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The Call of the World
_OR_, _EVERY MAN'S
SUPREME OPPORTUNITY_
BY
W. E. DOUGHTY
EDUCATIONAL SECRETARY, LAYMEN'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT
REVISED EDITION
NEW YORK
Missionary Education Movement of the
United States and Canada
1913
PUBLISHED JOINTLY BY
MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT
AND
LAYMEN'S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
CHAPTER I
THE WIDENING SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRIST
WORLD CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY
An accessible world, 2--A plastic world, 4--A changing
world, 4--Increase in Christian populations, 9--Spread of
English language, 9--Geographical control of the world, 11.
THE MULTIPLYING AGENCIES OF THE KINGDOM
The number and growing efficiency of missionary societies,
13--Resulting in unity and cooeperation, 14--A science of
missions, 14--The application of the principles of strategy,
15--The number of missionaries, 17--Money, 18--Translation
of Scriptures, 19.
SIGNS OF WORLD-WIDE VICTORY
Progress by centuries, 20--Recent victories, 21--The native
Church, 25--Humanitarian institutions, 27--Social reconstruction,
27--Conclusion, 29.
CHAPTER II
THE CHALLENGE OF A GREAT TASK
Unity of the race, 34--Explanation of terms, 34--America's
home problem, 37--Mexico, 43--South America, 44--Africa,
47--Asia, 50--Near East, 50--Central Asia, 52--India,
53---Bhutan and Nepal, 55--Indo-China, 55--Japan, 55--Korea,
56--China, 56--Summary, 59.
CHAPTER III
AMERICA'S POSITION IN THE WORLD BATTLE
The United States and Canada, a Common World Task, 66.
AMERICA'S POSITION OF LEADERSHIP SHOWN BY STRATEGIC LOCATION
AND OTHER GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS
America faces the two great oceans, 67--Is near to undeveloped
parts of the world, 68--Has many world harbors,
68--Navigable rivers, 69--Is isolated from other commanding
powers, 69.
AMERICA HAS QUALITIES OF CHARACTER NEEDED FOR A WORLD TASK
The pioneers, 70--Mechanical genius, 71--Public school, 72--The
home missionary, 72--Home of world movements, 73.
AMERICA HAS RESOURCES FOR A WORLD TASK
Size, 75--Mineral resources, 77--Railroads, 77--Wealth,
78--Agricultural products, 79.
AMERICA MUST HAVE VISION AND CONSECRATION ADEQUATE TO HER TASK
A spiritual enterprise, 82--America's share of the world task,
83--Men and money needed, 84.
CHAPTER IV
A MAN'S RESPONSE TO THE WORLD APPEAL
Efficiency experts, 87--A fourfold program, 89--WIDENING
HORIZON, 90--Studying the Church, 92--The missionary
committee, 93--UNWITHHOLDING CONSECRATION, 95--Principles
of stewardship, 98--Methods, 101--UNENDING PRAYER,
103--Calls forth and energizes movements, 106--Finds a
way out in hours of crisis, 107--Fills gaps in thin line of
battle, 107--Togo's telegram, 109.
FOREWORD
The four questions which the author has most frequently heard in
discussing world problems with men are the following:
What progress is the missionary enterprise making?
How much remains to be done?
What is America's share of world responsibility?
How can men relate themselves in a practical way to the spread of
Christianity throughout the world?
It is to give a brief answer to these four fundamental questions that
the following pages have been prepared for use in Missionary Discussion
Groups, Men's Bible Classes, Brotherhoods, Missionary Committees, and
groups of Sunday School Officers and Teachers. It is also confidently
expected that many men who cannot meet to discuss these problems in any
of the groups mentioned will read and study the book in private. In
preparing the manuscript the author has had in mind a large number of
men who are now or should become public advocates of missions. The book
presents information which they may use in addresses.
Many of the facts given have been taken from the _Report_ of the
Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, _The World Atlas of Christian
Missions_, _The Statesman's Year Book, 1912_, _The Decisive Hour of
Christian Missions_, by John R. Mott, and _The Unoccupied Mission
Fields of Africa and Asia_, by S. M. Zwemer.
The author is indebted to his friend, the Rev. W. R. Dobyns, D.D., of
St. Joseph, Missouri, for the design on the cover.
It is the hope of the writer that the reading and discussion of the
topics outlined in these pages will inspire many men to undertake to
master the world plans of Christ and lead them to enthrone at the
center of life the missionary purpose--the one purpose around which a
man may build all the facts of his life and to which he may cling and
let everything else go when he is hard pressed.
New York, September, 1912.
THE CALL OF THE WORLD
CHAPTER I
THE WIDENING SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRIST IN THE WORLD
In a discussion concerning the elements of an effective speech, Dr. C.
H. Patton, of the American Board, gave the following outline:
An effective speech must be made up of
Facts,
Big facts,
Human facts,
Related facts.
These suggestions apply not only to speeches but to any case which is
to make an effective appeal to men. What subject is there which so
perfectly illustrates the principles stated by Dr. Patton as the
missionary theme? Nowhere else in all the realm of thinking and action
are there such big, human, related facts as in the enterprise which
has for its goal the world-wide propagation and naturalization of
Christianity.
Christian business men are constantly asking certain pertinent questions
about any business undertaking. Is it honest? Is it safe? Will it pay?
Is it big enough to be worth while? Will it succeed? Will it last?
Men have a right to ask such questions about business. They have an
equal right to make the same thorough and searching investigation of
the proposition to evangelize the world. Confident of the power of the
cause to capture and hold men when once it has had a chance at them,
believing that this is the greatest case that has ever challenged the
manhood of the world, some of the evidences of the widening
sovereignty of Christ in the world are marshaled here. The Scriptures
unmistakably indicate that God has pledged universal dominion to his
Son. The facts which follow are concrete illustrations of the truth of
the missionary principles of the Bible. The gathering momentum of the
Kingdom makes an irresistible appeal.
For convenience the facts may be grouped under three general heads:
WORLD CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY
THE MULTIPLYING AGENCIES OF THE KINGDOM
SIGNS OF WORLD-WIDE VICTORY
I. WORLD CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY
=An Accessible World.=--1. Improved means of intercommunication. That
we live in a contracting world is strikingly illustrated by the fact
that when Robert Morrison went to China it took him seventy-eight days
to reach New York from England, and four months to go from New York to
China. Hunter Corbett, of China, who was six months on his way the
first time he took the trip, made the journey a few months ago in
twenty-one days. It is now possible to go from Peking to London in
twelve and one-half days over the Trans-Siberian Railroad. A recent
journey around the world was made in less than thirty-six days. When
Jules Verne published _Around the World in Eighty Days_, the journey
described was laughed at as an impossible feat. To-day it is possible
to circle the globe in less than one half the time of which Jules
Verne wrote in his book. It took the old Greeks forty days to go the
length of the Mediterranean Sea in their swiftest triremes. The
greatest stretch of open water in the world is 10,000 miles in the
Pacific Ocean. There are vessels afloat to-day that can traverse the
10,000 miles in one half the time that it took the old Greeks to go
the length of the Mediterranean Sea.
2. The nations of the earth are accessible because of changed sentiment.
There are to-day no lands in the world which are closed entirely to
modern influence and only a few which do not at least tolerate the
Christian missionary with his advanced ideas of civilization and
progress. It is difficult to estimate the amazing changes in sentiment
in lands where missionaries have been at work even for a generation,
as in Korea, or for a century or more, as in India or China.
It is unthinkable that there should ever be another Chinese wall
shutting out all world contact. Edicts in force as late as 1870 ordering
the death of Christians in Japan are now exhibited only as relics of a
buried past. The twentieth century is making hermit nations impossible.
3. A mental attitude has been created in the non-Christian world which
nothing but Christ can satisfy. This may be only an indefinite
restlessness and dissatisfaction with existing conditions in many
cases, but it is apparently true that the principles of the Christian
gospel have created an altogether new mental attitude in the world. It
is stated by one of the great missionary authorities in India that
there are millions of people in that land who are intellectually
converted to the gospel who have not yet yielded personal allegiance
to Christ. This mental attitude is an enormous asset to the Kingdom.
=A Plastic World.=--The nations of our day are plastic to a degree
never before witnessed. Heat, pressure, and decay, are some of the
forces which make physical substances plastic. There are intellectual
and moral and spiritual forces which produce a like effect on men and
nations. As great heat applied to metal fuses it, so the ideas and
forces of the twentieth century have fused the non-Christian world.
Pressure, such as foreign aggression, world commerce, and modern
science have helped to bring about the present plastic state in vast
sections of the world. Added to these two and accompanying them are
the forces of disintegration and decay in the old religions, old forms
of government, and the customs and habits of centuries. In itself this
present remarkable state of the non-Christian world has no moral
quality. The significant thing is that, while nations are in a plastic
state, they offer special opportunity to put the stamp of Christianity
on them before they harden again, and to determine the direction their
civilization shall take by building into them the principles of
Christian civilization and the Christian faith.
=A Changing World.=--One of the most impressive evidences that the
leaven of Christian civilization is at work in the non-Christian world
is the fact that there are wide-spread changes taking place. God has
been shaping and preparing the nations in the interests of a world-wide
gospel. The extent and character of these changes make the present the
most momentous hour in the history of the non-Christian world.
_The extent of the changes_ may best be illustrated by comparing the
present awakening with other great historic movements of the last two
thousand years. In naming the epoch-making movements of the Christian
Era the following could not be omitted: The Renaissance, The
Mohammedan Conquest, The Crusades, The Reformation, The American
Revolution, The French Revolution, The Wesleyan Revival, and The Rise
of Popular Governments. On examination it is discovered that each of
these movements was confined to a comparatively limited geographical
area, one or two of the countries of Europe, or certain racial
sections such as the Anglo-Saxon, or the countries bordering on the
Mediterranean Sea, or, as in the case of the American Revolution,
England and America. While these movements were all of far-reaching
significance they affected directly only a few countries. But to-day
all Asia is awake, Africa is stirring with life as never before, and
the South American lands are in the midst of a period of commercial
activity and of progress unparalleled. Instead of a limited area
millions of square miles are in the midst of far-reaching changes.
The great awakenings of the last twenty centuries influenced directly
only a few millions of people in contrast with the awakening of to-day
which affects _THREE FOURTHS OF THE HUMAN RACE_. _From the standpoint
of the vast populations involved as well as of the immense territory
affected the world has never seen an awakening of such magnitude as
that which is taking place in our time._
In _character_ also the present movement is eclipsing all former
awakenings in history. One of the most satisfactory ways of measuring
the power of any movement is to analyze it in relation to the
fundamental institutions of society. Reducing civilization to its
simplest terms society is built around five great institutions. In one
column the institutions are named, in the other the human relations
which each represents.
The Home--social.
The State--political.
The Shop--commercial.
The School--educational.
The Church--religious.
While the illustration must not be carried too far, yet in a striking
way it is true that the great awakenings of the last two thousand
years have been characterized by only one or two central and
controlling principles. The Renaissance was an intellectual awakening,
thus changing the educational life of Europe. The Reformation was
religious and profoundly influenced the Church. The Rise of Popular
Governments was political and began a new era for the state. So on
through the list. By way of contrast, we are to-day in the midst of an
awakening which radically affects all these fundamental institutions
of society. In China, for example, a movement is in progress which is
not simply affecting the state, or the social life, or the religious
character of the people, but is transforming all five of the
fundamental institutions of life. As Dr. J. E. Williams, of Nanking
University, puts it: "If we could conceive of the Renaissance of
learning after the dark ages, the interest in literature that came
with the study of Latin and Greek, and the awakening of thought that
followed upon the discovery of new worlds--material and
intellectual--and then add to this the new forces of the Reformation,
the reconstruction of men's moral and religious ideas and ideals and
the recovery of the right of the individual conscience, and if to
these we could conceive as added the French Revolution--the break-up
of all that men had regarded as final in social and political
organization; and if to these again could be added the movement of
modern science, which began with Lord Bacon's _Novum Organum_--and the
application of the inductive method in the discovery of the forces and
laws of nature; and, if further we could conceive of these great
forces as operating, not at different times, in different countries,
through a period of several centuries, but as combined and
concentrated in a brief decade or two in one country upon a great
people, we should have a more adequate conception of the magnitude and
significance of the present Revolution in China."
A significant fact is that most of the revolutionary forces and agencies
which have brought about the awakening have come from Christian lands.
The most powerful single force at work has been the missionary. He has
carried with him the finest ideals of Western civilization, and has been
able in an unusual way to bring the latest ideas in all realms of life
to bear upon the non-Christian world. A condition exists which
Professor Ross, in _The Changing Chinese_, a book which it will pay
every man to read, finely describes in the following words:
"The crucifixion was two hundred and eighty years old before
Christianity won toleration in the Roman Empire. It was one hundred
and twenty-eight years after Luther's defiance before the permanence
of the Protestant Reformation was assured. After the discovery of the
New World one hundred and fifteen years elapsed before the first
English colony was planted here. No one who saw the beginning of these
great, slow, historic movements could grasp their full import or
witness their culmination. But nowadays world processes are telescoped
and history is made at aviation speed."
All this makes it clear that we have come to an hour of crisis in the
relations between Christendom and the non-Christian world. What is a
crisis but a point of time in the history of the human race when great
issues are at stake, when there is an unprecedented break-up of
civilizations, when Christian nations must make great decisions about
their relations with the non-Christian world. We find everywhere
conditions that are passing and that will not return. It is the time
of all times for men who love Christ to make him known to the ends of
the earth. The situation is summarized in "the Message of the
Edinburgh Conference," in the following language: "The next ten years
will, in all probability, constitute a turning-point in human history,
and may be of more critical importance in determining the spiritual
evolution of mankind than many centuries of ordinary experience. If
those years are wasted, havoc may be wrought that centuries will not
be able to repair. On the other hand, if they are rightly used, they
may be among the most glorious in Christian history."
=The Increase of Populations in Christian Countries.=--At the beginning
of the nineteenth century the entire population of the United States and
Canada was only about 5 millions; to-day it is 100 millions. In the same
period of time the populations of Europe have increased from 170 to 450
millions. During this same hundred years the population in some parts of
the non-Christian world has declined, in others remained stationary, or
the growth has been very slow. While the birth rate is much greater in
many non-Christian lands, the cheapness of human life, the lack of
sanitary and other conditions for safeguarding life greatly increase the
death rate. The population of the world at the end of the eighteenth
century was estimated to be approximately 1,000 millions. During the
nineteenth century the numbers increased by about 600 millions. Europe
and North America together increased in population by nearly 400
millions during that century. These figures for the world are only
estimates but are given by the most reliable students of such matters.
While exact figures for the non-Christian world cannot be given, the
significant fact is that there has been a marvelous expansion of
Christian nations within the last one hundred years, far outstripping
the expansion of other parts of the world. The nations which know most
of Christ and his gospel have increased in numbers as well as in power
out of all proportion to the rest of mankind.
=The Spread of the English Language.=--We quote from a leaflet entitled
"The Seven Wonders of the Modern Missionary World," by Dr. A. W. Halsey.
"The spread of the English language is one of the wonders of the age.
The English language is spoken at the present time by nearly
200,000,000 people; each year sees large additions to the group of
English-speaking peoples. In the Philippines more people to-day speak
the English language than spoke the Spanish language after three
hundred years of Spanish rule.
"In all higher education in India, English is compulsory; in the
secondary schools in India, English is taught. In China, the government
has made English a part of the regular curriculum. In Japan, the
students are eager to learn English. It is the avenue through which the
missionary frequently is able to reach the educated classes. In Syria,
one of the boys in the classroom wrote on the blackboard, 'God is love'
in his own language, thirty boys followed, each writing the text in his
own language; yet these boys sooner or later will all speak the English
language. A speaker at the Edinburgh Conference declared that some
missionaries read the Lord's command as though it were written 'Go and
teach all nations the English language.' Macaulay says that whoever
knows the English language has 'ready access to the vast intellectual
wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and stored
in the course of ninety generations.' The English language is the
language of liberty, of law, of morals, of high ideals. The English
Bible, which has molded Anglo-Saxon civilization, is making no small
impress on world civilization.
"The Greek language became the vehicle in which the gospel story was
borne to the educated world of the first century. The English language
seems destined in the providence of God to be the bearer of the
gospel to the races of the twentieth century."
The following table indicates the remarkable growth during the
nineteenth century of the English language as compared with other
tongues. The estimates are given by Mulhall and John Bartholomew of
Edinburgh and appear in the 1912 _World Almanac_.
1801 1901
French 31,450,000 52,100,000
German 30,320,000 84,200,000
Italian 15,070,000 34,000,000
Spanish 26,190,000 46,500,000
Portuguese 7,480,000 15,000,000
Russian 30,770,000 85,000,000
English 20,520,000 130,300,000
In the light of these figures the total given by Dr. Halsey quoted
above is perhaps too high. It will be seen, however, that the number
speaking German has multiplied nearly threefold and the number of
those speaking English six and a half times in the century under
review. Since an overwhelming majority of missionaries speak either
English or German or both, the significance of the spread of these
languages is apparent.
=The Geographical Control of the World.=--One of the most inspiring
evidences of the widening sovereignty of Christ is that he has passed
over the control of the territory of the world to the Christian
nations. According to Gulick's _Growth of the Kingdom of God_, in 1600
only 7 per cent. of the territory of the world was controlled by
Christian nations, but to-day 82 per cent., so that the growth of
Christian control has passed in three hundred years from 7 per cent.
to 82 per cent., while the control of non-Christian nations has
decreased from 93 per cent. to 18 per cent.
The increasing control of the world by Christian nations is due in no
small measure to the fact that they are masters of most of the great
waterways and highways of the world. The Suez and Panama Canals and
the Khaibar Pass in India are striking illustrations.
In 1800, four hundred millions of people were governed by Catholic and
Protestant Christian powers; in 1912 at least one thousand millions,
or two and a half times as many as were thus governed in 1800. In
1500, there were no Protestant political powers in the world. To-day,
England, Germany, and the United States rule over about six hundred
millions of the population of the world. These three Protestant powers
alone now have dominion over more millions of people than are ruled
over by all the non-Christian nations of the world added together.
The Mohammedan world furnishes a startling illustration of this
shifting control of the world. A few generations ago Mohammedan
political and religious control were coextensive. To-day over three
fourths of the Mohammedans of the world live in lands which they do
not rule politically. The passing of Mohammedan political dominion
from Africa is of profound significance for that continent. France has
extended and consolidated her African possessions by taking Algeria
and establishing a protectorate over Morocco, which is one of the
greatest strongholds of orthodox Mohammedanism. Italy has now taken
full control of Tripoli. Only a few of the forty or more millions of
Mohammedans in Africa are under Moslem political rule. Italy has
already begun the construction of 400 miles of railway in Tripoli. In
Algiers and down through the Sahara toward the Sudan the steel lines
are being laid by France. God is evidently preparing his people for a
great advance among Mohammedans. The great question now is whether his
Church will be equal to the emergency.
II. THE MULTIPLYING AGENCIES OF THE KINGDOM
=The Number and Growing Efficiency of Missionary Societies.=--More
than two hundred years ago Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and his colaborer
Pluetschau were ordained missionaries to India in the city of
Copenhagen; and two years later, in 1707, at Tranquebar, the first
Protestant Church of the non-Christian world was established in South
India among the Tamil people. Later the great Schwartz and others
carried on the work resulting in the founding of the missionary work
of the present day in India.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were two important
missionary organizations in Great Britain. On the continent the
Lutherans and Moravians were struggling heroically in the carrying on
of their missionary operations. There were scarcely more than a dozen
missionary societies altogether in the whole world, either well
established or just beginning. It was a very small and feeble list of
organizations compared with that of the present day. The Edinburgh
Missionary Conference reported that there were 994 missionary
organizations in Christendom in 1910. These have nearly all come into
existence within the century.
Among the indications of increased efficiency the following may be
named:
1. Unity and Cooeperation. It has been well said that "The three dominant
notes of our time are unity, reality, and universality." That there is a
growing spirit of unity in the home Church is illustrated by the way the
mission boards are cooeperating in the work of the interdenominational
missionary movements, by the growing number of interdenominational
training-schools for missionary candidates, and by organizations like
the Home Missions Council and the Conference of Foreign Mission Boards
in which there is interchange of ideas and plans and methods among the
leaders of the home and foreign missionary activities.
Nowhere have Christian unity and practical cooeperation made greater
progress than in the foreign missions of American Churches. In several
lands there are now conspicuous illustrations of the practical working
of this spirit in the organization of union colleges, theological
seminaries and training schools and in united campaigns of many
different kinds.
In Korea a union hymnal was issued some time ago and the first edition
of 24,000 copies was sold within the first few weeks. In this same
land, in dividing the territory between the different missions, the
Methodists and Presbyterians exchanged several thousand converts, and
now, Korean Christians moving from a territory occupied by one mission
into that occupied by another automatically transfer their membership
to the other denomination.
2. The Science of Missions. Modern Missionary leaders are doing much
to create an interest in and to develop the science of missions. The
Edinburgh Conference took a great advance step when it appointed the
Continuation Committee. This committee represents Christendom in
making a scientific, continuous and united study of missions. _The
International Review of Missions_, a quarterly magazine, is the
Committee's organ for reporting investigations to the Christian world.
The committee has appointed a number of commissions which are at work
on the various problems of missions. Their reports from time to time
are awaited with great interest.
3. The Principles of Strategy. There never has been a time in the
history of the missionary enterprise when the principles of strategy
in the promotion of missions were so well understood and applied as
to-day.
The Edinburgh Missionary Conference called special attention to these
strategic principles and pointed out how they apply to the
evangelization of the world. The application of these principles is
another evidence of the fact that the leaders of the Church are facing
in a thoroughgoing way, not a fragment of the plans of Christ, but his
total program for the world. Some of these principles are quoted here:
(1) "Accessibility, openness, and willingness to attend to the gospel
message. During the past ten years the people of pagan Africa have
been peculiarly ready to listen to the presentation of the facts and
arguments of the Christian religion.
(2) "The responsiveness of the field. Korea and Manchuria are examples
of nations in which the people of every community show readiness to
yield to the claims of Christ when presented to them.
(3) "The presence or concentration of large numbers of people.
Obviously, the Chengtu plain of the westernmost province of China,
with its population of 1,700 to the square mile, or the densely
populated valleys of the Ganges and lower Nile, should receive
attention commensurate with the massing of the people.
(4) "Previous neglect. With a gospel intended for all mankind the
policy of the Church should be influenced by the existence of any
totally unoccupied field, like extensive tracts of the Sudan.
(5) "Conditions of gross ignorance, social degradation, and spiritual
need. Christ came in a special sense to seek and to save that which
was lost, and the history of the Christian Church has abundantly shown
how the blessing of God has attended efforts to reach the most
unfortunate and depressed classes and peoples, such as the Pacific
Islanders, the outcasts of India, the lepers, and the aboriginal
tribes of the East Indies.
(6) "As has already been made plain, the Church, while recognizing the
importance of advancing along lines of largest immediate promise,
should, under divine guidance, direct special attention to the most
difficult fields of the non-Christian world. In the light of this
principle, Moslem lands present an irresistible appeal to the Church.
(7) "The prospective power and usefulness of a nation as a factor in
the establishment of Christ's kingdom in the world, and the probable
weight of its example as an influence over other nations. Japan is
especially fitted to become, in intellectual and moral matters no less
than in material civilization, the leader of the Orient. This attaches
transcendent importance to its attitude toward Christianity.
(8) "The principle of urgency should as a rule have the right of way;
that is, if there is to-day an opportunity to reach a people or
section which in all probability will soon be gone, the Church should
enter the door at once; for example, if there is danger that the field
may be preoccupied by other religions or by influences adverse to
Christianity. Equatorial Africa in a most striking degree is just now
such a battle-ground. It is plain to every observer that unless
Christianity extends its ministry to tribes throughout this part of
Africa the ground will in a short time be occupied by Mohammedanism."
=Increase in the Number of Missionaries.=--Not only does the expanding
spirit of conquest express itself in organizations to extend
Christianity, but also in the increasing number of lives that are
dedicated to the service.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the missionary force was a
mere handful. There was not one representative of the churches of
North America anywhere in the non-Christian world. The Buddhist world
and the Brahmin world were closed, and the millions of the Mohammedan
world were practically untouched. The vast regions of South America
and Africa were almost unknown. To-day there is an army of 24,000
missionaries, counting wives, or about 17,000 missionary families and
single missionaries scattered over all the continents, and in almost
every country of the world.
In North America the evidence of the growth of conviction regarding
foreign missions is seen in the following record of the Student
Volunteer Movement. In the report made by that Movement every four
years the following facts appear:
Number of Volunteers Sailed
1898-1902 780
1902-1906 1,000
1906-1910 1,286
In the year 1911 the total reached was 410, indicating the fact that
the goal of two thousand sailed volunteers for the quadrennium is not
an impossible number to expect to see go out before the next
convention in 1914.
[Illustration: Gifts for Foreign Missions 1891-1912]
=Money Devoted to Missions.=--One hundred years ago the total
contributions to the foreign missionary enterprise from all the
Christians of the world amounted to about $100,000 annually. To-day the
regular annual income is over $30,000,000, or three hundred times as
much per year as one hundred years ago. Great buildings are being
erected at a cost of millions of additional capital to house colleges
and hospitals and printing-presses and all other institutions necessary
for the propaganda. In 1911 these special contributions from North
America amounted to at least five millions of dollars. In all this vast
enterprise the cost of administration at the home base averages only
about 8 per cent. of the total of the regular receipts. The cost of all
other big business is much higher than this. There are perhaps some
cases where the efficiency of the mission Boards would be increased if
more money was spent on the cultivation of the home constituency.
=Translation of the Scriptures.=--The Bible is the missionary's book,
and translated into the language of the people is an indispensable aid
to his work. The Bible Societies on both sides of the Atlantic have
done and are doing a magnificent and enduring work the benefits of
which all the churches are reaping. In 1800 the Scriptures were
translated into 66 languages; to-day the Scriptures in part or in
whole are available in more than 500 languages and dialects. One of
the most striking intellectual achievements of the world has been made
by the missionaries in the translation of the Scriptures, to say
nothing of their tremendous contribution to science and all the
branches of knowledge by the reduction of languages to writing, by the
translation of text-books, and by the publication of many other books
in the vernaculars. When it is remembered that the Edinburgh
Conference declared that there are 843 languages and dialects in
Africa alone and that only about 100 of them have been reduced to
writing, a glimpse is given of the magnitude of the intellectual task
remaining before the battle is won. The difficulties have been very
great. Milne, a colaborer of Morrison, has this to say regarding the
learning of the Chinese language:
"To learn Chinese is work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of
steel, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of
apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah!"
III. SIGNS OF WORLD-WIDE VICTORY
=Progress by Centuries.=--The following table used by Gulick in _The
Growth of the Kingdom of God_, indicates the onward sweep of
Christianity throughout the last two thousand years. Of this table
Gulick says: "The table does not give the number of professed
Christians or church-members, but only the number of those who may be
fairly said to have accepted the Christian standards of moral life
whether attempting and professing to live up to them or not. The word
'Christianity' is used in its broadest, loosest sense."
The first column includes the period to the end of the century named.
The second column gives the number of millions of Christians of all
faiths:
2nd century 2 millions
10th century 50 millions
15th century 100 millions
18th century 200 millions
19th century 500 millions
A glance at these figures reveals the following inspiring facts.
The number of Christians reported at the end of ten centuries was
doubled in the next five centuries. The total was doubled again in the
next three hundred years. At the end of the nineteenth century the
number was two and a half times as great as at the end of the previous
eighteen centuries.
=Recent Victories.=--While the survey of the progress of the kingdom
by centuries just given is inspiring, recent years have witnessed an
unprecedented response to the Christian appeal.
Looking at America first we discover that one hundred years ago there
were 364,872 communicant members of the Protestant churches out of a
population of 5,305,925, or one in fourteen. To-day one in four of the
population is identified with the Protestant church. These are not
nominal Christians, as in the paragraph above, but actual Protestant
church-members. These figures make it clear that the forces of
aggressive Christianity in America have realized a tremendous return
on their investment. If we include Catholic and all other religious
bodies the total communicant members reach 36 millions in round
numbers, or about two fifths of the total population.
One hundred years ago only one in ten of the college students in
America was a communicant member of the Church; to-day practically
every other college student is a member of some church. It is
certainly encouraging that fifty per cent. of that small fraction of
our population which will furnish an enormous percentage of the
leaders are church-members to-day, or five times as large a proportion
as a hundred years ago.
The situation in the non-Christian world to-day is summed up, on the
basis of the statistics in the chart below, as follows: It took about
ninety years to gain the first million converts (1793-1885). The
second million were added in twenty-three years (1885-1908). They are
now being added at the rate of a million in ten years.
[Illustration: WORLD MISSION PROGRESS
GAIN IN PROTESTANT COMMUNICANTS
SINCE 1800 IN THE FOREIGN FIELD]
At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a single
Protestant in Japan, not one in China, only a few in India, and the
great non-Christian world was practically closed to the Protestant
missionary. Three of the five continents of the world were
inaccessible and a large part of a fourth largely untouched.
Protestant Christian work began in Japan in 1859. In 1913 there are
73,000 Protestant communicants,--among them twelve members of the
Japanese Parliament. The influence of the Protestant Christians in the
Empire is out of all proportion to their comparatively small numbers,
because Christianity began with the ruling classes in Japan. There are
to-day in that one country more Protestant Christians than there were in
all the non-Christian world at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Morrison, the pioneer missionary to China, entered that land in 1807.
At the end of thirty-five years of effort there were only six
converts; at the end of fifty years there were less than fifty, but
to-day, according to the China Year Book, there are 195,905
communicant members of the Protestant churches, and Dr. Timothy
Richard has publicly stated that he thinks there are not less than two
millions of people in China who accept Christ as Savior, although many
of these have not as yet united themselves with the Christian Church.
One missionary in North China reported recently that he had seen more
Chinese accepting Christ in the last nine months than in the previous
nineteen years of his service in China.
In Korea, on Christmas Day, 1887, the first seven men were baptized in
secret; now there is a Christian community of 300,000. There has been
an average of one convert every hour of the day and night since
Protestant missionaries entered Korea. The Korean Christians are an
evangelistic, self-sacrificing, Bible-studying, prayer-loving people.
The training-classes for Bible study and preparation for Christian
work have been wonderful in their attendance and power. One church has
developed into five churches in its short history. The members of a
single church in Seoul preach the gospel in over a hundred villages in
the vicinity of the city. Pingyang was not entered until 1895. At that
time it was said of the city that every other house was a wine shop.
In the short time since the first missionary entered the city such
progress has been made that it is now said of Pingyang that every
other house has a Christian in it, and that at least one sixth of the
population may be found in the regular church services every Sunday
morning. The great challenge presented by Korea is to press the
advantage at this point in the far-flung battle line, in confident
expectation that Korea will be evangelized in this generation.
India furnishes many thrilling illustrations of the victorious
progress of Christianity. On a journey around the world two years ago,
a Christian leader saw one church record in the Baptist mission among
the Telugus in which there were the names of 19,000 Christian
converts. Forty years ago there were not more than a half-dozen
Christians in that section of India.
Uganda in Central Africa has made great progress since the days of
Stanley's discovery of Livingstone. Recently an eight-days' meeting
was held in one of the stations. The attendance ranged from 3,500 the
first day to more than 6,000 on the last day. In the five years
ending September, 1907, there was an average increase in membership of
6,000 a year, and in 1909 the total increase reached 8,000.
Even the Near East which has for many years been so comparatively
unresponsive to the appeal of the gospel, is more ready than ever to
receive the gospel message and especially the missionary school. On a
visit to the Near East in 1911, Dr. C. H. Patton, one of the
Secretaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions, addressed some inspiring audiences, in one place a multitude
numbering three thousand. At Aintab, the crowd was divided into three
audiences so that all could hear. There was a total attendance of four
thousand. Among many other encouraging signs Dr. Patton found forty
sons of pashas and members of the Turkish parliament in one school.
Where a very few years ago there were hatred and hostility, there is
now not only toleration but in many places a growing spirit of welcome
to the Christian school and the Christian missionary.
These examples are typical of a world-wide response to the gospel
never known before. The simplest and most evident proof of the
widening sovereignty of Christ in the world is the number of those who
are uniting themselves with the Christian Church. It is an inspiring
record, but only the beginning of the indications that the kingdom of
God is spreading over all the earth.
=The Native Church.=--Further progress is indicated when it is
remembered that there are now about 100,000 native workers in the
various non-Christian lands. The calling forth and training of these
workers is the greatest and most urgent single task on the field, for
the chief hope of Christianizing the world is in the multiplication of
the numbers and the increasing of the efficiency of the native workers
in all non-Christian countries.
Powerful native leaders are arising in many lands. This is a most
heartening evidence of the progress of Christianity. Men like the Hon.
T. H. Yun, the statesman, of Korea, Ding Li Mai, the evangelist, of
China, Bishop V. S. Azariah of India, and the late Bishop Honda of
Japan are the type of leaders who may well inspire hope in the success
of Christianity in the lands from which they come. Native leaders are
in the forefront of the great social and moral reforms and
evangelistic campaigns among their people. The dependence of China
upon her Christian leaders in this present hour of great crisis has
thrown a great light upon the value of Christian institutions and
teachings. The sacrificial giving of the native Church is a revelation
of the great depth and sincerity of their Christian life. Dr. Alva W.
Taylor in his very valuable recent book, _The Social Work of Christian
Missions_, calls attention to the fact that in China, while the
membership of the Protestant Church has increased eleven times in
thirty years, the rate of native giving has increased thirty times.
Every land has a contribution to make before there can be a complete
interpretation of Christianity. Christendom is as yet only beginning to
realize what enrichment of life is to come from Africa and the East,
from Mohammedan lands and the islands of the seas, when the living
energies of Christ have been brought to bear adequately upon their life.
=Humanitarian Institutions.=--One hundred years ago there was not one
hospital or trained physician in the non-Christian world; to-day there
are 675 hospitals; and 8,000,000 treatments in these hospitals were
reported in a single recent year. The relief of suffering, the
prevention and cure of contagious diseases, the successful war against
plague, asylums for the insane and blind, for the deaf, homes for
lepers and consumptives, rescue homes, prison work, famine relief--all
these are recent forms of Christian service and are rapidly extending.
=Social Reconstruction and Progress.=--Dr. S. M. Zwemer has well said,
"Fifty years ago in the study of missions the emphasis was on
theology, to-day it is on sociology."
The expanding influence of Christ in the world is not only shown by the
statistical evidences of the growth of the missionary enterprise, but
there are also certain large and general aspects of the case which must
not be overlooked. Volumes have been written on the subject of humane
progress, such as _Gesta Christi, A History of Humane Progress_, by C.
Loring Brace, and _Christian Missions and Social Progress_, by J. S.
Dennis. But two of these humane ideas are enlarged upon here.
1. The growth of the idea of liberty. The freedom of the masses is
possible only in those lands where Christ is known. From the days when
the influence of the Christians put a stop to the sacrifices and
gladiatorial combats in Rome to the wiping out of human slavery among
all the civilized nations of modern times is an inspiring record of
the expansion of the Christian spirit of liberty. Dr. Josiah Strong
says "At the end of the eighteenth century slaves were held in Russia,
Prussia, Austria, Scotland, in British, French, and Spanish colonies,
and in North and South America." To-day no reputable Christian nation
tolerates slaves.
2. The elevation of womanhood. Wherever Christ's ideas of the
sacredness and value of womanhood have penetrated, women have risen to
a place of power. Christ found woman the plaything and drudge of man
or worse and has lifted her up to be a queen in the home and a
powerful influence in society. To a gentleman who asked a woman in
Turkey what her life was like she replied, "Our life is hell." Let her
answer stand for the life of millions upon millions of women and girls
where the purity and love of Christ are unknown.
In the introduction to _Gesta Christi, A History of Humane Progress_
by Brace, the following summary is given:
"There are certain practises, principles, and ideals--now the richest
inheritance of the race--that have been either implanted or stimulated
or supported by Christianity.
"They are such as these: regard for the personality of the weakest and
poorest; respect for women; the absolute duty of each member of the
fortunate classes to raise up the unfortunate; humanity to the child,
the prisoner, the stranger, the needy, and even the brute; unceasing
opposition to all forms of cruelty, oppression, and slavery; the duty of
personal purity and the sacredness of marriage; the necessity of
temperance; the obligation of a more equitable division of the profits
of labor, and of greater cooeperation between employers and employed; the
right of every human being to have the utmost opportunity of developing
his faculties, and of all persons to enjoy equal political and social
privileges; the principle that the injury of one nation is the injury of
all, and the expediency and duty of unrestricted trade and intercourse
between all countries; and finally and principally, a profound
opposition to war, a determination to limit its evils when existing, and
to prevent its arising by means of international arbitration.
"Ideals, principles, and practises such as these are among the best
achievements of history."
=The Conclusion of the Whole Matter.=--Under the weight of this mass
of proof we may accept the interpretation of history given in Isaiah
xiv. 26-27. He is answering that question which has challenged
thinkers in all ages, What is the vocation of the nations? Isaiah
concludes that all nations have a place in God's purpose and that all
peoples contribute to his plan.
"This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this
is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For Jehovah of
hosts hath purposed, and who shall annul it? and his hand is stretched
out and who shall turn it back?"
No man who is willing to accept the facts which have been stated can
escape the conviction that Christ is possessing the world in an
unmistakable way. Although there are still great battles to be fought
out, and problems to be solved,--greater probably than men have ever
grappled with in the history of the world,--the final issue cannot be
in doubt. In the midst of all the disturbing forces, when many leaders
are bewildered by the swiftly moving scenes incident to the
transformation of great and ancient civilizations, at a time when the
cries of race and clan are deafening and when there is a struggle
between age-long forces on a gigantic scale never before witnessed,
serene and confident of the outcome moves our Christ.
As Mr. Robert E. Speer puts it, "Christianity is moving out over the
earth with ever-enlarging agencies, with ever-increasing success, and
with open and undiscouraged purpose to win the world."
With the change of a single phrase we may join in the song of Christ's
triumph which Longfellow left as an inspiring heritage to the world.
"And him evermore I behold
Walking in the midst of the world,
Through the cornfield's waving gold,
In hamlet, in wood, and in wold,
By the shores of the beautiful sea,
He toucheth the sightless eyes;
Before him the demons flee;
To the dead he saith: Arise!
To the living: Follow me!
And that voice still soundeth on,
From the centuries that are gone,
To the centuries that shall be."
FOR ADDITIONAL READING AND FOR REFERENCE
Edinburgh Conference Report (9 volumes). Missionary Education
Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $5.00.
World Atlas of Christian Missions. Student Volunteer Movement,
600 Lexington Avenue, New York, $4.00.
The Statesmen's Year Book, 1913. Macmillan Company, 64 Fifth
Avenue, New York. $3.40.
Taylor, Alva W. The Social Work of Christian Missions. The
Foreign Christian Missionary Society, Cincinnati. $0.50.
Gulick, Sidney L. The Growth of the Kingdom of God. Fleming H.
Revell Co., 158 Fifth Avenue, New York. $1.00.
Brace, Charles Loring. Gesta Christ, A History of Humane
Progress. George H. Doran, 25 West 32nd Street, New York. $1.00.
Ross, E. A. The Changing Chinese. The Century Company, 33 East
17th Street, New York. $2.40.
Dennis, James S. Christian Missions and Social Progress (3
volumes). Fleming H. Revell Co., 158 Fifth Avenue, New York.
$6.25.
Dennis, James S. Commerce and Missions (A Pamphlet). Laymen's
Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 5 cents.
Goucher, John F. Growth of the Missionary Concept. Eaton & Mains,
150 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.75.