THE RELATION OF THE STATION TO THE WORLD.
We have now dealt with the survey of the station and of the province or
small country, but the final end of missionary work is the attainment of
a world-wide purpose. The Gospel is for the whole world, not for a
fragment of it, however big. Missionary work cannot properly be carried
on in any place except by means and methods designed with a view to the
whole, and missions can never be properly presented to us at home so
long as we are taught to fix our eyes on small areas; because the great
characteristic of missions is their vastness. This is what is so
uplifting and ennobling in the work. Every little piece of mission work
ought to be directed on principles capable of bearing the weight of the
whole. We ought to be able to say, "The whole world can be converted by
these means and on these principles which we are here employing in this
little village". If the methods and the principles are so narrow that we
can build no great world-wide structure on them, we can take little more
interest in them than we do in the petty politics of some little parish
at home.
We have then yet to demand that we shall be able to put every little
station into its proper place in this larger whole, and to see how its
principles and methods are illumined by the vision of the whole, being
established with the design of accomplishing the whole task. We turn
then now to this larger view of mission work. The tables which we have
drawn for a province or small country would enable us to compare the
work in each area with another such area in the larger whole, and to
judge whether we were unduly neglecting any; where the Church was
strongest and where it was least established; where it was more capable
and where it was less capable of taking over that work which rightly
belongs to it, of extending its own boundaries, and of maintaining its
own life. We should not send hasty missions here or there because some
interesting political event attracts the eyes of men to this or that
particular country, but on definite missionary principles, acting on a
clear and reasonable understanding of the missionary situation in the
world.
The commission of Christ is world-wide, the claim of Christ is
world-wide, the work of Christ, the Spirit of Christ are all-embracing;
and the work which missionaries do in His name should be all-embracing
to. We should conduct all our work, and plan all our work, at home and
abroad, with our eyes fixed on the final goal, which is for us, so long
as we are on this earth, coterminous only with the limits of the
habitable globe. We cannot be content to approach even the largest areas
as though our action was limited by them. All our policy in every part
should be part of a policy designed for the whole. If it is not designed
to accomplish the whole it is not adequate for any part.
How then could we gain a vision of the whole, a whole composed of such
vast and diverse parts? Obviously we must have for every country in
which any missionary work is carried on some common returns, either
those which we venture to suggest or others which some abler minds might
suggest; but that they must be common to all, and fundamental in
character, is obvious; and they must be reduced to proportions on a
common basis, or comparison and combination will be impossible; and
they must be as few as possible in order to avoid confusion.
We suggest, then, that if we had the four tables which follow we should
possess a reasonable basis, sufficient for our present needs, especially
since we suppose they would be supported by the tables for the different
provinces, countries, and stations which we have already suggested, and
they ought to be supplemented by surveys made by each society of its own
work and by departmental surveys of medical, educational, industrial,
and literary work made for the special direction of each of these
branches. But for a first general view of the whole we propose:--
(1) A table showing the force at work in the area in relation to the
population:--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Proportion to Population.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Province| Popula-| Total | Chris- | Com- | |
or | tion. | Foreign | tian | municants | Paid | Unpaid
Country| | Mission-| Constitu-| or Full |Workers.| Workers.
Area. | | aries. | ents. | Members | |
--------|--------|---------|----------|-----------|--------|---------
| | | | | |
________|________|_________|__________|___________|________|_________
---------------------------------------------------------------------
That would give us a general view of the force at work in relation to
the work to be done and of the proportions between its constituent
parts. Then (2):--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
| Proportion of Paid | Proportion of
| Workers | Unpaid Workers
-------------------|------------------------|------------------------
Propor- | |
Christian tion |-----------|------------|-------------|----------
Constitu- of | | To | |To
ency. Liter- | To | Christian | To |Christian
ates. | Com- | Constitu- | Com- |Constitu-
| municants.| ency |municants. |ency.
-------------------|-----------|------------|-------------|----------
| | | |
-------------------+-----------+------------+-------------+----------
That would give us an idea of the character and power of the force. (3)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
| | | Percentage | Percentage
| | Paid | of Total | of Total
| Missionaries.| Native | Foreign Funds| Native
| | Workers.| Employed in. | Contributions
| | | | Employed in.
-------------+--------------+---------+--------------+---------------
Evangelistic | -- | -- | -- | --
----------------------------+---------+--------------+---------------
Medical | -- | -- | -- | --
----------------------------+---------+--------------+---------------
Educational | -- | -- | -- | --
----------------------------+---------+--------------+---------------
Other forms | -- | -- | -- | --
of work | -- | -- | -- | --
-------------+--------------+---------+--------------+---------------
That would give us relative emphasis on different forms of work.
(4)
-------------+---------------------+--------------+------------------
| Total Amount Paid | |Relation of Native
Christian | to Native Evangel- | Total Native | Contribution to
Constituency.| istic Workers In- | Contribution.| Pay of Workers.
| cluding all Pastors.| |
-------------+---------------------+--------------+------------------
| | |
_____________|_____________________|______________|__________________
That would give us some idea of the extent to which the native
Christians support the existing work.
Now if we could form some idea of the force at work in relation to the
country in which it is working; and some idea of the character of the
force; and some idea of the relative emphasis laid on different forms of
work, and some idea of the extent to which the native Christians support
the work, we should, we hope, be able to form a reasonable estimate of
the extent and progress of our efforts in the world. The whole number of
forms would not be very large, for there would only be about 150 areas
from which such forms would be required, and these could be combined so
as to give us a view of the situation in the world such as the mind
could grasp.
This is, we admit, rather a hasty and tentative expression of the way
in which we might satisfy the present need; but it seems to us that the
time is ripe for the consideration of this great subject, and we can
think of no better plan than to propose tables, and then to leave others
to criticise and amend them, or to suggest better ones, or better
methods of attaining an object which few would deny to be desirable.
With proper tables, these or others, we should then be able to trace the
meaning and results of each station which we founded and to put it into
its place in a reasoned scheme of things, and that is the crying need.