BV 2060 .A45 1920 American Baptist Convention Board of Education. The triumph of the misRinnarv mot ive ^S!St OF PBtttfJg OCT 85 1920 THE TRIUMPH V ^8S!cal_s^ > OF THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE EDITED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF MISSIONARY EDUCATION BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE NORTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 276 Fifth Avenue, New York City PHILADELPHIA AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY BOSTON CHICAGO ST. LOUIS NEW YORK LOS ANGELES KANSAS CITY SEATTLE TORONTO Copyright, 1920, by GILBERT N. BRINK, Secretary Published August, 1920 FOREWORD The Christian message is being tested in the fire-light of a world conflagration. Has this message the vitality to survive the wreck of ruined nations and broken faith? Can it justify its supreme claim that it can bring universal blessing to the world ? The answers must be negative unless this mes- sage is fundamentally missionary. The World War has broken international ties. May we expect that the Christian mes- sage will tie together international hopes and open the way for a new moral endeavor in the world? The answer is yes, if its mis- sionary note be sounded. New perils confront us. As suddenly as armies of men withdrew from the field of conflict, other armies of sinister forces took their places in a new and mightier warfare. Will the Christian message suffice for this hour? Not unless it has an inter-racial bearing, for all, equally, everywhere. The dangers of inertia and indifference which always follow the expenditure of sym- pathetic energy are especially to be feared now. The delivery of the missionary mes- sage in full vigor is our great hope. Foreword It is not enough that our altruistic and humanitarian impulses should have been awakened, but it is our obligation to give such organized direction to those impulses that it may never again be forgotten that the way to world betterment is not through expediency but Christian brotherhood. The recognition of this truth indicates the com- ing triumph of the missionary motive. This series of closely related articles, covering various phases of the present world situation, was written expressly in demonstration of the theme of the book, and first appeared in the denominational press. The writers were peculiarly qualified and chosen for this task, and the interest already awakened is evidence that these statements should form a permanent contribution to the materials for missionary education. These studies are presented under the auspices of the Department of Missionary Education of the Board of Education, and they are particularly recommended for sup- plementary reading and study in connection with the new Foreign Mission study text- book, " The Bible and Missions," by Mrs. Helen Barrett Montgomery. William A. Hill, Secretary of Missionary Education. CONTENTS Chapter Page Foreword in I. The Missionary Motive Fundamental in Christianity 1 Frederick L. Anderson, Professor in Newton Theological Institution. II. The Missionary Motive in the World War 15 John H. Mason, Formerly Professor in Rochester Theological Seminary. III. Some Contributions of Christian Mis- sions in War-time. Part 1 35 James H. Franklin, Foreign Secretary, American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. IV. Some Contributions of Christian Mis- sions in.War-time. Part II 49 James H. Franklin. V. The Social Application of the Mission- ary Motive Abroad 63 Joseph C. bobbins, Foreign Secretary, American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. Contents Chapter Page VI. The Social Application of the Mission- ary Motive at Home 83 Justin O.' Nixon, Professor in Roches- ter Theological Seminary. VII. Ought the United States to be a Mis- sionary Nation ? 101 Ernest D. Burton, Professor in Univer- sity of Chicago. VIII. The Missionary Motive — Its Appeal to the Youth of Our Day 117 v P. H. J. Lerrigo, Candidate Secretary, American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE FUNDAMENTAL IN CHRISTIANITY By FREDERICK L. ANDERSON THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE FUNDAMENTAL IN CHRISTIANITY Christianity is fundamentally missionary. By this we mean that the missionary ingre- dient is an original, essential, necessary and indispensable major element in it; that Christianity is not itself without it ; that the missionary spirit is no offshoot or by- product, but belongs to the very central core of our religion. The professing Chris- tian, who does not see and feel this, has yet to learn what real Christianity is. I. Consider in the first place that Chris- tianity has a missionary God. The greatest conception of the human mind is God. He is before, behind, and in all, the basis of ex- istence, the foundation of the universe, the fountain of life. Our religion simply pre- supposes God and makes two primary asser- tions about Him, viz. : that God is Light (holiness), and that God is Love. It does not think of Him as the Infinite, the Abso- lute, and the Unknowable, but as the One The Triumph of the Missionary Motive who reveals Himself to His creatures and shares with them His life and blessing, as the heavenly Father who gives good gifts to His children, tenderly cares for them, and especially bestows on them His love. In- deed, there is no sacrifice which He will not make for them, "for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not per- ish, but have everlasting life." He so loved that He gave. That describes His character. He is the God of love, the giving God. In sending his Son to live and die for us, He made the greatest of all sacrifices. But as some one has well said, that is really an un- derstatement. When He made the supreme effort for our salvation, He did not give something or send somebody else. He came Himself (in Christ). So God was the preeminent missionary. But His mission- ary spirit and work long antedates the time when in the historical Christ He strove to reconcile the world unto Himself. In a very real sense He has loved the lost and borne the cross for them since the race began. II. Christianity has a missionary Saviour. The Spirit of the Father was his spirit. He came to seek and to save the lost. He had the Saviour heart of God. Jesus was- himself an active missionary. The Missionary Motive Fundamental No missionary was ever more aggressive. He sought men. He did not wait for men to come to him. He went after them. So it was an itinerant ministry. Persistently he pursued his preaching tours from village to village, from city to city, from province to province, until he had covered all the im- portant divisions of the Jewish fatherland. He sought personal contact with the largest possible number of individuals. His speak- ing campaign has rarely been equaled even in modern times for comprehensiveness and thoroughness. The white harvest was al- ways before his eyes and on his heart. He prayed for helpers and urged others to pray for them. No difficulties or weariness held him back. Over the mountains and through the wilderness, the Good Shepherd sought his sheep. At last, he did not shrink from laying down his life for them. He was not content with being the only missionary, but he organized large mission- ary movements. From the very first, he had designed to make his followers " fishers of men." He taught them the deepest desire of his own heart as their chief prayer, " Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." He named them " apostles," which means missionaries. While they were still ill-prepared, he sent them out by the The Triumph of the Missionary Motive dozen and the seventy on missionary preach- ing tours. At last, after the resurrection, he bade them go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. " The field is the world " was his conception of it, and it was to be evangelized by his followers. When he left them, he placed the responsi- bility for the great task squarely upon their shoulders, promising his almighty aid. He has never revoked or altered that last Com- mission. Aggression is its keynote. It is a trumpet call to a charge. The battle will be won when Christians obey it and not before. III. The Christian experience is funda- mentally missionary. As is necessary in any such general discussion, we refer to the normal Christian experience, not to the ex- perience of a Paul on the one hand, nor to the superficial flabby experience, so common nowadays, on the other. This normal Chris- tian experience is so rich and varied that it may be truly described in many ways, but, however described, it will be seen to have necessarily a profoundly missionary element. It may be looked upon as a choice or defi- nite acceptance of Christ and a life of devo- tion to him. But by this we must at least mean that we have freely chosen Christ as the ideal of life, as the determining factor in The Missionary Motive Fundamental all our plans and decisions, and that we gladly devote ourselves to doing his will, to carrying out his purposes. But who is this Christ? The greatest of all missionaries. And what is his central purpose? The bringing of the world to love and obey God, which is nothing else than the missionary program. Or, more profoundly, salvation through Christ may be looked upon as God's greatest blessing, which Faith receives with thankful- ness and humility. It is all of grace, the un- speakable good, the undeserved gift of pure love. In it we have forgiveness through Christ, reconciliation and peace with God, a new purity, a new largeness of love, a new power to overcome in the moral struggle, a new and recreating purpose, which alto- gether constitute a new life, eternal life. Our hearts rise in sincerest gratitude to God, a gratitude which must express itself not only in praise, but in action pleasing to Him. And what is His dearest wish ? The salvation of the world. And what does He ask us to do? To take our part in that great enterprise. The possession of such a supreme blessing also puts us under the most sacred obliga- tion to our fellow men who do not have it. Freely we have received, freely also we must. Tlie Triumph of the Missionary Motive give. The new life in Christ is the best thing in the world. No other religion has anything to compare with it. It is salva- tion, salvation from sin and selfishness and spiritual death, salvation for the individual and for society, for this life and the life to come. What shall we think of the man who would keep it to himself? How shall we characterize the depths of his selfishness, the meanness of his cowardice, the hardness of his heart ? The ethics of the medical pro- fession requires the discoverer or inventor of a new remedy to proclaim it openly to a sick and dying world without thought or hope of financial reward, and looks with de- served contempt on the man who declines to do so. If I discovered a sure cure for can- cer and with it healed myself of that dread disease and then refused to tell my secret, the whole world would rightly call me a criminal. But we Christians have a surer remedy for the more dreadful spiritual ills of men and society; how much more se- verely shall we be judged if we hold our peace ? Can we blame the world for doubt- ing the reality and effectiveness of our re- ligion, if we continue our guilty silence? " Why didn't you tell us before? " from the lips of the heathen is an inescapable condem- nation. 8 The Missionary Motive Fundamental But, more profoundly still, we must re- member that in the blessing of salvation God gives us Himself. In the great experi- ences of forgiveness and reconciliation and the inflow of the new life, we recognize that we are dealing with a Person, and that that Person is God in Christ. And this experi- ence of dealing with a Person and learning to know Him as all gracious, all pure, and all victorious grows with our Christian life. Especially do we become more intimately acquainted with the Great Friend when we enter into His work for men, bear our cross, and know the fellowship of His sufferings. To know God thus in the experiences of sal- vation, work and suffering is not only the highest privilege, but the highest function of the Christian and of the Church. And its inevitable corollary is that we shall thus make Him known, and bring this experience of knowing God as Saviour and Friend to other men. To know God and to make Him known, that is the whole business of the Christian and of Christianity. But, strange to say, while we cannot make God known till we know Him, it is only in making Him known that we can conserve, deepen, and enrich our acquaintance with Him. But to make God known in experience to other men is Missions. The Triumph of the Missionary Motive And when God gives Himself to us, we have Him in our hearts. As the New Testa- ment expresses it, we have His Spirit, Christ in us, and we in Christ. So in a sense it is no longer our old self that lives, but Christ lives in us, he reincarnates himself in us. Through us he speaks to the world. In our conduct, spirit, and temper the world sees him again. We bear about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that his resurrec- tion life of triumph may also be manifested in our mortal body. The true Christian seeks to save the lost, not merely because he has devoted himself to do Christ's will, not merely from gratitude to God or duty to- ward his fellows, but because the Spirit of Christ is in him and he cannot help loving men as Jesus loved them, bearing their sor- rows as he bore them, and bringing to them the great salvation as he brought it to them. Thus Christ reproduces his Sav- iour heart and his missionary motive in the Christian. We do not try to be, but we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. If Christ dwells in us, we cannot but preserve society and give the light of the knowledge of God. Our life simply overflows to other men. " He that believeth on me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water." The very 10 The Missionary Motive Fundamental genius of our religion is expansion. Propa- gation is the law of the spiritual life. " No man was ever yet convinced of any mo- mentous truth without feeling in himself the power as well as the desire to communicate it." To tell the story of salvation is the in- stinct and first impulse of the new-born soul, the inevitable outworking of the inner divine life. Christianity is the religion of love, not oi' an agreeable sentimentalism which ends in itself, but a Christian love, which expresses itself in actively doing good to all men even at cost to itself. Christ in fact for the first time made active love the reigning principle in ethics and in life. If we choose Christ, we choose a life of love. When we devote ourselves to him, we devote ourselves to do- ing good to men. We love because he first loved us. Our loving gratitude to God for all His spiritual gifts can take no form more pleasing to Him than active love of those for whom Christ died. The more fully we know God, the more clearly do we know that He is Love. Love, self-sacrifice, service, are the words which express Christ's spirit of self -giving best of all, and they are the great missionary words. How can the loveless profess a religion of love or men indifferent to the salvation of the world claim loyalty ii The Triumph of the Missionary Motive to the world's Saviour? How can they give a pittance or nothing to the cause nearest the heart of God and still call themselves His children ? Such men do not perceive the in- dictment that their indifference to missions brings against their own spiritual experience and their Christian name. They do not yet know what Christianity is, or what it is to be followers of Jesus. IV. Christianity has a missionary history. Of this we American Christians are ocular evidence. Our religion has come down to us from our forefathers, who inhabited the for- ests of Germany and Scandinavia, and after- ward came to ancient England and Scotland. They owed their conversion in the main to the missionary zeal of Italian and other Christians, who in turn had received the message from men who started from Syrian Antioch. But Antioch had been evangelized by preachers from Jerusalem, the seat of the first Christian Church. Moreover, from us Americans has sounded out the word in re- cent years to all the great civilizations of Asia, to the darkened tribes of Africa, to South America, and to the islands of the sea. The fact that Christianity is today a world religion and not a forgotten little Jewish sect, is due to its missionary char- acter. 12 The Missionary Motive Fundamental But this brief sketch of the history is not enough. A very superficial study will prove that Christianity has been most missionary when at its best, and its best when most mis- sionary. Its classic epochs of enthusiasm and greatness have been characterized by glow- ing missionary zeal. This was especially true of those first three centuries, when the religion of Jesus conquered the mighty em- pire of the Caesars in spite of the crudest persecutions and the most desperate resis- tance. The Dark Ages, during which the Church was corrupt, ignorant, and almost heathenish, saw the slow death of the mis- sionary endeavor. With the Reformation the old missionary spirit revived, the new light was carried by willing hands often at the cost of martyrdom, through all Western Europe. When lethargy and formalism later seemed to foreshadow the death of Protestantism, Wesley's glorious revival of evangelism, and Carey's and Judson's mis- sions to India showed that the spell was broken and that the new day had dawned. Nor is anything so cheering in our own dark time as the seemingly universal resolu- tion of the church of God to refound, en- large, and carry through to the end its mis- sionary work at home and abroad. This great venture of Faith at the beginning of 13 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive our Twentieth Century is the evidence of Christianity's vitality and the prophecy of its triumph. Those who cannot see it are spiritually blind, those who refuse to heed the call do so at their spiritual peril. H II THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE IN THE WORLD WAR By JOHN H. MASON THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE IN THE WORLD WAR Missions and war — how far apart they seem ! War essentially destructive ; missions altogether constructive. War death-deal- ing ; missions life-giving. War projected by men; missions inspired by the Spirit of God. War commonly aiming at the exten- sion of an earthly kingdom; the missionary motive always aiming at the extension of the kingdom of God. From whatever angle considered, war and missions are as far apart as darkness and light. What place then had the missionary motive in the war of the nations? The Scope of the Missionary Motive We must learn to discriminate between the missionary motive and missionary insti- tutions. The motive is one thing, the ma- chinery quite another. The institution may spring from the motive; but the motive may be vitally at work where there is no institu- b 17 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive tion. In the thought of many, the mission- ary motive concerns itself only with the preaching of the gospel to the heathen. That conception is far too narrow. The missionary motive springs from that love in the heart which is from God and which burns to make itself felt in the human heart everywhere. On the strength of that love, Jesus issued his Great Commission as well as many a lesser commission along the way. And he who knows that love longs to carry Jesus and the spirit of Jesus into the heart of all mankind. But the spirit of Jesus was made manifest and his teachings were ener- gized and emphasized by every act of his daily life. Wherever he met human suffer- ing, his impulse was to heal. They only can claim his name who do his will. " As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." Thus the missionary motive is wider than missionary institutions. Every Christian may know the blessed impulse and may do the Father's will. Is the Christian Church True to Its Mission and to the Great Commission? The criticism of the church never ceases. And so far as it is unprejudiced and rea- iS The Missionary Motive in the World War sonable, it should not cease. The church has learned much during the past five years from the honest criticism of its friends as well as from that of its foes. The war has aroused many a man and many an institu- tion to a reconsideration of its mission and its opportunity. It is safe to say that the modern church has never so given itself to self-examination and to the serious con- sideration of its duty to humanity as during the last half decade. The war has come as a revelation and a challenge to those who name the name of Christ. Outside Agencies Which are Christian We must not forget, however, that there are many Christian agencies at work out- side the bounds of the church itself which have been inspired by Jesus. In these, also, is working the missionary motive. They too are extending the kingdom. It should be remembered that these agencies, though not strictly reckoned as activities of the church, are, for the most part, manned and managed by those who are members of the Christian church. Christ is in the midst of them and in the heart of their management, and the altruistic motive is driving their machinery. 19 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive The activity of the Christian church and the activities of these related agencies have saved the war. In wars of former times lit- tle or no attention was paid to the moral welfare of the men who composed the armies. But in the great war, no sooner had the armies begun their march than Christian institutions, of whatever name, be- gan to mobilize their forces for action. In the months that followed, hundreds of mil- lions of dollars were called for and the money came pouring in in floods. It was to be expended in the relief of suffering hu- manity. These unprecedented offerings came from givers who were looking for no dividends in dollars. And they came at a time when the government was issuing loan after loan (to a total of twenty-one billions of dollars) and was pressing its claim as the first to be considered; and also at a time when the cost of living was rising so rapidly as to submerge an increasing percentage of the population day by day. But to the end of the war there was no cessation in the appeal of suffering humanity and no cessa- tion in the willing response. But not merely dollars were called for. The human element, after all, was the su- preme factor. Noble men and women who could not respond to the call of a govern- 20 The Missionary Motive in the World War ment to bear arms and to slay their fellow men responded joyously to the call of hu- man suffering — the call of the Master to help those who were in peril and distress. They could not take the lives of their fellow men, but they could give their own lives in order that the lives of their fellows might be saved. The giant egoism which had precipitated the war and whose cry was " Kill " was giv- ing way before the advancing forces of al- truism, whose prayer was " Save" In the Hearts of the Nations The war has taught us, as has nothing else, how the spirit of Christianity at its best, or, let us say, the spirit of Jesus, has permeated the hearts even of the nations. Admit that the motive of Belgium as she bravely withstood the armies of Germany was primarily that of saving her own honor. Yet England sprang to Belgium's relief not primarily for the sake of England, but because by the ruthless violation of sa- cred treaties the little nation was being over- run and was in danger of annihilation. The future of civilization was at stake. Of course there is no possibility of ap- praising human motives with absolute accu- 21 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive racy, and in the fabric of international rela- tions there are a thousand twisted threads. But, whatever may be said of the motives which impelled European nations in those portentous early years of the war, no one will contend that the motive of America was chiefly one of self -protect ion. America entered the war not for the sake of America, but for the sake of the world. As President Wilson said at Turin : " The people of the United States were reluctant to take part in the war, but as the struggle grew from stage to stage, they were more and more moved by the conviction that it was not a European struggle ; that it was a struggle for the freedom of the world and the liberation of humanity.' ' And again at Paris : " The soldiers and sailors of the United States have given the best that was in them to this war of redemption/' Cardinal Mercier's word to America was this : " The only reason why you came into the war and saved our common cause was your love of justice, your respect of truth, your ardent zeal for humanity." And the queen of the Belgians, asked to speak a final message to the women of America, replied : " What shall I say? Tell them to continue their love." There it is in a single word, " love," that divine force which flows 22 The Missionary Motive in the World War through human hearts and which reveals to those who are whelmed in dark despair a heavenly Father's heart. So the Christian motive which sent forth the early disciples from Antioch and Jerusa- lem, which looked toward the liberation of humanity and the redemption of the race, was aflame in the twentieth century as it had been in the first. And the League of Nations itself — what is it, in the last analysis, but an honest effort on the part of the leading Christian states- men of the world to protect the weaker na- tions and to insure them freedom and safety in their long heroic struggle toward a higher civilization ? The Christian Motive at the Heart of Human Institutions The Red Cross had been organized for the relief of human suffering in great emer- gencies and crises. It was ready to enter once more on its mission of mercy at the opening of the World War. When our own country entered the war, the American Red Cross boldly asked the American people for $100,000,000 — an appeal unprecedented in the history of relief enterprises. The re- sponse brought $114,000,000. A second 2 3 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive hundred million was called for, and $169,- 000,000 was pledged by 43,000,000 sub- scribers. Altogether, the Red Cross raised more than $400,000,000, and today has a membership of more than 20,000,000. But money was the least of it. It called upon great captains of industry to give up their business and to invest all their time and all their energy (without money com- pensation) for the relief of humanity through the Red Cross. Even this was not the largest thing. It enlisted vast armies of helpers among the rank and file of human- ity, noble physicians, heroic nurses, and aides in every field. The volunteers went forward to certain privation and peril and to possible death. But this was not all. Throughout America, women of whatever station were gathered in the churches, in the assembly-rooms, in private homes, to add their invaluable offering of labor for the sake of suffering humanity. The Red Cross had 6,374 workers in active service abroad on the day when the armistice was signed, and uncounted millions of friends and sup- porters at home. By the side of the Red Cross, write the name of the Y. M. C. A. Here was an or- ganization whose mission primarily was not the physical, but chiefly the moral and 24- The Missionary Motive in the World War spiritual welfare of young men. It saw and seized such an opportunity for reaching young men as the world had never offered before. Here were young men massed by the hundred thousand, far from home, fac- ing death day by day, needing God and will- ing to think of him. It was the supreme opportunity of the Y. M. C. A. Its noble ministry was appar- ent in a hundred ways. While its first aim was to reach the moral life of the soldier, it also contributed powerfully to his physical welfare and his social instinct. Had the Y. M. C. A. been spared the burden of the canteen, which was naturally not a part of its legitimate business, but was taken on at the urgent request of General Pershing,^ it could have made its own unique and legiti- mate work more telling and it would have escaped much of the criticism (centering chiefly in the canteen) which it received. But the main point is that it recognized in the situation the call of the divine Master, and it went forth to minister in his name, regardless of sacrifice, even of the supreme sacrifice which befell some of its workers. The number of Y. M. C. A. workers ac- cepted and sent to Europe was 11,229. President Wilson, Secretary Lansing, Lloyd- George, Marshal Foch, and many another 25 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive statesman and soldier testified to the in- valuable service rendered the allied armies by the Y. M. C. A. What the Protestant churches were doing through the Y. M. C. A., the Roman Catho- lic Church was doing through the K. of C. Naturally, there were differences between the Y. M. C. A. huts and the K. of C. huts both in theory and in form of administra- tion, but both organizations were working toward one great end. The K. of C. sent 1,075 workers overseas. In a survey of this kind, the Salvation Army must not be overlooked. Its repre- sentatives were no less efficient than those of the larger organizations, its purposes no less sincere, and its devotion no less heroic. It put upward of three million dollars into its war work. The names of countless smaller organiza- tions, associations, committees, etc., should be added to these. Yet again the generous and efficient aid of private citizens and groups of citizens who provided hospitals, ambulances, and equipment of all kinds must not be overlooked. No statistics can ever represent the total of the vast philan- thropies of the war. But none can doubt that the large proportion of these gifts and of this consecration sprang from the love of 26 The Missionary Motive in the World War Christ and the desire to do his will. The conscious recognition of his commission and the consciousness of his presence and bless- ing were the forces which kept faith alive through the darkest days of the war. Many a near-sighted journalist and novel- ist of today is declaring Christianity to be a failure. But by its fruits shall it be known when that narrow-visioned verdict has long been forgotten. The War and the Foreign Missionary To return to the common conception of missions, what effect had all this period of world chaos upon the foreign missionary enterprise? While the World War was sucking into its own maelstrom the young manhood of all nations, when the calls for funds to support the government and the armies and the navies were constant and ir- resistible, when the minds of men every- where were absorbed in the thought only of war, when the enemies of Christ were shout- ing, " The church is a spent force or it would have prevented the war," when a good many Christians even were doubting whether God was still in heaven, what about the foreign field? Of course, it would be natural to suppose 27 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive that all these opposing influences would check the so-called missionary movements of Christianity and that missionary contri- butions would steadily decline. Moreover, in the rapidly advancing cost of living, al- most every family was facing a serious hand-to-mouth problem of its own. One cannot wonder that the missionary societies looked forward with grave apprehension as nation after nation was dragged into the war. What was the sequel? Volunteers for missionary service were not lacking ; neither were funds for their support. At the time of the Boxer uprising in 1900, when many missionaries were murdered, it was feared that the effect upon intending missionaries, especially those who were looking toward China, would be disastrous. But such fears were unfounded. The men and the women came in increasing numbers to fill the gaps in the ranks. So was it now when the war was thrusting new problems and perils on the world's missionary fields. Thus the total number of foreign mis- sionaries of all denominations sailing from America in 1913 was 620; in 1914, it was 531; in 1915, 609; in 1916, 772; in 1917, 661 ; in 1 9 18, 670. In fairness it should be said that if we go back to 191 1 and 19 12, we 28 The Missionary Motive in the World War find somewhat larger totals, but these figures, covering the period of the war, show a wonderful steadiness. And when we come to the missionary gifts of the churches, the figures are still more remarkable. Beginning with 191 5, the income of the American Board advanced steadily year by year. In the Methodist Episcopal Church, the income of the foreign board in 19 18 was nearly fifty per cent be- yond that of 191 5. In the Presbyterian boards, both North and South, there was an advance each year. In the Protestant Episcopal board there was in 19 16 a marked advance over 1915; a slight drop in 191 7; but a quick recovery in 19 18. In our own Northern board, there was an advance in 1916 over 1915; a drop in 1917 and 1918. Yet in spite of this decline the totals of 19 18 exceeded those of 191 5. In the Southern board there was a steady advance through the four years, the gifts of 19 18 being nearly one hundred per cent in advance of those of 1915. Thus the figures show, as far as figures can show anything, that while men were making such sacrifices as never before for the sake of winning the war, the missionary impulse which reached out to heathen na- tions was not languishing, rather growing 29 Tlie Triumph of the Missionary Motive all the time. Thus war was opening the eyes of the Christian world. It was coming to see that while the present war for the freedom of the race must be waged with all vigor on one hand, the great deterrent of future wars must be promoted with equal vigor on the other hand. It is interesting in this connection to note that wars have never seemed to slay the missionary zeal of the Christian church. The Church of England's great Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was founded in 1701, when England was at war with France. Most of the great missionary societies were formed in the period from 1790 to 181 5 — a period of the devastating Napoleonic wars. The period of the Crimean war marked the advance of all the principal missionary societies. Much the same thing was true during the Franco- Prussian war. So the conclusion that war in our time has not dulled the missionary motive or crushed the missionary enterprise would seem to be confirmed by two centu- ries of history. On the other hand, the World War has furnished us the mightiest argument for the preaching of the gospel to all nations. For we have seen as never before how futile is diplomacy and how powerful is love. The 30 The Missionary Motive in the World War cure for future wars is a far-flung line of human brotherhood. There is no text- book to teach it like the gospel of Jesus. Better are friendships than battleships. Stronger the nailed hand than the mailed hand. Mightier the sword of the Spirit than the sword of steel. " For the preserva- tion of peace, one missionary is worth a battalion of soldiers," said Sir Charles War- ren, governor of Natal. Some Fruits of the Missionary Motive at Work in the World War i. An incalculable amount of human suf- fering has been alleviated on the battlefield, in the hospitals, and in the homes devastated or bereaved by the war. 2. Many have been brought to Christ whom the gospel had never reached with vital force until the tragedy of war had opened blind eyes and disclosed the deep needs of the soul. 3. War has revealed the fact that the Christian church is not dead, as many have charged, but that life within, sluggish though it may be, is yet capable of being stirred by a new and urgent call on the lips of a stricken and bleeding world. 4. War has also revealed the fact that 3i The Triumph of the Missionary Motive many agencies beyond the bounds of the Christian church are yet filled with the Master's spirit and are doing his will. 5. The pressure of a great crisis has brought the churches of many faiths into close union, has led to a reappraisal of the essentials of Christ's religion, to a readjust- ment of emphasis as between dogmatic creeds and a vital union with Christ, and to a realignment of Christian forces in view of the urgent demands of the new day. 6. Out of all the horror and passion of a World War, the missionary motive has emerged, not wounded unto death and not disheartened, but stronger than ever and more convinced of the coming of a day when the Spirit of Christ shall rule the spirits of men. 7. Finally, the fact that this war was a World War should prove a trumpet call to the Christian church in every land — espe- cially for us in America, since America, if any nation, is Christian; since America has come to hold the eye of the world as never before; since America stands preeminently for that democracy which is another name for human brotherhood. The world is sick of war. In the wake of the most terrible war in history, a war which destroyed more than nine million 32 The Missionary Motive in the World War human lives and which wasted more money than all previous wars since the beginning of time, a war which the wisest diplomats of the nations were powerless to prevent or to postpone, it is time for men to recognize the fact that the conquering force in this universe, and indeed the only hope of hu- manity, is Love, as taught and as revealed by the Man of Nazareth ; and that his repre- sentatives, in whatever land, are the prophets and the heralds of the new day wherein dwelleth righteousness — and there- fore peace. 33 Ill SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN WAR-TIME PART I By JAMES H. FRANKLIN SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN WAR-TIME Four years before the first convulsions in the World War were felt by humanity, rep- resentatives of many races had assembled, from every quarter of the globe, in the fa- mous Edinburgh Missionary Conference. Plans of unprecedented magnitude for co- operation in the evangelization of the world were conceived in that notable gathering, and ah international and interdenomina- tional continuation committee was formed to put into effect the ideals of the confer- ence. That committee sent its chairman, Dr. John R. Mott, around the world to hold series of conferences in Asia, whose findings registered the conviction of the most repre- sentative bodies of missionaries and native Christian leaders ever assembled. Every- where in those gatherings there was the same yearning expressed for a closer fellow- ship in service on the part of all evangelical bodies, without the sacrifice of a single sacred conviction on the part of any. 37 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive In November, 191 3, the continuation committee of the Edinburgh Conference met at The Hague to hear the inspiring story of a readiness on the part of Christian forces in many lands, as evidenced in the numerous conferences in Asia, to touch hearts more closely and clasp hands more tightly in a forward movement for Christ and his kingdom. Another meeting of the committee was called for the early autumn of 1914, at Oxford, England, as the guests of the well-known Baptist layman, Sir George W. MacAlpine, for the purpose of giving still more definite consideration to practical cooperative plans for a large ex- pansion of missionary activity. Some of the members were on their voyage across the Atlantic when the outbreak of war not only prevented the meeting of the committee, but interfered as well with the execution of practical plans that had already been formu- lated and adopted. Some of the immediate effects of the war on Christian missionary plans are well known. Entire missions were wiped out in Turkey, Armenia, Persia, India, China, and Africa. The forces of nearly all the socie- ties were depleted. Many volunteers for missionary service rushed to France. Boards hesitated, too, to appoint men of 38 Contributions of Missions in War-Time military age, even if any volunteered, who could not give a good reason for not being at the front. Plans for the development of the work were held in abeyance. For a time, at least, questions were raised as to the sufficiency of Christianity to save the world from a selfishness which was responsible for the cataclysm. The financial cost of mis- sionary movements increased rapidly, and it was soon discovered that the same volume of work by the societies of England, Canada, and the United States required an- nually several millions of dollars more than was needed before the war. It is not diffi- cult to make a fairly accurate survey of the principal apparent effects of the war on Christian missions, but it is a far different matter to attempt a comprehensive state- ment of the contributions of missionary agencies during war times, when the world's thought was centered on the conflict and lit- tle was done to keep a record of the helpful activities of such organizations in their work outside of their usual province. More- over, it is never easy to tabulate results which are chiefly moral and spiritual. Even yet it seems possible merely to point to in- stances of unusual service here and there, which may be taken as illustrations of more or less common forms of activity on the part 39 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive of missionary forces in many lands during the period of the war. Probably the first visible contribution was made by the foreign mission societies when men and women who were expected to sail soon for the Orient or Africa asked to be excused from missionary service until they could do their bit in France, and when those already on the field felt the tug at their hearts and suggested that they might be spared for service at the front. This was especially true of physicians and surgeons. In China, for instance, the force of medical missionaries at the close of the war was only seven-tenths as large as it was at the begin- ning, while very few new doctors sailed for the Orient after their own country entered the conflict. Over four hundred American missionaries served as chaplains, or Y. M. C. A. workers, or as doctors and nurses, or undertook Red Cross work in France, Ar- menia, Czecho-Slovakia, Egypt, India, Rus- sia, Siberia, Palestine, Servia, Syria, and Turkey. Fully five hundred British mis- sionaries undertook war work of some sort. A few went into the trenches. Some served as interpreters and friends among the large labor battalions of East Indians and Chinese at work behind the lines in France. The first missionary to lose his life in service 40 Contributions of Missions in War-Time with the labor battalions in France, if not indeed the first Y. M. C. A. secretary to be killed by shell fire in that country, was Rev. Robert Wellwood, for many years under ap- pointment by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, and stationed at Ning- yuanfu, West China. Groups of Chinese Christian boys, graduates of mission schools, were sent to France to do the same kind of work with the labor battalions as that to which some of the missionaries were giving themselves. Graduates of mission schools who were studying in American uni- versities and theological seminaries sought and secured opportunity for similar service. From the small Paris Missionary Society thirty-five foreign missionaries undertook war service in France, fourteen of that number being sent into the trenches. The record of the Roman Catholic socie'ties also is impressive. Very many of their mis- sionaries returned quickly from distant parts of the earth to serve the cause in France as soldiers or chaplains, or in other ways. The report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in Canada for the year 19 18 contained this striking sentence : " In response to the call of the empire for medical men to go with the Chinese labor battalions to France, all 4i The Triumph of the Missionary Motive the medical men on the field enlisted, thus closing all hospitals." Christian missionaries rendered signifi- cant service in many parts of the world in helping the less-informed people to under- stand more clearly the moral aims of the Allies. As preachers of love and good will and brotherhood, they had already im- pressed multitudes with their purpose to up- hold righteousness and justice, and when they were known to stand unqualifiedly for the cause for which the Allies were fighting, many in China, India, Africa, and other parts of the world were given fresh assur- ance of the righteousness of our aims. The influence of American missionaries in China, about the time when the Chinese government made a declaration of war on Germany, can hardly be overestimated. For three years the masses of the Chinese peo- ple had been said to be pro-German in their sympathies, which was not strange in the light of historic events. In the ranks of the Allies were several of China's traditional opponents. China's feeling toward Japan is too well known to require comment. Just before the war began Russia appeared to be threatening an invasion of northwestern China. The British and French flags were planted on Chinese soil. It was not easy, 42 Contributions of Missions in War -Time therefore, for the Chinese people to throw themselves into cooperation with those powers for whom the people had not enter- tained the most friendly feelings. In those f days the American missionaries in some sec- tions could hardly leave their houses with- out being questioned by the Chinese people as to the principles involved in the war. Public meetings were held in which the mis- sionaries, as well as thoughtful Chinese leaders, expounded to the masses the issues involved. In many sections the fact that the American missionaries could explain so clearly why their country had gone to war with Germany did much to overcome the pro-German feeling on the part of unin- formed Chinese and to lead them to uphold their government in its declaration of war. Such influence on the part of American mis- sionaries was the result of the accumulated good will of the Chinese people. Mr. Ju- lian H. Arnold, who was about that time commercial attache to the American lega- tion in China, said : " There is one asset which Americans hold in China, the equal to which is not to be found in any other foreign country in the world. This is the good will of the Chinese people. I have traveled extensively all over this vast country and have found 43 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive that no other people on the face of this earth occupy a warmer place in the hearts of the Chinese people than do the Americans. Our 2,500 missionary population in China is partially responsible for this great asset, for with their numerous schools, hospitals, chapels, and other uplifting institutions (all non-political in character), they are creat- ing for us throughout the length and breadth of this vast country, in sections far removed from treaty port influences, as well as in the commercial centers, a spirit of friendship, which means much to us." A few months before America entered the war, Mr. J. Wellington Koo, minister of the Chinese Republic to the United States, made the following deliverance in an address at the University of Chicago : " I have outlined the work of American missionaries at some length in order to show the broad scope of their activities and the utter unselfishness of their purposes. Some of them devote five or ten years to China, while others spend their whole lives there. But whether for a longer or a shorter period, they all do it with a desire to do good and without hope of gain to themselves, be- yond the gain of satisfaction in service ren- dered and duty done. These men penetrate the inland parts of the country, mingle with 44 Contributions of Missions in War -Time the people, and live as members of the local community. Neither hardships nor difficul- ties deter them. In the last half century troubles sometimes arose between them and the local people, but they were always peace- ably settled — settled without the dispatching of a naval or military expedition on the part of the United States, and without loss of political or territorial rights on the part of China. So by contrast and comparison the people of China have long come to recognize the difference between the missionaries from the United States and those from certain other countries, and for this reason they have manifested all the more readiness to receive and welcome them with open arms. Nothing which individual Americans have done in China has more strongly impressed Chinese minds with the sincerity, the genuineness, the altruism of American friendship for China than this spirit of ser- vice and sacrifice so beautifully demon- strated by American missionaries/' During the war the British secretary of state for India requested that large numbers of Indian laborers be secured immediately for work behind the lines in France. The provinces of Bahar and Orissa were asked to recruit about eight thousand laborers, and inasmuch as the Santals and other tribes 45 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive in that vicinity had shown themselves to be reliable in the tea gardens of Assam, the coal-fields of Bengal, and on the railways, the recruiting was limited almost entirely to them. As soon as the plan was made public, absurd rumors were circulated and panic prevailed in the country at large. The male population fled to the hills. The missiona- ries were requested to recruit companies of men from the Christian constituency, but it soon became apparent that if they confined their efforts in that direction none but Chris- tians would be enrolled and these in insuffi- cient numbers to meet the situation. Ac- cordingly, the Christians themselves were sent into the hills and jungles to explain the situation to the non-Christian Santals and to induce them to come to the recruiting sta- tions. It was exceedingly difficult to per- suade the non-Christian Santals, for among such a superstitious people ludicrous rumors were spread. One rumor was to the effect that the Santals were to be made to fight or to be used as shields for the troops against the German bullets. There was another ru- mor to the effect that the government wished to bring together a large number and sacrifice them to the evil spirits as a propi- tiatory offering for victory. Still another rumor was that the government would 4 6 Contributions of Missions in War-Time drown all the men who were recruited so that when the Germans reached India (the Germans were then reported to be moving in that direction) they would find a deserted country and would retreat. When the Chris- tians were assured that some of their own missionaries would accompany them to France to look after them and their inter- ests, they unhesitatingly enrolled themselves and were able to persuade the non-Chris- tians that the government offer was bona fide. In such fashion four thousand men were enrolled in that part of India for work in France. Possibly no better illustration of the bene- fit of the work of missionaries with the la- bor battalions in France can be found than in the story of two hundred boys who went from the field of the Baptist missions in the Naga Hills of Assam. Of these two hun- dred, forty were Christians before they left home. When they sailed from France every man in the company was a Christian, one hundred and sixty having accepted Christ while away from home. On the first Sun- day after they returned to the Naga Hills the two hundred boys went in a body to the Baptist chapel and made a thank-offering of twenty rupees each, amounting to almost a month's wages. There is also the story of 47 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive five hundred Garo laborers who, while re- turning from France, took up a collection aboard ship to send one of their own num- ber as a missionary to the head-hunters in Assam. Dr. J. R. Bailey and Rev. William Pettigrew, of our own mission in Assam, rendered notable service among the thou- sands recruited from the Naga tribes for work in France. Even in Central Africa the primitive peo- ples were led to understand some of the principles involved. Their hearts were sad- dened too at the story of the invasion of Belgium and the consequent suffering on the part of the people, and, although many of the inhabitants of Congo had reason to nurse their grievance of years ago, they laid aside their memories of the policy of the late King Leopold of Belgium, whose unwilling subjects they had been, and in some sections under the leadership of the missionaries they made substantial contributions for re- lief work among the stricken Belgians. It is universally recognized that under the reign of King Albert, who visited Central Africa just before he ascended the throne, a new day has dawned in Belgian Congo. 48 IV SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN WAR-TIME PART II r By JAMES H. FRANKLIN SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN WAR-TIME The record of Red Cross service on the part of missionary doctors and nurses dur- ing the war is one of splendid heroism. In all mission lands where the war was actually waged the missionary hospitals were filled with the wounded, if the institutions were not destroyed or occupied by the enemy. A large volume would be required to tell that inspiring story. Only two or three ex- amples can be cited here. When the Turkish armies moved across Mesopotamia and occupied Busrah at the head of the Persian Gulf, two American missionaries, Dr. Arthur K. Bennett and his wife, Dr. Christine Iverson Bennett, of the Arabian Mission, threw open their hospital and treated large numbers of wounded Turkish soldiers. That occurred before America entered the war. When the Eng- lish drove the Turks north, the same hospi- tal was filled to overflowing with wounded 5i The Triumph of the Missionary Motive British soldiers. Dr. Christine Iverson Ben- nett, exhausted from her labors for the soldiers, passed away at a time when the outlook was darkest for the British troops in their campaign in Mesopotamia, but the leading persons in charge of the expedition in soldierly appreciation of her work turned aside from their direction of the campaign long enough to join the mission body and others in the funeral service. From our own South China Mission four men volunteered at the same time for Y. M. C. A. and Red Cross work among the troops in Siberia. Dr. Henry W. Newman was sent nearly five miles west of Vladivostok, where, with very limited assistance he or- ganized hospitals and rendered significant service among the Russians and the Czecho- slovaks. After a Red Cross commissioner from America had visited Doctor New- man's typhus hospital with its four hundred and fifty beds, he wrote : " In all the story of Red Cross achievement in Siberia, there will be no greater credit due any individual than that due Doctor Newman for the successful accomplishment of his antityphus work at Cheliabinsk and Petropavlosk. Almost with- out American aid, Doctor Newman cleaned out a factory building and installed an effi- cient typhus hospital and later built up a hos- Contributions of Missions in War-Time pital of four hundred and fifty beds at Pe- tropavlosk, where, under his direction, the mortality rate was cut down by about two- thirds." When Doctor Newman was taken ill with typhus and was borne on a stretcher to escape from the approaching army of Bolsheviki, he had organized and was con- ducting an evacuation army hospital with fifteen hundred beds far in the interior of Russia. At the outbreak of the war the American Presbyterian mission working in Beirut, the Lebanon, Tripoli, and Sidon, with a staff of thirty-eight foreign missionaries, suffered much in common with other missionary agencies, although America was not at that time at war with the Turkish Empire. Two of the American missionaries were de- ported and imprisoned because their relief work was distasteful to the Turkish Govern- ment. Many of the mission buildings were used for Red Cross work, the missionaries themselves rendering unsparing service. The printing-house at Beirut was turned into a banking establishment and handled the large sums sent through the Mission Board in America for relief work among the Syrians. In the Lebanon wheat was sold at twenty times its usual price, such diseases as typhus and malaria were prevalent, and al- 53 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive most no supplies of clothing could be pro- cured. In western Persia, at the outbreak of the war, eighteen Presbyterian missionaries were stationed at Urumia. During the first year of the conflict Russian troops twice took possession of that region, but for five months the Turks ruled the land, and " the missionaries alone stood between twenty- five thousand Christians and death by mas- sacre, starvation and disease." "With heroic endurance they sheltered thousands in their compound, distributed tons of bread daily to the starving people, fought the ravages of disease, and rescued thousands from destruction." One of the tragic re- sults of the war was the death of the veteran missionary, Dr. W. A. Shedd, who, following like a faithful shepherd a body of eighty thousand Syrian Christians fleeing southward over the mountains to Hamadan, fell a victim to cholera in July. Of the^. eighteen missionaries at Urumia thirteen were down at one time with typhus fever. Several died at that time and others after- ward from the effects of overstrain. Early in 191 5 a stalwart American jour- neyed from Aintab to Constantinople to as- sure the Turkish Government of the entire loyalty of the Armenians in the province of 54 Contributions of Missions in War-Time Aleppo, where so many atrocities had been committed and to intercede in their behalf. This American was Dr. Fred Douglas Shep- ard, who, as a medical missionary of the American Congregational Board for nearly a third of a century had done a great deal to relieve suffering among the Armenians. Many had come almost to worship him. But this assurance of their loyalty in the prosecution of the war was of no avail, and the atrocities continued. During- much of this trying period Doctor Shepard remained near Constantinople in charge of a Red Cross division of a hospital, where large numbers of wounded Turkish soldiers from Galliopoli were given treatment. The Hon. Henry Morgenthau, former ambassador of the United States to Turkey, has paid high tribute to the work of Doctor Shepard. Mr. Morgantheau, who had abundant opportu- nity to study the work of missionaries in the Turkish Empire during the days of such ter- rible suffering on the part of the Armenians, has said : " I have never met — and I have met many people in my life-^a finer set of men and women than the missionaries in Turkey. They did things which if it were all known would make them saints in the eyes of the community. They stood by their flocks. 55 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive When I was instructed by the State Depart- ment to tell them to leave, they refused to leave. They said, ' We are going to stand by whether it causes our death or not.' The amount of heroism that was displayed, the amount of martyrdom to which some of them submitted, ought to be an encouraging lesson to us all." The activity of the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief is known to almost every one. It is not so generally known, however, that this relief work had its inspiration in missionary circles. In the autumn of 19 14 Dr. Fred Douglas Shepard and other representatives of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- sions (Congregational) wrote that they could hardly face the terrible conditions longer unless some way were found to give relief to the hundreds of thousands of starv- ing people in their communities. The for- eign secretary of the Congregational Board, Dr. James L. Barton, brought the situation to the attention of a few friends in America. Over thirty million dollars has passed through the hands of the committee which was organized by Doctor Barton in 19 14, and twenty million dollars additional will be required this year. When the armistice made it possible for a commission to pro- 56 Contributions of Missions in War-Time ceed to Armenia and Syria, Secretary Bar- ton and several other distinguished citizens of America secured permission from our State Department at Washington for mis- sionaries from Turkey to return as soon as possible. Shortly after the armistice was signed the commission, headed by Secretary Barton, started for Turkey, supported by the great majority of Congregational and Presbyterian missionaries who had been de- tained in this country and were returning to assist in the distribution of food among the Armenians and others in the Near East. It is significant that Lord Bryce, former British ambassador to the United States, is reported to have said, after his visit to the Near East, that the only international influ- ence which has ever helped Turkey has been American teachers and missionaries. At the beginning of the war the Congregational Board had over one hundred and fifty mis- sionaries in Turkey. In 1918 only thirty-six had been able to remain at their posts. At six of the fourteen centers single women held the fort alone. Twenty missionaries had died in the country under the strain to which they were subjected. Nothing is more important than morale in the successful conduct of a war, and thoughtful Americans saw at once that our 57 The Triumph of die Missionary Motive soldiers would require the spiritual help which they could receive from the Book of Books. President Woodrow Wilson wrote : " They will need the support of the only book from which they can get it." Theo- • dore Roosevelt wrote : " Every soldier and sailor of the United States should have a- Testament." General Pershing cabled: " I am glad to see every man in the army is to have a Testament. Its teaching will fortify us for our great task." A soldier said : " Strange as it sounds — and, God's truth, I'm far from being a religious man — the biggest factor in the war is God ! However little religion you've got at home the biggest blackguard in the ranks prays as he goes' into action." It soon became apparent, therefore, that the great missionary agen- cies, the Bible societies, had a service to' render. The American Bible Society alone sent out during the war seven million copies of the Bible, New Testament, Gospel of John, the books of Psalms and Proverbs, prepared in eight or ten languages, which were dis- tributed overseas among the active troops of all the belligerents, in prison camps, and in hospitals. When America entered the war an attempt was made to see that every soldier in our army and every sailor in our 58 Contributions of Missions in War -Time navy received a copy of the New Testament. From April 6, 191 7, to December 31, 19 18, the American Bible Society supplied to the soldiers and sailors of the United States alone a total of 4,541,455 Bibles, Testa- ments, and Scripture portions. Other socie- ties did a correspondingly great work among the soldiers. Up to April, 19 18, the Ameri- can, British, and Scottish Bible societies distributed 15,000,000 volumes, printed in eighty-one languages, not only for the use of the troops, but for labor battalions from many parts of the Orient and Africa. At the very beginning of the war the Young Men's Christian Association of America found a large field for usefulness in the camps for prisoners of war in various European countries, and later for the mil- lions of men actually under arms in the cause of the Allies. The Red Triangle, as well as the Red Cross, endeared itself to hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war in Russia, Germany, Italy, France, England, and in other parts of Europe. The Young Men's Christian Association did a vast work for the physical, moral, intellectual, and spiritual welfare of men who found condi- tions in army prisons intolerable. Athletic games were organized, many forms of en- tertainment were offered, educational classes 59 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive were formed, Scriptures and general litera- ture were distributed, religious services were held, and every possible thing was attempted which promised to be a benefit to the multi- tudes of prisoners. These many forms of benevolent activity were carried into the large army camps of America and into those of our Allies as well after our own country entered the conflict. This colossal plan for serving the soldiers of many nations was conceived by, and executed under the direc- tion of Dr. John R. Mott, who himself was a volunteer for foreign missionary service during his student days and was prevented from going abroad only because of the in- sistent demand that he give his life to move- ments at the home base for the prosecution of the missionary enterprise in many lands. The same can be said of Dr. Robert E. Speer, who, during the war, was the chair- man of the War-Time Commission of the Churches, (Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America). The foreign mission inspiration had given many men an outlook on life which qualified them for unusual service in the prosecution of the war. Just prior to China's declaration of war against Germany, her chief diplomatic repre- sentatives at three of the principal capitals of the world — London, Berlin, and Wash- 60 Contributions of Missions in War-Time ington — were alumni of one mission school in China — St. Johns University, at Shan- ghai. Of China's five outstanding represen- tatives at the Peace Conference in Paris, three had been trained in China under the influence of Christian missionaries. Per- haps the most influential spokesman of the group was Mr. C. T. Wang, former vice- president of the Chinese senate, general sec- retary of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation in China, son of a Christian Chinese preacher, and himself educated in China under Christian auspices before taking further work at the University of Michigan and at Yale. Japan's prime minister at the time when Japan entered the war and made declaration of purpose to return Tsingtau to China, was Marquis Okuma, who, in boy- hood, was trained in the mission school of Guido Verbeck. Throughout the period of the war, as at other times, the missionary forces continued to preach a gospel of love, brotherhood, righteousness, and spiritual democracy. This must ever remain their chief task, in peace or in turmoil. When the war was almost at its height for America, one of the best-known professors in a large university said it had come to pass that the soldier, the diplomat, and the missionary were striving 61 TIw Triumph of the Missionary Motive for the same ends. Now that the war is over we realize afresh that, after all, the spiritual influences are the eternal forces, the missionary task seems increasingly im- portant, if it is faced in humility and in a spirit of brotherhood for men everywhere. 62 THE SOCIAL APPLICATION OF THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE ABROAD By JOSEPH C. ROBBINS THE SOCIAL APPLICATION OF THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE ABROAD The present situation in the non-Christian world makes the missionary motive loom large. It is the dominant element in the New World Movement of Northern Bap- tists which with daring faith challenges us to the vision and hope of a new world. Western influence, Western education, Western science, Western industry, and Western political ideals have penetrated the age-long satisfaction of the Orient. The tension-points in the modern world are not confined to America. This unrest is as marked today in China as in America, in Asia as in Europe. The added danger of the situation in the Orient is that this West- ern influence, apart from the missionary in- fluence, is largely materialistic and atheistic. These influences beating in upon the Eastern world have undermined its old systems of belief, its old standards of morality, and those customs, ethical and religious, which e 65 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive have been a conserving force in the life of the individual and the nation. ** In addition to the basic, religious, and paramount evangelistic missionary motive and aim, there is a tremendous missionary appeal in the large service foreign missions has rendered and is rendering to the better- ment of social conditions in the non-Chris- tian world. At Denver the Northern Bap- tist Convention defined our missionary ob- jective as follows : " That as a denomination we record our acceptance of the conception that the mission of the Christian church is to establish a civilization, Christian in spirit and in passion, throughout the world." "The mightiest civilizing agencies," says Doctor Fairbairn, " are persons ; the mighti- est civilizing persons are Christian men." The missionaries of the church of the living God have been the mightiest civilizing forces the world has ever known. The missiona- ries have raised the moral and social atmos- phere of the world. They have been real light-bearers who have gone forth in a heal- ing and redemptive ministry to all mankind. It is the missionary who has made known the non-Christian world to us. The dark continent of Africa was opened by Liv- ingstone, the missionary pathfinder, and his fellow missionaries who followed closely in 66 Social Applications Abroad his steps. This is true in large part of Korea, China, Siam, Burma, and Arabia. The geo- graphical contribution of missionaries has been a large factor in adding to our knowl- edge vast portions of the habitable globe. The knowledge of the literature and lan- guage of these countries is due in large part to these unselfish servants of the church. Morrison in China, Carey in India, Hep- burn in Japan, Gale in Korea, Judson and Cushing in Burma, gave us the dictionary of the great languages of these lands. The missionaries are the great linguists of the world. Their translation of the Scriptures in more than five hundred languages is the outstanding literary achievement of the cen- turies. In the words of a publication of the Smithsonian Institute: "The contribution of missionaries to history, ethnology, phi- losophy, geography, and religious literature forms a lasting monument to their fame." The missionary has been a vital factor in j interpreting the best of American life to the peoples among whom they have gone. They have helped in international understanding and good will, and have been a tremendously important factor in diplomatic relations with these lands. Sir Henry Johnstown, one of the greatest administrators in Africa, said : "When the history of the great African states 6 7 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive of the future comes to be written, the arrival of the first missionary will, with many of those nations, be the first historical event in their minds.' , And that great Christian sol- dier and famous Indian administrator, Lord John Lawrence, declared that however much the British Government had done for India, he was convinced that the missionary had done more to benefit India than all the other agencies combined. In the report on "Indian Constitutional Reforms," by Mr. Montague, secretary of state for India, and Lord Chelmsford, viceroy for India, they write as follows : " It is difficult to overesti- mate the devoted and creative work which missionary money and enterprise are doing in the fields of morals, education, and sani- tation." One of our missionaries writes in regard to the proposed reforms : " Has it oc- curred to you what a big call for the vigor- ous prosecution of mission work in India is afforded by the scheme for constitutional reform in India? The attempt being made by the British here is unique. It is to lead the people of India gradually, but by very definite steps, into real democratic govern- ment. Now, democracy can rest securely on nothing but character, and Christianity can produce the character that India sorely needs to make democracy a success." 68 Social Applications Abroad From the very first missionaries have! recognized the social motive and appeal of J the missionary task. In the work of Wil- liam Carey, the founder of modern missions,' we have a striking illustration of the social implication of foreign missions. He recog- nized the medical needs of the work by taking with him to India John Thomas, a physician. The printing-press was to Carey a missionary agency of the first importance, and he founded the first Bengali newspaper and the first English magazine in India. In the work of Scripture translation his fame remains unequaled to this day, for from the mission press at Serampore, Carey and his colleagues sent out the complete Bible in six languages, the New Testament in twenty- two more, and Scripture portions in other languages, so that from this center the Scriptures in forty languages went out to different parts of the Orient. The first uni- versity college in India was founded by him at Serampore. Before 1818 this early group of missionaries had established more than one hundred schools with several thousand pupils. Carey was interested in agriculture and formed the " Agricultural and Horti- cultural Society of India " long before any similar society had been organized in Great Britain. 69 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive These early pioneer missionaries, Carey and Duff, had no small place in the social reform movement in India, and Carey's tongue became a very sword to fight for the women of India. His pen was the lance of a Christian knight as he strove day and night to bring the government to his view and do away by government action with sut- tee, or the burning of widows in India. For long the government feared that such action would rouse the Hindus to fury in defense of their religion and its customs. Then one day the government order abolishing suttee was signed by the governor-general, Lord William Bentinck, and was put into Carey's hands. He had been appointed government translator, for he knew the language far better than any of the civil servants. It was Sunday morning, December 4, 1829. Every day fresh victims were being burned. There could be no delay. Before the sun had set Carey had finished translating the great de- cree, and on Monday the compositors were busy setting the type that the order might be known throughout all India. Few men have been a greater factor in the social pro- gress of the world than this pioneer foreign missionary. The arrival of the Scotch educational missionary, Alexander Duff, in Calcutta in 70 Social Applications Abroad 1830, dated a new era in India's national life. India stood at the parting of the ways. Was the British raj in India to hold a sub- ject race in ignorance, or introduce there the benefits of modern education ? Duff brought to India two convictions : First, the value of education as a missionary asset; second, that the vehicle of instruction should be the English tongue, permeated as it was with Christian ideals. The government accepted Duff's policy, and in 1835 issued its famous decree establishing the English language as a medium of instruction in Indian schools and colleges. Doctor Faunce says : " Thus the idea of one isolated missionary became the policy of the Indian Empire." The non-Christian world is helpless in the face of disease. It is a sick world. Inj India, where the British Government has at- tempted to relieve the situation by providing hospitals and medical aid and medical men, as many people as are in the United States are beyond the reach of even the simplest medical aid. A general estimate by careful students suggests that ninety out of every hundred of the inhabitants of non-Christian lands, especially outside the largest cities, have absolutely no access to medical treat- ment. The Rockefeller Foundation on Medical Work in China reports that " the 7i The Triumph of the Missionary Motive need for medical work is found to be greater than anticipated. Not only do the Chinese people lack almost all opportunity for medi- cal treatment outside the relatively few cen- ters where missionaries and hospitals have been established, but the development of modern conditions, the introduction of ma- chinery, railways, etc., have resulted in an increase of suffering due to accidents and occupational diseases." In the spirit of the Great Physician, the medical missionaries of the Christian church have responded most heroically to the call of the non-Chris- tian world. In the fall of 1910 Arthur Jackson, one of the best known athletes and scholars of his day in Cambridge University, went out to Manchuria as a medical missionary. A month later the pneumonic plague began to surge down from the north. The death-rate was one hundred per cent. Not one man, woman, or child attacked recovered. Arthur Jackson laid down all his other work and went down to the railroad station at Mukden to erect a barrier between that oncoming pestilence and the great masses of Central and South- ern China. Day after day, clothed in a long white robe, with bag over his head, breath- ing through a sponge, he went about his work, segregating the disease and visiting 72 . Social Applications Abroad every railway car that came in and separat- ing every suspected Chinese, until at last he stemmed the fatal tide. Then one day when his work was done he discovered that the pestilence had seized him, and in few hours his great sacrificial life had come to its close. At the memorial service two days later in the British consulate, the old Chinese vice- roy said : " Doctor Jackson, with the heart of the Saviour who gave his life to deliver the world, responded nobly when we asked him to help our country in need. He went forth to help us in our fight daily. Where the pestilence lay the thickest, amid the groans of the dying, he struggled to cure the stricken and to find medicine to stay the evil. Worn by his efforts, the pestilence seized him and took him away from us be- fore his time. Our sorrow is beyond all measure." The non-Christian world is pitifully, des-j perately poor. It is estimated that in India* more people than live in the United States never have more than one good meal a day. Lord Cromer estimates the average yearly income in India at about nine dollars per capita. Making all allowances for differ- ences in money values, this is poverty, ex- treme and relentless. The coolie classes in China are about in the same situation. Life 73 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive rolls out just one painful struggle to keep alive. Nothing short of the marvelous stamina and courage of that race could bear the awful strain. In the heart of the industrial district of East Side, Shanghai, China, is located the Yangtzepoo Social Center, the laboratory for the department of sociology of Shanghai Baptist College. The organization has as its object the moral, physical, and spiritual wel- fare of these thousands of men, women, boys, and girls who labor in the great cotton mills and other factories of Shanghai. There are thirty thousand operatives, seventy-five per cent of whom are women and girls engaged in the manufacture of cotton alone in this district. The mills ex- tend two miles and a half along Yangtzepoo Road and the river banks. Other industries such as engineering works, foundries, lum- ber yards, saw-mills, and silk filatures make up a population of more than forty thou- sand workers. In general, the hours of labor are from six in the morning to six at night, with the same run for the night shift. Child labor is common practice. With such conditions as these, the Yang- tzepoo Social Center has a wide field in which to work, and a number of reforms have already been started. The head of the 74 Social Applications Abroad department of sociology of Shanghai Bap- tist College is director of the center. There is a committee on development made up of one foreign and three Chinese cotton-mill managers and one lawyer. Chinese and for- eign men and women of prominence have been secured as patrons. A large playground equipped with modern apparatus is maintained by the play depart- ment of the Yangtzepoo Social Center. Nu- merous electric lights make the playgrounds accessible day and night. Instruction and training is provided not only for street chil- dren and students in the school, but for those workers in the shops who can come only at night. Tokyo, with a population of two and a half million people, is the metropolis of the Orient. Strategically located in this throb- bing mass of humanity is the Tokyo Baptist Tabernacle. Rev. William Axling, the mis- sionary in charge, writes : " Evangelizing, educating, serving are the three words that loom large in our program of work." In my visit to the Tabernacle two years ago I was impressed with the wide social outreach of this great church as it " aims to minister to the whole man and to serve the whole community." The lot of the working man in Tokyo is particularly hard. His working 75 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive hours are long, from ten to fifteen hours a day. He has no Sundays and few holidays. On Saturday evenings popular lectures are held at the Tabernacle for these men. Here the great vital problems of life are discussed by Christian men who try to show that the church is really interested in them. Such questions as social purity, sex hygiene, home-making, temperance, sanitation, anti- tuberculosis, and kindred themes that make for a cleaner and higher community and a better national life are here dealt with from the Christian point of view. The policy of the Tokyo Tabernacle is to make a conscien- tious effort to meet the most pressing needs of the people round about it. Such a need came to the surface during the past year in the condition of the working girls of the neighborhood. In the struggle of industrial and commercial life into which the young women of Japan are being thrust forth, there are many temptations that they are un- prepared to meet. For this class of young women a working girls' night school was or- ganized last February, where are taught sewing, care of the sick, reading, writing, and other elementary branches. A simple chapel service is held each night for these girls. Some of the other features of the work of the tabernacle are the kindergarten, Social Applications Abroad day nursery, playground, apprentices' night school, and free legal advice bureau. In- creasing emphasis is put upon Bible study, and as far as possible there is a Bible study group in each department. Industrial and agricultural missionaries are doing noble service in response to the cry of a poor and hungry world. An out- standing example of missionary agricultural work is that of Mr. Sam Higginbottom, who has developed an agricultural school at Al- lahabad, in the united provinces, India. From all parts of India young men go there for practical training in agriculture. A rich Hindu of the highest caste, himself a landowner of ten thousand acres, is a student here working beside low-caste boys. On the mission farm young nobles from the native states take the course in agriculture and then go back to their states to introduce the new agricultural methods. Mr. Higgin- bottom has introduced modern American agricultural machinery and improved live stock, and while the common yield of wheat in India is less than ten bushels per acre, Mr. Higginbottom on the mission farm se- cures a yield of twenty-five to thirty bushels. Indian princes and high British Government officials come from afar to visit the mission farm. The Maharaja of the native state of 77 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive Gwalior has placed Mr. Higginbottom in charge of the agricultural development of his state and has set aside an annual budget of twenty-five thousand dollars for this work. Other native princes have called upon him for advice and made large financial offers in an attempt to secure the full time of this American farmer missionary. Mr. Higgin- bottom is, however, primarily a Christian missionary. He knows that agriculture alone cannot save India, so he remains at Ewing College where, with his agriculture, he is free to teach Christ, and the young nobles who graduate from the mission agri- cultural school take back with them in addi- tion to their new agricultural knowledge something deep and abiding that they ob- tained in Higginbottom' s Bible classes. Be- sides his work at the college and his ser- vices as agricultural adviser to nine native states, this American missionary is today the recognized agricultural expert of north- ern India. " I was sick and in prison and ye visited me." These words of the Master came to me again and again as I visited Kavali, in our South India Mission. Here we have es- tablished the Erukala Criminal Settlement. The Erukalas are of the criminal castes of India, and we are doing here a piece of con- 78 Social Applications Abroad structive, Christian social service of the very largest value. Rev. S. D. Bawden is in charge of this work, and there are now i, 800 of these criminals on the roll of the settlement. In addition to the people at the main settlement, there are at Allur and Bitraguntra one hundred and fifty families, graduates of Kavali, who, Mr. Bawden thinks, can be trusted and who are eager to make in this way a beginning of honest, in- dustrious citizenship. We visited both of these other settlements and found clean, well-kept villages, and industrious, happy people, which proved to us the value of the work being done at Kavali and the wisdom of Mr. Bawden's administration. Mr. Baw- den is the right man in the right place for this unique type of missionary work. Phys- ically, he is a strong young giant, and he is firm and kind in his discipline, a man of deep religious and spiritual experience and prac- tical Christian living. At the settlement at Allur, where his most trusted people are sent, there are eighty-two people and no police. At Bitraguntra, the second settlement, with three hundred and forty criminals, there are four special constables chosen from among the people themselves. At Kavali, with more than 1,500 criminals, there are two head constables of the regular government 79 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive police and eighteen special constables chosen from the criminal settlers. Because Mr. Bawden wishes the members of the settle- ment to act as if they were trusted, the po- lice carry no firearms and there are no walls about the settlement. Mr. Bawden says: " One of the most important items in such a settlement is the matter of discipline. It must be just, firm, and constant, but must also be kindly. These people have been wanderers without restraint and without consideration of the rights of others. We endeavor to train them in honesty and inde- pendence and hence must restrain their wrong impulse and give them all the free- dom possible as long as they do not abuse it. Holding them within walls would se- cure them their physical restraint, but would not develop their strength of character. Therefore we have no walls, but state the limits carefully and punish without fail when these limits are transgressed." Every boy and girl between six and twelve years of age is required to be at school. At each of the three settlements a night school is provided for the young men who work during the day, and at Kavali and Bitraguntra there is a similar school for the young women. There are two hundred and sixty children in the schools of the three set- 80 Social Applications Abroad tlements, sixty young men in the men's night school, and twenty-four young women in the women's night school. Firmness, justice, kindness, work, education, and vital Chris- tianity — these are the key-words in Mr. Bawden's management of the criminal set- tlement. It is the firm conviction of Mr. Bawden that reform of these criminal classes is impossible aside from the teaching of moral and religious truths. Mr. Bawden frankly believes that the Christian religion offers the only true solution of the problem. Each morning a roll call is held at which the Bible is read and a brief exposition is given by one of the staff, after which prayer is offered and all join in repeating the Lord's Prayer in concert. Sunday is a holiday from work, but the hours are broken up and trouble averted by the requirements that all attend Sunday school and the preaching ser- vice in the afternoon. Many of the crimi- nals who when they first come make objec- tion to listening to Christian truth, later show their approval by earnest attention at these services. Foreign missions has introduced a new moral force into the social life of the world, and has been a tremendous factor in educa- tion, philanthropy, relief of human suffer- ing, the advance of hygiene, sanitation, and f 81 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive 'preventive medicine. Foreign missions has always and everywhere promoted interna- tional understanding and good will. The missionary movement is God's response to the world's need through his church. 82 VI THE SOCIAL APPLICATION OF THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE AT HOME By JUSTIN W. NIXON THE SOCIAL APPLICATION OF THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE AT HOME The Christian religion entered the world as a thrilling and miraculous promise of salvation to mankind. In spite of the age- long tragedy of human sin, it had a bound- less faith in the potential divine sonship of the downmost man in society. It held out to the slave as well as to a Caesar the vast and limitless hope of the kingdom of God. It heralded a philosophy — the amazement of the learned yet comprehensible by the ignorant — that the meaning of life was to be found in fellowship with God as he had been revealed in Jesus Christ. The energy of the new faith was love — a divine crea- tive power which bound alien races and hostile groups together in the embrace of the church, which flowed out in a myriad of philanthropies to relieve the needy and the oppressed. Christianity confronted all crises with its inmost conviction that in Jesus Christ it had something incomparable, 85 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive a personality and a power that belonged to a new order of life before whose love and truth all the alien forces of the world must ultimately go down. The missionary enterprise is the supreme embodiment in our time of the original thrilling and miraculous promise of Chris- tianity to the world. When we grow weary with gazing at congealed institutionalisms, when the heart grows sick at the lack of adventure, at the constant fear of the new note in either message or method, one draught from the well-spring of modern mis- sions may renew an enthusiasm like that of the Apostolic age. The modern missionary enterprise represents Christianity at high tide. It is a Christianity conscious of its imperial goal and destiny. It is a Chris- tianity unafraid of visions and dreams be- cause it knows that only visions and dreams can ever enlist youth. It is a Christianity which frankly breathes out challenges to the impossible. It is a Christianity that has ac- cepted service as the supreme motive and sacrifice as the supreme method of spiritual achievement. It is a Christianity standard- ized as militant and victorious. It stresses the military virtues of courage and obedi- ence. It can and does furnish a moral equivalent for war. Daring in hope, pio- 86 Social Applications at Home neering in spirit, with faith in the salvability of men, in the sufficiency of Christ and the power of God, with the thrill of adventur- ous youth in its larger strategy and its battle tactics, the missionary enterprise summons the somnolent religious forces of the home lands to put their house in order, that with a united spirit Protestant Christianity may prepare for a gigantic spiritual offensive against the aggressive pagan forces of the modern world. It is this appeal from the missionary enterprise to the churches of America to get on a war basis that we find justification for the discussion of the theme, " The Social Application of the Missionary Motive at Home." ^ We need the social application of the mis- sionary motive at home. i. To create a social environment favor- able to the emergence and growth of Chris- tian personality. One of the most formative convictions operating in the life of our time is that of the organic unity of human relationships. The principle involved is that the experi- ence of the individual in one sphere of his life conditions his experience in the other spheres. Modern psychology emphasizes the unity of the physiological and the psy- chical in the life of the individual. Modern 87 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive sociology stresses the solidarity of the in- dividual and the group. It follows that if you desire to improve permanently the ideals of the individual you must improve the ideals and customs of the group to which he belongs, or, failing in that, build up new groups and relationships so that some group life will be possible for him. To create a high-grade, well-rounded individual with- out a group of some kind that favors that type of personality is as difficult as to at- tempt to run a fish-hatchery without an ap- propriate environment of water. This principle of the organic unity of human relationships is recognized as a com- monplace in the foreign missionary enter- prise. The missionary in India will not ignore the fact of caste in conducting his propaganda, for Christianity in the individ- ual and the caste system of social relation- ships are permanently incompatible. The family system of Moslem countries, the an- cestor worship of the Chinese, the tyranny of tribal custom among the savage peoples have compelled the missionary to think of the social relationships of the personalities he desires to redeem. He cannot develop the Christlike personality in a social vacuum. This discovery has occasioned the many types of activity that we find in the 88 Social Applications at Home foreign missionary enterprise. The crea- tion of churches, of languages and litera- tures, of educational systems, of hospital and medical facilities, of industrial training schools, the assistance of campaigns of so- cial reform for the freeing of Hindu wo- men, for the abolition of foot-binding and of the gambling and opium curses in China, all point to the effort of the missionary to create an environment of group life in which it will be possible for the Christian type of personality to nourish and propa- gate. This principle requires far more thor- ough recognition and application in the ministry of the Christian church in Amer- ica. Our thinking and our method are still largely predicated upon the supposition that the individual is an isolated unit. The theory that all you need to do to secure a Christian social order is to present an evan- gelistic appeal to certain individuals regard- less of the environment of those individuals and regardless of the social expression of the evangelistic message after it is accepted, is on all fours with the theory that all you need to do to cure industrial unrest is to jail or deport the agitators. The majority of thinking Americans, however, know that our industrial difficulties cannot be cured by 89 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive any such facile and expeditious method. A recent definition, " How to make a Bolshe- vist," recognizes this principle of the or- ganic unity of social relationships for which we are pleading in this article. " Take almost any one when he is a baby," the defi- nition suggests, " nourish him insufficiently, let him grow up in a dark, dirty, hideous tenement; educate him as badly as possi- ble, take him out of school when he is thir- teen or fourteen and put him to work ; make him work hard and long and be poorly paid ; see that he marries and tries to bring up his family on less than a living income; throw him out of employment now and then; let illness strike him and his family especially hard, and some day when he is in a recep- tive mood introduce him to the Bolshevist doctrine." If the church will carry out con- sistently the principle of the organic unity of social relationships which the Bolshevist recognizes in his propaganda, it will mean a quiet revolution in our approach to men. It will mean a reorganization of our curri- cula of religious education so as to discuss and define the qualities of Christian living in connection with those concrete situations of modern life where those qualities are to be applied. It will mean the acceptance by the church of new responsibilities as an or- 90 Social Applications at Home ganizing agency for the promotion of a Christian public opinion. It will bring the membership of our churches into a sobering realization of the contrast between the re- ligion of Jesus and the pagan forces of our civilization. It will mean that many Chris- tians who throw down the gage of battle to these forces will realize for the first time in their lives that there is no other basis for the Christian career than the sacrificial mis- sionary basis. It will mean finally that the struggle for a genuinely Christian social order will be so serious and difficult that the church will be thrown back upon its spirit- ual resources as it has not been since the Apostolic age. The social application of the missionary motive, accordingly, may well mean a rediscovery by the church of the in- comparable, exhaustless powers of Christ himself. We need the social application of the mis- sionary motive at home. 2. To answer the call of democracy for moral leadership and a spiritual basis. The movement of democracy is the most characteristic and fateful movement of our time. Containing within it the promise of largest benefit to mankind, it also raises our gravest and most pressing problems. The crisis which we find in the industrial world, 9i The Triumph of the Missionary Motive for instance, is occasioned by the breaking through into the valley of industry of the stream of democracy which since the days of Cromwell and Milton had been flowing with increasing turbulence down the valley of politics. The wise leaders are trying to get the stream of democracy into some regular channel as it flows through the val- ley of industry that we may build our mills and factories along its banks and use its power for producing the necessities of a new order. But for the present we are toss- ing about upon the great flood of demo- cratic change, confused by raucous cries of repression and of the class-conscious will to power. The whole of modern civilization is afloat in the torrent. We are not cer- tain, to change the figure, whether there is to be a squaring off of modern society into two great opposing classes with the lust for power and control the real material motive of conflict, or whether there is to be a genuine reconciliation of men with one another as they lay together the founda- tions of a more just and brotherly society. No foolish and superficial optimism should conceal the gravity of the issue. Western civilization passed into a night of one thou- sand years after the fall of the Roman Em- pire, and we may be witnessing now the twi- 92 Social Applications at Home light of another great system of human life. The movement toward the collective control of industry has been enormously strength- ened by the war. The institution of these processes may change the whole form and color of our civilization as thoroughly as the industrial revolution of 1750 changed the face of the modern world and as the propaganda of Hellenism and the infiltra- tion of the barbarians changed the Roman Empire. But is this almost inevitable de- velopment to mean an enrichment of life or its decadence? The road to the desired end is not clear. It is tortuous and dan- gerous. There are precipices to avoid and long wearisome ascents to make, and there are dead men's curves here and there upon it. Nor is there any guarantee of success. Worn and bleeding from the death struggle with autocracy, staring at the lurid mottoes upon the sign-boards erected by the war guides Fear and Hate, the Western democ- racies wearily grope their way amid the shades of twilight or of dawn. It is the conviction of the writer that there can be no optimistic answer to this question which ignores the fateful responsi- bility of the church at this hour. If the church of Jesus Christ will set her own house in order, accept the missionary faith 93 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive in the worth of the humblest life, in the sufficiency of Christ, in service as the su- preme motive, in sacrifice and love as the dynamics of social reconstruction, the en- tire energies of the democratic movement may be harnessed to the tasks of the king- dom of God. It means that the church must heed the call of democracy for moral leadership. When Arthur Henderson, leader of the British Labor Party, speaks of the " su- preme importance of character as an indis- pensable factor in national and international life," do we realize that he is calling to the church ? When he says, " to secure an im- provement in the material and social condi- tions of the people, we must elevate the moral standards of the people. Democracy will be effective in proportion to the inten- sity of its spiritual and moral faith ; . . and only a democracy built upon the highest form of character will prove to be that in- strument by which the world is to be saved," do we realize that he is challenging the church to assert and maintain her au- thority and leadership in the field of morals? But the church cannot maintain that au- thority if it is content to talk merely of the ethics of personal life while it leaves the great field of social relationships to secular 94 Social Applications at Home teachers. To forbear to bring its prophetic insight to the problem of justice, to allow so- cialism and philanthropy to surpass the church in moral indignation and the ethical discernment will be to forfeit the respect of this generation. Democracy wrestles with the gigantic problem of justice. There are scores of situations where the old stand- ards of right and wrong no longer avail. Democracy waits for a clear, inspired word. Jesus has it. But only a church built upon an avowedly missionary basis can disclose it to this age. Even more insistent than the call of democracy for moral leadership is its hun- ger for a spiritual basis. " The one thing which the church can give the social move- ment," said a famous radical to the writer recently, " is a basis of spiritual values." After all, it is in the cosmic roots, the eter- nal foundations of its message, that the church has its final source of power. It is when religion has spoken in mystery and wonder of the divine that it has brought peace on the great deeps of the human spirit. If it be true, as De Toqueville says, that " if faith be wanting in man he must serve, and if he would be free he must believe," then the struggle for justice can be neither per- manent nor successful without this grip 95 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive upon the eternal. It is religion, finally, the re- ligion of a divine life in the soul of man, that can stand over against an age and rebuke it, that can bring the blush of shame to its cheek and the pangs of guilt to its heart. Such a religion even the sociologists are cry- ing for as the great need of our day. J. S. Mackenzie, formerly of Cambridge, for in- stance, says that our greatest social need is motive power. " We need prophets as well as teachers. Perhaps we want a new Christ. We still look for one who will show us with clearness the presence of the divine in the human." Democracy needs the religion as well as the ethics of a missionary church to satisfy its longing for moral leadership and a spiritual basis. We need the social application of the missionary motive at home. 3. To lend sincerity and security to the proclamation of the Christian message abroad. The telegram sent across the continent in the early part of December from the head- quarters of the Student Volunteer Move- ment that the Des Moines convention might not be held on account of the coal strike threw into dramatic relief the unity of the missionary problem at home and abroad. In a moment of time we saw that the busi- 96 Social Applications at Home ness of securing justice and brotherliness by the proclamation of the gospel in Osaka, Bombay, or Rangoon could not be dis- patched if injustice and hatred were the order of the day of Cherry Valley, 111., Pittsburgh, Pa., or in the coal towns along the Monongahela. There could not be one attitude toward a yellow man in Canton and another toward a slave in West Virginia. The failure to secure justice in America finally threatened paralysis in the organiza- tion of foreign missions. That subtle danger which the coal strike dramatized exists all the while. The con- trast between the message of the missionary and the social achievements and conditions of the missionary's home will not always remain undiscovered by the Oriental. That contrast threatens the sincerity of the mis- sionary's appeal. Throughout the last generation the young Japanese who re- turned home from the West brought back the message that the great word in the West was power — power through science harness- ing the forces of nature, power through in- dustrial organization, power through mili- tarism. Then the great war broke out. As the struggle progressed, battle by battle, se- cret treaty after secret treaty, the Japanese statesmen wrote the word " correct " across g 97 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive the portfolios of reports filed with the intel- ligence department at Tokyo by the Japan- ese students who had said that the primary interest of the Western nations was power. Shall we speak forever to the Orient with one voice by our missionaries and with another voice by our traders, our diplomats, and our civilization? Unless Christianity can be embodied in the social achievements and ideals of our nation as a whole, the sin- cerity of our appeal in the East is jeopard- ized. The situation is even more critical. Un- less we can restrain the various groups clamoring incessantly for war with Japan, unless the imperialistic and militaristic ten- dencies which wear the thinnest of dis- guises in the press propaganda are curbed, we are on the way toward destroying in the catastrophe of war the results of a half- century of missionary toil in the island em- pire. War with Mexico, resulting from any of the recurring " crises," would have a dis- astrous effect upon the entire Protestant missionary force south of the Rio Grande. If by such a war America should gain the reputation among the South American states of being an imperialistic power, that reputation would not stay at home. It would point the finger of suspicion at Amer- 9 8 Social Applications at Home ica in all her undertakings throughout the world. It would threaten the security of our foreign missionary enterprises as cer- tainly as German militarism had fruit in the destruction of the German missions in India and Africa. We have come to the end of our task. The social application of the missionary motive at home is necessary to the growth of Christian personality, to satisfy the spirit- ual hunger of democracy, and to the sin- cerity and security of the missionary enter- prise itself. The great hope is that the church in the presence of the challenge of this hour may frankly and boldly accept the missionary motive as the dominant motive of her own life. Few have been the mo- ments in the church's history more fraught with the burden of decision than the mo- ment which we call today. Let the church be bold before men that its justice may burn with indignation and heal with pity. Let it be bold before God that its fellowship with him may be vital enough to convince the world of its reality. Let it be bold as it gazes into its own heart that it dare to actualize before the world the dream of its Master, " All ye are brethren." A religious institution with such boldness will live in this democratic age. It will be hated. It 99 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive will be attacked. It will be feared. But it will be passionately loved, and it will win. It may be crucified, but it will rise again on the third day. God grant that that institu- tion may be the Christian church ioo VII OUGHT THE UNITED STATES TO BE A MISSIONARY NATION? By ERNEST D. BURTON OUGHT THE UNITED STATES TO BE A MISSIONARY NATION? Some twenty years ago at a critical mo- ment in China's history, Chang Chih Tung wrote a little book which was translated into English under the title, " Christianity China's Only Hope." Is it not time for some far-sighted American to write a book entitled, " The Adoption of the Missionary Spirit America's Only Hope for Future Greatness " ? But what is the missionary spirit ideally defined? It is not the spirit of conquest, military, intellectual, or religious. Moham- medanism has been a missionary religion, but not so far as it has won its converts by force has it been a missionary religion in our sense of the word. The strenuous efforts to spread German kultur throughout the world were missionary in a sense, but not in the sense in which we are now speaking of the missionary spirit. The missionary spirit in its truly Chris- tian expression recognizes that people are 103 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive the center of every problem, that human welfare in its highest sense can never be imposed upon people by force. He who believes in the mission and des- tiny of his own nation ought for that very reason to recognize and respect the peculiar genius of every other nation. In his re- cent book on Americanization Dr. Charles Brooks well says : " Americanization does not involve ha- tred or contempt of other nations. . . Many of the truest patriots are the missionaries of the finest world fraternity. Mazzini, the Italian statesman and patriot, has given this beautiful expression to the truth : ' Every people has its special mission, which will co- operate toward the fulfilment -of the gen- eral mission of humanity. That mission constitutes its nationality. Nationality is sacred/ " If the missionary spirit meant conquest, every true American would pray that his country might have none of it. Nor is the missionary spirit identical with propagandist zeal. The propagandist is a man who wants other people to accept his opinions. A certain element and form of this spirit must doubtless enter into the ef- fort and plan of the missionary. But when the missionary becomes simply a propa- 104 The United States a Missionary Nation gandist, he has missed the essence of the missionary spirit. The missionary who has really caught the spirit of Jesus is su- premely interested in people and their wel- fare, and while right opinions contribute mightily to human welfare, the two are not identical. Life is more than thought. Character is shaped by other agencies than dogma. Personalities are more potential than opinions. Conduct shapes character as truly as convictions control conduct, and conduct comes as often by example as by precept. The true missionary is interested in people believing the truth because he knows that the truth will make them free. But he knows that freedom does not come as the result of adopting opinions that have no root in experience. Enlightened minds, liberated personalities, wills set free for the highest — these are the goals of his ambi- tion, not reciters of creeds, however true and vital these creeds may be to the mis- sionary who propagates them. The essence of the missionary spirit in the Christian sense of the words is the de- sire that others shall possess what we have ourselves found to be the real goods of life — a desire not vaguely cherished as an unessential sentiment, but affecting action. This spirit will necessarily, because of dif- 105 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive ference in circumstances, find various ex- pressions in different persons, a different ex- pression in an individual from that which it finds in a group, and different in a voluntary group from that which it finds in a nation. In the last analysis the missionary spirit is simply good-will to one's fellow men as dis- tinguished from selfish individualism. One of the things that all history shows, but recent history most strikingly, is that there is but one morality for us all, whether individuals or groups, whether small groups or large. That which is evil between per- sons does not become good between groups of people, nor that which is a virtue be- tween individuals become a vice when practised by multitudes in relation to one another. There are indeed some things which an individual can do which a nation cannot do, because doing them as a nation involves either a practically impossible consent of all the members of the nation, or a coercion of the minority by the majority, which is itself immoral. We are well agreed in America at least that the nation ought not to send out men for the purpose of establishing Pres- byterian churches, even if the Presbyterians constituted a majority of the nation. But this does not change the great fact that 1 06 The United States a Missionary Nation moral principles are universal and apply to nations as well as to individuals. For a nation to be grasping, unjust, cruel, is as truly wrong as for an individual, and the effect of the injustice and cruelty is likely to be far more wide-spread and harmful than in any case of an individual. The problem of national morality is a difficult one and perhaps has never been fully thought out. But certainly it is a problem to which it becomes us now to give heed. For, on the one side, we have lately wit- nessed the frightful results of a false mor- ality adopted by a nation and followed on a national scale, and, on the other hand, we as a nation are facing problems and respon- sibilities which loudly call upon us to de- termine what it is right for a nation to do. On the great road that nations travel, is our course to be upward to nobler life and greater usefulness or downward to the vices that, invading a nation's life, enfeeble and destroy it ? Facing this situation, what would it in- volve for us to avow it as our aim to make the United States a missionary nation ? We have pointed out above some things that it would not involve, such as a spirit of con- quest or a propaganda undertaken by the nation on behalf of any type of organized 107 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive religion. Let us now try to answer it posi- tively. And first in general terms. The United States would be a missionary nation if, as a people, we were pervaded by the desire that other nations should enjoy all the things which our experience has taught us to believe are the real goods of life, in such form and measure as would contribute to their highest welfare. If we had this spirit, we should recognize that in the expression of this spirit there are some things which we can do as individuals, and only as individuals or as small voluntary groups, certain others that we can do as large groups, such as Christian denomina- tions or as undenominational, but Christian or philanthropic societies, and still other things which we must do, or refrain from doing, as a nation and through our govern- ment. If, then, we are a missionary nation, in- dividual missionaries will be going out from us to other lands. For there will be a mul- titude of young men and women among us whose altruistic good-will will extend not only to their neighbors and fellow Ameri- cans, but to other nations. Realizing how rapidly the world is becoming one, and all nations, being made of one blood and hav- ing common needs and common aspirations, 1 08 The United Stales a Missionary Nation are being bound together into one commu- nity, they will desire to be the bearers of Christianity's message and the witnesses of America's experience to the lands across the seas. They will not all hold the same opinions and they will not all do the same work. Some will be preachers, some teach- ers, some physicians, some scientists and engineers. But in so far as they are the representatives of the nation's missionary spirit, they will be moved by the spirit of good-will. They will go not to exploit the nation to which they go, but to contribute to its welfare and to the creation of a spirit of mutual friendliness that shall encircle the earth. If they are intelligent, they will not go with a spirit of condescending superior- ity or with a zeal for conquest, but will recognize that as Mazzini says, " Every people has its special mission, which will co- operate toward the fulfilment of the gen- eral mission of humanity." They will seek to discover that mission, to learn from it what they can, and not to defeat it, but to help toward its fulfilment. If we are a missionary nation, there will be certain to be among us many individuals who, unable themselves to take up their residence abroad or constrained by con- science not to do so, yet, being deeply de- 109 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive sirous of making their contribution to the world's welfare and to the permeation of the world by those great principles which Jesus taught and exemplified, will unite to- gether to do as groups the things that they cannot do as individuals. Doubtless these groups will grow larger and larger, not only because they will add individuals to their number, but because the several societies, perceiving the identity of their purpose and the advantages of unity of effort, will co- ordinate their plans and combine their ef- forts. This process we are now witnessing. Denominational societies, having learned by experience the advantages of cooperation on the field of their missionary effort, are now discovering the great advantages of a combined appeal to the Christian com- munity at home. This very process is tend- ing to make us, to an extent scarcely dreamed of a generation ago, a missionary nation. The missionary enterprise has a standing in the nation, and a hold upon the thought and conscience of the nation sur- passing that of a decade ago. Where shall we be a decade hence if the plans now de- veloping for a united appeal of all the mis- sionary organizations to all in the nation who are in sympathy with their aims shall have that realization that now seems possi- no The United States a Missionary Nation ble ? In ways we did not anticipate or dare to hope for, we are becoming a missionary nation. But can we strictly as a nation, as a po- litical entity, have any part in this success? By abstinence from certain courses of action which have been common among na- tions, we certainly can. There is no obsta- cle in morals or the Constitution or interna- tional law or sound political science to our rigorously refusing to share in any act of injustice to another nation. We can be scrupulous with the scrupulousness of a sensitive conscience in no way to invade the right or harm the life of another people. And this itself would have missionary value. Such a course of action is necessarily the expression of a national conscience. Being so, it will ultimately be recognized as such alike by the nation directly affected by the action and by others who only look on. It can but contribute powerfully to bring inter- national injustice to an end. But there is more than this that we can do and ought to do. The truth is, there is no middle ground between national selfish- ness and national good-will. The middle point of indifference is a point of unstable equilibrium impossible to maintain. Justice has no secure foundation except in good- iii The Triumph of the Missionary Motive will, and if there is good-will, it will find for itself positive expression. Recent years have witnessed wonderful progress in this kind of positive altruistic action. Our theo- ries perhaps would have said that in times of disaster abroad, individuals and groups might contribute to the relief of suffering, but that money raised by taxation could not be appropriated for such purposes. Yet again and again Congress has made such appropriations without protest from the people. Recall, for example, that train that sped eastward to the relief of Halifax in the time of the disaster caused by the explosion of steamships in her harbor, bear- ing carloads of material paid for out of the national treasury. But far more significant was the act of the United States in entering the great war. I know there are cynics to- day who tell us that we went in to save ourselves, and doubtless there is an element of truth in that statement. But they do but slander their own people, if they do not also belittle their own motives, who tell us that national selfishness was the only or the chief motive that led to the act of April, 191 7. The official record is clear and the broader evidence of history is clear. Let us not be false to our own best impulses and motives by being ashamed, after the battle, 112 The United States a Missionary Nation of the motives that led many of our sons to lay down their lives, and many a father and mother to give them up without hesitation. Remember those great words of Kenneth MacLeish, son of Mr. and Mrs. Andrew MacLeish of Glencoe, 111., written only a few days before he made his last heroic flight : " If I find it necessary to make the su- preme sacrifice, always remember this — I am so firmly convinced that the ideals I am going to fight for are right and splendid ideals that I am happy to be able to give so much for them. I could not have any self- respect, I could not consider myself a man, if I saw these ideals defeated when it lies in my power to defend them. " So I have no fears ! I have no regrets ; I have only to thank God for such a won- derful opportunity to serve him and the world. No, if I must make the supreme sacrifice, I will do it gladly and I will do it honorably and bravely, as your son should, and the life that I lay down will be my preparation for the grander, finer life that I shall take up. I shall live ! " You must not grieve. I shall be su- premely happy — so must you — not that I have ' gone west,' but that I have bought h 113 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive such a wonderful life at so small a price and paid for it so gladly." Shall we as a nation in the days of peace he true to that vision of service that came to us in the war ? How we shall do it is an important question — a question for states- men and political scientists to study and help us to solve. But the fundamental ques- tion is whether we recognize that a nation cannot only abstain from injustice, but, be- ing a member of the great family of nations, live as a member of the family, seeking the highest welfare of its own people in the highest welfare of the world. If we must find justification for it, it is amply justified in the evidence of history that national selfishness leads to the destruction of the nation. It is true of nations as of men that he that saveth his life shall lose it. We have been moving, not steadily, per- haps not rapidly, but on the whole moving, toward the recognition of the fact that while a nation cannot act exactly as an individual acts because it is not an individual, it yet can act, and for its own sake and the world's sake must act, on the principle of the Golden Rule. In this time of reaction, after action, many are lifting up their voices against such a principle who in the storm 114 The United States a Missionary Nation and stress of war were silent or spoke on the other side. It is time for men of clearer vision to stand firm in its defense, cautious no doubt in the application of it lest it be discredited by misapplication, but unshaka- bly firm in defense of the principle and in effort for the gradual conformity of our national action to it. But possibly under all the circumstances, the most- effective expression of the mis- sionary spirit which we could make at this time would be in the application of it to our own industrial and social problems. That it has such application is as certain as that such problem exists. The same principle that ought to rule between nations ought also to rule between the classes of a nation. To deal justly and fairly with one another, to apply the Golden Rule to the problems of employer and employee, of laborer and capi- talist, to the relations of black and white, of new Americans and old Americans, would not only be in itself a great achievement, but would be of immense advantage to us in our relations with other nations. It js a strange paradox that our record of relations to other people is much brighter than that of our dealings with one another. It is the destiny of the missionary spirit, as that spirit was exemplified in Jesus Christ 115 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive and as it finds expression today in the most intelligent and Christlike of his followers, to permeate all society and to control the relations of all groups of people to one another. The loud call of divine providence to the United States — but not to her alone — is to become a missionary nation. The adoption of the missionary spirit is Amer- ica's only hope for future greatness and for the fulfilment of her destiny. 116 VIII THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE— ITS APPEAL TO THE YOUTH OF OUR DAY By P. H. J. LERRIGO THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE— ITS APPEAL TO THE YOUTH OF OUR DAY A boy's pocket and a boy's heart are pretty apt to contain the same kind of a miscellaneous assortment of odds and ends. The raw material of youth is the same everywhere. It is a singular jumble of selfishness, sentiment, idealism, meanness, clear vision, pettiness, heroism, and gener- osity. Heredity and past training determine which of these elements predominate, but it is evident that the right stimulus will serve to clear the debris from about any one of them and cause it to emerge as the dominat- ing factor in life and determine the kind of individual the youth is to be. It is here that maturity owes a debt to youth. It should furnish such a stimulus from its own experience as will insure a right choice, and should then so govern the environment as to make the stimulus effec- tive. 119 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive There must be a choice. There comes a day when it is high time to sort out that pocket. It is impossible for all these ele- ments to grow in equal proportions. Many of them are mutually antagonistic. Some will develop and others atrophy. The ulti- mate man is the product of the elements upon which the choice falls. We owe it to our young people to give them an adequate presentation of the mis- sionary motive. In itself it is the test and touchstone of life. It acts as a chemical re- agent, and at the moment of its effective introduction the elements of moral growth group themselves about it. When the mis- sionary motive has met a response in the heart of youth, there emerges a group of impulses which constructively interweave into a definite purpose. There is the impulse to self-giving. It may coexist with a queer mixture of other motives. But it can hardly be said ever to be entirely absent from the heart of youth. A sergeant in the service overseas relates the story of a young fellow who was sent to France for replacement. Jealous of the two gold stripes worn by the men in whose company he now found himself, he went to the nearest town, bought similar stripes and put them on. Nothing was said, but his fel- 12Q Its Appeal to the Young lows prepared to give him a lesson. The head sergeant purchased a Croix de Guerre, borrowed the captain's Sam Brown belt, and staged an impressive ceremony in the dusk of the evening remote from the camp, in which the company indulged in much hi- larity, while the sergeant decorated the young man with the medal. Yellow, you call him; but the impulse to sacrifice was there. Two weeks later the entire regiment stood at attention while General Petain him- self pinned the Croix de Guerre, with palm, upon the young man. He had gone over the top alone at night and brought in seven- teen prisoners and seven machine guns. It was an impulse to self -giving which underlay the wonderful morale of the American troops. When combined with a simple faith, it was sometimes free from any admixture of grosser sentiments. The teaching of a Christian home spoke in the clear ringing note of the message written by Lieut. Kenneth MacLeish before he fell in battle : " I have no fears ! I have no re- grets ! I have only to thank God for such a wonderful opportunity to serve him and the world. No! if I must make the supreme sacrifice, I will do it gladly and I will do it honorably and bravely, as your son should, and the life that I lay down will be my I2| The Triumph of the Missionary Motive preparation for the grander, finer life that I shall take up. I shall live! " There is the impulse to self-development. Small boys want to be big. Youth wants to be important — feels, indeed, that it is im- portant. And youth is right about it. It knows its temptation to littleness and also its potentialities of greatness. In a recent number of the Yale Review appeared the following lines : Stars I am the Captain of my soul, Beneath the heaven of All Souls, And see them twinkling all about Who won through to their briary goals; When I look up into the dome Their gathered constellations wreathe — The Great, the Faithful, trooping home — I am so small, I scarcely breathe. I am so great — for I am I. Not one, of all the starry band, Went just the way I travel by To overtake my fatherland, Seeking forever mine own Sign, Lord of my spirit's lone estate, My soul's a heaven where they shin« A part of me — I am so great. Thrice blest is he who at the moment of choice can furnish the stimulus which will lead youth's purpose to crystallize about the 122 Its Appeal to the Young greatness of life rather than its littleness. There is a condition of plastic potentiality which may concrete in self-service, money service, or world service. When youth of- fers life, it is following the road to high- est self-development. There is the impulse to invest life con- structively. Young men and women today are insistent that their powers shall be judged by actual achievement. One reason why men are turning in larger numbers to the secondary phases of Christian service than to direct ministry of the gospel is this desire to build something concrete and to see their efforts emerge in constructive re- sults. Failing to realize the basic construc- tive value of the work of spiritual leader- ship, they seek tangible results in medical, industrial, social, or educational service. They have an inner urging to institutional- ize their life's product. But we must not fail to realize that this desire is closely knit to the principle of self- giving. To be one's biggest self and then to abandon that self to a constructive king- dom task is the purpose which is crystalliz- ing now in the thinking of our young peo- ple perhaps to a greater degree than ever. And construction is always built upon sacrifice. At La Panne, almost the last 123 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive foothold of ground left to the Belgians by the German advance, stands a great me- morial hospital. Spread out over acres of ground are the wards, operating-rooms, power-house, disinfecting plant, and steam laundry. And dominating it upon the sand dune above is a little chapel and the grave of the brave soul whose self -giving made possible this great plant. It was Madame DePage, wife of Doctor DePage, chief sur- geon and director, who went to the United States to voice the fearful extremity of her people. Returning home, successful, with a certified check for a million francs, she sailed upon the Lusitania. Among the bodies tenderly laid out and cared for upon the Irish shore was hers. And tightly clasped in the dead hand was the check for a million francs. Not always will the sac- rifice be required in just this way, but the annals of missionary service today are crowded with stories of those who are thus uniting self -giving and constructive achieve- ment. There is the impulse to meet life at its point of greatest need. This is the logic of generosity. It underlies and supports the missionary motive. One of the commonest statements of the student volunteer is, " I should like to go where the need is great- 124 Its Appeal to the Young est." And this becomes the dominating principle of life's action in the man who has given himself to world service. This is why the missionary springs so promptly through the door of need opened by a great national calamity, such as famine in India, or floods in China. Dr. H. W. Newman had been engaged for five years in success- ful medical work in South China, having charge of the hospital at Ungkung, when the call of greater need led him to enter the American Red Cross work in Siberia. He was placed in charge of the anti-typhus campaign and lived in a car on the Siberian Railroad while waging a successful battle against typhus fever, the disease of the underfed. Major Geo. W. Simmons, spe- cial Red Cross commissioner, is quoted re- garding Doctor Newman's work as follows : " In the history of the Red Cross achieve- ment in Siberia, there will be no greater credit due any individual than that due Doctor Newman for the successful accom- plishment of his anti-typhus work at Che- liabinsk and Petropavlosk. Almost with- out American aid, Doctor Newman cleaned out a factory building and installed an effi- cient typhus hospital and later built up a hospital of four hundred and fifty beds at Petropavlosk, where, under his direction, 125 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive the mortality rate was cut down by two- thirds." Doctor Newman, now Major Newman, was organizing a surgical hos- pital of 1,500 beds when he was compelled to evacuate before the Bolshevik's advance. He then fell a victim to the disease which he had been so successfully combating and while seriously ill was carried five weeks to the port of embarkation whence he returned to America. It is the argument of need in the foreign mission appeal which has stirred the hearts of our young people beyond almost any other element: the appeal of destitution in physical and mental things, but, above all, the appeal which lies in the moral and spirit- ual poverty of the non-Christian world. Mr. Linzell, of India, tells of a village of three thousand where the leaders came to- gether to examine their moral situation. They discovered a condition of social filth well-nigh indescribable. There is nothing remarkable about this when one considers the usual phenomena of social life in India, but it is worthy of note that there was enough spiritual insight among them to enable them to trace the condition to its source. "No wonder we are so depraved," they said, " while we are worshiping these licentious gods and goddesses." They de- 126 Its Appeal to the Young cided to change their religion, and a com- mittee was appointed to choose a new one. They deliberated a week. Overtures made by the Mohammedans and the Arya Somaj were rejected. Finally they decided to adopt Christianity, and a messenger was sent to the missionary in the adjacent town. The overwhelming need of the situation is emphasized by the fact that the missionary had to reply that there was no worker to send to them. Unmet need is shattering to the peace of the Christian soul. It pours over the spirit like a devastating flood, and the impulse is to fling oneself into the breach. There is the lure of the unfamiliar. For- eign peoples and scenes awaken and stimu- late the imagination of youth. Sea tales and adventures in foreign lands are the natural choice of youth. Who of us does not remember the fascination which Robert Louis Stevenson's " Treasure Island " held for us with its story of picturesque char- acters and buried treasure? But there is a similar element in the missionary motive. Many of the missionaries live lives of al- most incredible adventure; for example, John G. Paton among the natives of the New Hebrides. Among our more recent missionaries, examples of the same kind are 127 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive not wanting. Long John Silver presents no more picturesque characteristics than Capt. Luke Bickel, the sailor missionary of the Inland Sea. In Harrington's life of Captain Bickel, he relates that the latter 's voyage led him far afield, " over the trail of the deep blue, to the west coast of South America, to Australia and to Africa, and their incidents would make a fascinating tale of the sea. Every voyage he went gave him an opportunity to save a human life, an opportunity which his courage, strength, and swiftness in action enabled him to seize. On one occasion a sailor had thrown him- self into the sea, intending to commit sui- cide. Bickel instantly leaped after him and, overcoming his resistance by sheer force, succeeded in rescuing him. The would-be suicide repaid him with curses, at which the other sailors would have thrown the man overboard again had not Bickel intervened." Captain Bickel' s subsequent life on the Inland Sea of Japan as a sailor missionary is full of vivid interest. In and out among the innumerable islands sped the little white- winged messenger of faith, the Fukuin Maru, and neither storm nor threatened wreck, opposition nor persecution, was suffi- cient to deter its indomitable master. Among the trophies of his service were 128 Its Appeal to the Young riksha men and soldiers, teachers and samu- rai, policemen and clerks. Captain Bickel himself tells of one, Hirata San, a short, ugly- faced little fellow, built in a lump, who clambered up over the stern of the vessel one cold winter day looking for a job. " He had one virtue, at least — he was openly, cheerfully evil. He and the devil went watch and watch. He gambled, stole, and lied by preference. He drank heavily and loved to fight, for was he not a jiujitsu expert of seven years' training? All this he did and worse." But two years of con- stant association with the captain had its effect. Hirata San had come to know the great captain and was about to become a little captain himself in charge of a small Japanese sailing craft to be used for col- portage. "When the little ship was launched, we stood on the beach and watched him as he worked up to his waist in water. The tears were streaming down his face as he worked. A foreman ship- wright stood by who had known him of old, and said, ' Let him alone ; he has a vile temper. He is so mad that the tears are running down his face because his vessel is stuck a bit on the chocks. He is dangerous at such times.' Three years later that same foreman was baptized, having been led to i 129 The Triumph of the Missionary Motive Christ by our friend. After a most aston- ishing profession of faith, he suddenly turned to us and said, ' And, captain, I now know what those tears meant/ " So may the lure of the unfamiliar become an element in the appeal of the missionary motive to our young people. The high em- prise of spiritual endeavor is close akin to the best elements which animate the spirit of adventure. Last, but most important of all the ele- ments which group themselves about the missionary motive in its appeal to youth, is the impulse to follow Jesus Christ. Never make the mistake of supposing that religion is unnatural to growing youth. From child- hood on, the game of " Follow the Leader " has held its attraction, and boys will fol- low with equal abandon whether the leader be good or bad. It is sometimes a hazard- ous game and may easily lead into danger and evil. It depends upon who is leader. Young people will yield themselves with ready abandon to Christ as Leader, if we can show them that his leadership is worth while and carries with it those virile values and elements of manhood they most admire. If we can present Jesus Christ to our young people in such a manner that the natural tendency to hero-worship will cen- 130 Its Appeal to the Young ter about him as the supreme figure, we shall have provided that stimulus which will deter- mine the trend of the future life. For in him every one of these impulses which to- gether make up the missionary motive has found its highest fulfilment. The impulse to self-sacrifice was his dominating life prin- ciple; the impulse to self -development was its paradoxical complement. "If it die it bringeth forth much fruit," was never so exemplified as in Jesus' life. The impulse to constructive achievement in the life of Christ is bringing its cumulative results through the centuries. " By whom also he framed the ages." The impulse to meet life at its point of greatest need blossomed in his compassionate sympathy for suffer- ing. And that spirit of faith's adventure into the unknown was perfectly set forth in him who committed himself to God in the great adventure of man's redemption. The appeal of the missionary motive to the youth of our day is that " Jesus still leads on " and that to follow him is to lose oneself, to find oneself, to adventure for God, and to build for eternity. " I have written unto you, young men, Because ye are strong, And the word of God abideth in you And ye have overcome." 131 Pt :eton Theological Seminary Libraries 1 1012 01234 0578 Date Due 14 27 39 1 ] 39 f>