MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION.
Thorough organization of any work is essential to its highest efficiency.
The Missionary Department of the work of the Christian Church should,
therefore, be well organized. As missionary effort expands, grows in
intensity and increases in power, it must find a growingly efficient
organization in order to adequately express itself and to attain further
growth.
1. A thorough Missionary Organization at home is the first requisite in
order to highest success. Thus only can the missionary work abroad be
maintained and fostered; because, by this means only can missionary ardour
be kindled in the churches. A Church which is not adequately marshalled
for activity in heathen lands will soon become self-centred and will
easily forget the claims, if not the very existence, of the heathen.
A Foreign Missionary Society of well organized efficiency has, up to the
present, been the best agency in the development and furtherance of the
foreign work of every denomination. And the day does not seem near when
this agency can be dispensed with.
This missionary society should be in close touch with the denomination or
body of Christians which has organized and maintains it. It should be
plastic to the touch and will of its constituency and should seek in every
way to be at the same time a faithful exponent of the thought and ambition
of the churches, and a leader and a source of new inspiration and light to
them on missionary problems. This society should scrupulously avoid, on
the one hand, the danger of too much independence and of a purpose to
shape the missionary policy of the churches; and, on the other, the
equally serious evil of dragging, or of declining to move a step without
the direct intimation, command or leadership of the churches. There has
been a time in the history of the American Board when the one evil
constituted its danger; at the present time it would seem as if the other
danger seriously threatened it.
It is of much importance that the foreign missionary benevolences of a
church should be wisely administered _as a whole_. When different
missionary societies of a denomination appeal, as they do at present, to
our churches for funds to support the missionary cause in foreign lands,
it is of great importance that moneys received by these different bodies
should be appropriated wisely. They should be brought together both for
unity of results and for economy of expenditure on the mission field. My
observation convinces me that, for want of a wise union or correlation of
our missionary agencies at home the various departments of the work (of
the Congregationalists, for instance) on the mission field are very
unequally supported, and an unwise distribution of the benevolences of the
churches follows as a result. A previous, full consideration, by a
competent general committee of finance, in America, should be had of the
needs of the various departments of each mission and of the distribution
of all the funds collected for that mission by the various societies; and
they should be carefully distributed in accordance with the urgency of
those needs respectively.
These missionary societies should aim to cultivate in the churches the
spirit of missions as a _Christian principle_. Advocates of the missionary
cause strongly feel that the interest of the Church in missionary work
today is too little based upon the real and fundamental principle of
missionary work as a necessity of the life of the Church itself, and too
much dependent upon exciting narrative, tearful appeal and poetic romance.
The cultivation of the missionary principle and the inculcation of the
doctrine of the privilege and beauty of supporting missions, apart from
any impassioned appeals or tragic events, is one of the _desiderata_ of
the Church today. It is a morbid condition of the mind of the Church which
demands exciting narrative and hysterical appeal in order to arouse it to
its duty in this matter; and it also tends to create a standard of
missionary advocacy which is neither manly nor sufficiently careful to
balance well the facts and data of missionary work as it is found upon the
field. There is considerable danger of accepting, today, only that form of
missionary appeal which is directed to the emotion and which abounds in
mental excitement rather than that which furnishes food for sober thought.
The consequence is that this advocacy is in danger of becoming a producer
of more heat than light—of more emotion than intelligent conviction.
The recent movement towards leading certain churches to take up definite
portions of the work in foreign lands and to support, each a missionary
for itself, has in it much to commend it to our acceptance. It certainly
has the merit of definiteness in purpose, work and prayer; and this brings
added interest and a growing sense of responsibility to each church which
takes up the work. If a man (or a church) finds his interest in missions
waning as a principle of Christian activity the best thing for him,
perhaps, is to come into touch with a missionary or a mission agent on the
field. By supporting him or a department of work conducted by him, and by
being kept frequently informed of the work which he is supporting, new
fuel is constantly added to that missionary interest which thereby
develops into zeal and enthusiasm. The method has apostolic sanction and
partakes of the simplicity of primitive missionary endeavour.
But this method should not be too exclusively pursued. It should not
interfere with a broader outlook upon missions and a general sympathy
with, and support of, the _common_ work. And all of the work should be
done through the missionary society which alone can rightly coördinate and
unify the whole work of the particular mission.
Faith Missions, so called, represent a genuine and a worthy spirit among
many of God’s people today. To them the somewhat lumbering business
methods of the large missionary organizations savour too much of worldly
prudence and seem subversive of the deepest Christian faith. They maintain
that the old method is one that looks too much to men and too little to
God for support. And they also claim that the missionary of such a society
has little opportunity for the exercise of highest faith in God both for
himself and his work. These new missions, therefore, have come into
existence practically, if not really, as a protest against modern methods
of conducting missionary work. They may do much good if they exercise some
restraint upon missionary societies in this matter. Probably it is needed.
Many believe that there is an excessive tendency among the directors of
missionary societies, at the present day, to consider this great
enterprise simply as a _business_ enterprise, and that, in the committee
rooms, faith has yielded too much to prudence, and the wings of missionary
enterprise have been too much clipped by worldly considerations. How far
their reasoning is true, I will not decide. Their claim is not without a
basis of truth. The financial embarrassment brings to the Missionary
Society today, much more than it used to, discouragement and a halt; with
the result that the missions are more than ever before crippled by
retrenchment and home churches are resting satisfied with smaller
attainments and are forgetting the old watchwords of progress and advance.
“Faith Missions” are created by and meet the needs of a certain class of
people in the church whose spiritual life is intense and who crave romance
in faith and in life. The missionaries of these societies tire of the
great organizations of the church and are usually men who are restless
under any stiff method or extensive system in Christian work.
But very few such missionaries meet with permanent success. The glamour of
the “faith life,” so called, does not abide with them. Few men have the
staying, as well as the supporting, faith of a George Müller; and yet
every missionary in this class should be a hero of faith—a man with that
special gift and power from God which will maintain itself and go on
working under the most adverse circumstances. And this is what the
ordinary “faith missionary” does not possess in an exceptional degree.
As a matter of fact, “Faith Missions” are decidedly wasteful of means in
the conduct of their work. If, in some ways, they practice more economy,
in other matters of greatest importance, there is deplorable wastefulness.
For, they are wanting both in continuity and in wise management and sane
direction. As history has shown, they also easily degenerate into very
prudential methods and sensational forms of advertisement which destroy
the very faith which the missions were supposed to express and conserve.
There is no less faith—rather is there more—exercised by members of
well-organized missions who depend upon God’s supply through the regular
channel of a society. For they can give themselves entirely to their work
of faith and love, confident that God will provide for their wants and the
wants of their work; while the “faith missionary” has to devote much time
in anxious thought and in skillful and dubious methods of appeal to secure
the means of support.
One only needs to look at India today and there study the results of these
two classes of missions in order to see which method is the more
economical and the more owned of God.
The Missionary Boards should keep in close touch and living communication
with the missions which they support. The mission to which I have the
honour of belonging has not had the privilege, until the last year, of
receiving an official visitation from any member of our Board for nearly
forty-five years. That a society should aim, by its officials in one city,
to conduct, for so many years, a mission among its antipodes without
having one representative among its directors who has gazed upon that
land, seen that people or studied on the ground any of its problems, seems
remarkable, and wants in that sagacity which usually directs us as a
people. By frequent visitations alone can such a society expect to be able
to direct wisely and lead successfully its missions. For, it is highly
desirable, both in the interests of the mission itself, of the society and
of the home churches that at least some of the directors of the society
should know personally and well each mission supported through them. At no
greater intervals than five years such a visitation should be planned for
every mission. I am confident that they would add largely to the
efficiency of our missionary work and increase the interest of home
churches in their foreign work. But such visiting committees should be
willing to learn and should not come out with preconceived ideas of what
ought to be done, nor with bottled and labelled remedies for all the ills
of the mission. Some missions are sore today because of a visitation many
years ago, since it was not conceived in the spirit of highest wisdom and
teachableness.
2. The missions themselves also should be well organized for work. The
success of a mission will depend, in no small degree, upon the character
of its organization. In India, today, there is a great variety of
missionary organizations. They range from the almost purely autocratic
ones, established by Christians of the European Continent, to the
thoroughly democratic and largely autonomous ones of the American
Missions. German and Danish Missions are mostly controlled by the home
committees of their missionary societies. American Missions have a large
degree of autonomy in the conduct of their affairs. British Missions
divide equally with their home Society the right and privilege of
conducting their affairs. It is certainly not wise that a committee of
gentlemen thousands of miles distant from the mission field should
autocratically direct and control, even to matters of detail, the affairs
of their mission. The missionaries on the ground should not only have the
right to express their opinions, but should also have a voice in
conducting the affairs of the mission for whose furtherance they have
given their life, whose interests they dearly love and whose affairs they
are the most competent to understand.
Nor yet should a mission be entirely free from foreign guidance and
suggestion. Too much power given to a mission is as really a danger as too
little power. It is well for a mission that it should have the aid of men
who have large missionary interests under their guidance and who are in
full sympathy with home churches. The ideal mission is that which, on the
one hand, enjoys a large degree of autonomy in the conduct of its affairs,
and yet which, on the other hand, is wisely supported and strengthened by
the restraining influence, suggestion and even the occasional initiative
of a well-formed home committee.
The relation of the mission to its own members should always be firm and
its authority kindly and wisely exercised. There may arise a serious
danger of too much individualism in a mission. A mission which does not
have a policy of its own and conduct its whole work in harmony with that
policy, and so control the work of each of its members as to make it fully
contribute to the realization of its aims, will not attain unto the
largest success in its efforts. When each missionary is given absolute
independence to develop his own work on his own lines it will soon be
found that whatever mission policy there may have been will be crushed out
by rampant individualism. And when each man is at liberty to follow his
own inclination and to direct his work according to his own sweet will,
mission work will have lost its homogeneity. Each section and department
of the mission will be changed in direction and method of work upon the
arrival of every new missionary; and thus every blessing of continuity in
work and of a wholesome mission policy will be lost. I know of missions
(American, of course) which suffer seriously on this account. I also know
of other missions which are seriously affected by the opposite difficulty.
The mission controls its work so completely, even to its last detail, that
it leaves to the individual missionary no freedom of action and no power
of initiative. The mission, in solemn conclave, decides even the character
and quantity of food which must be given each child in a boarding school
conducted by one of its missionaries! A control which reaches into such
petty details as this, is not only a waste of time to the mission itself;
it seriously compromises the dignity, and destroys the sense of
responsibility, of the individual missionary. It takes away from him the
power of initiative and thus largely diminishes his efficiency.
The ideal mission is that which gives to each of its members some latitude
for judgment and direction, but which has a definite policy of its own and
sees to it that this policy is, in the main, respected and supported by
every one of its missionaries.
It is an interesting fact, in the study of the missions of India, that the
American Missions, on the whole, represent the largest degree, both of
mission autonomy and of missionary individualism. The farther we pass east
from America the more do we see mission autonomy yield to the control of
the home society; and the independence of the missionary lost in the
absoluteness of mission supervision.
How far shall missions give the power of franchise to their lady members
in the conduct of mission affairs? The last few years has seen this
question agitated by many missions. They differ largely in this matter.
The Madura Mission has settled the problem by giving to the women absolute
equality with the men. This, probably, is an ideal solution. But it should
be accompanied by a similar movement in the missionary societies at
Boston. The position at present is anomalous in that mission; for while it
has given to both sexes equal rights of franchise and is therefore a unit
in administrative power, the societies at home which support the general,
and the woman’s parts of the mission activity are entirely separate from
and independent of each other. It is not too much to hope that, at an
early date, the relations of the home societies may be changed towards
unity of action, to correspond with the present situation in the mission
field.
The relation of missions contiguous to each other in foreign lands is a
subject which is increasingly engaging the thought of all missionaries. In
the past, missions of different denominations lived largely isolated from,
and absolutely indifferent to, each other’s welfare. There was much
friction and jealousy, coupled with a readiness to disregard each other’s
feelings and a willingness to take advantage of each other’s weaknesses. I
am glad to say that that era is gradually giving way to a time of better
feeling, when sympathy and appreciation, fellowship and coöperation are
becoming the watchwords. During the last few years marked progress has
been seen in India in the line of amity and comity between the Protestant
Missions of the land. Recently, a large Conference of Christian
Missionaries was convened in Madras representing the thirty-five
Protestant Missions of South India. Missions which formerly held aloof
from their sister missions and declined to fraternize in any way with
them, came on this occasion and heartily joined in the universal good
feeling and desire for fellowship among all. Coöperation was the watchword
heard in all discussions at that great Conference; and since that day
increasing effort has been put forth to bring several of the more nearly
related of these missions, not only into coöperation in work, but also
into organic unity. For instance the missions of the Free Church of
Scotland and of the Dutch Reformed Church of America have met, through
their representatives, and have perfected a scheme of ecclesiastical union
and of coöperation in work. And already expressions of hearty desire have
been made that the missions of the Congregational denominations unite with
these Presbyterian Missions in this Scheme of Union. I believe that it
will require but a short time for the perfecting of such a union among all
these kindred missions. Thus and thus only can we hope to teach to our
native Christians the growing oneness of God’s people; and thus also do we
hope to reduce considerably the expenses of the work in that land. For, by
thus uniting our forces, we shall be able to reduce the number of our
special institutions for the training of our agency and the development of
our work. Nothing can further the cause of economy in mission lands today
more than the union of mission institutions now built on denominational
lines and expensively conducted in all the missions. I believe in
denominationalism. It has its mission in the world and has done much good.
But a narrow, selfish, denominationalism on the mission field, and in the
presence both of the infant native church and of the inquiring Hindu
community, is one of the most serious evils that can befall the cause of
Christ in India.
We should all pray for the day when all narrowness in this matter shall
yield to the broadest sympathy, love and coöperation. And, perhaps, the
best way to answer our prayers in this matter is by furthering the noble
cause of Christian union among the denominations and churches here at
home.
The old illustration, taken from the rice fields of South India, is apt
and instructive. These fields are small and divided by low banks. The
banks serve the purpose of separating the fields of different persons, of
furnishing water channels and of facilitating the irrigation. When the
crops are young and low every field is seen marked out by its banks. But
as the crops grow the banks are hidden and we see nothing but one great
expense of waving grain ready for the harvest. So, while the useful,
denominational banks which have divided us in mission lands are still
there we thank God that they are being hidden more, year by year, as the
harvest of Christian love and fellowship is approaching.
3. The organic structure of a mission in the early stages of its growth is
a very simple thing; as it achieves increasing success the necessities of
the situation compel it to add to its efficiency by widening its scope and
increasing its functions and multiplying its departments of work. A
hundred years ago, or less, as the missionary entered virgin soil and
began to cultivate a new mission field, he devoted himself, almost
exclusively, to the work of preaching the gospel to the heathen. Presently
the gospel message found entrance into the hearts of a few and they were
formed into a congregation. At once he began to train this infant
congregation and selected one or more of the most promising of its number
for special instruction and initiation into the duties of Christian
service. He then took this nucleus of a native agency with himself on
preaching tours until new accessions to the faith were gained and new
congregations established. As the congregations multiplied his work as an
evangelist had to give way, in part, to his efforts to train an adequate
native agency to guide and nourish the growing Christian community. There
was also added to this the pastoral care and superintendence of
congregations new and old. Later on he felt the need of schools to train
the young of his congregations; he also began to realize the value of
educational work for non-Christians as a means of presenting to them the
gospel of Christ. Thus a system of schools was gradually established, both
for Christians and for non-Christians which not only required his care,
but also demanded a force of Christian teachers adequate to this
increasing work. So, institutions for the systematic training of teachers
and preachers had to be established. Under the influence of these schools
intelligence grew apace and was suitably met and satisfied by a developing
Christian literature—a literature which met the needs of the Christian and
heathen alike.
Moreover as he studied the physical condition of the surrounding people he
was appalled by the prevalence of disease and the inadequacy, yea, even
the evil, of the system of medical treatment which obtained there; and so
his heart was drawn out to the need of making some provision for modern
medical aid. As the community continued to grow and the number of young
people multiplied, in church and congregation alike, he became impressed
with the need of organizations whereby this latent youthful power might be
conserved, increased and utilized for the Glory of God.
In this way the primitive missions of the past have actually developed
into the powerful organizations of the present. One must study, on the
spot, one of the larger missions of India today in order to appreciate
what a complicated organism it is. He then will see how it has sent out
its ramifications into all departments of life and of Christian activity.
It has laid its hands, in organized power, upon every department of
Christian work which can be made to contribute to the furtherance of the
cause of Christ in that field. In this way have come into existence the
following departments, which are represented in more or less fullness in
all the missions of India today.
(_a_) The Evangelistic Department.
This, as we have seen, is the oldest as it is the most fundamental, of all
organized missionary activities. And it should retain its prominence in
missionary effort. It was preëminently the method of Christ. He was the
Heavenly Messenger proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was at hand. He was
first of all the great Preacher; “and the people everywhere heard Him
gladly.” The missionary of the Cross never feels that he is more directly
in the footsteps of his Master than when he is preaching to the unchurched
and Christless masses. There is to this work a joy and an exhilaration
which are peculiarly its own, even though it is a work fraught with
physical weariness. I have felt, in the prosecution of this work, more
satisfaction than almost in any other. Not that I regard it as the most
successful form of labour. It is not. Even as a direct evangelizing
agency, I believe that it must yield precedence in India to school-work.
The faithful Christian teacher is now a more successful evangelist in that
land than the preacher himself. And yet the preacher reaches and offers
light and gracious opportunity to the more benighted and the more
neglected members of the community. Without making special choice of any
favoured class he sows broadcast the seed, preaches the divine Word,
praying that the Lord himself, who also preached to the common people,
bestow his richest blessing upon the labour which he has done in his name.
This work of preaching Christ to those who know him not, must be carried
on by missionaries and agents. It is usually the custom to expect that
every mission agent shall devote some of his time in visiting neighbouring
villages and in gathering the people together and in presenting to them,
in all simplicity, the message of salvation. Frequently these teachers,
catechists and pastors take with them some of the members of their
congregations to help them, by song and by the influence of their
presence, to present their message effectively to the people; and thus the
Christians also receive a most useful training in this elementary part of
Christian service.
From time to time special itineracies are conducted by a band of mission
agents who will spend a week or more in traversing a whole region,
preaching in every village and street as they pass along their journey.
These itineracies are conducted in various ways, but are always most
helpful in the evangelization of the district.
Some of the best organized missions are adding emphasis to this work by
devoting missionaries specially to the conduct of it. These men gather
bands of native preachers around them who spend their time and strength in
preaching and in disseminating gospel truth in the neglected regions of
their fields.
Theological seminaries also give a part of their time to this excellent
work. The seminary, with which I am connected, gave, during the year 1900,
five weeks to village work. Teachers and students travelled hundreds of
miles among the villages of the neglected part of the field and carried
the message to more than 50,000 people. This was not only a joyful
service, it was also a most helpful experience to the young students while
undergoing their theological training.
But, as the native Church, in a mission, grows in numbers and in
intelligence, the work of evangelism becomes its special duty. If the
Church does not enter, with added joy and power, into this department of
its work; and if it does not voluntarily assume, with ever increasing
fullness, this form of Christian activity, there is something radically
wrong about it. It should be the prayer and purpose of the missionary that
every church and congregation established by him become a centre of
evangelistic power, whence will radiate divine light and heat into
adjacent hamlets and villages. I am glad to say that, so far as my
observation goes, the native Church is undertaking this work with
increasing zeal and with a growing impulse from within, rather than by
pressure from without. In the Madura Mission, through the Home Missionary
Society and its auxiliaries, and through the organizations of the native
women, at least eighteen men and women are being supported for this
especial work of evangelism. And the number of members of churches, who
engage voluntarily in this work, is every year growing.
The character of this preaching is a matter of importance. In India it
should be, largely, if not exclusively, constructive rather than
destructive. Forces destructive to a belief in Hinduism and its numberless
superstitions have multiplied wonderfully in that land during the last
fifty years. So that there is no necessity, today, that the Christian
preacher spend any of his time in attacking the errors and evils of the
ancestral faith of the people. He should give himself to the more
agreeable and blessed work of imparting the living truth of the Gospel in
all directness and simplicity. The destructive agencies of the
civilization, knowledge and religious institutions of the West have
accomplished their work and have made straight the pathway of the Gospel
Messenger into the mind and heart of the people. Thus, it is not the abuse
of the old, but the exposition of the new, faith which should occupy the
time of the preacher to Hindus today. It has been my own custom, and I
always urge it upon my students, to avoid the temptation of attacking
Hinduism, and to preach a simple Gospel of salvation.
(_b_) Pastoral Work.
The rapidly increasing number of churches and congregations has added much
to the pastoral duties of a mission. Formerly missionaries themselves
acted as pastors and shepherded the flocks in the villages. Even today
some of the German missions have missionary pastors. But this is now
exceptional. Missions generally have learned that, for native
congregations, native pastors are essential. They not only are better
adapted, by nature and by training, to meet the needs of the native
Church; they are also the only ones that are within the range of the
financial possibilities of self-support. And self-support must be ever
held before the church as a high future blessing and duty of the Christian
community.
[Illustration: Theological Students With Their Families.]
[Illustration: Group Of Madura Pastors.]
And yet the day when the pastoral work can be effectively and
satisfactorily done by the natives themselves has hardly arrived. Few
native pastors today, and much fewer catechists, are competent, both on
the score of character and of independence, to wisely direct the affairs
of their people and to efficiently preserve church discipline. This is a
sad confession to make; but truth compels me to make it—a truth emphasized
more than once by long experience among them. A few years ago a church
within my jurisdiction wished to expel a leading member whom it knew to be
a godless man. He had become a curse to the community, and nothing but
excommunication seemed wise or possible. I visited the church for the
purpose of assisting the pastor in the administration of the Lord’s Supper
and of studying the general condition of the church. And we attempted,
congregationally, to discipline this member. The church was asked to vote,
in case it thought wise, to excommunicate the man; but not a hand was
raised. The matter was further explained to them, and all those who were
in favour of his expulsion were requested to raise the hand. Again not a
hand was raised! The pastor, thereupon, explained the situation by stating
that the people were afraid of the man and dared not vote against him even
though he was not present. The pastor was himself equally timid in the
situation. Thereupon I asked those of them who desired that _I_ should act
in this matter _for the church_ to raise the hand; whereupon every hand of
pastor and people was immediately raised; and I fulfilled their wish by
excommunicating, in their name, the evil member!
This may or may not be Congregationalism; but it illustrates the fact
which I am now dwelling upon, viz.: that for the present, both pastor and
people are unequal to the severe duties of church discipline. Every month
the missionary is confronted with similar situations which reveal to him
the necessity of his presence as a superintending pastor and the urgent
need of his wisdom to direct the affairs of the church, his firmness to
put an end to many impossible situations, and his inspiration to tone up
and give backbone to pastors and other agents connected with him. It
should not be forgotten that, while the infant community connected with
each mission has many admirable traits of piety and of character, it is
still the victim of great weakness in matters of purity, of fellowship and
of Christian peace. So that if the Church is to be preserved from many
intolerable evils and brought into the noble traits of a Christian
character which will impress itself upon the non-Christian community there
must be firm guidance, stern repression of evil and wise inspiration to
good on the part of the native pastoral force under the bracing influence
of missionary guidance. To those who are conversant with the condition of
the native Church in India there is a supreme conviction that its greatest
danger lies in the irregularity of the life of its members and in its want
of firm discipline and the preservation of purity rather than in the
fewness of accessions from heathenism. Hence the importance of the work of
shepherding Christ’s feeble flock in that land. The training of suitable
native agents for this work is a duty of paramount importance; and the
training must be continued through their life by the presence of the
missionary to guide, restrain and inspire.
(_c_) The Educational Department.
In large, well-organized missions, the educational department is now
perhaps the most important and all-pervasive. As a mission grows, this
department usually develops more rapidly than any other of its organized
activities. This work is divided into three classes:
Schools for Non-Christians.
These are especially established with a view to reaching and affecting the
non-Christian community. They have developed wonderfully during the last
half-century and hold an important place in the economy of missions. They
represent the leaven of Christianity in India. They are preëminently an
evangelistic agency. They furnish excellent opportunity to present Christ
and His Gospel of salvation to a large host of young people under very
favorable circumstances. These institutions are of two classes—primary
schools in villages and high schools and colleges at centres of influence
and culture.
They have been the object of attack from men of narrow missionary sympathy
and of limited horizon. These men claim that money expended on such
institutions is a waste of mission funds. But they have failed to
recognize the significant fact, which I have already mentioned, that these
institutions undoubtedly furnish the best opportunity for missionary
evangelistic work. And I fearlessly maintain that more conversions take
place, and more accessions are made, through these schools than through
any other agency, apart from the Christian Church itself. Not a few of the
village primary schools become _nuclei_ to Christian congregations, which
flourish and develop into Christian churches. And through the higher
institutions some of the best and strongest members of the Christian
community have been won from Hinduism. All this, apart from the fact that
these institutions perform an unspeakably important function in the
dissemination of light throughout the whole Hindu community and in the
leavening of the whole mass of Hindu thought and institutions. The good
done by this class of institutions is beyond computation in that land.
Schools for Christian Children.
It is the worthy ambition of every mission and missionary to train the
children of the Christians so that they may rise, not only in
intelligence, but also in social life and position. Under this class of
schools the native Christian community is being rapidly developed and
educated, so that it is already in advance of any other community in
general literacy.
Among these schools for Christians are industrial institutions for the
training of boys and girls in manual labour. At the present time there
seems to be a growing tendency to magnify this department of work. These
schools are given to training in carpentry, blacksmithing, weaving,
brass-work, rattan-work, etc. The Germans have entered more fully into
this effort than any other missions in India. But they are not loud in its
praise as a department of _mission_ work. It certainly has both merits and
demerits which we shall consider later.
During the last decade a few missionaries have launched out upon a new
enterprise in the shape of Peasant Settlements. One object of these is to
train the poor and improvident members of the community, especially the
socially submerged classes, to habits of thrift, economy and independence.
It is also conducted as a philanthropy for the purpose of raising the
people socially and industrially through new methods and forms of
agriculture. This movement is still in its infancy.
Training Institutions for Mission Agents.
It is the duty of every mission to train for itself an efficient class of
men and women who shall conduct all the departments of missionary work and
gradually relieve the missionary of many of his duties. These schools are
of many kinds corresponding with the various classes of agencies required.
This may be illustrated by the institutions now found in the Madura
Mission. Nearly every one of the twelve out-stations of that mission has a
boarding school for Christian boys and girls. The best students who
graduate from these schools, especially those who are deemed worthy to
become future candidates for mission service, go to Pasumalai and to
Madura for further, and professional, training. At Pasumalai young men may
pass through the High School and even the college department. They are
then placed in the normal department, to qualify them as teachers, or in
the Theological Seminary, to prepare them as preachers and pastors. So,
also, girls are placed in the Madura Girls’ High and Training School and
are there qualified for one of three grades of teachership. Or they may be
placed in the Bible Woman’s Training School where they receive a
two-years’ course of training for work as Bible women.
The only class of agents which is not trained by the Madura Mission is
that of medical assistants. I trust that the mission’s desire for funds to
establish this work also may be gratified and that thus we may have the
means of training suitable agents for every department of our missionary
work. No mission can be complete unless it has some means of furnishing
itself with an efficient agency to conduct all departments of its
activity.
The only danger connected with the excellent educational department of
work is, lest it should outgrow and overshadow all other departments. This
danger is at present manifesting itself in some missions. It is an
attractive form of work which allures the missionary; and, for several
reasons, he yields to the temptation of emphasizing it out of proportion
to its relative value and gives more time and money to it than a wise
place in mission economy demands. The ideal arrangement for a mission
would seem to be to keep well in front its evangelistic and pastoral
endeavour, and to utilize all forms of educational work with a view to
strengthening and furthering these. It is true that certain missions, like
certain individuals, have a special genius or talent of their own; and
their highest success will depend upon their following that bent. For
instance, the Free Church of Scotland, in South India, has shown eminent
ability and taste in the work of education. It has met with distinguished
success in that line of effort, and its college for boys and high schools
for girls in Madras bear testimony to its eminent success in this
department. In evangelistic work it has thus far neither shown much
interest nor large aptitude. The Wesleyan Methodists, on the other hand,
are born evangelists and find their chief success as preachers of the
gospel. Each mission should not only consider its field and its claims and
needs, it should also study its own corporate gift and bent and then
strive to develop its work mainly upon those lines which are most
congenial to it.
(_d_) Literary Work.
The creation and circulation of a healthy Christian literature has always
been recognized by our missions as a work of paramount importance. While
not many missionaries have devoted themselves exclusively to this work,
yet not a little has been accomplished in it by the missions. If not much
that is original and brilliant has issued from the missionary pen; and if
it stands sadly true that too few have seriously undertaken this work; it
is nevertheless a cause of thanksgiving that Christian truth has been
extensively expounded and defended by them, and that they have sent forth
from the press a continual stream of blessing to all the people.
In India, three strong societies aid the missions by engaging directly in
the production and dissemination of Christian literature. These are the
Bible Society, the Tract Society and the Christian Literature Society.
These institutions have spent large sums of money in the translation,
revision and circulation of the Holy Scriptures and in the furnishing of
fresh, readable and informing tracts and books in explanation,
illustration and defense of Christianity. The far-reaching results of the
work of these societies no one can adequately estimate. The need of this
department of work is not only great, it is growing annually. Missions
feel this keenly and are unwilling to depend entirely upon the above
mentioned societies. Each mission of any importance has one, or more,
printing establishments with which it can prepare and issue tracts and
books of its own, and whereby it may present special truths and teachings
which seem to it urgently needed by its people. Through these presses the
missions publish also 147 newspapers and magazines for the special use of
the Christian people and others. In this way forty-one printing
establishments, employing no fewer than 2,000 men, are utilized by the
Protestant missions of India in the production of healthy literature for
the furtherance of the cause of Christ in that land.
In this department two special classes are kept in view. The growing
Christian community must be provided with suitable books in the
vernaculars. Books devotional for the mass of Christians, and text-books
for the students in our professional schools, and helpful books of
instruction for the large body of Christian agents are needed. All these
make an increasing demand upon the literary fertility of writers and
authors on the mission field.
There is also a growing demand, and an urgent need, for good books adapted
to the non-Christian community—such tracts and books as can present to
them, in an attractive and convincing way, the special truths and the
supreme excellence of our faith. The number is annually increasing, both
among native Christians and in the non-Christian community, of those who
can read and whose taste for books is growing.
This method of approach to the mind of the people has peculiar advantages
of its own. The prejudices connected with Christian instruction, as it
proceeds directly from the lips of the teacher or preacher, does not exist
in connection with tracts and books. These printed messengers of truth and
salvation quietly and effectively do their work in the silent hours of the
night and in the secret recesses of the woods or of the solitary chamber.
And this message is the more effective because it may be read and pondered
more than once, until its truth grips the soul in convicting and saving
power.
The power of the printed page, as a Christian messenger in India, is
second to none at present; and its influence will multiply mightily as the
years increase. Missions and individual missionaries should enter more
fully into this work; none needs increasing emphasis more than this; and
none has larger hopes of preëminence in the great work of India’s
redemption. Missionary societies also should devote more men, than in the
past, to the creation of a strong Christian literature.
And even where missions are too weak to publish anything of their own and
are unable to write books or tracts; there is a wide field of usefulness
open to them in a thoroughly systematic and energetic work of distributing
the existing literature produced by the great societies. In some missions
this work of circulating Scriptures and Christian books has been reduced
almost to a science and has become an exceedingly efficient help to the
cause in those districts. Other missions have yet to learn the importance
and blessing of this activity.
(_e_) Medical Work.
This department of missionary effort has a wide sphere of usefulness.
Though not so urgently necessary now as in former times in India, owing to
the ubiquitous and efficient Government Medical Department, it is
nevertheless popular and very useful. This is specially so when the whole
work and its agency are brought into full subjection to the Christian, as
distinct from the purely humanitarian, motive. No other department is more
capable of being utilized as an evangelizing agency; and in many missions
its influence is thus widely felt. Everywhere its aid to other departments
of mission work is much appreciated through its ability to gain friends
for our cause among those who would otherwise be inimical; and in
preparing the hearts of many to receive spiritual help from the Great
Physician. No fewer than forty hospitals, besides many dispensaries, are
conducted by Protestant missions in India today. Many of the medical
missionaries give their whole time to this work; others conduct the
medical as only one of the departments of their missionary activity. To
each method there are advantages and disadvantages; though, perhaps, the
medical missionary finds greatest usefulness when he gives himself
entirely to his profession as physician. But, in that case, he needs
tenfold caution lest the distinctively missionary idea of his life-work
should be subjected to, or lost in, the professional and the humanitarian
spirit.
Medical work for women and children finds in India today perhaps its most
urgent call. There is more need and suffering among them than among men.
(_f_) Work for Women.
From the first, missions have not neglected woman. She has been their
care, and her conversion and elevation their ambition. But, in recent
times, much has been added to this. Not only have separate and definite
forms of work been opened _for_ women; organized work _by_ women in their
behalf has suddenly taken high rank and attained considerable popularity
among Christian peoples. Under Women’s Missionary Societies fully 1,000
ladies have come to India and are giving themselves exclusively to work
for their Indian sisters. All forms of effort are undertaken in their
behalf. Assisted by an army of thousands of native Bible women, Zenana
workers and mistresses, these ladies perform their noble service. Hindu
homes are daily and everywhere visited, and the seed of Christian life and
truth sown; thousands of non-Christian girls and young women are
instructed and initiated into the mysteries of Bible truth and Christian
life; and Christian womanhood is being developed, more rapidly indeed than
Christian manhood, into a thing of strength and beauty. In the town of
Madura alone thirty-one Bible women have access to 1,000 non-Christian
homes where Bible instruction is gladly received. Another staff of
twenty-one Christian workers instructs daily, in five schools, 500 Hindu
and Mohammedan girls. Also a High and Training school for Christian girls,
with 256 pupils; and a Bible woman’s training school, with seventeen
students, complete this organized work for women in that town. From it, as
a centre, seventeen other women visit and work in seventy-two different
villages and instruct 1,005 pupils. No work at present is more important
or finds more encouragement than this organized activity for women.
[Illustration: A Junior Christian Endeavor Society.]
[Illustration: A Village Christian School.]
(_g_) Work for the Young.
Ours is preëminently the age of youth—the time when the importance of work
for the young is fully appreciated, and when manifold activities are put
forth by the Christian Church in their behalf. During recent years such
activity has been extensively introduced into mission fields. In India at
present, Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., Y. P. S. C. E., Epworth League,
Sunday-school Union and a host of other less-known organizations for the
young have established themselves and are working with much enthusiasm. In
former years little was done for the young of the infant Christian
communities. The old Oriental idea that young people are of no account,
and that effort in their behalf is hardly worth while, obtained in India
until recent years. The consequence was that the children of Christian
congregations were neglected and allowed to absent themselves from
Christian services and to grow up in ignorance and heathenish darkness. As
a result of this many of these boys and girls, when they grew up into
manhood and womanhood, reverted to heathenism; and many flourishing
Christian congregations of the last generation became defunct. It is now
understood, with increasing distinctness, that the permanent success and
growth of a Christian congregation, as of the whole Christian community,
depends more upon the effort which is exercised in behalf of the young
than upon any amount of labour lavished upon those of maturer years.
Hence, more activity, of an organized type, is being wisely put forth in
behalf of the children and of young people. The more plastic, responsive,
tenacious mind of the young takes in more readily, appreciates more keenly
and clings with more persistence to religious instruction and inspiration
imparted to it than does that of the older members of the community. The
Christian worker thus finds earlier and greater fruit to his labour among
the young than among the old. Any enthusiasm imparted by him to the young
people is also, sooner or later, apt to be carried by them to the older
members of the congregation or church. The hope of the Church in India
lies in the young people; and that missionary, or native agent, who can
best organize the young into useful forms of outgoing Christian activity,
will do most for the Church of the present and future. And, while so
excellent an agency as the Christian Endeavor Society is available for use
in this line of work, the missionary need not be discouraged, but may feel
confident that he has within his power an organization rich in promise of
blessing to his whole community.
(_h_) Organizations for the Special Activities of the Native Christian
Community.
Every mission should encourage all forms of wise and necessary
organization for the furtherance of the highest life of the community
itself. And this chiefly with a view to developing self-dependence in the
community. These organizations will be naturally divided into two classes.
_Those Which Promote Self-Government._
The Christian Church in the mission field should be organized
ecclesiastically and administratively in such a way that it may
ultimately, and as speedily as may seem wise, become entirely
self-governing. Every mission should aim to so teach the people that they
may control and conduct successfully their own affairs. It should
establish a Church which sends its roots deep into the soil of the land
and which will become, in the highest sense, indigenous. One of the
necessary evils of missionary life is the early Western control and
guidance of everything. I should like to see the day, when the native
Church can establish that polity which is most congenial to its taste and
run its affairs independently and on Oriental lines, in such a way as to
win more effectively the people of India to Christ. The question is
sometimes asked,—“Must our Congregational missions bind, to our
Congregational form of ecclesiastical government, the people whom they
bring over from heathenism? Must our church polity, in the mission field,
be Congregational, or Presbyterian, etc., regardless of its adaptation, or
want of adaptation, to the people?” The affirmative answer has usually
been given by all societies (and wrongly I think) to this inquiry; and
thus every denomination transplants into heathen lands, with renewed
emphasis, not only its own peculiar shibboleths of doctrine; it also
exalts to a heavenly command the government and ritual which it
represents.
Missions in India are conscientiously endeavouring, with varying degrees
of wisdom and success, to lead forward their people in the line of
self-government. But both love of power and a conviction of the inability
of the infant Church to wisely control its affairs, combine to render this
transfer of power from the mission to the native Church a very slow
matter—more slow than seems wise to many besides the leaders of the native
Church themselves. It is a significant fact, in India today, that the
Methodist missions, by their compact organization, are able to, or at any
rate do, confer more ecclesiastical and administrative power upon the
native Church than any other mission; while Congregational missions—the
least organized—are the most backward in this matter. A study for the
causes of this would be instructive.
_Those Organisations Which Promote Self-Extension._
One of the first things that a mission should do, after gathering the
Christian community, is to organize, in the community, such activities as
are outreaching and self-extending. In the Madura Mission there has been
for many years a Home Missionary Society whose aim is to help support weak
churches and also maintain a force of evangelists to preach to
non-Christians. It is the society of the native Christians—supported and
largely directed by them. It has created, maintained and increased the
interest of the people in furthering the cause of Christ.
Many such societies exist in India today and they render valuable service
in keeping before the mind of the people the deepest characteristics of
our faith and the highest privilege of a Christian community—that of
outgoing love, and self-extending enthusiasm.
_Those Organisations Which Further Self-Support._
How extensively should the idea of self-support be at present urged upon
the native Christian community? This is a question which we will discuss
later on. There is no question however but that every mission should so
organize its benevolences that the infant Church may, at as early a date
as possible, cease to seek support from a foreign land; and that it
cultivate at the same time a spirit of self-denial and of self-reliance.
The poverty of the people is, and will long remain, a serious barrier to
this consummation. But the evil of poverty may be counterbalanced by a
careful system whereby the benevolent feelings, generous impulses and the
sense of obligation of the people are conserved, strengthened and made
fully effective. This matter should not be left to haphazard or to
spasmodic appeal. Every Christian, even the poorest, should be so directed
and inspired in his benevolence that he may effectively contribute to the
worthy object of self-support.
These three _desiderata_ of the native Christian Church—self-support,
self-propagation and self-government—are to be desired above all other
blessings by the missions and should be sought with a persistence and a
well-organized intelligence, which will mean advance and ultimate success.
When these three have been attained, missions, with all their expensive
machinery, may gladly disband and feel that their end has been
accomplished and that they are no longer needed.