THE MISSIONARY.
The present missionary force in India represents, according to the “Indian
Missionary Directory,” a body of nearly 2,500 men and women who have been
sent from Europe, America and Australia to instruct the people in the
blessings of our faith. This body is constantly increasing in numbers and
is sent forth and maintained by some seventy societies.(11) They are a
noble band of Christian workers, of no less consecration and faith than
those in the past, and of the highest training and broadest culture ever
known.
The missionary furnishes to the home churches the chief interest in
missionary work and is the link which connects them and the home society
with their enterprise abroad.
His work at present is not what it once was in India. In earlier days the
missionary had to be a man of all works; every form of missionary
endeavour came under his direction. In mission work, as in every other
line of effort, specialization has become a feature and a necessity. There
must be men of as varied talents and special lines of training as there
are departments of missionary work. But every missionary should be
preëminently, _a man_. He should be a man of large calibre. There is much
danger lest the church become indifferent to this matter, and send to the
mission field inferior men—men who would be unable to stem the tide of
competition and attain success at home. If a man is not qualified for
success in the home land, there is little chance of his attaining much
usefulness upon the mission field. And an inferior class of men sent out
to heathen lands to represent, and to conduct the work of, the home church
must necessarily react upon the church through want of success,
discouragement and defeat in the missionary enterprise. A church whose
missionary representatives abroad are wanting in fitness and power cannot
long continue to be a strenuous missionary church; it will lack fuel to
keep burning the fire of missionary enthusiasm.
And in speaking of the missionary I include the lady missionary.
Missionary ladies today are more numerous in India than are the men. More
than a thousand single ladies have given themselves to the missionary life
and are labouring with conspicuous success in that land. They meet almost
the same conditions of life and require the same qualifications for
success as their brother missionaries do. Of course, in certain details,
they differ; but into such matters I cannot enter at present.
I desire to enumerate the qualifications of a missionary for highest
usefulness in India at the present time.
1. Physical Fitness.
Is a man physically qualified to be sent out into missionary work? For an
enterprise like this, where a man practically enlists for life, it is of
much concern to the Society which appoints him, and of great importance to
the work which he is to take up that he be possessed of good health. This
is preëminently true in the case of all those who are appointed to India.
The climate of India is trying, though it is neither dangerous nor as
fruitful in difficulty, as many believe. It is not necessary that a man
who is sent out to India be possessed of robust health. Indeed, I have
often noticed that the most robust are the most likely to yield, through
ill-health, to climatic influences there. This is chiefly owing to the
fact that such people are usually careless in all things pertaining to
health. They place too much reliance upon their stock of vigour, and
ignore, until too late, the insidious influences of the tropical sun. We
ask not for a man of great bodily vigour; but he should be possessed of
organic soundness. Such a man may stand the climate longer and work with
fewer interruptions than his more vigorous brother; simply because he
knows that his health is delicate and appreciates the necessity of taking
suitable care of himself. On the whole, my experience has led me to two
convictions about this matter; the first is that the less robust and more
careful missionaries stand well that tropical climate; and in the second
place, that to those who do take adequate care of themselves, the climate
of India is neither dangerous nor insanitary.
There are, however, certain precautions which missionaries should take in
that land in order to insure the proper degree of efficient service.
Annual periods of rest at hill “sanitaria” are not only desirable, but are
necessary, in order to preserve the health and add to one’s usefulness.
Many of the best missions in India, at present, not only arrange that
their missionaries take this rest, but demand it of them. They have
learned by experience that it is a reckless waste of precious power for
their missionaries to continue working upon the hot plains until compelled
by a break-down to seek rest and restoration. It is much easier, in the
tropics, to preserve, than to restore, health. Many a noble service has
been cut short, and many a useful career has been spoiled by recklessly
continuing work for a few years without rest or change in that land. The
youngest and the least organized missions, and consequently those which
have not perfected arrangements for the rest and health of their members,
are those which have the largest number of break-downs, and which lose
most in labour and money on account of the ill health of their
missionaries.
Visits to the home land every eight or ten years are also desirable, not
only for restoration of physical vigour, but also, for a recementing of
domestic and social ties and for a renewed contact with and a new
inspiration from the Church of God in the West. Life in all its aspects
has a tendency to degenerate in the tropics; and one needs occasional
returns to northern climes for the blessings which they alone can give.
Shall the missionary indulge in recreations? Among missionaries themselves
this is a much debated question. Some maintain that all forms of
recreation are unworthy of a man engaged in this holy calling. I do not
agree with them. I have seen many missionaries helped in their work by
such recreation. There are some men and women who have no taste for such
diversions. To them they may have little value or usefulness. But, to the
ordinary missionary who has done a hard day’s work an hour’s diversion in
tennis, badminton or golf has often been a godsend. It has brought relief
to the tense nerves and a new lease of life to the organs of the body. In
a similar way an interest in carpentry, in geology, photography, or any
other set study, brings to the jaded mind a diversion and a new lease of
power, and prepares one to go back to his work with fresh pleasure and
renewed enthusiasm.
One should carefully avoid entering inordinately into any such recreation.
There is danger, and sometimes a serious danger, that such lines of
diversion may be carried to an excess, and the mind and heart be thereby
robbed of, rather than strengthened for, one’s life-work.
2. His Methods of Life.
There are questions of importance which come under this consideration and
which are much discussed at the present time. It is asked, for instance,
whether a man should go out as a married, or as a single, missionary. A
few years ago the American Board showed very decided preference for the
married missionary, and hesitated to send, except under special
circumstances, bachelors. Missionary societies connected with ritualistic
churches, on the other hand, have given preference, almost exclusive
preference, to the unmarried missionary. At the present time there is a
growing feeling, in all Protestant denominations, that there is a demand,
and a specially appropriate field of usefulness, both for the married and
the unmarried missionary. The supreme argument in favour of the married
man is connected with the home influence which he establishes and which,
in itself, is a great blessing to the heathen people among whom he lives.
The light and beauty of a Western Christian home is always a mighty
testimony, not only to the Gospel, but to the civilization of the West
which is a direct product of the Gospel. Through the wife is also
conserved the health of the husband who is thereby rendered more
efficient. And to his activity is added her equally beneficent one among
the women of their charge. The missionary home constitutes a testimony and
a power which no mission can be without.
On the other hand, there is a large and an attractive field of usefulness
which can best be worked by the unmarried man and woman. There are forms
of activity and lines of self-denial which can best be met by those who
are not tied down by home life and who are more free to meet the rapidly
changing necessities of certain departments of work. It is also true that
the unmarried life represents to the Orient that type of self-denial which
has always been associated, in their mind, with the highest degree of
religious attainment; and it may, for this very reason, be in the line of
highest influence upon the people of the land.
So, married and unmarried life have in the mission field today their
recognized place, advantage, and sphere of influence. And, working
together they will exemplify to the people those forms of religious life
and activity which bring highest glory to our cause.
Another question pertains to the missionary’s daily life. Shall he conform
to the ordinary habits of life practiced by the people among whom he
lives? In other words, shall the missionary from the West conform to
native customs in food and dress? It is not possible to give a categorical
reply to this question. A country should be studied and the ideals of the
people thoroughly investigated by the missionary before he decides upon
any course of action in this matter. There are countries where such
conformity would be desirable and would add considerably to the
missionary’s influence and success. China is such a country; and many of
the missionaries in that land find it to their interest, and to the
interest of the work, to adopt the Chinese costume, cue and all. They thus
cease to appear foreign and peculiar in a land where to be a foreigner is
to be hated, or at least to be unloved and distrusted by the people.
The same thing has been tried in India, not only in clothing, but also to
a large extent in food. Many a missionary, feeling how great a barrier his
foreign habits created between him and the people, and inspired by a
passionate desire to come near to them in order that he might bless them,
has divested himself of European clothing, adopted the native costume (at
least so far as it was possible for him to do so) and has confined himself
to native food. But I have never known of any Western missionary who has
continued this method for a long time and declared it a success. One of
the most pathetic instances on record is that of the famous Jesuit
missionary Abbe Du Bois, who, after a careful study of the situation,
donned the yellow garb of the Hindu monk and became practically a Hindu to
the Hindus, spending most of his time in travelling from town to town and
living strictly, both as regards food, clothing, and general habits, as an
ordinary Hindu in order that he might gain close access to the people and
thus win many converts to the Roman Catholic Church. For many years, in a
distinguished missionary career, he followed this method of life. But was
it a success? In his “Life and Letters,” written at the close of his
missionary life, he frankly confesses that that method of approach to the
people had proved an entire failure; that he had not thereby gained any
added influence over them or had become better able to lead them into the
Christian fold. He maintains that, so far as this style of living was
concerned, he had accomplished absolutely nothing for India. I have known
of ardent and able Protestant missionaries also who have tried the same
method, with the same result, and have returned to their Western costume
and food.
The Salvation Army, at the beginning of its work a few years ago in India,
compelled all its officers fully to adopt Indian methods of life. This was
enforced, in its rigour, only for a short time; but for a sufficiently
long period to reveal its disastrous effects upon the health and life of
its European officers. Their system has been considerably modified, but is
still unsatisfactory on the score of health and usefulness.
It is now recognized by all that the differences between the natives of
tropical India and the inhabitants of northern climes, and between the
tropical clime and that of the temperate zone, are so great that we of the
Northwest cannot, with wisdom and impunity, adopt the manners of life of
that people. There are differences so great, both in clothing and in food,
that it would require generations of acclimatization before the change
could be wisely adopted in its entirety. It is indeed desirable that the
European or American, who goes to live in the tropics, should change
somewhat his diet so as to meet the changed requirements of his system
there. But, to adopt the native diet is a very different thing, and will
be conducive neither to nourishment nor digestion.
There is, however, another question of more importance than this and one
which seriously confronted the Abbe Du Bois. What is gained in
accessibility to, and power over, the people by adopting these native
habits? It should be remembered that Westerners have lived in India so
long as to have become perfectly well known to all the people. Moreover,
the Western garb and habits of life represent to the Hindu honour,
influence, power, and culture. In his heart of hearts the Hindu highly
respects, and is always ready to listen to, that man of the West who is
true to himself and stands before him for what he is and for what he
teaches. The ordinary Hindu is not stupid enough to be deceived as to a
man’s nationality or true position in life because of his change of
clothing or food. Indeed, to nine-tenths of all Hindus, such a change of
habits, on the part of a European, would mean nothing else than that he
had lost caste among his own people and had descended to a much lower
social scale than formerly. It is well to remember in India that the way
of access to the people is opened to the Westerner not through such outer
changes of life, but through true manifestations of kindness and love to
them. They are quick to understand the language of love and would never
confound it with outer posings of men who are thereby seeking to win their
favour.
The Rev. Geo. Bowen, of Bombay, was perhaps one of the most self-denying
of all the missionaries who lived in that land. He reduced the annual
expenses of his living to $150.00. It was in this path of self-denial that
he sought to find greatest usefulness as a missionary. Of this life he
said at one time: “I have not been wholly disappointed, but I have not
been successful enough to make me feel like advising any one else to
follow my example. And yet I have not so completely failed as to make me
regret the course which I have pursued. I have discovered that the gulf
which separates the people of this country is not a social one at all; it
is simply the great impassable gulf which separates between the religion
of Christ and an unbelieving world.”
It may be laid down as a general principle of life in that land that the
missionary should adopt that method of life which, while consistent with
severe economy, shall best conduce to health and efficiency of service
among the people.
And in this connection it should also be stated that there are many things
which are perfectly natural and wise and desirable in the line of self
help in America which should be unnecessary and unwise in such a land as
India. It is a safe rule adopted by the best missionary workers in that
land that a European should never do those things which can easily be done
by natives in the matter of domestic service. It would be folly for a
missionary man or woman to spend much time in household work and in
similar duties when there are many people around whose special province
that is, and who can do it for one-thirtieth his own wage, and who can
thus release him for the more serious and higher duties of life.
Thus, in all these matters, one should consider fully the whole
situation—the character of the climate, of the people, and the conditions
of the best health and efficiency and greatest usefulness of the
missionary worker.
The question as to the length of the missionary’s service is an important
one. Shall he enter upon it for a definite term or shall he consider it
his life work? In most missions and societies the missionary service is
considered a life service. It is a service so peculiar in its training and
in its direction; it tends in many ways so to lead a man away from the
atmosphere of work and direction of activity found at home, that it is
better for him, who undertakes it at all, to consecrate himself to it as
the great mission of his life. It is also a fact that the longer he
continues in it, the more ability and aptness he acquires for that special
work.
There are, of course, some who will find that they have mistaken their
vocation and that missionary work does not suit them; or, rather, that
they are not adapted to it. Such people should make no delay in returning
home and in seeking a more congenial life work.
3. The Intellectual Ability and Educational Training of the Missionary.
Whatever may have been the case in the past, the day certainly has come
when India demands only men and women of wide intelligence and thorough
training as missionaries. Whether we regard it as a land of profound
philosophy, and of a marvellously organized religion; or whether we
consider the intellectual power of many of the natives of that land, the
missionary must be amply prepared, through educational and intellectual
equipment, to meet them. One of the saddest sights seen in India is a
missionary who has absolutely no interest in the religious philosophy of
the land, and who is not able to appreciate the mutual relations of that
faith and his own and who is unequal to the task of discussing
intelligently with, and of convincing in, matters of faith, the educated
natives of the country. Such a man apparently did not know that he would
meet in that land many university graduates who are still believers in,
and defenders of, their ancestral faith. So he finds himself unable to
stand before such men and to give reason for the faith that is in him so
as to satisfy their earnest, intelligent inquiries, or to quiet their keen
opposition.
It should also be remembered that, in addition to this growing host of
natives of university training and culture, there is a considerable number
of Europeans in government service and in other departments. They come
into constant touch with the missionary, and gauge his culture and
capacity, and are sure to judge of the missionary work according to their
estimate of his training and qualification.
In such a land, and facing such conditions, and in the presence of such
people, the missionary should be a man of thorough training and culture,
and should have a mind which has ample command of the treasures of
knowledge which it has acquired. He should also be able to find interest
in various branches of learning. As I said above, he should, in some
respects, be a man of special training with definite and high
qualifications for the special department upon which he has entered; but
he should also be not narrow, but of broad sympathies and of a growing
interest in the general realm of culture. He should continue to cultivate
his student tastes, and should grow constantly in ability and aptitude to
grapple with the mighty problems of the land. He should be able not only
to understand the many aspects of Hinduism and of Buddhism, which has
entered so largely into the Hindu faith, but he must also know
considerable about Mohammedanism, since it is held by one-fifth of the
population of that land.
It is well that he be thoroughly grounded in Christian doctrine before he
enters upon his missionary duties. I have known men to enter the mission
field who had not clear views and definite convictions concerning some of
the most essential Christian doctrines; with the consequence that they
drifted away from their moorings and had to recast their faith, under
adverse circumstances, on the field.
The mission field is no place for a man to readjust his faith and to
discover that his religious affiliations are not what they ought to be.
It is not a question whether a man’s theology is of the conservative, or
of the progressive, type. Both types may be needed. It is largely a
question whether he has grasped clearly and with conviction _any_
doctrine—whether he has thought for himself and appropriated _any_ system
of truth. Or, I should say, whether any sort of theology has gripped him
in its power. Bishop Thoburn has well said that “the young missionary
should have a clear and well-grounded theology before going abroad. His
views of vital theological truth should be clear and settled. The
Christian Church of America cannot afford to export doubts or even
religious speculation to foreign fields. The people of India, and I may
add of other lands, are abundantly able to provide all the doubts and all
the unprofitable speculation that any church will care to contend with;
and one important qualification of the missionary should be a positive
faith as opposed to doubt, and a clear system of living truth as opposed
to profitless speculation.” Above all, the missionary should have a
working faith in the gospel—not a half-grounded conviction. There may be a
place _at home_ for the unsettled mind; the mission field is not for such.
In India, especially, while there is ample room and abundant opportunity
and inducement for progress in thought and development in doctrinal
construction, there is no place for destructive doubts and mental
unsettlement. Positive teaching and not interrogations and destructive
doubts should characterize the missionary. Give us a man who _knows_
something and is inspired with convictions. For, it should be remembered,
the missionary is preëminently an instructor. He must give himself to the
work of establishing others in living, satisfying, saving truth. He is to
instruct the people, as a preacher, in the way of salvation. He is also
called upon to furnish a working equipment of truth to pastors, preachers
and teachers. He should be conversant with the Bible and with the various
theories of interpretation. He should be possessed of a clear system of
theology and should understand the best methods and principles of
Christian work.
For the attaining of all this, the missionary must continue as an earnest
student, he must maintain upon the field thorough habits of study. His
missionary life, itself, should be to him, not only an interpreter of what
he formerly studied, but an incitement to further regular study. Many
temptations overtake the missionary to intellectual indolence as well as
to intellectual dissipation. He is in danger, under the pressure of other
interesting work and distractions, either not to read anything very
seriously or to read in a haphazard, desultory way. The latter is
specially a dangerous habit on the mission field. The missionary needs not
only to cultivate habits of study and to devote certain hours daily, so
far as possible, to that habit; he should, preëminently, keep before him
some definite aim or ideal towards which all his reading should be
directed. If he be specially a preacher, he should conscientiously and
thoroughly prepare his sermons as if he were to preach to the most
cultured audiences; or, if he instruct his agents, he should make
previous, elaborate preparation for the same.
He should take an intelligent interest in, and make a thorough study of,
the people, their social and religious customs, their economic conditions,
their educational efforts, their history,—these and many other studies
will furnish abundant and abounding interest to the thoughtful missionary
and will add to his power in his work. In all these respects, no people on
earth are more interesting than those of India. And for successful
spiritual work among them the missionary needs to study these side issues
more than he would, perhaps, among any other people.
He will find it of much help if he is apt at acquiring language. A good
and usable knowledge of the vernacular of the people is a most important
avenue of access to their mind and heart. The acquiring of a living
language is a very different thing from the study of a dead language. A
man may be a success in the one and a failure in the other. A good ear is
of paramount importance in a first-class facility for acquiring and using
a modern vernacular.
I would not say that a man who has not a good command of the vernacular of
a people cannot be to them a good missionary; for a few of the best
missionaries I know, speak the vernacular wretchedly. But I _do_ emphasize
the fact that proficiency here is of prime importance and I would also add
that it should be the first work of a missionary after entering his field.
To dawdle with the language the first year, is, generally speaking, to
fail in acquiring it at all.
Should a young man, who intends to become a missionary, receive a special
preparatory training for missionary work? Yes, to a certain extent. I
heartily approve of all recent courses established in theological
institutions with a view to training their students in missionary
principles and literature. And I would that these courses were much
enlarged so as to correspond with the relative importance of the
missionary work. Beyond all this, I believe that every student, who
intends to become a missionary, should spend time during his last year or
two as a student in special preparation for his work and field. For
instance, it were a great help to him who is to become a missionary in
India that he study seriously the Sanskrit language and Hindu philosophy.
These two would give him an important start upon his missionary career
and, probably, furnish him with initial taste for that larger equipment
which is essential to the great missionary. It is of course understood
that the modern science of Comparative Religion has already had his
attention in the general course of study. Too much emphasis cannot be
placed upon the study of this science as an aid to the modern missionary.
I would also urge here the importance of each missionary, so far as his
tastes and ability permit, preparing himself for the work of enriching the
Christian literature of the field and country of his choice. In India this
is becoming a matter, not only of growing, but also of paramount,
importance. In the past, missionaries have been too much engrossed with
the other departments of work to give themselves to the production of
tracts and books. Much more must be done in this line in the future. Every
year adds to the need for, and the influence of, a worthy literary effort
expressed in the various vernaculars of India. The growing host of readers
in the Christian communities and among the non-Christians is a loud cry
for missionary consecration to this specific work.
There is not one possession or element of power connected with a thorough
education and high culture which will not become available and most useful
in that interesting land, and which will not be transmuted into power for
the elevation and redemption of that people.
4. Spiritual Qualifications.
It would hardly seem necessary to speak on this subject. It must be
everywhere understood that a life of spiritual power is, and must ever
remain, the first requisite of the missionary. And yet, I fear that the
missionary force of today reveals more serious delinquency at this point
than at any other. If missionaries were asked, wherein lies the chief
hindrance to their work, I believe they would, all but unanimously, refer
to their want of spiritual power. Not that they are more defective in this
respect than are the ministers at home. They are a noble band of
consecrated men and women. But they greatly need, and bemoan their need
of, a growing spiritual endowment, the possession of which would give to
them a new joy, and, to the people, an inexhaustible gift of life, and to
the missionary work a power hitherto unknown.
A man should not go out as a foreign missionary unless he has a definite
call from God to go. It must be laid so strongly upon his heart that he
feels the necessity of going forth unto the heathen. There must be a
constraining power and a felt conviction within, that in the mission field
alone can he find rest and peace and power.
The missionary should be a man of pronounced and positive spirituality—a
man who loves the Word of God, who finds meditation in it sweet, and who
finds relief, strength and joy in frequent daily prayer. The depressing
influences which beset his spiritual life are many. The all-pervasive,
chilling influence of heathenism, and its dead and deadening ceremonialism
tend to exercise an increasing power over him. He will not, at first,
realize this influence; but as an insidious and an ever swelling tide of
evil it will come into his soul, unless he is well guarded and daily
fortified against it by frequent communion with God. In India the
hardening influence of the all-surrounding heathenism is as subtle as it
is potent in its influence upon the life of any Christian worker and needs
to be overcome by constant spiritual culture.
The life of the European Christians who reside in that country is so far
from being Christlike and is so wanting in these spiritual traits which
should characterize an earnest Christian, that the missionary constantly
has to guard himself against its influence upon himself.
The loneliness of the missionary—his frequent and long-continued absence
from those means of grace which so largely minister to the spiritual
strength of a pastor in this country—is something deeply felt. Few men
realize the extent of the spiritual helps which the Christian society of
America renders to the aspiring life of a man of God. In his loneliness,
in the far-off land, the missionary feels its absence keenly.
Moreover, all the native Christians of the community of which he is the
official head look up to him for inspiration. Is he wanting in faith,
hopefulness and cheer; is he depressed and discouraged; is he lacking in
the power of prayer and of sweet communion with God? It is marvellous how
quickly this frame of mind is transmitted from him to the people of his
charge. The pastors, catechists and other mission agents of his field all
look to him for their ideal and seek to draw from him their inspiration in
spiritual life. Is he down; then they are down with him. In coldness as in
spiritual ardour they faithfully reflect his life and temper. It is,
indeed, true that many of these live spiritual lives which bring
inspiration and spiritual joy to him. The simplicity and earnestness of
the faith of most of the native Christians is beautiful. Still, in many
respects, he finds the community a heavy spiritual drain upon him; and, if
he is to maintain himself as a worthy leader in the higher Christian life,
he must live constantly with God and find daily strength in Him.
In India, specially, there are needed a few definite spiritual gifts which
I desire to emphasize and which a missionary should aim to cultivate.
The first in order, if not in importance, is patience. To us of the West
the Orient seems preëminently slow. To them of the East we of the West
rush everything unduly and are the victims of impatience. There is much
truth in that homely skit of Kipling’s:
“It is bad for the Christian’s peace of mind
To hustle the Aryan brown;
For the Christian riles but the Aryan smiles,
And it weareth the Christian down.
“And the end of the fight is a tombstone white,
With the name of the late deceased;
And the epitaph drear, a fool lies here
Who tried to hustle the East.”
The ordinary Hindu will endure the white man’s impatience, and he and the
native Christian will submit to the same weakness on the part of the
missionary. But they fail to understand it; and the missionary’s power
with them is very largely impaired by the manifestation of this evil
spirit. Even if impatience were ever, anywhere, a virtue, in India it is
always an unmixed evil and should be guarded against. The warning is the
more needed because the tropical climate itself is a very bad irritant to
the nervous system. Among the Hindus patience is regarded the supreme
virtue of God and of man; and it should adorn every missionary who seeks
to be their leader.
Humility also is a grace which needs much cultivation by the missionary.
He has constant temptation to pride. The sin of masterfulness is naturally
his besetting sin; for his influence over his people and his control in
the direction of his work gradually grow sweet to him and develop, if he
is not very careful, into an imperiousness of will which is neither
pleasant to those who come in contact with him, nor consistent with the
golden grace of humility, nor in any sense pleasing to God.
Love—that essence of divine character—needs preëminent guarding,
encouragement and development on the part of the missionary. There is so
much that is unlovely and unlovable all about him, so little to attract
and draw out his tender emotions that he needs to drink freely from the
fountain of love above; or he will degenerate very easily into a hard,
cold, unsympathetic, cynical missionary—a frame of mind which will utterly
disqualify him for any joy or power in his work. One of the best
missionaries I have known used to pray very frequently—“O Lord, save me
from the sin of despising this people.” It is a prayer which every
missionary may find it necessary to offer frequently. True Christian love
is none the less necessary, yea the more necessary on the mission field,
because the missionary lives among people who are not kindred in blood to
himself.
Then he needs also a large gift of faith and of hope. The smallness of the
Christian Church in the midst of a dense mass of heathenism; the apparent
inadequacy of earthly means to convert that great people to Christ; the
slowness of progress and the fewness of results—all these tend to depress
and discourage the worker. And he needs to offer for himself, as for his
people, the prayer which Elisha offered in behalf of the young man,—“O
Lord, I pray thee open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the
eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of
chariots of fire round about Elisha.”
Spiritual power, in all its forms, is not only greatly needed by the
missionary, it is also highly appreciated by the people who are always
ready to be led by it. I believe that the people in the East are much more
amenable to this influence and much more ready to follow spiritual
guidance than are the people of our own land. And this, in itself, is an
added reason for deep spirituality in the missionary.
5. The Missionary’s Attitude Towards the Non-Christian World.
This attitude is one of considerable importance to the missionary because
it furnishes largely the motive of his life work. Before one goes out as a
missionary he should acquire some definite and sound views as to the
condition of the non-Christians who constitute three-fourths of our race.
This means that he must decide as to his missionary motive,—what motive
power shall impel him to leave his native land and go to live among a
benighted people surrounded by a thousand disadvantages.
Since the organization of our missionary societies—less than a century
ago—there has been an important change of emphasis in the matter of
missionary motives. The progress, I might almost say revolution, in
theology has worked towards this change. The recent discovery of new
sciences, and the utilization of the wonderful modern means of
communication whereby a new knowledge of non-Christian peoples has been
made possible to us, has affected our consideration of the whole problem
of missionary work and has especially modified the missionary motive. Dr.
W. N. Clark, in his admirable book on Christian Missions, discusses fully
this question. “The difference,” he says, “between our conception of man
today and that of a century ago is mainly not that something true has
fallen out of it, though that may be the fact with many minds: it is
rather that immeasurably much that is true has been added to it.
Unquestionably our conception of man is still incomplete, unbalanced and
incorrect, but it certainly has been altered within the century by the
addition of much that must remain in any true conception. Our knowledge
must have experienced true and legitimate growth and from our present
conception of the human world we can never go back to that which our
fathers held when they began the work of modern missions ... our thought
concerning our fellow-men contains elements of truth and justice that our
fathers knew nothing of. The best Christian feeling towards the heathen
world today is far more true, righteous, sympathetic, Christlike, than the
feelings of those who were interested in missions an hundred years ago.
But the single motive which, standing alone, led to the missionary
enterprise has come to be so surrounded by other thoughts and motives as
to lose its relative importance, and be less available than it then was as
a controlling influence. This is one of the great and significant causes
of the crisis in missions.”
It is not necessarily true that the paramount motive of a century ago is
no longer believed; but that other motives have grown and reached a
commanding influence as a power in the Christian consciousness of today. A
Christian missionary has indeed changed his views, for instance,
concerning the origin and character of Hinduism. Through modern
enlightenment and the study of comparative religion no man can go out as a
missionary, even as I was expected to go less than a quarter of a century
ago, with a general belief that that great religion is entirely of the
devil and is in itself evil and only evil continually. The missionary of
today must discriminate, must study appreciation and consider historic
facts. He must know that ethnic, and all non-Christian religions, have had
their uses, and that some still have their uses in the world. They are the
expression of the deepest religious instincts of the human soul. And they
have, especially such a faith as Hinduism, not a few elements of truth
which a missionary should know no less than he should understand the great
evils which enter as a part of them.
The greatest missionary motive of today lies in the last commission of our
Lord which emanates from the heart, and reveals the essence of our
religion. His command to his disciples to go and disciple the nations
stands now as the Supreme Christian Command; and its significance is
appreciated and emphasized today as never before. And so long as a Church
gives increasing emphasis to this, His greatest commission, it must
necessarily be in the path of duty, of privilege, of blessing and of
power. Above all other missionary motives this must remain supreme.
And there must go hand in hand with this loyalty to Christ, a deepening
loyalty to Christianity and a growing appreciation of its uniqueness in
the world. Christianity is not one religion among many; it stands alone as
the soul-satisfying and soul-saving faith. The scattered lights of other
faiths find here their centre, and all their prophesies find here
fulfillment. The need of Christianity, by all men, is supreme. Whatever
may be said in favour of other faiths we must say of them that they are,
in many respects, perverted and are inadequate as a means of salvation.
And in addition to this the missionary must feel that all non-Christian
peoples are in supreme need of Christ, the Saviour. This fact we cannot
afford to qualify, without, in very truth, cutting the nerve of missions.
When a missionary regards Christ and His mission and message as only an
incident in the life and need of our race and ceases to acknowledge that
all men need Christ supremely, he had better give up his work; for his
missionary motive has lost its foundation and his life work has been
robbed of its power.
The missionary is called to go wherever the Macedonian cry of human need
and of spiritual helplessness is heard. Our Lord’s command was
world-embracing in its extent; it was a discipling of _all_ nations; it
was a call to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth.
Shall the missionary go and preach everywhere the gospel of Christ,
whether men invite him or not? In view of recent events in China and in
other lands some people (and among them are a few well-meaning Christians)
question our duty and even our right and privilege to carry the gospel to
a people against its will and when it is satisfied with its own faith.
They claim that this restraint is demanded by true Christian altruism and
by the spirit of Christ. That the day has come when the Christian Church
should thoroughly reconsider the best methods of missionary approach to
such peoples I readily agree. I also maintain that Protestant missions
should everywhere scrupulously avoid all Jesuitical methods and political
influences and should always strive to minimize, if not ignore, their
political rights and magnify the spiritual side of their work. Under these
conditions no people has lent an unwilling ear to the missionary’s
message, or, for a long time, failed to rejoice in his presence and work.
But had missionary societies sent their missionaries only to those people
who invited them, or were prepared to give them a cordial welcome, where
could they have found work or how achieve the magnificent success of the
last century? Imagine the great missionary apostle sending messengers in
advance to inquire whether the inhabitants of Lystra and Ephesus, of
Thessalonica and Athens were willing to receive him, and turning away his
face because, forsooth, they were not prepared to welcome him! The only
invitation he did receive was from Macedonia in a vision. The acceptance
of the invitation brought to him at once opposition and stripes. Paul said
that he _knew_ that bonds awaited him wherever he went. But that did not
deter him.
Had our Lord Himself considered the attitude of man towards Himself He
would never have come down to men. He came to fling fire upon the earth—to
bring not peace but a sword. He was despised and rejected of men. Like
Him, missionaries must consider the deep spiritual _need_ and not the
_desire_ of a people. Above all, they must be assured everywhere, in their
great life work, that they are sent by God rather than invited by men.
6. The Relationship Which the Missionary Sustains to the Missionary
Society and the Churches Which Support Him.
The relationship into which a man, who becomes a missionary, enters with
the missionary society and the churches is a very precious one, and should
be fully realized. In a peculiar sense he has become their adopted
child—the subject of their prayer and the object of their pride. They have
taken him into their own heart and his support and success are their
peculiar concern.
He is the connecting link between them and the work which they support and
cherish in the far-off land. Whatever of interest, of joy and of
responsibility they possess in that work passes through him. He is to them
the channel through which flow their endeavours. He is the living
embodiment of their interest in the work as also of their effort to bring
the heathen to Christ. And in like manner he has become to them the
articulate cry of the heathen world for help. He represents to them at the
same time both the progress of the work, its need and the claims of a
heathen world upon them. He is their agent to develop and inspire their
infant Mission Church. He is also the almoner of their benevolence.
In all these capacities it is well that he remember, constantly, how much
he depends for inspiration as for support upon those who have sent him
forth to the heathen and who, under God, sustain him and his work. He
should cultivate full appreciation of their endeavour; he should keep
himself in living, loving touch with both society and churches; and he
should deem it his duty and privilege to furnish them with all light and
intelligence concerning his work. It is thus that he must strengthen their
faith and inspire their hearts in the great and far-off work which they
are maintaining. It is his opportunity to add fuel to the ardor and
enthusiasm of all the churches in the missionary endeavour. In this he has
an important function to perform and should endeavour to magnify his
office.
In my opinion the relationship between the missionary and those whom he
represents at home might easily be strengthened and improved by added
recognition and courtesy to him in the home-land. At present the foreign
missionary of the congregational churches is simply regarded as their paid
agent. This relationship is indeed a pleasant and a cordial one. The
American Board is most appreciative of the labors of its missionary agents
and deals with them generously. The churches also give them a cordial
welcome and a warm hearing. But the missionary has no status whatever
beyond this. He returns for a furlough to the home-land and feels himself,
in a peculiar sense, a stranger. He has no official connection whatever
with his society; his voice is not heard in its councils; his wisdom and
experience are not sought in its deliberations. In other words, though
possessed of a large stock of knowledge which might be of value to the
Board in the shaping of its policy and in the direction of its work at its
annual meetings, he has absolutely no voice or place there and stands
apart from its organization, beyond the privilege of being its foreign
servant. The missionary body has felt this deprivation and isolation
during critical periods in the history of the Board; and it still feels
that, at least some of its number should be permitted both to enjoy the
honour, and also to render the service incident to being corporate members
of the Board.
The situation is no better in his relation to the home churches. He is a
member, probably, of some church in the home-land; but, upon his return
home he has no status whatever in any Conference or Association, or as a
member of a Ministerial body among his home brethren. In his deputation
work at home he finds welcome, as a stranger or as an outsider, and not as
a member or as an integral part of any body or Association.
The position of the missionary is different among the Methodists. Every
minister of that body finds that, by becoming a foreign missionary he does
not separate himself from home ties and privileges. His ministerial
connection is preserved intact, so that he has a status in the churches
and in the missionary society.
7. The Missionary and the Mission To Which He Belongs.
When a man becomes a member of a foreign mission he soon realizes that he
has become a part of a compact organization. All its members are bound
together by the warmest ties of friendship and love. Largely separated
from the world and knit together by common purpose as by all their highest
ambitions, they verily become a big family whose love increases as the
years multiply, and among whom the spirit of dissension can only create
the deepest sorrow and greatest bitterness. It is, therefore, of the
utmost importance that every one who becomes a missionary should be a man
of peace; should know how to live in harmony with all his brethren. He
should cultivate that spirit and should aim to see eye to eye with those
who are thus so intimately connected with him. In loving sympathy they
should unite in the serious concerns of their life-work. One of the first
requisites demanded from a missionary applicant from the American Board is
that he be of a peaceable disposition—able to live harmoniously with
others. And it is not only a suggestion that should be heeded by every
missionary; it is also a rule which should be enforced by every missionary
society.
Each mission has behind it a history, and, before it, more or less of an
aim and policy. It should be the ambition of every member of that mission
to study and honour the one, and to be faithful and loyal to the other.
The history of most missions in India is precious and full of instruction.
They have sainted heroes and most interesting traditions. The missionary
should not only study the records of his own mission and draw from them
every possible lesson for his life; he should also enter heartily into the
spirit of the mission and endeavour cordially to bring himself _en
rapport_ with its highest wisdom, deepest purposes and most cherished
schemes for the future. It is not necessary that he be satisfied with all
that the mission has done; he should also aim, in the spirit of humility
and of patience, to constitutionally influence his brethren to his own new
views and better way of thinking, if he have any. Above all, he should aim
to conserve rather than to destroy. The blessings of the past should be
utilized in attaining higher things for the future. Revolutionary methods
are ill-adapted to add blessing to such a work. It should also be the aim
of the missionary to so further the work of his mission that it may soon
cease to be a necessity. A mission, at best, is but a temporary thing. It
should constantly aim to so nourish and strengthen the native church as to
make itself unnecessary. And it should be the aim of the missionary to
hasten, with all speed, this consummation.
8. The Relation of the Missionary to the People Among Whom He Lives.
Having entered upon his work and settled among the people of his choice,
he must seek to realize the best possible relation to them. This
relationship will be a varied one.
He must be a leader of the Christian community. In India, today, there is
special need for missionaries who are born leaders. The people of that
land are defective in the power of initiative; but they are most tractable
and docile. They love to follow a bold and a wise leader of men. And the
missionary, from the very necessity of his position, should be able to
direct and guide the Christian community into ways of holiness and of
Christian activity. He is to be a leader of leaders. He should marshal the
mission agents connected with him in such a way as to lead the native
Church into highest usefulness and most earnest endeavour for the
salvation of souls.
He should be strong as an organizer and administrator. In missions the
word organization is becoming the keyword of the situation. There is no
danger of over-organization, so long as the organization is endowed with
life and does not degenerate into machinery. The best organized activities
of today are the most powerful and the most useful. And the missionary
will find his highest powers for organization taxed to the utmost in his
missionary work. And as an administrator there will be made many claims
upon him daily. I know of few qualifications that are more essential to
the highest success on the mission field than conspicuous ability to
organize and wisdom to administer the affairs of a mission. Missionaries
frequently fail at this point and need therefore to strengthen themselves
in this particular.
A missionary should be as much the conserver of the good as a destroyer of
the evil which he finds among the people. Much of that which he will see
in India, for instance, will at first, and perhaps for a long time, seem
strange and outlandish to him; but let him not decide that it is therefore
evil. The life of the Orient is built on different lines from that of the
Occident. Many things in common life, in domestic economy and in social
customs will, and must, be different there from what they are here. Their
civilization, though different from ours, has a consistency as a whole;
and we cannot easily eliminate certain parts and substitute for them those
of our own civilization without dislocating the whole. Therefore, it is
often safer and better to conserve what seems to us the lesser good of
their civilization than to introduce what seems the greater good of our
own.
The missionary must be careful to distinguish between those things which
are real, and those which are apparent, evils among the customs of the
people. There are some customs, such as are connected with the degradation
of woman and heathen ceremonies which are fundamentally wrong and must be
opposed always. There are others which seem uncouth and unworthy, but
which are devoid of moral or religious significance. Of two missionaries,
the one who studies to utilize the existing good among the habits of the
people will find greatest usefulness. Some waste their time, destroy their
influence and minimize their usefulness by a destructive way of attacking
everything that is not positively good and beating their head against
every wall of custom.
The missionary should be a prophet to rebuke and to condemn evil. He will
find numberless evils on all sides of him—in Church, in general society
and in individual life among the people. He must not hesitate to use
constantly his voice as a protest against all forms of evil. This duty is
the more incumbent upon him as there are none among the people to protest
and to denounce the most flagrant, demoralizing and universal evils of the
land. One of the most discouraging things concerning the situation in
India is, not the universality of certain evils, but the utter absence of
those who dare to withstand them and denounce them as sins before all the
people. Missionaries have done more in that land to rightly characterize
certain gross evils and to call the attention of the people to them than
have any other people in the land. And they have recognition for this. And
this prophetic function of the missionary must be exercised with
increasing faithfulness for the good of the land and for the purity of the
Church of God.
In that country the missionary must also stand before the people as their
exemplar. He must represent, not only Christianity at its best, but also
the civilization of the West in its purest and most attractive garb. India
has always greatly needed such human types of nobility of character to
encourage and stimulate the people to a higher life. With all modesty and
due humility the missionary is called upon just as much to live as he is
to teach the best that is found in his religion and in the civilization of
his mother country. In India, the life of the missionary has spoken more
loudly than his words. There are millions in that land today, who, while
they deny and reject the teaching of the missionary, give him unstinted
praise both for what he is and for what he has done for the country.
The testimony of Sir William Mackworth Young, Lieutenant-Governor of
Punjab is only one of many such;—“I take off my hat to the humblest
missionary that walks a bazaar in India,” he said, in a recent public
address, “because he is leading a higher and a grander life and doing a
grander work than any other class of persons who are working in India. If
the natives of India have any practical knowledge of what is meant by
Christian charity, if they know anything of high, disinterested motives
and self-sacrifice, it is mainly from the missionary that they learn it.
The strength of our position in India depends more largely upon the
good-will of the people than upon the strength and number of our
garrisons, and for that good-will we are largely indebted to the kindly,
self-sacrificing efforts of the Christian missionary. It is love which
must pave the way for the regeneration of India as well as for the
consolidation of England’s power.”
The missionary must never lose this crown of glory in India. He must hold
it most precious and strive to add to the glory which he thus reflects
upon his Faith in that land.