was re- garded as equally important with the far-going evangel- istic propaganda. Energy that might have been used to penetrate unreached districts was concentrated, in the established centers, on the preservation of traditional be- lief. The first bishopric established in Darien, in 1514, rapidly developed into a powerful, well organized hier- archy in all the colonies. Great archbishops from their grand cathedrals in flourishing cities exercised their vested authority over large areas. The secular clergy devoted themselves to Europeans, creoles and such of the mestizos and aborigines as civilization had reached. The orders built monasteries, founded universities and accu- mulated vast wealth. The Dominicans set up the Inqui- sition in Mexico, Cartagena and Lima, in one supreme and sanguinary attempt to reduce a continent to intellec- tual and spiritual uniformity. But the apostolic fires burned low when the period of colonial decadence began. In general the missionary methods reflect the ideals of the age. After the manner of Charlemagne and Vladi- mir, the conquerors frequently gave the Indians the op- tion of war or submission to the Roman faith.” When war was accepted and the Indians were reduced, they ‘ Bernard Moses, “The Spanish Dependencies in South America,” vol. 1, xv-xvi (Intro.). ’ Herrera, Documentos, 1, lib. vii, cap. 14; Acosta, “Nueva Granada,” 23-5. (3)Their religious fervor was soon absorbed by ecclesiastical tasks The process of Chris- tianization was often coercive and wholesale 23 The Jesuit methods were friendly but ultra-paternalistic The Latin-American republics have gradually recognized freedom of worship were enslaved and baptized. In Mexico there were wholesale conversions. Gomara estimates the num- ber baptized following Cortes’ conquest as between six and ten millions, and, in his enthusiasm, finally adds : “In short, they [the Spaniards] conve:*i.ed as many as they conquered.’ There were noble protests against this coer- cive Christianization, as for example the bull of Paul III declaring that the people were to be “called to the faith of Jesus Christ by preaching and by the example of a good and holy life’” ; and the lofty plea of Las Casas, “The means for establishing the Faith in the Indies should be the same as those by which Christ introduced his religion into world — mild, peaceable and charitable.’” Words like these were a rebuke of the general policy. - The methods of the Jesuits were catechetical, discipli- nary, industrial and ultra-paternal. The thousands of Indians under their instruction in Paraguay for a cen- tury and a half before their expulsion in 1767 consti- tuted the “Reductions.” In peaceful villages they pro- vided the natives with protection, instruction, cooperative labor and the influence of Christian leadership of high quality. But the settlements, here as elsewhere, failed to become self-supporting communities, nor did they pro- duce a native agency for further evangelization. They fell away as soon as the missionaries were gone, having made little or no permanent contribution to the Chris- tianity of the continent.’ (4) Present Status. In achieving political emancipa- tion the colonies at first protested and long preserved their loyalty to the Roman Church, despite the fact that that Church was the chief instrument of Spain’s repres- sive regime. But freedom of conscience and of worship was implicit in the forces that made for democracy. The makers of the new republics soon became conscious of the incompatibility between a ruling ecclesiasticism and a free government. The result was the gradual recog- nition of the principle of religious liberty and toleration. That principle (as pointed out by Commission I already). ’ Francisco Lopez de Gomara, “History de Mexico,” 337. ’ Quoted by Hubert W. Brown, “Latin America,” 70. ® Quoted by Hirst, “Argentina,” 158. ’ Muratori, “Missions of Paraguay,” 70, 126; Humboldt, “Travels in the Equatorial Regions of America,” vol. 1, 201. 24 although not universally understood and observed in Latin America, is now established by legal enactments in every one of the republics. Yet, notwithstanding this im- portant fact, Roman Catholicism still preserves, in vary- ing degree, the aspect of a state religion. In most of the countries the Roman Church continues to enjoy some of the prerogatives and exemptions of a state institution. Almost the entile population of Cuba, Porto Rico, Mex- ico, Central America and South America is returned by government census as Roman Catholic. In general, the Roman Church regards itself as adequately occupying or preempting the entire Latin-American world. It pro- fesses to assume and to discharge full religious respon- sibility for this vast region, which it officially views, not as a mission field, but as Christianized territory, so that it resents and opposes any attempt on the part of other Churches to supplement its activities. This attitude, unfortunately, does not fully represent the real situation. Abundant evidence establishes the fact that the vast statistical membership of the census re- ports is largely nominal and superficial. That there are immense and growing defections from the Roman Church, not only in inward conviction and sympathy, but in outward allegiance and conformity, is patent beyond contradiction in every Latin-American land. Multitudes having become alienated from the Roman Church, are contemptuous or antagonistic toward all religion ; still vaster multitudes have drifted into utter indifference re- garding the teachings of Roman Catholicism, while yield- ing prudential compliance with its forms and customs. Scientific candor based on indisputable testimony from both Roman Catholic and Protestant sources compels the statement that in the Roman Church Latin America has inherited an institution which, though still influential, is rapidly declining in power. With notable exceptions its priesthood is discredited by the thinking classes. Its moral life is weak and its spiritual witness faint. At the present time it is giving the people neither the Bible, nor the gospel, nor the intellectual guidance, nor the moral dynamic, nor the social uplift which they need. It is weighted with mediaevalism and other non-Christian accretions. Its propaganda has by no means issued in a Christian Latin America. Its emphasis is on dogma and Yet Roman Catholicism, as a quasi-state religion resents Evangelical activity Its occupancy, however, is not adequate It does not meet its religious responsibilities 25 Its latest critic Evangelical missionary work relatively recent ritual, while it is all too silent on the ethical demands of Christian character. It must bear the responsibility of what Lord Bryce calls Latin America’s “grave misfor- tune’’ — “absence of a religious foundation for thought and conduct.” ‘ Summing up the net results of the Roman Catholic propaganda, the latest authoritative historian of Chris- tian missions says: “We realize and we thank God for the good work which the Roman Catholic missions have done and are doing in mariy parts of the world, but our appreciation of this cannot blind our eyes to the fact that in Central and South America the missions of the Roman Catholic Church have proved an almost complete failure.” Of South America he adds : “After three cen- turies of nominal Christianity any conversion of its peo- ples which will involve the practice of the elementary teaching of Christianity lies still in the seemingly distant future.”* 3. The Evangelical Missions. Though of recent origin as compared with the Roman missions, the work of the evangelical Churches cannot be ignored in a statement of Latin America’s religious inheritance.* Their late appearance as religious factors is explained in the succeeding section. Passing over the sporadic and unsuccessful attempts which in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were made in Brazil respec- tively by the Swiss and Dutch Reformed Churches, we may settle upon 1735 as marking the beginning of mod- em evangelical effort in South America. In that year the Moravians began their work in British Guiana. In 1738 they extended it to Dutch Guiana. At the other end of the continent Captain Allen Gardiner, who had or- ganized in 1844 the South American Missionary Society, founded and sealed by his death the Tierra del Fuego mission in 1851. As for the Latin states, the first en- 'Bryce: “South America, Observations and Impressions.” 583. “C. H. Robinson: “History of Christian Missions” (Inter- national Theological Library), Edinburgh, 1915. 409f. ’The present extent of the work is summarily indicated in Chapter IV of the Report of Commission I, in the appended statistical tables and in the maps under preparation. 26 during mission to Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking peo- ples was that established in Brazil in 1855 by Dr. Kalley, although he had been preceded at Rio de Janeiro by the Methodists of the United States in their temporary effort between 1836 and 1842, the same body having started English-speaking work in Buenos Aires in 1836 which was enlarged in 1864 to include Spanish-speaking work also. The American Presbyterians began work in Brazil in 1859. The Protestant Episcopal Church founded its mission in the same field in the year 1889. The Presby- terian Church was also the pioneer in Colombia, which, next to Brazil, is the oldest Protestant field on the conti- nent. The beginning was made at Bogota in 1856. Since the middle of the nineteenth century every other country in South America, except French Guiana, has been entered, with presumable permanency, by evangelical agencies. In Central America work began on the Moskito coast as early as 1740 and has subsequently been extended from various sources through British and American Societies to the five republics and to Panama. In the Greater Antilles, Haiti was entered in 1861, Cuba in 1871, and Porto Rico in 1899. Mexico has been a field of evan- gelical endeavor since 1861. These missions, though struggling with great difficul- ties, have on the whole met with encouraging response. Evidence shows that they have exerted an uplifting and stimulating influence out of all proportion to the number of their agents and adherents. They have passed the pioneer and experimental stage. , POLITICAL ISOLATION The political isolation, intentionally absolute and actually almost complete, in which, through Spanish and Portuguese control, the transatlantic colonies were so long held as regards the rest of the world, is another experience of important relevancy to the right under- standing of religious conditions in the present Latin America. That experience is largely responsible for the absence of initiative, and for the apparent reluctance with which the establishment and cultivation of relations with countries outside the Latin zone has proceeded, even since the birth of the republics, and with ample recog- Practically the work of the last half century Its encouraging progress Political isolation explains the slow process of e^'^nsielical Christianity 27 For three centuries Spain and Portugal monopolized all relations They enforced intellectual as well as political isolation nition, by Latin-American leaders, of the desirability of those relations. For about three hundred years from the time of the first colonization in the first half of the sixteenth cen- tury down to the era of emancipation which dawned with the nineteenth, the Iberian monarchies, imperious and self-interested, exercised unlimited authority in monopo- listic exploitation of the oversea dominions. Political absolutism, based on the assumption of the divine right of sovereigns to govern and the duty of the conquered or dependent to be ruled, was made effective in a thor- oughgoing and far-reaching manner. It was rigorously applied, not only to political relations but to commercial, educational and religious matters as well. In the first place the colonies were forbidden to trade with any non- Hispanic nation, or with each other. Hampering and coercive restrictions, to the advantage of Spain and Portugal, were placed upon all commerce between them and their dependencies. The result was that for nearly three centuries there was almost no immigration except that from the Peninsula, very little foreign visitation, and almost total discouragement of foreign capital or foreign interest in the development of the safely-guarded, far-away lands. All Europe understood that any foot- hold or trade advantage in the new world would have to be fought for against the might of the mother countries. In the second place, the government restriction tended to make the intellectual isolation of the colonies as com- plete as their political allegiance and their commercial dependence. Educcrtion was committed to the hands of the clergy. Schools were established in most communities, though their number was vastly inadequate to meet the demands of the growing populations. General, and especially primary, education was conspicuously neg- lected. Vast multitudes in succeeding decades grew up in ignorance, while the comparatively few, principally creoles, who received instruction were restricted to the clerical institutions supported by the government and conducted by the religious orders. The majority of the schools were under control of the Jesuits, whose system, excellent in method and thorough in discipline, and hav- ing a basis of humanistic culture, was yet aristocratic, 28 dogmatic and ecclesiastical in character, inhibiting all initiative, spontaneity and freedom of opinion. Educa- tion was “designed to make men submissive to monarchi- cal authority in church and state.” It was conducted, on the one hand, as a church discipline in exclusive and traditional orthodoxy, and, on the other hand, as a gov- ernment measure against insubordination. In other words, clerical education in the Colonial period did not rise above the limitations of mediaeval scholasticism. It included no technical or industrial studies, did not pre- pare the people for the practical duties of citizenship, and was in a unique degree unaffected by the newer his- torical, scientific and social impulses which marked the development of European learning during the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries. In the third place, Spain was not only imperialistic in her sway, but avowedly theocratic. In her religious pro- gram she was as absolute as in her politics, as exclusive as in her economic exploitations, as discriminating as in her educational procedure. She sealed up the South American ports not merely to prevent foreign trade but also to keep out heresy. She threw a whole continent into conventual seclusion to defend and preserve the Roman Catholic faith. A succession of repressive laws was supplemented by the transportation to the Colonies of the dread Inquisi- tion with its harrowing processes, its autos da fe, its sys- tematic aim of preventing or crushing out all ideas un- sanctioned by the politico-ecclesiastical regime. Parallel with the exclusive and forced preemption of the whole field by Spanish rule in the interests of Roman Catholicism is the fact of the almost total neglect of Latin America by the evangelical agencies which grew cut of religious reform in Europe. A single Huguenot attempt in Brazil in 1556 became abortive through the perfidy of its promoter. The evangelical Churches ig- nored the Hispanic colonies not entirely because of the attitude of the state ecclesiasticism imposed upon them, but more specially because the foreign missionary enter- prise had not yet, for various reasons, begun to draw the new communions to lands beyond the seas. The neg- They believed in religious absolutism The religious re- formers of Europe ignored Latin America 29 Latin America was thus isolated from the invigorating influences of the world Idealism a characteristic trend Which guided the patriotism of the nineteenth century lect was, nevertheless, contributory to the spiritual isola- tion of Latin America. Through circumstances, therefore, outside of her own determining, Latin America was separated for three cen- turies from the great centers and currents of liberation and reform — intellectual, social and religious — which arose in Europe and flowed from it from the sixteenth century onward. Not only by geographical distance and language, but likewise by exclusive political and com- mercial segregation and by prohibitory tutelage in edu- cation and religion, the South American world was cut off from the impact of the new life of Europe as well as from such invigorating influences as founded the Puritan settlements of the northern states. These are plain his- toric facts, set down not at all to the disparagement of the Latin-American peoples, but simply to indicate the peculiar lines along which they progressed. Latin America inevitably bears to-day the effects of her long isolation, in institutions and attitudes which are all her own. It should be obvious also that the presuppositions underlying the proper presentation of the gospel to-day cannot be the same for Latin America as for lands more directly and continously affected by those intellectual and religious movements from which, for so long a period, the southern colonies were kept well-nigh intact. DEMOCRATIC IDEALISM One more factor, inherent in the Latin-American char- acter and full of potency and promise in the making of Latin-American civilization, remains to be noted. It is one which touches the religious life at its higher levels, and one which occasions relieving surprise and encour- agement in view of what was said in the preceding section concerning the repression and isolation of the colonial period. The Latin-Americans have evolved and elaborated an exalted theory of the state, of society, of government, a democratic idealism rich in visions of lib- erty, brotherhood, justice and peace. Colonizing monarchies might launch restringent and prohibitory decrees, but were powerless to quench the flame of ethical desire which burned deep in the Latin- American soul, ready to leap out into commonwealths of 30 freedom, progress, happiness and high destiny. Diplo- mats, travelers and students from the colonies could not be prevented from visiting Europe and North America. The eighteenth century was a time of exodus, foreign residence and return. Pent-up patriotisms crying for de- liverance were nourished and disciplined at foreign seats of learning, and at centers of thought beyond the vigi- lance and dominance of Spain and Portugal whose abso- lutism was fading under the shadow of Napoleon. Mean- while a new light was dawning in the hearts of colonial leaders yet unknown. The literature of liberalism, ideal- ism and reform from Italy and France, and, later from England, found its readers on the Argentine pampas, the Brazilian rivers, the Mexican plateaus, or the Chilean strand. The slumbering flame became a consuming, ren- ovating fire. It leaped out in the Venezuelan declaration of independence in i8io, and in the noble protest against oppression issued from Buenos Aires in 1817 by the Con- stituent Congress of the United Provinces of South America. It glowed in the liberating apostolate of Boli- var, San Martin, Artigas, Tiradentes, Hidalgo, Lastarria, Montalvo, and a host of others who wrought for the political redemption of their countries, and dreamed of ideal communities. Incarnate and active in the great leaders, slumbering unconscious in the masses, who, ever and anon in ardent and sacrificial heroisms, have responded to its spell, the gospel of a new order of righteousness has voiced itself in deed and prophecy. Underneath all the revo- lutionary violence which has marked the history of the republics, amid all the dramatic experiments in self- government, the acute alternations of militarism and in- dustry, the tense and spectacular conflicts between cler- icals and liberals, the frequent and sometimes sangui- nary clashes between the caudillos, dictators, and despots on the one hand, and the tribunes, emancipators and prophets on the other, there has gleamed, defining itself in increasing clearness, an idealism refined and subli- mated, which is an index of the spiritual aspiration of the Latin-American people. To a regrettable degree, it is justifiably feared, have European and North' American beholders and students of Hispano-American development been so intent on the This idealism has supported Latin- American aspiration 31 It is a truly Latin-American quality With potency for the future Greatly influenced French idealism external aspects of the numerous revolutions through which, however mistakenly, the self-liberated states have sought to realize their ideals, that sight has been lost of the high-souled yearnings which have burned at the heart of those tempestuous events. Too often there has been little discernment of the fine feelings and lofty principles, which, though imperfectly expressed, abide when the tumult and the shouting have died away. The glowing vision of equalitarian, fraternal, righteous commonwealths, in which the good of all shall be the quest of each, has become a passion with a considerable group of patriots. If in part it is a recrudescence of the original Spanish genius for individualism and autonomy , ere yet the Spanish state was overborne by monarchical absolutism and imposed tradition, this passion is more fully explained by the resilience and creative energy of the Latin-American mind itself when once it is free to follow its native elan. This democratic idealism has only incipiently realized itself in the overthow of imperialism and the setting up of republics. It has soaring dreams of the future. It utters its prophecies in the political ideology of states- men, the enthusiasms of sociologists, the fervid eloquence of orators, and above all in the indigenous literature of the young democracies, in both poetry and prose. From the early poets — Andrade of the Argentine, Olmedo of Ecuador, Gregorio de Mattos of Brazil, Marti of Cuba, de Tagle of Mexico, down to the days of Santos Chocano of Peru and of Ruben Dario of Nicaragua, dean of the present modernistic school, the American masters of Spanish and Portuguese verse have never ceased to sing of new hopes and luring prospects rising out of the ruins of the shattered past. '’y Reference has been made to the influence of France on the Latin-American spirit. First the sufferings of the colonies, next the example of the United States in her achieved independence, but most of all the French Revolution fired the southern patriots, and emboldened them to seek new forms of national life. Lamar- tine, the lyric prophet of France, might be cited as an example. He drew his political ideas from the New Testament, sang in his poems of 'Christian love of hu- manity, and defined democracy as “the direct reign of 32 God,” the application of Christian principles to the prob- lems of the world. He was predominantly sentimental, but he looked in the right direction for the secret and power of righteousness. If, in addition to their evangel and ministry to the masses, including the poor and needy, the evangelical Churches are to have a message for the twentieth century leadership of Latin America, this must necessarily relate itself to this idealistic tradition which sums up the most ardent yearning and the most heroic activity for what the leaders conceive to be the common and supreme good. Evangelical Christianity need not hesitate to declare that through the acceptance and application of the gospel of Christ, the highest hopes of the leaders can be fulfilled wherein they are right and transcended wherein they are imperfect; and that the true welfare of the republics can be realized in the establishment of what Jesus meant by the kingdom of God. What, then, in view of this historic background with its lights and shadows, should be the burden and appli- cation of the Christian message for Latin America to- day ? Obviously the democracies have a right to hear, and it is the Church’s solemn duty to proclaim, the primary gospel of Christ, the evangelical message of the New Testament, the essentials of Christianity, primitive and pure, the clear notes of a redeeming evangel, unencum- bered either by the ecclesiastical accretions of Roman Catholicism or by ultrasectarian forms and dogmas of Protestantism. Back of this evangel is the assurance that the true Christian Qiurch is the home and the propelling force of true democracy. With it evangelical Christianity must declare its sympathy 33 The evangelical churches eager to bring a blessing Latin America Their missionaries are friendly interpreters CHAPTER III THE AIM AND MESSAGE OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES In view of the whole situation set forth in Chapter II, it is necessary now to describe the general attitude and spirit which the representatives of the evangelical Churches now at work in Latin America should manifest, and the distinctive message which they have to deliver. Needless to say, these men and women would not be at work in these lands unless they were burning with the de- sire to bring a supreme religious blessing to them, and were convinced that Latin America needs for its further and higher development, religiously and socially, the kind 6f force and inspiration which the work of the evangeli- cal Churches alone can contribute. In the delivery of his message the preacher of Christ in Latin America ought to assume from the start the same dignified, positive, authoritative attitude as in any other part of the world. No doubt his work will often appear in a measure antagonistic to the ancient traditions of the people to whom he ministers. And in such cases, when controversy or comparison of the evangelical with the Roman position is forced upon him, he must be firm, clear and fearless, as well as wise and kindly, in the man- ner in which he carries out his task. But the main trend of his teaching, the controlling tone of his appeals, must not be that of a mere protester against or bitter op- ponent of the established religion. Rather must he cher- ish in his own heart and mind, and must convey to his hearers, the deep, masterful consciousness that he is 34 declaring the true revelation of God which is older than Romanism, and which from the days of the apostles has constituted the true substance of the saving gospel of Divine grace. Controversy, when necessary because of attacks which are likely to create misunderstanding if unmet, or because it is sometimes essential to clear the ground for the constructive presentation of a positive message, should never go beyond the point of “speaking the truth in love.” I. The Bible. In carrying out his work the evangelical preacher not only takes his text, but expounds his whole message, from and by authority of the Bible. He ought so to deliver his message that his hearers may understand, so far as his method influences them, that the Bible is the most cath- olic of books and not merely an evangelical document. He uses it as containing the authentic teaching of Jesus Christ and His apostles. There can be no higher authority con- cerning the real nature of Christianity and its funda- mental saving truths than the Book which alone pre- serves the actual story of their words and works. Upon the teachings of Jesus Christ and the great apostles the Church was founded, and it can have no other his- torical foundation, no other outward court of appeal, than that, for the exposition and defense of these saving truths. The Roman Church freely accepts and appeals to the authority of this Book as the Word of God. On this the decrees of the Council of Trent, the teachings of the great Roman Catholic theologians, and even the encyclical of the late pope against modernism, are unanimous. Now the central and distinctive position of the evan- gelical Church is this twofold affirmation; First, that as the teaching of Christ and His apostles was addressed to the poor and the unlearned, as well as to the rich and learned, and as it was preserved in the Bible, this Book can be used by all classes of all generations and races to know what is essential to be known for salvation concern- ing God the Father, Maker of all things visible and in- visible, concerning God the Son, Redeemer of all man- kind, and concerning God the Holy Ghost, who sancti- fieth all the people of God. Second, nothing which is declared by Christ to be necessary for salvation can be The evangelical preacher exalts the Bible As revealing what is necessary for salvation And as indicating what is really authoritative 35 He has a glorious message of God’s fatherhood He preaches the true divinity, the atoning power, the personal leadership and t'ne authoritative teach- ing of Jesus Christ added to or detracted from, by any other authority, with- out a deep injury being done to the human soul, and a deep wrong to its eternal interests. Used in this sane, historical and spiritual way, the Bible can become to the preacher and his hearers an unfailing source of power in the delivery of a penetrating and constructive mes- sage, and a perpetual source of strength in declaring the majestic truths of the gospel. 2. God the Father. The evangelical preacher is primarily concerned with two great questions, vis., the awakening of the soul dead in sin and the reality of its communion with God. In dealing with these he must face the duty of declaring that God the Creator and Lord of all has made Himself known as the Father and Saviour of men in Jesus Christ, His Son. This is the forefront of the message, that God has made Himself known, and that He is accessible to all, through one Person. The gracious and personal father- hood of God was the heart of Christ’s teaching which too many systems of thought have obscured. The Church is the community of all believers, to whom the kingdom of Fleaven has been opened. Through and in that Church which is the body of Christ the faith and knowledge and love of God has been and is preserved and conveyed from man to man and from one generation to another. The one supreme matter is that every soul can have dealing directly and personally with God, as every soul must answer to Him at the last in the self- same direct and personal manner. 3. Jesus Christ. The center of Christianitv is the person and work of Jesus Christ. Cor.cerning Him in such a field as Latin Am.erica four fundamental matters must be duly and in true perspective emphasized. (i) He is Divine, the Son of God incarnate, “God manifest in the flesh.” Hence it is that what He said and did was directly and immediately the word and deed of God the Father. None other can surpass Him in making God knov.m. None other than He, with the Father and the Spirit, can be the object of faith and worship after the example of the Apostolic Church. 36 (2) In His life and death of sacrifice Jesus Christ revealed directly and perfectly the holy love of God, and by His death on Calvary He once for all made full atone- ment for our sins. In Him the love of God shines forth as the tender and pure merciful love of the Father. It is blasphemy to think that any one is needed to persuade Him to have mercy, and it is entirely contrary to the teaching of the apostles to suppose that any one can have more power with God than He. Not only is He alone the Saviour, but He is the Saviour. He has no other will concerning any man who feels the need of God’s mercy and grace than to pour them out upon him. He exists in love, and His whole will towards man moves in love, personal, direct and intimate. (3) He, the Risen Christ, the only Head of the Church, is in direct control, through His all-pervasive Spirit, of the history and the destiny, the character and conduct, of every human being. With Him each man is constantly and fully related, and to Him each man must commit his career in this world, as well as his final destiny in that which is to come. No more inspir- ing message can be given to the men of Latin America than that of the personal leadership of Jesus Christ. The greatest and the humblest are impressed by the idea of a privilege so unexpected in the light of their former training, so surpassing in its essential wonder and power, so evidently based on the nature of New Testament Christianity. Experience shows that direct and contrO' versial public attack upon the worship of the Virgin, when thrust into the foreground of the work, awakens only fanatical hatred and detestation of Protestantism. But when the message of fellowship with the God of loving mercy through Christ the Redeemer, and of the promised leadership of Christ, is steadily, intelligently proclaimed, the worship of Mary and the saints falls away. Its anti- christian nature is at once apparent when the true place of Christ, not merely in theological statement, but in actual experience, is made clear and becomes effective. (4) The teaching of Jesus is presented to us as the supreme guide of our life. What His character was, what His lips spoke, is the supreme law of our individual character and of our social relationships. We should al- low no other standards of conduct to weaken the force 37 He has a compelling message of fellowship with God and Jesus Christ of His words. For the man who would follow Jesus, the tests are likely to be severe and the sacrifice great. We must learn to apply His teaching broadly and with- out fear to the whole of our social or national prejudices, to all our fashionable standards, to our industrial, politi- cal and ecclesiastical problems, for if through Qirist God is made known, it is certain that through His character and teaching the very will of God is made articulate, the real secret and source of the evolution of humanity towards its ideal is laid open to our gaze. The nation which will make Christ’s will and spirit the guide of its life will make the true development of that life secure. . : i '- -s tt; . . j 4. The Spiritual Life. The evangelical preacher has no images, no list of saints, to recommend as objects of trust and appeal. He has on the other hand the unsurpassed gift of personal and intim.ate and loving communion with the Father and the Saviour to offer to every man on the authority of the original gospel of Christ and His apostles. When he proclaims the redemption wrought out on the Cross, when he proclaims, with a heart full of joy and confi- dence, the forgiveness of sins, he proclaims also the only conditions on which these gifts become the inalienable possession of every man. These are repentance from sin, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a universal message, and the conditions are those which every man can fulfill if he will do so. No message is so distinctive of the New Testament as a whole, none is so alien to the spirit of all systems and religions which are not evangelical, and none has proved so attractive to all classes of men in all parts of the world, wherever it has been delivered with conviction, clearness and love. This is the point at which the tyranny of priestcraft can be broken down most effectively, for the man who hears the appeal of God to his own soul and the summons to trust his Father directly is soon aware that the intrusion of a priestly functionary upon his inner relations with God is an outrage on God’s grace and on the human con- science. But again the wisest and most successful evan- gelical preachers have found that direct controversy is less efficient than the tremendous influence of the posi- tive message of pardon and personal access to God 38 through Christ alone. The message of forgiveness, of justification or acceptance into God’s direct and constant fello'wship, addressed to all prodigal sons, implies that he who obeys can live daily with God. It has been found that to many Latin Americans, Roman Catholics and agnostics alike, this is a thrilling and utterly unexpected announcement, that prayer is a daily speech with God concerning all the affairs of a man’s daily concern. A man may consult God, a man may daily ask for and ex- pect and possess the sympathy of God, a man may tread the streets or do his work, or sit at home, and all the time be aware of God and continue in personal conver- sation with Him. Needless to say, the evangelical message offers, to all who will accept it, the joys of the Divine sonship, the sa- cred comfort of the Divine promises, and the glorious light upon man’s sorrow and struggle of the Christian hope. In such lives we may expect to see the fruit of the Spirit flourishing abundantly in the characters of pure and generous men and women. 5. The Church and Its Fellowship. The evangelical preacher is a representative of the or- ganized Church of Christ. That Church has gone through a rich and varied evolutionary process, which has re- sulted in historic types of organization, such as the GreTl-c Church, the Roman Church, the Lutheran Church, the Church of England, the Presbyterian Church, and many others. These are all nowadays represented more or less in all lands. Some of them have departed further than others from the original type described in the New Testa- ment. Some have added much in their teaching and practice which is not true to that type and must in time be discarded. All who belong to what are called the evangelical Communions believe that they add least to, and subtract least from, the true ideal. The differences among them are due partly to historic national situations, partly to developments in culture and spiritual life in the various so-called Protestant countries. But the evangeli- cal Churches are all deeply conscious of the essential matters which make them to be truly members of the one holy Catholic Church of Christ, and they are in- creasingly anxious to realize in outward, loving coopera- He represents the organized Church in its various Communions, one in essentials, free in non-essentials 39 He emphasizes church membership as a means of living in sincere loyalty to Christ And should lay due stress upon orderli- ness, dignity and reverence in worship tion and unity that inward harmony of faith and love towards God in Christ which they recognize that they all hold in common. In view of the Latin-American love of uniformity in the Church and dislike of variety, it is of vital importance that the evangelical preacher should explain fully and intelligently the underlying unity of the various sections, and at the same time the natural man- ner in which the various forms have arisen.- Further it should be constantly urged that there is no desire to im- part mere sectariansm to Latin America, but a desire so to preach the apostolic message that a true evangelical Church may arise in each of the republics, formed in each case from the experience of the grace of God on the part of its own saints and in the light of indigenous culture. The formal relationship with the then existing Christian Churches in other lands and with the historic church movement through the ages that such national Churches would have are matters which these Churches would doubtless determine for themselves. When therefore the evangelical preacher invites those whom he has led into the experience of peace with God and fellowship with Christ to unite with the Church he represents, his supreme desire is that the new convert may learn to live in the atmosphere of a Christian com- munity. There his faith, his love, his obedience, his spir- itual joy, his moral character, may be constantly en- riched and increased, if he will earnestly and humbly and lovingly unite in worship and service with those who love the Lord Jesus Christ. Undoubtedly the simplicity and bareness of most evangelical forms of worship seems cold and even repulsive to those who have associated the worship of Almighty God always and only with ornate services full of mystery and symbolism. To meet this inborn and ingrained habit of thought and feeling every effort should be used to have church buildings that are beautiful, even where simple, and clean even when fre- quented mainly by the poor. And the preachers should be careful to see that in all formal and public acts of worship there should be great dignity, order and beauty. Ragged and unprepared services, informal manners in the pulpit, familiar or irreverent tones in prayer, should all be avoided at Sunday services as sedulously as slip- shod composition and careless, offhand delivery of ser- 40 tnons. There is a science and an art of worship even among non-liturgical Churches which all too few preachers master, and the absence of this offends the taste, shocks the reverence and excites the contempt of cultivated people everywhere. In such an environment as that of Latin America no care should be spared in the conduct of public worship to make the building and the music, the prayer and the preaching, suggest wor- ship, awaken the sense of the presence of God, gather in the spirit that is eager for the touch upon the imag- ination as well as for the appeal to reason and conscience, to feed on the spiritual bread that is offered to the soul. 6. The Kingdom of God on Earth. It should be kept in view that the great leaders of the He should preach evangelical Church have always been deeply concerned righteousness with the relation of the Christian message to the social life of man and the helpful influence of the church upon the state. The names of Luther and Calvin and John Knox are associated with great movements in social and political organization as well as with reform in the .sphere of religion. Men like Zinzendorf, John Wesley, and Moody, though known as great evangelists seeking the conversion of individual souls to God, were drawn into active service of the poor and the unlearned. No one can be unaware of the fact that the great evangeli- cal Churches of all lands have been the chief supporters of all movements bearing upon the relief of suffering, the rebuke of unrighteous customs and the deliverance of the poor from injustice and oppression. This whole matter will be dealt with in a later section of this report. But it must be named and briefly set forth here as part of that message which through preach- ing, instruction and personal example every Christian Church and its ministers ought to be delivering steadily to the communities in which they are established. It is true that the future life is ever present to the Christian consciousness, the source of much inspiration and the haven of our most sacred hopes. But it is no less true that we are taught by our Lord to pray and work that the kingdom may come and the will of God be done on earth as in heaven. And our Lord Himself set us the 41 He should uphold true patriotic and social ideals supreme example of that sublime union of yearning for the future triumph with utter devotion to the present duty. Nowhere can priestcraft be more definitely coun- teracted than in the teaching which leads laymen to earnest, organized service of their fellow-men here and now. By no means can the training of individual char- acter, the establishment of converted men and women in the love of justice and the pursuit of social righteous- ness be better promoted than by engaging them in the active service of their fellow-men. The end of evangelical teaching is to be found not only in the pursuit of personal salvation, but also in the constant manifestation of patriotism, in the love of our fellow-men and in the desire to engage in any and every kind of personal effort and concerted movement which will tend to cleanse political life of graft, industrial life of cruelty, commercial life of dishonesty, and all social re- lations of vice and depravity. The evangelical message will be robbed of its great opportunity in Latin America if it does not prove its breadth and divine beauty by im- pressing the community where any church is established with the enthusiasm of humanity, in the name of Christ the Redeemer, and God the Father, of mankind. 42 CHAPTER IV THE EVANGELICAL CHURCHES AND THE SOCIAL GOSPEL Both in Europe and America the so-called Anglo- Saxon and Latin civilizations are being drawn into closer sympathy, to the advantage of both. Former Secretary of State Elihu Root, when on his South American tour a few years ago, said: “The newer civilization of North America has much to learn from the older civilization of South America,” and no one appreciates this so fully as those who have made a first-hand study of the latter. Latin-American civilization is rich in the inheritance of culture, the sense of beauty, the grace of manner, and the spirit of chivalry which runs in the blood of Latin peoples, and which can be ripened only by time. On the other hand, the industrial revolution, which is only beginning in South America, is already two or more generations old in the United States, and of course much older in Great Britain. The changes which it in- evitably works have taught Great Britain and the United States some costly and valuable lessons. It is to be hoped that Latin Americans, by avoiding mistakes made in other lands, may make a far greater success in dealing with these rising social problems. I. The Coming of the Industrial Revolution in Latin America. The people of the next generation in Latin America will live in a very different world from that of their for- bears. Great changes are imminent everywhere, but per- The Latin and the Anglo-Saxon civilizations should get into touch enabling Latin America to avoid costly errors of the past The Latin America of the future very different from to-day 43 It can support a far larger population It will produce ntuch of the world’s food supply A marked expansion of its commerce to be expected haps nowhere else will they be quite so vast during the next thirty years as in Latin America. (i) The development of her virgin resources. The average density of population of the habitable globe is placed at thirty-six to the square mile, whereas South America is credited with only five. If, therefore, the continent had only average fertility, it would be ca- pable of supporting seven times its present population. That is, 280,000,000 people instead of 40,000,000 would give it only the average density of the world. But South America has much more than average fertility. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says : “Paradoxical as the fact may appear, we are satisfied that the new continent, though less than half the size of the old, contains at least an equal quantity of useful soil and much more than an equal amount of productive power.” ' If this statement is correct, the average acre in North and South America is more than twice as productive as the average acre in Europe, Asia and Africa. The food supplies which the Old World draws from the New will evidently come increasingly from Latin America, for agricultural exports from other food-pro- ducing areas are decreasing. There are also great min- eral 'resources in Latin America which are undeveloped, and there is vast wealth in its tropical forests, while the possible electrical power of its remarkable river systems is another great asset. That the inevitable development of these great natural resources will be rapid is evident: o. Because it has been in progress for some years, and billions of foreign capital have already been invested in it. b. Because the present rate of growth of the world’s population means that every ten years there will be up- wards of 160,000,000 additional mouths to feed. c. Because the standard of living is rapidly rising all over the civilized world, which correspondingly increases the demand for all the appliances of civilized life, and for all sorts of raw materials. d. Because under normal conditions capital which seeks foreign investment is rapidly increasing in the world’s chief monetary centers. ‘Article on America, Ninth Edition, Vol. I, 717. 4-4 e. Because Latin American cities are eager to ac- quire all the material advantages of the new civilization, and the holders of natural resources are more than will- ing to dispose of concessions for immediate wealth. For the above reasons there can be little doubt that Latin America will enjoy a period of marked expansion during the first half of the twentieth century. (2) A very important agency in this expansion will be the incoming of the factory system. Skilled labor once attracted raw materials from a great distance ; it is now found that in many forms of industry raw materials attract capital and develop labor for their man- ufacture in close proximity. Many kinds of manufactured goods now cost several times as much in Latin America as elsewhere, which fact of course constitutes a premium on the establishment of factories near the source of raw materials and close to markets. The isolation of Latin America has heretofore retarded the development of the industrial revolution in that continent. Not only has the development of navigation brought the west coast of the southern continent several thousand miles nearer Liver- pool and New York than it formerly was, but South America now lies on the great highway of the world, and a constant procession of the ships of all nations will in due time pass her doors. This closeness of contact with the life of the world will make increasingly operative the various causes referred to above which must surely hasten the development of the industrial revolution. 2. The Coming of New Social Problems in Latin America. The industrial revolution, which is now on its way around the world, is vastly more than a radical change in the forms of industry. The method of gaining a liveli- hood has always had a powerful influence in shaping civ- ilizations. The incoming of the factory, the opening up of virgin resources and the development of commerce create conditions of life as far removed from those which attend a civilization primarily agricultural as the east is from the west. Daily habits, the standard of living, methods of housing, sanitation, the density of popula- tion, the death rate, the marriage rate, the birth rate, Because of its rapid industrial development Industrial develop- ments bring about social changes 45 Thrse induce social problems which complicate religious issues predominantly among the laboring classes In Latin America the changes may be very abrupt interdependence between individuals, classes, communi- ties and nations, and a thousand other things are all pro- foundly atfected by the organization of industry and the resulting development of mines, railways and factories. New and conflicting ideas and interests, class con- sciousness and at the same time a growing sense of soli- darity, new conceptions of the relations of the individual to society embodied in socialism, syndicalism and anar- chism, new rights, new duties, new opportunities, new responsibilities, new needs, new perils — all these go to make up the great social problem so characteristic of our times, which constitutes an imperative demand for the readjustment of civilization to radically new conditions created by the industrial revolution. These new social problems complicate moral and re- ligious problems. The division of labor, which is the very essence of organized industry, multiplies interde- pendence a thousandfold, renders human relationships far more close and complex, creates new rights and new duties, and therefore raises new questions of practical morals. Wherever the influence of the new social civilization has penetrated, whether in- Great Britain, Continental Europe or the United States, the tendency has been to loosen the hold of the churches on workingmen ; and this has been true not only of Protestant Churches, but also of the Roman Catholic and of the Greek Catholic, ever since the middle of the nineteenth century. There is no reason to suppose that the influence of the new social civilization will be exceptional in Latin America unless, indeed, the fact that it is imported and the con- ditions under which it comes serve to make it exception- ally trying. In Europe and the United States the application of steam and electricity with their consequent miracles of change came slowly as inventions appeared one by one, and gradually overcame the conservatism of a public which was suspicious of the new. In Latin America these revolutionizing inventions present themselves not one by one, but en masse; and they are introduced not as doubtful experiments which slowly win confidence as they are slowly perfected, but with credentials in hand, 46 after having conquered two continents. They are ad- mitted without question, and begin their work of trans- formation as fast as capital can be procured to install them. Social changes will, therefore, be much more abrupt than they have been in North America and Europe, which will render adjustment to them correspondingly more difficult. This of course implies a rapid influx of foreign cap- ital, of which, for reasons already given, there can be no question. The vast amount of capital and of initiative required to open up their continental resources cannot be furnished by Latin Americans. For nearly three hun- dred years they were subject to paternalism in the state, and for nearly four hundred years they have been under the maternalism of the Roman Church. Such conditions are unfavorable to the development of the initiative, en- terprise and energy requisite to organizing new and great business undertakings. The special gifts of Latin Amer- icans lie in other directions. Large amounts of British, German and Italian capital have been invested in Latin America, together with les- ser sums from the United States and Canada. There are $2,500,000,000 of British money in the Argentine alone, and as a correlative fact there are 360,000 Britons there. British, German and American groups are found in the large cities generally, though North Americans are not nearly so numerous as Europeans. These foreign colonies, which are so intimately con- nected with the new conditions* are composed chiefly of young, unmarried men, and are adding to the already grave moral and religious problems. While some of these young m.en are of the highest character, the testimonies of educators, physicians, missionaries and others agree that a great many of them make shipwreck of them- selves morally, and very likely physically. The loss of character, health and life on the part of many young men is not all. The countries which they represent are mis- represented. Thus gratuitous obstacles are thrown in the way, not only of evangelical clergy and of Young Men’s Christian Association secretaries, but also of the official, representatives of governments who are seeking The requisite capital and direction being furnished from abroad Foreign business men often a disturbing moral influence 47 to establish more intimate and helpful relations between the Latin-American republics and other lands. The Situation demands jr -j. j. • r .1 • 1 . • 1 careful study it it appears that the coming of the industrial revo- Many recognized industrial evils are preventable • lution in Latin America and of the resulting social prob- lems is attended by some peculiar difficulties, it is also apparent that there are certain compensating advantages to be gained provided Latin Americans profit by the ex- perience of other lands, which will enable them to adopt many preventive measures. 3. The Value of Preventive Over Remedial Social En- deavor. When the industrial revolution began in Great Britain it was impossible to foresee results which are now per- fectly apparent. For instance, Britons could not in advance appreciate the fact that child labor would ruin a generation. Sixty-five or seventy years ago proper legislation would have prevented the multiform evils of overcrowding in New York City and would have made the tenement house system of that city impossible, but no legislature foresaw those evils. Now they do not have to be foreseen ; they are as gross and palpable as a mountain. Child labor and overcrowding represent a class of social evils already existing in certain Latin-American cities. These evils are sure to attend the industrial revo- lution wherever this spreads unless they are intentionally and intelligently prevented. They sprang originally from ignorance ; they are perpetuated by cupidity. A later generation, or another nation, may learn gratuitously the character of those evils* and it is culpaWe folly not to take effective measures for their prevention before human selfishness has been enlisted for their defense and perpet- uation. If action relative to child labor is postponed un- til this evil becomes well rooted, every manufacturer who gains economic advantage by it, and every parent who is ignorant enough or selfish enough to profit by it, will help to make the uprooting of the evil more difficult. In like manner, every investment in unsanitary tenements means opposition to tenement house reform. In New York City there are hundreds of millions of such dollars, and so subtle and powerful is their influence that eternal vigilance is the price of preserving intact the building laws for the protection of the people. It is evident that 48 preventive effort which will presumably have to contend only against indifference will accomplish much more than remedial endeavor which will probably have to struggle against a selfish and powerful opposition. Of course it is those who have seen and felt these social evils rather than those who have never witnessed them who must be expected to raise a warning against them. It is evident, therefore, that those in other parts of the world who have had actual observation of the good and bad results of the social revolution and have learned something of the legislation which most effectively con- serves the one and overcomes the other, owe it to the republics in Latin America to give them the benefit of knowledge learned by hard experience. 4. The Religious Value of Social Serince. The most encouraging sign of the times is the fact that for a generation there has been quietly taking place a re- vival of the Christianity of Christ, a true understanding of His message of the Kingdom, and an apprehension of the social laws of love, service and sacrifice, by which ii is governed, and by increasing obedience to which it will increasingly come. With this new light which has broken forth from the Word of God to meet the new social needs of the new civilization, missionaries and ministers of the gospel everywhere are discovering that it is their busi- ness not only to win individual souls to Christ, but to create a Christian civilization, and it has been conspicu- ously demonstrated at home and abroad that social work is as helpful to the one as it is essential to the other. Such work, however, has often originated in the des- perate needs created by famine, flood, pestilence or pov- erty rather than in a comprehensive study of the prob- lem of human well-being, and in a perception of the rela- tion of social progress to the coming of God’s kingdom in the earth. The time is now ripe to take the broad view of missionary effort and to adapt methods accord- ingly: It is evident that a large proportion of the missionaries and Christian workers in Latin America takes this broader view, which marks a return to the aims and methods of the Christianity of Christ. A correspondent says : “The community life requires special study. It is very im- Latin America should be warned against them Social service appro- priate to mission work As many experienced missionaries testify 49 Especially regarding its influence on public sentiment portant that the preacher should get in real touch with the life of the community. He must be one of the people. He must not only understand their problems, but he must feel these problems and take a lively interest in them. There are many reforms that have to be started. He must have the highest Christian ideals elaborated in practical modern ways. He must be familiar with the various ethical doctrines, and also with political and so- cial problems.” Again, the same writer says: “Institu- tional and social service work is very important in Latin America. We may suggest the establishment of reading and lecture rooms, to which people may come to read periodicals, books and pamphlets, and to hear lectures on general subjects entirely separate from distinctly re- ligious work. A lecture room away from the church or the chapel will attract a great many persons who will not go to hear a sermon. By means of lectures on so- ciological problems we may give them to understand that the task of the church is to help the community by giv- ing assistance in the knowledge required to solve prac- tical problems. In those lecture rooms we may organize study classes or societies for debate, or any other kind of organization in which systematic work may be done. The young people’s societies, through their literary de- partments, have undertaken this work in several places in Mexico so successfully that the ordinary monthly meetings of the department have been attended by hun- dreds of people who would never come to any of the church services.” Dr. G. B. Winton says : “Saving individual men will soon begin to raise the spiritual temperature of whole peoples. But evangelical public sentiment will also begin to operate. Many Latin-American countries so far have scarcely anything that can be described as public senti- ment. There are no intellectual currents that flow from community to community. The Roman Church once fur- nished such a bond, but for a long time now it has ceased to be an appreciable intellectual force. Its ministers no longer preach, except at rare intervals. The people are taught the catechism and the litany of the saints, but not much else. But the gospel will make public sentiment. It boldly stirs the sluggish lees of men’s thoughts, and takes the risk of any ferment that may follow. It is it- 50 self both a ferment and a tonic. It makes men think and helps them to think aright. “The generation of Christian men, educated in evan- gelical schools, which will soon furnish the leaders for the political life of Mexico, will supply men who are real patriots, unselfish because Christians, putting the good of the country before any personal interest what- ever. In the same way the period of a generation or two given to instructing the poor and helpless will bring to them the magic gift of letters. When they can read, they will demand a press. With a press they will achieve community of sentiment and of action. If the people are to be sovereign — and so enamored of republicanism are all these nations that they will hear of nothing else — then the' sovereign people must be trained for their duties. Minds must be enlightened, spirits chastened, morals purified. This is the function of the gospel itself, the most potent, democratizing influence known among men. It exalts the worth and the dignity of the individual till he comes to have self-respect, and to demand respect from others. At the same time it makes him his broth- er’s keeper. It enforces such a spirit of consideration, of justice and of kindness that by it men can live together in peaceful communities, governing themselves.” With the recovery of Christ’s conception of the king- dom of Heaven as a saved society here in the earth where God’s will is done by man as it is by angels, methods of social Christian work are soon adapted to local needs. The religious value of such work has been many times demonstrated by churches in the worst quar- ters of cities in Europe and the United States. Here and there in Latin America alsi^ outstanding examples of institutional work are to be found, such as the Peo- ple’s Central Institute of the Southern Methodist Mis- sion at Rio de Janeiro. One of our correspondents thus outlines its work: “A combined downtown institutional forward movement to reach the masses in the commer- cial and business center and the extensive slum district and the seafaring classes of the port of Rio de Janeiro, a city of nearly a million inhabitants, (i) Department of evangelization and religious instruction; preaching, gos- pel meetings, Bible classes, Sunday school, Bible reading, tract distribution, etc. (2) Department of elementary 51 The religious value of social service finds illustration At Rio de Janeiro And at Piedras Negras, Mexico and practical education : kindergarten, day and night schools, classes in the practical arts of cooking, house- keeping, sewing, first aid to the injured, typewriting, etc. (3) Department of physical training: (a) classes for young men and boys, young women and girls in physical culture; (b) gymnastics and indoor games; (c) open-air playgrounds. (4) Department of charity and help: medi- cal consultations, clinic and dispensary, visitations and personal ministry to the sick and neglected. (5) Depart- ment of recreation and amusement : festivals, lantern shows, popular lectures, social gatherings and picnics. (6) Department of employment: a bureau whose object is to bring those in need of employment into touch with employers. (7) Department for seamen: preaching and gospel service in the hall and on board ship, reading, cor- respondence and game rooms, distribution of literature, visitation of the sick in the hospitals and on board ship, board and lodging, and care for the general spiritual, in- tellectual, social and physcal welfare of sailors.” The People’s Institute, of Piedras Negras, Mexico, under the mission Board of the Disciples of Christ, has attracted wide attention among educators, government officials and private citizens alike. It is the outgrowth of a small reading-room. The discussion of public is- sues in the reading-room called forth a series of public conferences on civics and morals at the municipal theatre which aroused so much interest and enthusiasm that the demand was imperative for an expansion of the work and for a permanent home for the new enterprise. Funds were raised by popular subscription from philanthropic residents on both sides of the Rio Grande for the erec- tion of the present splendid building. It was organized especially for the purpose of seeking a point of contact with the higher classes, who could never be persuaded to attend religious meetings. The methods used were those which would interpret Christ’s message as a force to uplift the community and national life, rather than to bring direct pressure on individuals to join the church. The dedication of the building was made an official act by the government, which often holds patriotic meetings in the auditorium. Other public and private organizations often use the rooms for their meetings also. Much of the success of the work is due to the active cooperation 52 of the public school teachers, who in a large measure have been used to head the varied activities. The Institute combines the work of the social settlement, the public library, the charity organization society, the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and all the other benevolent, educational and reform organizations of the ordinary city in the United States. One of the most interesting features of the Institute is a Sunday morning meeting, generally attended by peo- ple who would never think of attending an ordinary evan- gelical preaching service. A topic is chosen, and some government official or other prominent citizen, known for his high moral character, is asked to lead the discussion, which is afterward thrown open to all present. The frankest discussion is urged and secured. The director always presides and closes with his own presentation, showing the bearing of Christian teaching on the problem. Thus an opportunity is found to present the claims of Christianity to those who had ceased to think of it as of any practical value to them. These meetings and those of a debating club have often aroused interest and started movements for the betterment of community life, which have afterward been taken over by the government or other organizations. Night classes in fifteen different subjects are conducted for young men and women. As many as one hundred and forty have been enrolled at one time. During the school year conferences are held for the public school teachers. The director of the government schools of the district is on the faculty of the Institute, thus helping to cor- relate its educational work with that of the public sys- tem. This work seems to offer an approach to the upper com- mercial and official classes who have so long been indif- ferent under the older methods which seemed to appeal only to the humbler classes and those who could be aroused to the ambition for a better education than was afforded by the native schools. In this respect the Pied- ras Negras work differs from most social institutional work, which aims at the lower grades of society, trying to elevate their ideals and environment. But here the attraction of modernized social and intellectual oppor- tunities drew from their aloofness those who had hither- Where rrany listen to evangelical teaching who will not enter a church All classes of the population being reached 53 Social service pre- pares the way for the gospel message By illustrating the spirit of disinterested love to considered themselves above the social scale of the native evangelical membership. Social service indirectly contributes to individual salva- tion by preparing the way for the gospel message. Two things are necessary in order to convert the world to Christ. One is Christian truth, the other is the Christian spirit, and it is the spirit which vitalizes. A body of Christian truth without the Christian spirit is as powerless and dead as a human body without the soul. There are multitudes in the world, and especially in Chris- tendom, who have been taught more or less in the truths of Christianity, but who have been mistaught as to the spirit of Christianity. That spirit is the spirit of disin- terested love. Such love is the very essence of our re- ligion because it is the very essence of God, of whom Christianity is a revelation. Now the world at large does not believe in disinterested love. There is every reason why men believe in selfishness ; but why should they be- lieve in a love they have never experienced, and rarely, if ever, witnessed? This is the real, practical atheism of the world. As long as men do not believe in disinterested love, they cannot believe in God, who is disinterested love. As long as such love is unreal to men, God is unreal to them. Non-Christians and professed Christians meet one another in the daily contacts of business, but even Chris- tian men make no profession that their business is dis- interested. With them as with others, “business is busi- ness." Thus there are great multitudes in so-called Chris- tion lands for whom Christian truth has been devitalized, and its proclamation made powerless. The principal contacts between Christendom and non- Christendom have been commerce, diplomacy and war, and disinterested love is not commonly recognized as the controlling motive of traders, governments or armies. Few, indeed, are the pagan peoples in the world to whom the great war has not given another superfluous demon- stration that “Christian” nations do not love one another. Millions are feeling, and not a few have definitely for- mulated the thought, that somehow this war is a nega- tion of the Christianity of Europe. A prominent Japanese, Dr. K. Ibuka, chosen to represent the Federated Churches of Japan, said when welcoming the Christian embassy re- cently sent to that country by the Federal Council of 54 the Churches of Christ in America : “Men to-day are standing, with bated breath, bewildered at the spectacle of the gigantic struggle going on in Europe. For half a century or so the newly awakened East has looked up to the civilization of the West as the highest type of civilization the world has ever known. But it is now trembling in the balance. . . . The civilization of Europe has been pointed to in the East as preeminently Christian, and men are asking us Christians, ‘Where is your God?’ Where is the kingdom of God which you proclaim as the supreme aim of life? Where is the broth- erhood of man so often on your lips? What is the real value of Christianity to the world? Do not Chris- tian philosophers and theologians themselves admit that, after all, might is right ?” These taunts are not new, but they have been newly barbed and feathered, and find the mark as never before. To what purpose do we reiterate yet again that the Christian’ life means love to God and man? Such words are empty chafif before the whirlwind of human hate and greed. There must be evidence of unselfishness. Where shall it be found, if not in sacrificial service, which is the natural expression of love? Dr. Grenfell, of Labrador, says: “When you set out to commend your gospel to men who don’t want it, there is only one way to go about it — to do something for them that they’ll understand.” That was the Master’s method. The nations are not hungering and thirsting for righteous- ness, but wherever the industrial revolution goes many new needs appear of which men become deeply conscious. They can understand poverty and sickness when the com- ing of machinery throws them crut of employment. Talk- ing to them about righteousness is to them no such evi- dence of your love, as is helping them with respect to some felt need. Social service in mission fields is simply an extension of the principle of medical missions, which have been so wonderfully successful in overcoming prej- udice and in preparing the way for Christian truth. The industrial revolution is the forerunner of new needs and of new social problems which, left unsolved, become social perils. Social service which aims to meet these new needs is the forerunner of the teaching of Jesus, which alone can solve these problems and prevent And by actual deeds of sacrifice Social service demon- strates Christianity to pten 55 It also helps to give each man a significant place in life And fits him into the Divine scheme these perils. Social service appeals to men because they can understand it. It kindles their gratitude, gains their confidence, wins their afifection, and in some measure re- veals the Christian spirit. It is not a proclamation of Christianity, but it is a demonstration of it — a demonstra- tion not of logic, but of life. Is not this expression of Christian love precisely the answer needed by the new skepticism concerning the reality of Christian love? There are two distinct methods of communicating truth which are as old as human intercourse. One is by means of words, the other is by means of acts. And while the word is the primary messenger, the act not only “speaks louder” than the word, but speaks a universal language. When the Christian spirit has been shown in ministering to keenly felt wants, when it has been manifested in self- denying service, then the spoken word of Christian truth will have its rightful power. Social service directly contributes to social salvation by helping to rectify relations between man and man. In an address made several years ago President Wilson said : “We are in the presence of the absolute necessity of a spiritual coordination of the masses of knowledge which we have piled up and which we have partially explained, and the whole world waits for that vast task of intel- lectual mediation to be performed.” Science is classify- ing the new knowledge, and gradually coordinating its truths, but science does not concern itself with spiritual meanings and ultimate purposes. President Wilson con- tinued in the same address : “The business of the Chris- tian Church, of the Christian ministry, is to show the spiritual relations of men to the great world process, whether they be physical or spiritual. It is nothing less than to show the plan of life, and men’s relations to the plan of life.” This is precisely what social Christianity undertakes to do. Immanuel Kant, regarded as the greatest philosopher produced by Christendom, recognized a universal plan in nature and history by which the human race would fulfil its destiny here in the earth in a kingdom of “the good,” which he called in Scriptural phrase, the “king- dom of God.” Since Kant’s time the highest theological thinking has made dominant what has been called a “moral teleology” — the teaching that the world exists for 56 a moral purpose to which the spiritual and the physical are alike subservient. In recent years this conception has reasserted itself with new vigor and with wider ac- ceptance, and men are beginning to recognize the cosmic designs of God in Jesus’ teaching concerning the coming of the kingdom of Heaven here in the earth. This interpretation of Christianity fits the peculiar needs of our times as the ocean fits the shore, and makes social service inspired by Christian love the intelligent application of the social laws of Jesus to human relation- ships. Those laws perfectly obeyed would be God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven — the kingdom fully come. 57 CHAPTER V Latin American “intellectuals” are hostile, indifferent, or agnostic as regards Christian truth THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE AND THE EDUCATED CLASSES I. The Present Attitude of the Educated Classes of Latin America Toward Christianity. It is the unanimous testimony alike of natives, foreign observers and evangelical ministers that among the edu- cated classes of the Latin-American republics there is widespread hostility to the Christian faith. In some of these countries there are small groups who remain faith- ful to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, and throughout them all individuals are to be found who be- lieve in God and in His supreme revelation through Christ. But in general it is to be said that defection from the Roman Church implies, among the “intellec- tuals,” either complete indifference to the whole subject of the spiritual life of man or the profession of some phase of philosophy which seems to justify them in re- jecting the claims and authority of the Christian religion in any form. From the time of the revolutions in these countries the minds of the leaders have been concentrated on the attempt to discover intellectual bases for society and the secret of governmental authority and method, apart from the teaching of the only^orm of Christianity which they know at first hand and which they have almost unanimously rejected. If here and there we find those who had deeper insight into the facts, and who, like Montalvo of Ecuador, held that “a sane and pure de- mocracy has need of Jesus Christ,”* those voices are all ‘F. Garcia Calderon, “Latin America: Its Rise and Pro- gress,” 240. 58 too rare. The vast majority are political idealists. They have sought through a philosophy of human nature and history to discover the true principles on which an or- dered society could be established. Naturally, in the earlier period many of them looked on the French en- cyclopedists as the true parents of that democracy which they accepted as the only substitute for the autocratic rule of Spain and Portugal. And from Rousseau, Vol- taire and their confreres they sought their moral, social and political inspiration and guidance. But that was a comparatively brief phase. The rapid spread of the doc- trine of evolution and the discovery that the encyclo- pedists were pure dogmatists, whose doctrines were un- supported by history, led them to other and later systems of thought. The great names which seem to have ruled the minds of Latin America for the last two generations are those of Auguste Comte, with his system of positive philosophy, Herbert Spencer with his majestic and im- posing philosophy of mechanistic evolution, and Jeremy Bentham, whose doctrine of utilitarianism as applied to legislation and governmental ideals exercised great in- fluence. As those thinkers systematically treat positive Christianity, and even the active belief in God, as irrele- vent to the study of mankind and the ordering of society, their many followers in Latin America have naturally treated the whole subject of religion as passe. Many of their rulers and of the instructors of youth in their uni- versities have either ignored religion entirely, except in anticatholic legislation, or have definitely attacked its claims to intellectual respect or official recognition. Naturally, therefore, we are presented with a condition almost unique in the modern world, where religion is treated consistently as a superstition of the past which in none of its forms is worthy of the attention of free and educated men. If we are told that here and there circles are being formed and are growing in number and power which concern themselves seriouslv with such movements as spiritism and theosophy, this may be treated partly as a witness to the survival of the religious instinct among their professors, partly as a proof that the merely secu- lar view of life is beginning to reveal its poverty and shallowness. On the other hand, there seems to be no evidence that Their political idealism rests upon an irreligious philosophy They class religi n as a superstition The Roman Church helplets to meet this situation The task of the evangelical churches very difficult The evangelical preacher or teacher must emphasize the reality and power of Christian experience the leaders of the Roman Church are able to withstand this mighty flood of agnosticism. The mere non licet of the late pope’s attack upon modernism can have no effect with a situation like this. The works of Roman Catholic apologists in Europe seem to have a very limited circula- tion in Latin America, and tl^ education of priests does not fit them to deal with the problems of agnosticism from the modern standpoint. 2 . The Task of Evangelical Churches. It is obvious, of course, that the evangelical Churches cannot undertake to counteract directly the institutional life which has produced or which nourishes the anti- religious attitude of the governments and universities of Latin America. Nor can they send men whose task shall be merely that of substituting one philosophy for another. Their influence upon the educated classes of these repub- lics must arise from the effort of highly trained and de- voted Christian men to bring men of education to Christ. We know how difficult that task is in all parts of the world. But in most Christian lands the task is made easier by the presence, in their best educated circles, of large numbers who are avowedly Christians in conviction and spirit. In Latin America it is the absence of any such nucleus, and the fact that so many have rejected Chris- tianity or are indifferent to its claims, which constitutes the peculiar problem. In the first place, then, we must emphasize the fact that work among the intellectuals has the very same object as that among the uneducated, the bringing of human souls one by one into the fellowship of God through faith in Jesus Christ. The definiteness, power and glory of a personal life in God must be the one supreme message of the Christian teacher to them as to all other classes. The more directly he makes that fact the center and substance of his whole message, the more force will be exercised by his ability to meet the stress of debate based upon philosophical and historical argument against the Christian faith. In all parts of the world it is the sub- stantial power of a personal experience of Christ and of God in Christ which attracts most earnest attention to the intellectual aspects of the whole matter. Without that compelling energy of active life all dispute about 6o the philosophy that is consistent or inconsistent with Christianity appears as a mere abstract afifair, a mere choice of school flags, or an unmoral assent to proposi-# tions that do not lay bare the roots of our being in God. Further, it must be remembered that the missionary open confession must seek to bring his educated converts to an open service confession of their faith and into Christian service. With- out such open confession and an accompanying expres- sion of the religious life through self-denying activities, these converts will lose the steadying of character that comes through witness-bearing, and the power of the self to function through service is likely to suffer atrophy. These are commonplaces of the religious life as the evan- gelical understands it. But just here is one of the chief difficulties to be encountered, for the almost universal testimony laid before us proves that many of the upper circles are deterred at the very start from open connec- tion with the evangelical Communions because these are so largely composed of the poor and the uncultured. The fear of losing caste is apparently as great as among the higher castes of India. It is here that strong intellectual leadership is needed to support the spiritual appeal, to nourish and fortify the spiritual impulse which has been awakened. With these thoughts before us we must now describe avoiding themes the main topics on which the evangelical teacher who is to labor persuasively and with authority among the edu- cated classes should be as thoroughly equipped as possible. (i) The Doctrine of Evolution. It is evident that Evolution rnost the thinking world of Latin America is largely controlled to^be o^o"ed"w'’°' by the idea of evolution. The form in which it has ''^''eaied religion mainly been presented and gained its hold is that which it has taken in the system of Herbert Spencer, based upon the doctrine of the persistence of force and the Darwinian theory of natural selection. For many the Spencerian philosophy has coalesced with the more hu- manitarian enthusiasm of Auguste Comte, whose phil- osophy of positivism has at once captured their demo- cratic convictions and confirmed their rejection of a su- pernatural religion. Thus they find themselves buttressed, by an interpretation of evolution which claims to be scientific and a view of history which claims to be most human, in an attitude of defiance toward revealed re- 61 To this error must be opposed the true theistic conception ligion. In their search for political ideals they assume ^that science must have the last and decisive word. Hence the more recent concentration on psychology and sociol- ogy among their university leaders and political theorists does not imply any deeper grasp of the spiritual nature of man and the absolute nature of moral law. Rather does their interest in these new fields of thought proceed upon the basis of that evolutionism and agnosticism which the earlier generation adopted as the final truth for the modern scholar and thinker. It is evident that if the evangelical form of Chris- tianity is to be made real to men who- have been thus trained for nearly three generations, a mere blunt and ignorant denial of the doctrine of evolution or a super- ficial and insipid treatment of the philosophy of agnosti- cism will avail nothing. The true method will be pur- sued more wisely by the man who knows that there is another view of evolution than that of Herbert Spen- cer. There is a kind of tyranny which the earlier and coarser view of evolution has exercised over the minds of a whole generation of men. It has been assumed that the principle of evolution means that the earlier periods of the history of our world explain the later, that the simpler conditions and forms of existence produced the more complex, that the lower phenom.ena are the causes of the higher. The idea of order in time has become confused with the idea of causality. Thus mechanical principles are used to “explain” the facts of biology. Biology, in turn, is taken as the key to psychology, psy- chology to sociology, and the last as the key to all re- ligious phenomena. This easy and shallow way of ex- plaining the history of our world is now being discred- ited steadily by the most representative thinkers of Europe and America. It is hard, however, for many minds to get rid of its tyranny over their imagination. The con- ception that the evolutionary history of nature and man in our little world reveals the gradual enrichment of the field of reality by the advent of successive new causes, which come from sources, or a Source, in the invisible and spiritual universe, is the conception which the Christian thinker must think through until its truth has filled and freed and illumined his mind. 62 And again, our Christian apologist must remember that agnosticism was promulgated by Kant, Sir William Hamilton, Victor Cousin and Dean Mansel, not as the destroyer but as the helpmeet of faith. This knowledge may not lead him to adopt agnosticism, but it should lead him to a deeper study of the whole movement on its Christian and constructive side. For this purpose he might well pay some attention to the Ritschlian move- ment and its significant history both in Germany and in the English-speaking world. For it is safe to say that, though Ritschlianism has not produced a commanding system of Christian doctrine, it has served the past gen- eration as a helpful system of apologetic, and espe- cially so among the intellectuals of Europe and North America. And yet Ritschl explicitly and elaborately founded his method upon a philosophical agnosticism which he expounded and defended with great conviction and energy. Thus, like a wise strategist, the Christian teacher, without attempting merely to substitute one dif- ficult philosophy for another, may turn the flank of the foe by showing that many eminent philosophical agnos- tics have been convinced and earnest Christian believers. Let this, then, be the task of the man who, by the writing of pamphlets, the delivery of lectures and the conduct of private discussions among the agnostics of Latin America, seeks to win educated men to Christ. He must master the theory of evolution in its Christian in- terpretation and the doctrine of agnosticism. For this, the literature, even in English alone, is vast and varied. The works of Robert Flint, John Fiske, A. J. Balfour, William James, J. Arthur Thompson, Romanes, Oliver Lodge, Kelvin, Eddes, Bergson and Josiah Royce are a few among the many that are easily available. (2) Religion. The discussion of evolution and ag- nosticism involves of course the fundamental problems connected with the philosophy of theism. But it is said that many leaders of Latin-American thought who do not profess to be atheists adopt, nevertheless, the form of theism known as deism. That is, they seem to ac- knowledge the existence of a creative arid intelligent will, without which nature cannot be explained as a vast but unified and orderly process ; but they disclaim the idea And the fact that true agnosticism does not necessarily forbid Christian belief The one who defends the Christian stand- point must know his subject thoroughly Some religionists ignore the personality of God 63 To them may be presented the scientific conclusion that religion is indispensable to humankind And that the unsatisfied soul turns to superstition that such a being has definite claims on individual recog- nition. They are deists who disown religion. They imagine, as indeed many do in other enlightened lands, that the future history of man, based on economic facts and ethical and social ideals, can reach its goal without any effort on man’s part to enter into personal com- munion with the Will which orders all. That Will works immanently, it is said ; and, so far as our knowledge or responsive action is concerned, it works impersonally. There are many who shrink from avowing themselves as intellectually atheists, who do not realize that the deists who do not seek or worship God, and the agnostics who avoid religion on the ground of a certain theory of knowl- edge, all live as practical atheists, “having no hope and without God in the world.” There are three main lines of attack upon this position, recognized in modern apologetic literature. The first of these is the fruit of the modern study of religion as a whole. It is found that religion is a normal product and activity of human nature. It is as old as language, as wide-spread as the race itself. The hunger of man for communication with the unseen powers that control his fortunes, and with the Divine Source of the soul’s life is irrepressible and is increasingly believed to be universal. Irreligious communities are not superior but inferior to their fellow-men. They ar.e, under temporary and unnatural conditions, stifling the true tendency of their nature, denying to themselves the highest fruits of their existence as men. As John Fiske, the first great exponent of Herbert Spencer in North America, asserted : “Nature’s eternal lesson is the everlasting reality of re- ligion.” In dealing with evolutionists of a certain type his argument in “Through Nature to God” should be mastered by every teacher of Christianity. There is abundant proof that in Latin America, as in other communities where the message of Christianity is rejected, the hunger of the soul for religion finds expres- sion in the pursuit of spiritualism, soothsaying, theos- ophy and other such phenomena. The loss of faith in Christ always brings the demons back to man’s imagi- nation and gives them power over his heart. As the fountain head of such systems, when they become sys- tems, is the East and especially India, the wise herald 64 of the gospel will give more attention to their history in their birthland. For this purpose no book will serve better than Mr. J. N. Farquhar’s “Modern Religious Movements in India” ; and the true value and significance of man’s yearning for direct contact with the supernat- ural should be studied in Professor E. F. Hocking’s stiff but rewarding work on “The Meaning of God in Human Experience.” The purely superstitious nature and im- moral tendencies of these movements, when they are taken to supplant Christianity, may be fully and should be ruthlessly exposed in written and spoken word. The second method of appeal should be based on man’s moral needs. To some minds the mystical appeal seems faint and unattractive, especially if their life is material- istic and self-indulgent. But there are few who, when pressed kindly and firmly, do not acknowledge the need of personal moral improvement. If God exists, then He has laid down laws for human nature and social in- tercourse which are as definite, real and irrevocable as the “fixed” laws of nature. No consistent and intelli- gent evolutionist is in a position to deny that. The dif- ficulty is to get the individual conscience quickened to speak at this point. Yet this must be done if the deepest and happiest results are to be attained. If lying and lust, if selfish living and anger, if hatred and jealousy, if greed and cruelty, are contrary to the sacred laws of human nature, if to live in communion with God is a fundamental law of our human experience and the true ideal which stretches into the unseen and the eternal, who can contemplate humanity as godless and sinful without dismay and contrition? It is here that in the third place the appeal to Christ and His gospel must be made. For He is proclaimed from the beginning and always as the One from and through whom man receives the complete forgiveness of God, the power to live the ideal moral life, the sense of immediate and permanent contact and fellowship with God, the Father. It is vain to deny that this experience is real, for the witness to its reality is simply incalculable in the variety of persons and conditions, of moral situ- ations and intellectual equipment, where its power and actuality are established. A man may choose to live 65 To it may also be opposed the universal moral needs of man And finally, the unchallengeable fact of a victorious povvcj of resistance Many hold that the Bible is not a Divine book Let them comprehend the historical develop- ment of Christianity’s complete message of salvation As well as reasonable arguments for the authority and trustworthiness of the Bible without all this, but he can never prove that other men have not received this power and entered into this life of God. (3) Historical Christianity — The Bible. The argu- ment which we have sketched cannot end of course with- out entering upon a discussion of the origin of Chris- tianity and the authority of the Bible. A missionary to uneducated heathen has the right to go with the Bible in his hand and assert dogmatically: “This is the Word of God, and I am here to declare the message which it contains for you and from Him.” But he who works among people of western education cannot act in that simple way. He will find himself driven very soon to explain and defend his assertion that this book is the Word of God. He will be confronted by many men and women who have caught at least the echoes, and by some who know the substance, of the modern critical movement in Bible study. And with them the argument must begin further back. Now it is one of the clearest results of the whole modern historical movement that the study of the rise of Christianity as the supreme revelation from God and the study of the literary history of the Bible are intimately bound together. The Bible can be used as the “Word of God” because it contains the message of redemption and the offer of that fellowship with God which the heart of humanity was created to hunger after and to enjoy. But that message of salvation, when de- livered fully and with all its just and immediate implica- tions concerning God and man, the guilt of sin and its pardon, the infinite fountains of divine love and the aton- ing death of Christ, the need of repentance and the prin- ciple of faith, the demand for obedience to the laws of personal honor and of social morality, the offer of the Holy Spirit — that message is Christianity. It would be out of place to attempt here an outline of the argument which should deal with the rise of Chris- tianity. The literature is so great that it would baffle any one to attempt even a brief catalogue of relevant and important works without some risk of misunder- standing. Sufflce it to say, that in the bibliographies to the various articles in Hastings’ “Dictionary of the Bible” and his “Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels,” 66 the student on the field can find abundant material for his purpose, and in those articles themselves constant help in his effort to present reasonable, modern and con- structive arg-uments for the authority of the Bible, and especially of the New Testament, and for its complete trustworthiness concerning the person and work of Christ, the nature and claims of the gospel of the grace of Godd On the side of “method,” it is clear that an important work could be done by the establishment in the chief cen- ters of Latin-American civilization of libraries which would contain the best works of modern Christian scholarship, works which are representative of the evan- gelical Churches and of that broad fearless research into science, history, philosophy and theology which is laying the solid foundations of faith in Christ and His gospel for the modern mind. These libraries should be under the control of competent, earnest scholars, full of the evangelistic spirit, who know how to use them personally and to make them fully available for all educated people with whom they come into contact. It ought to be added that those who are thus equipped and appointed to present the evangelical faith to the educated circles of Latin America will always seek to do so in the language of to-day. This requires not only that they know the past and orthodox mode of doc- trinal statement, but that they have mastered the secret of stating the Christian truths in the manner which makes them real for the psychologist and sociologist of our own generation. (4) The Church. The rise and the divine authority of Christianity cannot be fully discussed without raising the whole subject of the nature, history, value and authority of the Church of Christ. The intellectuals of Latin America are said to have revolted from the Roman Church and to regard Protestantism as a poor and sec- tarian offshoot from it. The hatred which they feel towards what they regard as the parent becomes contempt for what they regard as its rebellious and puny off- spring. The principal answer to this attitude can be ' Dr. Jose Rodriguez, recognizing the great need for a modern history, in Portuguese, of the origin and development of the Bible, is now preparing such a work. 67 Such (discussions would justify t’*e fstablishir ent of libraries on religion in chief centers All d iscussion should be upon a thoroughly modern basis Some declare that the Church is no longer worthy of respect Answer by a strong church life And by showing that the Church is true to early ideals And that the Church amidst all its appsrent diversity has real unity found only in the gradual growth of strong evangelical churches where Christianity is presented as the power of God unto salvation, where the evangelical type of sincere piety is worthily realized, where its effect upon personal character and its issue in social service manifest its full dignity and divine authority. To clothe its teach- ing with the beauty of holy lives and to manifest it in ardent devotion to the whole good of humanity, will go further than all scholastic argumentation to win admira- tion and confidence. But the intellectual side cannot here be ignored. The evangelical faith must be presented as the true repre- sentative of the Apostolic Church— the true creation of the Spirit of Christ. To do this by forrtial lectures, by printed pamphlets and books, by personal discussion, re- quires, if it is to be done convincingly, a large amount of historical knowledge, doctrinal insight and spiritual conviction. The principles which lie at the foundation of the Church in New Testament times must be deeply studied and clearly expounded. The history of the rise of Romanism must be investigated, that its dangers as well as its truths, and its additions to the original gospel alike in formal doctrine, in ceremonial and in supersti- tious practise, may be discovered and set forth. More important still, though involved in it, is the need for a thorough knowledge of the history and mean- ing of the Church in which the evangelical preachers believe and in whose name they are at work in Latin America. Here there is room and clamant need for a re- reading of the Protestant history. Why did all these di- visions arise? Is it only an evil spirit that has given them birth ? How is it then that they all produce at least in some measure, and many in a very full and splendid measure, the fruits of the Spirit of Christ? The Spirit which produced them is the Spirit of freedom, of indi- vidualism, of that democracy which was planted at the very first in every church established by the apostles of Jesus Christ. The same spirit which made the Latin- American countries revolt from Spain and Portugal, which made them prefer republicanism to monarchy, which made them seek as separate nationalities to fulfil their destiny is that which produced the divisions of the Protestant world. The ideal of bare and formal unity. 68 which many of them profess to admire in the Church of Rome, is hostile to the whole spirit in which they have been trained socially and politically. The unity of the Church must be that of the mind and the spirit. It is a fruit rather than a root of life. The unity in which the Churches are rooted is unseen and spiritual, the boughs and branches diverge, but the tree produces the one fruitage of a holy life in God. Even though much sin has been at work in the production of their divisions, just as much sin (e. g., the Inquisition) served to pre- serve the formal unity of warring parties in the Roman Church, nevertheless it is becoming clearer every day, and the Panama Congress is a brilliant proof of the fact, that the various sections of the evangelical Church feel more deeply and widely every year their inherent unity. The things that unite them are greater far than those which divide them. It ought to be urged upon our Latin-American friends The diversity being that in the histoiy of the evangelical Churches we have uon^of^ffici^ncy a most brilliant illustration of the evolutionary method of God. Through the freedom of man, identified, con- secrated and secured in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Divine Spirit is creating His own organs of life and ac- tion in our human world. The unity of Protestantism is not that of an engine, but that of a living tree. Such institutions as the Young Men’s Christian Associations and Young Women’s Christian Associations, hospitals, Christian schools and colleges, social settlements, charity organizations and institutions of all kinds, Bible Societies and interdenominational missionary activities, are not mere accidental and unrelated phenomena. They are the fruits of that one mighty and living Spirit which is at work in the evangelical Churches as a whole, the organs of His divine efficiency. It is of the utmost importance wherever the Roman Church, with its lim- ited idea of unity is dominant, that this true idea of evan- gelical unity should be thought through, mastered and constantly presented. The divisiveness of the Spirit of freedom is not the whole fact. When it is truly de- rived from God’s own grace its unity is ever at work seeking to overcome divisions and to secure outward unity, not by external means and physical force, but by the compulsions of a common experience and a common 69 Some think that true democracy can rise above the laws of social purity and civic righteousness The proper appeal is to the teaching of Jesus, to history and to experience aim. It is a wonderful confirmation and illustration of this position that the principal evangelical Communions are to-day deeply concerned with the effort to secure even further cooperation with one another. They recognize that their divisions, so far as these hinder unity of the spirit and active fellowship, must be overcome ; and they are endeavoring everywhere to discover those methods by which their one faith and one baptism in the one Lord may lead to the fulfillment of our Lord’s prayer “that they all may be one.” (5) Christianity and Social Ethics. The defensive presentation of Christianity to educated people must in- clude a full, fearless and yet sympathetic statement of the ethical demands and forces which it brmgs to bear upon human conduct. This subject is dealt with elsewhere in this Report on its other and practical side. Suffice it to say now, and briefly, that the Christian apologist has here one of his most powerful and yet most difficult weapons. But in its use he has the inestimable advan- tage of direct appeal to the teaching of Jesus, the history of Christianity and the experience of many nations in modern times. The shallow 'sociology of writers like Herbert Spencer is due to the lack of spiritual perception in their view of human nature. The teaching of Jesus proves with astonishing and overwhelming clearness and power that the laws of human character and social ex- perience spring from the fact that man is a spiritual being, related directly to God. He is not made for the life of a higher animal. His appetites and passions are not the end of his existence. That end is to be found only in the knowledge of God and in the fulfillment of righteousness. Since this is the truth, as Jesus Christ taught, no society can ignore the laws of purity and right- eousness without endangering human life as a whole. Indifference to the laws of personal morality in the lack of continence, indifference to the laws of society in the practice of injustice to any class, is, if it spread far enough and wide enough, the disintegration of human na- ture. The Japanese and the Chinese have begun to see that the loss of their ancient forms of religion has destroyed the foundation of their ancient form of social and national order. Only the Christian faith can replace the loss, with foundations laid deeper than those they pos- 70 sessed of old, because laid in the will of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The leaders of the Latin-American revolutions sought in certain forms of social idealism for the secret of political organization and commercial order in the new republics. They sought in vain. For no system of government needs religious ideals, the conception of the will of God concerning man, more than a democracy. Liberty, equality, fraternity were religious principles, ele- ments of the life of Christian Churches, before they ever became potent war cries of revolution and ideals of society in general. Apart from their religious origin and inspiration, these three great ideals have neither truth or potency. It is the Christian gospel which first established them as working, organizing forces. From the Christian Churches they passed over into the general consciousness of modern nations. But apart from the Christ, and His revelation of the Father’s will* and purpose concerning man, they have no reality. It is their passion for democracy which should lead the rulers and philosophers, the statesmen and lecturers of Latin America ba*ck to Christ. For His Kingship is the only real source of that individual liberty, that mystic equal- ity, that universal fraternity, whose glory appears in the Christian life, whose ideal is striven after passionately by the evangelical Churches, whose partial fruits are seen in the incomplete democracies of the modern world. 7 ' Liberty, equality and fraternity are true rel'gious principles The Latin-American missionary must carefully study his people Who require varied treatment CHAPTER VI THE PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIAN WORK IN LATIN AMERICA Whoever would take an evangelical message to any one of the peoples of Latin America must have in mind three modifying facts : First of all, most of the peoples among whom he plans to live and work are not pagans. They are Christians in name and deeply resent a classification which puts them on a par with pagan peo- ples. The Indians of the mountains and forests are practically pagan in their thought and ways, but only a small portion of the work attempted hitherto in Latin America has addressed itself to their needs. Again the missionary will be doing much of his work in an environment of enlightened and refined civilization. He must, therefore, acquaint himself with the accepted canons of taste and culture which have grown out of a rich and ancient past. Finally, the visitor does not in the estimation of the Latin American bring to him a better scheme of life or a finer set of ideals. He is likely to prefer his own ways to any that are offered. The wise missionary will therefore make a careful study of the Latin American before beginning his work in South or Central America, and will determine, like Paul, to conform himself, his plans and his message to Latin peculiarities, except where such conforming might in- volve a betrayal of essential principles. The varied strata in the population of Latin America are well set forth by Dr. Speer in the report of the Com- mittee on the Special Preparation needed for Latin 72 America:* “There is a higher social class which lives its life in Paris when it can, and at other times in the spirit and ideals of Paris. There is an upper-middle, intelligent and capable body of people very much like the same type of people in our own land. There is an immense body of artisans, farm laborers and smaller tradespeople, with a strong, often dominant strain of Indian blood, for the most part ignorant and untrained, and shading down at the bottom into a mass of illiteracy and economic un- productiveness, which, torpid in some nations and cheer- ful spirited in others, constitutes in all a dreadful dead- weight. There is, finally, the pure Indian population of pastoral, agricultural or nomadic habits, which must be reached like any aboriginal, uncivilized people.” It may be added that the highest class is educated and prevail- ingly agnostic in profession ; the others, for the most part uneducated, are often fanatical. I. The Kinds of Missionaries Needed. The predominant need in Latin America is for or- dained men who in addition to preaching ability know how to develop and to organize the churches to which they minister, and for educational missionaries who can make the mission schools more definitely Chris- tian and at the same time highly efficient. The ordained missionary who can preach to men ac- ceptably, who has the patience which keeps at a slowly developing task until he reaches abiding results and the foresight which trains a community or group to which that task may be transferred, is the mainstay and essential basis of any first-rate missionary enterprise. The educational missionary who knows his task and can or- ganize it properly, who is a natural leader along intel- lectual lines, whose culture is broad as well as reasonably deep, is an important factor in the reaching of all classes, well-born as well as humble, cultured and uncultured alike. In Latin America the conveyance of the gospel message calls for a large force of missionaries of both these types. Among educational missionaries there is need of varied ’ Fourth Report of the Board of Missionary Preparation, p. 160 . Latin America preeminently needs strong missionary leadership 73 Educators in great variety are needed Industrial develop- ment increasingly important Medical opportunities less abundant than elsewhere Missionaries to Latin America must be amply qualified types. Schools of all grades and kinds must be main- tained with efficiency. Intelligent supervision is one of the crying needs of the schools now established. Schools intended to attract the representative Latin Americans must maintain first-rate standards and will require men and women who are thoroughly competent for large re- sponsibilities at home. Real educational leadership is es- sential to the greatest success. Latin Americans value education ; their leaders are in touch with European standards. There is abundant room among the Indian populations in agricultural regions for a large increase of schools which can furnish a good agricultural and industrial training. Some excellent beginnings have been made, but the opportunity is wide open. For the non-Indian popu- lations the government provides fairly well for this type of education. For medical missionaries there is a limited field as com- pared with opportunities in other parts of the world. Each republic has its own medical schools and in the cities there is a reasonable supply of trained physicians and surgeons. In most of the Latin-American countries a doctor of foreign birth must pay large fees and pass technical examinations in Spanish or Portuguese in order to obtain a license to practise medicine. Yet in Latin America, as elsewhere over the world, the Christian phy- sician who ministers freely to the needy and the poor can bleak down many barriers raised by ignorance and preju- dice. There are great areas in country districts where it is very difficult to get medical aid. In Mexico, Central America, Ecuador and some of the other republics the opportunity seems particularly great. There, as else- where, the missionary physician opens the hearts of the people. 2. The Qualifications Needed. The general consensus of opinion among missionaries in Latin-American lands anticipates a strong appeal dur- ing the next quarter of a century to the leading minds of those republics, and demands missionary recruits of the highest type, who have a message for those whose culture, although not entirely like their own, is fully its equal. Such added members to the circle of devotfed 74 and successful workers now on the field must, in general, be well rounded in their development, strong in body and mind, alert to many interests, men and women of force, courage and individuality. An attractive personality with some distinctiveness goes far in gaining a hearing for the missionary’s message. Among specific qualifications the following invite emphasis : (1) In Latin America, not less than in other lands, the fundamental quality of the successful missionary is a deep and abiding spirituality, which Dr. Oldham has described as “that abiding experience of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit which transforms an edu- cated man into a messenger of God.” Such an experi- ence gives a reserve of spiritual vitality which enables one to meet every adverse experience with equanimity, good judgment and Christian friendliness. (2) Hardly less important to the successful mission- ary will be a thorough education. In any country of the world missionary leadership draws upon every range of knowledge which the best university training furnishes. No real knowledge goes to waste. But in Latin America the times seem to call insistently for men and women so well read in history, literature, social and philosophical subjects that they will not fail quickly to comprehend the Latin mind and to recognize its value as well as its pecul- iarities. In connection with a broad and fine equipment intellectually a successful missionary would find some form of specialization of real value. If regarded as an authority on some subject, the missionary will win at- tention for his other messages. A thoroughness of cul- ture which will enable a missionary to deal on even terms with the leaders of Latin-American life and to win their respect will be a lifelong asset. This specialization may well be initiated on the field, and in consultation with others, so that in each mission or community there will be missionary specialists in varied lines. (33 Another indispensable qualification for efficiency in Christian work in Latin America will be a natural re- finement and courtesy born of sincerity, a generous spirit, a natural friendliness and a real love for the people of those republics. Kindly and genuine good manners are deeply appreciated among them. They are an affection- ate people. “Whoever would find them friendly needs Spiritually Cultured Naturally courteous With linguistic ability Broad-minded Courses on the Bible On Christian essentials only to show himself a friend and the kind of a gentle- man whom love alone creates.” A rough boorishness or lack of sympathy closes many avenues of usefulness. (4) A factor of great importance is linguistic ability. A command of the Spanish or Portuguese languages, the ability to speak and write fluently and correctly, is of su- preme value. Latin peoples are very proud of their musi- cal languages ; while they are remarkably indulgent of the mistakes of foreigners, they are very sensitive to im- perfect pronunciation or to awkward phrasing. There are a number of Indian tongues which have not yet been reduced to writing. To accomplish this fundamental task there will be required a few men of outstanding linguistic power. (5) A breadth of mind which issues in tactful and generous dealings, fine discernment and poise of judg- ment cannot be overestimated. Missionaries to this field have so many sources of needless annoyance that they must be men and women of large calibre, straightfor- ward, sincere, ready to subordinate personal or even de- nominational advantage to cooperative Christian progress, letting love alone rule their spirit. ij u 3. Courses of Study to be Followed. (1) Courses on the Bible. No knowledge is more essential to the missionary than a mastery of the Bible. Its teachings are at the very basis of the evangelical mes- sage. It is the great textbook on Latin-American work. Courses which cover its history, literary content, the de- velopment of doctrines, the interpretation of its books and its archaeological background are such as fit the Christian worker for his difficult task. The Latin-Amer- ican worker should be familiar with the Douay version in English and with its history, and acquainted with such Roman Catholic versions as are available in Spanish or Portuguese. (2) Courses on the Fundamentals of Christianity. Veteran missionaries often declare that one of the most important lines of preparation for service is the mastery of the essentials of Christianity. One who cannot give a clear reason for the faith that is in him is unlikely to be- come an effective teacher or evangelist. 76 (3) Courses in Languages. It has already been stated On languages that exacting standards must be maintained in the ac- quisition of Portuguese for work in Brazil and of Span- ish for work elsewhere in Latin America. Every mis- sionary should determine to become a master of the lan- guage of the country to which he goes. While both Span- ish and Portuguese seem relatively easy to the student who has already mastered Latin and French, they demand severe application for idiomatic and accurate use. Under really competent instructors a missionary may get a strong and valuable start in these languages before going out to the field. It is advisable that he take time enough to get fairly well grounded in them before taking up work. Experienced missionaries differ as to the expedi- ency of going to Spain or Portugal in order to learn the languages at their best. (4) Cotcrses in Latin-American History, Literature On Latin-American j *7* A* Tj. ’ ’i. i.’ 1 .*.1 j. • * i. historv. literature and Ciznhzation. it is quite essential that a missionary to and life Latin America should familiarize himself with the his- tory and the literature of the Latin peoples. It will help him to understand the Latin mind, its traditions, trends, viewpoints, prejudices and values. The Latin race is persistently loyal to fine traditions. It is naturally reverent. But it starts from its own foundation concepts and has developed its own social and political systems. The wise religious worker will avoid all political com- plications, all boastfulness or jingoism and will make himself an ambassador of peace and good will. Cal- deron’s “Latin America ; Its Rise and Progress,” is prob- ably the best single book from which to gain this Latin- American background. (5) Courses in Religion. A missionary to Latin On the history and America needs, of course, to be well read in church his- Protestantism and of tory and in the history of doctrine. He must be able to Catholicism make clear to himself and to others the reasons for the distinctions of Protestantism and to draw a clear line be- tween peculiarities and essentials in religion. He greatly needs also to be equipped to distinguish between Roman Catholicism at its best and at its worst. In many parts of the Latin-American field aboriginal paganism has helped to transform Romanism into something which in- telligent and devout Roman Catholics would repudiate. To adopt again the suggestive words of Dr. Speer, “mis- 77 In philosophy literature sionaries should be equipiied to make distinctions and should study at home the history and character of Roman Catholicism in both its good and its evil aspects, and be able on the field to appreciate what pagan elements the religion has taken up and what it brought with it in the baser traditions and practices from home. The relation of Latin-American Roman Catholicism, ecclesiastically, theologically, socially, historically and politically to North American and European Roman Catholicism should also be studied, and also the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the whole of South America, and its history in the particular country to which the candidate is to go. This study should include the relation of the Church to the conquest of Latin America by Spain and Portugal, to the early settlements, to slavery both Indian and African, and to the Indian peoples. It should cover the history, character and influence of the Roman Catholic missions and of the work of the different orders, the history of the early Church, the development of the Roman Cath- olic Church, the Reformation, the counter-reformation movements, the Inquisition, the points of difference and of agreement between Roman Catholicism and Protest- antism, the history of the controversies between them, the history of the Papacy, and the present situation and problems of the Roman Catholic Church.”* It seems hardly necessary that general courses in the history of religion should be covered by the candidate for service in Latin America, yet the better the equip- ment he has for understanding religious development the greater will be his insight into the problems of his field. (6) Courses in Philosophy and Literature. A mis- sionary to Latin America deals in the main either with those who have no doubts, or with those who have been turned away from religion to various types of rational- istic belief, spiritism or skepticism. A mastery of the history of philosophy, especially of later times, is almost essential to any grappling with these difficulties. A knowledge of general literature, of literature in Span- ish or Portuguese, and of the stronger and better works 'Fourth Report of the Board of Missionary Preparation, pp. 170, 171. 78 in French, will be of much value to the student of Latin- American problems. (7) Other Courses. No missionary can know too much ; whatever he may acquire will find its place. He should seize every opportunity to become acquainted with the management and methods of Sunday schools, young people’s societies, boys’ and girls’ clubs, kindergartens, civic and philanthropic movements, the Christian Asso- ciations, and other forms of applied Christianity. Even a slight knowledge of medicine and of hygienic methods will be of value to the itinerant. A knowledge of how to ride and how to handle animals will also help him. Every missionary should master simple bookkeeping and office system. He should cultivate any musical talent which is in him. 4. How, When and Where to Prepare. One who looks forward to a Latin-American ca- reer cannot expect to achieve all the preparation hereto- fore mentioned before he begins his work. Some of it belongs naturally to his college or university career, some of it to his specializing graduate days, some of it to his studious days on the field, some of it, no doubt, to his first furlough. Every good missionary is, in some sense, a lifelong student of the problems which he faces. Without going too closely into detail, it may be worth while to urge that the college or university course in- clude the mastery of the biblical, philosophical, educa- tional, linguistic and social basis of this future study. Latin, French and German, sometimes Spanish, political science, European history, literature, sociology, the prin- ciples and methods of education, and national history and politics are subjects which are offered to good advantage in every standard institution of higher learning. In the last years of university training or during the specialized years that follow in the theological or train- ing school or in some other professional institution may be taken the study of religion, of Latin-American history, of the history of missions, Roman Catholic and Protestant alike, and of social and religious conditions. The earnest missionary will mark out for himself an intensive study of the conditions in his own field, of its history, of its special needs and of the methods which In miscellaneous kinds of knowledge The wise organization of this course of preparation and its distribution 79 The supreme importance of spirit- ual and personal fitness will yield an abundant harvest. He will, likewise, keep abreast of the rapidly changing conditions and interests in the Latin-American and other centers of modern civil- ization. The furlough tasks need not be outlined to a mission- ary who is alert and ambitious. Enough that' it be used for intellectual and spiritual refreshing and for a read- justment and reinterpretation of positions thrown out of alignment by the shock of spiritual warfare. The first furlough ought to be the time of greatest, most rapid gain. The task of preparation for aggressive, successful mis- sionary service in Latin America is large and important. Many noble missionaries have done their work with far too little preparation. It may be truly said that the per- sonal and spiritual factors in preparation outweigh the intellectual. The high ideal outlined above should not deter the one who desires to work in Latin America, yet knows himself to be only partially fitted to stand its strains. Whoever gives himself whole-heartedly to serv- ice in these attractive lands and patiently does his best can find a useful and permanent place. 8o CHAPTER VII FINDINGS 1. The supreme need of Latin America is the procla- mation of the gospel to each republic and to every indi- vidual in its purity, simplicity and power and the carrying out of all the functions of well organized evangelical churches. 2. By abundant data the Commission is convinced of the wide-spread need of Christian stimulus and uplift in the social life of Latin America, and of the present inad- equate ministry in this respect, of either the evangelical or the Roman Catholic Churches. It is urged, therefore, that the social message of the gospel should be given con- stant expression by the establishment, wherever necessary, of institutions and agencies definitely suited to actual con- ditions. Such a ministry, whatever the forms it assumes, must be vitally related in motive and method to the spir- itual objective of the evangelical Churches. 3. It is highly desirable that special means be used to win the attention of the educated classes of Latin Amer- ica to the truths of Christianity. Three methods have been emphasized : first, the publication and circulation of appropriate literature in the form of booklets and pam- phlets, written by competent persons and attractively stat- ing and illustrating the central Christian teachings ; sec- ond, the selection of prominent exponents of constructive Christian thought, whose words command -{vide respect, to deliver, at the chief university centers and capital cities, courses of public lectures, such as those delivered 81 in the Orient on the Haskell Foundation ; and third, the establishment at suitable centers of libaries containing a carefully selected and ever-increasing list of works on religion, philosophy, science, Christian history and biog- raphy. We urge that these valuable suggestions be put into vigorous operation as wisely and as speedily as pos- sible. 4. While emphasizing our belief that the work of a missionary demands special devotion, special gifts and special temperament, it is our abiding conviction that be- cause Latin peoples possess an historic background and atmosphere, gentle and refined manners, and are uniquely susceptible to culture and to the graces culture brings, the work in Latin America demands missionaries who with evangelical fervor and evangelizing gifts combine broad vision, wide culture and diplomatic temperament. In our judgment there seems no place for inadequately equipped men in Latin America. The Latin is quick to discern the real lack in his rougher-mannered brother from the ag- gressive North or elsewhere, and quicker to resent the implied suggestion that anything or anybody is good enough for them. On the other hand, none is quicker than he to appreciate the effort of sympathetic students of Latin-American customs, traditions and manners. We, therefore, strongly recommend the various Boards to ex- ercise a wise and firm discrimination in their selection of missionaries for Latin America, to choose men of the highest type who may be able in college and university centers to command recognition and confidence, and who will be prepared to take a place of leadership, spiritual, social, intellectual and civic, in any locality where they may be called to labor. A Pauline gift of sympathy, as well as a Pauline grace of adaptability, seems almost a prerequisite to success in Latin America. 5. There is abundant evidence that among those who have become zealous members of the evangelical Churches there are those whose minds are filled with intense hos- tility to the Roman Catholic Church, a hostility which is at times expressed in language of extreme bitterness. Without abating in the least degree our conviction that much of the teaching, spirit and influence of that Church in Latin America is unscriptural and unhealthy, we be- 82 lieve that those who represent the evangelical Churches should not only do their work with the full consciousness that they possess the truth, grace and authority of our Lord, the Living Head of the Church, but also with the clear ambition to give their strength to the constructive declaration and application of the gospel ; remembering that in all lands where religious freedom prevails the Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches exist side by side, though differing in their wide, radical and irrecon- cilable doctrinal divergences ; and not forgetting that con- troversial discussions, when these are rendered necessary by circumstances, should be conducted not only with firm- ness, learning and conviction, but also with the simplicity, kindness and charity which are in Christ Jesus, who “opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.” 83 MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION CHAIRMAN The Rt. Rev. William Cabell Brown, D.D., Protes- tant Episcopal Bishop Coadjutor of Virginia, Rich- mond. VICE-CHAIRMAN President W. Douglas Mackenzie, D.D., LL.D., Hart- ford Theological Seminary, Hartford, Conn. Sir Andrew Wingate, K.C.I.E., London. SECRETARY The Rev. J. H. McLean, Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., Santiago, Chile. executive committee The Rev. Ed. F. Cook, D.D., Secretary, Board of Mis- sions, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Nashville, Tenn. The Rev. William F. Oldham, D.D., Secretary, Board of Foreign Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church, New York. President Charles T. Paul, Ph.D., College of Missions, Indianapolis, Ind. The Rev. Frank K. Sanders, Ph.D., Director, Board of Missionary Preparation, New York City. The Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D., President, American In- stitute for Social Service, New York City. The Rev. Manuel Andujar, Superintendent, Methodist Episcopal Mission, San Juan, Porto Rico. The Rev. J. L. Bruce, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Bello Horizonte, Brazil. 84 The Rev. J. S. Cheavens, Southern Baptist Convention, Saltillo, Mexico. Mr. Myron A. Clark, General Secretary, National Com- mittee of the Young Men’s Christian Associations of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. The Rev. J. G. Dale, Superintendent, Associate Re- formed Presbyterian Mission in Mexico. The Rev. J. W. Fleming, D.D., Pastor, St. Andrew’s Scotch Presbyterian Church, Buenos Aires. Mr. E. J. D. Hercus, M.A., Evangelical Union of South America, Buenos Aires. The Rt. Rev. Lucien Lee Kinsolving, D.D., Protes- tant Episcopal Bishop of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul. The Rev. R. F. Lenington, Moderator, Synod of Bra- zilian Presbyterian Church, Curityba, Brazil. The Rev. Arcadio Morales, Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., Mexico City. The Rev. G. Campbell Morgan, D.D., London. The Rev. F. S. Onde^idonk, Superintendent, the Texas Mexican Mission, San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Jose de la Rua, Buenos Aires. The Rev. James F. Smith, Presbyterian Church in the United States, Ytu, Brazil. The Rev. J. W. Tarboux, President, Granbery College, Juiz de Fora, Brazil. The Rev. W. Charles K. Torre, British and Foreign Bible Society, Buenos Aires. The Rev. Alejandro Trevino, Templo Bautista, Mon- terey, Mexico. 85 CORRESPONDENTS OF THE COMMISSION ARGENTINA The Rev. Robert F. Elder (Evangelical Union of South America), Tres Arroyos. Mr. Charles J. Ewald (Traveling Secretary for South America, Young Men’s Christian Associations), Buenos Aires. Mr. Jay C. Field (Young Men’s Christian Association), Buenos Aires. The Rev. Tolbert F. Reavis (Christian Woman’s Board of Missions), Buenos Aires. BRAZIL The Rev. John W. Price (Methodist Episcopal Church, South), Uruguayana. The Rev. H. C. Tucker (American Bible Society; Presi- dent, Brazilan Evangelical Alliance), Rio de Janeiro. The Rev. W. A. Waddell, D.D., Ph.D. (President, Mac- kenzie College), Sao Paulo. CHILE The Rev. Goodsil F. Arms, M.A. (Rector, Concepcion College, Methodist Episcopal Church), Concepcion. The Rev. William B. Boomer (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), Santiago. The Rev. W. E. Browning, D.D., Ph.D. (Principal, In- stituto Ingles; Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), San- tiago. The Rev. David Reed Edwards (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), Curico. 86 The Rev. James F. Garvin (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), Concepcion. The Rev. W. H. Lester, D.D. (Pastor, Union Church), Santiago, Chile. The Rev. Efrain Martinez (Pastor, Church of the Re- deemer), Santiago. Miss Florence E. Smith (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), Valparaiso. The Rev. Jesse Smith (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), Copiapo. The Rev. C. M. Spining (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), Valparaiso. Mr. A. R. Stark (British .and Foreign Bible Society), Valparaiso. The Rev. William H. Teeter (Methodist Episcopal Church), Santiago. Mr. W. Merrill Wolfe (Institute Ingles, Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), Santiago. COLOMBIA The Rev. Walter S. Lee (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), Barranquilla. CUBA The Rev. Juan Orts Gonzalez (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), Sagua la Grande. The Rt. Rev. Hiram R. Hulse, D.D. (Bishop of Cuba, Protestant Espiscopal Church in U.S.A.), Havana. The Rev. M. N. McCall (Southern Baptist Convention), Havana. GUATEMALA Charles F. Secord, M.D. (Independent medical mission- ary) , Chichicastenango. MEXICO Miss Jessie L. P. Brown (Christian Woman’s Board of Missions), Piedras Negras. The Rev. J. G. Chastain (Southern Baptist Convention), Guadalajara. Mrs. John Howland (American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions), Chihuahua. 87 Ezra Lines, M.D. (Christian Woman’s Board of Mis- sions), Piedras Negras. Miss Mary Irene Orvis (Christian Woman’s Board of Missions), Monterey. Professor Andres Osuna (Commissioner of Education, Federal District), Mexico City. Miss Lelia Roberts (Principal, Colegio Normal; Metho- dist Episcopal Church, South), Saltillo. The Rev. Alfred C. Wright (American Board of Com- missioners for Foreign Missions), Chihuahua. PANAMA The. Rev. C. G. Hardwick (Wesleyan Methodist Mis- sionary Society), Panama City. PERU Mr. Edward M, Foster (Evangelical Union of South America), Arequipa. The Rev. John Ritchie (Evangelical Union of South America), Lima. PORTO RICO The Rt. Rev. Charles B. Colmore, D.D. (Bishop of Porto Rico, Protestant Episcopal Church in U.S.A.), San Juan. The Rev. Thomas Moody Corson (American Missionary Association), Humacao. Mr. W. G. Coxhead (Young Men’s Christian Associa- tion), San Juan. The Rev. Edward A. Odell (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), Mayaguez. The Rev. Merritt B. Wood (Christian Woman’s Board of Missions), Bayamon. URUGUAY Mr. P. A. Conard (Associate Continental Secretary for South America, Young Men’s Christian Associations), Montevideo. VENEZUELA The Rev. Frederic F. Darley (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), Caracas. 88 OTHERS The Rev. Enoch F. Bell (American Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions), Boston, Mass. The Rev. Henry K. Carroll, LL.D. (Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America), Washington, D. C. The Rev. S. H. Chester, D.D. (Presbyterian Church in U.S.), Nashville, Tenn. The Rev. Francis E. Clark, D.D., LL.D. (United Society of Christian Endeavor), Boston, Mass. The Rev. A. E. Cory, D.D. (Foreign Christian Mission- ary Society), Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. John Davidson (Director, Evangelical Union of South America), Edinburgh, Scotland. Mr. Charles Earle (South American Missionary So- ciety), London, England. The Rev. A. W. Halsey, D.D. (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), New York City. President Henry Churchill King, D.D., LL.D. (Oberlin College), Oberlin, Ohio. The Rev. John M. Kyle, D.D. (former missionary in Brazil), Lowell, Mass. The Rt. Rev. Arthur S. Lloyd, D.D. (Protestant Epis- copal Church in U.S.A.), New York City. Mr. Manual Lozano (Mexican Institute), San Antonio, Texas. The Rev. Eric Lund, D.D. (Editor, Revista H omiletica) , Los Angeles, California. The Rev. Charles S. Macfarland, Ph.D. (Federal Coun- cil of the Churches of Christ in America), New York City. Mr. J. E. McAfee (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A.), New York City. Professor Donald C. MacLaren (former president of Mackenzie College, Sao Paulo, Brazil), New York City. The Rev. M. T. Morrill, D.D. (Mission Board of the Christian Church), Dayton, Ohio. Mr. Delavan L. Pierson (Editor, The Missionary Reviezv of the World), New York City. Professor William R. Shepherd, Ph.D. (Columbia Uni- versity), New York City. 89 The Rev. George Smith (Evangelical Union of South America), Toronto, Canada. • Mr. Charles E. Tebbetts (American Friends’ Board of Foreign Missions), Richmond, Indiana. The Rev. Charles L. Thompson, D.D. (Presbyterian Church in U.S.A. ; Chairman, Home Missions Coun- cil), New York City. The Rev. G. B. Winton, D.D. (Methodist Episcopal Church, South), Nashville, Tenn. 90 QUESTIONS SENT TO CORRESPONDING MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION 1. How far have you felt the problems involved in racial dif- ferences in Anglo-Saxon missionaries working with Latin people? Also those involved in political relationships of North and Latin America? Do these problems seem to be increasing or decreas- ing in your field, and why? 2. Can you distinguish among the doctrines and forms of religious observances current among the people among whom you work any which are mainly traditional and formal from others which are taken in earnest and are genuinely prized as a religious help and consolation? 3. What do you consider to be the chief moral, intellectual and social hindrances in the way of a full acceptance of Chris- tianity? 4. What attitude should the Christian preacher take toward the religion of the people among whom he labors, and toward the leaders of that religion? 5. Which elements in the Christian gospel and the Christian life have you found to possess the greatest power of appeal, and which have awakened the greatest opposition? 6. Has your experience in missionary labor altered either in form or in substance your impression as to what constitute the most important and vital elements in the Christian gospel? It so, what practical changes in your work has this suggested? 7. Have you felt the need of methods other than evangelistic and educational to make a “point of contact” with the people — something like the institutional church, the Young Men’s Chris- tian Association, social settlements, hospitals, orphanages, etc.? 8. Why is it that Protestant missions have reached, with few exceptions, only the lower classes? Should we make attempts, with special churches and institutions, to win the upper classes? 9. Do you believe that results in your field have been com- mensurate with expenditures, or could a higher efficiency be secured? 10. Do you believe that mission work in Latin America should aim more directly at the conversion of the individual or at the purifying and uplift of society? 91 11. How much would be gained by a large emphasis of the social message of the gospel, and its solution of individual and national problems of these countries? 12. What should be the distinctive aim of Protestant mis- sions in Latin America? 13. Considering that the dominant idea of the Panama Conference is to be constructively helpful to Latin America, that the people are generally sensitive, and that the an- nouncement of the Conference naturally arouses inquiry; (1) How far, in its discussions, should stress be laid on such matters as illiteracy, illegitimacy, impurity of social re- lation, dishonesty, etc.? (2) How far should the Conference deal with the past and present conditions of the ecclesiastical systems that pre- vail in Latin America? (Note. — The above questions were sent to correspondents in Latin America. An abridged list of questions, based on the above, was sent to missionary administrators and other authori- ties in the home-base lands.) 9 ^ PANAMA CONGRESS REPORTS No meeting held in the Western Continent has contrib- uted so largely to the progress of Christian civilization in Latin America as the Panama Congress. This pamphlet contains the Report of one of the Eight Commissions which reported at Panama after months of careful study and preparation and wide correspondence with Latin American authorities in various fields. The Commissions and their chairmen were as follows; I SURVEY AND OCCUPATION, Mr. E. T. Colton. II METHOD AND MESSAGE, Bishop Wm. Cabell Brown. III EDUCATION, Professor Donald C. MacLaren. IV LITERATURE, Professor Andres Osuna. V WOMEN’S WORK, Miss Belle H. Bennett. VI THE CHURCH IN THE FIELD, Bishop Homer C. Stuntz. VII THE HOME BASE, Mr. Harry Wade Hicks. VIII CO-OPERATION AND THE PROMOTION OF UNITY, Rev. Charles L. Thompson. These Commission Reports and the discussion upon them are being published in three volumes under the editorial supervision of a committee of which Dr. Frank K. Sanders is chairman. Three men distinguished as interpreters of missionary thought in their own countries and languages were at Pan- ama, and they are writing the Popular Reports in Spanish, Portuguese and English, as listed below. Following the Panama Congress, Regional Conferences were held in Cuba, Porto Rico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Colombia. The Reports of these Regional Conferences will be published together in one volume, in English. 1. Three volumes, containing the reports in full of the eight Commissions, with discussions. Advance price per set, $2.00. After date of publication, $2.50. Carriage extra in both cases. 2. Report of Regional Conferences, one volume, cloth. Price, $1.00, prepaid. 3. Popular History and Report of the Congress, in Eng- lish, by Professor Harlan P. Beach, of Yale University. Cloth. Illustrated. Price, $1.00, prepaid. 4. Popular History and Report of the Congress in Portuguese, by Professor Erasmo Braga, of Brazil. Cloth. Illustrated. Price in the United States, $1.00, prepaid. 5. Popular History and Report of the Congress, in Spanish, by Professor _ Eduardo Monteverde, of Uraguay. Cloth. Illustrated. Price in the United States, $1.00, pre- paid. Prices quoted are in U. S. (Gold) Currency. NOTE. — It is expected that the reports in Portuguese and Spanish (Nos. 4 and 5) can be offered in Latin America at much reduced prices, of which definite announcement will be made at a later date. Advance Combination OfFers (Good until date of publication of the three volume report) 1. Three Volume Report and any one of the four other books. $2.75, carriage extra. 2. Three Volume Report and any two of the four other books. $3.50, carriage extra. 3. Three Volume Report and any three of the four other books. $4.25, carriage extra. 4. Three Volume Report and all four of the other books. $5.00, carriage extra. GENERAL DIRECTIONS Orders from Latin America for the Portuguese volume should be sent to Rev. H. C. Tucker, Caixa 454, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Orders from Latin America for the Spanish volume should be sent to Prof. Eduardo Monteverde, Avenido 18 Julio 968, Montevideo, Uruguay. The Missionary Education Movement will notify each person placing an order, of the date of publication, in ad- vance, allowing time to forward remittance without causing delay in shipment. Make remittances payable to Missionary Education Movement, and mail to its address at 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Use International Post Office Money Order or Draft on New York in sending money from points outside the United States. Do not enclose paper or metal currency. In the United States add 10 cents for exchange if personal check on bank outside of New York City is used. Send to MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City