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Tous les autres exemplaires origiriaux sont filmds en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — «* signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent fitre filmds & des taux de reduction diff6rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est f flm6 d partir de Tangle sup^rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammus suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 4 S 6 %AAAUAAi BEJtNdTI Wll C. W OQAT '^ 6S, 78 & 80 Kin^ St. East, Toronto. C. W. COATEi, Montreal, 4|iie. ». F. HUEgTlS, Hallftx. W,». An» TfiB Author, Coboubo. METHODISM |0/; r-s'^; i' AND THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. BY THE REV. C. S. EBY, D.D., F.T.L. BEING THE NINTH ANNUAL LECTURE BEFOEE THE THEOLOGICAL UNION OF VICTORIA COLLEGE. IN 1886. TORONTO: WILLIAM BRIGGS, 78 & 80 KING ST. EAST. C. W. COATES, MONTRBAL, Que. i „ „ „„„„^,„ ^ ' S- ^' HUESTIS, Halifax, N.S. 1886, ■^V %SSo El. M EXPLANATORY NOTE. By special request of Rev. E. B. Harper, D.D.. the Preacher for 1886, the Annual Meeting of the Union decided not to publish the Sermon for this year, that the Lecture might be published in full, and a larger edition than usual issued. In the interests of our Educational and Mission work, as well as of our Church work generally, it was unanimously resolved to place a copy of the Annual Lecture, by Rev. C. S. Eby. in the hands of every Minister and Probationer of the Methodist Church, at the expense of the Theological Union. Our Preachers will therefore please accept the Lecture of 1886 as an expression of the interest of the Union i. vhe great work of the world's salvation, and are asked to assist us in our . J-orts, and to give the Lecture as wide a circulation as possible among all our people. REV. A. M. PHILLIPS, B.D., Sec.-Trea»urer. 4 ALE §xoblm : A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE THEOLOGICAL UNION OP VICTORIA UNIVERSITY, May lOr.i, 1886. BY THE REV. C. S. EBY, D.D., F.T.L. PREFATOHY NOTE. The reader of t},« following pages will please bear m mmd that I have not aimed at being exhaustive but simply suggestive. : -ery point touched needs t.> be elaborated, and s< .e possibly guarded. I have not written for critics, but for earnest men. especially young men and for a practical age. If I have been able to make a contribut:on. however small, to a higher ethical development absolutely necessary to usher in a new day of practical holiness to uplift Christendom and save the world, I shall be devoutly thankful to God. Let us plead earnestly for the Holy Spirit's power, so that we each and all may do our part in bringing about as speedily as possible the day of God for all our ransomed race. C. S. E. METHODISM AND The Missionary Problem. Seven or eight hundreds of millions of our fellow men are still pagan and under pagan governments, i^our or five hundred millions are under Christian or so-called Christian governmento, of whom two or three hundred millions are still pagan. Of nominal Chris- tians, the majority belong to a paganized form of Greek or Roman Catholicism. Of the apparently small rem- nant left, the majority stand aloof from the Christian Church, either as avowed unbelievers or practical . neglecters of religion. And i^ all these lands, so full of gospel light, iniquity abounds. Does this gloomy outlook appal ? Has God's plan to save the world tailed and are His promises and prophecies false ? God forbid. God's part never fails ; but in His inscrutable wisdom He made the success of His plans for humanity largely dependent on voluntary human co-operation-1 and our part often fails. Ages of preparation have been leading up to the present crisis of the missionary 10 METHODISM AND question which we are called upon to face. We are inheritors of the riches of the past ; upon us devolve the responsibilities of the grandest opportunity ever known to man for the salvation of nations and the infusion into human affairs of the divine salt of God's love. Upon the Church has been laid, with promise of divine help, the salvation of mankind. The long history of the Christian Church, from the Acts of the Apostles to the present day, indicates men's conception of the undertaking, giving instances of success or failure, leading to the crisis of to-day, which gives to the whole subject a vastly different aspect from that seen by our fathers of even one short generation ago. The heroism of the pioneers, the work accomplished by the moderate efforts of the last halt century or so, have brought upon us a burden of responsibility which demands immensely increased effort and enlarged plans to be at all commensurate with the opportunities of the hour, and failing in which the ever vigilant powers of darkness will soon have stolen a march on Christen- dom that a century will not recover. From the very first Ggd indicated that His gracious purposes towards man should be carried out by the union of the divine and the human, the co-operation of God and man. The seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head; in Abraham and his posterity all the nations were to be blessed ; the Son of David and His kingdom should unite the allegiance of all the earth. In the Old Testament the promises of God in this regard and indications of His purposes emphasized We are devolve ity ever and the of God's promise 'he long s of the nception ccess or gives to om that ;ion ago. aplished ry or so, y which ed plans nities of ; powers Shristen- gracious by the peration should )osterity f David f all the God in ^hasized THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. H the divine side, for men were not yet able to appreciate the rea nature of God's reign over the worfd n a spintual kingdom, much less able, voluntarj and onscously, to unite with God in bringing"^ into ex stence and extending such a kingdom ft was only when the God-man came, uniting^'in Himself al Jlustration of the union of the divine and the human God o' Tl '"'"^ '^' responsibilities of the man of sahty of the fatherhood of God, of the atonement of the"cent .'^^^^.-^^^^ «^ -an, was unfolded, and the central injunction unifying all was placed ipon pCralf ^^^^^^^ *^^^^^^-' -' -ake diV of tt F ff '^'TIT ^""^^'^^^ *h««^ i^ the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost • teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I col' manded you ; and, lo, I am with you alway even unTo the end of the world." ^' ''^^ It required a special baptism of the Holy Spirit after the ascension of their Lord, to cause even the' morning of the larger idea of a spiritual conquest o the world to dawn on the material minds of the disciples; and then, after years of successful labor amongst Jews and proselytes, it required another break through old caste prejudice, and Peter was almost forced to present the story of salvation by faith to a Gentile, when immediate and marvellous success convinced him ind throu-h him ^i.^ u-. , T®^^ 12 METHODISM AND I i the time, of the remarkable fact that God had indeed, granted unto the Gentiles also repentance unto life. Eventually, by means of a man of larger education, who was able to take in and discuss the larger problem, God taught the infant Church that their calling was not exclusively to home missions, and Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, became the pioneer and ideal foreign missionary. Thenceforward an aggressive policy marked both home and foreign mission work, until Imperial Rome acknowledged the rule of the Nazarene. The Roman Church came to temporal rule, and was needed to hold together in some shape the chaotic elements of Europe when the Empire expired, and she grew into the idea that her sway over nations and governments represented the idea of Christ's kingdom amonty men. That idea was the old one which the gift and power and presence of the Spirit was to cure. But the Spirit was gone, and the machinery remained animated by human ambition and error, and re- mains to-day a vast hierarchy-^a political church. It has all along had and has to-day, a marvellous power in arousing the enthusiasm of men and women in extending its influence in every way open to them, whose unselfish devotion commands our admiration, but whose moral and spiritual influence in renovating and uplifting the peoples they reach must be placed almost at zero. The Church of England became largely Protestant in its theology when England revolted from the rule of Rome, but inherited much from the old Romanism THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. IS i indeed nto life, lucation, jroblem, iing was Apostle foreign policy k, until azarene. and was chaotic and she ons and siingdom tiich the to cure, emained and re- church, irvellous I women to them, niration, lovating le placed •otestant the rule jmanism which It replaced as a national church ; its ecclesiasti- cism had been made to fit into the society of the time and all its developments tended to make it tenacious of old forms, social and political. And so its carefulness of orders and of order, its easy service for the rich and its lesson of resignation for the poor, made it into a social church, or the church of society, which char- acter It preserves in other lands .where the political prestige it has in England has passed away, so that one can appreciate the wag's definition of it as a church which preaches "salvation by taste." Of late years a great revival of spiritual life within the Episcopal Church has sent forth many distinguished and devoted missionaries into other lands, where they have met with a measure of success. But sacerdotalism and tenacity of certain orders and forms prevent that church from taking the high rank which her wealth and position should claim in an aggressive evan^reliza- tion of the world's vast millions now open to the gospel The other great churches of the Reformation broke more thoroughly away from the trammels of Rome This IS particularly true of Puritanism in England where the battles of a second Reformation had to be' fought by voice, by pen, and by sword. They laid the foundation of their church in an absolute faith in the Bible as the word of God, to be nourished and ted and perpetuated by an educated people who should read and digest and believe, and particularly by an educated ministry who should expound and teach and lead. After the din of confusion in which the Coven- 14 MKTHODtsM AND anterM and the Puritans were tried had passed away, wo find them jjfrowing up into an intellectual church wliich hoH made Scotland and New Enjnrland the school- masters of the world and made Preshyterianism and Puritanism powerful in the councils of nations. Thouj^h early missions were horn in Germany, for lack of later and deeper religious revolutions which have uplifted Angio-Saxondom, they have never ex- panded largely in the churches of the Fatherland. After the early contentions were over, and a new .spiritual life had touched them, the churches of Scot- land and kindred ones awakened to missionary effort, and gave birth ito some of the grandest missionaries of all time. The vigor of their doctrinal teaching, the simplicity of their ritual, the similarity of church polity which makes union of different churches easy, render them first and foremost as successful evan- gelizers wherever they preserve the living, glowing inspiration of a spiritual life. Methodism arose in a time of spiritual torpor and moral stagnation — arose to awaken all the churches, and to lead Christendom to a profounder spiritual revival and grander moral uplifting than had ever been known in the world's history. It was born, not in struggle or alliance with temporal powers, as the Papal Church ; not as a revolt from the domination of a foreign hierarchy, as the Episcopal Church ; not in a revolt of the intellect against the tyranny of a corrupt ecclesiasticism, as the German Churches of the Refor- formation ; not in a revolt of conscience against narrow # THK MIHSIONARY PUOHLKM. ir> and „^otod atfc(3,npfcH at coinp„l„ory uniformity, as tbePuntanChurchos; but in an unappoasod hunger of tho hu,nan .soul for a conscious, practical union with he divine naturo-a thirst after the living God and Hi. holiness. The conHiets of other ages had prepared the way tor a new and larger developu.ent, and God gave the men, as He always does-just the men needed for the times. John Wesley and John Fletcher freed theology of its trammels, infused into it new life opened up its vastest possibilities, translated it into' the language of the common people, so that, as the poorest were saved, they could tell coherently what they had realized, and could lead others to like precious faith Charles Wesley and other poets of the tin.e pii the renewed evangel into song and the potency of the word preached was multiplied by the power of heart-stirring liymns of penitence and praise. Those men had also a genius for organization and thus pre- served the fruits of a revival which otherwise would have been ephemeral, so that instead of its dying- out in forty years, which Luther gives as the limit of every great revi-al. it not only stirred the hearts of the masses in its earlier days and aroused other churches to spiritual life, but it moves on wherever worldline^ss has not sapped its vigor, a perennial revival So that within the last twenty-five years Methodism has doubled and now stands at the very head of all the great divisions of Protestantism in number of members and accredited ministers. Although much of this growth is amongst the poorer classes °of 16 METHODISM AND Anglo-Saxondom, the poorer classes of a few years ago are largely growing into wealthier classes to-day and the sons of illiterate parents are having all the advantages of education, so that the capital of mate- rial, intellectual and moral wealth within the Church is increasing by enormous strides and puts into the hands of Methodism a leverage of stupendous power with which to work for God and man, if rightly enlisted and directed. In view,of all these facts, it is well to review the relation which Methodism bears to the evangelization of the world,— her present attitude, her responsibility, her advantages and disadvantages,— and what is the need of the hour to enable her'^to do what Providence intends that she should accomplish. In attempting to deal with this question I shall look at it from the different standpoints of our doctrinal teaching, our organization, our educational facilities, and the motive power on which we rely for the sinews of war. In doing so I shall seek neither to glorify nor to minify Methodism, for her past achievements or present position, but simply take her as an existing factor, a great and growing branch of the Church of God, with commensurate privileges and duties under the Saviour's commission, through wnom we all are, like Paul, debtors to all who have been redeemed by His blood, whether Jew or Gentile, home or foreign, that we can possibly reach with the message of salva- tion that has made us free. In the points I have indicated we have the human elements of our church life, and these I emphasize, not II THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. 17 w years 1 to-day all the f mate- Church nto the I power rightly its, it is 3ears to ttitude* .ages, — jr to do iplish. all look )ctriiial cilities, sinews glorify emeiits xisting irch of under ill are, lied by oreign, salva- luman ze, not because I would overlook the need of the divine pre- sence as the source of spiritual power, but taking that for granted we have the human elements as our theme. I pause, however, just long enough to say that I can conceive of nothing more bare and ghastly than Meth- odism without this divine vital energy. More is left in any other church when it becomes a purely human institution. In the Papacy you have the gorgeous ceremonial, splendid architectural piles, and a ^.owerful political hierarchy ; in the Episcopal Church a chaste and noble service and fine historic culture ; in Presby- terianism a perpetual effort to feed the mind, a demand for logic and thought; but Methodism, without the divine revival power, becomes a great grinding piece of machinery, where conferences become a scrabbling point of culmination for a year's wire-pulling of preach- . ers for the fattest appointments possible and of circuits for the biggest preacher to be had. Then alas for the missionary spirit ! A few weeks ago I preached in the morning and held a Sunday evening missionary meet- ing in a certain city across the line. The day was damp, not even a Scotch mist, but the two Methodist churches had scarcely a fifth of their congregations, while Presbyterian and Congregationalist churches were well filled. The evening service was in a wealthy suburban neighborhood, the pastor a D.D., the choir well paid ; it was quite a matter of indifference whether I had selected hymns or not, the people had no i'J3a of smging ; there was a sort of little concert with religious tendencies, a bit of incipient ritual, and by and by it 18 METHODISM AND devolved upon me to take my turn. I gave them a red-hot missionary talk which seemed to arouse the pastor into a warm appeal for money. I enquired how much they gave last year for Home and Foreign Mis- sions and was astounded to learn that that congrega- tion of over a thousand ordinarily, that could buy out, bag and baggage, any one or more of our Canadian Methodist congregations that pay $1,000 a year to the mission fund, had actually risen to the magnificent sum of $120! I was not astonished when I afterwards learned that both pastor and church had decided that they had enough to do at home without paying for other people who could not pay back again. Nominal Methodism can e^ist without much divine life, but if so. alas for missions ! As our Church recedes from her Divine Head, the cry first goes up, " Let us curtail our foreign missions," and then would go our sympathy for home missions, excepting so far as they furnished places for men who are in the machine and must be fed. 1. AS TO DOCTRINAL TEACHING. Truth is divine, Science is human. Christianity is divine. Theology is human. Revelation is divine, ex- position, whether spoken or printed, with the sanction of the Church or without it, is human and fallible and should be open to correction, for " we know in part and we prophesy in part" only. The history of Protestantism makes one thing very clear to us, and that is, that while men are men there can never be absolute uniformity of doctrinal belief and statement. THE MIS.<10KARY PROfiLEM. 19 them a •use the red how gn Mis- ngrega- )uy out, inadian r to the 3nt sum irwards ed that ing for f^ominal , but if om her ;ail our thy for I places Jd. nity is Qe, ex- action )le and n part )ry of IS, and ver be 3ment. The world will never be all Calvinists nor all Arminians of any particular shade, though the time may come when all will be ChriBtians. We cannot overlook the fact, a so, that some of the greatest ev<-ngelists of these revival centuries have sprung from other churches and of A !« ■ * ?;;':''"" ^^'^^- ^™""'°'^ North, Grant N f ™f '"y- ^^'^'•"«™ "^"d others, of Scotland ; Edwards, Nettleton Fmney, Moody, and hosts of others in the United States are samples of soul-winning evangelists ot other communions who moved not only their own mTJ'.^"',''"''''''''^ ">« °"*^'<1« community. Methodist theology during the same time has produced men who were mighty within her own organization tor her own upbuilding and indirectly helpful to others, but, since the days ot Wesley, scarcely anyone who has stirred the outside community until these later days of Booth and the Salvation Army. And yet 1 cannot be denied that the world owes a debt of gratitude to Wesleyan theology, that it broke the tetters of the doctrine of individual inability from off the proclamation of salvation and brought back to the Apostolic message its pristine glory an' missionary power The great principles of God's message to man were clothed in living fire, in argument and exhorta- tion and enthusiastic song. A free, full salvation for all men, the need and possibility of repentance, faith, the new birth, witness of the Spirit, cleansing by the blood, fulness of the Spirit for each and all, came as a new revelation and aa a salt for all Christendom Suc- cessful evangelists outside of Methodism have succeeded i; 20 METHODISM AND by emphasizing largely the same grand principles, or sonie of them, and not emphasizing those peculiari. ties wherein their school of theology essentially differs trr.m ours. Methodism has a definite and distinct theo- logy, which has changed but little, if at all in its essentials sinco the days of Wesley, and in spite of endless divisions in Methodism, not one has resulted trom doctrinal differences. Methodism, the world over, has one theology. Bat her theology is more practical than theoretical, for with all due deference to Watson, and Pope, auu Raymond, and a multitude ot other writers, no satisfactory theology o* Methodism has yet been published. It may be that some day a Hodge may ri^e in Methodism and lor Methodist theology ; that a Methodist Hamilton may seize Meth- odist thought and experience and life and put it into phi osophical form, or we may forever have to do without such services. Nor would I consider the want a very great calamity. All these published statements are helps to students and milestones by the way^ but in a living, growing, practical Church, I should dread anything that would claim the place of a final theo- logy. For in this, as in all else that touches divine -Providence, A A.u .r, *' ^^^°' *he ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thuu-hia of ;nen are widen'd with the process of the suns. " The fr^thers oi Methodism took the great funda- mental principles of God's revelation.- took them on their knees untrammeled of the scholasticism of the past— took them as lessons of God to solve the world's rinciples, )eculiari- ly differs net theo- 11, in its spite of resulted e world is more eference ultitude thodism e day a Ejthodist e Meth- i it into I to do le want iements ays but i dread il theo- divine IS, le suns. " funda- lem on of the irorld's THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. ti problem of that particular time. They found thoje which fitted the world's heart, and gave them tc their children forever. The children take these same fundamentals and translate them into the thought and language of their own times, their theology more largely shown in hoi- lives and spiritual power than in Dooks. Take the single doctrine of Entire Sanctifica- tion— you cannot find in all literature a definition ■ and analysis that will satisfy the purely theoretical theologian; it must be experienced to be known, and then it is largely " unutterable " to other ears. Men have tried to catch it and tie it down to some par- ticular measure and the result too often is that some one factor is taken and emphasized and carried to an extreme; rendering the whole thing ridiculous. One side runs off into faith cures, another into absurdities of dress, and some, coming a little nearer home, run the thought of divine guidance to such an extent as to emasculate men's common sense and ascribe to the Holy Spirit the stupidities of our own foolish heads. The true preacher is no mere echo of the voice of the fathers; their preaching suited their times, their usaj/es fitted their days. The live preacher of to-day must be an embodiment of his theology and fit it by utterance and plan of work to the day in which he live^ The hurdy-gurdy preacher who grinds out varieties of Wesley and Watson to the tune of a genera- tion ago, is no help to build up or extend in mission fields the borders of our Methodism. Some years ago, just before going to Japan, I happened into a village 22 METHODISM AND church where the regular winter revival season wa^ being kept. The preacher vociferated in good oU style the staple articles of Methodist th...logy^seekI„ decided Chnstian lives and came fo the altar. Forth- one of T''"".^^^' "^" Sathered around them, ZZ.Z:^'' "^'"'^" praying aloud and tt! mf " » .,'"■ '"' """' ^ '^^ "'""^t deafened in the h tie "Bedlam let loose," so that I hardly knew and labor with the seekers. When a lull came on to fit all the no.s6, and being asked to speak I said a few words by way of direction to the seeke™ quietly, but it struck a chord in their hearts wIcT seemed never to have been touched before. At the close of the service they gathered about me and ^ked ZZT V T-"' '*"■■'' «^'«™PO"zed some seats what ti" /u ^'"/ "'''"' ''"'^ ' ""^ *'•«"' tell jus what they felt and wanted, gave them a little quiet d.i.ct.on and one after another their faces lighted up S^tlur' ' t:' " "^'^ <=?-<=-— of a Hving'prlnt • Ww nn^J r:i"^ P'-'P'^ ^"-^ ^'^''y^ been moral knew nothing of the rough life of old backwoods' times and could not properly be treated in the sle way as the r rough old backwoods parents and g^and parents had been. If all these hurdy-gurdy preiw, and theologies and usages could be'^^ald on Ke k ' "ij .son was ood old seekers pie had to live Forth- d them, ud and ened in 7 knew go also tme, on motion said a 3, very which it the asked i^acant seats 1 just quiet ed up 'esent noral v^oods same pand- chers shelf THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. gS and living, intelligent preaching and guidance be sub- stituted, the problem of many of our missions in this land, that have been missions from ten to fifty years would be solved by their speedily becoming self-' supporting circuits. And above all things, let our pioneer stations, our Indian missions and our foreign work, be spared the bane of these anachronistic echoes, but let them be manned by men whose intelligence is' set on fire of God, "living epistles read and known of all men." We want to walk in the spirit of our fathers and not in the shoes they have left behind them ; " the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life." Let it not be supposed that I advocate trimming the gospel to what may be called the "spirit of the times " so as to make it more acceptable to the averao-e mak we meet ; not af all, what I want is an adjustment of aim so as to strike under the fifth rib of the age. For that matter the formal theology of Methodism has nothing to soften, nothing to excuse, nothing to hide, but as a whole, and in its several parts, fits Ihe needs of human hearts the world over, commends itself to the common sense of converts from oriental philosophy, and is, I believe, the best missionary theoloc^y in the world. ° II. AS TO ORGANIZATION. The Church is dVine; the churches are human The Spirit who "gave some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers" is divine; the prudential arrangements 24 METHODISM AND PI 'I by which these are organized into building up che Church of God are human and need to be adjusted to the developments of humanity. But there is nothing which so soon ossifies as ecclesiastical arrangements, so that they grow into a sacred machinery which it becomes a sacrilege to touch. As hun.anity grows these ecclesiasticisms become fetters, to escape which violence and revolution are too often needed. Wit- ness the struggles of the Reformation against Rome ; of P'iritanism against semi-popery; of Methodism' against Anglicanism ; of many sections of Methodism against unyielding mother Church. The fathers of Methodism were great organizers, adapting their rules to the exigencies of the times, ready to discard anything that was useless and to accept anything that proved useful in their great work. Their chilt dren solidified their organization and almjost began to worship it as divine; their grand-children are now finding out that fossilizing does not succeed and hence is un-Methodistic. Methodism can work in any organization and succeed, hence the organization is not Methodism. In monarchical England it succeeds best in democratic form ; in republican America in episcopal uniform; In the democratic-monarchical Dominion of Canada in a sort of heterogeneous mix- ture of the two; anything to any land or people so long as it works. A generation ago Methodism was m danger of fossilizing on a narrow line, lopping off the zone of her activities both below and above* so that the late Luke Wiseman, one of England's grand- THE MISSIONAItY PKOBLEM. 25 est MethodiHts, had to warn her against idolizing mach,ne,y and sacrificing ,„on. Twenty year. 2 Lngh,lj Methodists l,a,l no pUco for a man whom oTd among tie lowest classes of the unwashed; and Booth had to go out of the ranks of Metho,lism to o^gan.„ a Salvation Army which now ministers to mil ons. 1 0-day, so.ne of the finest n.inds in English w.tI>out Its fa,.da„go, among the growing masses of LmKbn-a c.ty containing as many people as our whole Dommion. and adding to its numbers a city of loronto every year-masses who. by the hundreds ot thousands, are sti 11 untouched of Methodism. Well balanced men, grandly fitted to lead in such work, are ready to stop in and Methodism is asked to make an eftort commensurate with the great need, the great opportunity, and the greatness of the Church But the devotees of the machine have ahnost crushed the effort ; they want to try a little thing, while city cn-cu,ts miles aw.-.y on different sides, with churches halt filled with staid Christians, raise a hue and cry that such mission work would interfere with their rights Years ago, a German by the name of Albrecht in the United States, was converted in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He wanted to preach to his people, and wished Methodism to father the work and extend her influence among the German people by the use of the tongue of the fatherland. But they were told to learn English and no special work 26 METHODISM AND for the Germans would be needed. The result was a German Methodist Church — the Evangelical Asso- ciation — which has grown to a church as large as our Canada Methodism, with missions in Europe and Japan. Later, learning wisdom by experience, William Nast was allowed to begin work in the name of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and with tremen- dous and growing success. We all know the wonder- ful career of that remarkable man, William Taylor ; his power and career as an evangelist ; his being thrust into the founding of self-supporting missions. How he was hounded by the authorities of his Church and its organ-i-in which noble work some of the great names of English Methodism added a measure of venom. How the people rallied to his aid, in sending men and women — noble, self sacrificing souls — to India and South America. How, to escape badgering, he took his place among laymen and as such was elected to the last General Conference, and then, how the Conference, partly to appease the popu- lar clamor in favor of the man and partly to get rid of him in a sort of Botany Bay, made him Bishop of xifrica, where he is^ putting to shame all prophets of evil, and showing himself a chosen apostle of God. Instances of this kind might be multiplied, where men and opportunities have been sacrificed on the altar erected in honor of the machine- We have had no place for men whose mission is amongst the slums, nor have we room for the highest type of men, who are bom for aggressive work on I suit was lal Asso- large as . Europe perience, the name I tremen- wonder- Taylor; ng thrust »s. How Church e of the , measure s aid, in ling souls lO escape n and as ence, and ;he popu- ;o get rid ide him ihame all a chosen night be ave been machine* lission is e highest work on THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. 27 planes above our ordinary routine. Dr. Long, one of the finest Oriental scholars living, had to go from a Methodist mission to Roberts' College,* of the Congre- gational Church, in Constantinople, to find the work for which he was adapted, and Methodism missed a fine opportunity. It may not be generally known to what an extent hierarchical tendencies have developed in the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States, but the dream of a Methodist Episcopal Church all over the world, ruled by American bishops, has not been confined to the hours of night when reason loses hold of ambition, but was the expressed aim of many great men there— notably of the late Bishop Janes, who declared that their General Con- ference should be held some day in Rome, and also Bishop Gilbert Haven. There has been a notable reaction against this idolatry of the machine since the great Ecumenical Conference in London, only five short years ago; notably in Canada, where the apparently impossible T. l^: ^^^^^«^^y^ «Pe^ks enthusiastically of the influence of the Robert College at Constantinople in the regeneration of Turkey From that institution, carried on by American missionaries, the seed of an entirely new civilization has been scattered broadcast upon a rich soil with the decay of an effete system. Upon this the New York Wztness remarks that Mr. Robert was a New York merchant not known to differ from a thousand others who live and die and leave no mark in the world. The difference was that he gave his money to the founding of this college, and so his name will go down as, to a considerable extent, the regenerator of an em^ire.-Montreal \ 28 METHODISM AND has taken place, in the union, by mutual concession, of all branches of Methodism, excepting the Evan- gelical Association— and that by an unpardonable oversight of the larger bodies. Men say we need no new machinery, work the old well. I reply, if man were an automaton, and history would stop revolving, and time cease rushing, and humanity stop growing, and opportunities for the Church cease opening, we might stop and say that our ^nachinery was final. But so long as these things persist in moving, we must change our machinery and adapt it to the needs of the hour. All things move on now with accelerated speed. We progress more in five years than formerly in fifty. Every General Conference opens a new world for us to take possession of and rapid changes must take place that will astonish staid conservatives who are still living in the memory of other days. Methodists of to-day must be as heroic as our fathers in laying large plans and putting new machinery, if needed, into operation to do our part in the moulding of our nation, in the uplifting of the world. *"Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves Of a legendary virtue carved upon our father's graves. Worshippers of light ancestral make our present light a crime : Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men behind their time ? Turn those tracks towards Past or Future that make Plymouth Rock sublime ? They were men of present valor, stalwart old iconoclasts, Unconvinced by axe or gibbet that all virtue was the Past's. ncession, le Evan-v rdonable need no ,. if man evolving, ;?rowing, ning, we as final, zing, we he needs jelerated formerly a new changes isrvatives er days. ' fathers linery, if noulding a crime : en behind Plymouth ts, *ast's. THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. 29 But we^mak^^^^^^^^^ truth our falsehood, think:ng that hath made Hoarding it in mouldy parchments, while our tender spirits flp. The rude^g^^p ., ,Hat great Impulse which drt^^^^o^s New occa.^^^^^ teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good They m-t^upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of Lo, be^o^re us gleam her camp-fires ! we ourselves must pilgrims " "f ^ ^"^ ''-' '^^'^y ^^-gh the desperate Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's old rusty key." the iron rule of three" m our itinerancy may have to ides thatl "* '^ T^^^^ '' '""^^^ a'^.aiWrom ^1 sides that the very ark of God in Methodism is bein^ desecrated For our pioneer missions specia loca! superintendents would seem to be a natural th ngso much so that democratic Presbyterianism has th;^ but our church seems to have such a horror of super-' intendency that is not tied down to a circuit ThL again efficiency is sacrificed to cast-iron ruTl^^^^^^^ we ,n Canada have gone through enough of the t^hases of kaleidoscopic possibilities of organization to^know that the organization is only the machinery of Method i.m and not Methodism itself ; our servantf and „ot our And what has all that to do with the mission prob- lem ? Simply this, that we must not expect our mis- 30 METHODISM AND sionaries in foreign lands to be propagandists of an organization, but to plant Methodism, so far as we know it to be divine, as a means of bringing the peo- ple to God. What right have we to attempt to plant in Japan, for example. Episcopal Methodism North, and Episcopal Methodism South, and Canadian Method- ism, and Protestant Methodism, and Evangelical Asso- ciation Methodism, and perhaps English Methodism very soon, as such, with the expectation of gaining a body of Methodists in each separate camp, standing apart for no earthly reason that they can underatfvnd, excepting to help the devil retain his hold on the land and please the churches that planted the missions, evi- dently more for their own glory than for the good of the nation and the glory of God ? Not so did the Apostolic Church, not so can the Methodist Churches continue to do. How much more honoring to God and creditable to ourselves and useful to the people, if we could cease our propagandism of sectarianism, unite in building up one united independent Methodism that would be a mighty factor in the land and leave to the people themselves largely the choice of the organiza- tion most suitable to themselvea. It may be that the tendencies of the M. E. Church in the United States, that I mentioned before, will for a moment present the chief hindrance to so desirable a consummation, as has been stated lately in the Christian Guardian, but I cannot help thinking that a little discussion of the matter will convince the great heart of American Methodism that her duty to God in Japan is not in THE MlSStONAHY PROBLEM. 31 jts of an ,r as we the peo- to plant orth, and Method- cal Asso- ethodism gaining a standing :lerat.'vrid, the land ions, evi- 3 good of did the Churches God and Die, if we m, unite lism that ve to the )rganiza- that the id States, esent the m, as has Tin, but I 1 of the American is not in planning an American Episcopacy, but in planting Methodist Christianity there, and when that is done, the rest will be comparatively easy. But accomplished or not, It is for us to ^im at giving Japan and every other independent nation we visit, as quickly c,s possi- ble, an independent Methodism of their own, and leave our reward with God. III. AS TO EDUCATION. The powers of the human mind are given of God for a definite work ; the highest type of that work can be accomplished only by the highest mental culture, as physical results can be obtained only by the best physical culture. It would seem as though, with our doctrines of consecration to God, Methodism would seek to develop the highest type of mind as an offering to God and not be satisfied with the halo and the lame the blemished offering. And yet it is just here whero lies the secret of the weak spots in Methodism to-day, the one thing in which above all others we need to bestir ourselves. We are told that, considering the hole of the pit out of which we were digged, we°have done wonder- "- the way of education. It is true that John Wesley by circulating cheap printing— a particu- lar phase of early Methodism which modern Methodist Book Rooms have completely outgrown— did much to stimulate and feed the minds of the masses ; that he also established schools, and his successors founded colleges. But I believe if Wesley or his full-fledged spirit had lived on a few decades longer, English Meth- 32 METHODISM AND odism would have had a university that would have compared favorably with the other universities of the old lands, which are Presbyterian in Scotland before they are Scotch, and Anglican in England before they are national, for lack of which the finest sons of noble sires are lost to Methodism and Methodist colleges are but hangers-on to other churches. In the United States noble offerings haVe been given for this purpose, but the mistake has been made in aiming rather at quantity than quality and a mass of superficiality can- not fail to result from a large number of institutions big with pretentious names, but feebly equipped for actual work. This, I believe, however, is largely due to unprecedentedly^ rapid growth in Church and State, and time will no doubt work a cure. But of all places I know of there is none where humiliation of heart on this account is more appropriate than in this Canada of ours. We have not begun to measure up to the conceptions of our own fathers of forty or fifty years ago and an immediate forward movement of our church as a whole must take place, or we shall shortly feel more keenly than ever the fruits of deserved degradation in retrograde Methodism. We have noth- ing to do with the past as an excuse for our present remissness. Ours is' a duty to the present hour, to the millions of the on-coming generations, to the claims of God upon us as a people who have under- taken to attire the Church of Christ in all her beauti- ful garments, as a bride adorned for her husband ; ours to face boldly and practically the modern intellectual lid have s of the 1 before 3re they Df noble colleges ! United purpose, ither at ity can- itutions ped for y due to I State, II places leart on Canada to the y years of our shortly eserved e noth- present \> hour, to the under- beauti- 1; ours ilectual THE MISSIONARY PllORLEM. 33 onslaught on the truth of God and quit ourselves as men in this conflict-the bitterest conHict of the a-es. In the matter of a middling education, Methodism has done much ; for higher education, very little in com- parison with what she ought to do and to do at once In all our educational discussions one wide-reaching point seems largely to have been overlooked, and that IS that our Christian colleges are not simply to guard the individual student by religious training or religious influence, important as that may be, but to guard the education of the age and mould the thought of genera- tions yet to be. One cardinal cause of Methodist inappreciation of higher education is the absurdly low standard of culture contemplated in her ministry. " Like priest like people," in this as in other things ; and if the ministry, which, if not a profession, ought to be high above all professions as an elevating influence among the people, proposes to itself a low standard of cul- ture, it is impossible iihat the laity should have such a keen sense of the need of a high standard of general education as to lead them to contribute larcrely to the enterprises of the church in aid of first-class colleges Nor will they generally feel that such a ministry should have anything but the lowest standard of stipends. There is a subtle law, explain it as we may of averages and quid pro quo in secular matters that will control the temporalities of the pulpit as any other business matter, especially of voluntary churches. If our average minister, from a secular point of view, 84 METHODISM AND is of a low standard, you cannot raise his secular return to a hi^rh standard. Many of our circuits think a man with six children amazingly well paid on S500 or $600; that he ought to save money, and if not, should send out his daughters as servants to farmers' houses and his boys as day-laborers. And we can hardly expect a much higher idea there, so long as we have the standard of culture for our ministers lower than first class common school teachers. An effort is being made to form a Sustentation Fund to bring up the salaries of our men to a minimum of $750 or to put them on a par with those paid Presbyterian ministers and I for one would do what little I could to bring about such a consummation ; but I do not believe it possible to bring our people to pay to our average minister, whose standard is that of a common school teacher, a salary equal to that paid by Presby- terians, who appreciate education, to their ministers, whose average standard is that of a college graduate or teacher of a high school. There are men among us who rise to a higher stand- ard, but it is by their own individual force and conse- crated ambition and no thanks to the educational con- science of the church. » There are churches that will not be satisfied with the ordinary standard; must have men of higher culture and are willing to pay for them; but there are also many more who want the highest kind of men but give the lowest kind of pay, so that many of our choice young men of good parts and cul- ture are kept down in the mill and have to be satisfied is secular lits think 1 on $500 d if not, • farmers* I we can •ng as we ers lower 1 effort is bring up '50 or to ibyterian 9 I could [ do not i.y to our common Presby- linisters, graduate sr sfcand- d conse- nal con- liat will 1st have >r them; highest so that nd cul- satisfied THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. 85 With the average salary or less. How can men on such salaries keep up their supply of literature for mental nourishment and growth ? Dr. Buckley, of the Chnshan Aavocate, says that a young man who does not read a book once a week will sink below the dead level before he is thirty-five; what then are wo to expect of men who for ten years since their ordination have not been able to get an average of one book in a year ? Our church puts an embargo on education in the ministry and a premium on its neglect. Take the case of three young men of twenty years of age, with a common school education, who feel themselves called to the work of the ministry. They go out under the ^superintendent of District and succeed. One feels his lack of higher culture and is determined to get it; the second is persuaded to continue in the work be- lieving thaf. he will do well enough with two years at college during probation, and the third will continue in the work without interruption. The first spends two years preparing to matriculate and four years as an undergraduate, during which time he does much theological work also: his six years are counted one year on his probation; he graduates at twenty-seven and IS a probationer till twenty-nine. The second is allowed one year for the two he spent at college, and IS ordained at twenty-five. The third is ordained at twenty.four, and these two are ministerially, as to fimds^ position, rights, etc., that are under control of the Chv:rch, four and five years the seniors and superiors o. the man who has won for himself an offioi- t!'l ijil- 36 METHODISM AND ally unnecessary education. Of course, in the long run, he will have his reward, but no thanks to the edu^ cational standard of Methodism. Surely, in view of the intellectual needs of the day, the growing intelli- gence of our people, the increase of infidelity in popular forms and a thousand other reasons that will readily occur to an intelligent ooserver of the signs of the times, our church must raise her standard to matricu- lation, at least, for entrance on probation and gradua- tion, or its equivalent, before ordination, no matter how much it lengthens probation. Every facility is now offered for a pushing young man to get an educa- tion, and any one who has not brains and push and patience enough to get a good education has no right in the life-long pastorate of the immediate future. Let him work out his commission in a Salvation Army branch of our church, which we ought to have, or in the local ranks, while he earns an honest livelihood at work that he can properly do. We have certain examinations for probationers. How it may be now-a-days I cannot of course say, but in my time they were oft-times little more than the veriest farce as then conducted. We were told that it was all right to ask each other questions, and then were left to ourselves ; of course the result was that those who knew helped those who had not compassed the work,, and all passed swimmingly, but as for any value as an examination, examiners and examined might as well have staid at home. Much is made of our giving one or two years' college drill to young men during their pro- bhe lonsr the edu- view of f intelli- popular readily s of the matricu- gradua- ' matter icihty is 1 educa- iush and 10 right future, n Army '^e, or in relihood itioners. y, but in i veriest was all ere left )se who e work, le as an as well ; one or eir pro- THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. 37 bation. Of course, some who have an instinct for books -11 be considerably benefitted, but as a materialhel to he mass of young men who get it. I set it at very httle above zero. Their habits have already become set they wish to pose at college as men and preachers and can hardly come down to school-boy drudgery they have not had the previous training to fit them for' CO lege classes and the instruction glides away, leaving them very much as they came, excepting that now th y have been to college and henceforth they pose a! oUege-tramed men. One specimen returned anVta ked m the pulp.t grandly of the "spider's noxious en- tanglement" and that the "spiritual diaphragm throws ed^ficatLT'T .:?"'"'"'^'"^'" """^ ^™"^^ ^"-. t° the edification of h,s congregation. If any young man should ^k me for advice how to spend his^wo^years or one. that he might get during his probation, I should adv.se him to leave theology and science ani philoso- phy alone and begin just where his s ' ooling'^ended . learn how to study-go through the regutar drill' of common branches, as far as he could and then could get himself out of books more than by pre am told that they take crude young men who offer themselves for the mission field, give them a sort of special theological drill and send them forth as pioneers. I can conceive of nothing more inappropri- ate ; no wonder that the impression gains foothold that missionaries are the most inferior of ministerial timber. Before nriA r^f ry,,, v-^cc- .^^ Kiy liiissiuiiary services in a 38 METHODISM AND certain Canadian city, a good lady who had heard echoes of that sort of thing, condoled with the brother in whose church I was to speak. "Do you really think," she said, " that it will be worth while going to hear him ; those missionaries, you know, are such an inferior set." And that brings us again to the question, What has that to do with missions ? Much — every way ; and chiefly this : Whatever you do with self-support- ing and self-sufficient circuits, that pay their way or deliberately starve their ministers, for God's sake and the church's sake keep your average man out of missions that are^ paid from funds raised to extend the Redeemer's Kingdom and bring the world to God. I would let the standard man qo to the averasre circuit ; let the best of our young men win their spurs on home missions, by bringing them up to independence of the fund. Above all, in our pioneer missions in the north and west, I would have the choicest men appointed, with a strong effort, of course, to have them well supported. Even our Indian missions should be manned by a selection of strong men, intellectually, whose mental culture would giv.e them resources in loneliness which a lesser standard could not supply. But when we come to select men for the foreign missions, it is simply the quintessence of folly to send any but the keenest intellects and the ripest scholarship, to grapple with the men and the systems of India, China, Japan and other lands of that grade. Secular writers in the East have set the average missionary in those ad heard e brother >u really going to I such an n, What ry way; support- r way or sake and out of tend the God. I ! circuit ; spurs on pendence ssions in jest men Lve them lould be ectually, urces in ply. But nissions, any but 'ship, to a, China, ' writers in those THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. 89 lands very low, declared him of less calibre than the native that he obtains thero double the salary that any church would give a man of his ability at home, etc. A short time ago a renegade missionary repeated the charges in a long article in the Japan Mad. I felfc that even if those things were true, that was not the place to publish them, where they could only wound the brethren and could not cure the trouble. So I strongly defended the missionary band in the Ghrysanthemnm, which I was editing at the time. But here, where my words may reach those responsible for these selections, I am compelled to say that there is all too much truth, in many caseo. in these allegations. A man who attains the Methodist standard tor a minister is a mere baby in the hands of keen scholars of the East and is more a hindrance m the way than a help in reaching the highest minds of these people. Take our standard young man in our church here, and put him side by side with our native ministers in the East and some of them will surpass him far and away in mental grasp and in English education. The foreigner is not needed there to evangelize the masses, and there is where fifty years of mistake has been made in China, where they attempt to climb from the coolie up to the mind of the land. And there is the secret of success in Japan,-the brains, the ruling, thinking mind of the land IS appealed to ; the battle is to be fought on that plane, with Western infidelity and Oriental thought while these strong men and women, when converted and 40 METHODISM AND equipped, will reach the masses more effeciively than any number of foreigners. Let me give an illustration. From the leading men in one of the most intelligent provinces in Southern Japan, where translations of Haven's Mental Philosophy, and other Western works, had been widely read, there came a message to certain missionaries in Tokio. The message was to the effect that although some Christian teachers had at times visited the province, they had failed to present the claims of Christianity in any such a way as to com- mend it to their intelligence. But from what they had read and from what they heard of its spread in other places they felt there must be something in it that the former preachers could not make plain. So they wished a visit from some competent missionaries from the capital, who would be able to present the claims of the new religion adequately. They offered to provide a large hall for popular discourses and throw open the parlors of the highest families to gather the literati and discuss the pro's and con's on more scientific lines. The message came to the mission best prepared to respond and two of the most experienced of our Presbyterian brethren undertook the pleasajit task. They were cordially received and on alternate days for a length of time addressed thousands of the populace in a great theatre and met a company of some scores of literati in one of the finest parlors of the wealthy. The popu- lar audiences were, of course, a mixture of all classes, from the highest to the lowest, the reunions of the literati took the form of discussing^ fundamentals, one ely than istration. itelligent itions of •n works, o certain he effect at times isent the to com- they had in other that the y wished Prom the jlaims of ) provide open the erati and nes. The ) respond sbyterian ey were a length n a great f literati 'he popu- 11 classes, IS of the titals, one THE MISSIONARY PROHLEM. 41 each day The first question was, "Can man really know ? There you touch the very soul of agnosticism What would your standard Methodist preacher do with that ? And yet these men had to face it and battle it without appealing for a moment to the Bible but simply, with cold logic, prove to those keen Orientals that man s knowledge is real and not merely relative in Spencers sense, and delusive. The next night the question was "If we have powers that know, can they apprehend the unseen world?" Next: "Is there a ^od, and if so, how can you prove that your idea of God is correct?" Next: "How can you prove that the soul IS immortal ? " And so it went on, night after night m long discussions; you can easily perceive that It would require men of no ordinary ability and culture to take those questions and deal with them so as to convince men who had been trained in opposite schools of thought-all without appeal to authority, or the Bible, or miracles, or prophecy, or anything but logic and phenomena and scientific demonstration. Am yet If we do not meet these tests and master the situation, the simple result is, the mind of the nation smiles m pity and passes on in scorn, while Christianity IS lett to dabble and play amid the seething millions ot the masses. What is wanted is schools for the young people who come flocking to all the great cities for an education, manned by trained teachers and then a few apostolic men of large mind, elas- tic temperament and of ^ the broadest, deepest scholarship, or men who give tvnp r.f 4 42 METHODISM AND promise of such attainments by exercise and experi- ence, to plant the standard high and light the candle- sticks of God in the highest intellectual plains and gather around them an army of native evangelists to carry on the work to final success. Now, 1 ask, has Methodism such men for such work ? If so, let us send them, in God's name, and we will do much to solve the Missionary Problem. I am happy to learn that Victoria's sons are amongst the foremost in offering themselves for the most laborious of our mission fields— putting the lie on the charge that culture unfits a mart for the hardest work. May the Church only rally to their aid and send and support them in their holy toil. IV. THE MOTIVE POWER. I come now to the last point, as to the motive power on which we rely to bring forth to the practical solu- tion of this problem, a sufficient number of men of the right stamp, a spirit in the Church that will send them and a sufficiency of means to sustain them and their work until the churches planted become self-sup- porting. I have tried to picture to myself the real state of this missionary problem but find it difficult to grasp it as it unfolds and impossible to find words to voice it to busy folks here in these lands of Christendom. Ten hundred millions of people still without Christianity, excepting as mere lonely taper- lights in the midst of dense darkness, and Christendom so full of everything opposed to Christ and goodness, d experi- e candle- lains and lorelists to I ask, has et us send I to solve earn that a offering r mission ,t culture le Church t them in ive power tical solu- nen of the will send them and B self-sup- f the real it difficult ind words lands of 3ople still lely taper- ristendom goodness, THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. 43 ^ave us H!3 commission. A eenemUnn •„„ every p„lpit and family altar was fam Ikr with T prayer, "Oh. Lord, open the door for th p^^mL o rn:^:it„d^:no7tTa:''^ ''- t--'^ ^^ ana the Church 1Z:t^:^^l ^^ She 18 not ready or willino- in <^r. . ^ *" lands that all lie open to h^er elor^ W '"""" '""" come home and tell'of tantaLn/sler^fTaTvT'" unbeHef co.in, in as i flood C t'h L'te^tl forth'raWsttTthThttt.r'T r ^^""^ would think. ou«ht .0%;™! Snd*or't:": f^oly^w'^ *'"'' ^°"'^ speedily eonqutthrworld for God. We point to the fact that the triumnTrof missions thus far have been merely i„ thT ^ f posts of heathendom where the Sur^h ^ithTr ." zeal has tried her apprentice ha«d ; nTjaf rj^l ha fallen, no great priesthood overthrown. nojZ lorces which laugh to scorn our guerilla qlrirrv.,- i.- ctHLirnt:"""' ^^ T-'' ^^^^^^ Christian centuries. We urge that statesmanlike plans and commensurate efforts must second our holy am bition, our .eal for God. All we say excitesTnly a" 44 METHODISM AND passing interest, a sort of " Well, I declare." a few dol- lars more, perhaps, here and there for misb jns and every one moves along just as if no one believed our report, or believing cared not. Something is radically wrong somewhere, and must be righted before the mission problem can be solved. Here is a church, a beautiful church, in a city with scores of churches all around it, giving an average of a church to 1,000 people. It is usually well occupied, but not crowded. But it is coming to be unfashionable to have a pew^ in the gallery, no matter how comfort- able, and some, of the people cannot get pews down- stairs. Forthwith to accommodate these, and to fur- nish room for more people, so that the income of the church may be more easily secured and increased, the church is enlarged and remodelled to the tune of $13,000. Probably a very useful move and a good investment for that church. Three or four streets away is another fine brick church, but it is not in every respect pleasing and does not accommodate quite enough people to pay a sufficiently high salary to get a first-class man. Forthwith it is pulled down and a new church built on th6 same spot at a cost of $40,000. It may be all right for these two out of twenty Methodist churches in one city to spend nearly $60,000 in one year on making things easy. But what staggers me is to find that it is thought a wild and visionary scheme to ask the Church of our whole Dominion to spend one-third of that amount in put- ting up an inadequate Ijuilding where no large church El few dol- s.ons and lieved our and must be solved, city with n average I occupied, ishionable V comfort- iws down- nd to fur- me of the •eased, the e tune of id a good >ur streets is not in ommodate igh salary illed down Lt a cost of wo out of end nearly But what a wild and our whole mt in put- rge church *rbE Missionary problem. 45 of any name exists, in a city of a million people-over ten times larger than the former with its hundred churches of different denominations-theheadand heart of an empire of 38,000,000 now stretching forth her hands unto God. Everywhere enterprises in which self- interest IS largely mixed command almost unbounded wealth, but for unselfish enterprises amazingl v little. In England the missionary income seems to have reached Its utmost limit of expansion ; in the United States the very heavens and earth seem to be stormed to raise a milhon for missions, a veritable lidiculus miis for the labormg of so great a mountain, even then fav below our Canadian standard ; but here in Canada we appear to have come to the end of our tether also, our home efforts are starved, progress impossible, and over our foreign work, unless we move soon and move largely we may as well tack up the ticket : " For Sale ! They began to build, but were not able to finish !" For years I have seen this crisis culmin«ting, and have pondered the means to meet it. To my mind the only solution is in a radical reconstruction" at the very soul of the whole undertaking_a conversion of the motive power that will bring in a new missionary age. The old plan of putting missions among the chanties, relegating God and His dearest work to our list of paupers and then giving as our sympathies were wrought upon, has simply outlived its useful- ness and must give way for the practical operation of some nobler force. Time was when the fitful winds which propel the clouds wAra ih^ ««u, e i_ ■ a METHODISM ANl> to man to work his machinery and to carry his com- merce to other lands. Time came when men's interests were too large and pressing to brook the waiting for the wind to rise and commerce too eager for sailing vessels and canal boats. So steam power came to meet the need and the steam engine on land and water has multiplied the products of machinery and commerce a thousand fold. We are still in the age of wind in our mission business and dependent on the power of gush to run the machine. We are beginning to find it impossible to raise the wind when it is most wanted and so our grist remains unground and our divine commerce is mocked too often by enforced calm in mid-ocean. A generation ago missionaries came home from foreign fields and told of blood-curdling atrocities ; of Jugganath rolling over the crushed car- cases of devotees; of widows immolated on funeral pyres ; of babes flung to the Ganges ; of savages more ferocious than tigers, tattooed and painted and feath- ered; of missionaries caught and roasted and boiled to garnish the festive boards of cannibals; crowds listened with mouth agape, enjoying the luxury of sympa.hy and they swelled the meagre givings of their fathers to larger benefactions. Our own Crosby and Young and others present us the noble, the de- based savage of our own land; and as we listen to tales of exposure amid snow and ice and winter cold, in journeyings often and privations many, crowds grow momentarily enthusiastic and a few more dollars are o-iven. But we no longer respond to those thrill- THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. 47 his com- i interests aiting for :or sailing came to land and inery and bhe age of tit on the beginning it is most i and our )rced calm ries came i-curdling ished c&r- n funeral a^es more ind feath- md boiled s ; crowds luxury of givings of wn Crosby le, the de- e listen to inter cold, ly, crowds ore dollars hose thrill- injr stories to such an extent as to carry us much ahead. They are about exhausted, anyway. There are scarcely any new worlds of horror to con- quer and the power of conjuring with such things is just about gone. We can only talk plain business : there is the work to do ; there is the world to disciple for God and there are your marching orders. How can we move the Church to action ? It is absurd to say that the Church has reached the limit of her power to give. Ten dollars could be paid by the Church for this purpose where one is given, if there was but a mind to give. In one of the smaller cities of Canada, in one Methodist church, that alto - - - - 50 METHODISM AND the old bottles. Will it be so now ? Must a new denomination rise to put into practical shape the struggling missionary spirit and stir the world with a wide-reaching missionary revival ? Or is there within Methodism the latent energy, and in her institutions the elasticity to give it scope when pro- perly awakened ? 1 believe that this final solution is the legitimate culmination of Methodism, the ultimate outcome of her spirit and theology, for which her past development has been but a track-laying stage. If this is not so may God speedily raise up a people that shall embody His idea for humanity's salvation* that shall lead every branch of God's hosts to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty, before .we are put to shame in the sight of our enemies. And wherein in Methodism, you ask, lies this secret fountain, this sealed and sacred hopo for these ends of the ages ? In the legitimate applica- tion of her doctrine of holiness, I reply. The preach- ing of holiness is the very palladium of Methodism ; ho ness obtainable by faith, lived now and here, not in the life of a useless ascetic, not in ghastly theo- logical abstraction, rkot in dim 'hope of some future holiness that we may approach unto but never obtain, useless alike to God and man, but a scriptural holiness whereby the reconstructed man walks the earth, in a sense, an incarnation of God. In the old Minutes we read : " What was the rise of Methodism so-called ? In 1729 two young men, reading the Bible, saw they could not be saved without holiness, followed after it, *HE MiSSiONARV PHOfeLEM. 51 and incited others so to do. In 1737 they saw holiness comes by faith. They saw, likewise, that men are justified before they are sanctified, but still holiness was their point." And it has ever been the rallying point of Methodism from that day to this. Though persistently there has been a natural tendency away trom It, spiritual weakness ensuing, we are again by some standard-bearer, brought back to our palladium and war-cry. It has been the point, and yet no doc- trine has been so jeopardized by foes without and crudities within, it has existed all along and exists- to-day as a splendid spiritual inspiration, which dlds and quickens and glorifies every other phase of salva- tion with which it works; but it is still to the mass of our preachers and people a splendid intangibilify, simply because it has never yet received a definite ethical development, enforced with the irresistible combination of spiritual genius and moral courage to set on flame the conscience of the age. The Rev Dr JMb, a devout Congregational minister of Birmingham one of the most masculine thinkers of our time' preached a remarkable sermon some time ago, on the occasion of the meeting of the Methodise Conference m tnat city, in which occurred the following su^rges- tive paragraph: "There remains one doctrine of John Wesley s-the doctrine of perfect sanctification- whicb ought to have led to a great and original ethical development; but the doctrine has not grown; it seems to remain just where John Wesley left it. There has been a want of th« "-""i"- — xi-_ -. , ji. fcjj^ ^-_xxi«o ui wiu courage to attempt ag 5^ METHODISM ANt) the solution of the immense practical questions which the doctrine suggests. The questions have not been raised, much less solved. To have raised them effec- tively, indeed, would have been to originate an ethical revolution which would have had a far deeper effect on the thought and life — first of England, and then of the rest of Christendom — than was produced by the reformation of the sixteenth century." I want to pre- sent one of those practical questions to-day, and would to God that it might be a tree of God's own planting that shall strike deep root and grow and fructify till the nations eat of the fruit thereof. So that in place of the remnants of oiir pietistic mysticism, our tendency to theoretical quibbles or fanatical huckstering of cliques, our stirring up of an enthusiasm which for lack of practical output recoils in selfish efforts after unselfish- ness and fails, we shall have our Zion go forth as brightness and her righteousness as a lamp that burneth, that our sun may no more go down nor our moon withdraw herself, that the days of our mourn- ing may forever be ended. When I came to college in 1865, 1 was hungry for holiness of heart. I sought all help I could in our theology and from living men and read much pub- lished in our own and other Churches, seeking for light that suited my ease. In 1875, while conscious of the peace of acceptance with God, in an agony of longing after a consciousness of being just what God would have me be, all human help vanished and all theology fled, I was alone with God, face to face with the ir mourn- THE MISSIONARY PKOBLEM. gS problem of my life. Through the heavenly anguish of a spiritual crucifixion I was graciously led to take ayny stendard forever the completely altered motto, Nor^ of, elf, but all of Thee." and rose into another world, wide and heavenly, whose orbit ever centres in the eternal God. Gods will was heaven. He willed apparently that I should go to Japan ; a life of toil in Japan IS now better than heaven. I have since, in the light oi personal experience, read many books and papers on holiness, published by men and women of almost every Church and pha^e of theology, but none gave me more help-and that more in the wav of a pregnant hint-than the monograph of James igar Beet on *« object of Bible Holiness. To put it into a nutshell, the best holiness sermon is God's " Be ve holy, for I am holy," which to me. means that every God-given faculty-and every faculty we have is a counterpart of God's own nature-should be Godlike not only in constitution, but also in character a«d use' God gave us an object lesson of what He mean by coming Himself in human form, and from the historic Christ we may learn each one for him- self to be a Christ likewise, expressing so far as our finite powers extend the immense and infinite moral perfections and actions of God. Let us take Christ s life as an exegesis of His word He says, "Lay not up for yourselves tVeasures on earth " Ihe exegesis of theologians tells us that that is to be taken with a grain of salt ; that we should not set our atlections on thftm anA oi^^„ij u ^^ -"-^.^lu iiavu otner treasures as 54 METHODISM AND 111! I! well. The exegesis of Christ was, "The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." Christ said to the rich young man, " Go, sell all that thou hast, dis- tribute to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me." Exegetes tell us that that was a special case, or that it has a qualified meaning. Christ's exegesis was that He emptied Him- self for poor humanity's good ; " though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we, through His poverty, might become rich." And so on through every chapter of Christ's teaching. Methodism has always had arid has to-day, an army of men who could easily earn a competence in secular business or other profession, but who literally follow the Master, singing " No foot of land do I possess, No cottage in the wilderness, A poor wayfaring man," in order to carry the gospel to their fellowmen. Now, the question in my mind is this, why cannot we have a consecrated army of similarly cultured and competent and successful business men, who shall make money that shall be God's to send the gospel, while they simply call a living salary their own ? I ask for no long-faced asceticism, for no dreary, un- requited drudgery ; but to put it into tangible form : let one hundred young men starting in life — graduates of this college if you like — form a holiness associa- tion on this wise. Let those who are called to the work of the ministry offer themselves for any mission THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. 55 autHontie. to ea„, on Got ItlCZ^t^ the be.sfc opemnss. Let there be kept up a mutull nsurance and superannuation and aick fund 7von .ke, so that all shall be cared for and exigenci me I venture to say that inside of five years if fh T z:^^ff' -' •^o„est,;.s l:; ?;; uevoted men at home would «innnnrf +v,^ 4iVL ^ aWd a.d the contagion tZ^'ltJlrC the Church givings all along the line multin vi^ such men as Studd and his offfring olmm^Z'f one thousand business men consecrate theirTli in a soon bo abroad as flaming anjrels of tn.th i;„i,!- thejarthest .nd darkest Lnfrs^f tSt tS""a„".^ all Chnstendom would heave with such a moral unitft ing as humanity never dreamed of. ^ *" You talk of your tithes as of Christian dnf,r. „ * oJeJ„^siftheyarebutsystemr;\rtSLS:^^^ cmid s A B of working for God H-"t ^- ^- ^•- - 66 METHODISM AND THE MISSIONARY PROBLEM. liiii fi I ill must be generated in a furnace of fire ; light to be dif- fused must be produced in a central glowing flame. So in the Church of God. And if we Methodists are to be nothing more than the stokers for Christianity — lamp- lighters for the churches of Christendom — let us build a furnace worthy the object, kindled and fed by the fire that warms all heaven, and swing aloft a flaming candelabra detached from earth, suspended from the throne of God, with each of its thousand electric jets a consecrated Christ, showing in actual practice the light of God's own love incarnate. Oh, brethren, what we want as a motive power is holy, human eyes, to see the problem as God sees it, holy, human hearts, to sympathize with a lost world, es Christ Himself agonized, until we have fellowship with His sufferings on their behalf, and that we put our sympathy into practical form as He did. K this could but be done and become contagious in Christendom, very soon would hell on earth be driven to the place prepared for the devil and his angels, and the new heavens and the new earth would appear, — the Missionary Problem would be solved, and Methodism would have done her v^ork and be ready to gather up her feet ^and die and be buried in the grave of every other 'istn, all having become Christ's, and God all in all. Then the evening stars would sing together and all the sons of God would again shout for joy ; the day of earth completed, time would be no more, but in its place come forth in glory the fuller day of eternal heaven. " Hallelujah ! the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ! " (57) OFFICERS FOR 1886-87. Presidpni~R^y, e. B. Harper D n n n- p ., ^°"<*on Conference Branch Lecturer for jm^R^y. J. V. S„^™TS J"""*'"- Iflagara Conference Branch Lecturer /or me-Ri^i b '^V,'^""'"™' B-D., Gait. • ^- "■ A«eswoe™, LLD., Mount Forest. D . , Toronto Conference Branch Pre»Klenl~Rzv. E. B. Harper n n o ,r Secretary. Tremurer-^^ r iv... ' Col'mgwood. £«<.../<.. «^S-R.^v"G.''vVrBBS; aSS^-^- *-o Road. Bay of Quinte Conference Branch / ^.ywn, (Jeorge. lU-own, \V. P. Burns, H. N., U.A. Cannom, (?. W. Clarke, R. Cochran, (George, 0.1)., K.T.U Conron, M. U. » Chapman, ,1. A., MA. Courtioe, A. C, B.U. Cullen, Thomas. l>ewart, K. H., D.IX, P.T.L. Eby, C. 8., D.D., F.T.L. Ualbraith, W., B.A. (terman, John F., M.A. Goodman, John, Grittith, Thomas, M. A. Hare, J. J., M.A. Harper, U. Harper, K. U., D.I). Harris, .1. H.'witt, (J. A., U.A. Hioks, W. T. Hill, Newton. Hill. I.. W., U.A. Hunt, .lohn. Idle, I). JeflVey, Thonias \V. JolliHe, I". W. tlohnston, Hugh, U. I). Laugford, ('harlca. Largo, .!. \V. Liildy, .lames. Locke, .1. H. Madden, \V. \V. Matthews, U.S. Metoalfe, ,1. K. Maur.iug, II. M., U.A. MoCluug, .1. A. Meaohaui, (J. M., D.D., F.T.L. McDonald, 1)., M.D., F.T.L. Philp, Jolui, M.A. IMdIp, vS. C, Jr. Firritte, William. Redditt, J. J. Reid, Thomas R. Richard, A. MHT nv MEMIIKHH. in. .A. M di Itohertn, 10. Hc»n«i, MiuiiUf'l I*. Uothwoll, \V. HlHHoy, Nl.lney J, Hlmpmm, ('. A. HImpiinii, (i. M. ^'Iiitf, SttinuBl. Nt»Ulof,|, IC. A., M,M., K'l-r, Ntewaifc, .1. \V. NiitheHiiii.l, Alox., D.I).. K t r 1 lioiii, Jftiiiei. . ■ . 'riiompdon U. yiokoiy, John. Wttnlilngton, (Joorue, M.A. VV«i,l.lnul..n. VVlllUi C. VVaHB, .f: II., M.A. Wfllilinr, a. VVIilHIngton, |{., M.A. W kinrnu,..!. M.. M.A. VVIIIIttmii, Thonifti,. VV I throw, W. II., I III Voung, Kgerton U. I-«AVMKN MrmhrRH. 1). A. V. n. I). n.A. D.D., F.T.L. D., F.T.L. W. H«atty. Km,.. LL.H. 1. Ilardlo, Krm. O. M. Long, Ki,[. M. H. I W, K,,,. J. I. MooiG, K«q. "AW Ol miiftTK t OI«rKHKNx, William. KinoR, Janios. * Lawson, .lamoa. 4'aNrKiiKNrK niiANni. llainoH, A. H. Ilarrimtn, .1. %{, KoiiiKU', lloiiry. I^WHoii, 'riioiimn. Lonu, (]. II. Lai^lli^y, It. H. Molinau, .Idhii, H.A. IV'tom, (liM)ruu. UoM, A. VV. UohiiiNon, .1. N^, HutltMlgo, W. h. Huttiui, .1. II. iStowart, A., H.D. WilHon, r. H. 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V, Ta IV*<'lifiiiKliIlii, ,j. if\ <'«l»oiini, II. N. Ontothout, A. Jl. Qulnii, H. Ky :«, H. Niiii.,.'!y. ,1. VV. WHmm, M. K. Wttllwjii, I. a WattK IMH«4M« MM.KIW. WKMlKf^N T„K„t '^ MONTNKAI.. Il'vliio «"ko, VV. A. l«'aKloH()ii, ,;. I'Viir 'OHoo, tX llaiTiB, T. H. llan-lHcui, 'I\ K. MtMKlciB,,!!, A. Ilowitt, VV. '*»iiit, O. 8. rKLLOWM" IN . H. Koiriiliili, T. L. ManHlcott«, L, Mountoer, H. V I'otit, !<:, Noott, (;. '!'. Nhaw, R A. Hniith, M. Nparling, VV. nuirlow, If. M. Truax, A. IJKV. N. HuKWAHn, H.T. I). Cobourg. ; Kv. S. D. U,(,K, I,, i,^ Bollovifle. Kkv. J. KLLiorr, D. D. .' .* " Toronto. Hkv. K. M. Dkwart, i) F) Kingston. JKV. K. li. Hyokman, in') 'IV>ronto. JUv. A. HiriiN8, I), 1)., LL D r.. MoDonalu, M. b ^VKT*1VRli.Kn niivn-oo tuv 20 THEOLOGICAL UNION OF VICTOIIIA COLLEGE. (PRICES ISTKT.) teetiires and Sermons. From 1879 to 1882. In one y olume. Cloth 80 75 Bl'»^One of Another. Sermoa by Rev. Dr. Nelles \ fetifsi^ Katnre, and Results of S!n. Lecturt by [o 20 R^v. 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