THE CHALLENGE OF A GREAT TASK
One of the best tests of the measure of a man is in his relation to
great forces and opportunities and tasks. A small man will either be
unconscious of their presence and significance, or will be overwhelmed
by them, and therefore inactive or inefficient. On the other hand a
man who is really alive will rejoice that it is given to him to relate
himself to life's greatest forces and opportunities and tasks.
It would be difficult to conceive of any combination of human and divine
energies, of golden opportunities and inspiring tasks, comparable with
those centering in the world-wide propagation of Christianity. In our
day more men are undertaking with relentless courage the whole program
of Christ than ever before, notwithstanding its immensity, its
bewildering complexity, and its taxing difficulty. The first long step
toward a solution of the missionary problem is this willingness to face
the total issues involved without reserve and without fear.
The following pages present a condensed and swift survey of the
unfinished task of the Church of Christ. The size of the task is
sketched in its bold outlines. In this chapter is heard the cry that
is flung out across the world to every Christian man. It is a cry of
neglect and need, of urgency and crisis, the united voice of
multitudes among whom the forces of the new age are battling for
mastery. The limits of the chapter make it impossible to discuss many
important features of the missionary task, such as the social evils of
the non-Christian world, the inadequacy of the vast religious systems
to meet the deepest needs of mankind, the strength of the customs of
centuries, and many more. The reader is referred to the books listed
at the close of this chapter for a discussion of these elements of the
problems. These pages will give but a glimpse of the task but enough
surely to strike a high note of summons to every man to whom Christ is
indispensable to make Christ known to all other men in the world to
whom he is also indispensable.
=The Unity of the Race.=--In this survey it will be of great value to
remember that God "made of one every nation of men" (Acts xvii. 26).
The unity of the race is a great and solemnizing truth. Men can not be
classified by the color of their skin or their language. It is
impossible for a scientist to tell the difference between the blood of
an Arab, a Chinese, and an Englishman. Sin is not a heathen
characteristic, it is a human characteristic. If the gospel had gone
eastward instead of westward civilization would have traveled that
way. As we speak about the backward races let us remember that the
chief difference between them and us is that we have Christ and they
have him not.
=Explanation of Terms.=--It is essential that the meaning of three
terms which are current in the literature and discussion of missions
be understood before we proceed. These terms are, _the evangelization
of the world_, _the naturalization of Christianity_, and _the
Christianization of the world_. What do these terms mean, and whose
task is indicated by each?
=The Evangelization of the World.=--This phrase means the giving of
every person in the world an adequate opportunity to know and receive
Jesus Christ. This is the present and urgent task of all Christians. It
is a universal obligation organic in the gospel. By this we do not mean
simply giving the message of Christ once in the hearing of all men. That
is not adequate. There must be repeated instruction in the gospel, until
the need of Christ is made clear and influence brought to bear upon the
will so that an intelligent decision to accept and follow Christ is made
possible. Many will reject the message, no doubt, but the responsibility
of Christians to any man is not discharged until that man has had
opportunity to know and receive Jesus Christ. Wherever there are belated
countries and races, or religions that do not meet the deepest needs of
mankind, wherever there is no adequate opportunity to enjoy the
deliverance from sin, the freedom, the intelligence, the purity, the
safety, the justice and equality, the rewards of honest labor, which the
gospel of Christ brings, it is the duty of those who possess all these
to pass them on to others.
=The Naturalization of Christianity.=--By the naturalization of
Christianity in a country is meant the permanent planting of the
Christian Church and Christian institutions in that land. When a
foreigner becomes a naturalized American he must meet certain
educational and financial requirements and take the oath of allegiance
to the United States, in return for which he is guaranteed the
privileges and rights of citizenship. The process of Americanization
is not completed by this act of naturalization; it is only well begun.
Many years are required to thoroughly assimilate the spirit of our
institutions and life. Naturalization is a first not a final process,
Americanization is the goal.
Christianity may be said to be naturalized in a land when the native
Church has reached the point where it is capable of governing and
supporting itself and of completing the work of evangelizing the
country. Therefore the naturalization of Christianity is the joint
task of the foreign missionary and the native Christian Church. In the
process the foreign missionary must decrease, as the native Church
increases.
=The Christianization of the World.=--This involves the application of
the principles of the gospel to the total life of mankind. In a strict
sense this is not yet true in any country. There are of course many
countries where the evangelization of the people is being vigorously
carried out and the naturalization of Christianity is without
question; but the complete redemption of society is not yet a fact.
This final stage in the missionary enterprise is the task of the
native Church in each land. There will still be fellowship with the
Church in all lands and interchanges of ideas and service. There will
no doubt be greater unity than ever, but the final responsibility
rests with the naturalized Church in each land to complete the
Christianizing task.
While the definitions given must not be interpreted too strictly,
since the processes overlap and there is no absolutely sharp line of
distinction between them, in general it is true that it is the duty of
each generation of Christians to evangelize its own generation; it is
the joint duty of Christendom and the native Church to naturalize
Christianity in every land and among all races, and it is the task of
the native Church in each land to press with all possible urgency the
Christianization of the country. Evangelization and naturalization are
the immediate aim: Christianization the final aim of the Church of
Christ in the world.
I. AMERICA'S HOME PROBLEM
A primary missionary obligation is to purify the fountains out of
which the missionary streams flow. Unless there is a genuine Christian
civilization in America the impact of America on the non-Christian
world will not be life-giving. As Dr. Love well says, in _The Mission
of Our Nation_:
"The man who minimizes the importance of any department of missions
leaves himself without ground for the strongest appeal for any
department of missions.
"We shall never be able to develop a great conscience concerning any
one department of our missionary work, except we develop a great
conscience concerning it all.
"Though he may not think so himself, a man whose appeal is wholly for
foreign missions may be as truly provincial as one who is all for home
missions, for his field does not comprehend the whole world."
No man who has candidly studied the home problems in Canada with all
their significance to the future of the Dominion, and the splendid way
in which the Canadian leaders are seeking to solve those problems can
talk lightly of the task there. The total immigration to Canada in
1910-11 was the largest in its history,--311,084. While the large
majority were from England and the United States, the total included
representatives of 64 nationalities. The Bible has been called for in
110 languages in the Dominion. There are about 900,000 Protestant
Church members out of a total population of 7,200,000. The Catholic
Church claims 2,538,374 members. There are about 3,000,000 French
Canadians. Montreal has 70,000 foreigners; Winnipeg, 50,000. There are
12,000 Orientals in Vancouver. The great western provinces have all
the problems of the frontier.
Looking at the situation in the United States we are confronted with
the fact that there are 34,796,077 people over ten years of age who
are outside the membership of all the churches. That in itself
constitutes an enormous spiritual opportunity and responsibility. Tens
of thousands of these people are unreached because the Church has not
seriously attempted to reach them. Recent investigations have shown
that thousands of our country churches are entirely abandoned, and
that in large rural sections the rising generation is practically
deprived of all religious training. Until America solves its rural and
city church problems, it will be greatly handicapped in its world-wide
missionary operations.
There are certain neglected and overlooked groups in American life,
such as the Mountaineers of the South. Concerning these sturdy
Southerners, who are serving an altogether too long apprenticeship,
and who have remained in isolation while modern progress has rushed by
them, W. G. Frost says, "I expect to see the mountain regions of the
South as peculiar a joy and glory to America as old Scotland is to
Great Britain."
The Mormon menace is appalling. Every citizen should read Bruce
Kinney's _Mormonism, the Islam of America_, and then do his part to
eradicate this evil from the land.
Several millions of illiterate Negroes sorely need education and
Christianity if the civilization of the country is to be safe. Progress
in the solution of these problems has been great, and the Churches are
addressing themselves to the task with growing conviction and power.
The loudest call to missionary devotion in the United States is
presented by the unprecedented tides of immigration from all corners
of the globe. While Canada is feeling this pressure in an unusual
degree, the magnitude of the problem in the United States is much
greater, not only because of the great numbers but also because of the
character of the immigration. The sheer size of the task may be made
concrete by comparing the numbers of people who have come to the
United States in the last few years with some of the other great
migrations of history.
The leading of the children of Israel out of Egypt was one of the
outstanding movements of a great population in ancient history.
According to the census figures in Numbers i. 46, there were 603,550 men
of twenty years of age and upwards. Some were heads of families but many
of these were single men, so that, if we multiply the number given in
the Bible by five, it will probably give the approximate number of the
entire population, or 3,017,750. In the last ten years nearly three
times as many people have come to America as the number Moses led out of
Egypt. Furthermore, immigrants to America are not all of one race as in
the case of Israel, but represent a Babel of races and languages.
[Illustration: RELIGIOUS CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES
SHOWING PROPORTION OF THE POPULATION REPORTED AS PROTESTANT, ROMAN
CATHOLIC, AND "ALL OTHER" CHURCH MEMBERS, AND PROPORTION NOT REPORTED
AS CHURCH MEMBERS FOR EACH STATE AND TERRITORY. PUBLISHED BY THE
UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU]
The hordes of barbarians which overwhelmed Rome have left a mark on
Europe that can never be forgotten. The size and vigor of the
movement made a profound impression which history cannot outgrow, and
yet Genseric, one of the greatest of their leaders, never had more
than 80,000 warriors in his palmiest days.
There have been great successive waves of immigration into China and
India from the plains and the mountains of the north and east, but so
far as we have knowledge of the numbers they dwindle into comparative
insignificance when measured by this greatest of all invasions.
The numbers involved in the Norman Conquest of England would hardly
make a ripple on the sea of races and populations crowding to American
shores.
The Crusades stand out as epoch-making and unparalleled up to that
time in the number of nations disturbed. They covered a period of more
than a century and a half and involved several millions of people, but
more men, women, and children from other lands have come to the United
States and Canada in the last six years than swept across the face of
Europe in a century and a half in the Crusades.
To assimilate and Christianize these multitudes is one of the supreme
tests of the reality of our faith and the vitality of our national life.
The glory of immigration is fourfold:
1. _God has written much history in terms of migratory peoples._ It is
the impatient, unsatisfied, vigorous peoples that have made the history
of the world. If the meaning of the past is correctly interpreted, then
the blending of these races together on a Christian basis into one
united people is America's superlative opportunity to make history.
2. _Immigration is compelling America to study the languages, the
history, the achievements, the religions, and the characteristics of
these multitudes of people._ Such study is imperative in order that
America may adequately bear to the incoming millions the deepest
message of her religion and her Western institutions. This fact in
itself furnishes an intellectual and moral task of transcendent
importance. On this continent the modern gift of tongues must be given
if America fails not her Christ.
3. _Immigration is leading millions to study the English tongue._ This
is of great importance if the multitudes of future Americans are to
understand and appropriate the principles of democracy and
Protestantism enshrined in English literature. The German and
Scandinavian and other tongues will contribute to America the best
they possess, while at the same time they are themselves greatly
enriched.
4. _The mingling races are challenging America to demonstrate the
truth of those principles of freedom and democracy of which such proud
boast has been made in days gone by._ The principles of democracy can
scarcely be thoroughly and finally tested among people who are of the
same race and have a common speech and who have a more or less common
purpose. Democracy can be adequately tested only amid the complexities
of race and clan, of diverse speech and history. These principles of
democracy have never been literally applied in any large way yet, but
one of God's greatest challenges to the manhood of the United States
and Canada to-day is that literal application of the principles of
democracy shall be made to the whole population gathered within their
vast domains. Here is a call for statesmanship and spiritual passion
worthy of the finest life America has produced.
[Illustration: SIZE OF PARISHES AT HOME AND ABROAD
Figures Give the Number of People to Each Protestant Minister]
II. MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
These lands lying to the south are America's nearest foreign
missionary field.
In each case in which the number of missionaries is mentioned in this
volume, unless otherwise stated, it may be understood to include all
missionaries, both men and women, except wives of missionaries. This
is thought to be fair, not because missionaries' wives are not as
devoted as their husbands or other workers, but because it is not to
be expected that a woman with household cares should be responsible
for the same amount of direct Christian work that is expected of other
workers on the field. In other words, the family or the single worker
is considered the unit.
The people in Mexico are nominally Roman Catholic, the census returns
showing thirteen and a half millions of that faith. Conditions are
difficult for Protestant missions. The population of Mexico is more
than fifteen millions. Among these millions there are 249
representatives of Protestant Christianity. In 1895 more than ten
millions in Mexico could neither read nor write, and while conditions
have improved somewhat since then, it is safe to say that seven out of
every ten of the population are illiterate. In Central America,
including Panama, there are 96 missionaries.
These simple facts will illustrate the truth that there are still
parts of the North American continent inadequately cultivated by the
Protestant churches.
III. SOUTH AMERICA
The South American lands are nominally Roman Catholic. They know
considerable of the phraseology of Christianity, but its vital truth
has not been largely realized. Here are seven million square miles of
opportunity which call loudly for the Christian application of the
Monroe doctrine. While the majority of the people are of European
blood (if we do not count the unknown numbers of millions of
Indians), every principle of justice indicates North America's
obligation to hasten the redemption of South America. These lands
followed the example of the United States in adopting the republic as
their ideal of government. They have not hitherto enjoyed our
religious freedom along with our republican form of government. Free
government cannot be fully and permanently enjoyed by any people
without actual religious liberty. Freedom of conscience produces the
intelligence and virtue essential to a democracy. The South American
lands have lacked such freedom. This in itself constitutes a real
challenge to the faith of North American Christians.
A brief glimpse of two or three of the lands will indicate the
character of the problem a little more clearly.
Brazil, the greatest of the South American lands, about 2,700 miles in
extent from east to west and fully the same from north to south, with
an area nearly as great as the entire continent of Europe, has,
according to the _Statesman's Year Book_, a population of more than
twenty-three millions or nearly one half of the population of the
continent. Its great forests and mineral wealth are but little used.
According to the _World Atlas of Christian Missions_, there is but one
Protestant mission station near the mouth of the Amazon River and not
a single missionary in all the vast territory through which that river
and most of its tributaries flow. Algot Lange, who has spent many
months exploring the Amazon Basin, says there are 373 tribes speaking
a variety of languages in the Amazon territory. These are practically
all unreached by the gospel. The mission stations are scattered along
the coast with very few in the interior. The majority of the
missionaries are within three or four hundred miles of Rio Janeiro.
Eighty-five per cent. of the population is reported illiterate.
Bolivia, which is fourteen times as large as the State of New York,
has only sixteen workers, counting wives, so that each worker in
Bolivia has a parish larger than the entire State of Pennsylvania. The
same proportion would give five workers to the Province of Quebec.
Since these words were written however a party of three new
missionaries sailed from New York to enter this field.
The Argentine Republic is the most advanced and prosperous country of
South America. It has, according to figures given by Mr. Robert E.
Speer at the Rochester Student Volunteer Convention, a per capita
export three and a half times as great as the United States, one
hundred and twenty times as great as the Chinese Empire and the total
exports were nearly equal to those of the entire continent of Africa.
The Argentine Republic has but one worker to every 8,737 square miles.
The illiteracy of this, the most enlightened land of South America, is
50 per cent. of the population. Thus it is seen that the brightest
spot in South America has appalling need of Protestant Christianity.
Looking at the problem in the large, there is in South America a
population of approximately 49,000,000. In the whole continent there
are only 881 Protestant missionaries. If we omit the wives of
missionaries from the calculations this gives to each worker a
population of 83,050 and a field of 12,450 square miles, or more than
nine times the size of Rhode Island.
New York State has 42,558 primary and high school teachers. If we
omit the teachers in the two lands farthest north in South America;
namely, Venezuela and Colombia, New York has as many teachers as all
of the South American continent.
The illiteracy of the United States, even including all those who
cannot read or write among immigrants and Negroes, is only 10.7 per
cent., while the lowest per cent. of illiteracy in any country in
South America is 50 and the highest nearly 90.
It would perhaps be a fair estimate to say that at least three out of
four people in the South American lands live where they will probably
not hear the message of Christ from Protestant missionaries in any
adequate way in this generation unless the Church greatly multiplies
its missionary agencies in South America.
IV. AFRICA
There are three Africas, each with its difficult problems.
_Christian Africa_ is at the southern end of the continent where live
nearly five and one-half million people. This is more nearly
evangelized than any other portion of the continent. Some notable
Christian leaders have been developed in South Africa, of whom the
Rev. Andrew Murray is one of the most widely known. In Abyssinia is
the old Coptic Church which is without much real Christian life.
_Pagan Africa_ comprises the greatest solid mass of paganism on the
earth.
_Mohammedan Africa_ numbers at least forty millions of population
spread over the vast regions from the Equator to the Mediterranean
Sea. With the exception of Abyssinia, Liberia and Sierra Leone,
practically the whole of North Africa is under the sway of the false
prophet and even in the lands mentioned the pressure of Mohammedan
invasion is rapidly growing more severe.
The intellectual task on this educational frontier of the world is
indicated by the fact that there are 843 languages and dialects on the
continent. The Edinburgh Conference estimated that in Pagan and
Mohammedan Africa combined there are a hundred millions of people
without a written language or even an alphabet of their own.
On the whole continent of Africa there are 3,244 missionaries, each
with a parish of 3,614 square miles and 46,239 people. There is only a
handful of missionaries to guard 3,000 miles of Mediterranean coast
from Egypt to Gibraltar. From Khartum to Uganda, along the rich Nile
valley, a distance of 1,000 miles, there are about a dozen missionaries.
As far as the proportion of missionaries to population is concerned,
Africa is much better supplied than Asia, yet in Africa there are five
great blocks of territory which are unoccupied and other areas with
missionaries only around the fringes or reaching only a small fraction
of the people. These areas are irregular in shape and the lines
bounding them have been drawn so as to exclude all mission stations.
Some of the people in them no doubt are hearing the gospel, but there
are no resident missionaries in any of them, according to the maps of
the _World Atlas of Christian Missions_.
The smallest of these five unoccupied areas is in Portuguese and German
East Africa. It is four times the size of the State of New York.
A second near the west coast, south of the equator, has three times
the extent of New England.
The third near the west coast, south of the equator, would make eight
States as large as Iowa. In Iowa there are at least 4,000 ordained
ministers, to say nothing of other Christian workers, but in this
block of territory, eight times as large as Iowa, there is not a
single ordained missionary.
Another region, some distance north of the one just mentioned, without
missionaries, is 1,500 miles long and 500 miles wide.
Last of all, if we omit the mission stations on the Nile and a few
scattered workers around the fringes, there is in the upper half of
the continent a block of territory nearly as large as the United
States but with a scattered population estimated at fifteen millions,
without resident missionaries. Starting from the Nile River, 1,000
miles from its mouth, a traveler could go directly westward through
the heart of the continent nearly three thousand miles before reaching
the next mission station on the west coast. If he started at the mouth
of the Sobat River, about 2,000 miles from Cairo, the nearest mission
station to the west is 1,500 miles away, in Northern Nigeria. In all
those weary miles there is not a single church spire pointing toward
the stars or a home where a missionary family lives.
Taking the continent as a whole, there are at least fifty millions of
people who are not only entirely outside the reach but even of the
plans of any missionary society now at work on the continent.
V. ASIA
In Asia live more than one half of the human race. Accepting the
figures of the _Statesman's Year Book_, the population of the world is
1,698,552,204. The population of Asia is given as 958,781,233. Of
every hundred people in the earth fifty-six live in Asia. Of these
fifty-six, forty-three out of every hundred live in China and India.
Asia as a whole has 9,013 workers, according to the _World Atlas of
Christian Missions_, each having an average parish of 1,781 square
miles, containing an average of 106,377 people. Let us survey the
continent, "beginning from Jerusalem."
=1. The Near East.=--The Asiatic Levant, or Near East includes
_Turkey_, _Persia_, and _Arabia_. This territory has an area of
2,381,310 square miles and a population of a little more than
thirty-four millions. This region where Christ was born and wrought
his mighty works is to-day in desperate need of his message and life.
(1) Turkey has an area of 693,610 square miles, and is therefore more
than eighty-six times the size of Massachusetts. This great area has
only 2,836 miles of railroad, while Pennsylvania with one fifteenth
its area has 15,415 miles. Turkey includes Asia Minor, Armenia,
Kurdistan, Mesopotamia, Syria, and a portion of Arabia. Turkey has a
population of 17,683,550, fourteen millions of whom are Mohammedans
and the rest divided among Christian churches; a majority of these are
in Asia Minor and Armenia. There are only 354 missionaries, including
wives, in all Turkey. The Mohammedan population is practically
untouched, since a majority of the missionaries for political and
other reasons have devoted comparatively little of their time to them.
(2) Persia is nearly as large as Turkey but has not more than one half
of the population. The country extends about 700 miles north and south
and 900 miles east and west. Millions of the people are difficult of
access because Persia has only six miles of railroad, and political
conditions have been unfavorable to missionary effort. This railroad
was opened in 1888, and since that time no other railroads have been
built. Not only are there no railroads but only a few good carriage
roads. Twelve of these cities have a population ranging from thirty
thousand in Kashan to two hundred and eighty thousand in Teheran, the
capital. Four of the large cities have not been occupied by
missionaries. There are eighty-four missionaries for the more than
nine and a half millions of population.
(3) Arabia includes a territory 1,500 miles long by 1,200 miles wide.
Much of this country is only partially explored. The eight millions of
population are almost all Mohammedans. Of the six provinces only three
are occupied by missionaries, and in the coast-line of 4,000 miles
there are workers in only four centers--Aden, Muscat, Bahrein, and
Busrah, and not one in the interior. Along the 1,500 miles of Red Sea
coast from Suez to Aden, passing the Sinai Peninsula and the forbidden
city of Mecca on the way, there is not one missionary. From Aden to
Muscat is a journey of nearly 1,500 miles, from there to Bahrein is
550, and Busrah is 400 miles further on.
The judgment of the Edinburgh Conference was that at least six of the
eight millions are beyond the reach of the present missionary force.
Unless there is adequate response in Christendom six millions of our
fellow beings in this one land must lie down and die without a
knowledge of Christ.
=2. Central Asia.=--Between the Near East and the Far East is Central
Asia. The lands located here are comparatively little known, and in
part unexplored. They have an area of 2,700,000 square miles, nearly
as great as the United States. Out of this area we could carve
fifty-two Englands, or nearly eight provinces the size of British
Columbia, or twenty-four countries as large as Italy. The population
is quite dense in the oases and along the rivers, but in other parts
widely scattered, so that the numbers are not nearly so great as in
the countries with which its geographical area has been compared.
There are, however, 23,368,000 people. We have here a bewildering
array of races and languages.
The most important of these lands are Afghanistan, Chinese Turkestan,
Tibet, and Russian Turkestan. The entire region is overwhelmed by the
intellectual stagnation and moral rottenness of Mohammendanism, except
Tibet, which is the stronghold of Lamaism, a corrupt form of Buddhism.
In all this region there are only three mission stations, and not a
physician or hospital anywhere. It is 2,000 miles from the Moravian
station at Leh to the first outpost of the China Inland Mission in
China. From the last station of the Church Missionary Society in North
India it is 1,000 miles northward to the next missionary outpost.
In this territory there are some cities of considerable size like
Bokhara, which has 10,000 students and 364 mosques, but no Christian
church, and Tashkend with a population of more than 155,000. There are a
dozen or more cities with populations reaching from 25,000 to 200,000.
Afghanistan is unoccupied by Christian missions. Fanaticism and hatred
of Christ hold sway everywhere. According to Dr. S. M. Zwemer, 94 per
cent. of the people are illiterate. Mohammed has swept the field. Only
fearless workers can win this land.
Tibet is still the Gibraltar of the non-Christian world, and although
a line of missionary outposts is drawn around it, in one place there
is a gap of 1,500 miles between stations.
=3. India.=--India is the burning heart of Asia. It has a genius for
religion unsurpassed in the world.
India has been called the Mother of Religions. Of the four great
faiths which were born in Asia, two came from India.
India is a menagerie of races and languages. According to the
Edinburgh Conference Report there are 147 languages in India. Some of
these are spoken by only a few people, but there are ten languages,
each of which is spoken by ten millions or more.
The census of 1911 gives the population of the country as 315,132,537.
Of every hundred people in the world eighteen live in this one land.
Among them there are two hundred and seventeen millions of Hindus,
more than sixty-six and a half millions of Mohammedans and 3,876,196
Christians. There are ten millions of Buddhists in Burma. George
Sherwood Eddy says there are four and one-half millions of mendicants
or holy men. These figures are all the more startling when it is
recalled that the holy men outnumber the Christians by several
hundred thousand.
The caste system makes India one of the most difficult mission fields
in the world. There are 2,378 principal castes and tribes, but all
these are subdivided so that there are 100,000 caste divisions in
India and no two of these can intermarry. The Brahmins have 886
sub-castes. Of the 144,000,000 women, in 1901, according to the
_Statesman's Year Book_, there were 26,000,000 widows, or one in six.
On account of the fact that they are not allowed to remarry and other
hard social conditions their lot is pitiable indeed. Of these widows
it is reported there are 115,285 under ten years of age, 19,487 under
five, and 1,064 under one year of age.
India has only 3,555 newspapers and periodicals of all kinds, while
the United States with less than one third the population has more
than six times as many. Only about five out of each hundred people can
read or write. Of 39,000,000 children of school age, 28,000,000 are
growing up without schooling.
India has 5,200 missionaries, counting wives, or one to every 60,293
of the population. If wives are not counted, each worker has a parish
of 93,901. The preamble of the constitution adopted by the National
Missionary Society of India two years ago, states that only one third
of India has been reached by missionaries and that one third only
partially. There are whole districts, densely populated, where there
is no missionary, and in some not even a native Christian.
In the Bombay Presidency it is reported that there are thirty
districts, each with a population of over 50,000, in not one of which
is there a missionary or a native worker. In Sind there are 3,000,000
people and only three mission stations in the province. "In northern
Bengal," says George Sherwood Eddy, "there is only one missionary to
every two million of the population."
The problem of determining the exact situation for the whole of India
was so complex that the Edinburgh Conference was not able to give a
definite statement regarding even the approximate number of people who
are not reached, but considering all the facts it seems a fair estimate
to say that there are living to-day in India at least 150,000,000 people
largely untouched, none of whom can hope to know of Christ unless the
force of missionaries and native workers is greatly increased.
=4. Bhutan and Nepal.=--These two wholly unoccupied states north of
India are usually overlooked, yet Bhutan has a population of 250,000,
and Nepal, which is not quite as large as Michigan, has five millions
of people, or twice as many as there are in that State.
=5. French Indo-China.=--This portion of Asia is six times as large as
New York, with a population of about sixteen and a half millions.
Roman Catholics are allowed in all parts of French Indo-China. In all
this region there are but two Protestant mission stations, one in
Annam and one in Laos. Except in the two missions mentioned, there is
not a hospital or even a physician or trained nurse in the whole
territory. The attitude of the government has been unfriendly to
missionary effort. Vast populations are absolutely ignorant of Christ
and his gospel. No Protestant mission work is carried on in Cambodia,
Cochin-China, or Tongking.
=6. Japan.=--Everyone who has studied the geography of Asia has been
impressed with the strategic geographical position of Japan. This
line of islands circling the seacoast of Asia from Siberia to southern
China is truly the gateway of the Orient. The Japanese Christians and
some of the missionaries have strongly advocated independence and also
the union of the Christian forces.
Many think that Japan is largely evangelized, but one fact will make
it clear that this is an erroneous idea. Half of the population of
Japan are farmers and have scarcely been touched at all. It will be
readily seen why this is so when it is stated that 60 per cent. of the
missionaries are in eight cities, Tokyo alone being the headquarters
of 279 of the total of 1,029 missionaries in the Empire. These figures
include wives.
=7. Korea.=--This land, only slightly larger than Kansas, was closed to
foreign influence until twenty-five years ago. It has a population of
approximately twelve millions. There are 307 missionaries, including
wives, two fifths of them in the south, in one fourth of the area of the
country. Korea is a conspicuous example of an entire nation divided up
among the missions at work in it. That division is now complete, and the
eight denominations having representatives in the country each have a
clearly defined territory. Responsibility for every foot of soil is
definitely assigned, although millions of the Koreans have not yet had
the gospel preached to them in an adequate way.
=8. China.=--This is the world's newest and largest republic. Bishop
Bashford's statement is no doubt true that the greatest compliment
ever paid to the United States in its history was when the leaders of
China's new era accepted its form of government as their model.
According to the _Statesman's Year Book_, the population of the
Chinese Empire is 433,533,030, with an area of 4,277,170. If we omit
India alone there are more non-Christians here than in all the rest of
the world. According to the _World Atlas of Christian Missions_ there
are at present in China 4,197 missionaries of all classes. This gives
a total of 103,300 people and a parish of 1,018 square miles to each
missionary. All the provinces and, except Tibet, all the dependencies
have some mission stations, yet there are great populations which are
yet unreached.
Let us look at two or three sections of the problem.
Sin Kiang has thirty-eight walled cities, but there are missionaries
in only two of these cities.
Mongolia, twenty-four times the size of the State of Iowa or six times
as large as the Province of Ontario, has but ten missionaries. One's
heart is deeply moved as thought goes back to the time when Gilmour
began his heroic labors in Mongolia. When he came within sight of the
first native hut he fell upon his knees and thanked God for a redeemed
Mongolia. In our time there is need of a thousand Gilmours with the
same daring of faith and uttermost devotion of life to carry the
gospel message to these vigorous and wonderful people just now
emerging into the light of modern life.
Manchuria has a population estimated at 20,000,000, but only the
southern and western portions are occupied at all. One of the
missionaries in reporting to the Edinburgh Conference says that two
thirds of the population in his field have not even been approached.
Dr. Fulton reported to the Edinburgh Conference that within 140 miles
of the scene of the labors of the first missionary to China, Robert
Morrison, there are three counties containing some ten thousand
villages, averaging two hundred and fifty inhabitants each and so near
one another that in some cases from a central point six hundred
villages may be counted within a radius of five miles. He says that in
hundreds of these no missionary or Christian preacher has ever set foot.
Some time ago a striking map appeared in _China's Millions_, and is
reproduced in _The Unoccupied Fields_, contrasting England and Wales
with the province of Honan. While conditions have changed somewhat
since the map was made, it is still sufficiently accurate for
illustration. On this map are shown 1,846 villages and cities. There
are 106 walled official cities, only twenty-six of which have resident
missionaries. Three other large towns are occupied as mission
stations, only twenty-nine places occupied out of the 1,846.
ENGLAND AND WALES HONAN
Area 58,309 sq. miles 67,940 sq. miles.
Population 32,526,075 (1901) 35,316,800 (1901)
Ordained Ministry 32,897 112 missionaries
(including wives
and single ladies)
Local Preachers 52,341 159 Chinese helpers
(including women)
Average area of parish 1-3/4 sq. miles 1,788 sq. miles.
Average population of parish 1,000 929,389
The dimensions of the task remaining in China are sufficiently
summarized by stating that there are 2,033 walled cities in the Empire
and that only 476 of them have missionaries, leaving 1,557 of the
principal cities unoccupied.
SUMMARY OF CONDITIONS IN THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD
1. _Fields Unoccupied but Open_
(1) Large portions of Mongolia, Manchuria, and Central Asia
(2) Many parts of Africa
2. _Fields Unoccupied by either Protestant or Catholic Missions
because Closed to All Christian Work_
(1) Tibet
(2) Nepal
(3) Bhutan
(4) Afghanistan
3. _Fields Unoccupied by Protestant Missions because of Government
Opposition_
(1) French Indo-China
(2) French Possessions in Africa
These three lists represent the work _yet to be begun_.
4. _The Religion Least Reached is Mohammedanism_
Conservative estimates state that not less than 150,000,000 Mohammedans
are not being reached in any adequate way by the Christian gospel.
5. _The World as a Whole._ (1) The Edinburgh Conference Report says
that there are 119,000,000 people in Asia and Africa who are not even
included in the plans of any missionary society on earth. (2) There
are many more millions--and no one knows accurately how many--who are
included in plans which have not yet been carried out. (3) In view of
the facts presented it is probably a safe estimate to say that with
the present forces in the field 500,000,000 people will pass out of
this generation without having a fair chance to know Christ and his
message of redemption, unless the Church pours out a princely offering
of lives and money and prayer to give them that opportunity.
[Illustration: RELIGIOUS CENSUS OF THE WORLD
World Population, 1912 1,700,000,000]
When it is remembered that there are such multitudes of people who have
never had a chance to adopt a living creed adequate to the facts of
life; that there are still whole nations which are the habitations of
nameless cruelty; millions for whom as yet Christ died in vain; vast
regions where there are a starless sky, a bottomless need, a life full
of fear and a future without hope--this certainly presents a task which
may well test to the utmost the vitality and devotion of Christendom.
One look at the immensity of the problem drives us back upon the
measureless resources of God. Over against the greatness of the task we
place the greatness of our God. He alone is sufficient for these things.
The great question to be answered now is whether or not there have
been developed in Christian lands a faith and power sufficient for
this most momentous hour for the human race. The supreme question of
missions is the development in Christendom of a vitality equal to
carrying the faith of Christ to the last man in the world.
Is my Christianity equal to this task? Will the Christianity of my
Church go to the limit of devotion to the plans of Christ? Is American
Christianity strong enough so God can anchor a planet to America
without wrecking America? In this great hour you must answer and so
must I and so must the Church. Accepting the great opportunity with an
unmoved confidence in final victory, let every man joyously put his
hands between the King's hands to follow him forever.
Some questions in parliamentary law are undebatable. Having been faced
squarely and the decision made, the vote is cast in silence. When a
Christian man has once understood what the call of Christ is, and what
moral and spiritual demands that call makes upon men, the only possible
attitude which a real man can take is _obedience without debate_.
BOOKS FOR ADVANCED READING
Carrying the Gospel to All the World. Vol. 1. Edinburgh
Conference Report.
Zwemer, S. M. The Unoccupied Mission Fields of Africa and Asia.
Student Volunteer Movement, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York. $1.00.
Barton, James L. The Unfinished Task. Student Volunteer Movement,
600 Lexington Avenue, New York.
Dennis, James S. Social Evils of the Non-Christian World. Student
Volunteer Movement, 600 Lexington Avenue. $0.35.
Moscrop, Thomas. The Kingdom Without Frontiers. Eaton & Mains,
150 Fifth Avenue, New York. $1.00.
Eddy, Sherwood. The New Era in Asia. Missionary Education
Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.50.
Pott, F. L. Hawks. The Emergency in China. Missionary Education
Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.50.
Winton, George B. Mexico To-Day. Missionary Education Movement,
156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.50.