sound physical man. No one should be accepted by a mission board for
work in Japan who cannot secure a policy in a reliable life-insurance
company, and it would be well if the medical examination were made by
an examiner for such company. The examinations made by a physician
appointed by the mission boards are usually mere farces, for the desire
to go as a missionary frequently covers up many physical weaknesses and
prevents a thorough examination. The examination should therefore be
made by a disinterested medical man, who will not be influenced by such
motives.
It seems hard to subject candidates for mission work to such rigid
examinations, and perhaps refuse to send them because of some small
physical defect; but the interests of the work make it imperative.
Otherwise the young missionary will, in all probability, break down and
have to go home in three or four years, before he has been able to do
any active work. The experiment will have cost the board a large
amount of money and a loss of several years, and the {196} missionary
some of the best years of his life, probably making of him an incurable
invalid. In so serious a matter as this the boards cannot afford to be
swayed by sentiment. Nothing but sound business principles should be
followed.
The same physical requirements should be made for the woman as for the
man. She, too, should be subjected to a medical examination, and any
serious defect in her constitution should cause her immediate
rejection. It seems hard to subject the wife to this test, as she is
not a missionary in the strict sense of the term, and to many the
requirement will be distasteful; but for their protection, and for a
judicious use of consecrated funds, the boards should require it. A
little thought will show that the failure of the wife's health is just
as disastrous for the mission as the failure of her husband's. It
cripples his efficiency while on the field, and ultimately drives him
home. Most boards operating in Japan have not made this requirement,
and as a consequence many missionaries' wives are in poor health, and
as many men have had to return home because of the failure of their
wives' health as for any other one cause.
The mission boards should not appoint too young men to work in Japan.
It is well known that young men cannot endure so well as older ones
change of climate and hard work. Those {197} who are physically and
mentally immature will very probably be unable to bear the strain. In
general, no one should be sent out under twenty-five years of age, and
it would be safer if all who came had attained the age of thirty.
Against this it is argued that a young person will acquire the language
more readily than an older one, and this is doubtless true. But health
is of first importance.
SPIRITUAL QUALIFICATIONS.--Although I consider spiritual qualifications
after physical ones, I nevertheless regard them as of great importance.
It is highly desirable that every missionary be a deeply spiritual man,
fully consecrated to the cause of Christ. The consecration needed in
the missionary is little different from that needed in the home pastor.
If he has given himself and all that he has to Christ, he will be ready
to work for Him anywhere. Those who come to the mission field without
such consecration, expecting the grandeur of the work to beget it, will
be bitterly disappointed. In many instances contact with heathenism
weakens more than it strengthens consecration. The societies should
require that those who are to do spiritual work should be consecrated,
spiritual men.
The missionary should be sound in the faith, should clearly discern and
readily accept the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, and should
{198} be able to distinguish between essentials and non-essentials,
tenaciously holding to the former, while allowing liberty in regard to
the latter. He will encounter many strange things in his new
environment; many of his pet theories will be exploded, and he will
meet much that will try his faith. His belief in the essentials of
Christianity should be so strong that even if his views undergo a
change in non-essentials he shall not be shaken at the center. He must
be able to defend his faith against its enemies, as well as to impart
it to those to whom he is sent. To do this his own hold upon it must
be firm and unyielding.
The missionary should have a positive, not a negative, faith. His
position should continually be one of offense, not of defense. His
faith must be aggressive and dominant in its hold upon others, must be
both persuasive and constructive. He must be sure of the faith in
which he trusts, and must be positive in his presentation of it to the
world.
It is especially important that the missionary's doctrinal development
be full and rounded. He should see all the doctrines of the Christian
system in their proper relation to one another, and should give due
importance to each. A one-sided, eccentric man, who has struck off
from the main line of doctrinal development and is on a {199}
side-track, having exalted some one phase of the Christian teaching or
life to the exclusion of others, is not fitted for mission work. He
can be used to better effect at home, because there he is continually
under restraining influences, while here there are no restraints. For
this reason what would be only a harmless eccentricity at home may
result in great mischief abroad. Those who are to found the church in
Japan, to shape its theology and its life, should be well-rounded men,
who will not unduly exalt any one doctrine, but who, having a
comprehensive view of the Christian system, will give due importance to
every part.
It is very important that prospective missionaries fully count the
cost, and be prepared beforehand to endure patiently the trials and
hardships that will be sure to meet them. No one should go out without
having carefully considered all of these things, and gained the full
consent of his heart to endure them. If the cost has not been counted,
and the work willingly entered upon with a full knowledge of its
hardships and difficulties, the encounter of these upon the field is
apt to result in disappointment and dissatisfaction.
Every missionary should be a lover of humanity, even in its lowest and
most degraded forms. It is useless for us to attempt to persuade and
influence non-Christian men if we do not love {200} them. The
audiences we address may not be moved by our logic or rhetoric; our
most eloquent sermons may have no effect on them; but practical
illustrations of our love for them will always meet with a hearty
response. Love is the key that opens all hearts. "Faith, hope, love,
these three; but the greatest of these is love."
To love refined Christian men and women is easy, but to love humanity
in its more degraded forms is hard. And yet the missionary must be
prepared to love an alien race, that regards him with coolness and
distrust. He must be ready to associate with lowly people, amid humble
and immoral surroundings, and to be patient, kind, and loving to the
most degraded. No one who has not lived on the mission field and
associated freely with the people knows how hard this is. Such love
will win more men to Christ than eloquent preaching or most careful
instruction. The man who possesses a large amount of it, other things
being equal, will meet with success.
The missionary should, as far as possible, present in his own character
all Christian graces. He will be looked upon as a product of the faith
he represents, and will exercise more influence by his life than by his
words. He must not be impatient, quarrelsome, or wilful, and, above
all, he must not be proud. Constant association with an inferior race
is apt to beget a haughty, {201} domineering manner, and the missionary
needs to be especially on his guard against this. He may present no
striking defects of character, else his faith will be held responsible
for them. Peculiarities and faults that are known to be merely
personal at home are regarded in the mission field as the result of a
bad religion.
It is very important that the missionary be an attractive man,
possessed of personal magnetism. He should by nature draw men, not
repel them. Although hard to define, we all know what this power is.
Let a little child come into a room where two men are sitting. It will
readily go to the one, but no amount of coaxing will induce it to go to
the other. The one possesses an innate power to attract, while the
other repels. Where the personal element plays so important a role it
is essential that the missionary possess the power to draw men.
MENTAL QUALIFICATIONS.--Hardly less important than physical and
spiritual are the mental qualifications. A mediocre man cannot do good
work in any mission field, least of all in a field like Japan. None
but strong men should be sent out. In former years, when the science
of missions was little understood, it was thought a waste to send a man
of unusual intellectual endowments, because an ordinary man could do
the work just as well; but the boards have wisely {202} abandoned that
policy. Experience has clearly demonstrated the wisdom of sending the
very best men that can be had.
In the first place, the prospective missionary to Japan should have as
complete and thorough a mental training as possible. A full academic
and theological course is highly desirable. He should know how to
reason logically and profoundly, and should be a skilled dialectician,
able to meet the native scholars on their own ground. The subtle
philosophies of the East, which he will daily encounter, can only be
dealt with by a man thoroughly trained. The atheistic and agnostic
philosophies of the West are spread over all Japan, and the missionary
must be able to combat them.
Another reason why the missionary should be as highly educated as
possible is that large numbers of the Japanese people are highly
educated, and a man of poor ability and training cannot command their
respect. Education is to-day being diffused more and more throughout
Japan, and the missionary must work among an educated people. It is
necessary that he feel himself to be at least the intellectual equal of
all with whom he comes in contact.
In order, then, successfully to combat the subtle philosophies of the
East, to show the fallacies of the prevalent skeptical philosophies of
the {203} West, and to command the respect of the people among whom he
labors, the missionary to this land should have a thorough intellectual
training.
Linguistic talent is another essential, and especially so in Japan. No
one should be sent here who is deficient in this. This language is
perhaps the most difficult of all spoken languages for an Occidental to
acquire. It is so thoroughly unlike any of the European languages that
the student must change his view-point and learn to look at things as
the Japanese do before he can make much progress. To master it one
must study both Japanese and Chinese. While a fair linguist can, by
hard work, preach with comparative intelligibility after three years of
study, a complete mastery of the language is the work of a lifetime.
If any one contemplating mission work in Japan remembers that he was a
poor student of languages at college and made little progress in them,
let him feel assured that he can probably serve the Lord better at
home. I state this matter strongly because just here is where so many
missionaries fail. There are men who have been here ten or fifteen
years and yet who experience great difficulty in constructing the
smallest sentence in Japanese. Such men are not useless; in certain
departments they serve well; {204} but they would probably be of more
use at home. At least one third of all the missionaries in Japan, if
called upon to make an extempore address in Japanese, would be found
wanting. In view of these facts, how important it becomes that only
those men be sent out who have a reasonable expectation of learning the
language!
Along with natural linguistic talent, the prospective missionary should
have a large amount of perseverance. Nothing but persistent, slavish
work through many years will enable one to speak Japanese well; and no
one should come here who is not willing to stick to an unattractive
task until it is accomplished.
It is of primary importance that the missionary have a large endowment
of common sense. Nothing else will make up for deficiency in this. It
alone gives power to adapt one's self to a new environment and to live
under changed conditions. The demands upon common sense here are much
greater than at home, because the conditions under which we live are so
different, and the practical questions that daily meet us are so
numerous. Dr. Lawrence finely says: "At home so much common sense has
been organized into custom that we are all largely supported by the
general fund, and many men get along with a very slender stock of their
own. But on the {205} mission field, where Christian custom is yet in
the making, the drafts on common sense would soon overdraw a small
account."
A knowledge of music will be found of great assistance to the
missionary, the more the better. He will often have to start his own
hymns, play the organ, or direct the music. He may have to translate
hymns and set them to music, or even compose tunes himself. Good
church music is now so essential in worship that every missionary
should have a knowledge of it. But this qualification, while highly
desirable, is not indispensable.
The missionary also needs to a great degree the power of self-control.
He should be a cool, conservative man, able to govern himself under all
circumstances. He must not be moved to excessive labor by the present
needs of the work, but must exercise self-restraint, husbanding his
strength for future tasks. One of the most difficult things to do is
to refrain from overwork when the need of work is so apparent. But the
missionary must consider the permanent interests of the work ahead of
its temporary needs.
To sum up the desired intellectual qualifications: a missionary to
Japan should have a good mind, well disciplined by thorough training;
an abundant supply of common sense; linguistic ability, and the power
of self-control.
{206}
There is one other qualification, that can hardly be classed under any
of the above heads, i.e., _the missionary should be a married man_.
The vast majority of missionaries in the field to-day are unanimous in
this judgment. The experience of the various mission boards and
societies also confirms it, and they are sending out fewer single men
each year.
Married men make more efficient workers for many reasons. They enjoy
better health and are better satisfied. They have a home to which they
can go for rest and sympathy, and in which they can find agreeable
companionship. They have the loving ministrations of a wife in times
of sickness and despondency, and they also have the cheer and
relaxation of children's society. All of these things tend to make the
missionary healthier and happier, and enable him to do better work.
Again, he should be married because a man of mature years who is single
is regarded with more or less suspicion. To the Japanese celibacy is
an unnatural state, and it is seldom found. Most unmarried men here
are immoral, and therefore the unmarried missionary is naturally
suspected of leading an immoral life, which cripples his influence.
But the strongest argument in favor of married as against single
missionaries is that the former {207} alone are able to build Christian
homes. The homes of single men are very poor things at best, and
certainly cannot be pointed to as models. But the married man
establishes a Christian home in the midst of his people, and sets them
a concrete example of what Christian family life should be. This
example is one of the most potent influences for good operating on the
mission field.
In home life perhaps more than in any other respect Japanese society is
wanting. The renovation of the home is one of the crying needs of the
hour. An open Christian home, exhibiting the proper relations between
husband and wife, parents and children, will do much toward bringing
this about.
This argument is not intended to apply against single women who come
out to teach in the girls' schools. Their work is entirely different,
and is such as can be done best by single women. The argument applies
only to the missionary engaged in evangelistic work.
Such I believe to be the qualifications essential to successful mission
work in Japan. To many the requirements may seem too strict. But the
work to which the missionary is called is a high and noble one, and the
ideal for a worker should be correspondingly high. The extreme
difficulty of the work, and its great expense, make it imperative that
only men adapted to it be sent out. {208}
While setting forth this high ideal of what a missionary to this land
should be, no one is more sensible than the writer of the fact that
many missionaries, including himself, fail to realize it. But he is
glad to be able to affirm that a large per cent. of these desired
qualifications are found in the majority of the missionary brethren in
Japan.
{209}
XII
PRIVATE LIFE OF THE MISSIONARY
It is our purpose in this chapter to show the churches at home
something of the life which their missionaries lead in Japan. We will
attempt to draw aside the veil and look at their private life--the holy
of holies. This is a delicate task, and I hesitate to undertake it.
And yet I think a knowledge of the trials, perils, discouragements,
temptations, hopes, and fears of the missionary may be very profitable
to those who support our missions.
Missionaries are men of like appetites, passions, hopes, and desires
with those at home. They long for and enjoy the comforts and amenities
of life. They have wives and children whom they love as devotedly, and
for whom they desire to provide as comfortable homes, as the pastor at
home.
There was a time when missionaries were {210} called upon to forego
nearly all social pleasures and submit to endless discomforts, but that
time is past. The mission home to-day is frequently as comfortable as
that of the pastor in America. It is right that the standard of living
in the home lands should be maintained by the missionaries abroad, and
that they surround themselves with all available pleasures and
conveniences. There is no reason why a man should lay aside all
pleasures and comforts so soon as he becomes a missionary.
Those who live in the foreign ports in Japan have nice, roomy houses
modeled after Western homes. Many of them are surrounded with
beautiful lawns and fine flowers, and are a comfort and delight to
their possessors. Most of the missionaries who live in the interior
occupy native houses, slightly modified to suit foreign taste. By
building chimneys, and substituting glass for paper windows, the native
houses can be made quite comfortable, though they are colder in winter
and do not look so well as foreign ones. The writer has lived in such
a home during most of his residence in Japan, and has suffered little
inconvenience. Some of the wealthier mission boards have built foreign
houses even in the interior, and to-day there are a good many such
scattered over Japan.
As has been before remarked, the mission {211} home is one of the most
important factors in connection with the work; it is a little bit of
Christendom set down in the midst of heathendom. It presents to the
non-Christian masses around it a concrete example of exalted family
life, with equality and trust between husband and wife, and mutual love
between parents and children--things not generally found in the native
home. It is a beacon-light shining in a dark place.
This is one of the many reasons why a missionary should be a married
man. The single man cannot create this model home, which is to teach
the people by example what Christian family life should be. In this
respect Catholic missions are deficient, the celibacy of the priests
precluding family life.
First, then, the mission home is an example to the non-Christian people
around it. It is frequently open to them, and they can see its
workings. They often share its hospitality and sit at its table.
Their keen eyes take in everything, and a deep impression is made upon
them.
Just here arises one of the greatest difficulties the missionary has to
contend with in his private life. The people are so inquisitive
naturally, the mission home is so attractive to them, and our idea of
the privacy and sanctity of the home is so lacking in their etiquette,
that it is hard to keep {212} the home from becoming public. People
will come in large numbers at the most unseasonable hours, simply out
of curiosity, wanting to see and handle everything in the house. It is
often necessary, in self-defense, to refuse them admittance, except at
certain hours. Not only are the seclusion and privacy of the home
endangered, but the missionary also is in great danger of having his
valuable time uselessly frittered away.
Notwithstanding all that the mission home is to the people, it is much
more to the missionary. It should be to him a sure retreat and
seclusion from the peculiarly trying cares and worries of his work. It
should be a place where he can evade the subtle influences of
heathenism which creep in at every pore--a safe retreat from the sin
and wickedness and vice around it.
The mission home should be a Western home transplanted in the East. It
may not become too much orientalized. It should have Western
furniture, pictures, musical instruments, etc., and should make its
possessor feel that he is in a Western home. It should be well
supplied with books and newspapers, and everything else that will help
to keep its inmates in touch with the life of the West. The missionary
may not be orientalized, else he will be in danger of becoming
heathenized.
For the sake of his children the missionary's {213} home should be as
exact a reproduction of the Western home as possible. These children
are citizens of the West, heirs of its privileges; and to it they will
go before they reach years of maturity. Therefore it is but fair that
their childhood home should reflect its civilization.
In order that the missionary may be able to build up such a home it is
necessary that he be paid a liberal salary. While living in native
style is very cheap, living in Western style is perhaps as dear here as
in any country in the world. Clothing, furniture, much of the food,
etc., must be brought from the West; and we must pay for it not only
what the people at home pay, but the cost of carrying it half-way round
the world, and the commission of two or three middlemen besides.
Most boards operating in Japan pay their men a liberal salary. They
also pay an allowance for each child, health allowance, etc. All this
is well. Man is an animal, and, like other animals, he must be well
cared for if he is to do his best work. No farmer would expect to get
hard work out of a horse that was only half fed, and no mission board
can expect to get first-class work out of a missionary who is not
liberally supported. The missionary has enough to worry him without
having to be anxious about finances.
Especially is it wise that the boards give their {214} men an allowance
for children. The expenses incident to a child's coming into the world
in the East are very high. The doctor's bill alone amounts frequently
to more than $100. Then a nurse is absolutely necessary, there being
no relatives and friends to perform this office, as sometimes there are
in the West. The birth of a child here means a cash outlay of $150 to
$200, to pay which the missionary is often reduced to hard straits. If
he belongs to a board that makes a liberal child's allowance he is
fortunately relieved from this difficulty.