The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Call of the World or, Every Man's Supreme Opportunity, by W. E. Doughty.

The four questions which the author has most frequently heard in discussing world problems with men are the following:

How can men relate themselves in a practical way to the spread of Christianity throughout the world?

It is to give a brief answer to these four fundamental questions that the following pages have been prepared for use in Missionary Discussion Groups, Men's Bible Classes, Brotherhoods, Missionary Committees, and groups of Sunday School Officers and Teachers. It is also confidently expected that many men who cannot meet to discuss these problems in any of the groups mentioned will read and study the book in private. In preparing the manuscript the author has had in mind a large number of men who are now or should become public advocates of missions. The book presents information which they may use in addresses.

Many of the facts given have been taken from the Report of the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, The World Atlas of Christian Missions , The Statesman's Year Book, 1912 , The Decisive Hour of Christian Missions , by John R. Mott, and The Unoccupied Mission Fields of Africa and Asia , by S. M. Zwemer.

[Pg vi] The author is indebted to his friend, the Rev. W. R. Dobyns, D.D., of St. Joseph, Missouri, for the design on the cover.

It is the hope of the writer that the reading and discussion of the topics outlined in these pages will inspire many men to undertake to master the world plans of Christ and lead them to enthrone at the center of life the missionary purpose—the one purpose around which a man may build all the facts of his life and to which he may cling and let everything else go when he is hard pressed.

THE CALL OF THE WORLD

CHAPTER I
THE WIDENING SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRIST IN
THE WORLD

In a discussion concerning the elements of an effective speech, Dr. C. H. Patton, of the American Board, gave the following outline:

These suggestions apply not only to speeches but to any case which is to make an effective appeal to men. What subject is there which so perfectly illustrates the principles stated by Dr. Patton as the missionary theme? Nowhere else in all the realm of thinking and action are there such big, human, related facts as in the enterprise which has for its goal the world-wide propagation and naturalization of Christianity.

Christian business men are constantly asking certain pertinent questions about any business undertaking. Is it honest? Is it safe? Will it pay? Is it big enough to be worth while? Will it succeed? Will it last?

Men have a right to ask such questions about business. [Pg 2] They have an equal right to make the same thorough and searching investigation of the proposition to evangelize the world. Confident of the power of the cause to capture and hold men when once it has had a chance at them, believing that this is the greatest case that has ever challenged the manhood of the world, some of the evidences of the widening sovereignty of Christ in the world are marshaled here. The Scriptures unmistakably indicate that God has pledged universal dominion to his Son. The facts which follow are concrete illustrations of the truth of the missionary principles of the Bible. The gathering momentum of the Kingdom makes an irresistible appeal.

I. World Conditions Favorable to the Spread of
Christianity

An Accessible World. —1. Improved means of intercommunication. That we live in a contracting world is strikingly illustrated by the fact that when Robert Morrison went to China it took him seventy-eight days to reach New York from England, and four months to go from New York to China. Hunter Corbett, of China, who was six months on his way the first time he took the trip, made the journey a few months ago in twenty-one days. It is now possible to go from Peking to London [Pg 3] in twelve and one-half days over the Trans-Siberian Railroad. A recent journey around the world was made in less than thirty-six days. When Jules Verne published Around the World in Eighty Days , the journey described was laughed at as an impossible feat. To-day it is possible to circle the globe in less than one half the time of which Jules Verne wrote in his book. It took the old Greeks forty days to go the length of the Mediterranean Sea in their swiftest triremes. The greatest stretch of open water in the world is 10,000 miles in the Pacific Ocean. There are vessels afloat to-day that can traverse the 10,000 miles in one half the time that it took the old Greeks to go the length of the Mediterranean Sea.

There are to-day no lands in the world which are closed entirely to modern influence and only a few which do not at least tolerate the Christian missionary with his advanced ideas of civilization and progress. It is difficult to estimate the amazing changes in sentiment in lands where missionaries have been at work even for a generation, as in Korea, or for a century or more, as in India or China.

It is unthinkable that there should ever be another Chinese wall shutting out all world contact. Edicts in force as late as 1870 ordering the death of Christians in Japan are now exhibited only as relics of a buried past. The twentieth century is making hermit nations impossible.

3. A mental attitude has been created in the non-Christian world which nothing but Christ can satisfy. This may be only an indefinite restlessness and dissatisfaction [Pg 4] with existing conditions in many cases, but it is apparently true that the principles of the Christian gospel have created an altogether new mental attitude in the world. It is stated by one of the great missionary authorities in India that there are millions of people in that land who are intellectually converted to the gospel who have not yet yielded personal allegiance to Christ. This mental attitude is an enormous asset to the Kingdom.

A Plastic World. —The nations of our day are plastic to a degree never before witnessed. Heat, pressure, and decay, are some of the forces which make physical substances plastic. There are intellectual and moral and spiritual forces which produce a like effect on men and nations. As great heat applied to metal fuses it, so the ideas and forces of the twentieth century have fused the non-Christian world. Pressure, such as foreign aggression, world commerce, and modern science have helped to bring about the present plastic state in vast sections of the world. Added to these two and accompanying them are the forces of disintegration and decay in the old religions, old forms of government, and the customs and habits of centuries. In itself this present remarkable state of the non-Christian world has no moral quality. The significant thing is that, while nations are in a plastic state, they offer special opportunity to put the stamp of Christianity on them before they harden again, and to determine the direction their civilization shall take by building into them the principles of Christian civilization and the Christian faith.

A Changing World. —One of the most impressive evidences that the leaven of Christian civilization is at [Pg 5] work in the non-Christian world is the fact that there are wide-spread changes taking place. God has been shaping and preparing the nations in the interests of a world-wide gospel. The extent and character of these changes make the present the most momentous hour in the history of the non-Christian world.

The extent of the changes may best be illustrated by comparing the present awakening with other great historic movements of the last two thousand years. In naming the epoch-making movements of the Christian Era the following could not be omitted: The Renaissance, The Mohammedan Conquest, The Crusades, The Reformation, The American Revolution, The French Revolution, The Wesleyan Revival, and The Rise of Popular Governments. On examination it is discovered that each of these movements was confined to a comparatively limited geographical area, one or two of the countries of Europe, or certain racial sections such as the Anglo-Saxon, or the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, or, as in the case of the American Revolution, England and America. While these movements were all of far-reaching significance they affected directly only a few countries. But to-day all Asia is awake, Africa is stirring with life as never before, and the South American lands are in the midst of a period of commercial activity and of progress unparalleled. Instead of a limited area millions of square miles are in the midst of far-reaching changes.

The great awakenings of the last twenty centuries influenced directly only a few millions of people in contrast with the awakening of to-day which affects THREE FOURTHS OF THE HUMAN RACE . [Pg 6] From the standpoint of the vast populations involved as well as of the immense territory affected the world has never seen an awakening of such magnitude as that which is taking place in our time.

In character also the present movement is eclipsing all former awakenings in history. One of the most satisfactory ways of measuring the power of any movement is to analyze it in relation to the fundamental institutions of society. Reducing civilization to its simplest terms society is built around five great institutions. In one column the institutions are named, in the other the human relations which each represents.

While the illustration must not be carried too far, yet in a striking way it is true that the great awakenings of the last two thousand years have been characterized by only one or two central and controlling principles. The Renaissance was an intellectual awakening, thus changing the educational life of Europe. The Reformation was religious and profoundly influenced the Church. The Rise of Popular Governments was political and began a new era for the state. So on through the list. By way of contrast, we are to-day in the midst of an awakening which radically affects all these fundamental institutions of society. In China, for example, a movement is in progress which is not simply affecting the state, or the social life, or the religious character of [Pg 7] the people, but is transforming all five of the fundamental institutions of life. As Dr. J. E. Williams, of Nanking University, puts it: "If we could conceive of the Renaissance of learning after the dark ages, the interest in literature that came with the study of Latin and Greek, and the awakening of thought that followed upon the discovery of new worlds—material and intellectual—and then add to this the new forces of the Reformation, the reconstruction of men's moral and religious ideas and ideals and the recovery of the right of the individual conscience, and if to these we could conceive as added the French Revolution—the break-up of all that men had regarded as final in social and political organization; and if to these again could be added the movement of modern science, which began with Lord Bacon's Novum Organum —and the application of the inductive method in the discovery of the forces and laws of nature; and, if further we could conceive of these great forces as operating, not at different times, in different countries, through a period of several centuries, but as combined and concentrated in a brief decade or two in one country upon a great people, we should have a more adequate conception of the magnitude and significance of the present Revolution in China."

A significant fact is that most of the revolutionary forces and agencies which have brought about the awakening have come from Christian lands. The most powerful single force at work has been the missionary. He has carried with him the finest ideals of Western civilization, and has been able in an unusual way to bring the latest ideas in all realms of life to bear upon the non-Christian world. A condition exists which Professor [Pg 8] Ross, in The Changing Chinese , a book which it will pay every man to read, finely describes in the following words:

"The crucifixion was two hundred and eighty years old before Christianity won toleration in the Roman Empire. It was one hundred and twenty-eight years after Luther's defiance before the permanence of the Protestant Reformation was assured. After the discovery of the New World one hundred and fifteen years elapsed before the first English colony was planted here. No one who saw the beginning of these great, slow, historic movements could grasp their full import or witness their culmination. But nowadays world processes are telescoped and history is made at aviation speed."

All this makes it clear that we have come to an hour of crisis in the relations between Christendom and the non-Christian world. What is a crisis but a point of time in the history of the human race when great issues are at stake, when there is an unprecedented break-up of civilizations, when Christian nations must make great decisions about their relations with the non-Christian world. We find everywhere conditions that are passing and that will not return. It is the time of all times for men who love Christ to make him known to the ends of the earth. The situation is summarized in "the Message of the Edinburgh Conference," in the following language: "The next ten years will, in all probability, constitute a turning-point in human history, and may be of more critical importance in determining the spiritual evolution of mankind than many centuries of ordinary experience. If those years are wasted, havoc may be wrought that centuries will not be able to repair. On [Pg 9] the other hand, if they are rightly used, they may be among the most glorious in Christian history."

The Increase of Populations in Christian Countries. —At the beginning of the nineteenth century the entire population of the United States and Canada was only about 5 millions; to-day it is 100 millions. In the same period of time the populations of Europe have increased from 170 to 450 millions. During this same hundred years the population in some parts of the non-Christian world has declined, in others remained stationary, or the growth has been very slow. While the birth rate is much greater in many non-Christian lands, the cheapness of human life, the lack of sanitary and other conditions for safeguarding life greatly increase the death rate. The population of the world at the end of the eighteenth century was estimated to be approximately 1,000 millions. During the nineteenth century the numbers increased by about 600 millions. Europe and North America together increased in population by nearly 400 millions during that century. These figures for the world are only estimates but are given by the most reliable students of such matters. While exact figures for the non-Christian world cannot be given, the significant fact is that there has been a marvelous expansion of Christian nations within the last one hundred years, far outstripping the expansion of other parts of the world. The nations which know most of Christ and his gospel have increased in numbers as well as in power out of all proportion to the rest of mankind.

The Spread of the English Language. —We quote from a leaflet entitled "The Seven Wonders of the Modern Missionary World," by Dr. A. W. Halsey.

[Pg 10] "The spread of the English language is one of the wonders of the age. The English language is spoken at the present time by nearly 200,000,000 people; each year sees large additions to the group of English-speaking peoples. In the Philippines more people to-day speak the English language than spoke the Spanish language after three hundred years of Spanish rule.

"In all higher education in India, English is compulsory; in the secondary schools in India, English is taught. In China, the government has made English a part of the regular curriculum. In Japan, the students are eager to learn English. It is the avenue through which the missionary frequently is able to reach the educated classes. In Syria, one of the boys in the classroom wrote on the blackboard, 'God is love' in his own language, thirty boys followed, each writing the text in his own language; yet these boys sooner or later will all speak the English language. A speaker at the Edinburgh Conference declared that some missionaries read the Lord's command as though it were written 'Go and teach all nations the English language.' Macaulay says that whoever knows the English language has 'ready access to the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and stored in the course of ninety generations.' The English language is the language of liberty, of law, of morals, of high ideals. The English Bible, which has molded Anglo-Saxon civilization, is making no small impress on world civilization.

"The Greek language became the vehicle in which the gospel story was borne to the educated world of the first century. The English language seems destined [Pg 11] in the providence of God to be the bearer of the gospel to the races of the twentieth century."

The following table indicates the remarkable growth during the nineteenth century of the English language as compared with other tongues. The estimates are given by Mulhall and John Bartholomew of Edinburgh and appear in the 1912 World Almanac .

In the light of these figures the total given by Dr. Halsey quoted above is perhaps too high. It will be seen, however, that the number speaking German has multiplied nearly threefold and the number of those speaking English six and a half times in the century under review. Since an overwhelming majority of missionaries speak either English or German or both, the significance of the spread of these languages is apparent.

The Geographical Control of the World. —One of the most inspiring evidences of the widening sovereignty of Christ is that he has passed over the control of the territory of the world to the Christian nations. According to Gulick's Growth of the Kingdom of God , in 1600 only 7 per cent. of the territory of the world was controlled by Christian nations, but to-day 82 per cent., so that the growth of Christian control has passed in three [Pg 12] hundred years from 7 per cent. to 82 per cent., while the control of non-Christian nations has decreased from 93 per cent. to 18 per cent.

The increasing control of the world by Christian nations is due in no small measure to the fact that they are masters of most of the great waterways and highways of the world. The Suez and Panama Canals and the Khaibar Pass in India are striking illustrations.

In 1800, four hundred millions of people were governed by Catholic and Protestant Christian powers; in 1912 at least one thousand millions, or two and a half times as many as were thus governed in 1800. In 1500, there were no Protestant political powers in the world. To-day, England, Germany, and the United States rule over about six hundred millions of the population of the world. These three Protestant powers alone now have dominion over more millions of people than are ruled over by all the non-Christian nations of the world added together.

The Mohammedan world furnishes a startling illustration of this shifting control of the world. A few generations ago Mohammedan political and religious control were coextensive. To-day over three fourths of the Mohammedans of the world live in lands which they do not rule politically. The passing of Mohammedan political dominion from Africa is of profound significance for that continent. France has extended and consolidated her African possessions by taking Algeria and establishing a protectorate over Morocco, which is one of the greatest strongholds of orthodox Mohammedanism. Italy has now taken full control of Tripoli. Only a few of the forty or more millions of Mohammedans [Pg 13] in Africa are under Moslem political rule. Italy has already begun the construction of 400 miles of railway in Tripoli. In Algiers and down through the Sahara toward the Sudan the steel lines are being laid by France. God is evidently preparing his people for a great advance among Mohammedans. The great question now is whether his Church will be equal to the emergency.

II. The Multiplying Agencies of the Kingdom

The Number and Growing Efficiency of Missionary Societies. —More than two hundred years ago Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and his colaborer Plütschau were ordained missionaries to India in the city of Copenhagen; and two years later, in 1707, at Tranquebar, the first Protestant Church of the non-Christian world was established in South India among the Tamil people. Later the great Schwartz and others carried on the work resulting in the founding of the missionary work of the present day in India.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were two important missionary organizations in Great Britain. On the continent the Lutherans and Moravians were struggling heroically in the carrying on of their missionary operations. There were scarcely more than a dozen missionary societies altogether in the whole world, either well established or just beginning. It was a very small and feeble list of organizations compared with that of the present day. The Edinburgh Missionary Conference reported that there were 994 missionary organizations in Christendom in 1910. These have nearly all come into existence within the century.

[Pg 14] Among the indications of increased efficiency the following may be named:

1. Unity and Coöperation. It has been well said that "The three dominant notes of our time are unity, reality, and universality." That there is a growing spirit of unity in the home Church is illustrated by the way the mission boards are coöperating in the work of the interdenominational missionary movements, by the growing number of interdenominational training-schools for missionary candidates, and by organizations like the Home Missions Council and the Conference of Foreign Mission Boards in which there is interchange of ideas and plans and methods among the leaders of the home and foreign missionary activities.

Nowhere have Christian unity and practical coöperation made greater progress than in the foreign missions of American Churches. In several lands there are now conspicuous illustrations of the practical working of this spirit in the organization of union colleges, theological seminaries and training schools and in united campaigns of many different kinds.

In Korea a union hymnal was issued some time ago and the first edition of 24,000 copies was sold within the first few weeks. In this same land, in dividing the territory between the different missions, the Methodists and Presbyterians exchanged several thousand converts, and now, Korean Christians moving from a territory occupied by one mission into that occupied by another automatically transfer their membership to the other denomination.

2. The Science of Missions. Modern Missionary leaders are doing much to create an interest in and to develop the science of missions. The Edinburgh Conference took [Pg 15] a great advance step when it appointed the Continuation Committee. This committee represents Christendom in making a scientific, continuous and united study of missions. The International Review of Missions , a quarterly magazine, is the Committee's organ for reporting investigations to the Christian world. The committee has appointed a number of commissions which are at work on the various problems of missions. Their reports from time to time are awaited with great interest.

3. The Principles of Strategy. There never has been a time in the history of the missionary enterprise when the principles of strategy in the promotion of missions were so well understood and applied as to-day.

The Edinburgh Missionary Conference called special attention to these strategic principles and pointed out how they apply to the evangelization of the world. The application of these principles is another evidence of the fact that the leaders of the Church are facing in a thoroughgoing way, not a fragment of the plans of Christ, but his total program for the world. Some of these principles are quoted here:

(1) "Accessibility, openness, and willingness to attend to the gospel message. During the past ten years the people of pagan Africa have been peculiarly ready to listen to the presentation of the facts and arguments of the Christian religion.

(2) "The responsiveness of the field. Korea and Manchuria are examples of nations in which the people of every community show readiness to yield to the claims of Christ when presented to them.

(3) "The presence or concentration of large numbers of people. Obviously, the Chengtu plain of the westernmost [Pg 16] province of China, with its population of 1,700 to the square mile, or the densely populated valleys of the Ganges and lower Nile, should receive attention commensurate with the massing of the people.

(4) "Previous neglect. With a gospel intended for all mankind the policy of the Church should be influenced by the existence of any totally unoccupied field, like extensive tracts of the Sudan.

(5) "Conditions of gross ignorance, social degradation, and spiritual need. Christ came in a special sense to seek and to save that which was lost, and the history of the Christian Church has abundantly shown how the blessing of God has attended efforts to reach the most unfortunate and depressed classes and peoples, such as the Pacific Islanders, the outcasts of India, the lepers, and the aboriginal tribes of the East Indies.

(6) "As has already been made plain, the Church, while recognizing the importance of advancing along lines of largest immediate promise, should, under divine guidance, direct special attention to the most difficult fields of the non-Christian world. In the light of this principle, Moslem lands present an irresistible appeal to the Church.

(7) "The prospective power and usefulness of a nation as a factor in the establishment of Christ's kingdom in the world, and the probable weight of its example as an influence over other nations. Japan is especially fitted to become, in intellectual and moral matters no less than in material civilization, the leader of the Orient. This attaches transcendent importance to its attitude toward Christianity.

(8) "The principle of urgency should as a rule have the right of way; that is, if there is to-day an opportunity to reach a people or section which in all probability [Pg 17] will soon be gone, the Church should enter the door at once; for example, if there is danger that the field may be preoccupied by other religions or by influences adverse to Christianity. Equatorial Africa in a most striking degree is just now such a battle-ground. It is plain to every observer that unless Christianity extends its ministry to tribes throughout this part of Africa the ground will in a short time be occupied by Mohammedanism."

Increase in the Number of Missionaries. —Not only does the expanding spirit of conquest express itself in organizations to extend Christianity, but also in the increasing number of lives that are dedicated to the service.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the missionary force was a mere handful. There was not one representative of the churches of North America anywhere in the non-Christian world. The Buddhist world and the Brahmin world were closed, and the millions of the Mohammedan world were practically untouched. The vast regions of South America and Africa were almost unknown. To-day there is an army of 24,000 missionaries, counting wives, or about 17,000 missionary families and single missionaries scattered over all the continents, and in almost every country of the world.

In North America the evidence of the growth of conviction regarding foreign missions is seen in the following record of the Student Volunteer Movement. In the report made by that Movement every four years the following facts appear:

Number of Volunteers Sailed
1898–1902	780
1902–1906	1,000
1906–1910	1,286

[Pg 18] In the year 1911 the total reached was 410, indicating the fact that the goal of two thousand sailed volunteers for the quadrennium is not an impossible number to expect to see go out before the next convention in 1914.

Money Devoted to Missions. —One hundred years ago the total contributions to the foreign missionary enterprise [Pg 19] from all the Christians of the world amounted to about $100,000 annually. To-day the regular annual income is over $30,000,000, or three hundred times as much per year as one hundred years ago. Great buildings are being erected at a cost of millions of additional capital to house colleges and hospitals and printing-presses and all other institutions necessary for the propaganda. In 1911 these special contributions from North America amounted to at least five millions of dollars. In all this vast enterprise the cost of administration at the home base averages only about 8 per cent. of the total of the regular receipts. The cost of all other big business is much higher than this. There are perhaps some cases where the efficiency of the mission Boards would be increased if more money was spent on the cultivation of the home constituency.

Translation of the Scriptures. —The Bible is the missionary's book, and translated into the language of the people is an indispensable aid to his work. The Bible Societies on both sides of the Atlantic have done and are doing a magnificent and enduring work the benefits of which all the churches are reaping. In 1800 the Scriptures were translated into 66 languages; to-day the Scriptures in part or in whole are available in more than 500 languages and dialects. One of the most striking intellectual achievements of the world has been made by the missionaries in the translation of the Scriptures, to say nothing of their tremendous contribution to science and all the branches of knowledge by the reduction of languages to writing, by the translation of text-books, and by the publication of many other books in the vernaculars. When it is remembered that the Edinburgh [Pg 20] Conference declared that there are 843 languages and dialects in Africa alone and that only about 100 of them have been reduced to writing, a glimpse is given of the magnitude of the intellectual task remaining before the battle is won. The difficulties have been very great. Milne, a colaborer of Morrison, has this to say regarding the learning of the Chinese language:

"To learn Chinese is work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah!"

III. Signs of World-wide Victory

Progress by Centuries. —The following table used by Gulick in The Growth of the Kingdom of God , indicates the onward sweep of Christianity throughout the last two thousand years. Of this table Gulick says: "The table does not give the number of professed Christians or church-members, but only the number of those who may be fairly said to have accepted the Christian standards of moral life whether attempting and professing to live up to them or not. The word 'Christianity' is used in its broadest, loosest sense."

The first column includes the period to the end of the century named. The second column gives the number of millions of Christians of all faiths:

The number of Christians reported at the end of ten centuries was doubled in the next five centuries. The total was doubled again in the next three hundred years. At the end of the nineteenth century the number was two and a half times as great as at the end of the previous eighteen centuries.

Recent Victories. —While the survey of the progress of the kingdom by centuries just given is inspiring, recent years have witnessed an unprecedented response to the Christian appeal.

Looking at America first we discover that one hundred years ago there were 364,872 communicant members of the Protestant churches out of a population of 5,305,925, or one in fourteen. To-day one in four of the population is identified with the Protestant church. These are not nominal Christians, as in the paragraph above, but actual Protestant church-members. These figures make it clear that the forces of aggressive Christianity in America have realized a tremendous return on their investment. If we include Catholic and all other religious bodies the total communicant members reach 36 millions in round numbers, or about two fifths of the total population.

One hundred years ago only one in ten of the college students in America was a communicant member of the Church; to-day practically every other college student is a member of some church. It is certainly encouraging that fifty per cent. of that small fraction of our population which will furnish an enormous percentage of the leaders are church-members to-day, or five times as large a proportion as a hundred years ago.

[Pg 22] The situation in the non-Christian world to-day is summed up, on the basis of the statistics in the chart below, as follows: It took about ninety years to gain the first million converts (1793–1885). The second million were added in twenty-three years (1885–1908). They are now being added at the rate of a million in ten years.

[Pg 23] At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was not a single Protestant in Japan, not one in China, only a few in India, and the great non-Christian world was practically closed to the Protestant missionary. Three of the five continents of the world were inaccessible and a large part of a fourth largely untouched.

Protestant Christian work began in Japan in 1859. In 1913 there are 73,000 Protestant communicants,—among them twelve members of the Japanese Parliament. The influence of the Protestant Christians in the Empire is out of all proportion to their comparatively small numbers, because Christianity began with the ruling classes in Japan. There are to-day in that one country more Protestant Christians than there were in all the non-Christian world at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Morrison, the pioneer missionary to China, entered that land in 1807. At the end of thirty-five years of effort there were only six converts; at the end of fifty years there were less than fifty, but to-day, according to the China Year Book, there are 195,905 communicant members of the Protestant churches, and Dr. Timothy Richard has publicly stated that he thinks there are not less than two millions of people in China who accept Christ as Savior, although many of these have not as yet united themselves with the Christian Church. One missionary in North China reported recently that he had seen more Chinese accepting Christ in the last nine months than in the previous nineteen years of his service in China.

In Korea, on Christmas Day, 1887, the first seven men were baptized in secret; now there is a Christian community [Pg 24] of 300,000. There has been an average of one convert every hour of the day and night since Protestant missionaries entered Korea. The Korean Christians are an evangelistic, self-sacrificing, Bible-studying, prayer-loving people. The training-classes for Bible study and preparation for Christian work have been wonderful in their attendance and power. One church has developed into five churches in its short history. The members of a single church in Seoul preach the gospel in over a hundred villages in the vicinity of the city. Pingyang was not entered until 1895. At that time it was said of the city that every other house was a wine shop. In the short time since the first missionary entered the city such progress has been made that it is now said of Pingyang that every other house has a Christian in it, and that at least one sixth of the population may be found in the regular church services every Sunday morning. The great challenge presented by Korea is to press the advantage at this point in the far-flung battle line, in confident expectation that Korea will be evangelized in this generation.

India furnishes many thrilling illustrations of the victorious progress of Christianity. On a journey around the world two years ago, a Christian leader saw one church record in the Baptist mission among the Telugus in which there were the names of 19,000 Christian converts. Forty years ago there were not more than a half-dozen Christians in that section of India.

Uganda in Central Africa has made great progress since the days of Stanley's discovery of Livingstone. Recently an eight-days' meeting was held in one of the stations. The attendance ranged from 3,500 the first [Pg 25] day to more than 6,000 on the last day. In the five years ending September, 1907, there was an average increase in membership of 6,000 a year, and in 1909 the total increase reached 8,000.

Even the Near East which has for many years been so comparatively unresponsive to the appeal of the gospel, is more ready than ever to receive the gospel message and especially the missionary school. On a visit to the Near East in 1911, Dr. C. H. Patton, one of the Secretaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, addressed some inspiring audiences, in one place a multitude numbering three thousand. At Aintab, the crowd was divided into three audiences so that all could hear. There was a total attendance of four thousand. Among many other encouraging signs Dr. Patton found forty sons of pashas and members of the Turkish parliament in one school. Where a very few years ago there were hatred and hostility, there is now not only toleration but in many places a growing spirit of welcome to the Christian school and the Christian missionary.

These examples are typical of a world-wide response to the gospel never known before. The simplest and most evident proof of the widening sovereignty of Christ in the world is the number of those who are uniting themselves with the Christian Church. It is an inspiring record, but only the beginning of the indications that the kingdom of God is spreading over all the earth.

The Native Church. —Further progress is indicated when it is remembered that there are now about 100,000 native workers in the various non-Christian lands. The calling forth and training of these workers is the greatest [Pg 26] and most urgent single task on the field, for the chief hope of Christianizing the world is in the multiplication of the numbers and the increasing of the efficiency of the native workers in all non-Christian countries.

Powerful native leaders are arising in many lands. This is a most heartening evidence of the progress of Christianity. Men like the Hon. T. H. Yun, the statesman, of Korea, Ding Li Mai, the evangelist, of China, Bishop V. S. Azariah of India, and the late Bishop Honda of Japan are the type of leaders who may well inspire hope in the success of Christianity in the lands from which they come. Native leaders are in the forefront of the great social and moral reforms and evangelistic campaigns among their people. The dependence of China upon her Christian leaders in this present hour of great crisis has thrown a great light upon the value of Christian institutions and teachings. The sacrificial giving of the native Church is a revelation of the great depth and sincerity of their Christian life. Dr. Alva W. Taylor in his very valuable recent book, The Social Work of Christian Missions , calls attention to the fact that in China, while the membership of the Protestant Church has increased eleven times in thirty years, the rate of native giving has increased thirty times.

Every land has a contribution to make before there can be a complete interpretation of Christianity. Christendom is as yet only beginning to realize what enrichment of life is to come from Africa and the East, from Mohammedan lands and the islands of the seas, when the living energies of Christ have been brought to bear adequately upon their life.

[Pg 27] Humanitarian Institutions. —One hundred years ago there was not one hospital or trained physician in the non-Christian world; to-day there are 675 hospitals; and 8,000,000 treatments in these hospitals were reported in a single recent year. The relief of suffering, the prevention and cure of contagious diseases, the successful war against plague, asylums for the insane and blind, for the deaf, homes for lepers and consumptives, rescue homes, prison work, famine relief—all these are recent forms of Christian service and are rapidly extending.

Social Reconstruction and Progress. —Dr. S. M. Zwemer has well said, "Fifty years ago in the study of missions the emphasis was on theology, to-day it is on sociology."

The expanding influence of Christ in the world is not only shown by the statistical evidences of the growth of the missionary enterprise, but there are also certain large and general aspects of the case which must not be overlooked. Volumes have been written on the subject of humane progress, such as Gesta Christi, A History of Humane Progress , by C. Loring Brace, and Christian Missions and Social Progress , by J. S. Dennis. But two of these humane ideas are enlarged upon here.

1. The growth of the idea of liberty. The freedom of the masses is possible only in those lands where Christ is known. From the days when the influence of the Christians put a stop to the sacrifices and gladiatorial combats in Rome to the wiping out of human slavery among all the civilized nations of modern times is an inspiring record of the expansion of the Christian spirit of liberty. Dr. Josiah Strong says "At the end of the eighteenth century slaves were held in Russia, Prussia, [Pg 28] Austria, Scotland, in British, French, and Spanish colonies, and in North and South America." To-day no reputable Christian nation tolerates slaves.

2. The elevation of womanhood. Wherever Christ's ideas of the sacredness and value of womanhood have penetrated, women have risen to a place of power. Christ found woman the plaything and drudge of man or worse and has lifted her up to be a queen in the home and a powerful influence in society. To a gentleman who asked a woman in Turkey what her life was like she replied, "Our life is hell." Let her answer stand for the life of millions upon millions of women and girls where the purity and love of Christ are unknown.

In the introduction to Gesta Christi, A History of Humane Progress by Brace, the following summary is given:

"There are certain practises, principles, and ideals—now the richest inheritance of the race—that have been either implanted or stimulated or supported by Christianity.

"They are such as these: regard for the personality of the weakest and poorest; respect for women; the absolute duty of each member of the fortunate classes to raise up the unfortunate; humanity to the child, the prisoner, the stranger, the needy, and even the brute; unceasing opposition to all forms of cruelty, oppression, and slavery; the duty of personal purity and the sacredness of marriage; the necessity of temperance; the obligation of a more equitable division of the profits of labor, and of greater coöperation between employers and employed; the right of every human being to have the utmost opportunity of developing his faculties, and of [Pg 29] all persons to enjoy equal political and social privileges; the principle that the injury of one nation is the injury of all, and the expediency and duty of unrestricted trade and intercourse between all countries; and finally and principally, a profound opposition to war, a determination to limit its evils when existing, and to prevent its arising by means of international arbitration.

"Ideals, principles, and practises such as these are among the best achievements of history."

The Conclusion of the Whole Matter. —Under the weight of this mass of proof we may accept the interpretation of history given in Isaiah xiv. 26–27. He is answering that question which has challenged thinkers in all ages, What is the vocation of the nations? Isaiah concludes that all nations have a place in God's purpose and that all peoples contribute to his plan.

"This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who shall annul it? and his hand is stretched out and who shall turn it back?"

No man who is willing to accept the facts which have been stated can escape the conviction that Christ is possessing the world in an unmistakable way. Although there are still great battles to be fought out, and problems to be solved,—greater probably than men have ever grappled with in the history of the world,—the final issue cannot be in doubt. In the midst of all the disturbing forces, when many leaders are bewildered by the swiftly moving scenes incident to the transformation of great and ancient civilizations, at a time when the cries of race and clan are deafening and when there is a struggle [Pg 30] between age-long forces on a gigantic scale never before witnessed, serene and confident of the outcome moves our Christ.

As Mr. Robert E. Speer puts it, "Christianity is moving out over the earth with ever-enlarging agencies, with ever-increasing success, and with open and undiscouraged purpose to win the world."

With the change of a single phrase we may join in the song of Christ's triumph which Longfellow left as an inspiring heritage to the world.

FOR ADDITIONAL READING AND FOR REFERENCE

Edinburgh Conference Report (9 volumes). Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $5.00.

World Atlas of Christian Missions. Student Volunteer Movement, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York, $4.00.

The Statesmen's Year Book, 1913. Macmillan Company, 64 Fifth Avenue, New York. $3.40.

Taylor, Alva W. The Social Work of Christian Missions. The Foreign Christian Missionary Society, Cincinnati. $0.50.

Gulick, Sidney L. The Growth of the Kingdom of God. Fleming H. Revell Co., 158 Fifth Avenue, New York. $1.00.

Brace, Charles Loring. Gesta Christ, A History of Humane Progress. George H. Doran, 25 West 32nd Street, New York. $1.00.

Ross, E. A. The Changing Chinese. The Century Company, 33 East 17th Street, New York. $2.40.

Dennis, James S. Christian Missions and Social Progress (3 volumes). Fleming H. Revell Co., 158 Fifth Avenue, New York. $6.25.

Dennis, James S. Commerce and Missions (A Pamphlet). Laymen's Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 5 cents.

Goucher, John F. Growth of the Missionary Concept. Eaton & Mains, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.75.

CHAPTER II
THE CHALLENGE OF A GREAT TASK

One of the best tests of the measure of a man is in his relation to great forces and opportunities and tasks. A small man will either be unconscious of their presence and significance, or will be overwhelmed by them, and therefore inactive or inefficient. On the other hand a man who is really alive will rejoice that it is given to him to relate himself to life's greatest forces and opportunities and tasks.

It would be difficult to conceive of any combination of human and divine energies, of golden opportunities and inspiring tasks, comparable with those centering in the world-wide propagation of Christianity. In our day more men are undertaking with relentless courage the whole program of Christ than ever before, notwithstanding its immensity, its bewildering complexity, and its taxing difficulty. The first long step toward a solution of the missionary problem is this willingness to face the total issues involved without reserve and without fear.

The following pages present a condensed and swift survey of the unfinished task of the Church of Christ. The size of the task is sketched in its bold outlines. In this chapter is heard the cry that is flung out across the world to every Christian man. It is a cry of neglect and need, of urgency and crisis, the united voice of multitudes [Pg 34] among whom the forces of the new age are battling for mastery. The limits of the chapter make it impossible to discuss many important features of the missionary task, such as the social evils of the non-Christian world, the inadequacy of the vast religious systems to meet the deepest needs of mankind, the strength of the customs of centuries, and many more. The reader is referred to the books listed at the close of this chapter for a discussion of these elements of the problems. These pages will give but a glimpse of the task but enough surely to strike a high note of summons to every man to whom Christ is indispensable to make Christ known to all other men in the world to whom he is also indispensable.

The Unity of the Race. —In this survey it will be of great value to remember that God "made of one every nation of men" (Acts xvii. 26). The unity of the race is a great and solemnizing truth. Men can not be classified by the color of their skin or their language. It is impossible for a scientist to tell the difference between the blood of an Arab, a Chinese, and an Englishman. Sin is not a heathen characteristic, it is a human characteristic. If the gospel had gone eastward instead of westward civilization would have traveled that way. As we speak about the backward races let us remember that the chief difference between them and us is that we have Christ and they have him not.

Explanation of Terms. —It is essential that the meaning of three terms which are current in the literature and discussion of missions be understood before we proceed. These terms are, the evangelization of the world , the naturalization of Christianity , and the Christianization [Pg 35] of the world . What do these terms mean, and whose task is indicated by each?

The Evangelization of the World. —This phrase means the giving of every person in the world an adequate opportunity to know and receive Jesus Christ. This is the present and urgent task of all Christians. It is a universal obligation organic in the gospel. By this we do not mean simply giving the message of Christ once in the hearing of all men. That is not adequate. There must be repeated instruction in the gospel, until the need of Christ is made clear and influence brought to bear upon the will so that an intelligent decision to accept and follow Christ is made possible. Many will reject the message, no doubt, but the responsibility of Christians to any man is not discharged until that man has had opportunity to know and receive Jesus Christ. Wherever there are belated countries and races, or religions that do not meet the deepest needs of mankind, wherever there is no adequate opportunity to enjoy the deliverance from sin, the freedom, the intelligence, the purity, the safety, the justice and equality, the rewards of honest labor, which the gospel of Christ brings, it is the duty of those who possess all these to pass them on to others.

The Naturalization of Christianity. —By the naturalization of Christianity in a country is meant the permanent planting of the Christian Church and Christian institutions in that land. When a foreigner becomes a naturalized American he must meet certain educational and financial requirements and take the oath of allegiance to the United States, in return for which he is guaranteed the privileges and rights of citizenship. The process of [Pg 36] Americanization is not completed by this act of naturalization; it is only well begun. Many years are required to thoroughly assimilate the spirit of our institutions and life. Naturalization is a first not a final process, Americanization is the goal.

Christianity may be said to be naturalized in a land when the native Church has reached the point where it is capable of governing and supporting itself and of completing the work of evangelizing the country. Therefore the naturalization of Christianity is the joint task of the foreign missionary and the native Christian Church. In the process the foreign missionary must decrease, as the native Church increases.

The Christianization of the World. —This involves the application of the principles of the gospel to the total life of mankind. In a strict sense this is not yet true in any country. There are of course many countries where the evangelization of the people is being vigorously carried out and the naturalization of Christianity is without question; but the complete redemption of society is not yet a fact. This final stage in the missionary enterprise is the task of the native Church in each land. There will still be fellowship with the Church in all lands and interchanges of ideas and service. There will no doubt be greater unity than ever, but the final responsibility rests with the naturalized Church in each land to complete the Christianizing task.

While the definitions given must not be interpreted too strictly, since the processes overlap and there is no absolutely sharp line of distinction between them, in general it is true that it is the duty of each generation of Christians to evangelize its own generation; it is the joint [Pg 37] duty of Christendom and the native Church to naturalize Christianity in every land and among all races, and it is the task of the native Church in each land to press with all possible urgency the Christianization of the country. Evangelization and naturalization are the immediate aim: Christianization the final aim of the Church of Christ in the world.

A primary missionary obligation is to purify the fountains out of which the missionary streams flow. Unless there is a genuine Christian civilization in America the impact of America on the non-Christian world will not be life-giving. As Dr. Love well says, in The Mission of Our Nation :

"The man who minimizes the importance of any department of missions leaves himself without ground for the strongest appeal for any department of missions.

"We shall never be able to develop a great conscience concerning any one department of our missionary work, except we develop a great conscience concerning it all.

"Though he may not think so himself, a man whose appeal is wholly for foreign missions may be as truly provincial as one who is all for home missions, for his field does not comprehend the whole world."

No man who has candidly studied the home problems in Canada with all their significance to the future of the Dominion, and the splendid way in which the Canadian leaders are seeking to solve those problems can talk lightly of the task there. The total immigration to Canada in 1910–11 was the largest in its history,—311,084. While the large majority were from England and [Pg 38] the United States, the total included representatives of 64 nationalities. The Bible has been called for in 110 languages in the Dominion. There are about 900,000 Protestant Church members out of a total population of 7,200,000. The Catholic Church claims 2,538,374 members. There are about 3,000,000 French Canadians. Montreal has 70,000 foreigners; Winnipeg, 50,000. There are 12,000 Orientals in Vancouver. The great western provinces have all the problems of the frontier.

Looking at the situation in the United States we are confronted with the fact that there are 34,796,077 people over ten years of age who are outside the membership of all the churches. That in itself constitutes an enormous spiritual opportunity and responsibility. Tens of thousands of these people are unreached because the Church has not seriously attempted to reach them. Recent investigations have shown that thousands of our country churches are entirely abandoned, and that in large rural sections the rising generation is practically deprived of all religious training. Until America solves its rural and city church problems, it will be greatly handicapped in its world-wide missionary operations.

There are certain neglected and overlooked groups in American life, such as the Mountaineers of the South. Concerning these sturdy Southerners, who are serving an altogether too long apprenticeship, and who have remained in isolation while modern progress has rushed by them, W. G. Frost says, "I expect to see the mountain regions of the South as peculiar a joy and glory to America as old Scotland is to Great Britain."

The Mormon menace is appalling. Every citizen should read Bruce Kinney's Mormonism, the Islam of America , [Pg 39]
[Pg 40] and then do his part to eradicate this evil from the land.

Several millions of illiterate Negroes sorely need education and Christianity if the civilization of the country is to be safe. Progress in the solution of these problems has been great, and the Churches are addressing themselves to the task with growing conviction and power.

The loudest call to missionary devotion in the United States is presented by the unprecedented tides of immigration from all corners of the globe. While Canada is feeling this pressure in an unusual degree, the magnitude of the problem in the United States is much greater, not only because of the great numbers but also because of the character of the immigration. The sheer size of the task may be made concrete by comparing the numbers of people who have come to the United States in the last few years with some of the other great migrations of history.

The leading of the children of Israel out of Egypt was one of the outstanding movements of a great population in ancient history. According to the census figures in Numbers i. 46, there were 603,550 men of twenty years of age and upwards. Some were heads of families but many of these were single men, so that, if we multiply the number given in the Bible by five, it will probably give the approximate number of the entire population, or 3,017,750. In the last ten years nearly three times as many people have come to America as the number Moses led out of Egypt. Furthermore, immigrants to America are not all of one race as in the case of Israel, but represent a Babel of races and languages.

The hordes of barbarians which overwhelmed Rome have left a mark on Europe that can never be forgotten. [Pg 41] The size and vigor of the movement made a profound impression which history cannot outgrow, and yet Genseric, one of the greatest of their leaders, never had more than 80,000 warriors in his palmiest days.

There have been great successive waves of immigration into China and India from the plains and the mountains of the north and east, but so far as we have knowledge of the numbers they dwindle into comparative insignificance when measured by this greatest of all invasions.

The numbers involved in the Norman Conquest of England would hardly make a ripple on the sea of races and populations crowding to American shores.

The Crusades stand out as epoch-making and unparalleled up to that time in the number of nations disturbed. They covered a period of more than a century and a half and involved several millions of people, but more men, women, and children from other lands have come to the United States and Canada in the last six years than swept across the face of Europe in a century and a half in the Crusades.

To assimilate and Christianize these multitudes is one of the supreme tests of the reality of our faith and the vitality of our national life.

1. God has written much history in terms of migratory peoples. It is the impatient, unsatisfied, vigorous peoples that have made the history of the world. If the meaning of the past is correctly interpreted, then the blending of these races together on a Christian basis into one united people is America's superlative opportunity to make history.

[Pg 42] 2. Immigration is compelling America to study the languages, the history, the achievements, the religions, and the characteristics of these multitudes of people. Such study is imperative in order that America may adequately bear to the incoming millions the deepest message of her religion and her Western institutions. This fact in itself furnishes an intellectual and moral task of transcendent importance. On this continent the modern gift of tongues must be given if America fails not her Christ.

3. Immigration is leading millions to study the English tongue. This is of great importance if the multitudes of future Americans are to understand and appropriate the principles of democracy and Protestantism enshrined in English literature. The German and Scandinavian and other tongues will contribute to America the best they possess, while at the same time they are themselves greatly enriched.

4. The mingling races are challenging America to demonstrate the truth of those principles of freedom and democracy of which such proud boast has been made in days gone by. The principles of democracy can scarcely be thoroughly and finally tested among people who are of the same race and have a common speech and who have a more or less common purpose. Democracy can be adequately tested only amid the complexities of race and clan, of diverse speech and history. These principles of democracy have never been literally applied in any large way yet, but one of God's greatest challenges to the manhood of the United States and Canada to-day is that literal application of the principles of democracy shall be made to the whole population gathered within their vast [Pg 43] domains. Here is a call for statesmanship and spiritual passion worthy of the finest life America has produced.

In each case in which the number of missionaries is mentioned in this volume, unless otherwise stated, it may [Pg 44] be understood to include all missionaries, both men and women, except wives of missionaries. This is thought to be fair, not because missionaries' wives are not as devoted as their husbands or other workers, but because it is not to be expected that a woman with household cares should be responsible for the same amount of direct Christian work that is expected of other workers on the field. In other words, the family or the single worker is considered the unit.

The people in Mexico are nominally Roman Catholic, the census returns showing thirteen and a half millions of that faith. Conditions are difficult for Protestant missions. The population of Mexico is more than fifteen millions. Among these millions there are 249 representatives of Protestant Christianity. In 1895 more than ten millions in Mexico could neither read nor write, and while conditions have improved somewhat since then, it is safe to say that seven out of every ten of the population are illiterate. In Central America, including Panama, there are 96 missionaries.

These simple facts will illustrate the truth that there are still parts of the North American continent inadequately cultivated by the Protestant churches.

The South American lands are nominally Roman Catholic. They know considerable of the phraseology of Christianity, but its vital truth has not been largely realized. Here are seven million square miles of opportunity which call loudly for the Christian application of the Monroe doctrine. While the majority of the people are of European blood (if we do not count the unknown [Pg 45] numbers of millions of Indians), every principle of justice indicates North America's obligation to hasten the redemption of South America. These lands followed the example of the United States in adopting the republic as their ideal of government. They have not hitherto enjoyed our religious freedom along with our republican form of government. Free government cannot be fully and permanently enjoyed by any people without actual religious liberty. Freedom of conscience produces the intelligence and virtue essential to a democracy. The South American lands have lacked such freedom. This in itself constitutes a real challenge to the faith of North American Christians.

A brief glimpse of two or three of the lands will indicate the character of the problem a little more clearly.

Brazil, the greatest of the South American lands, about 2,700 miles in extent from east to west and fully the same from north to south, with an area nearly as great as the entire continent of Europe, has, according to the Statesman's Year Book , a population of more than twenty-three millions or nearly one half of the population of the continent. Its great forests and mineral wealth are but little used. According to the World Atlas of Christian Missions , there is but one Protestant mission station near the mouth of the Amazon River and not a single missionary in all the vast territory through which that river and most of its tributaries flow. Algot Lange, who has spent many months exploring the Amazon Basin, says there are 373 tribes speaking a variety of languages in the Amazon territory. These are practically all unreached by the gospel. The mission stations are scattered along the coast with very few in the interior. The [Pg 46] majority of the missionaries are within three or four hundred miles of Rio Janeiro. Eighty-five per cent. of the population is reported illiterate.

Bolivia, which is fourteen times as large as the State of New York, has only sixteen workers, counting wives, so that each worker in Bolivia has a parish larger than the entire State of Pennsylvania. The same proportion would give five workers to the Province of Quebec. Since these words were written however a party of three new missionaries sailed from New York to enter this field.

The Argentine Republic is the most advanced and prosperous country of South America. It has, according to figures given by Mr. Robert E. Speer at the Rochester Student Volunteer Convention, a per capita export three and a half times as great as the United States, one hundred and twenty times as great as the Chinese Empire and the total exports were nearly equal to those of the entire continent of Africa. The Argentine Republic has but one worker to every 8,737 square miles. The illiteracy of this, the most enlightened land of South America, is 50 per cent. of the population. Thus it is seen that the brightest spot in South America has appalling need of Protestant Christianity.

Looking at the problem in the large, there is in South America a population of approximately 49,000,000. In the whole continent there are only 881 Protestant missionaries. If we omit the wives of missionaries from the calculations this gives to each worker a population of 83,050 and a field of 12,450 square miles, or more than nine times the size of Rhode Island.

New York State has 42,558 primary and high school [Pg 47] teachers. If we omit the teachers in the two lands farthest north in South America; namely, Venezuela and Colombia, New York has as many teachers as all of the South American continent.

The illiteracy of the United States, even including all those who cannot read or write among immigrants and Negroes, is only 10.7 per cent., while the lowest per cent. of illiteracy in any country in South America is 50 and the highest nearly 90.

It would perhaps be a fair estimate to say that at least three out of four people in the South American lands live where they will probably not hear the message of Christ from Protestant missionaries in any adequate way in this generation unless the Church greatly multiplies its missionary agencies in South America.

Christian Africa is at the southern end of the continent where live nearly five and one-half million people. This is more nearly evangelized than any other portion of the continent. Some notable Christian leaders have been developed in South Africa, of whom the Rev. Andrew Murray is one of the most widely known. In Abyssinia is the old Coptic Church which is without much real Christian life.

Mohammedan Africa numbers at least forty millions of population spread over the vast regions from the Equator to the Mediterranean Sea. With the exception [Pg 48] of Abyssinia, Liberia and Sierra Leone, practically the whole of North Africa is under the sway of the false prophet and even in the lands mentioned the pressure of Mohammedan invasion is rapidly growing more severe.

The intellectual task on this educational frontier of the world is indicated by the fact that there are 843 languages and dialects on the continent. The Edinburgh Conference estimated that in Pagan and Mohammedan Africa combined there are a hundred millions of people without a written language or even an alphabet of their own.

On the whole continent of Africa there are 3,244 missionaries, each with a parish of 3,614 square miles and 46,239 people. There is only a handful of missionaries to guard 3,000 miles of Mediterranean coast from Egypt to Gibraltar. From Khartum to Uganda, along the rich Nile valley, a distance of 1,000 miles, there are about a dozen missionaries.

As far as the proportion of missionaries to population is concerned, Africa is much better supplied than Asia, yet in Africa there are five great blocks of territory which are unoccupied and other areas with missionaries only around the fringes or reaching only a small fraction of the people. These areas are irregular in shape and the lines bounding them have been drawn so as to exclude all mission stations. Some of the people in them no doubt are hearing the gospel, but there are no resident missionaries in any of them, according to the maps of the World Atlas of Christian Missions .

The smallest of these five unoccupied areas is in Portuguese and German East Africa. It is four times the size of the State of New York.

[Pg 49] A second near the west coast, south of the equator, has three times the extent of New England.

The third near the west coast, south of the equator, would make eight States as large as Iowa. In Iowa there are at least 4,000 ordained ministers, to say nothing of other Christian workers, but in this block of territory, eight times as large as Iowa, there is not a single ordained missionary.

Another region, some distance north of the one just mentioned, without missionaries, is 1,500 miles long and 500 miles wide.

Last of all, if we omit the mission stations on the Nile and a few scattered workers around the fringes, there is in the upper half of the continent a block of territory nearly as large as the United States but with a scattered population estimated at fifteen millions, without resident missionaries. Starting from the Nile River, 1,000 miles from its mouth, a traveler could go directly westward through the heart of the continent nearly three thousand miles before reaching the next mission station on the west coast. If he started at the mouth of the Sobat River, about 2,000 miles from Cairo, the nearest mission station to the west is 1,500 miles away, in Northern Nigeria. In all those weary miles there is not a single church spire pointing toward the stars or a home where a missionary family lives.

Taking the continent as a whole, there are at least fifty millions of people who are not only entirely outside the reach but even of the plans of any missionary society now at work on the continent.

In Asia live more than one half of the human race. Accepting the figures of the Statesman's Year Book , the population of the world is 1,698,552,204. The population of Asia is given as 958,781,233. Of every hundred people in the earth fifty-six live in Asia. Of these fifty-six, forty-three out of every hundred live in China and India. Asia as a whole has 9,013 workers, according to the World Atlas of Christian Missions , each having an average parish of 1,781 square miles, containing an average of 106,377 people. Let us survey the continent, "beginning from Jerusalem."

1. The Near East. —The Asiatic Levant, or Near East includes Turkey , Persia , and Arabia . This territory has an area of 2,381,310 square miles and a population of a little more than thirty-four millions. This region where Christ was born and wrought his mighty works is to-day in desperate need of his message and life.

(1) Turkey has an area of 693,610 square miles, and is therefore more than eighty-six times the size of Massachusetts. This great area has only 2,836 miles of railroad, while Pennsylvania with one fifteenth its area has 15,415 miles. Turkey includes Asia Minor, Armenia, Kurdistan, Mesopotamia, Syria, and a portion of Arabia. Turkey has a population of 17,683,550, fourteen millions of whom are Mohammedans and the rest divided among Christian churches; a majority of these are in Asia Minor and Armenia. There are only 354 missionaries, including wives, in all Turkey. The Mohammedan population is practically untouched, since a majority of the [Pg 51] missionaries for political and other reasons have devoted comparatively little of their time to them.

(2) Persia is nearly as large as Turkey but has not more than one half of the population. The country extends about 700 miles north and south and 900 miles east and west. Millions of the people are difficult of access because Persia has only six miles of railroad, and political conditions have been unfavorable to missionary effort. This railroad was opened in 1888, and since that time no other railroads have been built. Not only are there no railroads but only a few good carriage roads. Twelve of these cities have a population ranging from thirty thousand in Kashan to two hundred and eighty thousand in Teheran, the capital. Four of the large cities have not been occupied by missionaries. There are eighty-four missionaries for the more than nine and a half millions of population.

(3) Arabia includes a territory 1,500 miles long by 1,200 miles wide. Much of this country is only partially explored. The eight millions of population are almost all Mohammedans. Of the six provinces only three are occupied by missionaries, and in the coast-line of 4,000 miles there are workers in only four centers—Aden, Muscat, Bahrein, and Busrah, and not one in the interior. Along the 1,500 miles of Red Sea coast from Suez to Aden, passing the Sinai Peninsula and the forbidden city of Mecca on the way, there is not one missionary. From Aden to Muscat is a journey of nearly 1,500 miles, from there to Bahrein is 550, and Busrah is 400 miles further on.

The judgment of the Edinburgh Conference was that at least six of the eight millions are beyond the reach of [Pg 52] the present missionary force. Unless there is adequate response in Christendom six millions of our fellow beings in this one land must lie down and die without a knowledge of Christ.

2. Central Asia. —Between the Near East and the Far East is Central Asia. The lands located here are comparatively little known, and in part unexplored. They have an area of 2,700,000 square miles, nearly as great as the United States. Out of this area we could carve fifty-two Englands, or nearly eight provinces the size of British Columbia, or twenty-four countries as large as Italy. The population is quite dense in the oases and along the rivers, but in other parts widely scattered, so that the numbers are not nearly so great as in the countries with which its geographical area has been compared. There are, however, 23,368,000 people. We have here a bewildering array of races and languages.

The most important of these lands are Afghanistan, Chinese Turkestan, Tibet, and Russian Turkestan. The entire region is overwhelmed by the intellectual stagnation and moral rottenness of Mohammendanism, except Tibet, which is the stronghold of Lamaism, a corrupt form of Buddhism.

In all this region there are only three mission stations, and not a physician or hospital anywhere. It is 2,000 miles from the Moravian station at Leh to the first outpost of the China Inland Mission in China. From the last station of the Church Missionary Society in North India it is 1,000 miles northward to the next missionary outpost.

In this territory there are some cities of considerable size like Bokhara, which has 10,000 students and 364 [Pg 53] mosques, but no Christian church, and Tashkend with a population of more than 155,000. There are a dozen or more cities with populations reaching from 25,000 to 200,000.

Afghanistan is unoccupied by Christian missions. Fanaticism and hatred of Christ hold sway everywhere. According to Dr. S. M. Zwemer, 94 per cent. of the people are illiterate. Mohammed has swept the field. Only fearless workers can win this land.

Tibet is still the Gibraltar of the non-Christian world, and although a line of missionary outposts is drawn around it, in one place there is a gap of 1,500 miles between stations.

3. India. —India is the burning heart of Asia. It has a genius for religion unsurpassed in the world.

India has been called the Mother of Religions. Of the four great faiths which were born in Asia, two came from India.

India is a menagerie of races and languages. According to the Edinburgh Conference Report there are 147 languages in India. Some of these are spoken by only a few people, but there are ten languages, each of which is spoken by ten millions or more.

The census of 1911 gives the population of the country as 315,132,537. Of every hundred people in the world eighteen live in this one land. Among them there are two hundred and seventeen millions of Hindus, more than sixty-six and a half millions of Mohammedans and 3,876,196 Christians. There are ten millions of Buddhists in Burma. George Sherwood Eddy says there are four and one-half millions of mendicants or holy men. These figures are all the more startling when it is recalled that [Pg 54] the holy men outnumber the Christians by several hundred thousand.

The caste system makes India one of the most difficult mission fields in the world. There are 2,378 principal castes and tribes, but all these are subdivided so that there are 100,000 caste divisions in India and no two of these can intermarry. The Brahmins have 886 sub-castes. Of the 144,000,000 women, in 1901, according to the Statesman's Year Book , there were 26,000,000 widows, or one in six. On account of the fact that they are not allowed to remarry and other hard social conditions their lot is pitiable indeed. Of these widows it is reported there are 115,285 under ten years of age, 19,487 under five, and 1,064 under one year of age.

India has only 3,555 newspapers and periodicals of all kinds, while the United States with less than one third the population has more than six times as many. Only about five out of each hundred people can read or write. Of 39,000,000 children of school age, 28,000,000 are growing up without schooling.

India has 5,200 missionaries, counting wives, or one to every 60,293 of the population. If wives are not counted, each worker has a parish of 93,901. The preamble of the constitution adopted by the National Missionary Society of India two years ago, states that only one third of India has been reached by missionaries and that one third only partially. There are whole districts, densely populated, where there is no missionary, and in some not even a native Christian.

In the Bombay Presidency it is reported that there are thirty districts, each with a population of over 50,000, in not one of which is there a missionary or a [Pg 55] native worker. In Sind there are 3,000,000 people and only three mission stations in the province. "In northern Bengal," says George Sherwood Eddy, "there is only one missionary to every two million of the population."

The problem of determining the exact situation for the whole of India was so complex that the Edinburgh Conference was not able to give a definite statement regarding even the approximate number of people who are not reached, but considering all the facts it seems a fair estimate to say that there are living to-day in India at least 150,000,000 people largely untouched, none of whom can hope to know of Christ unless the force of missionaries and native workers is greatly increased.

4. Bhutan and Nepal. —These two wholly unoccupied states north of India are usually overlooked, yet Bhutan has a population of 250,000, and Nepal, which is not quite as large as Michigan, has five millions of people, or twice as many as there are in that State.

5. French Indo-China. —This portion of Asia is six times as large as New York, with a population of about sixteen and a half millions. Roman Catholics are allowed in all parts of French Indo-China. In all this region there are but two Protestant mission stations, one in Annam and one in Laos. Except in the two missions mentioned, there is not a hospital or even a physician or trained nurse in the whole territory. The attitude of the government has been unfriendly to missionary effort. Vast populations are absolutely ignorant of Christ and his gospel. No Protestant mission work is carried on in Cambodia, Cochin-China, or Tongking.

6. Japan. —Everyone who has studied the geography of Asia has been impressed with the strategic geographical [Pg 56] position of Japan. This line of islands circling the seacoast of Asia from Siberia to southern China is truly the gateway of the Orient. The Japanese Christians and some of the missionaries have strongly advocated independence and also the union of the Christian forces.

Many think that Japan is largely evangelized, but one fact will make it clear that this is an erroneous idea. Half of the population of Japan are farmers and have scarcely been touched at all. It will be readily seen why this is so when it is stated that 60 per cent. of the missionaries are in eight cities, Tokyo alone being the headquarters of 279 of the total of 1,029 missionaries in the Empire. These figures include wives.

7. Korea. —This land, only slightly larger than Kansas, was closed to foreign influence until twenty-five years ago. It has a population of approximately twelve millions. There are 307 missionaries, including wives, two fifths of them in the south, in one fourth of the area of the country. Korea is a conspicuous example of an entire nation divided up among the missions at work in it. That division is now complete, and the eight denominations having representatives in the country each have a clearly defined territory. Responsibility for every foot of soil is definitely assigned, although millions of the Koreans have not yet had the gospel preached to them in an adequate way.

8. China. —This is the world's newest and largest republic. Bishop Bashford's statement is no doubt true that the greatest compliment ever paid to the United States in its history was when the leaders of China's new era accepted its form of government as their model.

[Pg 57] According to the Statesman's Year Book , the population of the Chinese Empire is 433,533,030, with an area of 4,277,170. If we omit India alone there are more non-Christians here than in all the rest of the world. According to the World Atlas of Christian Missions there are at present in China 4,197 missionaries of all classes. This gives a total of 103,300 people and a parish of 1,018 square miles to each missionary. All the provinces and, except Tibet, all the dependencies have some mission stations, yet there are great populations which are yet unreached.

Sin Kiang has thirty-eight walled cities, but there are missionaries in only two of these cities.

Mongolia, twenty-four times the size of the State of Iowa or six times as large as the Province of Ontario, has but ten missionaries. One's heart is deeply moved as thought goes back to the time when Gilmour began his heroic labors in Mongolia. When he came within sight of the first native hut he fell upon his knees and thanked God for a redeemed Mongolia. In our time there is need of a thousand Gilmours with the same daring of faith and uttermost devotion of life to carry the gospel message to these vigorous and wonderful people just now emerging into the light of modern life.

Manchuria has a population estimated at 20,000,000, but only the southern and western portions are occupied at all. One of the missionaries in reporting to the Edinburgh Conference says that two thirds of the population in his field have not even been approached.

Dr. Fulton reported to the Edinburgh Conference that within 140 miles of the scene of the labors of the first [Pg 58] missionary to China, Robert Morrison, there are three counties containing some ten thousand villages, averaging two hundred and fifty inhabitants each and so near one another that in some cases from a central point six hundred villages may be counted within a radius of five miles. He says that in hundreds of these no missionary or Christian preacher has ever set foot.

Some time ago a striking map appeared in China's Millions , and is reproduced in The Unoccupied Fields , contrasting England and Wales with the province of Honan. While conditions have changed somewhat since the map was made, it is still sufficiently accurate for illustration. On this map are shown 1,846 villages and cities. There are 106 walled official cities, only twenty-six of which have resident missionaries. Three other large towns are occupied as mission stations, only twenty-nine places occupied out of the 1,846.

The dimensions of the task remaining in China are sufficiently summarized by stating that there are 2,033 walled cities in the Empire and that only 476 of them [Pg 59] have missionaries, leaving 1,557 of the principal cities unoccupied.

2. Fields Unoccupied by either Protestant or Catholic Missions because Closed to All Christian Work

Conservative estimates state that not less than 150,000,000 Mohammedans are not being reached in any adequate way by the Christian gospel.

5. The World as a Whole. (1) The Edinburgh Conference Report says that there are 119,000,000 people in Asia and Africa who are not even included in the plans of any missionary society on earth. (2) There are many more millions—and no one knows accurately how many—who are included in plans which have not yet been carried out. (3) In view of the facts presented it is probably a safe estimate to say that with the present forces [Pg 60] in the field 500,000,000 people will pass out of this generation without having a fair chance to know Christ and his message of redemption, unless the Church pours out a princely offering of lives and money and prayer to give them that opportunity.

When it is remembered that there are such multitudes of people who have never had a chance to adopt a living creed adequate to the facts of life; that there are still [Pg 61] whole nations which are the habitations of nameless cruelty; millions for whom as yet Christ died in vain; vast regions where there are a starless sky, a bottomless need, a life full of fear and a future without hope—this certainly presents a task which may well test to the utmost the vitality and devotion of Christendom. One look at the immensity of the problem drives us back upon the measureless resources of God. Over against the greatness of the task we place the greatness of our God. He alone is sufficient for these things.

The great question to be answered now is whether or not there have been developed in Christian lands a faith and power sufficient for this most momentous hour for the human race. The supreme question of missions is the development in Christendom of a vitality equal to carrying the faith of Christ to the last man in the world.

Is my Christianity equal to this task? Will the Christianity of my Church go to the limit of devotion to the plans of Christ? Is American Christianity strong enough so God can anchor a planet to America without wrecking America? In this great hour you must answer and so must I and so must the Church. Accepting the great opportunity with an unmoved confidence in final victory, let every man joyously put his hands between the King's hands to follow him forever.

Some questions in parliamentary law are undebatable. Having been faced squarely and the decision made, the vote is cast in silence. When a Christian man has once understood what the call of Christ is, and what moral and spiritual demands that call makes upon men, the only possible attitude which a real man can take is obedience without debate .

BOOKS FOR ADVANCED READING

Carrying the Gospel to All the World. Vol. 1. Edinburgh Conference Report.

Zwemer, S. M. The Unoccupied Mission Fields of Africa and Asia. Student Volunteer Movement, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York. $1.00.

Barton, James L. The Unfinished Task. Student Volunteer Movement, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York.

Dennis, James S. Social Evils of the Non-Christian World. Student Volunteer Movement, 600 Lexington Avenue. $0.35.

Moscrop, Thomas. The Kingdom Without Frontiers. Eaton & Mains, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York. $1.00.

Eddy, Sherwood. The New Era in Asia. Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.50.

Pott, F. L. Hawks. The Emergency in China. Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.50.

Winton, George B. Mexico To-Day. Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.50.

CHAPTER III
AMERICA'S POSITION IN THE WORLD BATTLE

That was a great day for the world when the Pilgrim Fathers started on their history-making journey across the Atlantic to America. There is no more thrilling scene in the beginnings of the history of any nation. A service of solemn consecration was held in the church. Then the immortal company marched to the sea led by their pastor, John Robinson, reading from an open Bible those words in Genesis xii. 1–3, which must have had a prophetic meaning to every man within the sound of the pastor's voice.

"Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

It was a summons across the centuries to a new and profound application of the principles of religion to nation building. The conviction burned in their hearts that God was sending them out on a divine mission and that they were to found on this side the sea a nation which should bear an important part in the world plans [Pg 64] of Christianity. There are no words in the Bible which have a more wonderful meaning in the light of the expanding purpose of God for America than these words of commission to Abraham which were accepted as God's commission to the Pilgrim Fathers. In the days that followed God was as good as his word and the Pilgrim Fathers were as good as theirs.

There is a growing conviction with many leaders in America that one of the central features of our religious life should be this sense of mission. In the history of the expanding Kingdom, God has evidently given to America a commanding place of leadership and power. This is nothing less than a divine appointment. To have such an appointment as this in a time like ours, from our God, is to have a share in a task like no other task the world has ever seen. To make men see that the redeeming of America is strategy of a high order is to strike a high note of summons to extend the sway of Christ to the remotest bounds of our own continent. To hasten the time when this conviction shall leaven the thinking of American Christianity and when this sense of mission shall liberate the measureless spiritual and material energies of America to bless the world should be the aim of every Christian American.

What are some of the signs that America has been called to a place of leadership in the Kingdom? Are there certain principles according to which God selects men and nations for the fulfilment of his world purposes? Do these principles and purposes emerge in God's dealing with America? The answer to these questions has a deep missionary significance.

Among the principles which God has evidently applied [Pg 65] in choosing his prophets through the ages, the following are unmistakably clear:

4. Prophets Remain Such only so Long as They Have Vision and Consecration Adequate to Their Task.

These principles apply to the outstanding prophetic figures of all times. Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Malachi in the Old Testament, Paul in the New, Luther and Wesley in modern times, all illustrate the working of these laws.

The principles stated above apply to nations as well as to individual men. Israel may be taken as an illustration. Palestine was the crossroads of the world. Israel was centrally located so that she had an unusual opportunity to influence the known world. Her leaders had a message and a spiritual insight unique in their day. They were a people chosen not for privilege but for service, and when in the supreme test the nation failed to understand and accept its world-wide mission, God was compelled to move westward in his choice of a new prophetic race to bear his message to the world.

There is a tradition that Christ died with his face turned westward. Whether this be true or not, men in these Western lands, with the missionary principle at the center of life, may well be steadied and strengthened by the thought that Christ saw across centuries and civilizations the new peoples in the West who were to be called [Pg 66] to a prophet's place in his Kingdom. At any rate the westward movement outlined in Acts and later history, from Palestine to Europe, to the Anglo-Saxon race, to America, is an unmistakable indication of God's plan. For two thousand years this movement has been gathering momentum for impact on the mighty East.

The United States and Canada are standing together solidly in all the great religious and missionary movements of our time. In the discussions that follow there is no thought of minimizing Canada's position of leadership. She has vast dimensions and almost unlimited latent resources. Her response to the call of world-wide missions is inspiring. The national missionary policy adopted by the Canadian churches at the conclusion of the National Campaign of the Laymen's Missionary Movement in 1909 set a definite goal for the Dominion which is much more nearly realized to date than that suggested for the United States by the National Congress in Chicago in 1910. These two nations are inseparably united in common missionary ideals and plans and in a common missionary purpose. On both sides of the border Huntington's hymn may be sung with real sincerity.

Canadians will find it easy to apply to their own land the principles here stated. Some of the illustrations are taken from Canada, but of necessity a majority refer to the United States. A pamphlet entitled "5,000 Facts About Canada," published by Canadian Facts Publishing Co., Toronto, is illuminating reading.

America's Place of Leadership in the Kingdom of
God is Indicated by Her Strategic Location and
Other Geographical Conditions.

Provincialism has no place in true statesmanship, especially the statesmanship of the kingdom of God. It was Salisbury who, in the English Parliament, took as the basis of one of his greatest speeches the phrase "Study large maps." It was Carey who said that he received his call by studying the Bible beside the map of the world. Gladstone had great power of discriminating judgment and it was he who said, "America has a natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever established by mankind."

1. The United States faces the two great oceans. So does Canada, but with that exception there is no other commanding nation that has a great coast-line on both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. With many miles of coast-line on the east, America looks out toward the [Pg 68] history-making nations of the past. Westward she faces that sea upon which look out the eyes of one half of the human race where life is all athrob with the new awakening.

The six great naval powers of the world in the order of their strength are Great Britain, Germany, the United States, France, Japan, and Russia. The coast-line of the United States is very extensive on both the Atlantic and the Pacific. It is surely significant that God has given America control of so much coast-line on both oceans and so many harbors for commerce and as distributing centers for the gospel. The most significant thing about our past is that we grew out of the best life of Europe and inherit the intellectual and moral fiber of the Anglo-Saxon. One of the most significant facts about our future is that with three thousand miles of coast-line we face toward the Orient where the coming world conflicts are to be waged.

2. The United States is the nearest commanding power to the undeveloped parts of the world. The great undeveloped regions are the Canadian Northwest, Alaska, Siberia, Australia, South America, Africa. All these face on the Pacific Ocean except Africa, and in the aggregate America is nearer to them all than any other great Protestant Christian power. The Panama Canal will make the nearness all the more significant since its completion will bring Shanghai much nearer New York by boat than it is now.

3. The United States has many great harbors. Not one of the nations of Europe has more than two or three great harbors, several of them have none. Russia is too far north. Germany is at a disadvantage because she [Pg 69] has no direct access to the Atlantic. Great Britain commands that ocean. The United States has several harbors on the east coast, and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, while on the west coast there are two of the most important harbors in the Western Hemisphere opening into the Pacific Ocean—San Francisco Bay, where come and go the navies of the world, and Puget Sound, the Mediterranean of America, with its 1,500 miles of coast-line.

4. Navigable rivers. The Encyclopedia Britannica says that the Mississippi River with its branches affords 35,000 miles of navigable waterway. All Europe has 17,000 miles, or less than one half the length of the great central waterway of the United States. It is no wonder that Napoleon said, "The nation which controls the Mississippi Valley will be the most powerful nation on earth." There are only two navigable rivers flowing into the Pacific Ocean in the Western Hemisphere, the Yukon River, navigable for thirteen hundred miles, and the Columbia, opening into a great inland empire. Almost the entire navigable extent of both is within the territory of the United States, although they drain great sections of Canada.

5. Isolation from other commanding powers. The favorable location of the United States for internal development is equaled by no other nation in the world, because of the fact that it is separated by many thousands of miles of sea from the other world powers of our time. Great Britain, Germany, France, and Russia must continually guard their frontiers and are never for a moment free from the tremendous pressure of mighty and aggressive peoples. Our nation has been favored with the one [Pg 70] great block of territory in the North Temperate Zone, capable of vast development and with almost infinite variety of soil and climate, remote from other powers. Otherwise it might have been necessary for America to devote her strength to defense rather than the development of her vast resources.

America Has Qualities of Character Needed for a
World Task

As Emerson has well said, "The true test of civilization is not the census, not the size of its cities, nor the crops, but in the kind of men the country turns out." Leroy Beaulieu has this to say about Americans:

"The history of nations like the history of individuals proves beyond peradventure that no economic strength, no material prosperity, is lasting unless it be sustained by real moral worth.

"Moral worth, which includes the recognition of duties as well as of rights, self-respect and respect for one's fellows, has contributed fully as much as the magnificent resources of their country to the brilliant success of the American people.

"Of the qualities that have coöperated to elevate them so rapidly to such a commanding position, the most impressive is a great, a tireless energy."

1. Our debt to the pioneers. The early history of American life has many wholesome chapters for modern men to read. The religious basis of the state was a much more evident and vital fact in the life of the founders of the Republic than of many modern leaders. Quotations from the early charters make it clear that there was a wonderful religious significance in their nation building. [Pg 71] "This thing is of God," said the London Trading Company to the Pilgrim Fathers. "In the name of God, Amen," are the opening words of the Mayflower compact, and that document ends with these words, "For the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith." The early settlers of North and South Carolina declared themselves to be actuated by laudable zeal for the propagation of the gospel. America owes much to the character and vigor of the German and Scandinavian elements in her population as well as to those of English parentage. No land has had a higher grade of founders than has the United States.

Leroy Beaulieu says, in The United States in the Twentieth Century : "The Americans have been the product of a selection and of a double selection. Only the boldest, the most enterprising of men have the courage to traverse the sea for the purpose of carving out a new life in an unknown and distant land. Then, having arrived, only the most energetic, the wisest, and the most gifted in the spirit of organization succeed in a struggle which is more severe, more merciless to the feeble, in new countries than in old ones. Thus America, so to speak, has secured the cream of Old World society. That is why the human standard is higher there than in other countries."

2. Mechanical genius. In the world-wide propagation of the gospel the ability to master the forces of nature and so make modern progress possible has a place in the fitness of character displayed by American life. A large number of the modern labor-saving inventions have come from America as shown by the fact that in one of the great International Expositions five gold medals were offered for the greatest labor-saving inventions. When [Pg 72] the awards were made, it was discovered that all of them were bestowed for inventions in the United States.

3. The public school. It is generally acknowledged that whatever may be the faults and imperfections of our intellectual life, the American public school has demonstrated to the world on a larger scale than ever before the possibility of the education of the masses. Japan was quick to see that this was one of the secrets of the power of Western nations. Nowhere is there a more marvelous example of an entire nation going to school than in recent years in Japan, where probably a larger percentage of children of school age are actually in school to-day than in any other country in the world. It is generally acknowledged that America has set the pace for the world in her system of common schools. Education, not ignorance, is everywhere the mother of devotion.

4. The character of the home missionary. The United States and Canada have produced a great race of home missionaries, such as Robertson, who helped to dot the land with Presbyterian churches, and whose name is a household word in Canada, or John Eliot, who wrote the first book published in America, of whom the poet Southey says, "No greater man has ever been produced by any nation;" David Brainard, whose life of prayer has been an inspiration to many thousands of students of missionary history; or Sheldon Jackson, with his eye ever on the horizon, but with practical zeal, not only preaching the gospel throughout the vast regions of the West but introducing the reindeer into Alaska, thus making a great economic contribution to the blessing of mankind. These men are typical of those intrepid heroes, who on the prairies of western Canada, in the mining [Pg 73] sections of the United States, or in the heart of great cities, are the founders of empires as well as the builders of churches; as Dr. C. L. Thompson has well said, "The march of our civilization is to the music of our religion."

When the historian correctly interprets the story of national progress in the nineteenth century, he will first of all take account of the home missionary. No one has helped more than he to make the nation great and strong. As J. Wesley Johnston puts it, "The home missionary was a founder of schools, a builder of churches, a maker of states, a signer of treaties, an unfurler of flags, and always and everywhere a genuine American."

5. The home of great world movements. It must not be forgotten that out of American faith and courage and vision were born the most conspicuous missionary movements of modern times. The Moravians and Lutherans in Germany and William Carey and others in Great Britain blazed the way for the modern missionary uprising. In America the movement for world evangelization was greatly quickened and expanded by companies of students at Williams College and Andover Seminary. The purpose of these young men to carry the gospel abroad when North America was not represented by missionaries anywhere in the non-Christian world, was at the same time a mighty challenge to faith and a rebuke to the narrow vision of American Christianity one hundred years ago. Since that day practically all the conspicuous interdenominational missionary movements have begun their career in America. What student of missionary history can forget that the Student Volunteer Movement was born in a conference called by Dwight L. Moody! This Movement caused America to dream of a union of college [Pg 74] men throughout the world for the world-wide propagation of the gospel. The fruition of that vision is The World's Student Christian Federation, binding together the students of many lands and thousands of institutions of higher learning. Let it not be forgotten that God planted here the conviction that missionary education is central in the life of the Church and that ten years ago at Silver Bay on Lake George, began what was then known as the Young People's Missionary Movement but which has recently been renamed the Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada. This Movement has spread to other lands. In North America alone in the ten years, more than one million copies of text-books and large numbers of other publications have been circulated by this Movement.

The latest of these evidences of the missionary life of North America is the Laymen's Missionary Movement, which is now organized in fourteen of the principal denominations of North America, with affiliated movements in three others, and in six other lands, with the first steps taken toward the forming of three additional national organizations. Never, until the Laymen's Missionary Movement flung out the challenge have Canada and the United States so powerfully felt the call to proceed seriously to undertake to evangelize their share of the world.

America Has Resources Sufficient for the Task of
a Christian World Power

There is abundance of intellectual, moral and spiritual power available. Here are great vigorous churches with many millions of members. Without any thought of [Pg 75] minimizing all these moral and spiritual resources, let us think of the problem first from the standpoint of the "sinews of war."

1. Size. Bigness is not always to be mistaken for greatness, yet size gives a great advantage to a powerful people. There are vast regions of the earth that will probably never be inhabited by a dense population because they are too far north. This fact puts a limit on the future population of the Russian Empire that is not true of the United States. Brazil has a territory nearly equal to the United States, but it is in the tropics, and it may be generations before the vast regions in Brazil are opened up to civilized life. China is the one formidable rival of the United States because of her size and enormous resources. It will, however, take a long time to develop her powers. The character of the territory of the United States, capable as it is of almost infinite variety of agricultural productions, in a most favorable location in the North Temperate Zone, with so little waste territory, may lay claim to favorable possibilities, equaled perhaps by no single political unit in the world except China. In short, it is not only size that counts but a combination of great extent with other favoring forces. If we add together the eighteen provinces of China proper, Japan, European Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Denmark, and Great Britain, they equal only about the same geographical area as the United States exclusive of Alaska and our island possessions. In the countries named the census shows a population of more than 700,000,000 people. A few illustrations may be illuminating at this point.

[Pg 76] There are only three States west of the Mississippi as small as all New England.

California is three fourths as large as France. There are forty millions of people in France, only a little more than two and a third millions in California.

Arizona is about the same size as Italy, and New Mexico is only slightly smaller than Great Britain.

Oregon has only 672,765 population now, but if it were as densely populated as New Jersey there would be thirty-two millions of people in Oregon.

If the United States, including Alaska and the island possessions, were as densely populated as the island of Java, we would have in this country one and one-half times the present population of the entire globe, and yet the United States would not then be more densely populated than Belgium.

Taking the State of Texas as an illustration, if France were an island and Texas a sea, and the island were in the midst of the sea, the people on the island would be out of sight of land in every direction. Counting the population of the world as seventeen hundred millions, if all the millions of Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, North America, etc., were in the one State of Texas,—not a man, woman or child anywhere else in the world,—there would be only ten to the acre!

Sections of America are not capable of sustaining a large population, it is true, but on this topic we quote a third time from The United States in the Twentieth Century :

"If the dry lands of the West account for one third of the 3,000,000 and more square miles of the United States, at least four fifths of Australia and the same proportion [Pg 77] of South Africa are far more barren than this arid zone; three fourths of Canada is unfertile, or rendered so by cold; one half of Argentina consists of steppes or semi-desert country; and, finally, fully two thirds of the enormous Russian Empire is uncultivable, either by lack of heat or by lack of rain.

"More than this, in respect to mineral wealth, in respect to water power, and in respect to agricultural possibilities, all of the countries just mentioned are far less endowed than is the United States."

God has made America a giant in size that America may do a giant's share in the world-wide propagation of the Gospel.

2. Mineral resources. The United States furnishes the world to-day with 63 per cent. of its petroleum. Copper is indispensable in this electric age, and 57 per cent. of the world's supply comes from the United States. In the production of coal, America leads the world, and according to the Statesman's Year Book all Europe has only one fourth as much coal as the United States. The gold output of the United States is many times that of any other country, except the Transvaal in Africa.

3. Railroads. Railroads are an indication of wealth and progress and power. Canada has more railroad mileage than all the continent of Africa. Almost 38 per cent. of the total mileage is in the United States; or, putting it in another way, the United States could duplicate all the railroad mileage of Asia, Africa, South America, and Australia and then have enough left to build a single track line three and three-fourths times around the globe! The United States has six and one-half times as many [Pg 78] miles of railroad as any other country in the world There are no railroads where Christ has not gone.

4. Wealth. According to the latest summary prepared by the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor, the wealth of the United States equals 42 per cent. of the total wealth of all Europe. In 1910 the deposits in savings banks exceeded the amount [Pg 79] for 1900 by sixteen hundred and eighty millions of dollars. The depositors increased more than three millions in the same period of time. The latest figures show that the people of the United States as a whole are now saving an average of about nine million dollars a day. The statistics of wealth as represented by manufactured products show that our nearest competitor is Germany, but that the United States furnishes millions of dollars more of manufactured products annually than any other country. The trade of the United States with foreign lands and its own island possessions, according to reports of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, set a high-water mark of $4,000,000,000.

As an illustration of the growing wealth of a single city, a statement is in circulation that in 1885, according to the city records, there were only twenty-eight millionaires in New York City; now there are more than two thousand.

5. Agricultural products. Two of the staple agricultural products are corn and wheat. The United States had two and four fifths times as many acres of corn in 1910 as all the rest of the world. According to figures given out by the Bureau of the Census the cotton crop of the United States in 1909 was five eighths of the total grown in the world. Russia alone of all the countries in the world grew a few more bushels of wheat last year than the United States.

The value of the farm products of the United States in 1909, according to the report of the Department of Agriculture, was $8,760,000,000. The farm products have considerably more than doubled in ten years, equaling in value eighteen times the world's output of gold. [Pg 80] In commenting on these figures, a writer in the Literary Digest gives the following concrete illustration of what they mean: If the money were all in twenty-dollar gold pieces, it would make a pile 720 miles high, and if the gold pieces were laid on the earth touching one another, the value of the farm products of that one year would make a line of twenty-dollar gold pieces reaching across Alaska, Canada, the United States and Mexico to the Isthmus of Panama, and there would then be enough of these coins left to make a line of gold from New York to San Francisco, and some pieces would fall off into the Pacific Ocean before they were all used! Even this fabulous amount of wealth produced on the farms was increased by one hundred and sixty-eight millions of dollars in 1910.

These few facts, startling as they are, are only the beginning of an exhibit of the prodigality of power centering here. The moral and spiritual meaning of these resources constitutes a challenge to our best civilization.

God needs tremendous financial resources for the work of winning the world. Vast resources are needed for the educational, evangelistic, philanthropic, and industrial work of missions. There seems to be no place on earth where in our time there are such available resources for this task as here in this land.

One of the supreme tests of our civilization is the use we are making of this God-given treasure, for cash and consecration should increase in proportionate ratio. How to be rich and religious at the same time is one of the burning issues in our land to-day. The release of a legitimate portion of this wealth for the blessings of mankind [Pg 81] and the refreshing of the thirsty earth is evidently a part of the purpose of God. If the riches of America are to be a resource and not an incubus, a highway and not a terminus, American men, to whom God has given the ability to get great wealth, must be brought face to face with the challenge of the needy world in order to save them from the disaster of selfishness and sin. God is not grieved when his men get rich, but he is grieved when riches are not invested for the enrichment of the world. It seems inconceivable that America could throw away this supreme opportunity for service. "Napoleonic energies require an international program."

America Can Retain Her Place of Leadership in
the Kingdom of God only by Developing Vision
and Consecration Adequate to Her Task

It will be well for American Christianity if it learns the eloquent lessons which are written on many pages of the world's history, telling of the setting aside of nations and men who have had a great opportunity but have failed to carry out the divinely appointed commission.

All the facts given above emphasize the imperative necessity for greatly enlarged home missionary effort. The world battle cannot be won unless the attack upon sin and the defense of the bulwarks of righteousness at home are aggressive and victorious. The home battle and the world battle are one.

What then is America's share of the world task? How much will be required of money and men if America does her duty to the non-Christian world?

How to determine a nation's share of the world task [Pg 82] is a very complex problem, and mathematical statements have many serious limitations. In the first place it is no doubt true that whenever the Christian Church really sets out seriously to obey Christ's command there will be such a pouring forth of the power of the Spirit as will upset all numerical computations. Again, the varying conditions in different parts of the field make any uniform standard impossible. In parts of Africa and Asia where the populations are scattered, perhaps one missionary to every 5,000 people will be necessary. In other fields a large and sudden increase in missionaries might precipitate an anti-missionary uprising, which would greatly retard the growth of the Kingdom. Mission boards are by no means unanimous in judgment as to the most effective way to present the appeal. The condition of the native Church is another factor which is variable in different lands. Account must be taken of quality as well as quantity in the work.

Since this is a spiritual enterprise and dependent upon superhuman forces, no arithmetical statement can be considered as authoritative and final. The great resources in this task are the spiritual energies which God alone can give. But the following study at least has the virtue of being a definite and concrete statement of some factors in the problem. Men are thinking and acting in the realm of the concrete in business and professional life. The call of God is not less sacred when it is stated in terms of every-day life which grip and hold the mind and conscience. The task may be accomplished much more rapidly than now seems probable. That is clearly a possible thing with God. But stating the best judgment of some of the most spiritually-minded men in the conflict [Pg 83] as to the visible resources needed is not limiting God.

Therefore as a temporary estimate, leaving the way open for adjustment and reconstruction as new light is thrown on the problem, the following statement may be helpful.

It is the conviction of many that the smallest force of missionaries which can make possible the evangelization of the world in this generation is one for every 25,000 of the population.

Looking at North America's share of this world task, the following are factors in the problem.

1. In view of the fact that North America is now furnishing nearly one half of the Protestant foreign missionaries and about one half of the foreign mission contributions, and also in view of the fact that the resources of North America are greater than those of many other parts of Christendom, it is probably fair to estimate North America's share of the non-Christian world as 500,000,000 people. This includes the portion of the world now being evangelized by American missionaries on the field.

2. Toward the evangelization of this vast number of people there are now abroad, representing the churches of the United States and Canada, approximately 6,000 single missionaries and missionary families. On the basis given above these 6,000 missionaries can evangelize one hundred and fifty millions in this generation. This leaves three hundred and fifty millions still to be provided for or seven tenths of the whole number for whom America is responsible.

3. In view of the above facts, in order to occupy their [Pg 84] field the churches of North America will therefore need to multiply by two and one third their output, that is, to send out and maintain 14,000 additional missionaries, making 20,000 in all.

4. For the support of the missionaries from the United States and Canada now on the field the Mission Boards spent in 1912 about fifteen millions of dollars, or an average of a little more than $2,000 per missionary. This does not mean that each missionary received a $2,000 salary. Missionary salaries average only half or less than half of that amount. The balance was spent for all other expenses such as traveling, equipment, etc. If we accept this amount as approximately what will be needed for each new missionary sent out, the United States and Canada must increase the amount of money given to about forty-three millions of dollars annually.

There are about twenty-two millions of Protestant church-members in the United States and nine hundred thousand in Canada, about twenty-three millions in all. In order to secure the required number of missionaries American churches must send out and maintain about one in 1,150 of the membership. This is clearly possible and has been largely exceeded by the Moravian Church. This leaves 1,149 out of every 1,150 church-members to carry on the work on this continent.

A majority of the volunteers will come from the colleges and theological seminaries. There were 195,724 students in these institutions in the United States in 1909–10. It would therefore take about one in fourteen of these students to furnish the 14,000 workers required to secure America's share of the missionaries.

[Pg 85] As far as the financial problem for America is concerned the support of 14,000 new missionaries involves increasing our annual offerings from about $15,000,000 a year to approximately $43,000,000 a year. When reduced to actual figures the average per church-member is pitifully small. To secure the entire budget for 20,000 missionaries would require an average gift from the twenty-three millions of church-members in the United States and Canada of a little less than two dollars per year or two postage stamps a week! And this for the redemption of the world! Many thousands of Christians and hundreds of churches should go far beyond this average.

"Shall America Evangelize Her Share of the World?" This is the ringing challenge flung down to American Christianity.

O America, America, stretching between the two great seas, in whose heart flows the rich blood of many nations, into whose mountain safes God has put riches of fabulous amount, in whose plains the Almighty has planted the magic genius that blossoms into harvests with which to feed the hungry multitudes of earth, nursed by Puritan and Pilgrim, defended by patriot and missionary, guided by the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, sanctified by a faith as pure as looks up to heaven from any land, O America, let thy Master make thee a savior of the nations; let thy God flood thee with a resistless passion for conquest; let thy Father lead thee over mountains and seas, through fire and flood, through sickness and pain, out to that great hour when all men shall hear the call of Christ, and the last lonely soul shall see the uplifted cross, and the whole round world be bound back to the heart of God!

BOOKS FOR FURTHER READING

Love, J. F., The Mission of Our Nation. Fleming H. Revell Co., 158 Fifth Avenue, New York. $1.25.

Coolidge, The United States as a World Power. Macmillan Company, 64 Fifth Avenue, New York. $2.00.

Van Dyke, Henry, The Spirit of America. Fleming H. Revell Co., 158 Fifth Avenue, New York. $0.50.

Reinsch, World Politics. Macmillan Company, 64 Fifth Avenue, New York. $1.25.

Stead, W. T., The Americanization of the World. Horace Markley. New York, $1.00.

CHAPTER IV
A MAN'S RESPONSE TO THE WORLD APPEAL

The efficiency expert is a familiar figure in modern big business. His function is the checking up and scaling up of commercial enterprises. His one study is business organization, methods, management and output. His life is built around such problems as these: Are the capital and force at work in this business bringing adequate returns? What combinations are possible so as to reduce expenses without reducing returns? Is there waste? Is there duplication of effort? Is the product satisfactory as to quality and quantity? Is there anything the matter with the organization? Has the business too many officials or too few? Are there unimproved opportunities? Is the advertising all that could be desired? In short, his function is to study business with a view to securing a maximum of efficiency with the expenditure of a minimum of time, force and capital.

Why not apply the same methods and skill and intense application to the work of the kingdom of Jesus Christ? There is no business in the world comparable with it from the standpoint of immensity—there are hundreds of millions of people involved, and not a foot of soil where a man lives is excluded from the plan of Jesus Christ. There is no enterprise which promises [Pg 88] such inspiring and enduring returns from the investment. Its complexity and baffling difficulties are a challenge to the passion for mastery that is central in every real man. Christian men might well ponder deeply and then take as a guiding principle in life that sentence of the late Mr. J. H. Converse of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, "When Christian business men devote the same skill and energy to Christian work which they now give to their private business concerns the proposition to evangelize the world in this generation will be no longer a dream."

It may be well to approach the study of this final topic in the spirit of the favorite sayings of two famous modern generals. One of the principles of a great German tactician was, "First ponder, then dare." The motto of another well-known general was, "Know your geography and fight your men." It is of the utmost importance that there be developed in the Church of Christ such a militant temper as shall make it capable of carrying out the plans of Christ to naturalize Christianity in every land. It is an urgent necessity that Christ's soldiers ponder world conditions in order that they may release their lives for the carrying of the gospel to the world. Men must know the geography of the kingdom of God if they are to apply the principles of strategy to the carrying out of the last command of Christ.

Some of the outstanding facts related to the evangelization of the world have passed in review in the preceding chapters. The time for action has come. What is needed now is not more rhetoric but more reality of conviction; not more facts, but deeper purpose. [Pg 89] The crucial question in this whole discussion is how every man may relate himself in a practical way to the winning of the world to Christ. The carrying of the gospel to all the world is every man's opportunity. There is no monopoly of a chance to serve in this war. This is the one opportunity which makes it possible for every life to influence the whole world. What then are the moral and spiritual demands which a world like ours makes upon men?

The answer to this fundamental question takes us back to the principles stated by our Lord. How did he expect men to relate themselves to this, his world task? What were his missionary commands? Stated in their logical and chronological order they are:

"Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he thrust forth laborers into his harvest."—Intercede.

Reduced to their simplest terms then, the missionary principles of Jesus demand four things of men. If men relate themselves to the whole task of our Lord a fourfold program, in which every man will have a share, must be carried out in every church.

It is one of the tragedies of language that the great phrases get frayed out with constant use. They lose their grip and their power to stimulate thought and action. For the sake of variety these familiar ways of [Pg 90] expressing the missionary obligation are stated in a different way, yet so as to retain the fundamental principles enunciated above. The world to-day demands of men:

The hour in which we live makes it imperative that men study world conditions. It is almost impossible to keep pace with changing conditions and new opportunities unless one is constantly in touch with the progress of the Kingdom throughout the world.

There are at least seven good reasons why every man should plan to devote time to the study of missions.

1. Christ's Missionary Program Includes Study (John, iv. 35). —If a man cannot be thoroughly loyal to Christ without active participation in the spread of the gospel in the world, it is equally true that a man is disobedient to the missionary call of Christ who does not study missions. Information is essential to intercession and intercession is the greatest human missionary force. "Facts are the fuel with which missionary fervor is fired and fed."

2. Missions Is the Greatest Living Issue. —There is no question before the world to-day which involves such large forces, such multitudes of people and with such tremendous issues. There is nothing greater to which a man may relate his life.

[Pg 91] 3. The Study of Missions Is the Only Possible Way to Keep in Touch with World Progress. —In order to read the magazines and newspapers intelligently constant study of missions is necessary. Progress in our time is largely along Christian lines. The progress of the world is only another way of saying that Christ is increasingly possessing the world.

4. Men Cannot Be Qualified for Leadership Without Study. —There never was such an urgent call for leaders or such unlimited opportunities for the investment of talents as in our day in this greatest of movements. Real leadership is trained leadership and training involves study.

5. World Conquest Is the Biggest Business Proposition Before the Church. —The enterprise has in it all the elements that go to make big business so fascinating to strong men. Here is an opportunity not only of displaying the business talents which men have, but to display them in an enterprise which brings the most satisfactory returns to men in the way of the enrichment of their own lives. The keenest sagacity of business men is sorely needed in all the councils of the Church to-day, and in no place is the need more urgent than in the service of world-wide missions.

6. Investigation Will Suggest Definite and Practical Missionary Activities. —It is not enough to be sentimentally interested in missions. That day has gone by. The calls of our time demand definite and practical plans and methods and there are no members of the church who are in a position to render larger service than the business men.

7. It Furnishes Intellectual Outlook and Spiritual [Pg 92] Uplook. —One of the great drawbacks of modern business life is that the horizon is narrowed and life made provincial. There is but little in ordinary business to furnish spiritual stimulus. A church service one day in seven is not sufficient to cause the springs of spiritual power in a man's life to burst forth into activity. Here is a cause which brings the keenest intellectual and spiritual delight. The study of missions will give men a greatly enriched Bible because they will discover that it is the great missionary Book. This fact and the consequent intellectual and spiritual stimulus justify any amount of time spent in studying the program of Christ.

Studying the Church. —The Word, the World, and the Workman—these are both the sources of information and the objects for study. Not only must modern men study the world and the Word, but also the Church which is God's appointed instrument for achieving his world purposes. One of the first problems confronting a man who desires to relate himself to the world program is the study of his own local church to see how he can make possible the relating of the whole church to the whole task in such a way as to release the full power of the whole constituency. This will necessitate careful study of the present missionary organization and life of the church to which each man belongs. He is now determined to become an efficiency expert in the matter of the world-wide propagation of Christianity. He will apply the same principles to this study that he applies to his daily business. In some cases it will be discovered that there is very little efficient organization, or if there are organizations, they will be found to be sadly lacking in a big and definite objective. They have been content if they [Pg 93] have done as well this year as they did last, or if their record compares favorably with the record of a neighboring church. In other words, their achievements have been measured by some standard which has seemed a possible goal at the time rather than by the great and final aim of getting the whole task of Christ accomplished.

It is also often true that the church is not organized to reach the entire community in which it lives. One of the first duties will therefore be to relate the church in a vital way to the entire community. The church is not a field but a force with which to work the field. The field is the community, the state, the world!

In some cases it will be necessary to create new machinery for this work. However, it is much wiser to use the existing organizations of the church if they can be made effective.

The Missionary Committee. —The one type of organization in the local church which has met with most general approval by Christian leaders is what is called "The Church Missionary Committee." Even where several distinct missionary organizations exist in the local church there is still urgent need for this committee for two very important reasons.

1. It unifies the missionary activities of the church. The most fruitful way of organizing the committee is to have representatives of all the existing missionary organizations upon it. The pastor should by all means be a member of this committee but ordinarily not the chairman. The committee should always be definitely appointed or at least confirmed by the official body of the congregation. By thus bringing together all the leaders [Pg 94] of the various activities, a unified and well-articulated missionary program is made possible.

2. The missionary committee represents the entire congregation. In the past it has been true that only a fraction of the congregation has been enlisted in definite missionary activities. Only small groups have been organized for missionary service. The men especially have been unreached. Obviously the first move to make if the church is to meet its full missionary responsibility is to [Pg 95] plan to enlist the whole constituency. This committee should have enough meetings to plan a comprehensive policy for the entire congregation, including all the lines of activity indicated in the missionary commands of Christ to which reference has been made, also to check up results. A meeting for the whole congregation should be held each year at which reports are made and plans projected for the succeeding season. The pamphlets on the Missionary Committee and its work listed at the end of this chapter are earnestly recommended to the thoughtful study of every man who desires to relate himself effectively to the problem of making a missionary church. The policy outlined by the committee, after a study of these pamphlets, should be adopted by the official body, presented to the whole congregation, and explained at a regular church service. To make the preceding suggestions effective calls for a high type of ability and the conspicuous and continuous application of all those traits of character which have been developed in the business and professional men of the church.

Your money and your life! What greater gifts can a man bring? God cares more for men than for anything else in the world. It is life laid down for him which gives joy to the heart of the sacrificial Savior. But money represents life—nay, it is coined personality. Millions of money beyond any previous gift will be needed before the world can be won. Here is the hardest personal battle for a multitude of men. After the personal battle is over others must be persuaded by the victor to share in the enterprise.

[Pg 97] As a result of experience in thousands of churches in all parts of the United States and Canada it has been demonstrated that the Every Member Canvass is the most effective financial method now being employed by the churches. No program of finance in the local church is complete without an annual Every Member Canvass.

The adoption of sound principles of stewardship, and life brought into deepening harmony with those principles is a part of the price of victory in this war. Such principles are essential to the development and enrichment of character and necessary if there is to be proper expression of character in doing the will of God.

There is hardly any outstanding question in the Church about which there is such confusion and therefore so nerveless an appeal as the subject of stewardship. It is a difficult question and an unpopular one. Inadequate thinking is very common and practise is even more inadequate than thinking both in pulpit and in pew.

The fact that little constructive attention is being given to this subject by the leaders of the Church was well illustrated at one of the Silver Bay Conferences a few years ago. In a group of about seventy-five men, where the subject was under discussion, the leader of the conference asked how many of the men had ever read a book on Christian stewardship. Not more than one half of the men raised their hands. When asked how many had read a book on tithing not more than one fifth responded in the affirmative. If such a representative group of picked leaders is uninformed or uninterested in so vital a matter, the rank and file of the Church must surely need their attention powerfully called to the subject.

The Bible gives a much larger place to the matter [Pg 98] of giving than is generally supposed. Some one who claims to have counted the Scripture references says that giving is mentioned 1,565 times in the Bible. One of the significant things about the parables of Jesus is that thirteen of the twenty-nine have some reference to property.

A group of men recently worked out a statement of the principles of stewardship and the methods of applying these principles to life. These principles are worthy of careful study and wide adoption. In May, 1912, they were adopted by the governing body of one of the denominations as the guiding principles and methods for that church.

Principles of Stewardship. — God is the Giver and is the Absolute Owner of All things. —This invincible conviction lies at the base of all correct thinking about stewardship. To commit oneself to the inspiring idea that God is the owner of all things is to take all bitterness and drudgery out of stewardship. When a man realizes what kind of a God he has, that he purposes his best for every man and wants him to know how rich and powerful and loving his Father is, the practise of stewardship becomes one of the enriching joys of life. The base-line of all geographical measurements is the level of the sea; prairies or mountains or canyons are all measured from this same base-line. It is a unit of measure. Likewise the ownership of God is the base-line for all measurements of truth about property. Having laid down and accepted this fundamental proposition that God is the owner of all there follows another truth or corollary, namely,

Under grace man is a steward, and the steward holds and administers that which he has as a sacred trust. [Pg 99] Life is a trust, not a possession. We are stewards of money, not creators. Receiving a trust and rendering an account are inseparable. Responsibility and accountability are twin brothers.

God's ownership and man's stewardship are best evidenced by the systematic application of a portion of income to the advancement of the Kingdom. Giving should be regular . All educational processes are made effective by continuous repetition. The needs of the work are also regular and therefore call for regular contributions. This application of a portion of income should be stated . It is a definite transaction with a real personal God. It involves amounts, totals and increments. It should be worshipful , remembering who he is to whom we bring the returns of our labor, and in order that there may be the largest blessing every offering should be an act of worship. It should be sacrificial , bearing in mind that no fraction set aside can exhaust our responsibility or express the depth of true love for God.

Biblical and extra-Biblical history point to the setting aside of the tenth of the income as a minimum, and indicate a divine sanction of the practise and the amount. The tenth and Beyond is the Bible rule! The Old Testament emphasis is on the Tithe , the New Testament emphasis is on The Beyond . The Old Testament asks a tenth, the New Testament demands less but expects more. The one tenth tests our obedience, the nine tenths tests our consecration. The Old Testament principle is, "The tithe is the Lord's." The New Testament principle is, "He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple."

[Pg 100] If the adoption of any principles of stewardship are to be adequate, every man must finally go the whole length as expressed in the words of Jesus just stated. The sooner this is done the better, but the full conception of stewardship breaks into life gradually with most men and a large majority begin by setting aside a small proportion of income. The adoption of a regulative principle, even though inadequate at first, is a powerful spiritual force in a man's life. When the practise of systematic and proportionate giving is begun, the first important step is taken which often leads to complete devotion to God.

There should be careful, intelligent, personal, and prayerful consideration of the uses to be made of the money thus regularly set aside. This will require study not only of the local situation, but also of the missionary and benevolent work of the Church. This principle provides for a thorough-going educational process and is indispensable if the Church is to improve her great opportunity. Individuals, churches, nations cannot come to the highest efficiency without recognizing and accepting their world responsibility.

Consistent use of the balance of the income not set aside. All the preceding principles are undermined if a man does not adopt this last principle as a safeguard. It pries down deep into men's lives and uncovers their secret motives. If men are to have an adequate program of stewardship, it must be adequate educationally, spiritually, and financially. It is believed that the six principles stated are adequate, in the sense just described, because:

1. These principles are taught in the Bible. They are [Pg 101] a summary of the total message of the Scriptures on the subject and especially of the essence of the teachings of Jesus.

2. The testimony of history, both Scriptural and extra Biblical history, gives sanction to the principles stated and the amount set aside, always remembering that the New Testament emphasizes The Beyond .

3. These principles are accepted because of their effect on character. No life can grow rich and strong without increasing giving. God is much more interested in the making of a man than he is in the making of money and the adoption of sound principles of stewardship is vital to Christian character.

4. The adoption of these principles by Christians generally would meet the practical needs of our time for the spread of Christianity throughout the world so far as money can ever meet the needs of mankind.

Methods for the Application of These Principles to the Life of the Individual Christian. — The Actual or Constructive Separation of the Proportion of Income which complies with the foregoing principles. This does four things:

1. It preserves the integrity of the proportion set aside and guards against the evil of only estimating what is due.

2. It is a concrete and vital expression of the principle. Mere mental assent to a principle without practical expression is deadly to the spiritual life.

A pledge in writing, in advance, of the amounts to be [Pg 102] applied to the regular work of the Church (current expenses, missions, and benevolences). These pledges should ordinarily be considerably less than the whole amount to be devoted during the year.

A weekly payment of the amount so subscribed, deposited as an act of worship at a public service.

Payments from time to time, out of the sums set aside, but not previously pledged, to special causes as may be desired.

The plan of keeping a separate "Lord's Treasury" is recommended for those who cannot attend the services of the Church.

This method is a safety valve for those whose income is growing and who can easily afford to give large sums in addition to their regular offerings. God expects cash and consecration, gold and goodness, riches and righteousness to increase together.

The propagation of the principles and methods of stewardship is an important part of the program of every individual Christian and of the Church Missionary Committee. Thorough agitation on the subject should always precede the annual every-member canvass. Many [Pg 103] churches have received unprecedented spiritual blessings because of the adoption and practise of higher standards of giving. Finally, it should not be forgotten that the missionary appeal is one of the most powerful motives to stewardship. The appeal for the two should go together.

The sovereign summons to men is the summons to prayer. It is a call to use the great unused human resource of power. It is a call to every man to walk with the tread of a giant "an open but unfrequented path to immortality." Other lesser calls must die out in us if the present spiritual world crisis is to be met. Practical men of business say that this is the work of the minister or the missionary, but Christ's call to prayer was not limited to any group of individuals or to a special section of the Church. The men of our time are discovering that they have a wealth of talent of which they did not dream,—to bring things to pass by prayer. Intercession has ever been what Arthur Smith calls "The deeply buried talent."

Let us in the beginning frankly face the fact that there is no call which involves more of unwithholding consecration than the life of intercession. There is no service which demands so much of a man, which digs down so deep into his life, which floods with such a searching light all the methods and principles by which men govern their lives.

On the other hand let it not be forgotten that there is no human means of releasing such measureless forces among mankind. We are in the midst of a spiritual conflict, [Pg 104] and prayer is the determining factor in that conflict. This involves not simply a prayer for ourselves in a few hurried sentences at night, when too tired to remember what has been prayed for when the words are said, not a few fragments of time given to this most important occupation, but prayer, central in life, having a clear space in which to live and breathe and yet not confined to times and seasons but mingling with the whole of life. Sadly it must be confessed that intercession is not yet the passion of our lives.

Prayer gives quiet confidence that things really happen when men pray. It is as vital as muscular force, as real as electricity. It wrenches men loose from their limitations and projects personality into distant lands. It is the lever of God to pry continents and dead civilizations up into newness of life. It is the power which helps to lift history out of its bed and puts it down into new channels where it belongs. It is of this force which John R. Mott speaks when he says: "The supreme question of missions is how to multiply the number of Christians who, with truthful lives and with clear unshaken faith in the character and ability of God, will, individually or collectively, or coöperatively as a church, wield the force of intercessory prayer for the conversion and transformation of men, for the inauguration and energizing of spiritual movements, and for the breaking down of all that exalts itself against Christ and his purposes."

J. Campbell White says: "Prayer is the first and chief method of solving the missionary problem. Among all the methods that have been devised none is more practical, more fruitful than this. If we could get a definite group of people at home into the habit of supporting [Pg 105] by prayer each missionary in the thick of the fight, by this simple method alone the efficiency of the present missionary force could probably be doubled without adding a single new missionary."

In bringing in a report on the place of prayer in missions, a committee of men at one of the conferences of the Laymen's Missionary Movement submitted the following: "Prayer is the only element which can quicken information into inspiration, transmute interest into passion, crystallize emotion into consecration, and coin enthusiasm into dollars and lives. Resolved, that we seek by every means to convince every man that, whatever may be his contribution of money or service, he has not exercised his highest influence, performed his whole duty, nor enjoyed his highest privilege until he has made definite, believing prayer for missions a part of his daily life."

As we remember Jesus Christ, and recall the kind of tasks he has given his men to do, the kind of men he expects us to be, as we lift up our eyes and look into the upturned faces of the thousand millions of people who know not God and remember that we are the men who must bridge the racial gulf and capture the world for Christ, we may well be moved by a solemn sense of our responsibility. It is our duty not simply to nurse the wounded but to stop the battle. If we are to face our tasks with inflexible courage and a growing devotion we must cultivate the vital processes and bring to Christ the flawless wholeness of unshared hearts.

One of the old Greeks said that every speech must begin with an incontrovertible proposition. Three such propositions are stated here.

[Pg 106] 1. Prayer has Called Forth and Energized All the Great Spiritual and Missionary Movements of All Times.

The history of the Moravian movement, of the great missionary awakenings in Germany, and the modern missionary uprising in Great Britain shows that they were all born and given power because of prayer.

On this side of the Atlantic it should never be forgotten that the three great interdenominational movements which have had so much to do with the arousing of America to her missionary responsibility were all called forth by prayer, and whatever of vitality and power they have displayed still depends upon the energies of God poured forth in answer to prayer. The Student Volunteer Movement grew out of an unusual volume of intercession on the part, first, of a small group of individuals, and then of a conference assembled at Northfield in 1886. It was from a small group of men meeting for prayer and counsel in New York and later at Silver Bay on Lake George that the Missionary Education Movement came into being. It was in a prayer-meeting in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, on November 15, 1906, that the Laymen's Missionary Movement began its career.

Two principles have been increasingly emphasized in all these movements, and men may well take them to heart and ponder them deeply before deciding that there is any other way in which they can exert so powerful a world influence as in prayer. These principles are:

God has accomplished most by the men who have adventured themselves most upon God.

The history of the way in which victory has been achieved in the great spiritual crises of the world is a record of answered prayer. There is no more impressive picture in the Old Testament than that of Moses, the great leader of Israel, in the midst of a desperate battle with his hands lifted in intercession. When he wearied and his hands were withdrawn, Israel was defeated, but so long as his hands were upheld and there was an unceasing stream of intercession, Israel prevailed. Crowded into that one incident is one of the greatest single spiritual lessons which God would teach mankind. There is no other way than this to meet the spiritual crises of the world victoriously. The great battle of Jesus was not won at Calvary but in the garden in prayer. The crowded record of achievement in all the home and foreign mission fields of the Church is full of incidents of the truth of the principle just stated. Since it is the judgment of the missionary leaders of to-day that there never has been such an hour of crisis and opportunity in the world, then there never was a time when there was such need that men should covenant with God to wield the force of intercession. The victory which is achieved at the front of the battle will be commensurate with the volume of intercession in Christian lands.

3. Prayer is the Only Power that can Fill the Gaps in the Thin Line of Battle.

The second study in this little book reveals the tremendous unmet need of the world. The line is very thin in many parts of the field, in many sections of the world it can be said to be nothing more [Pg 108] than a picket-line. If qualified leaders are to be thrust out into these fields, if the Church is to recover the lost frontiers in the great cities and country districts of the home land and in the Mohammedan and pagan world abroad, if every man in the world is to be given an adequate opportunity in his lifetime to know our Christ, then the great crucial problem is how to multiply the number of those who will enlist as intercessors and then devote themselves to the enlistment of others until the whole Church is committed to this task.

Is it too much to expect that every man in his place should have the spirit exhibited by Alexander Duff when he said: "Having set my hand to the plough my resolution was, the Lord helping me, never to look back any more and never to make a half-hearted work of it. Having chosen missionary labor in India, I gave myself up wholly to it in the destination of my own mind. I united or wedded myself to it in a covenant the bands of which shall be severed only by death."

May our Living Leader give to his men the spirit expressed by Edmund Burke when he said: "The nerve that never relaxes, the eye that never blenches, the thought that never wanders: these are the masters of destiny."

In Ladd's Rare Days in Japan , reference is made to a telegram received by Mr. Matsukata, the President of the shipbuilding company at Kawasaki, from Admiral Togo just two days before the battle of the Sea of Japan. Admiral Togo had received the following order from the Emperor: "Find and destroy the Russian fleet." Because of the weight of his responsibility it is said that Togo ate or slept but little for several days [Pg 109] after receiving the Emperor's order. His mind must have been filled with thoughts such as these: "Where was the Russian fleet? Where could he find it? And if he did find it, how could he destroy it?" In those hours of anxiety he formed one plan and abandoned it, thought out another scheme and gave it up. Finally he determined upon his course of action and wired Mr. Matsukata, "After a thousand different thoughts now one fixed purpose."

There are a thousand demands upon the time and strength of the modern man. They are bewildering and often conflicting. The Christian man is not less busy than the man of the world, and insistent calls are ringing in his ears every hour. The Church is increasingly needing his strength and leadership. The state calls, the city makes large drafts on his strength. What shall he do? What causes are most worth while? How shall he spend his energy and his money? What is the most alluring task? Let him choose the highest and the greatest way to spend his life. If the missionary principle is not unalterably entrenched in the citadel of your life will you not resolve before you put this book down that henceforth all life shall be built around the one purpose which is most worth while;—to let life run out to the end rich and deep and full in the plans of God for the world?

INDISPENSABLE LITERATURE FOR MISSIONARY
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The Church Missionary Committee, Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, 5 cents each.

Manual of Missionary Methods, J. Campbell White, Laymen's Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York, 5 cents each.

What Can the Missionary Committee Do? Laymen's Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York, 5 cents each.

Essentials in an Adequate Plan of Missionary Finance. Laymen's Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 1 cent each.

Prayer and Missions. A packet of nine pamphlets. Laymen's Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 25 cents per packet.

Stewardship. A packet of thirteen booklets and leaflets. Laymen's Missionary Movement, 1 Madison Avenue, New York. 50 cents per packet.

Forward Mission Study Courses

Prepared under the direction of the
MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT
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Editorial Committee : T. H. P. Sailer, Chairman ; A. E. Armstrong, T. B. Ray, C. L. White, J. E. McAfee, A. R. Gray, G. F. Sutherland, H. P. Douglass, W. E. Doughty, W. W. Cleland, J. H. Poorman.

The Forward Mission Study Courses are an outgrowth of a conference of leaders in young people's mission work, held in New York City, December, 1901. To meet the need that was manifested at that conference for mission study text-books suitable for young people, two of the delegates, Professor Amos R. Wells, of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, and Mr. S. Earl Taylor, Chairman of the General Missionary Committee of the Epworth League, projected the Forward Mission Study Courses. These courses have been officially adopted by the Missionary Education Movement, and are now under the immediate direction of the Editorial Committee of the Movement. The books of the Movement are now being used by more than forty home and foreign mission boards and societies of the United States and Canada.

The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering the various home and foreign mission fields and problems and written by leading authorities.

4. Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. Revised Edition. A study of Japan. By John H. DeForest.

5. Heroes of the Cross in America. Home Missions. (Biographical.) By Don O. Shelton.

6. Daybreak in the Dark Continent. Revised Edition. A study of Africa. By Wilson S. Naylor.

11. The Why and How of Foreign Missions. A study of the relation of the home Church to the foreign missionary enterprise. By Arthur J. Brown.

14. South America : Its Missionary Problems. A study of South America. By Thomas B. Neely.

15. The Upward Path : The Evolution of a Race. A study of the Negro. By Mary Helm.

17. Advance in the Antilles. A study of Cuba and Porto Rico. By Howard B. Grose.

18. The Decisive Hour of Christian Missions. A study of conditions throughout the non-Christian world. By John R. Mott.

20. The Church of the Open Country. A study of the problem of the Rural Church. By Warren H. Wilson.

21. The Emergency in China. A study of present-day conditions in China. By F. L. Hawks Pott.

22. Mexico To-Day : Social, Political, and Religious Conditions. A study of present-day conditions in Mexico. By George B. Winton.

23. Immigrant Forces. A study of the immigrant in his home and American environment. By William P. Shriver.

[Pg 115] In addition to these courses, the following have been published especially for use among younger persons:

1. Uganda's White Man of Work. The story of Alexander Mackay of Africa. By Sophia Lyon Fahs.

2. Servants of the King. A series of eleven sketches of famous home and foreign missionaries. By Robert E. Speer.

3. Under Marching Orders. The story of Mary Porter Gamewell of China. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard.

4. Winning the Oregon Country. The story of Marcus Whitman and Jason Lee in the Oregon country. By John T. Faris.

5. The Black Bearded Barbarian. The story of George Leslie Mackay of Formosa. By Marian Keith.

These books are published by mutual arrangement among the home and foreign mission boards, to whom all orders should be addressed. They are bound uniformly and are sold at 50 cents in cloth, and 35 cents in paper; postage, 8 cents extra.

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	1801	1901
French	31,450,000	52,100,000
German	30,320,000	84,200,000
Italian	15,070,000	34,000,000
Spanish	26,190,000	46,500,000
Portuguese	7,480,000	15,000,000
Russian	30,770,000	85,000,000
English	20,520,000	130,300,000

2nd century	2 millions
10th century	50 millions
15th century	100 millions
18th century	200 millions
19th century	500 millions

	ENGLAND AND WALES	HONAN
Area	58,309 sq. miles	67,940 sq. miles.
Population	32,526,075 (1901)	35,316,800 (1901)
Ordained Ministry	32,897	112 missionaries (including wives and single ladies)
Local Preachers	52,341	159 Chinese helpers (including women)
Average area of parish	1¾ sq. miles	1,788 sq. miles.
Average population of parish	1,000	929,389