UCSB LIBRAKT EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS N. B. Special helps and denominational missionary literature for this course can be obtained by correspondence with the Secretary of your mission board or society. RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS LECTURES DELIVERED ON THE COLLEGE OF MISSIONS LECTURESHIP, INDIANAPOLIS; THE SEVERANCE LEC- TURESHIP, WESTERN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, PITTSBURGH Author of Unity and Missions, The Foreign Missionary, The Why and Hoio of Foreign Missions, Neiv Forces in Old China, The Chineit Re-volution, The New Era in the Philippines, The Nearer and Farther East (Joint Author) THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN NEW YORK CINCINNATI Copyright, 1915, by MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA TO OUR FELLOW CHRISTIANS IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Preface xi I The People among Whom the Churches are Rising i II Founding the Churches 23 III Temptations and Difficulties of the Christian 51 IV Character of the Christian and Resultant Character of the Church 75 V Present Strength and Influence of the Church 99 VI Self-Support and Self- Propagation 127 VII Social Service and Self -Government 155 VIII Relation to Missions and Western Churches 183 Bibliography 219 Index 227 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Christianity Versus Heathenism 14 Rev. James Gilmour 32 Rev. John G. Paton 32 Rev. Robert Moffat 46 Rev. H. H. Jessup 46 Li Hung Chang 62 Yuan Shi Kai 62 Korean Women Gathered for Bible Study 80 Korean Men Gathered for Bible Study 80 Paul, Apostle of the Congo 96 Rev. Majola Agbebi 96 Group of Lepers . 106 Group of Insane 106 Unique Missionary Offering, Elat, Africa 142 Un Ho, the Blind Leper Girl 150 Dr. Kerr's Hospital for the Insane 156 Dr. Miles' School for Blind Girls 156 Tile Factory, Malabar Coast 167 Embroidery Works, Calcutta 167 First Men Ordained for the Presbyterian Ministry in Korea. . . 178 Rev. K. C. Chatterjee 184 Rev. Ding Li Mei 184 Chinese Workers in City Evangelization 188 Ordained Zulu Pastors 188 University of Nanking, Seven Denominations Cooperating Science Building 194 Faculty of Language School 194 Student Volunteers for Home Missions Shantung Christian University 210 University of Nanking 210 PREFACE The rise of Christian Churches in non-Christian lands is the most inspiring fact of the present age, but the problems to which it gives rise are among the most difficult that the Christian student has to solve. They vitally affect the conditions under which mission work must now be conducted and involve extensive readjust- ments in our attitude and methods. We of the West should carefully study these rising Churches in order that we may aid them effectively, guide them wisely, avoid harmful policies, and cooperate harmoniously with them as they develop independent power. Avail- able material for this study is limited, as the problem has recently emerged. During the pioneer period, when converts were few in number, widely scattered, and with no leaders of their own, the problems of the Church were comparatively simple. Now, by the bless- ing of God upon missionary work, numerous churches have been developed. Christians of the second and third generations represent increasing stability. Ca- pable leaders are appearing, and others are being trained in mission schools. The churches are becoming conscious of unity and power. To what extent do our methods recognize these facts? What is the character of our fellow Christian in those lands, and what are his temptations and diffi- culties? Where the independence of the churches xi xii PREFACE should be recognized, what should be our relation to it? What progress are they making in self-support? To what extent do they realize their responsibility to propagate the gospel among their countrymen and to promote the kingdom of God by social service? How can the people of God in the home lands most effectively cooperate with their brethren in non-Christian lands for the furtherance of the gospel of our common Lord? These are some of the questions which call for our thoughtful and prayerful consideration, and whose reflex influence upon the churches in Europe and America will be far-reaching. President James G. K. McClure, of Chicago, on hearing that this volume was in preparation, wrote: "I want you to know that I realize the tremendousness of your task, that you are breaking a path into the midst of the greatest problems Christianity has ever faced and that I am eager you should state things in a large way in the same generous, encouraging, de- veloping, welcoming way that Christ would use in deal- ing with the people and communities that are involved." I dare not cherish the hope that I have succeeded in meeting this high test. I write, not as a teacher, but rather as a student who deeply feels the importance of the subject and who ventures to indicate some aspects of a problem which still is far from adequate interpre- tation. The proposed use of this volume as a text-book for mission study classes has limited its length and short- ened the reference to some phases of the subject which, PREFACE while important to ecclesiastical scholars and mission- ary administrators, are not of general interest. ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN 156 Fifth Avenue, New York April 16, 1915 THE PEOPLES AMONG WHOM THE CHURCHES ARE RISING Power for the New Life An Unnoticed Movement. The most significant movement in non-Christian lands is attracting scant attention from a preoccupied world. Politicians and generals, poets and scientists, the devotees of fashion and amusement, give little heed to the small groups of Asiatics and Africans who worship the crucified Nazarene. "No more did the statesmen and the phi- losophers of Rome understand the character and issues of that greatest movement of all history, of which their literature takes so little notice. That the greatest relig- ious change in the history of mankind should have taken place under the eyes of a brilliant galaxy of philosophers and historians, and that they should have treated as simply contemptible an agency which all men must now admit to have been, for good or evil, the most powerful moral lever that has ever been ap- plied to the affairs of men, are facts well worthy of meditation in every period of religious transition." l This movement is being reproduced in our day in lands of which the early disciples had never heard. Humble but earnest men and women are hearing the 'Lecky, History of European Morals, Vol. I, 359. 2 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people. The scenes so graphically described in the New Testament are being reenacted on a wider scale throughout the mission field of the twentieth century. Non-Christian Peoples Misjudged. Our first inter- est naturally centers upon the peoples of the non-Chris- tian world who form the material from which the membership of the Church is to be fashioned. Is that material capable of transformation by the gospel? Wrong ideas on the subject were almost universal until recent years, many even in the home churches holding that "the heathen" were not undeveloped races but "the rotten product of decayed civilizations" with which nothing worth while could be done. Juster ideas are beginning to prevail; but multitudes in America still have a subconscious feeling that missionary work is a condescension to lower orders of humanity. This feeling has been strengthened by superficial travelers who judge by western standards and condemn peoples who fall short. But let us be reasonable. How can we expect men of non-Christian races to be honest and humane under conditions which have long fostered dishonesty and inhumanity, to be chaste when unchastity is sanctioned by general custom, and to exemplify Christian char- acter without Christian knowledge ? It is hard enough for us to keep straight with the help of all the incen- tives of Christian teaching and association. When we consider the absence of these incentives in non-Chris- tian lands, the wonder is that people show as good THE PEOPLES 3 qualities as they do. It took Anglo-Saxons many cen- turies under the tutelage of Christianity to reach their present stage, and they are still far from perfect. Shall we condemn non-Christians because they have not ac- quired in less than a century without such tutelage what we but imperfectly exemplify? Our Barbaric Forebears. It is easy to criticize people who differ from us, forgetting that the differ- ences may be largely due to the lack of advantages which we have had and which we can communicate to them. Pessimistic prophecies are based upon past con- ditions and fail to take into account the regenerating forces which Christianity is now bringing into play. The qualities that have given preeminence to the white man did not characterize him when he was found by the missionaries .of the early Church. They have been bred into him by centuries of Christian teaching. Most of the non-Christian nations are considerably higher in the scale of civilization and achievement than Europe was in the days of St. Paul. The Teuton in the time of Julius Caesar was far more barbarous than the Chinese and the East Indian of to-day. Augustine of Canterbury found no such orderly society in England as Morrison found in China. As late as 1678 the Highlanders of Scotland were "a barbarous, savage people accustomed to rapine and spoil." * Boniface labored in Germany among more lawless tribes than Carey met in India. Patrick preached in Ireland when the Irish were as savage as the present Kurds of the 'Quoted in Henderson and Watt, Scotland of To-day, 16. 4 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS Turkish mountains. "Look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged." 1 Christianity may do as much for other races as it has done for ours. There are excellent qualities in the people of every field. If we may adapt the words of Carlyle in his Essay on Burns : "Wherever there is a sky above and a world around, ... is man's existence, with its infinite longings and small acquirings; its ever-thwarted, ever- renewed endeavors; its unspeakable aspirations; its fears and hopes that wander through eternity. . . . The mysterious workmanship of man's heart, the true light and the inscrutable darkness of man's destiny, reveal themselves not only in capital cities and crowded saloons, but in every hut and hamlet where men have their abode. ... A Scottish peasant's life was the meanest and rudest of all lives till Burns became a poet in it, and a poet of it; found it a man's life and there- fore significant to men." Uplifting Forces Required. Many think of non- Christian peoples as a mass, as they would think of vast herds of cattle or shoals of fish. Why not think of them as individuals, as men of like passions with our- selves ? A human being who has never heard of Christ is after all a human being. He has the same hopes and fears, the same temptations and sorrows, the same capacity for happiness. Are we not told that God "hath made of one every nation of men"? We complacently imagine that we are a higher order of 'Isa. li. i. THE PEOPLES 5 beings. But what constitutes superiority of race? Benjamin Kidd declares that "we shall have to set aside many of our old ideas on the subject. Neither in respect alone of color, nor of descent, nor even of the possession of high intellectual capacity, can science give us any warrant for speaking of one face as superior to another." High character is the result, not so much of anything inherent in one race as dis- tinguished from another, as of the operation upon a race of certain uplifting farces. Any preeminence that we now possess is due to the action of these forces. But they can be brought to bear upon other races as well as upon us. We should avoid the popular mis- take of looking at men of different races "as if they were merely animals with a toilet, and never see the great soul in a man's face." x We need in this study a true idea of the worth and dignity of man as man, a realization that under brown, black, and yellow skins are all the faculties and possi- bilities of human souls, to grasp the great thought that these are our brother men, made like ourselves in the image of God. Let us have the charity that sees be- neath external peculiarities our common humanity, which leads us to respect a man because he is a man; which, no matter what his complexion or country, no matter to what degradation he has fallen, will take him by the hand and lead him to a higher plane. We need an enthusiasm for humanity which shall not be sentimental rhetoric, but a catholic love for one who is 'George Eliot. 6 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS "Heir of the same inheritance, Child of the self-same God; He hath but stumbled in the path We have in weakness trod." Ruskin reminds us that the filthy mud in the street is composed of clay, sand, soot, and water; that the clay may be purified into the radiance of the sapphire ; that the sand may be developed into the beauty of the opal; that the soot may be crystallized into the glory of the diamond, and that the water may be changed into a star of snow. So man in Asia as well as in America may, by the transforming power of the Spirit of God, be ennobled into the dignity of divine sonship. We shall get along best with the non-Christian if we remember that he is not a different species and that he differs from us, not in the fundamental things that make for manhood, but only in the superficial things that are the result of environment. From this view- point, we can say with Shakespeare: "There is some sort of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out." A Discarded Word. I put the word "heathen" in quotation marks because I think it should be aban- doned; not because its original meaning is less true, but because popular usage has added an element of contempt which has made it not only inappropriate but highly offensive to intelligent Asiatics, and therefore a hindrance to our Christian approach to them. Those who still cling to the contemptuous idea may profit- ably recall thai when the misanthropic Scrooge, in THE PEOPLES 7 Dickens's Christmas Carol, says of the poor and suf- fering: "If he be like to die, he had better do it and decrease the surplus population," the Ghost sternly re- plies : "Man, if man you be at heart, not adamant, for- bear that wicked cant until you have discovered what the surplus is and where it is. Will you decide what men shall live, what men shall die? It may be that in the sight of heaven, you are the most worthless, and less fit to live than millions like this poor man's child." Typical Peoples Chinese. Consider some of the typical peoples of the non-Christian world. The Chinese will probably be deemed the most conspicuous example. I need not repeat here what I have written regarding them in two other books. 1 Their industry, their persistence, their genius for scholarship and business, and the remark- able skill and energy with which they carried through a gigantic political revolution have challenged the re- spect of mankind. They are coming to the front in many lines of activity. Chinese students take high honors in our proudest American universities. Sir David Barbour of Great Britain, at a monetary con- ference of world experts on finance, declared that "the representative of China in this conference, Dr. Chen, is distinctively a younger man than any of us, but when it comes to ability or knowledge of the subject, he is the peer of us all." The Hon. John W. Foster, formerly American *New Forces in Old China and The Chinese Revolution. 8 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS Secretary of State, expresses the opinion, in his Intro- duction to the Memoirs of Li Hung Chang, that the last one hundred years have produced many men of scholarship, several great generals, a number of statesmen of distinguished ability and success, and a few diplomats of high rank; but that no one of these can be singled out as having combined in his person all these attainments in such an eminent degree as Li Hung-chang. His successor in the Vice-royalty of Chihli and now the President of the Republic, Yuan Shih-kai, is everywhere conceded to be one of the most masterful men of the present world generation a born leader of men. Japanese. The Japanese were regarded fifty years ago as an obscure and weak "heathen" nation. They certainly are not obscure to-day, and if one regards them as weak he can secure some heartfelt information by inquiring of Russians. I need not enlarge upon the characteristics of a people that are probably better known to western nations than any other of the peoples of the non-Christian world. We all recognize their progressive spirit, their civil and military efficiency, the marvelous skill with which they are adapting them- selves to the conditions of the new era, passing, almost in a single generation, from the period of antiquity to the period of modern life. Vices they undoubtedly have ; so have we ; but they are a virile, energetic, and ambitious people, a recognized power in the far East, and a factor in international relationships which is not ignored in the cabinets of Europe and America. THE PEOPLES 9 East Indians. Are the peoples of India uncivilized? India had a voluminous written literature and had studied the heavens accurately enough to calculate the solar year 2,000 B. C. ; had worked out a science of mathematics, a scheme of philosophy, and an art of music with its seven notes 500 B. C. ; and had written a Sanskrit grammar, still used by scholars, 350 B. C. When America was a wilderness and the Pilgrim Fathers were beginning their struggle to subdue it, the Emperor Shah-Jehan (reigned 1628-1658) built the magnificent Palace-Fort at Delhi with its wonderful Pearl Mosque and its Audience Hall with the Peacock Throne, adorned with emeralds, sapphires, rubies, and diamonds which the jeweler Tavernier valued at $35,- 000,000; and when his favorite wife died, he toiled seventeen years with twenty thousand workmen at a cost of ten million dollars to build her tomb, a tomb before which the artists and architects of the twentieth century stand in wonder, delight, and awe, a dream in marble and precious stones, the most beautiful struc- ture the world has ever seen the glorious Taj Mahal. That the East Indians of the twentieth century are not degenerate descendants of nobler days many a mis- sionary and British civil service administrator can testify. There are thousands of intelligent, cultivated gentlemen in India. Schools and universities are crowded with bright pupils, and the Nobel Prize for Literature for 1913 was bestowed upon Rabindranath Tagore, a Hindu poet of Bengal. Of the lower classes Sir Andrew H. L. Eraser, who 10 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS spent a generation in India, writes: "It is not difficult to win the hearts of these kindly, simple people: they have a wonderful way of winning ours. It is worth while to get among them and help them to mitigate their sorrows or increase their happiness. ... To me it was always a touching spectacle to see a band of pilgrims on their way to Jaganath's temple at Puri. They were going to fulfil some vow, to give thanks for some special blessing. They would come some- times, nearly a whole village together, for hundreds of miles with their bullocks and carts and their families and go singing down the road the praises of their god. They had looked forward to this pious journey for years and expected much blessing from it. Often they would return weary and well-nigh stripped of all they had by the rapacious priests and temple servants. Often some of them fell victims to cholera and other ills incident to pilgrim life in India. Sometimes they had not even obtained a satisfactory view of the strangely unlovely idol they had gone to see. But they were going back to their old life, loyal and patient as ever, not understanding why things had not been made brighter for them, but not complaining. In much of their life we cannot help these people; but we can at least sympathize with them, and we can hardly help loving them when we know them well." l Koreans. The Koreans appear, at first glance, to be most unpromising material. They lack the energy, initiative, and ambition of the Japanese, and the 1 Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots, 182, 183. THE PEOPLES thrift, industry, and strength of the Chinese. The visitor usually enters from Japan, and the contrast is painful. The villages are a squalid collection of mush- room hovels. The streets are crooked alleys and choked with filth, except where the Japanese have en- forced a semblance of cleanliness. Some travelers have accepted this first impression as final. Two visits to Korea and long relationship to mis- sionary work there have given me a different opinion. The upper classes are as a rule degenerate, but the common people are robust. Their courage is high, as they have repeatedly shown, though lack of organiza- tion, competent leadership, and the weapons and meth- ods of modern warfare make them helpless as a nation. Mentally they develop quickly under education. Korean children are remarkably bright scholars. During a journey through the interior we passed through scores of villages far from the beaten track of travel, ate in native huts and slept in native inns, with our luggage piled in the open courtyard. The people were inquisitive, following us through the streets, crowding about us at every stop, and peering through every door and crevice. But not once was insolence shown, and not a penny's worth was stolen. Every- where we were treated respectfully and with genuine hospitality. The best that a village afforded was placed at our disposal, and, while prices were never excessive, the people often refused to receive any payment. We usually sent word ahead, so that accommodations might be ready for us ; and whenever we did so, groups would 12 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS walk out several miles to meet us, sometimes in a heavy rain. The customary salutation was a smiling inquiry : "Have you come in peace?" and when we left, the people escorted us some distance on our way, and then courteously bade us good-by in the words : "May you go in peace!" These were usually Christians, but we saw multitudes who were not, and while they were more unkempt than the Christians, they, too, were invariably kind and respectful. He must be a callous man who could not love such a people and long to help them to higher levels of thought and life. Siamese. The Siamese are not deemed one of the strong peoples of Asia, but Siamese students abroad have no difficulty in maintaining equality with for- eigners in the classroom. When they first went to the famous Harrow School in England, the head master said to Mr. Verney : "You are trying an extraordinary experiment in sending young Siamese to Harrow, and you are wonderfully sanguine in supposing that they can adapt themselves to our public school life;" but shortly before his death, he spoke of the remarkable success they had achieved and said that there was not a master at Harrow who would not gladly welcome them to his house. Turks. The Turks are often spoken of as the least responsive of all the peoples to the influences that make for character. But whatever corruption there may be among the official and wealthy classes, the Turkish peasant is a brave, hardy man, and, though he may be roused to fanatical fury, he is ordinarily peaceable, THE PEOPLES 13 industrious, and hospitably. Children of upper and lower classes alike, when trained in mission schools, often develop wonderfully. The Rev. Charles R. Wat- son says that he met "a figure in Turkish costume, which covers the entire head and face and conies down just over the shoulders a thick impenetrable veil. . . . The exclamation is forced to one's lips: 'Here is the unchangeable Orient with its stamp of degradation upon womanhood !' Then we step into a mission build- ing. The missionary introduces us to this young wom- an. She throws back her veil. What do we see? Beautiful brown eyes! Beautiful tresses of brown hair! A voice that is clear and musical. She is the author of several books; and in the recent war she gathered a few women of kindred spirit about her and went to the front to minister to the sick and wounded. She may not call herself a Christian, but you would not call her a Moslem. She has attended the American Girls' College at Constantinople, and the spirit of Chris- tianity has been breathed into her soul. One goes his way after such an experience wondering whether be- neath other impenetrable veils there may not be others like Halideh Hanem." Filipinos. A visit to the Philippines impressed me with the attractiveness of the Filipinos. Among de- lightful memories are receptions at Iloilo, Dumaguete, and Manila, where hundreds of well-dressed, pleasant- faced people welcomed us with a grace far removed from barbarism. A Filipino residence in which a social function was held had spacious drawing-rooms, 14 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS lofty ceilings, and rich furniture. The top of the din- ing-room table was a single slab of beautiful marble, six feet in width and twenty-two feet in length. The floors were of polished native woods, and the doors and other woodwork were of solid mahogany. The wild tribes of the interior mountains are indeed sav- ages. Some of them are head-hunters, and all are con- siderably lower in the scale of civilization than the people in the larger towns and along the coast. But the Hon. Dean C. Worcester assured me that they are responsive to kindness, and that, ignorant and degraded as they are, they might be raised by wise and patient effort to a much higher level of life. Let us give them a chance, some decades of fair treatment, of just laws, of modern political and educational methods, and of a pure Protestant faith, and I believe that they will justify the hopes of their well-wishers rather than the sneers of their detractors. Said Senor Felipe Buen- camino: "The heart of the Filipino is like his fertile soil, and it will as surely repay cultivation. Sow love and you will reap love. Sow hatred and hatred will grow." Africans. Africans are considered as types of the lowest races. But the Rev. George L. Mackay, of Formosa, told a Canadian audience that, "after hav- ing gone around the globe once and being now half way round again, I declare that some of the best men I ever met were black- faced, thick-lipped, and woolly- headed Negroes." Of the raw tribes of the west coast Miss Mary Kingsley wrote, after careful observation : THE PEOPLES 15 "These Africans have often a remarkable mental acute- ness and a large share of common sense. I confess I like the African on the whole, a thing I never expected to do when I went to the coast with the idea that he was a degraded, savage, cruel brute." l When a great congregation saw the body of David Livingstone laid to rest in historic Westminster Abbey, none in that dis- tinguished throng were regarded with greater respect than the black men who had faithfully borne the sacred form on their shoulders through forests and rivers, across plains and over mountains, in toil and hunger and weariness, in danger of savage beasts and still more savage men, until they had delivered their sacred charge to their white brothers in England. Burmans. Say the worst, if one will, about any people. The Burman, for example, is among the hard- est of men to influence with the Christian message. He is haughty, cruel, fond of theatricals and gaudily- colored garments. He regards work as beneath him. His Buddhistic teaching against the taking of life does not trouble him in the least, for, he argues, he does not kill the fish he eats: they merely die when he takes them out of the water. He "dries" them on mats in the sun, pounds them to a paste, adds a little salt, drains off the oil, spreads the paste on his rice, and eats it with keen relish. We shall never forget the odor of those decaying fish. In spite of his laziness, his poverty, his shiftlessness, and the ease with which a handful of white men have defeated him in war and a few thou- l Travels in West Africa, 439, 653. 16 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS sand Chinese have made themselves masters of his trade, he is one of the most self-satisfied of mortals, proudly regarding himself as superior to all other races. He smokes his cigaret, chews his betel, eats his "fra- grant" fish, lounges in his bamboo hut, and is calmly indifferent to the rest of the world ! Let us be careful in our judgment, however. These people are not the only conceited ones on earth. There are some in America. Nor do we have to travel half- way around the world to find the indolent and the care- less. Burmese women are notably strong and capable. They are not secluded like the women of India. They freely mingle with men and usually attend to the busi- ness matters of the family. Drunkenness and opium smoking among all classes are not so common as the former is in England and the latter in China; but, un- fortunately, both are increasing under the influence of the European in one case and the Chinese in the other. Most foreigners in Asia and Africa, outside of the missionary circle, drink heavily and the native soon learns to imitate them. The Burman has qualities which, when developed by the gospel, make him a strong man. The Human Quality. Everywhere, even in the most unlooked-for places, one finds the human quality. I noticed a woman in an Asiatic hamlet. Her garments were cheap and coarse. Her hands were roughened by toil. Her features were heavy, her eyes dull. She THE PEOPLES 17 was evidently a common, ignorant peasant. A sleeping baby beside her wakened and began to fret. The woman took the child in her arms and, indifferent to onlookers, gave the little one her breast. As the babe nestled against her bosom and contentedly began to nurse, the hard lines in the mother's face softened. The dull eyes grew softly bright. The countenence was suffused with tenderness. And lo! I saw the transfiguration of womanhood. Our train stopped twenty minutes at an interior station in Japan. We strolled up and down the long platform. It ran beside and a little above a row of humble dwellings. The weather was warm and doors were open. It was evening, and the lighted interiors were clearly visible. A woman was preparing a simple meal. The husband and father, apparently a laborer, came wearily in from his daily toil. A child joyfully ran to meet him. He caught the little fellow in his arms, tossed him on his shoulder, crouched on the floor while the boy gleefully climbed upon his back father and son laughing as they romped together, while the mother looked up from her work with joy and pride. It was plainly the home of poverty, but as plainly the home of affection and happiness. And we, who could not but see, thought of the dear ones far away and felt that we were kin to the Japanese toiler who loved his lowly home and this little child. Christian Dynamic Needed. We would not give an exaggerated idea of non-Christian peoples. Multi- tudes are stolid and ignorant. The defects and 18 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS vices which characterize parts of the populations of Europe and America characterize a far larger pro- portion of the populations of Asia and Africa. Lying, gambling, stealing, immorality, official corruption, although by no means universal, are so general as to form racial traits. Some professed Christians are not good men; but the normal expectation is that the average Christian is a man of personal purity and integrity, and if public opinion learns that he is not, it condemns him. Some Hindus, Buddhists, and Mos- lems are men of personal purity and integrity; but the normal expectation is that the average man of these faiths is not, and public opinion accepts this as a matter of course. The first chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans is still an accurate description of the vices of the non-Christian world. But the difference, we reiterate, between Asia and America is due to moral teaching, not to inferiority in type. It proves that "the heathen" have the failings of our common humanity wherever Christian influ- ences have not transformed it. The typical Chinese or Persian, from the view-point of character, is the same kind of a person as the typical white man was before Christianity changed him. While some un- converted white men have been so molded by a Chris- tian environment that their lives are exceptional, every city in Great Britain and the United States contains elements that are as wicked and degraded as one can find in the cities of Japan and China. Men who reject an offered Christ, who know the better and THE PEOPLES 19 choose the worse, are beneath the level of earnest- minded pagans who have never heard of Christ and who if they had heard of him, might have accepted him. It is a mistake to talk about the sins of the non- Christian world as if they were peculiar to it. The sins of Mekka and Lassa and Yunnanfu are precisely the same as the sins of Glasgow, Montreal, and Phila- delphia. The essential difference in these two groups of cities lies in the fact that one group has a powerful counteracting force in a strong and long-established Christian Church, while the other has no such coun- teracting force. Indiscriminate condemnation of non- Christian peoples is therefore unjust. We send missionaries to them, not as saints to sinners or as superiors to inferiors, but as men to their fellow men who share our common need of divine help. "For right judgment of any man," said Carlyle, "it is useful, nay essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad." The bad qualities are due to sin, and sin, like smallpox, is a world disease. Those who have learned to prevent its ravages are under at least as heavy a moral obligation to disseminate the remedy as physicians were to disseminate the knowl- edge of vaccination and treatment. Crushing Toil and Wretchedness. The pathos of life in non-Christian lands is great. The prevailing wretchedness appalls an American who goes back into the unmodified conditions of the interior or even into the old proud Chinese city of Shanghai. As I jour- 20 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS neyed through vast throngs, climbed hilltops, and looked out upon the innumerable villages which thickly dotted the plains as far as the eye could reach, as I saw the unrelieved pain, the crushing poverty, and the abject fear of evil spirits, I felt that in China is seen in literal truth "The Man with the Hoe." "Bowed by the weight of centuries, he leans Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground, The emptiness of ages in his face, And on his back the burden of the world." "In certain occupations in China men are literally killing themselves by their exertions. The term of a chair-bearer is eight years, or a ricksha runner four years; for the rest of his life he is an invalid. A 1 physician in Fukien, who had examined some scores of carrying-coolies, told me she found but two who were free from the heart trouble caused by burden-bearing. In Canton even the careless eye marks in the porters that throng the streets the plain signs of overstrain; faces pale and haggard, with the drawn and flat look of utter exhaustion; eyes pain-pinched, or astare and seeing only with supreme effort : jaw sagging and mouth open from weariness. The dog-trot, the whis- tling breath, the clenched teeth, the streaming face of those under a burden of one or two hundredweight that must be borne are as eloquent of ebbing life as a jetting artery. In a few years, the face becomes a wrinkled, pain-stiffened mask, the veins of the upper leg stand out like great cords, a frightful net of varicose veins blemishes the calf, lumps appear at the THE PEOPLES 21 back of the neck or down the spine, and the shoulders are covered with thick pads of callous under a livid skin." x Compassionate View. These people are not a dis- tinct species, but human beings meeting our common temptations, bearing our common burdens, needing our common knowledge of God in Christ, and forming the material out of which divine grace is fashioning a regenerated Church. Let us view them in the spirit of Catherine of Sienna, who "asked and received of God the gift of seeing the possible loveliness of hu- manity even in its ruins the statue in the marble." We shall be helped in doing this if we consider the attitude of Jesus toward men. He was profoundly impressed by the pathos of human life. He knew its joys and could rejoice with people in their happier hours, as he did at the marriage in Cana of Galilee; but he felt the deep undertone of human life its poverty, its anxiety, its sickness, and its yearning for something better. Matthew says that when the Son of man "saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion." Compassion! compatio, literally to suffer with an- other; so that we might freely translate: When he saw the weary, heavy-laden multitudes, he was so deeply moved that he suffered with them, "because they were distressed and scattered as sheep not having a shepherd." Another rendering conveys the idea that the sheep had wandered away from the fold, had J E. A. Ross, The Changing Chinese, 84, 85. 22 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS been attacked by wolves until they were torn and bleeding, and that there was no shepherd to defend them. 1 A vivid picture this of the non-Christian world; men, women, and children wandering in a wilderness of sin and sorrow, groping blindly in pain and uncertainty, exposed to grievous temptations which may well be personified by wolves. It is a torn and bleeding humanity. And as Jesus sees, he "suffers." If he charged his disciples to go with tender ministries to the comparatively small number of suf- fering people whom they knew, how much more solemnly imperative is his summons to us to minister in his name to the far vaster hosts that are now accessible? Many of them are waiting in anxious expectation for a message of deliverance, and we shall see, as we proceed with this book, how they receive the good tidings of the gospel with eagerness of heart and great joy. In the noble words of Whittier: "Give human nature reverence for the sake Of One who bore it, making it divine With the ineffable tenderness of God; Let common need, the brotherhood of prayer, The heirship of an unknown destiny, The unsolved mystery round about us, make A man more precious than the gold of Ophir." * 'Matt. ix. 36. * "Among the Hills." II FOUNDING THE CHURCHES Founding the Church. The main object of the for- eign missionary enterprise is to establish the Church 1 in each non-Christian land. At this point or in this J The term church is used rather indiscriminately, in popular usage, for a religious service, a dedicated building, a congrega- tion, a denomination, a body sacramentally defined, and the whole number of believers in a given country or in the world. This book is not intended to be a treatise on controverted points of church organization, but a practical study of believers in non-Christian lands who have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord and who have banded themselves together for the worship of God, for observance of the sacraments, for mutual helpfulness, and for the outreaching work of the Church in the world. Such an applka- tion of the word is not scientifically adequate nor ecclesiastically satisfactory, but it may serve our present need. We are to consider young Churches that have not had time to assume permanent form, and that have been established by missionaries of many different communions amid conditions which compelled the adoption of some temporary methods. We must use the term Church somewhat loosely as indicating the various forms in which the body of Christ is beginning to manifest itself in the non-Christian world, however imperfectly constituted they may be at this time. Further reference to the subject is made in chapter XVII of the author's volume entitled Unity and Mis- sions. If the reader wishes to look up the Bible use of the word, he will find a variety of references, such as : "the ecclesia" or the "called out" (Matt. xvi. 18), the "flock" (John x. 16; Acts xx. 28; I Peter v. 2), "the branch" (John xv. 5), "the household of the faith" and "of God" (Gal. vi. 10; Eph. ii. 19, 20), "a spiritual house" (i Peter ii. 5), "God's building" (i Cor. iii. 9-11), 23 24 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS respect foreign missionary work differs from the work of the churches at home. Our task is to give the gospel to every man, woman, and child in our own country. As new generations are continually coming on, as con- verts are to be trained for Christian life and service, and as many applications of Christianity to society are involved, the work of the Church at home will never be completed. In the foreign field, it is our task to found the Church, and then to induce it to assume those duties for the further evangelization of the population that we have assumed for our own people. Christians in Canada and the United States must support their own ministers, build every church edifice, erect and equip every school and hospital, conduct every form of allied service for the poor, dependent, and defective classes, and carry through every social reform. It would be impossible for us to do this for the billion people of the non-Christian world, and the foreign missionary enter- prise does not contemplate such an undertaking. We are to start the Church, show it how to do its work, and turn over responsibility to it as fast as it is able to receive it. This ultimate aim should be kept steadily in view and should influence all missionary methods and activities. Otherwise, exceptional cases may drift us into policies which will harm rather than help. If the Church is not established, the toil of the missionary will result only in detached individuals who will not ''the bride" (Rev. xxi. 9), "the body" of Christ (Col. i. 18, 24; Eph. i. 22, 23), "the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (i Tim. iii. 15), etc. FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 25 attain maturity of faith and character and who will neither perpetuate themselves nor exert decisive in- fluence upon the world. No nation will ever become Christian until it has a firmly established Church of its own. "God's great agent for the spread of his king- dom is the Church. In every land he operates through the Church, and missions exist distinctly for the Church. They have both their source and their aim in that. They are the reproductive faculty of the parent Church, the constituting agency of the infant Church. Every Church should work out into a mission; every mission should work out into a Church." * We shall discuss in a later chapter the implications of this prin- ciple. The conditions amid which the Church had to be founded in the mission field must be borne in mind if we are rightly to estimate the magnitude of the under- taking. These conditions were even more difficult than those which confronted St. Paul in the first century of the Christian era. Contrast with Paul. Some critics of modern mis- sions are fond of comparing the modern missionary with St. Paul. They imagine that something is wrong because he appears to be less successful. Such critics overlook the fact that St. Paul was not a foreign mis- sionary at all, as that term is now used. By birth, by language, by citizenship, by ways of thinking, and by manners and customs, Paul was of the same nation as the people to whom he preached. It is true that he was 'Edward A. Lawrence, Modern Missions in the East, 31. 26 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS a Jew whose chief ministry was to Gentiles ; but Judea was then an integral part of the Roman Empire, and Paul openly proclaimed that he was a Roman citizen. 1 The population of the United States is a conglomerate of Anglo-Saxons, Germans, Scandinavians, Italians, and various other nationalities; but would any one contend that Theodore Roosevelt is not an American because his ancestry was Dutch, or that Francis L. Patton is foreign to a New York congregation because he was born in Bermuda and has never been naturalized in the United States? Paul was a Roman citizen preaching to the peoples of his own country. In other words, from the view-point of our missionary termi- nology, .he was a native minister rather than a foreign missionary. Unlike the modern missionary, he did not go to the people of his generation as an alien. He did not have to spend years in learning their language or to struggle all through his ministry with difficulties of accent and idiom. His influence was not crippled by inability to understand the view-point of his hear- ers. He knew them, not as an American knows Asiatics, but as an Asiatic knows Asiatics. Nor was Paul unable to live on the scale of the people of the country in which he worked; wherever he went he could live as a native and preach without salary because he was in his own country and able to support himself by working at his trade as a tent-maker. In all of these particulars, the twentieth century mis- sionary is seriously handicapped in ways from which J Acts xxii. 27. FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 27 Paul was either wholly or largely free. The white man in Asia is an alien, an exotic, transplanted there at great expense, maintained with difficulty, obliged to have many things that the native minister does not require, forced to economize on a salary of $1,200, where a native clergyman lires comfortably on $150, and living, thinking, and speaking on a plane so widely different from that of the people that the chasm be- tween them can be seldom bridged. The contention that Paul found a prepared people among the Jews cannot indeed be pressed very far, for most of the Jews rejected his teachings and the Gentile races were substantially in the same moral and intellectual state as the Asiatics of to-day. Making all due allowance for this, however, the general fact remains that the Old Testament teaching of one true God and the coming of a Messiah had been carried by the Jews of the dispersion to every part of the known world, and that the synagogue offered a convenient place for the proclamation of the fulfilment of proph- ecy. Moreover, in the average city that Paul visited, he found one or more devout souls who were eagerly waiting for "the consolation of Israel." The Acts of the Apostles graphically describes how Paul availed himself of this foundation work and what a good start- ing-point it gave him. But what a dull incomprehen- sion of the unity and personality of God the modern missionary met, what perverted preemption of the Mes- sianic idea he encountered in Buddha and Confucius and Mohammed, and what weary years he had to spend 28 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS before he could effect in even a few minds a lodgment of those truths which lay ready to Paul's hand ! Many a missionary whose .spirituality and devotion were be- yond question toiled for anxious years before he suc- ceeded in bringing even one Chinese to the point where Paul found a Lydia, a Dionysius, and the men of Bercea who "received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the scriptures daily whether these things were so." Missionaries were endeavoring to communicate totally new ideas to peoples who had been made sodden and apathetic by an inheritance of centuries of the rankest heathenism. It is difficult for us who were born and bred in a Christian land and who have been familiar with the gospel from our in- fancy to understand how hard it is for the Oriental mind to grasp the new conceptions which Christianity inculcates. We need to remember that our own an- cestors were slow in grasping them, and that more than one or two centuries passed before Christianity was clearly understood even by the Anglo-Saxons. It is not surprising, therefore, that the superstition-clouded Asiatic listened apathetically and deemed the mission- ary "a setter forth of strange gods." It is clear that Paul had advantages in approaching the men of Corinth and Athens that are not enjoyed by a Pennsylvanian who attempts to approach the Hindus of Benares or the Chinese of Peking. The modern missionary had no such advantage, but had to begin among a people who were not only totally ignorant of the true God but who, in many places, appeared to be FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 29 quite unable to conceive of a Supreme Being in terms of personality. The notion of one God with attributes of holiness, justice, and mercy, lovingly interested in the individual man however humble, was utterly foreign to the Japanese, the Chinese, and the East Indians. Some of them indeed -had a vague concep- tion of a Supreme Being, but it was so vague and shad- owy that they did not recognize its relationship to their daily lives. The lower classes thought of a supreme power in terms of innumerable demons, usually malig- nant in character and besetting man at every turn with evil intent. It is not surprising, therefore, that when the mis- sionaries spoke of God in the Christian sense, the people gave them stolid and uncomprehending attention. Curiosity to see the stranger with his peculiar dress and color often drew a wondering crowd. Sometimes men would gather about a missionary as the men of Athens gathered about St. Paul and say in effect : "Thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean." l But when the message was explained, the result was apt to be even more discouraging than in the case of Paul, for, while many would contemptuously speak of the missionary as "this babbler," seldom was the mission- ary gladdened because "certain men clave unto him, and believed." Slowly and laboriously the seed had to be -sown. Even yet, Christ is unknown to a large part of the J Acts xvii. 20. 30 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS non-Christian world and most of those who have heard of him know him only in such a general way as Amer- icans have heard of Mencius or Zoroaster, without any real understanding of his character and mission. What little they do know of him as a historical per- sonage is beclouded and distorted by the hostile pre- sumptions of age-old prejudices, superstitions, and spir- itual apathies. In such circumstances, to make Christ intelligently known is apt to be a long and perhaps a wearisome effort. The first missionaries in India and China toiled seven years before their hearts were glad- dened by a single convert. Fifteen laborious years passed in South Africa before the first Zulu accepted Christ, and twenty years in Mongolia before visible results appeared. After the non-Christian mind once fairly grasps the new truth, progress usually becomes more rapid ; but at first and sometimes for long periods it is apt to be painfully slow. The missionary and the Church that supports him often have need of patience. Lines of Work. Varying conditions influence the form of work that is given prominence in a particular field. The missionary usually began with evangelistic work, freely using with it tracts and Bible portions, and developing schools and hospitals as auxiliaries as rapidly as possible. In fields where conditions rendered this method impracticable, the missionary began with medical or educational work. However fiercely the people might oppose public preaching, they might be willing to send their children to a school and their sick to a hospital. The missionary made no compromise, FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 31 for he caused it to be understood that pupils and pa- tients would hear of Christ. But desire for education or healing was so strong that in many lands medical and educational work gained a foothold for Christ. Prejudices were softened, sympathies won, and avenues of approach opened to relatives and friends. Personal work with individuals gradually created conditions which rendered possible the assembling of little groups of people in private houses for religious instruction; and at last the time came when the missionary could erect a chapel and hold public services. 1 Several Pioneer Heroes. The story of begin- nings is a fascinating one. The lives of such pioneer workers as Martyn in Persia, Morrison in China, Carey and Duff in India, Judson in Burma, Tyler in South Africa, Gilmour in Mongolia, Hepburn and. Verbeck in Japan, Livingstone in Africa, Paton in the South Sea Islands, McGilvary in Siam, and others that might be mentioned are readily accessible and vividly describe the early days of toil and hardship and danger. In reading such accounts, one's attention is naturally concentrated on the missionary, and he is deeply stirred as he reads of the perils that had to be undergone. Think of Judson and Price lying for a year and seven months in a foul Burmese prison, chained so that they could move only with difficulty, breathing hot, fetid air, herded with native criminals 'For a description of the missionary at work, compare Chapter V of the author's volume, The Why and How of Foreign Missions. 32 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS of the lowest class, and without food except as Mrs. Judson, long after her money was exhausted, begged it for them like a mendicant from house to house, adopting native dress to lessen the probability of insult. But while such experiences are worthy of all the sympathy that they have received, how little thought is given to the first native Christians, among whom such sufferings were far more common than among mission- aries. Receptive Peoples The readiness with which non-Christian peoples re- ceived the gospel, and the rates of growth, were natu- rally affected by the various conditions which pre- vailed and particularly by the characteristics of the people. Speaking broadly and with due allowance for exceptions, the simpler peoples, many of whom are animistic, like those in Africa and the South Sea Islands, have responded with comparative eagerness to the gospel message. Lacking a strong national organ- ization, destitute of political power, accustomed for cen- turies to the domination of aliens, and looking up to them as superior beings, they accept more readily the leadership of the missionary. Their low stage of civil- ization made the knowledge of the foreigner more wonderful to them. Their temperaments also are apt to be childlike in type, capable of swift reversals of feeling, readily excited by what they do not understand, and prone to surges of emotion. Their native religions are not firmly entrenched in established cults and powerful hierarchies. Poverty and oppression, too, FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 33 have often begotten a longing for relief and a hope that the missionary can secure it for them. Such conditions create a state of receptivity. Comparative Conditions. The soil of a country like Korea as compared with China was like a western prairie ready for the plow of the husbandman. It is not surprising that, when such people once turn to Christ, they come rapidly. This rapidity, while occa- sion for great thanksgiving, is not without its dangers, for easily roused feelings sometimes subside almost as quickly as they rise. Very touching, however, are the wistfulness and sincerity with which the gospel is sometimes received. Two missionaries went to a village in which the gos- pel had never been preached. It was noised abroad that they had come, and practically the whole population gathered. The interest was so great that the meeting continued until a late hour. Finally, the missionaries- pleaded weariness after a hard day's journey, and were shown into an adjoining room for the night. But the people did not go away, and the murmuring of their voices kept the missionaries from sleeping. Along about two o'clock, one of them went back and said almost impatiently: "Why don't you go home and go to sleep? It is very late and we are tired." The head man of the village answered: "How can we sleep? You have told us that the Supreme Power is not an evil spirit trying to injure us but a loving God who gave his only begotten Son for our salvation, and that if we will turn from our sins and trust in him, we 34 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS shall have deliverance from our fears, guidance in our perplexities, comfort in our sorrows, and a life forever with him. How can we sleep after a message like this?" How could they indeed? And the mission- aries, forgetting their weariness, sat down by those poor people and communed with them until the morn- ing dawned. Beginnings in Korea. And yet, in even such a country, the pioneer missionaries did not have by any means an easy task. While the Rev. Horace G. Underwood baptized the first Korean believer within two years after his arrival and organized the first church within three years, only seven persons gathered about the Lord's table at the initial admin- istration in his house, Christmas day, 1887. After ten years of patient labor by the missionaries of several denominations, there were still only 141 baptized Chris- tians in all Korea. Beginnings in Pingyang, now so famous, gave little promise of the future success. When the Rev. Samuel A. Moffett arrived in 1889 he found a few inquirers and a native evangelist who had been sent from Seoul. But he also found a city notori- ous for drunkenness and vice. The first Christians shone like stars amid that murk of sin. One of them was a man by the name of Kim Chung-sik. Brought by a friend to a missionary in Seoul, he was converted, and in 1894 was sent to Pingyang to aid Dr. M. J. Hall, the Methodist missionary there. But by this time opposition had become violent. Persecution broke out, and Kim was one of the first to be arrested. He FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 35 and other Christians were cruelly beaten, placed in stocks, and warned that if they did not give up the for- eigner's religion they would be punished still more severely. The others, in their pain and terror, yielded ; but Kim remained steadfast. He was taken to the death cell, but though believing that he would be de- capitated if he did not recant, he exclaimed in a spirit worthy of the ancient martyrs : "God loves me and has forgiven my sins. How can I curse him? The foreigner is kind and pays me honest wages; why should I forsake him?" Fortunately, orders came from Seoul to release the prisoners, and the mangled and half-dead Kim went out with the others. His fidelity made a profound impression upon the city, and people began to say that there must be something real in the new religion when a man was willing to suffer so much for it. Response of the Karens. The response of the Karens of Burma was a notable one. They are de- scendants of a people who originally migrated into Burma from the western part of China, forced out by the ever-advancing Chinese. They are a simple-minded people who, before the arrival of the British, suffered much from the cruelty of their strong neighbors. There has been much speculation as to where and how the Karens obtained some of the traditions which they jealously guard and hand down from generation to generation. This folk-lore apparently points to an earlier knowledge of the Biblical narrative, for it in- cludes tales of the creation of woman from the rib of 36 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS the first man, of the sin of the first man and the first woman, of the wrath of God on account of transgres- sion, and of his promise to send deliverance and happi- ness through "white foreigners" who were to come "in ships from the west." These traditions afforded a remarkable preparation for the gospel message. The proclamation of Christ seemed to these poor, oppressed people the fulfilment of their long-cherished dreams. It is not surprising, therefore, that mission work made swift progress among the Karens. The first convert, Ko Tha Byu, baptized by Dr. Boardman at Tavoy, May 16, 1828, proved the first-fruits of a mighty harvest. He was a remarkable man. He had already attained middle life; he had no education; and appeared to have rather a dull mind. When roused, however, his temper was furious. He was notorious for robbery and violence, no less than thirty murders having been ascribed to him. The Holy Spirit wrought an extraordinary change in this man. He immediately gave himself wholly to Christian work and soon wielded such re- markable power over his people that he became known as the Karen Apostle. A British official, who knew the Karens well, writes : "Forty years ago they were a despised, grovel- ing, timid people, held in contempt by the Burmans. At the sound of the gospel message they sprang to their feet, as a sleeping army springs to the bugle-call. The dream of hundreds of years was fulfilled ; the God who had cast them off for their unfaithfulness had come FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 37 back to them; they felt themselves a nation once more." Some Animistic Barriers. We would not give the impression that there are no obstacles to be encoun- tered among animistic peoples. Conversion involves too great a change to come easily anywhere. Fetish worship and the superstition which supports it are formidable deterrents. Indolence, superstition, dirt, the apathy of despair, the oppression of the literary class, and the demoralizing example of officials heavily reenforce the ever-present influences of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The human heart is not any more prone to spiritual things in Korea and Africa than elsewhere. Nevertheless, these simpler peoples have proved more responsive to the gospel than most peoples of other types. Larger Cults Hard to Move Buddhist and Hindu peoples, like the Burmans, Siamese, East Indians, Chinese, and Japanese, present greater obstacles, especially where caste is involved as in India, Confucian ancestral worship as in China, and Shintoism in Japan. If animistic peoples may be com- pared to a western prairie, these peoples may be com- pared to the wilderness which the first American set- tlers found in New England, where weary years had to be spent in clearing the forest, uprooting stumps, and blasting out stones. Religion in most of these lands is represented by powerful establishments with numer- ous and costly temples, countless shrines, elaborate cere- 38 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS monials, innumerable priests. Characteristics, too, differ widely from those of animistic peoples. They are conservative to the last degree, devoted to ancient customs of iron rigidity. Chinese Immobility. The Chinese, vast in numbers, proud of their enormous area, phlegmatic in tempera- ment, materialistic in thought, strong in their dislike of everything foreign, were stiff soil for the planting of the gospel seed. Hindu Caste and Mysticism. The Hindus of India unite to equal pride of race a caste system which hardens superstitious customs into iron molds. Their temperament, too, the reverse of the Chinese, is mys- tical, speculative, and philosophic, fond of endless dis- putations and evaporating concrete ideas into clouds of pantheistic mysticism. The devoted Henry Martyn, after heroic labors, almost despairingly exclaimed: "If I should live to see one Brahman genuinely converted to Christianity, it would be to me as great a miracle as if a man should rise from the dead." Japanese Nationalism. The Japanese have the most intense national feeling of all non-Christian peoples, sustaining a feudal organization of government and society until the latter part of the nineteenth century, and developing a national solidarity which involves an almost complete submergence of the individual in the mass of the nation. When the first Protestant church was organized with eleven members in Yoko- hama, March 10, 1872, public notice boards were still standing that contained the inscriptions : "The evil sect FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 39 called Christian is strictly prohibited." "So long as the sun shall continue to warm the earth let no Chris- tian be so bold as to come to Japan." Christ was branded as the Christian criminal God, and Dr. Griffis says that mothers stilled their crying children by threat- ening them with the name of Jesus. As late as 1884 a letter was sent from Kyoto addressed "To the four American barbarians Davis, Gordon, Learned, and Greene." In it were these sentences : "You have come from a far country, with the evil religion of Christ and as slaves of the robber Neesima. . . . Those who brought Buddhism to Japan in ancient times were killed. But we do not wish to defile the soil of Japan with your abominable blood. Hence take your fam- ilies and go quickly." Burmese Buddhism. The Burmese combination of pride and indolence has been referred to on a preced- ing page. The Anglican Bishop of Calcutta, after a visit to Burma in 1870, wrote: "The difficulties of Buddhism are extreme. Every one, lay and clerical, speaks of them as even greater than those of Hindu- ism and Mohammedanism." Siamese Indolence and Pride. In Siam, as in Burma and the Philippines, tropical climate and prolific nature reduce wants and beget indolence. People need little clothing and no fuel except for cooking. Fish teem in the innumerable streams. The banana, coconut, betel, mango, pomelo, orange, jack- fruit, and lime grow with little or no cultivation, and the simplest til- lage brings abundant yields of rice and vegetables. 40 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS As for a house, one can be built of the ever-present bamboo and thatched with attap 1 in a couple of days and at practically no cost. The population is so small for the area of the country that there is no such strug- gle for existence as that which developed the vigor of the Pilgrim Fathers on the rocky hillsides of New England, or of the Chinese on those densely populated plains where the individual must toil alertly and inces- santly or starve. The bitter poverty of China and Korea is unknown in Siam. The typical Siamese is sleek and well-fed, and he wears more gold and silver ornaments than any other native of Asia, even naked urchins playing in the streets being adorned with solid silver anklets, wristlets, and necklaces. This com- fortable, listless, self-satisfied people, proud too of their orthodox Buddhism, received the missionary with a good-natured indifference which bent under the touch like rubber, only to spring back into place a moment later. A Lao Convert. Beginnings among the Lao of northern Siam were somewhat easier. The scholarly missionaries foretold the eclipse of August, 1868, a week before it occurred. The natives were profoundly impressed, and one of the most influential Buddhist scholars of Chieng-mai, Nan Inta, was converted. He became a Christian of great beauty and strength of character and labored indefatigably for Christ until his death in 1882. nipa-palm, the large leaves of which are used for thatching. FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 41 A Buddhist Legend. A beautiful legend had pre- pared the way for the gospel among the people of Siam. This legend taught that myriads of centuries ago, a white crow laid five eggs, each of which was taken by a foster-mother and hatched. After a time they entered the upper world, each as a lotus. One by one they were to bud and be born on earth as Buddhas for the adoration of men. Four of these sons have already appeared, but the fourth stage now nears its close, and when it ends, the fifth and last Buddha will appear. He is to unite all the glories and powers of his brothers and is to reign 84,000 years. In his reign all men will become pure as milk, all who have white hearts will be born or reborn, and when he enters Nirvana they too shall enter with him. And so in many parts of Siam, the missionaries find an expectation of the speedy com- ing of One who will incarnate the highest development of a noble faith. Whom, therefore, they unconsciously expect, the missionaries declare unto them, not in any spirit of sectarianism or nationality, but as the One for whom the world waits and through whom only man may enter into communion with God. Martyrs among Pioneer Converts. Although there were local advantages of one kind or another, the gen- eral fact remains that most of the early Christians in all of these lands had a hard time. Little or no real sacrifice is required to confess Christ in America, where Christianity is popular. But it costs in many a mission field. Two of the earliest converts among the Laos of northern Siam, Noi Su Ya and Nan Chai, 42 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS were arrested, and, on being brought before the author- ities, confessed that they had forsaken Buddhism. "The death-yoke was then put around their necks, and a small rope was passed through the holes in their ears used for earrings by all natives and carried tightly over the beam of a house. After being thus tortured all night, they were again examined in the morning; but, with a fortitude worthy of the noblest traditions of the early Church, they steadfastly re- fused to deny their Savior even in the very presence of death. They prepared for execution by a reverent prayer, closing with the words, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' They were then taken to the jungle and clubbed to death. One of them, not dying quickly enough to suit the executioners, was thrust through the heart with a spear." A Trying "Christian" Group. Another group of peoples comprises the modern descendants of ancient world-empires, such as the Persians, Egyptians, and Syrians, whose faces are toward a dead antiquity and who have all the pride of their illustrious ancestors without the robust qualities which made them great. A peculiar difficulty among these peoples is encoun- tered in nominal forms of Christianity which long since lost all their vitality and which exist to-day more as tribal cults than as religious systems. The few rights which Moslem law concedes to non-Moslems are granted only to organized bodies. These sects are therefore semipolitical organizations. There is a motley variety of them : Armenians, Nestorians, FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 43 Druses, Nusairiyeh, Jacobites, Maronites, Copts, Syriacs, and others. As most of them call themselves Christians, and as their Christianity is a clan symbol rather than a spiritual faith, they have associated the name of Christian in the Mohammedan mind with in- feriority, turbulence, and mendacity. Some of these sects are more intelligent and progressive than the Moslem population about them, and one may occasion- ally find among them remarkably strong and attrac- tive men and women. The Armenians in particular include some of the ablest men in Turkey and Persia. But, taking the nominally Christian sects as a whole, their reputation is so bad that our missionaries and the new converts were forced to call themselves "Protes- tants" to distinguish themselves from the "Christians." One of the first things that the traveler has to learn is that a "Christian" in that part of the world is not a Christian. A man belongs to a sect because he was born in it, and his religion is simply the badge and inheritance of his clan. The Shame of Jerusalem. In Palestine, the conduct of these alleged followers of the true God is the scandal of Christendom. The Holy City impressed me as the most unholy place I saw in two journeys around the world. Of course no one can now positively identify the exact places which are associated with the most hallowed events of our religion. But greedy priests profess to know them, and have erected churches and shrines which are annually visited by myriads of the superstitious. In the Church of the Nativity at Beth- 44 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS lehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at Jeru- salem no one sect is allowed a monopoly, but each has been assigned its own portion, so that in the same building are chapels set aside for Greeks, Armenians, Jacobites, Copts, and Syriacs. But the visitor is startled to find Moslem soldiers with loaded rifles and fixed bayonets constantly on guard in these churches to prevent the "Christians" from cutting one another's throats. Only a short time before my visit, two men were killed in a brawl in the very grotto where Christ is said to have been born. In Jerusalem the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a strange mixture of gorgeous- ness and squalor. An Armenian service was in prog- ress during my visit. The procession could not have been matched anywhere outside of a circus. As the Patriarch, whose miter blazed with precious stones and whose robes we're literally cloth of gold, was about to enter the sepulcher where Christ's body is alleged to have lain, a deacon fumbled in removing his miter, and the Patriarch, unimpressed by the solemnity of the place and time, snarled at him with the ferocity of a wolf and in a voice heard by the whole congregation, while fifty Turkish soldiers scattered about the build- ing tightened their grip upon their rifles in expecta- tion of a free fight. A melee between the Greek and Latin monks had actually occurred shortly before, and as a result thirty-four Greeks, including twelve priests, had been sentenced to imprisonment. An American Jewish rabbi sarcastically remarked : "Jesus must have left Jerusalem long ago." FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 45 Hard Moslem Field. Most difficult of all were be- ginnings among Mohammedans, 217,000,000 in num- ber, scattered over many widely separated countries, existing under different governments sometimes in- dependent as in Turkey, sometimes nominally independ- ent as in Persia, and sometimes subordinate as in Egypt. Rent into sects, mutually hostile, they presented toward the non-Mohammedan world a comparatively solid front of implacable opposition. For a long time after missionaries arrived, preaching to Mohammedans was forbidden and evangelism had to be confined to the nominally Christian sects. It is not true, as some have asserted, that no Moslems have been converted; but every student of missions knows that unusual diffi- culties attended the effort to give the gospel to the fol- lowers of Islam. A girl's confession of Christ in a Syrian boarding-school caused a riot in which phys- ical violence was averted only by extraordinary tact and courage on the part of the missionaries. Indeed, according to Moslem law a Christian who had never been a Mohammedan was allowed to live in a Moslem land only on the following conditions : "He shall not found churches, monasteries, or religious establish- ments, nor raise his house so high as, or higher than, the houses of the Moslems; nor ride horses, but only mules and donkeys, and these even after the manner of women; draw back and give way to Moslems in the thoroughfare ; wear clothes different from those of the Moslems, or some sign to distinguish him from them ; have a distinctive mark when in the public baths, 46 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS namely, iron, tin, or copper bands ; abstain from drink- ing wine and eating pork ; not celebrate religious feasts publicly; not sing or read aloud the text of the Old and New Testaments, and not ring bells; not speak scornfully of God or Mohammed; not seek to intro- duce innovations into the state nor to convert Moslems ; not enter mosques without permission; not set foot upon the territory of Mekka nor dwell in the Hadjas district" The Rev. Henry H. Jessup wrote that shortly after the Rev. Joseph Wolff arrived in Tripoli, Syria, he said one morning to his interpreter: "Abdullah, I am going to the bazaars to preach to the Moslems." Ab- dullah replied : "I beg you not to go, for they will mob us." The Doctor insisted, and Abdullah himself after- wards described the trip to Dr. Jessup: "We walked around to the bazaars and Dr. Wolff mounted a stone platform and said : 'My friends, I have come to preach to you the gospel of Christ. He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be condemned.' I translated as follows : 'The Khowaja says that he loves you very much, and that the English and the Moslems are all alike.' Whereupon the Moslems ap- plauded, and Wolff thought he had made a deep impres- sion." Dr. Jessup exclaimed : "How could you deceive a good man in that way ?" He replied : "What could I do? Had I translated literally we should have been killed; and Wolff may have been prepared to die but I was not." FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 47 But "in spite of all obstacles," writes the Rev. F. E. Hoskins, "almost every day the schools were open. Al- most every hour the Bible was in the hands of the leaders and listeners. The missionaries journeyed up and down the field in winter and summer, in heat and cold, in sunshine and storm. Thousands were spoken to by the way, and tens of thousands were taught in their own homes. Often, as I look from the heights of Lebanon over that beautiful plain, I trace in fancy the shining threads of those consecrated lives stretch- ing from mountain to mountain, leading from village to village, from home to home, crossing and recross- ing, interlacing and intertwining, until the earth is covered as with a garment of light and glory. Whether men heeded or rejected, not a word spoken, not a kindly act, not a prayer, not a tear, was lost or for- gotten before God." The Water of Life. The spiritual condition of such Moslem lands as Syria, Palestine, Persia, and Arabia is illustrated by the physical condition. The natural rainfall is so .small and unevenly distributed that water must be sought and laboriously conveyed to the places where it is most needed. Formerly, wells, springs, ditches, and aqueducts were numerous and the soil produced abundantly. The Bible shows how large a part water had in the thought of the people. As many as 646 times the inspired writers use the word "water," either literally or figuratively, "brooks" 53 times, "springs" 29 times, "streams" 24 times, "rivers" 145 times, "fountains" 49 times, "wells" 61 times, "rain" 48 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS 108 times, "cisterns" 5 times. Altogether these words occur 1,224 times in the Bible. But to-day, many of the watercourses are dried up. The ancient wells are choked with the accumulations of centuries of neglect. Fountains which once poured forth refreshing streams are stagnant pools which proffer disease and death rather than life. The modern traveler sees barren valleys and stony hillsides baking under the burning eastern sun. The general appear- ance is arid, save at a few places and at certain seasons. The country is literally "a dry and weary land, where no water is." And is not this a picture of the spiritual condition? Here appeared One who said : "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life." But he who said that was crucified. His disciples were persecuted and scattered abroad. Wars, famines, and pestilences spread over the land. Men ceased to drink of the water of life and turned to the broken cisterns of formalism and sin. And so the fountain ceased to flow and the region became "as a garden that hath no water." But in these latter days, men and women of God are seeking to reopen the long closed fountains and to cause the living waters again to flow. The task is painful and laborious. In some places there has been no apparent result, and out-stations, which were begun in hope, have had to be abandoned. In others, FOUNDING THE CHURCHES 49 spiritual success is within reach, but the missionaries have not been so equipped that they could actually secure a vital gospel response, and these stations and out-stations are not being utilized. In still others, spiritual success has come nearer, so that the life-giv- ing water is actually coming forth to refresh and fruc- tify. We need not be discouraged because some efforts appear to have accomplished little. We may rather be cheered by the knowledge that the water of life is really flowing once more at whatever cost of toil and pain. But let the people of God in the home land join with the missionaries across the sea in the constant and im- portunate prayer that the fountains of eternal life may soon more freely and abundantly pour forth their treasures. Call for Cooperation and Sympathy. Considera- tions of this kind should be more generally understood if the home churches are to give missionaries and native Christians intelligent cooperation and sympathy. The pioneer missionary went to a non-Christian world which was without the knowledge of God, selfish and brutal in its treatment of man, not realizing its own sin, ignorant of the great salvation brought by Christ, and facing a future in which no star of hope shone. Into this world the missionary of the cross carried the lofty Christian teachings of God the Sovereign and Father, of Jesus Christ the only Savior, of man our brother, of sin as the destroyer of the soul, of salvation freely offered to men, and of the eternal life of the soul with God. Imagine the amazement of the people, the incre- 50 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS dulity and opposition of some and the eager response of others. Precisely what is so vividly pictured in the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Acts took place when this message was proclaimed in a non-Christian land. "Some mocked; but others said, We will hear thee concerning this yet again. "But certain men . . . believed: . . . and a woman." Ill TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN The Way of the Cross Christ's Declarations. Some people imagine that the Christian life is a sort of escape ladder from trouble. Our Lord, however, gave plain warning that disciple- ship was beset with perils and difficulties. He did not appeal to love of ease but to the heroic spirit of struggle and self-sacrifice. He frankly told his apostles that his service would alienate friends and even parents; that his followers would be delivered up "unto tribulation," "hated of all the nations," and killed. 1 But he declared, nevertheless, that those who were not willing to take up the cross and follow him would not be worthy of him. 2 Moderate Testings in America. Even in America, where Christianity has a measure of popularity and even temporal advantage, the Christian life is not easy. Seme associations have to be changed. There are so- cial customs which a Christian cannot countenance. Business and professional men are often tempted to resort to questionable methods to gain success, and if they refuse to yield to the temptation, they are sorely tried by the competition of less scrupulous rivals. 'Matt, xxiv. 9. 2 Matt. x. 38. 52 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS There are, too, temptations in one's awn life which must be sternly fought by the Christian. Habits have to be broken; new view-points created. Mr. Moody said that he never had any serious trouble with himself until he became a follower of Christ; but that after that he had a great deal of trouble. More Serious Trials Abroad. These common temp- tations and difficulties are enormously increased for the convert from a non-Christian faith in Asia and Africa, while others still more formidable assail him. Their cumulative effect is so great that we ought to give unstinted sympathy and respect to our heroic fel- low Christians who, in such circumstances, have the faith and courage to witness a good confession for Jesus Christ. We need not devote time to those temp- tations and difficulties which characterize the Chris- tian everywhere; but it may help us to a better under- standing of the Church in the mission field if we con- sider some of those that are peculiar to Christians in non-Christian lands. A large volume would be required for adequate treatment of all of them; but here we may summarize them in ten classes. Ten Difficulties i. Opposition of Established Religious Systems. Religion in some form is universal. No tribe or na- tion has ever been found that has not had a religious belief of some kind. In countries like Korea and Africa this does not manifest itself in a strong external organization; but in most mission fields it does so TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 53 manifest itself. Mohammedanism, Hinduism, Bud- dhism, and Confucianism hold sway over large parts of the non-Christian world. They are represented by innumerable temples and shrines, by prescribed cere- monial observances, by countless priests, and by an identification with the government which makes relig- ion and patriotism synonymous terms. Variations in details might be pointed out in particular countries, but in a broad sense this characterization is applicable to most of Asia and Latin America The convert to Christianity immediately finds the whole power of the religious cult arrayed against him. Even though the priests care nothing about religion as such, and many of them do not, they, like the silversmiths of Ephesus, are quick to recognize that the new faith imperils their craft, and the convert finds himself, like Paul of old, in danger from those who profit by the worship of Diana l 2. Persistence of Pre-Christian Superstitions. This is a difficulty which has been little studied and is but partially understood. If the reader will apply this test to Christianity at home and to his own faith, he may find some uncomfortable illustrations even in America which is supposed to be many generations from pagan- ism. Recent events have given startling evidence of the survival of pre-Christian conceptions of the deity in western lands. How prone we are to call upon God to advance our particular interests even when they involve loss or disadvantage to others ! How prone as 'Acts xix. 24-41. 54 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS patriots to pray upon the assumption that Jehovah is a tribal deity the God of our country in such a pre- eminent sense that we can reasonably expect him to further our plans and to confound those of other na- tions! If this persistence of narrow ideas of God is still to be found among white nations which have known Christianity for centuries, one can imagine how much more serious it is likely to be among peoples that have recently emerged from polytheism. For example, India has had a religion rooted in pantheism for more than a thousand years. When an East Indian becomes a Christian, he does not and cannot instantly divest himself of his pantheism. He renounces all that he is conscious of having; but the pantheistic interpretation of the world, which is an inheritance from centuries of ancestral attitudes and to which he is born and bred, subconsciously affects his interpretation of Christian- ity. The Japanese have a type of patriotism, a national solidarity, which expresses itself in worship of the emperor as the incarnation of the life of the people. The notion of personality in a Supreme Being has small meaning to them apart from the august imperial per- sonage. When a Japanese becomes a follower of Christ, he accepts a new notion of the divine person- ality and of universal brotherhood. He is as loyal as ever to his emperor and nation, but his national char- acteristics naturally influence his Christianity. The type of religious faith and experience that is develop- TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 56 ing in Japan is quite distinct from that among the neighboring people of Chosen. 1 Africans are haunted from the cradle to the grave by fear of evil spirits. Every occurrence in nature is attributed to them. The thunder is the roar of a demon ; the lightning the flash of his angry eyes. Disease is due to a demon in the body. When one has been born and brought up among people to whom the fear of spirits is an ominously real thing, it is impossible for him to discard that fear the moment he becomes a Christian. If he recovers from illness, or if his family is untouched by an epidemic, he is tempted to believe that the Christian spirits are more powerful than the heathen spirits and that his adher- ence to Christianity will secure to him their protection and bring to him other material benefits. Low ideas of women are well-nigh universal in non- Christian lands. Almost everywhere and even in pro- gressive Japan immorality is not considered disgrace- ful, but is regarded at worst as a venial sin. The in- feriority of woman and her subjection to man are fundamental in the non-Christian view. Some peoples, the Burmans for example, give her greater freedom than others, and some, like the Chinese, honor her if she bears many sons ; but nowhere is woman the equal of man. In many lands, polygamy and concubinage are woven into the very warp and woof of society. How can a convert be expected to cast off such firmly fixed ideas on the day of his conversion ? 'Japan's official name for Korea. 56 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS If this thought is followed out, it will lead not only to a new appreciation of the difficulties of the native Christian, but to some rather disconcerting discov- eries in our own Christian life and thought. What means the double moral standard in the United States, the common disposition to condone in a man what is unforgivably condemned in a woman? It is simply the persistence of pagan ideas of the relationship of the sexes. I venture to believe that there will be Amer- ican readers of this book who are superstitious about seeing the moon over the left shoulder, and who would feel uncomfortable if they found themselves forming a party of thirteen at a table. Is there any young lady among them who would be willing to be married on Friday ? Persistence of pagan superstition ! * 3. Inherited Traditions and Social Customs. Cus- tom, powerful even in changing America, is still more powerful in conservative Europe and is of iron ri- gidity in non-Christian lands. Few American women dare to disregard the conventions of the class with which they wish to mingle. They know that exclusion would be the penalty. The sway of fashion is simply the sway of custom. Men are not exempt ; a man must dress as other men do. We accept all this as a matter of course. But ima- gine the situation of a new convert in India where fashion, social customs, the established usages of 1 Cf. on this whole subject, "Vestiges of Heathenism within the Church in the Mission Field," by Prof. Joh. Warneck, Inter- national Review of Missions, October, 1914. TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 67 people with whom he wishes to associate, are identified with beliefs and practises that a Christian cannot follow. Apply this thought to caste and the seclusion of women in zenanas, to foot-binding in China, and to a dozen other customs which will readily occur to one. A converted Brahman cannot keep caste; and yet if he breaks it, he is instantly ostracized. A Chinese woman with unbound feet could not marry and would be an object of ridicule and contempt. Natural feet are now becoming more common in cities where missionaries have long been stationed and the anti-foot-binding movement is growing; but in the greater part of China unbound feet are still evidence that one is not a lady. 4. Family Difficulties. There are family difficulties, too, as old as Christianity. Our Lord plainly said that he had "come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law," and that "a man's foes shall be they of his own household." x In America, we have passed the stage where serious trouble of this kind is common, although many pastors could point to exceptions. But on the mission field this difficulty is the rule. The supreme ambition of a Chinese is to have sons who will honor his ancestral tablet after his death. Imagine his consternation when he learns that his son has joined the Christians, who do not worship tablets of ancestors. Marriage in Asia is arranged by the parents, the young lady, or girl rather, for child-marriage is the rule, having no voice what- 'Matt. x. 35, 36. 58 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS ever in the matter and seldom or never seeing her hus- band until the marriage day. Consider what this means to a Christian girl who finds herself virtually sold to a dissolute man old enough to be her grand- father. Family spirit is intensely strong among most non-Christian peoples. Several generations often live together in one household and the elders are implicitly obeyed. A member of the family who becomes a Christian cuts himself off from the family life and awakens a storm of protest which in some cases finds expression in the fiercest persecution. 5. Conforming to New Standards of Life. The difficulties of adaptation to new standards of life are great. Reference has been made to purity. Another illustration might be found in truthfulness. Non- Christian peoples do not deem it wrong to lie and de- ceive. It is true that one may find excellent maxims on truth-telling in some of the sacred writings of Confucianism and Buddhism, but they have had no effect upon the life of the people. Deceit is regarded as a test of wit and skill. One is expected to deceive others if he can do so. If he is caught, he is laughed at, not because he lied but because he was too clumsy to do it without detection. Where the whole life and the entire relationship to others have been character- ized by untruth fulness, say to the age of twenty-five, is it easy for one converted at that age instantaneously to become truthful in word and act, and to adapt him- self smoothly to continued relations with untruthful TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 59 people? When a man has never permitted his wife to eat with him or recognized her right to do anything but to minister to his comfort or caprice, he is apt to find it hard, when converted, to accept her as an equal companion. Relationships which have been solidified by a lifetime and by inherited traditions of centuries back of his own life make it uphill work for him to change all the family attitudes. Sabbath observance is a problem which deeply perplexes almost every mis- sionary. People who have never been accustomed to regard one day in seven as sacred find peculiar diffi- culties in adapting themselves to the requirements of the fourth commandment. It is trying for a shop- keeper to close his doors on Sunday when his competi- tors keep theirs open. If an employee declines to work every seventh day, he loses his job. The missionary is sometimes greatly puzzled to know how far he should press some of his own stand- ards upon his converts. He wisely reflects that his in- terpretations of what Christianity requires are not in- fallible but that they have been formed by the peoples of the West. In the Massachusetts village of my boy- hood days it was deemed a monstrous sin to cook food or to black one's shoes on Sunday. The beans and brown bread were baked on Saturday, and Sunday was devoted to church attendance and to such pious reading as Fox's Book of Martyrs, and Doddridge's The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. To read a novel on that day was to imperil one's soul. A common incident of the evening was the spanking of boys who RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS had been restless during the long prayers of the minis- ter; and at least one of them thought that the future prospect was rather gloomy when he heard the hymn which feelingly declared that heaven is a place "Where congregations ne'er break up And Sabbaths have no end." In teaching religion in non-Christian lands we should be careful not to create artificial and mechanical tests of Christian conduct. Where an act is not in- herently wrong in itself but is a question of Christian expediency or Biblical interpretation, we should be slow to forbid it in converts. If we advise against it, we should be careful not to put it in the same category as stealing or untruthfulness. Many of us even in America are still prone to think that other Christians are grievously sinning if they do something that is contrary to our idea of what a follower of Christ ought to do. The tenth and eleventh chapters of the Book of Acts may be wisely studied in this connection. We may prudently remember that it was the Pharisees who insisted that their rules of conduct must be scrupu- lously kept and to whom our Lord sharply said : "Wo unto you Pharisees ! for ye tithe mint and rue and every herb, and pass over justice and the love of God" j 1 and of whom he said to his disciples : "They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders." 2 The example of the apostolic Church in dealing xi. 42. J Matt. xxiii. 4. TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 61 with the Gentile Christians in Antioch is significant. When certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren saying: "Except ye be circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye cannot be saved," Paul and Barnabas vigorously protested. Appeal was made "to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders," where Phari- sees insisted that the new converts must "keep the law of Moses." Peter, with characteristic energy, rejoined : "Why make ye trial of God, that ye should put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" James supported him by saying: "Wherefore my judgment is, that we trouble not them that from among the Gentiles turn to God" ; and the Council sensibly wrote to their brethren in Antioch : "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these neces- sary things." * All of which is very wholesome reading in like circumstances to-day. The line must be drawn some- where. Some things are clearly on the wrong side of it and must be rebuked. But others are so close to the line that liberty of judgment should be recognized in Christian charity. 6. Financial Difficulties. The first converts almost invariably suffered in business and financial ways. Tradesmen lost their customers; workmen their posi- tions ; farmers were unable to sell their products. The boycott was very familiar in fact to native Chris- tians long before the term came into use in Ireland 'Acts xv. 1-29. 62 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS and America. A non-Christian village would have no dealings with a neighbor who had broken immemorial customs, renounced the national religion, disobeyed his parents, and committed the monstrous impiety of profaning the village gods. Even the use of the vil- lage well was often denied him, and in countless ways he was made to suffer on account of his espousal of "the foreigner's religion." This becomes a serious matter to a convert who has a family dependent upon him and perhaps aged parents as well. 7. Educational and Official Disabilities. For a hundred years after the beginning of missionary work in China no Christian youth could attend a govern- ment school or hold an office, because worship of the tablet of Confucius was required of all students and officials. When Yuan Shih-kai, now President of China, was Governor of the Province of Shantung, he founded at Tsinan a university on western models, and showed his progressive spirit by inviting a foreign missionary, the Rev. Watson M. Hayes, to take the presidency. Dr. Hayes accepted, but soon resigned because he found that even Yuan Shi-kai was not pre- pared to relax the rule .regarding the worship of the tablet of Confucius. In Japan the path to all offices opens from the imperial universities. Young men are not admitted to these universities unless they have had their preparatory training in schools that are recog- nized by the government Department of Education. But until recently the government would not grant such recognition to a school which taught Christianity. TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 63 In Mohammedan lands, Christians are subjected to grievous civil disabilities. If a convert was a Moslem, he had to flee from the country, or face the risk of assassination, or be drafted into the army, sent to some distant place and never heard of again. If he was not a Moslem prior to his conversion, he was subjected to the trying exactions which were noted in a preceding chapter. A series of concessions known as "Capitulations" gave some relief from these exactions in the case of Christians who were organized into registered sects; but shortly after the European war broke out, in 1914, the Turkish government took advantage of the oppor- tunity to abrogate these capitulations. The European and American governments vigorously protested, but the war prevented them from enforcing their wishes. More liberal ideas are gradually making their way in Turkey, as we shall note elsewhere, and it is probable that the letter of Moslem law against Christians will not be strictly enforced in the future. But the lot of a Christian is not likely to be a comfortable one in the Turkish empire, especially if he was converted from Islam. In most mission fields, a Christian is deprived of advantages and opportunities that are open to non- Christians. Ambitious young men in America some- times hesitate to confess Christ because they fear that the requirements of the Christian life will hamper their efforts for advancement. One can imagine how seri- ous this difficulty is in a non-Christian land. 64 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS 8. Social Ostracism. The whole structure of society in a non-Christian community is pervaded, as we have seen, by the customs and superstitions of a non-Chris- tian faith. When religion is identified with family, community, and national life, renunciation of that re- ligion is considered disloyalty, disrespect to ancestors, and repudiation of all former relationships. The New Testament affords many illustrations of the trouble of the early Christians at this point. The Pharisees had hedged life about with prescribed rites and ceremonies and had made religion consist in observing them. 1 A Christian found it difficult even to join in a social meal with friends, for there were customs in eating and drinking which were superstitious in their meaning. The meat had been offered to idols, and the first Coun- cil of the Christian Church at Jerusalem found it ne- cessary to warn the disciples not to eat such meat. 2 Man is a social being. He is dependent upon his associations in ways that it is difficult for him to real- ize until he takes some position which detaches him from them. What Benjamin Kidd, in his remarkable book on Social Evolution, said of the social develop- ment which is called western civilization is equally true of the nations in non-Christian lands. Their social development, too, "must be regarded as an or- ganic growth, the key to the life history of which is to be found in the study of the ethical movement which extends through it. ... If we reflect how deeply these peoples have been affected at every point by the move- T Matt. xii. 2; Mark vii. 3. "Acts xv. 29. TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 65 ment in question; how profoundly their laws, institu- tions, mental and moral training, ways of judging con- duct, and habits of thought have been influenced for an immense number of generations in the course of the development through which they have passed, we shall at once realize that it would be irrational and foolish to expect that any individuals of a single generation should have the power to free themselves from this in- fluence. We are, all of us, whatever our individual opinions may be concerning this movement, uncon- sciously influenced by it at every point of our careers and in every movement of our lives. . . . No training, however religious and prolonged, no intellectual effort, however consistent and concentrated, could ever en- tirely emancipate us from its influence. In the life of the individual, the influence of habit of thought or training once acquired can be escaped from only with the greatest difficulty and after the lapse of a long in- terval of time." 9. Inherited Conceptions of Religion as Form. All the non-Christian religions make religion consist primarily in the observance of forms and ceremonies. None of the ethnic faiths establish a vital connection with conduct. One may be a good Buddhist and a bad man. The most notorious profligates in Peking are the monks in the Llama Temple. The most obscene images and practises in India are in the temples. Re- sorts of vice in Japan are openly visited by Buddhist priests. In fact, non-Christian religions are not relig- ions at all in the sense in which we use the term. They 66 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS know nothing of personal relationship to a holy and loving God who requires of a man a pure life and who communicates to him the power to live it. When, therefore, an Asiatic becomes a Christian, his idea of religion as form clings to him. He is apt to interpret the new teaching in terms of ceremonial rather than of life. It is not easy for him to realize that it is wrong for him to do what he has always done as a matter of course, and that "faith apart from works is dead." It is hard for him to grasp the idea of religion as a faith cleansing the heart and finding expression in a transformed life. This difficulty is particularly serious in the so- called Roman Catholic fields of Latin America and the Philippine Islands. We say "so-called," for the religion of these lands is really not that of the Roman Catholic Church with which we are familiar in the United States. Nominally indeed it is the same. Organization and ritual and other formal features are identical. But priests of such ignorance and supersti^ tion, and often of such bad personal character would not be tolerated in any diocese in the United States. The Roman Catholicism of these lands is only a thinly veneered heathenism. Prior to the coming of Prot- estant missionaries the common people knew little or nothing of vital religion. Rome had exacted from them only an outward obedience to prescribed forms. They were accustomed to the wholesale methods of external conformity. Our conceptions of personal faith were strange to them. I was in a Negros market TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 67 in the Philippines one evening, when "the Angelas" sounded. Instantly a hush fell upon the crowded booths and every native rose and stood with uncovered head and reverent attitude while the deep tones of the church bell rolled solemnly through the darkening air. But a moment later the people turned again to their gamoling and bickering and bino or rice whisky, evi- dently without the faintest idea that there was any connection between worship and conduct. It is a for- midable task in stfch circumstances to build up a church of truly regenerated souls, to make the people realize that a Christian must not gamble nor be im- moral, nor spend Sunday afternoons at cock fights, but that he must seek to know and to follow Christ in sincerity and truth. 10. Evil Conduct of Nominal "Christians." The evil conduct of western "Christians" is another for- midable difficulty. In non-Christian lands, religion is tribal or national. Every Chinese is supposed to be a Confucianist, every Siamese a Buddhist, every Turk a Moslem, every East Indian a member of one or the other of the many religious bodies into which the population is divided. Accustomed to classifying men in this way, Asiatics naturally imagine that every American and European is a Christian. They there- fore give Christianity the credit or blame for every- thing that white men do. The result is that this imag- inary Christianity is sometimes the most formidable obstacle that true Christianity encounters. Americans have sometimes thoughtlessly strength- 68 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS ened this impression by referring to the nations of Europe and America as "Christian nations." There are no Christian nations. Even in lands where there are the largest number of individual Christians, the national life and relationship with other nations cannot be fairly described as Christian in any proper sense. Decent municipal government in America is the excep- tion rather than the rule. Many states are notoriously dominated by corrupt bosses and saloon politics. Na- tional policies in practically all western lands are based, as a rule, upon desire for commercial, territorial, or political aggrandizement all purely material and self- ish. Gladstone ought to know, and he said that the his- tory of governments is the most immoral part of his- tory. The great war in Europe is a frightful illustration of the fact that nations are not Christian, whatever many of their citizens may be. Leading Christians on both sides have publicly lamented this. Mr. J. H. Old- ham of Edinburgh voiced the common opinion when he said: "Whatever be the distribution of immediate responsibility, the tragedy in which the nations are in- volved is in its ultimate nature the result of an attitude and temper that refuse to accept the law of Christ as the rule of life." Unchristian Conduct. The dealings of white nations with Asia and Africa have been characterized by deceit, cruelty, and wanton aggression to an extraordinary degree. All but a sixtieth of Africa, nearly all of the island world, and many parts of Asia are ruled by TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 69 "Christian" nations that are naturally regarded by the natives as foreign conquerors and are hated accord- ingly. The foreign settlements in the port cities of Asia and Africa are notorious sinks of iniquity. Traders and travelers have roamed through Asia and Africa for many years. Some of them are men of high char- acter ; but the conduct of many is illustrated by Angus Hamilton, who proudly wrote in his book on Korea that when the Korean sellers of curios became impor- tunate, he "found a specific cure for their pestiferous attentions to be administered best in the shape of a little vigorous kicking." A sorcerer so aggravated him that, to use his words: "Losing my temper and reason altogether, I dropped his gongs and cymbals down a well, depositing him in it after them. The interpreter will suggest that he requires a servant. For this remark he should be flogged." When the poor inhabitants of a poverty-stricken village declined to sell him their scanty stock of chickens, "the grooms, the servants, and the interpreter at once tackled the mob, laying about them with their whips . . . and fowls and eggs were at once forthcoming. The head groom came up to me, demanding an increase of thirty dollars. I refused and thrashed him with my whip. The end of my journey for the moment had come with a vengeance. The head groom stormed and cursed and ran raving in and out of the crowd. He then came for me with a huge boulder, and as I let out upon his temple, the riot began. My baggage was 70 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS thrown off the horses and stones flew through the air. I hit and slashed at my assailants and for a few minutes became the center of a very nasty situation." Nasty, indeed! It would have been still nastier if he had acted that way in America. In Siam, travelers steal images of Buddha from the temples. In India, hotels have to post the notice: "Visitors will be good enough not to strike the serv- ants." Many commercial men have manifested the same spirit. Gorst says that "rapine, murder, and a constant appeal to force chiefly characterized the com- mencement of Europe's commercial intercourse with China." As traders, travelers, and officials combined greatly outnumber missionaries, they, rather than missionaries, usually determine the status of the foreigner in the public mind, and they create against "Christians," as Asia believes them to be, an indiscriminate hostility. Christianity is to him the religion of the white man who is despoiling his territory, undermining his na- tional independence, upsetting all the economic condi- tions of his life, swaggering about his streets, robbing him of his goods, and insulting his women. Imagining that all white men are Christians, he blindly hates them all. Viceroy Li Hung-chang wrote in his diary, Febru- ary 17, 1886: "I am more and more convinced that the Christian religion is not so much hated in itself, but that the animosity, which is found to a greater or less extent throughout China against the 'foreign devils,' is because they are foreign. The foreigner is disliked, TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 71 not because of his religion, but because he is otherwise feared. He is feared not at all in this year because he may be the agent of Jesus Christ or a follower of that great man, but as a possible enemy to the political and industrial independence of the country." 1 Asiatics are learning, too, of the many unchristian things that are done in professedly Christian lands. The vice-mayor of Tokyo said, during a visit to the United States, that the most serious obstacle to the progress of Christianity in Japan is that the Japanese people are coming to know America. "The young people in my country," said he, "cannot help seeing that Christians in America care most about material things, not about the things of the spirit; that there is little reverence here and many evil conditions. That leads them to wonder if Christianity is really as good as the missionaries say." Meantime, the men whose evil example is doing so much to prejudice the good name of Christianity abroad are the very ones who sneer at the native Christian and loudly assert that foreign missions are a failure. It will be readily understood that the demoralizing influence of such antichristian white men is a for- midable obstacle to the Church in the mission field. It is a stumbling-block to the humble-minded convert. It shakes his faith to see his white brothers openly do the things that the Bible exhorts him not to do swear, drink, gamble, cheat, profane the Sabbath. It brings ^Memoirs of Li Hung Chang, 40, 41 ; cf. also 58, 59. 72 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS upon him a storm of reproach from his neighbors and friends who revile him for being associated with "Christians." No other temptation or difficulty is so grievous to him as this. Opposing Forces The Pull of the World. The list of the temptations and difficulties that beset the Church in the mission field might be extended, and more might be said, and perhaps should be said, under each classification; but perhaps we have indicated enough to give some idea of what a young man or young woman in a non-Chris- tian land must face when a confession of Christ is made. All the customs, traditions, and associations of life are arrayed against him. Family, social, and finan- cial difficulties close around him. The pull of ambition, of financial success, of social recognition, of political preferment is away from Christianity. The change that is involved in his own heart and life is revolu- tionary. The Power of the Spirit. . "Out there the great issue is tried with all external helps re- moved. The gospel goes with no subsidiary aids. It is spoken to the people by the stam- mering lips of aliens. Those who accept it do so with no prospect of temporal gain. They go counter to all their own preconceptions and to all the prejudices of their people. Try as we may to become all things to all men, we can but little accommodate our teaching to their thought. Often and often have I TEMPTATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES 73 looked into the faces of a crowd of non-Christian Chinese and felt keenly how many barriers lay between their minds and mine. Reasoning that seems to me conclusive makes no appeal to them. I have often thought that, if I were to expend all my energies to persuade one Chinaman to change the cut of his coat, I should certainly plead in vain. And yet I stand up to beg him to change the habits of a lifetime, to break away from the whole accumulated outcome of heredity, to make himself a target for the scorn of the world in which he lives, to break off from the consolidated social system which has shaped his being, and on the bare word of an unknown stranger to plunge into the haz- ardous experiment of a new and untried life, to be lived on a moral plane still almost inconceivable to him, whose sanctions and rewards are higher than his thoughts as heaven is higher than earth. While I despair of inducing him by my reasonings to make the smallest change in the least of his habits, I ask him, not with a light heart but with a hopeful one, to submit his whole being to a change that is for him the making of his whole world anew. The missionary must either confess himself helpless, or he must to the last fiber of his being believe in the Holy Ghost. I choose to believe, nay I am shut up to believe, by what my eyes have seen." * How the churches in the mission field meet this supreme test we shall see in the next chapter. \J. Campbell Gibson, Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China, 29, 30. IV CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN AND RE- SULTANT CHARACTER OF THE CHURCH Fruits a Test. "By their fruits ye shall know them," said our Lord. No other religion invites this test; no other can meet it. We have seen that non- Christian religions establish no vital connection with conduct; that, while some of their founders praised virtue, their present-day requirements do not include it, nor have they ever communicated power for it. Christianity, however, not only teaches faith but a gospel which is the power of God, and it makes the resultant character a test of the genuineness of faith. "What doth it profit, my brethren," said James, "if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? Can that faith save him? . . . Faith, if it have not works, is dead." 1 It is sadly true that some professed Chris- tians both at home and abroad are condemned by this test, sadly true that churches as organized bodies have often failed to attain the standard for which their Lord calls. Nevertheless we must apply the test, and whether we do or not, the Judge of all the earth will certainly do so. In Matthew xxv. 31-46, Christ tells us that, at the final judgment, rewards and punishments will be assigned on the basis, not of faith, but of character and deeds. 'James ii. 14-17. 75 76 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS Supporters of foreign missionary work therefore have a right to ask not only as to the number but as to the kind of Christians in the mission field. They should not indeed demand a standard of consistency of Christians who have recently emerged from pagan- ism which has not yet been attained by the Christians of America who have had far greater advantages. But they are justified an asking what degree of consistency has been attained, and what promise there is for the future. Proofs of Character Repentance. A fair test to begin with may be re- pentance. Do facts indicate its sincerity? After the Rev. Eugene P. Dunlap had preached for a month in a Siamese village, the head man said that he was con- verted. How did the villagers know that he was telling the truth, especially as he was notorious for dishonesty, immorality, and cruelty? He brought out his idols and burned them. He called up his debtors and, to their amazement, paid them in full. He put away his concubines, making provision for their support and declaring that he would live with one wife. He brought out his bottles of liquor, Scotch whisky and French brandy, and broke them. He asked pardon of all whom he had treated unjustly. Then he kneeled down before his assembled people and solemnly ded- icated his life, his family, and his possessions to the service of Jesus Christ. A Chinese merchant was con- verted. How did any one know that he was ? He de- stroyed his scales, and bought new ones. Christianity CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN AND CHURCH 77 meant to him after his conversion full weight. There are tradesmen in America who need that kind of con- version. The Rev. A. W. Halsey says that he met a head man at Lolodorf, Africa, who, with fifteen others, had walked twenty-seven miles to attend the church. He was a man of more than ordinary ability, and his face was radiant as he worshiped God. When converted, he had five wives. Wives are valuable property in Africa, and these had cost him money. He gave up a good portion of his fortune when he sent away four of his five wives, refusing to take money for them and carefully seeing that they did not suffer. Missionary letters and books teem with similar in- stances. The destruction of household idols, the burning of opium-pipes, the liberation of slaves, the payment of long-deferred debts, the breaking of im- moral relations, are common manifestations of conver- sion upon which non-Christian neighbors look with wonder. Missionaries say that conversion is almost invariably accompanied by confession of sin and resti- tution wherever it is necessary and possible. A man in Shansi confessed that during the Boxer uprising he appropriated a large sum of money that had been sent by the foreigners in Pingyang-fu to a missionary who afterwards died; and now after the lapse of years he made a clean breast of it. As one of the humble hearers said: "The Holy Spirit surely has come." Among the converts in Hinghwa, in the Province of Fukien, were members of a firm of importers of mor- 78 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS phine. They brought their whole stock to the church and turned it over to their minister to be destroyed. Confession of heinous sins by professing Christians during the intensity of revivals has been cited as evi- dence that the Christianity of converts was shallow. It is odd that any one should draw such a conclusion. The Spirit of God led those humble Asiatics to confess to the very sins which are notoriously common in Europe and America. It ill becomes travelers from countries where such sins are not confessed until in- vestigations expose them to criticize Christians in Asia who have the grace to confess them voluntarily. Home Life. Home life, as Americans are familiar with it, is almost unknown among non-Christian peoples. It is true that there are often parental affec- tion, filial respect, and occasionally real love between husband and wife. But those qualities which go to make up a Christian home are seldom found. The typical non-Christian house of the common people is a hovel, destitute of comfort, swarming with vermin, and inhabited by slatternly women and children caked with dirt. The wife is little better than a slave and is valued by her husband only for the work that she does and the children that she bears. Christianity trans- forms these homes. The traveler can usually identify such a family by the manifest evidences of neatness, equality, and self-respect. The house, however humble, is clean. The mother and children are clean. A Christian village is like an oasis in a desert. Conduct. Conduct outside of the home is character- CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN AND CHURCH 79 ized by like transformation. It is reported that there were such changes in the lives of converts after evangel- istic meetings in one city, that non-Christian Chinese on the streets said to one another: "The Christian's God has come down." The standards insisted upon in mo'st of the churches in the mission field relate not only to the greater sins but to many that are considered venial even in America. Church -discipline is usually strict. A 'member who does not have family prayers and ask a blessing at meals, who does not observe the Sabbath or regularly attend church, is called to account. The Christian is a marked man among his fellows, distinguished not merely for his difference in faith, but for superior morality, thrift, and integrity. The Siamese Governor of Puket was so impressed by the improvement which Christianity had wrought in the converts in his province that he said: "Wherever the Christian missionary settles, he brings good to the people. Progress, beneficial institutions, cleanliness, and uplifting of the people result from his labors." The High Commissioner, with the same idea, told the Rev. Eugene P. Dunlap, in 1907, that he would give 5,000 ticals 1 for a hospital in Tap Teang and 10,000 ticals for one in Puket if the missionary would open permanent stations ; and Prince Damrong, Minister of the Interior, said that the government was glad to give positions to the kind of young men who were trained in the Bangkok Christian College, because they pos- sessed the qualities of intelligence, ambition, and char- J The tical of Siam has a value of 39 cents. 80 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS acter which were desired in official service. Several years ago, when Chinese merchants were asked to sub- scribe money to rebuild a bridge which had been de- stroyed by a flood, they imposed the condition that the money should be expended by Christians "because Christians could be trusted not to steal it." "It is a high estimate that I have formed of the character of many native Christians," said Sir Andrew H. L. Eraser, after long residence in India. "There are undoubtedly some natives who are only nominally Christian and who give an evil report to Christianity ; but the missionary bodies as a rule are careful in this matter; and we have no reason to be ashamed of our Indian Christian friends for whom I have as high a regard as for my friends in the West and whose char- acters I have recognized as becoming more and more Christlike as they submit themselves to his teaching and to the influence of his spirit." 1 The Bible. The knowledge of the Bible shown by converts in mission lands should shame many Chris- tians in America. The police of a certain country once professed to believe that a mission school was "sedi- tious," and following the example of Russian police in such circumstances, they arrested all the native teachers and many of the students and hurried them off to a jail in another city. The Christians had no idea what they had been arrested for, but they suspected that it was on account of their faith in Christ. Did they keep silence? It no more occurred to them than it did to 1 Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots, 268, 269. KOREAN WOMEX GATHERED FOR BIBLE STUDY KOREAN MEN GATHERED FOR BIBLE STUDY CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN AND CHURCH 81 Paul and Silas. When they were led through the streets, handcuffed and chained to one another, they sang the hymn : "Glory to his name." Every one felt that God had permitted this trial because he had something for them to do in prison. They could tell the other prisoners about Jesus, as Paul had done. They had their Testaments in their pockets. When the police searched them, the Christians asked permission to keep their Testaments; but the officers refused, ex- cept in one instance where one of the teachers per- suaded a guard to let him keep the little book. The next morning, he tore his New Testament leaf from leaf and passed the leaves through the cracks be- tween his cell and the next cell, and the boys there passed them on into the next cell, and so on until every Christian in that old prison had leaves from the Word of God. Each one took his leaf and committed it to memory, then exchanged it with another boy and com- mitted the new leaf, until they had committed whole books of the New Testament. In the months of imprisonment, some committed the whole of the New Testament. When they came from prison and told this story to the missionary who narrated it to me, he tested some of the boys as to the truth of their state- ment. "Repeat John vii. 36," he said to one boy. How many readers of this page can give it? This youth reflected a moment how the seventh chapter of John began, ran down the chapter until he came to the thirty-sixth verse, and then repeated it word for word. Several said that, while they were being tortured, they 82 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS quietly repeated over and over the passages which they had learned, and one of them said: "Jesus came so near, oh, so near, as we quoted God's Word." A Sunday-school worker from America, visiting Korea some years ago, was troubled because he found what seemed to be a small proportion of children in the Sunday-schools. The fact was that the whole of each group of believers was in Sunday-school studying the Word of God. Practically all the boys and girls were there; but scattered through the great assemblages with their parents, they were not so readily noticed by an American to whom a Sunday-school meant a gathering of children with only a handful of adults. Korea has the best kind of Sunday-schools, for they are congre- gational Bible schools. In addition to the customary public worship, the entire congregation meets at a separate hour for Bible study, adults and children studying the Scriptures together. Bible training classes are a prominent feature of Christian work in many fields, the people at stated seasons gathering in multitudes for one or more weeks of special study. These training classes have become a conspicuous feature of the work of several fields. Be- ginning with one class of seven men in 1891, the classes in one mission alone have increased in numbers until in a recent year 1,821 classes enrolled 47,484 members. All expenses are met by the native Christians. It is not uncommon for men to walk two hundred miles to these classes. The following extracts from letters are samples of CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN AND CHURCH 83 scores that I might cite from my regular correspond- ence: "The men's class which has just closed was attended by 500 men. They came from all parts of the Province and studied well. The spirit was fine." "We have just closed a splendid men's Bible class of ten days. The attendance was 358." "The whole number in my circuit alone during this past winter exceeds 6,500 persons who studied the Bible regularly for a week or more." "The little bands of Christians scattered through the mountain villages appreciate the light and joy the gospel brings into their dark lives. The other day I noticed a niche in the bank near some workmen, and I saw that it contained four Testaments and hymn-books. Then I remembered how I had found one of my coolies on the top of a pass, resting by the side of his load and reading Mark's Gospel and that I had heard him offer a helpful prayer in a meet- ing when he was only one year old in his Christian life. As I stood thinking of these things, the men came around the bank, laid down their shovels and picks and asked me to lead their rest-time prayer-meeting." Where in America do laboring men take Testaments and hymn-books to their daily toil and bow in prayer after their noon-day lunch? Prayer. The prayer life is often one of marked power. The family altar is the rule in Christian homes in the mission field, and no meal is eaten without asking the blessing of God upon it. The prayer-meeting, like the Sunday-school, is usually attended by a majority of the membership, while in the United States the 84 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS average attendance is about one tenth. I attended the prayer-meeting in the Yun Mot Kol Church in Seoul on a rainy night. A native Christian led, and the people did not know that a traveler would be present; but I found a thousand Christians assembled! Twelve hundred people packed the Syen Chun Church the evening we spent there. This was larger than usual, but the ordinary attendance at these week-night meet- ings exceeds that of a good-sized Sunday morning con- gregation in America. It is worth going far to hear those Christians pray. They kneel with their faces to the floor and utter petitions as those who know what it is to have daily communion with God. A missionary in China says that the prayerfulness of the two Chinese pastors in his station has been a rebuke and an inspiration to him. "Their conversa- tion is usually on the Scriptures, the passages of which they can find better than any foreigner I know; and their thoughts are much on the problems of the little groups of Christians. Often on the road we have stopped and prayed specifically for what the leaders had jotted down of definite petitions for particular needs. The reality, sincerity, and naturalness of their prayers, both in thanksgiving and petition, have im- pressed me. Men who are not living in the Spirit cannot 'get up' such prayers as these Christians pray all the time." The Chinese believers of Chefoo, burdened for the salvation of their countrymen, invited pastors and leading members of churches in all the surrounding* CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN AND CHURCH 85 country to join them in a season of intercessory prayer, subscribing liberally to pay for the entertainment of the guests. The members of a training school for Bible women fasted three times a week for a month and paid the money saved into the entertainment fund. Pastors in scores of places began to pray, first for a revival in their own hearts and then in the church and community; and the prayers were answered. Daily meetings twice a day for fifty days had prepared the way to expect great things from God, and thousands were present instead of the hundreds anticipated. Four simultaneous meetings on the closing night ag- gregated 7,000 people. "Pray! pray!" exclaimed a Chinese Christian as he looked from a hilltop upon villages that knew nothing of Christ. He and his companions were standing; but, when they finished their intercession, they were pros- trate on their faces. Some African Christians covenanted together that each would select a retired spot in the forest to which he would go daily for solitary communion with God. If any member of the little band appeared to be grow- ing cold in his Christian life, one of the others would gently inquire: "Is the grass growing on your path, brother?" Giving. A good test of Christian character is giv- ing. We count it so at home, and it is even a severer test on the foreign field where poverty is bitter and the struggle for existence barely keeps people from starvation. 86 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS Financial sacrifice in Christian work is so common as to be accepted as a matter of course. Boon Itt, a gifted Siamese, refused a government position at $4,000 a year and became an evangelist at $600. An African teacher, at Benito, who was receiving five dollars a month from the mission, refused an offer of twenty dollars a month from the Spanish governor. A missionary in Egypt writes of a man who left an influential home of the old Turko-Egyptian aris- tocracy, to earn little more than a laborer's pittance and to live in one cheap room in a poor district, on the simplest fare, but with a well-spring of joy in his heart. How many of us comfortable Christians at home would come successfully through the same test? A Chinese minister on $7.50 a month declined an offer from the city officials to superintend a public school at three times his salary, saying : "China must have Christ, even if I starve." When the little company of believers in Caracas, Venezuela, heard that the European war had seriously interfered with the receipts of the Board in New York, they made a self-denial offering of $35. An elder wrote: "Our people came very gladly, bringing every one a little envelope containing his gift. We know our duty to give to the cause of the gospel, though we can- not give as much as we owe. Our people are very poor and few. We know that you have many difficulties there in these present times of war, and the difficulties here especially are great. The houses are very dear, but now is your opportunity and ours. We have the CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN AND CHURCH 87 hope in the Lord. God bless you until he comes! Know, my brethren, your work in the Lord is not in vain. It is not a waste, as Judas thought when Mary brought the very precious ointment of spikenard to anoint Jesus. No, many of us will give testimony to your work in the presence of Jesus when he comes upon the clouds. We send these letters to express our gratefulness, asking the Lord to help you to the glory of Jesus in his Kingdom. Amen." This offering meant to that handful of poor people as much as $350 would have meant to an equal number of Christians in the United States, and the loving letter was a treasure beyond price. Loyalty. Loyalty to the Church is marked. The Christians look upon their Church as the center of their lives and they give to it the devotion of their hearts. Bishop Thoburn said that the Methodist Epis- copal Church at Rangoon, Burma, was the best work- ing church he had known in any land. Ill health com- pelled the two missionaries at Efulen, Africa, to go to America, and two years passed before they could re- turn to the field. They had left six believers, for the station was then young. They dared not hope that they would find any left, for how could six new con- verts stand alone in an interior African village ? They found that the little company had met several times every week for prayer and Bible study and that they had witnessed so faithfully for Christ that all the neighboring villages knew that there were "Jesus men" in Efulen. One does not wonder that from such a 88 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS beginning the church at Efulen is now a great con- gregation. The old Spanish house in which we were entertained during our visit in Iloilo, Philippine Islands, had a wide hall with a broad flight of stairs. About five o'clock Saturday afternoon I was startled to find the hall and stairs packed with Filipinos, sitting quietly on the floor and steps. They had walked in, men, women, and children, from the outlying villages, some of them four hours distant, in order to attend the Sun- day service. So many regularly did this, coming Sat- urday and remaining till Monday, that the missionaries were obliged to rent a large room in which the men could spend the nights, the women occupying the chapel. They brought their own food or bought it in Iloilo, and they contentedly slept on the floor. When men and women walk fifteen miles under a hot sun and sleep two nights on a board floor to attend a plain chapel where there were no altar lights or gorgeous vestments or fragrant incense, but only the preaching of the simple gospel of divine love, there must be some- thing more than curiosity in their hearts. Growth in Grace. Growth in grace is not uniform in all fields nor characteristic of every group of believ- ers in any field ; but it is so marked in the Christian body as a whole that almost every observant visitor is impressed by it. One might say of many churches in Asia and Africa what Dr. Charles R. Watson said after a visit to Egypt : "The native Church is enjoying a deeper spiritual life. Conferences for spiritual quick- CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN AND CHURCH 89 ening are held annually. Those held by and for women are marked by unusual blessing. There is a readiness to try new methods of work and to launch out upon new fields, perhaps the clearest proof of a fuller recog- nition of the Spirit's leadership!" There is something very beautiful in the devotion of these children of God. The message of the gospel goes straight to their hearts and it strangely stirs them. "These peoples are by nature eloquent," says a mis- sionary in the Philippines. "As the truths of God's word sink deeper into them, and as the Spirit of God in answer to earnest prayer reveals his wonderful love and salvation, they forget themselves and speak with a power that astonishes their countrymen. We have never attended greater spiritual feasts than their weekly prayer-meetings. These simple people take God at his word, and he honors their faith." One of the most touching instances of the char- acter of the Christian and its far-reaching influence is enshrined in one of the last places where one would have expected to find it, the Memoirs of Li Hung Chang. How could a humble believer impress the mighty Viceroy and Grand Councilor of the Chinese Empire? The world knew nothing of the circum- stances till the diary of the Viceroy was published and then it read this moving narrative : "July 28. I cannot think that all people are bad, for to-day I had an experience that makes me think that, outside of riches and honors, there are small hap- penings which touch a man's heart and make him feel 90 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS that humanity is not all iron and gain and falsehood. For to-day this yamen, which for twenty-four years had been mine, was the destination of a great mission such as never came within the compound before. I nearly wept to receive them. Two native Christians all the way from that miserable town in Japan to bring me here medicines for my head and to see if I was getting better! I wonder if this is because Christianity teaches such things? It must be some new ideas that this man and boy got into their heads to make them do such a thing. . . . His name, he said, was Sato, and the boy that accompanied him was his thirteen- year-old son. Sato said that all the native Christians in the little mission at Ketuki, near Moji the mis- sion that had at first sent the delegation to my sick- room with flowers had talked about me every day since I was there and had prayed to the Christian God for my recovery. "Then he explained that all his friends were very anxious to know how I was getting along. Some- times, he said, they would hear that I was entirely well, and again it would be reported that I was dead ; so they couldn't stand the uncertainty any longer, and collected money between them and sent Sato with a message of good-will and some herb medicines. "I took the medicines and had my two visitors served with the nicest kind of boiled chicken, some chicken tongue on crackers, rice, cakes, and tea. I wanted them to stay with me for a few days, telling them that I would treat them well; but Mr. Sato said he CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN AND CHURCH 91 was already almost sick unto death to get back home, and that he had once or twice nearly turned back, especially as his son was so lonely. When they were ready to go, I gave them a big bundle of presents of all kinds for their friends back at Ketuki, two hundred taels 1 for the mission, and as much more to reimburse them for the outlay of the journey. This last he did not want to accept, saying that as he had funds suf- ficient to take him home he was fearful that the friends who had sent him might not like it. But I prevailed upon him to take the money. "I think this Christianity makes poor and lowly people bold and unafraid, for before Mr. Sato and his boy left he wanted to know if they might pray for me. I said they could, expecting that he meant when they got back home again; but he said some- thing to the little son, and they knelt right there at the door and said a prayer. I could not keep my heart from thumping in my bosom as I watched that poor man and his frightened little boy praying to God the God that will deal with me and with them and all mankind that I might be well of my injuries. I was sorry to see them go. "In this old .yamen, which for twenty odd years was mine, strange scenes have been enacted, great councils held, and midnight conferences affecting the whole world have taken place. I have received royalties and dukes, ambassadors, ministers, murderers, robbers, and beggars. Men have been sentenced to death from 'The tael has a value of about 65 cents. 92 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS here, others have been made glad with leases of lands, railroad contracts, or the gift of public office. But during each and every occurrence, whatever its nature, I have been complete master of my house and myself until an hour ago. Then it was that for the first time did I believe the favor was being conferred upon me. "Poor, good Mr. Sato, all the way from Japan to offer a Christian prayer for the 'heathen' old Viceroy ! I did not know that any one outside my own family cared enough about me for such a thing. I do not love the Japanese, but perhaps Christianity would help them!" 1 Endurance. Fortitude under persecution is a su- preme test. Many Christians in Asia and Africa have suffered grievously for their faith. Chinese believers have given examples of constancy in suffering which the world will not soon forget. Their behavior under the baptism of blood and fire to which they were sub- jected in the Boxer uprising bore eloquent testimony to the genuineness of their faith. Could American Christians have endured such a strain without flinch- ing? Let those who can worship God in safety be thankful that they have never been subjected to that supreme test. But the fortitude of the persecuted Chinese believers was so remarkable that in many cases the Boxers cut out the hearts of their victims to find the secret of such sublime faith. The blood of those heroic men and women will forever silence the ^Memoirs of Li Hung Ctiang, 118-122. CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN AND CHURCH 93 flippant charge that the Chinese are "rice Christians." Insincere believers do not die for their faith when recantation would save their lives. When Asaad Shidiak, a Syrian Maronite and former secretary of the Patriarch, declared his faith in Christ, the Patriarch first tried persuasion and the bribe of promotion and then the threat of excommunication. When Asaad Shidiak stood fast, his marriage was annulled, his relatives turned him over to the angry Patriarch, who threw him into jail, put heavy chains on his wrists and ankles, and gave him the alternative of kissing an image in token of repentance or kissing burning coals. He chose the burning coals, pressed them to his lips, and with a scorched and blackened mouth returned to his cell. At length they built around him a wall, leaving but a small aperture through which he could get breath and they could pass him enough food to keep him alive and so prolong his sufferings. "They killed the body," said Arthur T. Pierson, "but, before it gave up the ghost, Asaad Shidiak, the Maronite martyr, had proved to them that they could not subdue the spirit of one whom the Lord had led into the clear light of his own truth and the fellowship of his dear Son." The Rev. C. W. Briggs, a Baptist missionary in Jaro, tells of Piementel, a Filipino Christian, who was seized by Filipino officials and locked up in a dungeon. While he was asleep, some Filipino policemen came into his cell and clubbed him with the butts of their guns, fracturing his skull, breaking his cheek bones 94 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS and crushing in his forehead. They finally left him for dead. In the morning he was still conscious, and an American doctor taking pity on him, took him to the hospital, raised the sunken bones as far as pos- sible, and after two or three months, poor Piementel was again able to get back to his home. This is the man about whom the people gathered at Barotac as he preached the gospel. His face is terribly disfigured and his head broken, but a look of divine joy shines in his countenance in spite of the scars. Types of Experience. It is interesting to note the various types of religious experience that are develop- ing. Differing temperaments, environments, and na- tional conditions are influencing not only the methods of the missionary but the faith and life of the Christian. The missionaries in each country have felt that the character and trend of the native mind with which they had to deal called for special emphasis upon certain doctrines, which, while not at variance with evangelical doctrines that some other missionaries were emphasiz- ing, were different from them. The range of New Testament teaching is wide, and each national group of Christians, like each individual believer, instinctively appropriates the truths which impress them as best adapted to their needs. The despairing, poverty- stricken, emotional Korean approaches Christ from a different angle than the proud, martial, ambitious Japanese. Korean and Japanese types of Christianity are therefore quite different, and the missionaries in each country, even of the same communions, have CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN AND CHURCH 95 been more or less unconsciously molded accordingly. In like manner we find characteristic types among the mystical East Indians, the practical Chinese, the child- like Africans, the easy-going Siamese, the restless Arabians, the dignified Persians, the subject Nestor- ians, and the warlike Turks. A fascinating book might be written on these and other varieties of Chris- tian experience. But however distinct the types, the composite of them all is slowly but surely forming under the common influence of growing knowledge, of closer relations in this era of international communi- cation, and, above all, of the common guidance of the Spirit of God. In far separated lands they dwell. Many languages voice their spiritual aspirations. Darkness still covers their earth and gross darkness their peoples. But the Lord has arisen upon them and his glory is already seen upon them. 1 Roll of Honor One could wish that the limits of this book would permit an adequate account of some outstanding Asiatic and African Christians. Earlier Lives. We suggest that the reader look up such sketches as that of the Moslem Kamil 2 whom Henry H. Jessup characterized as a Christian of apostolic devotion and beauty of character ; the Syrian Habeeb 3 whose story is told by William S. Nelson; Honda, the first Japanese Methodist Bishop 4 ; Joseph 'Isa. ix. i, 2. *Kamil. *Habeeb the Beloved. 'Griffis, William E., Honda. 96 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS Hardy Neesima, 1 the founder of the Doshisha; Paul, the Apostle of the Congo 2 ; Old Wang 3 ; and Pastor Hsi 4 of China; Chundra Lela, 5 the devoted evangelist in India; Tiyo Soga, 6 of South Afdca, and Bishop Crowther 7 of the Niger. Present Generation. Of the present generation, we must place high on the roll of great Christian lead- ers such men as Ding Li Mei, "the Apostle Paul of China" ; Elijah Makiwane, the able and cultured Kafir of South Africa 8 ; Azariah, the first native Anglican Bishop in India; the patriarchal Chatterjee, Moderator of the First Presbyterian General Assembly of India; Noboru Watanabe, Japanese Chief Justice of the Su- preme Court of Korea; Dr. Fasuka Harada, President of the Doshisha; Uemura, the great preacher, editor, and theologian of Tokyo; Lu Bi Cu, physician in China; Francis Kingsbury, associate evangelist of Mr. Eddy in India ; C. T. Wang, statesman and Chris- tian worker in China; Pastor Kil, Korean evangelist; Yun Chi Ho, the Korean patriot and Christian edu- cator ; and Dr. Rhee, educator in Korea. And what more shall I say? For the time would , Arthur S., Life and Letters of Joseph Hardy Neesima. 'Richards, Henry, "Paul the Apostle of Banza Manteke." 8 Ross, J., Old Wang: First Chinese Evangelist in Manchuria. 4 Taylor, Mrs. H., Pastor Hsi. 'Griffin, Z. F., Chundra Lela. "Cousins, H. T., Tiyo Soga. 7 Page, J., The Black Bishop. 'Article, "Notable Native Pioneers," United Free Church Missionary Magazine, April, 1914. CHARACTER OF CHRISTIAN AND CHURCH 97 fail me to call the roll of. those whom God is raising up to lead his people in the era that is swiftly coming in the lands that are now called non-Christian. If, as Amiel said, "the test of every religious, polit- ical, or educational system is the man which it forms," Christianity is meeting the test in the mission field. Safe Grounds of Judgment. As I close this chapter, I realize that my description of the Christians in the mission field has not included an account of their im- perfections. They have them. But I confess that, as I think of my brethren in non-Christian lands, I do not find myself in a critical mood. They are so much better than we might have expected them to be, they are witnessing for Christ in such difficult condi- tions and with such patience and courage and love, that criticism is disarmed. If you want to know what their failings are, ask yourself what yours are. They are the same and you can catalog them at your leisure. But surely our Master who tempers his judgments with kindly consideration of circumstances, who knows our frame and remembers that we are dust, will deal more mercifully with the Christians in the mission field than he will with us ; for some of these also have come out of great tribulation, and they shall be among those who stand before the throne of God forever. V PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE OF THE CHURCH Statistics 'are said to be dry. If they are, it is be- cause we do not stop to consider what they mean. Missionary statistics throb with life. They tabulate the visible results of years of devoted toil by men and women of whom the world is not worthy. General Survey Statistical Data Difficult. Accuracy in such sta- tistics is peculiarly difficult. It is not easy to collect reliable data of churches in America. The task is enormously increased when we deal with churches in many widely separated lands, which are under a dis- tracting variety of organizations, and whose affilia- tions are with hundreds of different agencies whose methods of computation are not uniform. Moreover, the rapidity of growth in some fields is so great that figures are often out of date by the time they can be published. The most careful work on this subject is done by the Special Committee on Statistics of the Con- tinuation Committee and the Committee on the Home Base of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America. 99 100 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS Some World Totals. The latest obtainable reports 1 ,give 3,167,614 communicants; 130,262 native min- isters, evangelists, teachers, and other workers; and 1,869,145 enrolled in Sunday-schools. This indicates a Christian community, including communicants, Sun- day-school children, other members of Christian fam- ilies, and adherents, of 7,253,836. These figures do not include multitudes who have been more or less defi- nitely influenced by the Christian movement, some of whom are willing to be known as Christians as distin- guished from men of other religions. The government census of India, to be noted presently, is an instance of t-his. No Padded Returns. These statistics afford splen- did evidence that churches of no mean strength have been developed in the mission field. The churches are stronger than the figures indicate, for allowance must be made for the conservatism of missionaries in enroll- ing converts. They know that supporters at home want reports of large accessions; but previous expe- rience has taught caution. An applicant for baptism does not always clearly understand what Christianity means. Sometimes, too, unworthy motives exist hope of employment or desire to secure the foreigner's assistance in some quarrel or lawsuit. As a rule, there- fore, a native who seeks admission to the Church is not immediately received into full membership. He is enrolled as an inquirer or prospective member, kept 'Reports for 1914 for the main divisions, with the addition of figures for 1912 for the less important divisions. PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 101 under instruction and observation for a period vary- ing from six months to a year or more, and he is not reported as a communicant until time has demonstrated the genuineness of his Christian life. And yet as distinct a confession of faith is required for enrolment as a beginning member as churches in America demand for full membership. For this reason, the number of Christians in a mission field is considerably greater than the reported list of communicants, often double that list. Remarkable Progress. The rate of progress is remarkable. The natural presumption would be that Christianity would gain very slowly in lands where it is regarded with suspicion as an alien faith, opposed by a powerful priesthood, and at variance with long- established customs and deeply rooted prejudices. It would not be reasonable, therefore, to expect as rapid increase as in America, where centuries of Chris- tian activity have created conditions more favorable to the spread of Christianity, where a confession of faith is safe and easy and where it is often to one's business or social advantage to join the Church. It took three hundred years for Christianity to make even a nominal conversion of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. Protestant foreign missionary work is but a little over a hundred years old. In a large part of the non- Christian world it is not half a century old, while some important fields have been occupied within two decades. What justice is there in expecting large immediate results in such circumstances? 102 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS Home and Foreign Increase. But what are the comparative facts? The average annual increase in the Protestant churches in America is two per cent., while the increase on the foreign field is seven per cent. One large board reports in a decade a net gain of eighty-two per cent, in the number of churches and a hundred and sixty per cent, in the number of communi- cants. Grant that mere numbers are not always a fair test of success, and that in some important mission fields the number of converts is yet small. Taking the work as a whole we have reason for mighty encourage- ment and for gratitude to God. The advance in some fields has been wonderful. It is a story of toil and self- sacrifice, of magnificent courage, of superb loyalty to the truth of God. Within the first hundred years of modern missions the number of Christians in the mis- sion field was at least twice as large as the number of Christians in the whole world at the end of the first century of the Christian era. Consider also that a large part of the work thus far has consisted of clearing the ground and laying foun- dations. The degree of achievement must be estimated not only by the results that can be seen but by the pros- pect for the future. The pioneer stage is usually the slowest. The American nation looked very small and poor to European eyes for half a century after the Declaration of Independence, and it was not until a century had passed that it attained a magnitude that challenged the respect of the world. Compare the prog- ress that Christianity has made in non-Christian lands PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 103 during the last century with the progress that was made during the first century of Christian work in England, and we shall find no reason for discouragement, but, on the contrary, abundant rea- son for thanksgiving. Critics assert that the rate ought to be greater in these modern times when the Christian movement on the foreign field is the projec- tion of a powerful Church at the home base which is able to equip it as the early Christians were not equipped. Critics find it hard to be consistent, for they also allege with mournful joy that the modem Church is inefficient as compared with the apostolic Church. Apostolic and Present-Day Growth. The latter criticism is so common and is believed to be true by so many in the home churches that it may be well to examine it more closely. We are told of "the amazing vitality of the early Church and the comparative im- potence of the Church of our day," and we are urged to consider the reasons for our decadence. No real attempt is made to prove the hypothesis ; it is taken for granted as if it were beyond dispute, and an elaborate edifice of pessimism and appeal is built upon it. Some of my own former writings include sentences which might be construed in the same way. Further reflec- tion has led me to doubt the validity of this line of argument. The conversion of three thousand in a day, recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, is still unmatched either at home or abroad ; but where else in the New Testa- ment were there mightier manifestations of God's sav- 104 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS ing power than in Uganda with its 24,387 con- verts in six years (1897-1902)? In Burma the Karens have amazed the world by the vigor and fruit- fulness of their faith. In the Telugu Mission, the Ongole Church with its branches attained a member- ship of 32,000 communicants, no less than 10,000 of whom were baptized in the single year of 1878, while at Podili, in the same year, six native ministers bap- tized 2,222 in one day. In Aneitium of the New Hebrides John Geddie's memorial tablet reads: "When he landed in 1848 there were no Christians; when he left in 1872 there were no heathens." More than twenty years ago, Arthur T. Piejson wrote a little book entitled The New Acts of the Apostles. It is packed with evidences that the Holy Spirit has been working in these modern times in ways which would have gladdened the heart of Paul. If that account were brought down to date, it would include many other marvelous manifestations of spiritual power. We shall cite some recent examples in a later part of this chapter. Suffice it to say that Eastern Asia is as hard a mission field as the Roman empire ever was; but more converts have been made there in the last sixty- five years than were made in the Roman empire within sixty-five years after the death of Christ. "Compar- ative impotence of the Church of our day," indeed ! Spirit of Modern Leaders. Surely it is not a sign of faith to argue that our Lord is failing to accom- plish his purpose. He came to establish a Kingdom, and acceleration of development is therefore a normal PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 105 expectation. Wonderful is the account of Christian devotion in the apostolic age. We read with reverent joy of those early disciples of whom men "took knowl- edge . . . that they had been with Jesus." But what shall we say of Count Zinzendorf who said: "I have one passion and that is Christ;" of Henry Martyn who joyously exclaimed : "I am born for God only, I do not wish for any heaven on earth besides that of preaching the precious gospel to immortal souls;" of Gerald Dale who so visibly walked with God during his brief missionary life that the fanatical peoples of Syria wept when he died and still venerate his memory as a saint ; of David Livingstone who wrote in his diary on his fifty-ninth birthday : "My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All, I again dedicate my whole self to thee; accept me and grant, O gracious Father, that ere this year is gone I may finish my task ;" of Jonathan Wilson of whom a German scientist, who had been traveling in northern Siam, said to a com- pany of clubmen who had been scoffing at missionaries : "I do not profess to be a religious man, but I tell you that that good old missionary, with whom I spent sev- eral weeks in the jungles of Laos, is more like Jesus Christ than any other man I ever knew." The modern missionary is writing the name of Jesus large across the sky of Asia. He is making Jesus' standard the inexorable test of men and nations. He is making the d-ivine voice the deep undertone of human life. Un- doubtedly some missionaries are inefficient and some erratic; but the typical missionary, as I have had op- 106 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS portunity to know him in twenty years of secretarial service and two journeys to Asia, is an apostle through whom the Spirit of God is communicating regenerat- ing power to the non-Christian world. Enlightenment and Philanthropy. In estimating the present strength and influence of the Church we must take into consideration not merely numbers but evidences of other kinds that cannot be easily tabu- lated. Is the work of our home churches to be judged solely by the number of converts? What shall we say on the foreign field of the new forces that have been liberated, of the purification of society, the healing of the sick, the education of the young, the new standards of truth and of duty? The enlightening and philan- thropic influence of Christian missions is enormous. At the beginning of the nineteenth century an officer of the British East India Company exclaimed : "The send- ing of missionaries into our eastern possessions is the maddest, most expensive, most unwarranted project that was ever proposed by a lunatic enthusiasm." At the end of the century, the good results were so evident that the British Lieutenant-governor of Bengal said : "In my judgment Christian missionaries have done more lasting good to the people of India than all other agencies combined." The Japan Daily Mail reported Count Okuma, the greatest statesman of Japan, as saying, in Tokyo, at the semi-centennial of Protestant missions: "The suc- cess of Christian work in Japan can be measured by the extent to which it has been able to infuse the Anglo- GROUP OF LEPERS GROUP OF INSANE PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 107 Saxon and the Christian spirit into the nation. It has been the means of putting into these fifty years an advance equivalent to that of one hundred years. Japan has a history of 2,500 years, but only by the coming of the West in its missionary representatives and by the spread of the gospel did the nation enter upon world-wide thoughts and world-wide work. This is a great result of the Christian spirit." Hundreds of similar tributes and innumerable illus- trations might be cited. Native officials are as out- spoken as foreigners in recognizing the beneficent work of Christian missions. Several Asiatic governments have followed the advice of missionaries in adopting vaccination to reduce the ravages of smallpox, in pro- viding for the care of lepers, and in enforcing regu- lations for the suppression of epidemics. When pneu- monic plague broke out in northern China, the author- ities immediately turned to the medical missionaries, asked them to take command of the situation, and placed at their disposal an unlimited supply of money and helpers ; the result being that the disease was soon stamped out. Pestilence in Manchuria. Five hundred Chinese coolies, who had been working in the bean fields of Manchuria, started back to their homes in southern China about Christmas. Pneumonic plague broke out among them, and they were stopped near Mukden and huddled into five small buildings. Dr. A. F. Jackson, a young missionary of the Scotch Presbyterian Mis- sion, volunteered to go into quarantine with the terrified 108 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS men. He was the only white man in that foul pest center. Eighty of the coolies died, and then their phy- sician and defender himself contracted the disease. When he discovered that the infection had laid hold of him, he tried to hide himself in order that no other physician might run the risk of contracting the plague in attending him ; but his plight was discovered by fel- low missionaries who hastened to him in spite of the danger, and did all in their power to save his life. The pneumonic form of this terrific scourge, however, is almost invariably fatal, and the young Scotchman's martyrdom was soon complete. His Excellency, the Viceroy of Manchuria, Hsi Liang, with his staff, at- tended a memorial service in Mukden, and he made the following solemn oration: "We have shown ourselves unworthy of the trust laid upon us by our Emperor; we have allowed a dire pestilence to overrun the sacred capital. His Majesty, the king of Great Britain, shows sympathy with every country when calamity overtakes it. His loyal subject, Dr. Jackson, moved by his sovereign's spirit and with the heart of Christ who died to save the world, re- sponded nobly when we besought him to help our country in its time of need. He went forth to help us daily where the pest lay the thickest; in the midst of the groans of the dying, he struggled to cure the stricken, to find medicine to stay the dreadful disease.. Worn by his efforts, the pest seized upon him and took him from us long before his time. Our sorrow is be- yond all measure, our grief too deep for words. Dr. PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 109 Jackson was a young man of high education and great natural ability. He came to Manchuria with the intention of spreading medical knowledge and thus conferring untold blessings on the eastern people. In pursuit of his ideal, he was cut down. The Presby- terian Mission has lost a recruit of great promise, the Chinese government a man who gave his life in his desire to help them. O spirit of Dr. Jackson! we pray you to intercede for the twenty million people of Manchuria and ask the Lord of heaven to take away this pest so we may once more lay our heads upon our pillows in* peace! In life you were brave; now you are a spirit. Noble spirit, who sacrificed your life for us, help us still and look down in kindness upon us all!" Royal Testimony. Among the Siamese, the number of conversions has been comparatively small, but the social results of missionary effort have been unusually large. Indeed it is probaWe that Christianity has had deeper effect upon the general policy and publk senti- ment of the country than in many lands where church- members are more numerous. The regent remarked in 1871 to the Hon. George F. Seward, then American consul-general at Shanghai, that "Siam had not been disciplined by English and French guns as China, but that the country had been opened by missionaries." The reforms inaugurated by the late king were directly traceable to the influence of the missionaries. The ruler of a country in which Buddhism is the state reli- gion, he did not hesitate to adopt the suggestions which 110 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS the Christian teachers made. He showed his appre- ciation of missionary work by granting full religious toleration and by assigning valuable property to mis- sion work at a nominal value and several times for nothing. He went further and personally made gen- erous gifts to enlarge the mission hospital and school at Petchaburi, the mission hospital at Nakawn, and he headed a list of donors for a new site for the Bangkok Christian College, over eighty of his princes and nobles adding their names. The queen gave the money for a women's ward for the Petchaburi hospital, and for the "queen's scholarship fund" at the girls' school in Bang- kok. The present king is continuing the liberal policy of his illustrious father, and shortly before his acces- sion to the throne, he laid the corner-stone of the mis- sion college in Chieng-mai. Students of this phase of the influence of Chris- tianity in Asia will find a rich store of material in the volumes of Drs. Dennis, Capen, and Faunce, to which reference is made on page 168. Specific Fields It may be of interest to speak more particularly of the present strength and influence of the Church in several typical mission fields. Our space limits will not permit an enumeration of all of them; but we can mention some representative ones. Korea. Although it was not until 1886 that the first Korean was baptized, Korea now has a Christian Church whose membership, including enrolled provi- PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 111 sional members, approaches a quarter of a million, exclusive of adherents and baptized children. Many stations have histories which, though covering but a few years, are crowded with inspiring facts. When I visited the country in 1901, I was stirred by the wonder of the movement. Eight years later, I found no sign of abatement but rather signs of increasing power. Revival after revival has swept over the land. Recent years have brought heavy strain in changing material conditions, but the churches continue to grow. Who can read unmoved the following statements of a missionary regarding one of the six missions in Korea: thirty years ago not one Christian; now over 100,000 in his Church alone? The average net in- crease for thirteen years is 38 per cent. In the 591 primary schools 10,916 boys and 2,511 girls are study- ing. This one mission has added an average of 6,980 communicants a year for five years. The Rev. D. A. Bunker, of another mission, says: "Work along all lines goes forward so fast that we can hardly keep within sight of the van. At every chapel, candidates for baptism are awaiting us: 611 new names have been added to the list of believers in the past ten days." Japan. Japan, which received its first Protestant missionary in 1859, now has 857 organized churches with a membership, including enrolled beginners, of 102,790. There are 728 ordained Japanese min- isters, 713 unordained Christian workers, and over a hundred thousand scholars in 1,875 Sunday-schools. 112 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS Five thousand students are attending Christian board- ing-schools, and eight thousand children are attending one hundred kindergartens and other day schools. Four hundred candidates for the ministry are being trained in theological colleges, and three hundred and fifty women in Bible training-schools. The influence of Christianity extends far beyond the reported lists of communicants. A professor of the Imperial University in Tokyo declares that "at least a million Japanese outside the Christian Church have so come to understand Christianity that, though as yet unbaptized, they are framing their lives according to the teachings of Christ." Another Japanese says in a published article: "Christianity is taking hold of the Japanese people far more strongly than the mission- aries imagine. And I am confident that Christianity is now slowly but steadily taking the place of Confucian- ism as the family religion of the Japanese." The Rev. William Imbrie of Tokyo said in a semi- centennial address: "Fifty years ago notice-boards were standing on the highways declaring Christianity a forbidden religion; to-day these same notice-boards are standing in the museum in Tokyo as things of his- torical interest. Fifty years ago religious liberty was a phrase not yet minted in Japan; to-day it is written in the Constitution of the nation. Even forty years ago there was not an organized church in all Japan ; to- day there are Synods and Conferences and Asso- ciations with congregations dotting the empire from Hokkaido to Formosa, and men of high position PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 113 in the nation cordially recognize the fact that Chris- tianity in Japan has won for itself a place worthy of recognition." The Bible was a prohibited book in Japan for some time after the missionaries arrived. But six million copies of the Bible and Bible portions have been cir- culated during the last thirty years. The demand is still so great that 9,121 Bibles, 101,589 Testaments, and 391,666 portions were sold in 1913. The Word of God is the best-selling book in Japan to-day. We would not make too much of these facts. Japan is still far from being a Christian nation. The ob- stacles yet to be surmounted are numerous and formi- dable. But it is indisputable that Christian ideas are permeating the literature and the thinking of Japan to a far greater extent than is commonly realized. Who can tell how much of the development of modern Japan was influenced by missionaries? The prime minister, Count Okuma, has publicly testified that he could never forget the influence of the Rev. Guido F. Verbeck, who was his teacher in history, English, and the Bible; and Count Hayashi, formerly minister for foreign affairs, was equally outspoken in acknowl- edging the impulse that he received as one of the boys whom Dr. James C. Hepburn taught in a little class half a century ago. The Rev. Daniel Crosby Greene wrote, shortly before his lamented death, that "hardly ever before in any land, has Christianity borne riper or more varied fruit at so early a stage in its history." China. We have seen in a former chapter how 114 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS formidable were the obstacles which Christianity en- countered in China. In 1834, twenty-seven years after Morrison's arrival, there were only three converts, and in 1842 only six. In 1900, there were 113,000. To-day, only about a century after the first Chinese convert was baptized by a Protestant missionary, China has a Church of 370,114 communicants. The Rev. J. Campbell Gibson, of Swatow, says that "the great achievement of the first century of Protestant missions in China has been the planting of the Chinese Church. This body of Christians, with its equipment of gathered spiritual experience; of Bible, hymnology, and Christian literature; its places of worship; its churches, schools, colleges, hospitals, and printing- presses; its ordinances of worship; its discipline of prayer; and its habits of family and personal religion; with its martyrology, and its gathered memories of gracious living and holy dying this is the wonderful fruit which one hundred years have left in our hands." The change in the attitude of the Chinese government and people toward the Christian Church is highly significant. Until recent years, Christians were re- garded with a contempt which ranged from indiffer- ence to a hostility which found expression in persecu- tion. Officials and gentry either ignored them or made them feel the heavy hand of displeasure. To-day, Christians are everywhere regarded with respect. While the bulk of the membership of the Church still comes from the humbler classes, there is an increasing number of educated men. The Revolution of 1911 PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 115 marked a new era in religion as well as in politics. President Yuan Shih-kai has repeatedly expressed his sympathetic interest in Christian work, and thousands of lesser officials have taken their cue from him. After his accession to the presidency, a deputation of five Chinese pastors begged the privilege of presenting a memorial, assuring him of their prayers for his wel- fare and of their hope that the new government would proclaim full religious toleration. They had not ventured to believe that they could see him, but had expected that their memorial would have to be sent through official channels. But, when they arrived at the palace, they were ushered into the presence of Yuan Shih-kai himself. He received them kindly, served tea, listened attentively to the reading of their memorial and then made a sympathetic reply. When they took leave, he sent salutations to their churches, and ordered his guards to present arms and the mili- tary band to play. So these ambassadors of Jesus Christ left with distinguished honors the palace grounds whose outermost gate they would not have been per- mitted to enter a year before. It would not be easy to- overestimate the significance of the change which this indicates in the attitude of China toward the Christian Church. India. One of the surprises revealed by the govern- ment census of India was the number of persons who reported themselves to the official census-takers as Christians. The London Times wonderingly com- mented in a leading editorial: "There are 3,574,000 116 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS native Christians in India, apart from Eurasian Chris- tians. The Roman Catholics still have first place, with i ,394,000 adherents ; but the advance- of Roman Ca- tholicism in the decade is surprisingly small compared with Protestant progress. In the ten years the Protes- tant Christians have increased by nearly half a million, compared with the 272,000 increase among Catholics. The Baptists have grown in numbers from 217,000 to 332,171 and are now only a few hundred behind the Anglicans, who take first place with 332,807, an in- crease of 26,000 in the period. Congregationalists have made very marked numerical progress, especially in southern India, and they now have 134,000, an in- crease of 97,000 in ten years. The Presbyterians have added 121,000, and the Methodists 94,000. The total Christian population of India is now nearly four mil- lions, or about one in every eighty of the 315,000,000 living in the great dependency." The census further showed that, during the preceding decade, while the population of the country had increased 6.4 pe.r cent., the rate of increase of the various religions was as follows : Hindus, five per cent. ; Mohammedans, six per cent. ; Buddhists, thirteen per cent. ; Christians, thirty-three per cent. In the Punjab, the Christian increase was 446 per cent. When Bishop Thoburn organized the Methodist mission in 1859, there were one native member, six probationers, and four inquirers. By 1886, he was able to say : "We are now face to face with the most perplexing responsibilities. Twenty-five thousand per- PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 117 sons are to-day standing outside our doors, willing and waiting to receive the word which God has in- trusted to us for them." One looks with wonder not unmixed with awe upon "the mass movement" among the low-caste people of India. These depressed, half-starved classes, despised by the higher castes, really outcastes, are turning to God in multitudes. The Methodist Northwest India Conference has baptized 115,000 in twenty years, and is adding to its numbers at the rate of ten thousand a year. Other communions also report great accessions. The movement is spreading so rapidly as to encourage the hope that it will ultimately reach the majority of the sixty millions of low-caste inhabitants of India. 1 Every one is familiar with the striking words of Lord Lawrence : "It is Christ that rules British India." Sir Andrew H. L. Fraser, formerly Lieutenant- governor of Bengal, says: "I have seen the Indian Church grow from infancy, when it seemed impos- sible to let it take a step alone and without guidance, into a comparatively strong church. To me the results of Christian missions are not small or discouraging; they are important and of the highest promise. Such efforts as have been put forth by the churches have been crowned with wonderful success. No one who has taken any trouble to study the question, to see the the work itself, to judge the character of those who 'For some account of this movement, cf. the article, "Christ- ward Mass Movements in India," by Thomas S. Donohugh, in the Methodist Review, Nov.-Dec., 1913. 118 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS have been really won to the Christian religion, can fail to recognize how wonderful the results have been, both in regard to the numbers of true converts and also in regard to the elevation of their character." 1 Africa. Africa presents many instances of the splendid strength and influence which the Church is exerting even in that continent so darkened by ages of ignorance and superstition. 20,782 persons at- tended a regular communion service at Elat and its neighboring out-stations, 8,120 of them being at the central church. At Fulasi, seventy miles distant, 5,100 were present at a similar service. It is inspiring to think of such great congregations, assembled for the most part in the open air, for no building could hold such hosts, lifting their voices in glad songs of praise, and then reverently partaking together of the symbols of their Lord's death upon the cross. The net gain in the West Africa Mission in the Kameruns has been a thousand per cent, in the last three years. The story of Uganda is well known. Henry M. Stanley called it "an epic poem." Some one else has characterized it as "a pageant of salvation." In a country where, at first, persecution was ferocious and every condition appeared to be most hopeless, there are great churches thronged with devout worshipers, churches which are self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating. Remember that "in this con- tinent the missionaries are not working with civilized people, like those of India, China, and Japan, but with 1 Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots, 268-270. PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 119 the rudest barbarians. They are dealing with the raw material of the human race. The remarkable thing is that, in one generation or less, whole tribes can be lifted from the lowest barbarism, through all the inter- vening stages of social evolution, and placed on a fairly high plane of living. Individual transformations of character read like tales from our New Testament. The missionaries in Africa have proved that, when once the spirit of man is freed from the grip of sin, the whole nature responds and awakens to new life." Siam. The world gives little heed to what is occur- ring in the far-off valleys of northern Siam. But God is moving with great power among their Lao inhabi- tants. The work is comparatively new, but the move- ment is becoming notable. In a remote and isolated region and with a small missionary force, the Church is rapidly advancing in numbers and influence. The First Church of Chieng-mai has baptized 1,387 adults in three years. It has sent out several colonies to form other churches, has twelve outlying chapels and reports a membership of 2,083. The net gain in the mission was thirty-seven per cent, last year, the number of com- municants having increased from 4,618 to 6,299. Egypt. The Protestant Church in Egypt grew from seventy-seven members in 1864 to twelve thousand one hundred and ninety-four members in 1914. The average yearly increase for the last decade was 6.6 per cent. During the same period the average yearly increase of the Church in America which maintains the cooperating mission in Egypt was 2.2 per cent. 120 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS South Sea Islands. One cannot think unmoved of the manifestations of divine power in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii, New Guinea, the Hervey Group, the New Hebrides, and others that might be mentioned, have missionary histories that teem with inspiring facts. The novel of adventure is here out- done by the actual incidents of cannibal feasts, mid- night attacks, and hairbreadth escapes. The autobiog- raphies of such missionaries as John G. Paton and James Chalmers stir one's blood like the sound of a trumpet. To-day, many of these once turbulent tribes are orderly and peaceful communities. The traveler may "behold the demoniac sitting, clothed and in his right mind, even him that had the legion ;" but he need not be "afraid," x for these men worship God in humil- ity and love. The Philippines. The missions in the Philippines are among the youngest of modern missions. The first Protestant missionary did not arrive till 1899. Results began to appear almost immediately. The Filipinos, moved by the preaching of a pure gospel and by the reading of the Bible, which the Spanish friars had withheld from them, turned to God in such numbers that within half a decade there were numerous churches. To-day the number of adult communicants is around the fifty thousand mark and every year sees further advance. Not all fields have been as fruitful as these that have been mentioned, but the average rate of progress has *Mark v. 15. PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 121 been remarkably good considering all the circum- stances. Even in the hardest fields, solid foundations have been laid. Latin America. The countries that are commonly grouped under the name Latin America have presented peculiar difficulties. South America has been well characterized as "the continent that had a bad start," "with no Mayflower and no Plymouth Rock," but with brutal, lustful, avaricious Spanish adventurers. Ecuador and Peru are still bitterly intolerant of Prot- estant effort. In Mexico, Central America, Colombia, and Venezuela, mission work is frequently ham- pered by the unsettled conditions of revolutionary tur- bulence and by all the obstacles that a corrupt and fanatical hierarchy can devise. But Bolivia has reli- gious liberty, Chile and the Argentine are progressive republics, and Brazil is slowly but noticeably moving along the same path. In most of these countries well- established churches may be found. They are not yet numerous. The total number of Protestant communi- cants in all Latin America is only about 100,000. But they are making their influence felt. Here and there one finds a large and flourishing congregation. A church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has received 1,752 members since its organization in 1862. It added 120 last year, of whom 108 were on confession of faith. It is enlarging its building of a thousand sittings to provide needed accommodation for its growing con- gregations. It has six Sunday-schools and seven affili- ated congregations, has sent twelve of its members 122 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS into the ministry and has three more studying, and has a Christian Endeavor Society whose members dis- tribute tracts in the city and invite people to the serv- ices. Moslem Lands. Moslem lands have been deemed the stoniest ground for Christian seed. We have already referred to the fact that for a long time preach- ing to Mohammedans was forbidden, that their chil- dren were not permitted to attend mission schools, and that a convert was in imminent danger of assassina- tion. To-day, hundreds of Moslem pupils are attending mission schools, converts are becoming more frequent, and the walls of prejudice are crumbling in many hitherto inaccessible places. The Rev. Henry H. Jessup of Beirut, after half a century of missionary labor, wrote: "We find public sentiment throughout the land revolutionized on the subject of education for both sexes ; a vast number of readers raised up among all the sects and nationalities ; the power of the hierar- chy greatly weakened ; the Bible in thousands of homes ; the Syrian Protestant College in Beirut wielding an immense influence all over western Asia and north- eastern Africa; an increasing demand for the Arabic Scriptures; the Syria evangelical churches beginning to realize their responsibility; and, in fine, a material, intellectual, and moral awakening which is the prepara- tion for a new Syria in the new century at hand." Substantially similar statements might be made re- garding the churches in other parts of the Turkish empire and in Egypt and Persia. PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 123 General Progress. This is an incomplete record of the present strength and influence of the churches in non-Christian lands. Other interesting fields might be described if space permitted. But perhaps those that have been mentioned may serve as illustrations. of the progress that is being made throughout the whole widely extended range of Christian operations affecting the unevangelized world. Statistics have been numerous in this chapter. They will soon be out of date and we are glad that they will be, for the changes of each year mean that "Our God is marching on." Their repetition, however, even if only approximately correct at a given time, affords one a more definite im- pression of the magnitude and variety of the work that is being done. "Missionary statistics," as another has well said, "gathering up so many years in a few pages, are to many people like the valley of dry bones to the desponding prophet. But, to him who knows their meaning and walks among them, they rise and stand upon their feet, clothed with the flesh and blood of those whose life-work they represent their hopes, their fears, their doubts, their struggles, their tears, their death." The Unfinished Task Only a Beginning. We would not give the impres- sion that the non-Christian world is about to become Christian. Vast regions are still untouched, and large sections of the population of occupied lands have not 124 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS yet heard of Christ in a way that would enable them to make an intelligent choice. A total of 102,790 Christians in Japan? But there are 53,000,000 people in Japan. As many as 370,114 adult communicants in China? How small the number in comparison with a total population of 438,000,000! Nearly four million East Indians who tell the census-takers that they are Christians? We thank God and take courage. But shall we be content with one eightieth of India's pop- ulation of 315,000,000? And so we might go through field after field. Even where the most notable results have been achieved, hardly more than a beginning has been made. The non-Christian world is not a light place with dark spots, but a dark place in which only here and there the light is shining. The new world conditions, too, while enormously widening our oppor- tunity, are creating some new obstacles, intensifying some old ones, and demanding greatly increased effort on the part of the churches at home. A stupendous task still confronts us, a task summoning us to the most heroic endeavor, the most unselfish consecra- tion, and the most splendid faith. Praise, Prayer, Promise. Meantime, as we view the progress that has been made against tremendous obstacles, and then consider how much remains to be done, our thought may well be that of the one hundred and twenty-sixth Psalm : thanksgiving for the measure of blessing that has already been given "Jehovah has done great things for us, whereof we are glad;" but humble, earnest prayer that far richer grace may PRESENT STRENGTH AND INFLUENCE 125 come "Turn again our captivity, O Jehovah, as the streams in the South." Surely God will fulfil his promise that "they that sow in tears shall reap in joy" ; and that "he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing pre- cious seed, shall doubtless come again with joy, bring- ing his sheaves with him." VI SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION A young church, like a young man, must develop certain qualities if it is to perform its proper task in the world. Those which relate to spiritual life are discussed in another chapter. We discuss here some other duties that are prominent in the missionary aim and methods. Sclf-Support One of the Fundamentals. Self-support is one of these characteristics. We emphasize this, not only because it is fundamental to a living church, but be- cause some givers at home need to be assured that the mission boards are not asking them for unnecessary money, and because other givers frequently injure the work by well-meant but unwise designation of special objects which the boards do not approve. Attendant Dangers. The obstacles on the field are formidable. Even in America multitudes will gladly accept whatever is given them. Every charitable, edu- cational, and missionary agency is compelled to exer- cise care lest its aid shall diminish the self-reliance of the aided and thus increase the dependence that it de- sires to diminish. This difficulty is greatly intensified in foreign missionary work. The missionary represents a more expensive type of civilization than that in a 127 128 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS non-Christian land. His scale of living, while mod- erate from our view-point, appears large to Asiatics and Africans. Centuries of abject poverty and despotic government have predisposed most Orientals to accept with eagerness whatever is given them. Accustomed to living, or rather half-starving, on an income of from ten to a hundred dollars a year, the native regards the missionary who has a salary of -$1,200, and the control of thousands more for schools, hospitals, and other forms of work, as a very wealthy man. He is there- fore tempted to go to him for the "loaves and fishes." This temptation is strengthened if he gets the impres- sion that the missionary may employ him, or that some "rich" man or woman in America may support him; for he imagines that all white people have money in abundance. Even when the native minister or teacher is a highly trained man, it is neither practicable nor wise to pay him the salary that is paid to a missionary. The American or European, who is tiie product of western civilization, who requires many things that the native has not learned to require, who is a foreigner on* the mission field, and who cannot live upon the food or wear the clothing or occupy the house of an Asiatic or African, must be supported on a different financial scale from that of a native of the country. But the reasons for this distinction, so evident to us, are sel- dom evident to the native minister. The missionary, in turn, is tempted to use money freely because of the wretchedness of the people and because of the prospect of the visible results which may SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 129 be secured by a liberal financial policy. Would-be con- verts flock to him in such circumstances. Many helpers can be hired to apparent advantage, and buildings can be cheaply rented and furnished. But experience has shown that a church that is wholly supported by foreign money is built on quicksand. Its members have a de- pendent spirit, resent pressure toward self-support as an infringement upon their rights, and fail to realize their obligation to live the Christian life without being paid for it by the foreigner. In some fields, like Japan, the independent spirit of the people has obviated this danger; and in others, like Uganda and the Kameruns, the policy of self-support has been so persistently pressed from the beginning that the Christians have never had an opportunity to form the habit of financial dependence. But as a rule the danger is a real one. A Missionary Objective. Missionaries, as a rule, are increasingly firm on this subject. Our duty is to start Christianity in Asia, not to maintain it indef- initely ; to teach the gospel, to found its institutions, to aid them so far as necessary to their infancy, but to insist that as soon as practicable the churches shall stand upon their own foundations. We must be patient and reasonable, for now, as of old, it is the common people who hear Christ gladly, and in the mission field the common people are pitifully poor. But the spirit of self-help is as vital to character abroad as it is at home, and we must not pauperize the Christians of Asia by an indiscriminate and unnecessary charity. They paid 130 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS heavily for the support of their old religions, and there is no reason why they should not in time support their new faith. Undoubtedly some native workers should be em- ployed by the missions, especially for evangelistic work in communities where there are no Christians to sup- port them and for educational work in schools where salaries must be paid to teachers. An infant church must be helped. But the number of natives salaried by foreign money should be limited to real needs, and the salary should be only that which will enable them to live near the plane of their countrymen, while they should be made to understand clearly that this pecuni- ary arrangement is temporary. As far as possible na- tive workers should be maintained by their fellow Christians, or they should do Christian work in con- nection with their own occupations, as St. Paul did and as thousands of consecrated men and women in America are doing. It is highly unwise to turn the expectation of native Christians toward the churches of Europe and Ameri- ca instead of toward themselves. If there are a thou- sand Christians and a million non-Christians in a given district, it is easier to appeal to a board in Toronto, Boston, or New York for reenforcements and enlarged appropriations than it is for the individual believer to do as the Christians of the first century did, and as socialists and woman suffragists are doing now, that is, accept the privilege and responsibility of com- municating one's message to others without thought of SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 131 pay. Why should a follower of Christ, anywhere in the world, whether in Chicago or Peking, assume that he is under no obligation to witness for Christ unless somebody hires him to do so? Principle Involved. We must insist, in season and out of season, line upon line and precept upon precept, and even at the risk of appearing ungenerous, that while the missionary, being a foreigner, will be maintained by the people of America, the native workers must not look to Americans but to their own people for their permanent support. It will take a long time to reach it, but the ideal should be foreign money for foreign missionaries and native money for native workers. The Church will not be self-supporting in any proper sense if its work must be done by foreign missionaries in- stead of by a native ministry supported by the people. One vigorous, self-reliant congregation is worth more to the cause of Christ than a score that are dependent upon foreign money. We like to say that Christianity is adapted to every people. Then it ought to be able to live among them, particularly in the Orient where it started. There must of course be due regard to local conditions. But no land will ever be evangelized until it has a self-supporting native Church. American money, prudently used as the mission boards are care- ful to use it, is needed in large amounts. But while it is indispensable as a help to self-support, it would be ruinous if made a substitute for it. Answers Questions. The principle of self-support affords an answer to some questions that frequently 132 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS come before Christians at home. For instance: Shall we erect expensive churches in the mission field? Plausible appeals are frequent; but it has been found that a church built by foreigners is regarded by native Christians as the foreigner's church and that they do not feel the same interest in it that they feel toward a humble structure which they themselves have paid for. When a well-meaning but misguided friend in New England sent a stove to heat a church in a mission sta- tion of the American Board in Asiatic Turkey, the native officers of the church sent the missionaries, a bill for their time and labor in setting it up. The Presby- terian Board once received a request for an appropria- tion to pay for shoveling snow from the roof of a church in Persia. The board's reply should have been warm enough to melt the snow. The trouble was that the church was supposed to belong to the missionary and not to the people. Why should they work for him for nothing? Christians of the apostolic age, when driven by per- secution from synagogues and the temple, erected the humble edifices which were all that their weakness and poverty could afford. It does not follow that the numerous and wealthy Christians of the twentieth century should worship in a shed or under a tree be- cause the Christians of the first century did so. Chris- tianity to-day requires for effective work many things that the primitive church did not have time or re- sources to secure. The house of God should not be cheaper or plainer than the house in which the indi- SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 133 vidual Christian lives and the building in which he transacts his business. Dignity and taste find proper expression in architecture as in dress. Qn the other hand, moderation should characterize the Christian attitude in the mission field. If the church edifice should not be a hovel, neither should it be an opera-house. If it should not be beggarly, nei- ther should it be so costly as to beggar those who attend it. This is particularly important where we are trying to establish the Church among people whose poverty is so dire as to be almost incredible to one accustomed to American standards. Native preachers must do the future work, and they must, as in other lands, live on salaries which their congregations can pay, and preach in churches which their people can build. Otherwise we shall not establish a living Chris- tianity. Let them build as expensively as they like with their own money, and let us encourage them to make the house of God a worthy one. But the best missionary practise to-day is very conservative in building churches on the mission field except where a larger building is required for general station work, union meetings, an- nual conferences, or bodies of students, than a local congregation could be reasonably expected to provide. In other places foreign assistance seldom should exceed one half or one third of the cost. Places of worship in out-stations should be wholly provided by the native Christians, save in very exceptional cases. Chapels for evangelistic work in communities where there are no local Christians must sometimes be provided from 134 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS foreign funds, and, in the case of street chapels in metropolitan cities, these may require considerable sums, as a site is expensive in such cities and the building may have to be large and equipped with facili- ties for institutional work. To guard against unwise expenditure, the judgment of the mission board con- cerned should be sought and money should be given only through it and for an object and to an amount that it approves. Corrects a Wrong Drift. The principle of self- support also bears upon the question of assigning the salaries of particular native workers to givers in America. This plan has been tried with disastrous consequences. Experience has proved that it is ad- ministratively impracticable and expensive on account of the thousands of special accounts and the greatly increased correspondence that it involves. The average mission board has several thousands of these workers. They are employed by the missionaries on the field for varying periods and at various salaries. They are frequently changed. The missionary may pay one at a given rate for a few months, and then reduce his salary as the native Christians can be induced to in- crease their share of his support. If the natives know that a definite sum has been sent from America, the missionary cannot easily persuade them to assume larger financial responsibility, and the native worker himself will be apt to resent the missionary's effort, if indeed he does not suspect him of keeping the money for himself. "It was given for me and I have a right SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 135 to the whole of it," he reasons. The method is utterly impracticable. It undermines the self-reliance of the native worker, deprives him of incentive to develop the giving of his people, renders him independent of them, leads them to regard him as a foreign hireling who is financially profiting by a Christian, profession, lessens their sense of duty to contribute to his support, and seriously hampers the efforts of the missionaries to promote self-support. The difficulty is intensified when a photograph is asked where no photographer is within reach and no money to pay him if there is one, and when letters are requested from a native who perhaps never wrote a letter in his life, who knows no English, and whose laborious efforts to address a distant "great man" must be revised and re-revised and then trans- lated and mailed by an overworked missionary who can hardly find time to write to his own relatives. Money for native workers invariably should be given through a mission board in such a way that the board can send it in a lump sum to a mission, that is, the organized body of missionaries in the field concerned, and that body should have liberty to use it at discre- tion for the best interests of the cause, unembarrassed by any designation from America. Applied to Students from Mission Lands. Still another application of the principle of self-support relates to the frequent appeals in behalf of students from non-Christian lands who are flocking to America in increasing numbers. We do not refer to those who have been graduated from the mission or government 136 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS schools in their native land and who have come here on the recommendation of their former teachers to take further studies with the expectation of supporting themselves afterwards. When young men come in these circumstances, with a knowledge of the English lan- guage which enables them to pursue their studies to advantage, and with some means of their own to help pay their way at least for the first year, they should be encouraged. But if financial assistance is needed, it should be given as tuition or scholarships are given to students in our home colleges, and not from mission- ary funds ; nor should any one imagine that he is doing the missionary cause a service by giving money to aid an Oriental to "return and preach the gospel to his own people." The experience of boards and missionaries is em- phatic, that, with rare exceptions, chiefly among Chi- nese and Japanese, natives of non-Christian lands who have been trained in Europe or America are not so useful on the foreign field as many in the home land imagine. The difficulties involved are often inde- pendent of the question of personal character. Native Christians can be most economically and effectively trained in their own country, in the educational insti- tutions which, in almost every mission field, have been founded at considerable expense for this purpose. A sojourn in America usually develops tastes which ren- der an Asiatic discontented with the financial support which the native church or the mission can give him, separates him socially from his own people, and some- SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 137 times makes him so overbearing in manner that he is heartily disliked by other native workers. He thus be- comes a source of trouble rather than of help. The policy of encouraging large numbers of these young people to come to America in the earlier stages of their course, without a knowledge of English or. any means of support, thwarts wise plans for education on the mission field, creates irritation among the whole force of native workers, stimulates a worldly ambition, cuts off patriotism and race sympathy, and really cripples the influence which it is supposed to increase. Not in- frequently it leads to imposition upon the home churches and to diversion of funds to personal uses which are supposed to go for missionary objects. The Testing Times. The vital importance of self- support has been thrown into startling prominence by the plight of the Continental missions during the Euro- pean war. These missions were no more dependent in this respect than American and British missions are. But when that war cut off supplies from home, a large part of the work stopped. It was an exotic whose roots had not yet struck deep enough into the soil to give holding power. This fact is not in itself a criticism. Christianity was necessarily projected from Europe and America. Manifestly it could not be started in a non-Christian land in any other way. Our Lord told his disciples to go forth. Christianity had to be brought to peoples who did not have it. We must remember, too, that during the period of founding, mission work must be largely sustained by those who 138 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS found it. Time is required for this, long time perhaps, in some fields at least. Now if the foreign planters are suddenly and unexpectedly deprived of support before they have completed their work, injury necessarily fol- lows. A new orchard cannot be expected to with- stand a cyclone before the workmen have finished shoveling the earth around the roots and tamping it down. The demoralization of the Continental mis- sions on account of the European war was there- fore inevitable and not indicative of defective methods. It should serve, however, as an additional warning of the imperative necessity of making mission work self-supporting at the earliest possible period. Mis- sionaries themselves must continue to depend upon their home boards. Disaster at home will always cause them hardship, for they should not be and cannot be locally supported. If their foreign support fails, they must be brought home or temporarily helped by relief funds, as the Continental missionaries were during the European war. The mission work, however the schools and hospitals and native evangelists, the teach- ers and nurses who are salaried by the mission, all the great institutional work cannot be built safely on a foundation of foreign money which any catastrophe might destroy. The lesson is clear. We must be careful to get the work rooted in native soil as soon as possible so that it will be able to stand without foreign props. We must insist that the native Christians shall support it as far as practicable and as soon as practicable. We SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 139 must not use our money in such a way as to make mis- sion work top-heavy. The wise expenditure of for- eign funds among non-Christian peoples is one of the most difficult and delicate of administrative tasks, and the local church or individual donor in America who gives to special objects without consultation with the board concerned may not only embarrass the board but do harm rather than good. Reasonable Assistance. On the other hand, Chris- tians at home should remember that the Church in non-Christian lands is yet in its infancy, that they themselves needed help at the corresponding period of their development, and that each of the home churches maintains several boards to give aid to the home mission churches and institutions of our own country. The churches on the foreign field have not yet reached the stage of the churches of the West, where there are numerous wealthy congregations which can aid the small and weak ones and send home missionaries to preach to the unevangelized. Here and there praiseworthy beginnings of this kind have been made; but, speaking broadly, the native congregations are made up of very poor people who are less able to support their churches than mem- bers of home mission churches in the United States. It is undoubtedly better to let them struggle and sacrifice than to give them help which would foster the spirit of dependence; but we should not see the leaders, who are most indispensable to the growth of the Church, the extension of the gospel, and the main- 140 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS tenance of our schools and colleges, driven into com- mercial life or government employ because their full support cannot yet be provided by their poverty- stricken fellow Christians. The question which con- fronts many a capable Asiatic minister and teacher is not so much additional comfort as the bare necessities of life for himself and his family. A larger sum for this purpose, judiciously used by prudent mission boards, will not harm but greatly strengthen the work. How It Works. Many mission fields furnish in- teresting examples of the policy of self-support. The most competent man is selected as local leader, and he serves without compensation, like a Sunday-school superintendent in America. After a while, when his whole time is required, he receives a small salary, but the people pay it. When evangelists are employed for work in villages where there are no Christians, the older congregations are expected to contribute something toward their support, the missionaries supplementing this fund so far as may be expedient. Ninety-four per cent, of the 1,152 salaried evangelists and teachers of one mission are supported by the native congrega- tions. The missionaries do not go to unreasonable extremes in their refusal to employ native Christians; they use them wherever the interests of the work ap- pear to them to necessitate help. But the pressure for self-support is strong. The response of the native Christians often moves the visitor deeply. Imagine a call for an offering in a congregation whose men's wages are fifteen cents SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 141 a day and whose women toilers earn five! Consider then the significance of the fact that contributions and fees of Christians in the foreign field in 1913 for all Christian effort, amounted to $7,085,230. One board reports an increase in receipts on the mission field of 377 per cent, in ten years. During the same period, its receipts from Christians in the United States increased 130 per cent. It is true that the gifts abroad include all objects and that at home the refer- ence is only to foreign missions. When we remember that ten cents mean as much in Asia as a dollar means in America, such gifts bear eloquent witness to the genuineness of the faith of the givers. When surprise was expressed at the generous con- tribution of a small foreign mission church, the native elder replied : "Being ignorant people, with no one to instruct us, we looked unto the Bible for instruction, and we saw that at least a tenth of our income must be given to the Lord Jesus." One devout Christian explained the fact that his church was self-supporting by saying that several years before, the believers had learned the secret of giving, which was that giving was an offering to the Lord and a part of the worship of God. Unique Kamerun Offering. Among the churches in the Kameruns on the west coast of Africa, a convert is not admitted to the sacraments unless he gives systematically and proportionately to the Lord's work. The believers build their own churches. "I never saw the like since I was born," said a Bulu 142 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS woman as she stood with a basket on her back and her eyes scanning the church at Elat. The Rev. A. W. Halsey, then visiting the mission, echoed her wonder, for he found the church the largest build- ing in southern Kamerun, and seating 4,00x3. The center posts, brought in on the shoulders of men, reached thirty-six feet above ground. One thousand bamboo poles, carried by the people from the swamps and entwined by bush rope holding the thatch roof, served as rafters. Ten thousand mats, twelve feet long, made of bamboo leaves woven by the schoolboys, constituted the roof. Four thousand and ten persons were present at the dedication in 1910. To-day 15,000 persons are on the contributing list in a church of 2,297 communicant members and 13,000 enrolled can- didates for membership. 1 Self -Propagation Inborn Christian Motive. Self-propagation is an- other duty which boards and missionaries diligently seek to cultivate in the churches in the mission field. Converts are taught that the missionary motive should become operative within them as soon as they become Christians, and that they are under the same obligation as Christians in America to give the knowledge of 'Cf . the following books on self-support : John L. Nevius, Planting and Development of Missionary Churches; C. H. Car- penter, Self-Support Illustrated in the History of the Bassein Karen Mission from 1840 to 1880; J. Campbell Gibson, Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China. SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 143 Christ to others. Our Lord adopted this method in his earthly ministry. While he preached to the multitudes who came to him, he taught his disciples to "go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain them to come in." l He carefully trained a body of men to extend the work after his death, and one of his last commands to his followers was to "make disciples of all the nations." 2 "Come" was Christ's invitation to sinners. "Go" and seek them was his direction to Christians. Paul also worked in this way. He went to a city, proclaimed the gospel, organized believers into a church, remained long enough to get them fairly started, and then left them to propagate the faith them- selves. Evangelizing and Christianizing. The modern mis- sionary will have to remain longer than Paul did, for he does not find such prepared conditions as the great apostle found in the Jews of the dispersion. A land may be evangelized in a generation; that is, all of its inhabitants may be told of Christ ; but Christian- izing it, that is, giving them an intelligent idea of what Christianity means, inducing them to accept it, and to conform their lives to its teaching this may be the toilsome process of centuries. It has not been com- pleted yet in Europe and America, although the gospel was brought to our ancestors nearly nineteen hundred years ago. Moreover, when the object has been at- tained in one country, the responsibility of the mis- sionarv and the home Church will not cease but will be 'Luke xiv. 23. 'Matt, xxviii. 19. 144 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS transferred to other populations. But whether our stay in a given field be long or short, we should reso- lutely keep in mind the necessity of establishing a self- propagating native Church. Home Church Limitations. Self-propagation is necessary from the view-point of the home Church. Europe and America cannot send out enough mission- aries to preach the gospel effectively to all the thou- sand millions of the non-Christian world. Consider how many persons one Christian worker can be reason- ably expected to lead to Christ in an average work- ing lifetime, and then figure out how many workers would be required for a billion people. The mission boards ought not to appoint so many missionaries even if they could get them. It would be as foolish for them to send out a hundred thousand missionaries as it would be for a government to f orm an army of gen- erals while making no provision for subalterns, non- commissioned officers, and privates. The foreign mis- sionary is an apostle in the literal sense one sent, a leader, an organizer, a superintendent. He is to bear the first message and train those who receive it to bear it to others. Christ appointed twelve apostles for that generation, not ten thousand. The permanent work in each community was done by local Christians. To supply non-Christian nations with the proportion of ministers that we have in the United States would require 1,500,000 ministers; and as only about one third of the foreign missionary body is composed of ordained men the others being teachers, physicians, SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 145 nurses, and lay evangelists the total number of mis- sionaries on this basis would be over four millions. Such a host of qualified persons could not be found, 1 and could not be supported if found, nor should the foreign field be flooded with so vast an army of aliens even if they could be found and supported. Native Workers Indispensable. The native worker must be the main dependence for spreading Christian- ity in a non-Christian land. He can live in his own country on much less than a foreigner, and he has a knowledge of native idioms, ways of thinking, and manners and customs that few foreigners can ever obtain. There is no racial gulf between him and the people to whom he preaches. There is much about the Asiatic and African that will ever remain inscrutable to the American and European. The former, in par- ticular, is apt to be secretive and to make his face and manner a mask to conceal his real thoughts. The native evangelist is able to get behind this mask, and just because he is a native, and probably one of superior force of character, the people are more influenced by him than by a foreigner. Most converts are now made by native workers. An experienced missionary in Manchuria, in reporting 1,200 conversions, said that the first principles of Christian instruction were im- planted almost invariably by the natives, and that he could not trace more than four and twenty who were directly the converts of the foreign missionary. Other 'See author's book on The Why and How of Foreign Missions, ch. Ill, "Qualifications and Appointment." 146 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS missionaries declare that five hundred native evangel- ists would be a far greater power for Christ in a mis- sion field than five thousand foreigners. Place Still for Foreign Workers. We do not mean to minimize the need for new missionaries. The pres- ent force is far too small for effective superintendence. The home Church should not relax its efforts to pro- vide a more adequate supply of foreign workers ; but, while we continue this effort, we must try to develop in every possible way the spirit of self -propagation in the native Church. Many difficulties beset this problem. Hundreds of native Christians may ask employment as evangelists who are quite unfit for it; nor is every one who is willing to work without pay qualified for efficient service. But these and other difficulties can and should be overcome. The more successful the work of the foreign missionary, the more vital it is to develop in the Church a zeal to main- tain and extend it. Test of Vitality. Self-propagation is indispensable from the view-point of the Church itself, quite apart from any foreign assistance that may be available. A Church, like a family or nation, that does not grow from within will die, for its members will have no suc- cessors. Real growth .cannot be stuck on from the outside. One cannot make a fruitful tree by nailing on branches and tying on apples. The principle of growth must be in the tree. Real love for Christ will find expression in desire to lead others to him. Self- propagation is therefore an evidence of vitality and SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 147 energy, and in developing it the missionary is develop- ing the very life itself. Does this statement awaken uncomfortable reflec- tions in the minds of the readers of these pages? How many members of a typical church in Europe and America ever think of speaking even to their acquaint- ances, to say nothing of strangers, about the Christian life? How many assume that their minister is paid to do that for them? Why should not a Christian speak naturally and easily about a subject that ought to be uppermost in his mind? Personal work among the unconverted is far more common among Christians in the mission field than in America. It is true that not all professed followers of Christ on the foreign field are characterized by this zeal. Some missionaries, like nearly all ministers at home, are depressed by the disposition of church-mem- bers to leave such work to the men who receive a salary for doing it. But in many places the impulse to tell others the good news is strong. In thousands of villages in the non-Christian world, not a day passes that devoted believers do not open the Word of God and tell the story of Christ to their listening country- men. Pledging Service. During a Bible training class in one city, the men were invited to pledge definite time for house-to-house work for Christ. Enough days of preaching were pledged to equal the work of one man for nine years, and a large additional number of men pledged themselves to begin each day with the petition: 148 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS "Lord, what wilt thou have me do to-day?" In an- other letter we read : "The Church is waking up to a strenuous effort to take the gospel to every house this year. At a circuit class 250 were present. One eve- ning was given to the subject of personal work, and an opportunity for pledging a number of days' work dur- ing the year resulted in an aggregate of 2,700 days of preaching promised. Some Christians who could not control their time have subscribed each a half month's salary. An ox-load of 4,000 copies of Mark's Gospel was sent to me during the class, and in less than half an hour all were purchased by the Christians to give to such as promised to read it. The Gospel is going to reach every family in my territory this year." Model Village. The reputation of Sorai, Korea, ought to be as wide as Christendom. Think of a vil- lage of fifty-eight houses, in fifty of which all persons over fifteen years of age are Christians; a community in which there is no liquor, no vice of any kind, where the Sabbath is scrupulously kept, and the entire popula- tion attends church, Sunday-school, and prayer-meet- ing ! Two brothers were God's instruments in creating this model Christian village. The elder was converted through the Rev . John Ross, during a visit in Manchuria. Like Andrew of old, "he findeth first his own brother, . . . and saith unto him : We have found the Messiah, . . . He brought him unto Jesus." Re- moving to Sorai, these brothers preached the gospel with such power and exemplified it with such beauty of character that the whole village was transformed. SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 149 No missionary resides in Sorai and none is needed, for Sau Kyung-jo wisely shepherds the flock. Eminent Witnesses in Japan. An explosion oc- curred on a Japanese battleship. The son of the Vice- Admiral was involved in the wreckage. While search was being made for the bodies, many prominent Jap- anese called upon the mother to offer condolences. She told them that she felt the need of the consolations of the Christian religion in that time of anxiety, and she called upon her Japanese pastor to read the Word of God and to offer prayer. He was a young man who had been recently graduated from the theological seminary. It was a difficult position for him; but with tact and fidelity he opened the New Testament -and directed the hearts of all to the throne of God, while Japanese in high official position, some of whom had never heard such words before, bowed with the anxious mother. Later, the body of the son was found. The stricken parents announced that the public fu- neral would be followed by a Christian service, and that any of their friends who wished to come would be wel- come. A distinguished company assembled. The young Japanese again spoke, impressively dwelling upon the Christian meaning of death and the comfort which God gives to his children in the time of need. Mr. Morimura Ichizaimon, a wealthy merchant of Tokyo, became a Christian late in life and immediately dedicated himself to witnessing for Christ. In his addresses he tells his personal history. The Rev. J. B. Hail, who heard him speak in a series of crowded 150 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS meetings, writes that he said of himself : "I began my mercantile career with just ten tempos (eight cents). I was not acquainted with either Buddhism or Shin- toism. But I thought there must be One somewhere in the heavens who cared for men, and I prayed to that One whom I did not know, and I am sure that he has helped me although I did not know him. When I had time afterwards, I studied Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shintoism; but they gave me no satisfaction. After seventy years spent in getting money, I found that money could not satisfy me. But at last I found what I need in the Bible. In it I found Christ and in Christ I found God, and now I have given myself with all that I have to God, and am as peaceful in mind and heart as an infant in its mother's arms. Since I have given myself with all I have to Christ, I have had the only true joy that I have ever known. The knowledge of Christ is better than all the wealth of the world. I am now eighty- four years old. My sons and family, when I told them that I was going to witness for Christ, tried to dissuade me. They said : 'There are plenty of young men to do that; you are old and should take things easy. You do not need to do this.' But I said : 'It may be that as I am an old man I will die on the road, or I may fall dead in the pulpit. Well, let it be so, I am going to spend the remainder of my days in testifying for my Lord.' When they saw that they could not dissuade me, they reluctantly agreed to my starting out. I have renewed my youth and am as well as I ever was in my life." The reputation of this I UN HO. THE BLIND LEPER GIRL SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 151 man brings out large audiences of the merchant class, and his simple story makes a profound impression. Fruitful Chinese Lives. That man of God, Ding Li Mei, of China, is one of the great evangelists of the century. Missionary letters have teemed for years with accounts of his services. He sways multitudes, and without finding it necessary to be coarse or sen- sational. His language and manner are those of a cul- tivated Christian gentleman and men take knowledge of him that he has been with Jesus. Who could have a more limited opportunity for personal Christian work than a leper girl ? Born blind, sold by her callous parents into slavery, Un Ho was led by her owner through the streets of Canton to sing for copper coins. Her foot becoming sore, she was taken to a mission hospital, where her foot had to be amputated. The woman who owned her then cast her off as useless. But in the hospital, Un Ho listened to the reading of the New Testament, learned to re- peat the whole of it except a few chapters from the Book of Revelation, and joyfully gave her heart to Christ. She was then discovered to be a leper and was sent to the leper settlement outside of the east gate. There was no other Christian there, and so day by day Un Ho repeated the chapters from the Bible, and in three months brought thirty people to the mis- sionaries to be baptized. During her illness she led 190 other lepers to Christ. A blind, slave, sick, crippled, leper, peasant, Chinese girl leading 220 hope- lessly diseased men and women to him who, when on 152 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS earth, laid his hands on a leper and tenderly said : "Be thou clean !" Missionary Impulse. Several of the churches in Asia and Africa have undertaken home mission work in a systematic way and some of them have started work in other lands. The Japanese churches have well-organized boards of home missions and they are extending their work to Korea. In the latter country, the native churches sent one of their first or- dained clergymen as a missionary to the island of Quel- part in 1907. It is interesting to note that he was a man who had stoned Dr. Samuel Moffett on the streets of Pingyang nineteen years before. Korean Chris- tians have now undertaken regular missionary work among Korean emigrants to Manchuria and the un- evangelized Chinese in the Province of Shantung. A missionary reports that a city church in his station is carrying on home mission work in over 140 villages in the adjacent region, that every Sunday the members go out for regular preaching, and that other churches are no whit behind in bringing in new believers. A man was overheard praying in Chung-ju: "O Lord, we are a despised people, the weakest nation on the earth. But thou art a God who choosest the despised things. Wilt thou use this nation to show forth thy glory in Asia !" Such facts as these encourage us to apply to the churches in several non-Christian lands what the Rev. Daniel Crosby Greene said of Japan: "It is a matter for great rejoicing that with the growth in numbers SELF-SUPPORT AND SELF-PROPAGATION 153 there is an increasing sense of responsibility for the evangelization of their own country. There has al- ready grown up a large body of self supporting churches which are deeply imbued with the belief that it is their duty to prove to the world that Christianity is no longer an exotic, but has planted its roots firmly in the soil of their native land." VII SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT Social Service Change of Emphasis. A few years ago, most writers on the essential duties to which a church should be trained would not have included social service. The social responsibilities of Christians were recognized in a general way, but they were regarded as incidental. The followers of Christ are now realizing that these responsibilities demand larger attention as one of the primary obligations of a true church of God. The necessity for this is particularly urgent on the foreign field where social conditions are most radically and lamentably wrong. The evils are so great and the neglect of the defective classes is so heartless that mis- sionaries cannot ignore them. Until comparatively recent years medical missions represented the only systematic effort to meet these evils by direct methods. The gospel wrought many social changes in other directions ; but, while they were considered of primary importance by government offi- cials and others who are not particularly interested in the spiritual phases of missionary work, they were regarded as more or less incidental by many supporters of missions and by some missionaries. Their inter- pretation of the aim of the missionary enterprise to preach the gospel and to plant the Church did not i55 156 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS include any more changes in this world than were be- lieved to be necessary to fit man for the world to come. Even medical missions were encouraged chiefly as a means of opening doors of opportunity for preaching, and not because hospitals were recognized as an essen- tial part of missionary work. I have heard arguments to the effect that hospitals are no longer needed in Korea, as the opportunities for evangelistic work are now sufficiently great without them. Industrial schools were sharply denounced. Robert Needham Cust, an acknowledged English authority of the last generation, wrote: "No one can doubt the benevolence of those who undertake such enterprises ; but I think most prob- ably the spirituality of the manager must be driven out of him. . . . The whole thing is so thoroughly contrary to apostolic practise and post-apostolic expe- rience. The duty of the missionary is to preach the gospel, and nothing else, except what helps preaching the gospel. His converts and his church may be poor and uncivilized; that is not his affair; the poor have the gospel preached to them; that is his sole duty." 1 Initial Social Efforts. Many missionaries concerned themselves with the pitiful condition of famine suffer- ers, fallen women, the' blind, the insane, the orphaned, and the deaf and dumb; but at first they usually acted on their own initiative. In some instances their efforts were disapproved by their associates and by their boards. Dr. and Mrs. John G. Kerr, of Canton, China, *Essay on Prevailing Methods of the Evangelisation of the Non-Christian World, 16. DR. KERR'S HOSPITAL FOR THE IXSAXE DR. XILES' SCHOOL FOR BLIND GIRLS SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 157 built their hospital for the insane, Dr. Mary Niles, also of Canton, her school for the blind, Mrs. Annetta T. Mills her school for the deaf and dumb at Chefoo, without official assistance beyond the payment of their salaries, and were left for many years to carry per- sonally the burden of superintending their respective institutions and of obtaining financial support for them. Fortunately, these missionaries had large self- reliance and force of character, and by indefatigable labors, which sometimes involved great anxieties, they managed to develop and sustain their enterprises. The rescue work for Chinese prostitutes in Shanghai was conceived in the same way, not as the result of any recognized policy, but as the effort of a group of mis- sionaries acting outside of their specified duties. The splendid effort that has been made in behalf of the prostitutes in Japan was inaugurated by an individual missionary, and the only agency which has officially taken up this work as an integral part of its regular operations is the Salvation Army. Dr. James W. Mc- Kean, of northern Siam, bore a heavy load of care in developing a beneficent work for lepers near Chieng- mai. Other instances might be cited in various lands. These are, of course, general statements. It would be easy to cite exceptions; but the main fact remains that, as a rule, the application of the gospel to social conditions was not regarded until recently as an essen- tial part of the missionary enterprise but was largely left to individuals. The common idea was either that this world was so doomed anyway that the only thing 158 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS to be done was to pluck as many brands as possible from the burning before it was too late to do so, or that the gospel could be left to work out its own re- formatory effects in society. It was recognized that social conditions needed to be changed; but it was believed that the native Churches would attend to them in due time. When a certain missionary on furlough was asked, in a conference with students, what his mission was doing in the way of social service, he replied: "Nothing; we are too busy preaching the gospel." It would be easy to show that this answer was not a fair characterization of the work of his mission; but it illustrates the attitude of mind which long prevailed. Former Attitude of Home Churches. The mission- aries who held this view merely reflected the attitude of their home churches. Christians have founded and are supporting nine tenths of the charitable work of our American communities and have been the chief factors -in promoting legislation for municipal, county, and state institutions for the sick, the poor, and the defective. But efforts of this kind were not consid- ered the duty of the churches themselves, and when time and money were thus "diverted" from church "work," the action was sometimes resented. The com- mon idea was expressed in the hymn which congrega- tions used to sing with self-satisfied fervor: "Pull for the shore, sailor; Pull for the shore. Leave the poor old stranded wreck, And pull for the shore." SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 159 Ministers were supposed to devote themselves exclu- sively to sermons, prayer-meetings, and pastoral work, and their themes were to be "the gospel" only, in alleged imitation of St. Paul who was determined not to "know anything, . . . save Jesus Christ and him cruci- fied." l It did not occur to them that St. Paul's Epistles afford abundant evidence that he interpreted Jesus Christ in terms of the whole duty and relation- ship of man, making him the regulative principle of all human life. Indeed, a veteran clergyman, after hearing that I had preached a sermon on the pitiable lot of women and children in sweat-shops, piously said that he thanked God that in a ministry of fifty years he had never preached on such a subject but that he had confined himself to the gospel! Similar convictions built up churches which had eloquent preaching and inspiring music, paid for by pewholders some of whom, as recent events have shown, spent their week-days as insurance grafters, political corruptionists, betrayers of trust funds, and child-labor employers. When an indignant public sentiment began to castigate them, they lifted their hands in innocent surprise that any one should imagine that they had been doing wrong. Religion was con- ceived as a man's private affair and as having no necessary relation to business or politics. The Euro- pean war has given frightful illustration of the inade- quacy of that interpretation of Christianity. Example of Christ and the Apostles. We should not, 160 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS however, go to the other extreme by insisting that the preeminent duty of the Church is not to preach the gospel but to effect social reforms. This would be a false alternative. No such distinction is permissible be- tween the gospel and social service rightly understood. Christ and his apostles made the preaching of the gospel the first thing, and they did not organize soci- eties for the prevention of crime or found orphanages and insane asylums. On the other hand, the age in which Christ lived and the time and circumstances of his brief ministry did not make it practicable for him to do many things which he might have done in other circumstances and which he expects his followers to do. If he and his apostles did not undertake special lines of social service, neither did they organize Sun- day-schools, women's societies, young people's soci- eties, mission bands, Young Men's Christian Associa- tions, and other agencies which are now deemed indis- pensable parts of Christian activity. But Christ did heal the sick on a large scale. He opened the eyes of the blind, he made the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk, he restored reason to the insane, and he encouraged special ministries to the poor. The apostles organized a board of deacons to relieve desti- tute widows. 1 In doing these things to-day, we are but following his example. The spirit of Christ calls us to do something more in the direction of social service than the Church has yet done either at home or abroad. No such highly 'Acts vi. 1-6. SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 161 developed creeds and church organizations as we have to-day were formulated by our Lord or by St. Paul; but we are not going to disband our churches or burn our creeds on that account. I believe, with all my heart, that the supreme duty of the missionary enter- prise is to make Jesus Christ intelligently known as a personal Savior, to induce men to accept him as such, and to aid them in establishing a self-propa- gating, self-supporting, and self-governing Church. Evangelistic work, therefore, should be first in impor- tance always and everywhere. But when the gospel is introduced among a non- Christian people, we should not leave converts to ascer- tain and work out unaided the meaning of that gospel in human society. It has taken western Christians many centuries to learn this lesson. Why should we leave Asiatics and Africans to stumble along for the same number of centuries? It is a reproach to the Churches of America and Europe that they have so largely left the outworking of the gospel in society to independent and voluntary organizations. Social Vision Needed. Of what avail to tell a young Christian that he should abstain from liquor, when saloons on every corner incite him to drink; to teach a girl that she should be pure in a land whose social customs openly recognize impurity ; to insist that a boy shall be honest when dishonesty is woven into the very warp and woof of the family and commercial life of which he is a part ? The Rev. John E. Clough, mission- ary to the Telugus, found that he could make no head- 162 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS way among the filthy carrion-eating Pariahs of his district unless he changed the whole structure of their village life. Principal A. G. Eraser of Kandy, Ceylon, and Mr. Sam Higginbottom of Allahabad soon came to the conclusion that to educate village boys in arithmetic, geography, and Bible history, and to send them out with no training that would enable them to earn a decent living, was to pour water through a sieve. We are working at tremendous disadvantage in trying to save individuals if we ignore the social conditions which influence them. It is important to pull men out of the mire; but the proportion of rescued men will be small if we do not lessen the mire into which others are constantly falling. Much Christian work in the past has been done on the principle of the Chinese cart. There are no roads in China, except ancient ruts that are filled with dust in the dry season and with mud and water in the wet season. Instead of improving the roads, the Chinese tried to make an indestructible springless cart. They succeeded in making one that no traveler can use without agony and temptation to strong language as it jumps and jolts along; but modern China is awakening to the fact that it is worth while to spend money on roads as well as carts. True Reforms Are Evangelistic. The gospel of Christ is as truly presented in the schools for the blind and for the deaf and dumb, the asylums and orphan- ages and homes for child widows, as it is in what we call evangelistic work. Are they not evangelistic too? Did not Livingstone preach an essential part of the SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 163 gospel when he proclaimed to western nations the horrors of African slavery as the open sore of the world? Did not missionaries in India serve the cause of Christ when they protested against the immolation of wives on the death of their husbands, the mission- aries in Siam when they persuaded the king to issue a decree against the national vice of gambling, and the missionaries in China when they inaugurated the re- cent crusade against opium? I dissent from those who feel that we should leave such work to outside agencies and who begrudge every dollar that the boards spend upon it lest it be taken away from "direct Chris- tian work." If I may adapt a sentence which Glad- stone was wont to use in contradicting a statement in the House of Commons, "I wish to be understood as making my dissent as emphatic as the rules of the House will permit." Value of Mission Philanthropies. I am not urging anything that is new to the mission boards, for nearly all of them to-day are conducting social work of this kind on a large scale and regard it as an integral sec- tion of their work. Indeed a considerable part of the modern missionary enterprise might be called Chris- tian social settlement work on a large scale. It is one of the glories of the foreign missionary enterprise that, along with its numerous churches and its expanding evangelistic work and as an essential part of its inter- pretation of Christ to the non-Christian world, it in- cludes 1,6 1 6 hospitals and dispensaries which are treat- ing five million patients a year, 25 institutions for the 164 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS blind and for deaf-mutes, 88 leper hospitals and asylums, 21 rescue homes for fallen women, and 21 homes for untainted children of lepers. These insti- tutions, in spite of the fact that the mission boards have been able to give them only meager equipment, are conducted by carefully selected missionaries who have received the best modern training for their spe- cial lines of work. I discuss the question here, partly because their course in this matter is not unanimously approved, and partly because the whole subject of the relationship of the Church to such work needs to be more systematically studied. The fact that modern missions are exerting such an enormous social influence is a strong testimony to the normal outworking of the gospel in this direction. But the situation should be more adequately faced, and we should not be afraid to follow our Christian impulses to aid the afflicted and dependent in the name and spirit of our Lord for fear that we may do something outside of our missionary responsibilities. Missionaries, therefore, try to impress the native churches with their duty toward the social evils of their respective countries. These churches are not yet financially able to carry this burden unaided; nor do they yet know how such work ought to be done, even if they were financially able to do it. It would not be practicable for mission boards to establish the necessary institutions all over the non-Christian world, or even those that are needed in any particular country. But we should equip and support a limited number so SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 165 that they will be representative ones which will serve as object-lessons to show what the Christ spirit in- volves. Mrs. Annetta T. Mills, superintendent of the mission school for deaf mutes at Chefoo, China, has visited many of the leading cities of that country, tak- ing with her several pupils and explaining to officials and other influential Chinese what can be done for that hitherto helpless and neglected part of the teeming population of China. The John G. Kerr Hospital for the insane in Canton has demonstrated to the Chinese that insane persons should not be driven out as pos- sessed of the devil. It would be lamentable if the Church were to leave many of the Master's helpless ones to be neglected or to be cared for by secular and perhaps antichristian agencies. Power to Open Doors. As for removing preju- dices, winning good-will, and creating opportunities for making Christ known in places which are ordi- narily difficult of access, what could be more effective than loving ministries to the suffering? A native of Yamada lost both legs in the war with Russia. The Rev. and Mrs. W. F. Hereford thought that the poor, helpless cripple would have a better chance to earn a living if he had an invalid's rolling chair. Mrs. Hereford raised some money by selling curios and embroideries, and a stereopticon lecture by Mr. Here- ford and a few small local gifts made up the sum required to buy the chair in America and to pay the freight. Nothing was left but the duty of 30 yen ($15). Mr. Hereford suggested to a Japanese offi- 166 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS cial that, as the man had given his legs for his country, the country ought to give the duty on the chair. The official laughed at him and said that no one but a for- eigner would ever think of such a thing. The mis- sionary argued the question with him, and the official finally gave his consent and the mayor and the governor signed the request. The chair was delivered to the city office. The Japanese pastor carried the man there on his back, and the cripple had his first ride in the munic- ipal building in the presence of all the officials. "We were glad," said the missionary, "to be able to do this work for a man who was not a Christian." All this took time and trouble, but both were unselfishly given to help an afflicted man who had never been inside of a Christian church. The result was a profound impres- sion upon the whole city, which recognized the spirit which animates the followers of Christ. An All-Round Gospel. The gospel means some- thing more than physical aid for the afflicted, some- thing more than hospitals, asylums, and orphanages. It is not our main object to clean up houses and cities, lessen poverty, and change man's external conditions so that he will be a more decent and attractive animal. But it is also true that the Christian life means some- thing more than preaching and praying. The Epistle of James has some caustic words on this subject. We must enunciate and explain the teachings of Christ; but we must do more we must show an ignorant people what these teachings mean in daily life. The Old Testament prophets and the New Testament TILE FACTORY, MALABAR COAST EMBROIDERY WORKS. CALCUTTA SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 167 apostles dealt not only with doctrines but with the ills and weaknesses and wrongs of human society the sick, the blind, the lame, the deaf, the demoniac, im- purity, intemperance, shiftlessness, poverty, crime, op- pressions by the rich and powerful and the wrongs and sufferings of the poor. When Christ preached in Nazareth, he "found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor : he hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." l He held up the Good Samaritan as a worthy example, and he condemned the priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side of a suffering man. 2 In the par- able of the great supper, he represented "the master of the house" as saying to his servant: "Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and maimed and blind and lame." 3 He made the spirit of helpfulness for human need one of the proofs of his Messiahship, for when the discouraged John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask: "Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another ? . . . He an- swered and said unto them: Go your way and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good tidings preached to them." 4 And 'Luke iv. 17-19. 2 Luke x. 30-37- 'Luke xiv. 21. 4 Luke vii. 20-22. 168 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS in his solemn description of the rewards and punish- ments to be announced when he "shall come in his glory," he declared that the inheritance should be given to those who had ministered to their hungry, thirsty, lonely, sick, and imprisoned fellow men, and that those who had failed to do this should be banished from his presence forever. 1 Let us declare and exemplify the whole gospel as Jesus did. "A Christianity which does not go about 'doing good' is not the Christianity of Christ. A re- ligion which ignores the healing of the body is not the religion of him who 'took our infirmities, and bare our diseases.' A religion which ignores child labor and child mortality is not the religion of him who took the children in his arms. A religion which has nothing to say about vice and crime in the modern city cannot claim kinship with the power that speaks out in the great apostolic letters to Corinth and Rome and Ephesus. A faith that merely hopes the will of God will be done in heaven as it is not on earth is not the faith of the Lord's Prayer." 2 Self -Government Self-government is a right as well as a duty and 'Matt, xxv. 34-46. 2 W. H. P. Faunce, The Social Aspects of Foreign Missions, 22, 23. Compare also James S. Dennis, Christian Missions and Social Progress; Edward C. Capen, Sociological Progress in Mission Lands; and John E. Clough, Social Christianity in the Orient. SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 169 therefore one for which the rising churches in non- Christian lands must be carefully fitted. How can churches reasonably be expected to assume the obliga- tions of self-support, self -propagation, and social serv- ice if they are denied their freedom as autonomous bodies ? But the question bristles with perplexities. The Mission Side. Boards and missions have hither- to controlled Christian work in non-Christian lands. This was inevitable during the early stages of the en- terprise when converts were few, ignorant, without experience or consciousness of power, and almost wholly dependent upon the boards and the missions; looking to them for the supervision of their churches, the support of the schools which educated their chil- dren, and the hospitals which cared for their sick, and even the salaries of their preachers and teachers. It was natural in such circumstances that white men, un- consciously perhaps, should come to regard themselves as sole arbiters of the work. Indeed, many of the first churches were largely composed of missionaries and their families who naturally exercised a supremacy that was as inevitable as it was often unconscious. Native converts, as they came in one by one, found themselves in a church that was essentially foreign in its leader- ship. The missionaries remote from their own country, living among people of different races, lan- guages, and social customs, and charged with heavy responsibilities of course organized themselves into missions both for fellowship and for the more effec- tive conduct of their common work through concerted 170 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS counsel and action. These missions quickly acquired solidarity and influence, partly because they were com- posed of highly trained men and women who had been selected by their boards on account of superior edu- cation, ability, and devotion, and partly because their members were the founders and superintendents of the mission work during its earlier stages. Thus they became firmly established with all the reins of power in their hands. The Native Side. As the Church grows in numbers and power, it is equally natural that this ascendancy of foreigners should be disturbed. A distinguished East Indian minister, the Rev. K. C. Chatter jee, voiced this feeling when he said : "This system [mission control] worked very well as long as the native ministers were recruited from the orphanages or from the illiterate and half-educated classes of people. They were con- tent to be in a subordinate position. Now the state of things has become different. The Church has grown in knowledge and enlightenment and in western ideas of working and governing. There are several graduates in the Church of recognized universities. Some of these are gifted young men of fine Christian charac- ter and anxious to do missionary work. They ought not to be put in a subordinate position. As they have the same educational qualifications and training as the foreign missionaries, they ought to have the same status and to be allowed to vote in all mission matters. In other words, they ought to be made full members of the mission." SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 171 Facing the Situation. Missionaries keenly feel this difficulty. They unhesitatingly declare that such men are their equals in ability and culture, and that they have greater influence over their own people than any foreigner can possibly have. All must see that since an essential element in the aim of the missionary enter- prise is the establishment of a self-governing Church, alien bodies must transfer control to the Church before this aim can be realized. Ecclesiastical Connection. How should the Churches in the mission field be related to the Churches in Europe and America? Should they be integral parts of the European and American denominations whose missionaries founded them? Or should they become independent as soon as possible? This question has been warmly debated in many mission fields and in many ecclesiastical assemblages in America. A de- nomination in the United States is naturally proud of its churches in Asia and Africa; churches that it re- gards as the fruit of its gifts and prayers and labors; and naturally it wants to keep them. But should the churches of India, Persia, and China be appendages of a foreign Church ten thousand miles away? We may be guided to a right policy here by turning the question upon ourselves. The first churches in the American colonies were offshoots of British and Con- tinental Churches ; but how long were our fathers will- ing to have that subordination continued? Did they not speedily insist upon their right to religious inde- pendence as well as civil independence? To-day, we 172 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS honor and love our mother Churches in Europe, but we would never dream of allowing them to control us. It is true ttyat there is no difference of race; but any intimation that a difference of this kind should affect our present problem is highly offensive to the Chris- tians in the mission field, who feel in precisely the same way in proportion as they grow in numbers and intel- ligence. Japan, Korea, India, China, Mexico, Brazil, and several other lands already have independent Churches, and the number is increasing. These Churches are developing a strong nationalistic feeling, a conviction that the people should be independent of foreign control in religion as well as in government. Present indications point to national Churches, and we should be glad that they do. Hard Readjustments. A serious obstacle lies in the natural disposition of man, from which even grace does not emancipate, to hold on to power as long as pos- sible. It is notoriously difficult for a parent to realize that his son is growing to manhood and is entitled to settle some questions for himself. This is even more apt to be true of western Christians in dealing with Christians of a different race who never will see some things as we see them nor be disposed to do some things as we have always done them. The white man can advocate with unction the duties of self-support, self -propagation, and social service, for they seem to lighten his load. But it is less easy for him to advo- cate self-government, for it calls upon him to surrender power which he has been accustomed to exercise and SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 173 which he is disposed to keep. It is hard in such circum- stances to pursue a wise course between the extremes of prematurely hastening and unduly retarding the independence of the native Church. We must balance our own judgment with the judgment of the native Christians themselves and with our belief in the com- mon guidance of the Spirit of God. Liberty Trains for Liberty. The rather extraor- dinary objection has been urged that if the native Church becomes self-supporting and self-governing, the home Church cannot control it. But why should the home Church control it ? Because the native breth- ren are not fitted for independence? When will they be, if they are not given a chance to learn? Shall we wait until they equal American churches in stability? Will a century of dependence develop those qualities which wise self-government requires? Some essen- tial qualities of character can be developed only by the exercise of autonomy. "It is liberty alone," said Gladstone, "which fits men for liberty." This prop- osition has its bounds; but it is far safer than the counter doctrine: "Wait till they are fit." The way to teach a child to walk alone is not to carry him until he becomes a man, but to let him begin to toddle for himself when he is still young. He will learn faster by practise and tumbles than by lying in his mother's arms. Said a west African Christian: "I have not seen a babe that has been born about eight or ten months let down to walk by himself without the par- ent or some one else holding him and teaching him 174 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS how to walk; but the mistake here is that they hold this babe [the churches] till the age of forty years. You know well that, when a babe is past three years and cannot walk, he is lame." Discipline by Natives. Church discipline often can be administered more effectively by the officers of a local church than by a foreigner. A missionary wrote from northern Siam: "Last week there came a report that one of our women had been gambling in the market. I had already been talking up the matter of self-government, and now I said to the Laos elders : 'You four men take up and settle this case.' Well, they took it up, and I was mightily pleased with the patience, kindliness, and skill they showed in bringing the woman to a full confession and expression of sorrow without citing witnesses. Then, without .pass- ing judgment or making a record, they exhorted her to make a public confession and renew her covenant before the church and watch herself carefully ever afterwards, and assured her of their and the disciples' prayers and help. I said to myself : 'These men can do this kind of thing better without me and the sooner I drop it the better.' " The Fit Time. When, however, the theory is agreed to, the problem is by no means solved. Of course native churches should be self-governing in time; but when is that time? There is room for wide difference of opinion as to whether a particular church has attained that maturity of judgment which qualifies it to manage its own affairs. Independence may come SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 175 before the church is fitted for it. But are we to be the final judges of fitness? Protestantism holds that any considerable body of believers has the right to decide for itself whether or not it should be dependent upon others. Shall we deny to the churches of Asia a prin- ciple which we cherish as fundamental? We can give them the benefit of our experience without keeping them perpetually in leading-strings. They need a cer- tain amount of restraint and counsel; but these are most effective when they are moral rather than author- itative. The churches in the mission field are disposed to say something on this subject themselves. While some people are so lacking in independent vigor or are so accustomed to be dominated by foreigners that they look up to the missionary as a superior being and are docile under his leadership, others, notably the Japa- nese, Chinese, and East Indians, are of a more virile and haughty type. The attitude of a church toward the mission is naturally influenced by this racial spirit. Its members are still Orientals, and share, to some extent at least, the irritation of proud and ancient races as they see the white man everywhere striving for the ascendancy. An eminent Japanese Christian, Mr. Uemura of Tokyo, writes : "Apart from Christ and the Spirit, Japanese Christianity has no need to rely on any one whatever. Sufficient unto itself, resolved to stand alone, it must advance along the whole line toward the realization of this ideal. ... To depend upon the 176 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS pockets of foreigners for money to pay the bills is not a situation which ought to satisfy the moral sense of Japanese Christians. Likewise in the realm of relig- ious thought, is it not shameful to accept opinions ready-made, relying on the experience of others in- stead of one's own? Those of us who are earnestly insisting on the independence of the Church in our country are not moved by narrow nationalistic ideas. . . . We are moved by the positive power of a great ideal. ... Is it not a great duty that we owe to God and to mankind to develop the religious talent of our people and to contribute our share to the religious ideas of the world?" This is more advanced ground than most of the churches in the mission field are ready to take under present conditions, but it indicates a goal which some of them are boldly seeking. A Legitimate Result. The growth of the churches in the mission field is the fruition of the toils and pray- ers of missionaries and their supporters in the home lands. But with the development of these churches come new and difficult problems. We should consider them, not simply because they are forced upon us, but because we frankly recognize their justice. We are not dealing with men of our own race, whose customs and ways of thinking we understand, but with men of different points of view, whose hereditary influences are far removed from ours and whose minds we cannot easily comprehend. It is inevitable in these circum- stances that occasional differences of opinion should develop. It is a new experience for the white man, who SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 177 has been accustomed to feel that he represents superior intelligence, to be asked to give precedence to men of a race that he was brought up to regard as inferior. A teacher knows that his pupils must ultimately supplant him, but he is not apt to agree with them as to time and circumstance. The missionaries who are gladly adapting themselves to the conditions of the new era are manifesting true Christian grace. The situation that we are facing is a natural outcome of those truths which we have long sought to incul- cate. We like to say that the knowledge of the gospel awakens new life. Why then should we be surprised that this knowledge is doing in mission lands what it is our boast that it did in Europe and America, and why should we be afraid of the spirit which we have invoked? It is the people of spirit that are worth the most. When our rights appear to be jeopardized, let us not harbor a sense of injury or feel that we must resent an infringement upon our "prerogatives." It would be better to go to the other extreme and say that we have no rights in non-Christian lands except the right of serving our brethren there. If the reader finds the statements in this chapter rather hard reading, I can assure him that boards and missionaries find them much harder practising. The time has come when the home Church as well as the missionary body should give more careful study to these questions. Not "Agents" and "Helpers." Two phrases have been current in missionary literature which illustrate 178 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS the difficulty of the situation. They are "native agents" and "native helpers." "Agents and helpers" of whom? Foreigners, of course. Precisely; and yet these natives belong to proud and sensitive races and are not infrequently our equals. We have now come to the point where we should abandon this terminology and the attitude of mind of which it is the expression. Native ministers, evangelists, and teachers are not our "agents" or "helpers" but our coworkers and our brethren. i These men stand in a hard place. They do not have the moral and financial support which the mission- ary receives. No great body in other lands holds up their hands. They have, as a rule, only the barest neces- sities of physical life and few if any of its comforts. They, more than the missionary, bear the brunt of opposition from angry priests and officials. Some of these men of God have been disowned by their families, deprived of their property, scourged, imprisoned, and killed. But they have manifested a courage and fidelity which should deeply move us. If the story of hundreds of them could be written, it would be one of the most inspiring records in the development of the Church of God. Making all due allowance for those who have been actuated by improper motives or who have shown themselves incompetent, the fact remains that multi- tudes have been loyal, humble, and loving servants of God. In my conferences with them in many fields they discussed large questions with intelligence, cour- tesy, and dignity. Sound opinions were expressed and SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 17& ably advocated. We shall make no mistake in trust- ing and honoring these men. Teaching Right Standards. The effort to develop these essential characteristics involves several affiliated forms of work. We cannot enlarge upon these within the limits of this book. We can refer only briefly to one of them. How can churches be made self- propagating, self-supporting, social-serving and self- governing unless their own leaders are imbued with these ideals and are fitted to carry them into effect? To this end, we must not only preach the whole gospel in all its wide-reaching significance and application, but we must have educational institutions in which to train them. Boys and girls must be given the right trend of mind early in their lives. Secular govern- ment schools, usually non-Christian and sometimes antichristian, will not and cannot produce consecrated ministers, evangelists, teachers, physicians, nurses, and social workers for the Church. Providing the Training Institutions. This leads us to the large question of educational missions as one of the vital necessities of the missionary enterprise. Mis- sion schools serve other important ends, but qualified leadership for the church is the chief one. Pioneer evangelistic work often can be done by untrained Christians, but congregations and schools require edu- cated men and women, and we must have colleges to develop them. One of the most urgent needs of the work to-day therefore is a better equipment of the 180 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS institutions on which we depend for the training of native leaders of all kinds. The Church could not live if it did not have institutions of this kind for the train- ing of its leaders. Those who undervalue educational work in missions fail to realize that the surest way to keep a church forever dependent is to fail to provide it with competent native leadership. This is the work of the home churches through the boards. Native churches can and should assume in- creasing responsibility for direct evangelization. They can and they do support a large majority of the pri- mary schools which give elementary education to boys and girls. But they cannot for a long time to come provide plant, equipment, and support for institutions of higher grade, of which there are now on the mission field 86 colleges and universities, 1714 boarding and high schools, in medical schools and classes, 98 schools and classes for nurses, and 522 theological and normal schools and training classes. These institutions represent a splendid and indispensable phase of foreign mission work. Very few of them possess adequate equipment, and the urgent calls of the mission boards in their behalf should meet with generous response. Recruiting the Training Force. Equally urgent is the need of consecrated leaders from America for the faculties. Each institution requires at least one or two, and the larger schools and colleges several, for- eign teachers in addition to the native staff. Here is an opportunity for the finest type of American Chris- tian character and culture, for young men and women SOCIAL SERVICE AND SELF-GOVERNMENT 181 of high intellectual training, wide outlook, consecrated hearts, and resolute faith. To mold the coming leaders of the rising churches in non-Christian lands is a privilege that an angel might covet. May it not be that to some readers of these pages the Holy Ghost is saying, as he did to the little church at Antioch : "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work where- unto I have called them." 1 J Acts xiii. 2. VIII RELATION TO MISSIONS AND WESTERN CHURCHES The subject of this chapter opens into wide areas, far too wide to be traversed in this book. The region is comparatively little known and therefore has not received that consideration which its importance de- mands. Conditions are now developing which make it one of the most urgent questions of mission policies and methods. The boards are studying it with a care not unmingled with anxiety, and the home churches should familiarize themselves at least with its main features. The problem of relationship has already be- come acute in some lands, and it will sooner or later emerge in all, unless our work is to fail. Absence of the problem of the Church in the mission field would mean absence of the Church, or at least of one that is good for anything. The problem grows out of success,, not out of failure. The Situation Surveyed We can consider here only a few of the questions involved, and these merely in outline. Possible Solutions. What shall be the relation of foreign missionaries to a self-governing native Church? Shall they take native leaders into the foreign mis- 183 184 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS sion? Or shall they dissolve their organization and enter the native Church? Or shall they continue their separate organization, and work independently of the Church, although in sympathetic fellowship with it? Or shall they form some cooperative relationship by which the two bodies shall maintain their respective identities, but work together? The first of these alternatives to bring natives into the mission is clearly impracticable, as it would place them still more completely under the control of for- eigners, separate them from their own people, exalt and perpetuate an organization that ought to be regarded as a temporary expedient, and thus jeopardize one of the essential elements in the missionary aim, namely, to establish a native Church that shall have ultimate supremacy. The remedy for the just complaint of Dr. Chatterjee 1 is, not to strengthen the mission by adding a few natives to it, but to strengthen the Church by giving it more of the power that has hitherto been centralized in the mission. Self-Support Limited. The other questions are more difficult than they appear to be. When we say that a church is self-supporting, we ordinarily mean its abil- ity to maintain its own services and pay its ministers. Elementary schools also are usually supported locally in such circumstances. But this is not all of Christian work in a given land. There must be academies, col- leges, and several kinds of professional schools. More- over, as we noted in another chapter, in a country 'See page 170. RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 185 where there is no sense of responsibility for the care of the dependent and defective classes, the missionary enterprise must include hospitals and institutions for the blind, insane, deaf-mutes, orphans, lepers, and fallen women. A native staff must be trained for these also. Medical colleges and nurses' training schools partic- ularly are required. Administering Institutional Funds. All these estab- lishments call for expensive plants, and the cost of maintenance is heavy even after making allowance for fees and gifts on the field. Colleges, hospitals, and asylums are not self-supporting in America but are obliged to depend largely upon donations. America has a Christian constituency from which such dona- tions can be sought; but it will be a long time before the churches of Asia, Africa, and Latin America can provide the large sums that are needed. Meantime, the millions of dollars that are raised in Europe and America for these institutions must be locally managed by the missionaries, whose number in most fields in- cludes men who have special qualifications in business matters. Some boards send out carefully selected lay- men for this purpose. It is clear that the administra- tion of these great sums, under present conditions, cannot be wisely transferred to churches recruited from the rude tribes of central Africa, the hill men of northern Siam, or the unsophisticated peasants of Korea. A church may have all the faith and devotion that we have described in a preceding chapter without having the training in the use of money that would 186 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS make it a prudent administrator of the monies sent from abroad. Is it rational to expect that the most sanctified Asiatic Christians, whose wages are fifteen cents a day, could intelligently vote upon the use of sixty thousand dollars a year of other people's money ? A mission board has to be as careful in handling the trust funds committed to it as a bank in handling the funds of depositors. Any lack of the most careful business methods would forfeit the confidence of givers and cut off supplies. A board therefore must adminis- ter this money through local agents who are not only chosen for that purpose but who are amenable to its control as a missionary is and a native Christian is not. On the other hand, if missionaries retain in their own hands absolute control of the money that is neces- sary for the large and varied work, their power is apt to be considered by the native Christians as the power of money; and we in America, who resent the attempt of any one to rule us because he has more money than we have, can understand how the Christians feel. It will be readily understood that questions of the most perplexing character are here involved. Efforts at Adjustment. Boards and missions are trying to solve the problem by sharing administrative responsibility with the native Church wherever it is fitted to assume such responsibility. This seems to be an easy solution. But who is to be the judge of such fitness, the foreigner or the native? Aye, there's the rub. The trend of practise is indicated by the follow- RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 18? ing extract from a deliverance of one mission board: "The time has come in some of the missions, and it is rapidly coming in others, when the native churches, should be given a larger share of privilege and respon- sibility in the conduct and support of evangelistic work, the selection of evangelists, etc,, than now exists in many places; and consideration should be given to the inclusion of natives in the local managing boards of some educational institutions. . . . The board is cor- dially prepared to approve the appointment of repre- sentative advisory committees of Christians in each station to share in estimating and administering funds wherever there is a local church regularly organized with an ordained pastor on a self-supporting basis. The board suggests that such representatives be chosen, not by the station or mission, but by the properly author- ized body of the churches, and that the proportion of such representatives be the proportion which the con- tributions of the churches sustain to the contributions of the board and the mission." It will help us here if we remind ourselves again that the ultimate object of the foreign missionary enter- prise is to establish the Church, and that this aim should be a definite factor in the solution of our prob- lems. We should hold resolutely in view the prin- ciple that the mission should be a temporary and dimin- ishingly authoritative body, and that the Church should be the permanent and increasingly authoritative body. Even though the mission remains a century or more, as it must in some lands, this fundamental distinction 188 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS should not be overlooked. A policy which centers all power in foreign lands until aggressive native churches compel it to let go is radically unsound. It would be a help to a mission board to know how its supporters in the home churches feel on this sub- ject. To what extent do the readers of these pages desire their mission boards, which are amenable to their legal and ecclesiastical control, to retain the adminis- tration of the money which they give; and to what extent are they willing to release the boards from re- sponsibility by having them turn over the money to bodies of Asiatic and African Christians who are not amenable to their control? Granting that this should be done under certain conditions, what are those con- ditions ? Question of Creed and Polity. What shall be the creed and polity of the native Church ? How far shall the missionary seek to shape them to his own ideas? These questions are difficult and delicate. The mis- sionary from the West, trained in the tenets of a par- ticular denomination, born and bred to regard its doctrinal statements and form of government as most in accord with the Word of God, is apt to feel that they should be repeated on the foreign field. But should they? Is it our object to carry molds or to plant seed? We must recognize the right of each autonomous body of Christians to determine some things for itself. We do not want the churches in the mission fields to be our theological phonographs, mechanically repeating what we speak into them. We CHINESE WORKERS IN CITY EVANGELIZATION ORDAINED ZULU PASTORS RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 189 cannot, indeed, ignore the risks that are involved. There is sometimes ground for anxiety. Will the rising churches on the mission field be soundly evan- gelical ? God grant that they may be. But who is to be the judge of soundness? And in respect of undoubted doctrines, to what extent should we impose our west- ern terminology upon eastern churches? We should remember that, in the course of nearly two thousand years, external Christianity has taken on some of the characteristics of the white races, and that we who have inherited these characteristics have more or less unconsciously identified them with essentials. Perhaps this is one reason why Christianity is so often called by the Chinese "the foreigner's religion." Our creeds were formed in times of heated contro- versy, and their statements are massed in such a way as to be effective against the particular errors which were then prevailing. The result is that some of these creeds are impregnable fortifications on sides from which no special attack is likely to be made in present- day Asia or Africa, while other positions, which are seriously menaced, 'are unguarded. It is difficult for us to realize to what an extent our theological thought has been influenced by our western environment and the polemical struggles through which we have passed. The Oriental, not having passed through those controversies, knowing little and caring less about them, and having other controversies of his own, may not find our forms exactly suited to him. It seems not only just to Asiatic Christians but in the in- 190 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS terest of evangelical truth that the churches in the mis- sion field should be allowed to frame their creeds as we have been allowed to frame ours. Assumptions to Avoid. Some thoughtful men fear that many errors may find lodgment in the native Qfurches unless the older and wiser Churches of the West retain control. This fear may have justification in some places. I would not minimize the gravity of the question or the perils of premature independence. Nevertheless, I look upon the growing power and independence of the churches in the mission field, not indeed without some anxiety, and yet, on the whole, with gratification and devout thanksgiving to God. They have made mistakes, and doubtless they will make more. The churches to which St. Paul wrote in the first century made them, and so have the churches in Europe and America. They may promulgate some doctrines and interpretations of the Bible which we regard as unsound ; but are there no ministers and lay- men in America who are doing this ? Are our western churches so uniformly free from error that we are willing to make them ideals which the churches in the mission field should imitate? When we remember all the vagaries and heresies that thrive like weeds in the western mind, we may feel that it is better to recog- nize as soon as possible the autonomy of the churches in the mission field in the hope that they will not perpet- uate our mistakes but will form a better type of Chris- tianity than we have presented to them. We should avoid four fundamental assumptions; RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 191 first, that we need to be afraid of our avowed aim to establish the Church; second, that the churches in Asia and Africa must be conformed to the churches in Europe and America ; third, that we are responsible for all the future mistakes of a Church which we have once founded; fourth, that Christ who "purchased" 1 the Church and who is its Head 2 cannot be trusted to guide it. Call for Larger Faith. "Is there never to be a period," exclaimed the Rev. F. F. Ellinwood, "when the Christianity which we plant shall be able with God's help to stand alone? Is it like some sickly plant that must forever be tied up to a stick? We must assume that Christ is able to care for his Church after we have planted it and duly nurtured it. We cannot be for- ever responsible for the orthodoxy of Japan. We must leave the Japanese Church under the direction of God's omnipotent Spirit to work out its own religious life. We cannot proceed on any other principle." Let us have faith in our brethren and faith in God. When Christ said that he would be with his disciples always, he meant his disciples in Asia and Africa as well as in Europe and America. The operations of the Holy Spirit are not confined to the white races. Are we to take no account of his guidance? He is still in the world and will not forsake his own. We should plant in non-Christian lands the fundamental principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then give the native Church reasonable freedom to make some adaptations 'Acts xx. 28. 2 Col. i. 18. 192 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS for itself. If, in the exercise of that freedom, it does some things that we deprecate, let us not be frightened or imagine that our work has been in vain. Some of the acts which impress us as wrong may not be so wrong in themselves as we imagine, but simply due to different ways of serving the same purpose. The Bible was written by Asiatics and in an Asiatic language. Christ himself was an Asiatic. Perhaps we of the West have not fully understood that Asiatic Bible, and it may be that, by the guidance of God's Spirit within the rising churches of Asia and Africa, a more perfect interpretation of Christ may be made known to the world. Principles Appearing Rule of the People. In church government our American ideas of the sovereignty of the people have given us, in both Church and state, forms of govern- ment that have grown out of long emphasis upon the doctrine that "all men are created free and equal." Accordingly our church organizations are either demo- cratic or representative, the people being supreme in both cases. "When these forms are transplanted to lands that have never had such training in equality of human rights, perplexities quickly develop. As a matter of fact neither the democratic nor the representative form of church organization is in unmodified operation on the average mission field, for the reason that the typical missionary, whatever his title, necessarily has exercised the functions of a superintendent or bishop. For this RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 193 reason it is difficult to make an accurate list of inde- pendent churches.. The outstanding ones are few. Perhaps the most conspicuous is The Church of Christ in Japan, which is exclusively Japanese in organization and control. This is partly because of the ambitious and independent temperament of the Japanese; partly because many of the Christians are of the Samurai, the old knightly class which has given Japan the majority of its army and navy officers and its leaders in politics and the learned professions. While approximately one person in every thousand of the population is a Christian, one in every hundred of the educated classes is a Christian, and the membership of the churches includes prominent lawyers, editors of leading journals, members of the imperial diet, and men of high military and naval rank. It was to be expected that the relation of the Church to the foreign missions would first become acute among a people of this kind. 1 As a rule, however, the churches in the mission field are in a period of transition, gradually moving out of the era of foreign control into the era of native control. Even where the theory of church government or mis- sion policy of a given communion places all power in the hands of the Church as distinguished from an organized mission, the individual missionaries are usually members of the churches on the field and per- a See the author's article, "The Relation of Church and Mission in Japan," in the International Review of Missions, October, 194 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS sonally dominate their policies and methods by sheer weight of superior training and ability. Such a system is impossible of continuance much longer. No sound Scriptural theory of the Church recognizes the domina- tion of believers in one country by resident aliens who preserve their separate racial organization and connec- tions and who are responsible for their acts to a board and Church in another country. A New Principle. What kind of domination will be substituted remains to be seen. Government by the people, either directly or through representatives whom they choose and hold to accountability, is not easily put into smooth operation in nations that have been accustomed for two or three thousand years to the rule of kings by divine right and of the lesser officials whom the kings appoint. The Chinese have long exercised a larger degree of self-government than any other non-Christian people; but even in China democracy and monarchy were inextricably mixed villages governed by elders, provinces ruled by officials who, although gaining position through competitive examinations, wielded despotic power, and the nation by an emperor who was called "the Son of Heaven." Republicanism has now been adopted as the form of government; but the effort to secure efficient provincial and national assemblies of representatives elected by the people has not been successful thus far, and Presi- dent Yuan Shih-kai has been compelled to assume the powers of a virtual dictator in order to keep the Re- public from falling to pieces. The Chinese will UNIVERSITY OF NANKING IN WHICH SEVEN DENOMINATIONS ARE COOPERATING Science Building Faculty of Language School RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 195 undoubtedly work out the problem, but time will be required to do it. These political ideas interact with ecclesiastical ideas. No one can yet tell just what form of church polity the churches in the mission field will ultimately settle upon, or just how native characteristics of life and thought will affect the rising churches in non-Christian lands. Already we can observe the influence of inherited ideas and national traits to which we referred in chap- ter IV. Doubtless Japanese, Chinese, East Indian, Persian, African, and Latin American types will be- come as distinct as Scotch, Welsh, English, French, German, Canadian, and American types. The Church Missionary Society sensibly declared, in 1886, that "this Society deprecates any measure of church organization which may tend permanently to subject the native church units in India to the forma- tion and arrangements of the national and established Church of a far distant and very different country, and therefore desires that all present arrangements for church organization should remain as elastic as pos- sible, until the native Christians themselves shall be numerous and powerful enough to have a dominant voice in the formation of an ecclesiastical constitution on lines suitable to the Indian people." Values in Western Views. Recognition of this freedom does not imply that our creeds and interpreta- tions of Scripture are wrong, or that we should object to their adoption by the churches in non-Christian lands. We may fairly claim that many centuries of 196 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS Bible study and Christian experience have taught the churches of Europe and America more than it is rea- sonable to expect the rising churches in non-Christian lands to acquire in one or two generations. Let us give them the full benefit of all that we have gained at such heavy cost. It would be most unbrotherly to leave them to stumble without guidance along the rocky path in which we have had so many falls. But it is one thing to give them the information and the counsel, and quite another thing to impose them as if we were infallible and authoritative interpreters of truth. Grant that it is too soon to expect much independent thinking on the profound themes of theology and its related philos- ophies, and that for some time yet the young churches will reproduce more or less closely the ideas that the missionaries inculcate. If this is true, it is all the more important that those ideas should concern the substance of Christianity rather than the external and artificial forms with which we have clothed it. The Anglican Bishop of Oxford expressed a truth that is applicable to other churches as well as his when he said : "There is a very specific Anglican color about our home religion which we ought to have no desire to perpetuate in India. An Englishman, wherever he goes, is apt to identify his religion with his memories of home. We ought to identify our religion with the Christ of all nations." Denominationalism Restricted. Two contrasting opinions are urged regarding this subject. One is that foreign missions should be the extension of the de- RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 197 nomination throughout the world, including its dis- tinctive tenets and ecclesiastical forms. The other is that foreign missions should be the communication of the essential truths of New Testament teaching without special reference to a denominational interpretation, the churches in the mission field being encouraged to develop their own creeds and forms of organization or to make such adaptations of western ones as the spirit of God may indicate. The first opinion was more common a generation ago than it is to-day, but it is still held by some devoted men who generously support the missionary work of their respective churches. Growth of Better View. The other opinion is held by increasing numbers of missionaries and their sup- porters and is more and more coming to be a charac- teristic of the foreign missionary movement as a whole. If we are to extend the denomination, which denomina- tion? Which one or ones of the 170 in the United States and the 183 in Great Britain? Picture the relig- ious chaos on the foreign field if these home divi- sions are to be emphasized. I cannot believe that it is our duty to perpetuate in Asia and Africa the sectarian divisions of Europe and America. Why should the Christians of Korea be divided into Northern Meth-- odists and Southern Methodists because a civil war was waged in the United States half a century ago? Why should the Christians of India be labeled English Wesleyans, German Lutherans, and American Bap- tists? Imagine a Dutch Reformed Chinese! Surely 198 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS this would be sectarianism gone to seed, if indeed it would not approximate one of the sins for which Christ rebuked the scribes and Pharisees. A prominent clergyman told me that he doubted the wisdom of a union of the Asiatic churches as it might weaken the sense of responsibility of the home churches to support mission work. He thought that a denomination in America would take a deeper interest in a comparatively small native Church wholly de- pendent upon it than it would in an indeterminate part of a larger Church. Must then the unity of the churches of Asia be sacrificed to the divisions of American and European churches? Shall we buy their dependence with foreign gold and nullify our hope of developing their self-support? The majority of missionary con- stituencies with which I am familiar take no such position. They do not want their boards to conduct a sectarian propaganda and would diminish their gifts if the boards did conduct it. Where donors do de- mand it as a condition of support and cannot be per- suaded to take a broader view, it would be far better for the cause of Christ for a board to reply: "Thy silver perish with thee!" than to accept gifts on terms which would rivet western sectarian chains on the limbs of the growing eastern churches. Boards on Union. It would be interesting to col- late the policies of the missionary boards on the ques- tion of denominational extension as contrasted with cooperation and union. Space limits permit only a few citations. The American Presbyterian Board (North- RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 199 ern) voted, May 15, 1900: "Believing that the time has come for a yet larger measure of union and cooperation in missionary work, the board would ask the General Assembly to approve its course in recommending to its missions in various lands that they encourage as far as practicable the formation of union churches, in which the results of the mission work of all allied evangelical churches should be gathered, and that they observe everywhere the most generous principles of missionary comity. In the view of the board the object of the foreign missionary enterprise is not to perpetuate on the mission field the denominational distinctions of Christendom, but to build upon Scriptural lines and according to Scriptural methods the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Fellowship and union among na- tive Christians of whatever name should be encouraged in every possible way, with a view to that unity of all disciples for which our Lord prayed and to which all mission effort should contribute." The General As- sembly approved this deliverance. The American Baptist Board, September, 1912, in- cluded the following in a statement of "general policy" : "That to the utmost practical extent there should be cooperation with other Christian bodies working in the same fields. Such cooperation is of special importance in the department of higher educa- tion, where students are relatively few and education expensive." This declaration was approved by the Northern Baptist Convention of May, 1913, which put forth a memorable statement in which it professed 200 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS "both willingness and humility to learn from others any aspects of the way of life which we may not have held in due proportion." Secretaries of the missionary boards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Southern Presbyterian, Congregational, Disciples, and several other Churches, write to the common effect that while their respective boards have not formulated their policy in general statements, they are "heartily in favor of union and cooperation" and "have repeatedly ex- pressed it in concrete cases," which are "always con- sidered from the view-point of sympathy for the prin- ciple." The Rev. James L. Barton has publicly stated that "the American Board of Commission- ers for Foreign Missions has repeatedly committed itself to any and every practical plan of cooperation which was within the limits of its financial resources, believing that its work in Asia and Africa is not to build up a Church according to any set model, but that it is to cooperate with other Christian workers in the establish- ment of the living Church of Jesus Christ as the center of power and life and redemption for all men." The Rev. Junius B. Remensnyder, ex-President of the General Synod of the Lutheran Church in the United States of America, writes: "The Lutherans believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Con- sequently the divisions of Protestantism are held to be against the teachings, wishes, and prayers of Christ and a great obstacle to the growth and blessed influence of Christianity. And while not willing to compromise any doctrine essential and vital, the Lutheran Church RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 201 would go to the extremest limit that conscience will allow to achieve the glorious end of the union of all the true disciples of Christ of whatever name into one unbroken fellowship in a universal kingdom of God." 1 The boards of some other communions, while cher- ishing the same ideals of Christian unity and church development, do not feel free, under present condi- tions, to commit themselves to the same forms of statement and method. The Southern Baptist churches may be considered fairly representative of this point of view. They have carefully explained their position in a "Pronouncement on Christian Union" issued by the Convention of 1914, in which, after setting forth their convictions which they deem it their duty to guard, they add : "It follows from all that has been said that, as we regard the matter, the interests of Christian unity cannot be best promoted by a policy of compromise. Much good will come of fraternal conference and inter- change of view. There will no doubt gradually arise far greater unity of conviction than exists now. But this cannot be artificially produced or made to order. A deepening and enriching of the life in Christ among Christians of all names are a prime condition. Groups of Christian bodies which stand nearest each other can first come to an understanding. The desire and prayer for the coming of Christ's kingdom on earth will more and more intensify the spiritual unity of his people. We hereby avow in the most emphatic manner 1 Artide, "How the Lutherans Look at Christian Unity," in the Christian Work, November 28, 1914. 202 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS our desire and willingness to cooperate in all practicable ways in every cause of righteousness. We join hands with Christians of all names in seeking these common ends. We ask no one to compromise his convictions in joining us in such movements, and we ask only that our own be respected. We firmly believe there are ways by which all men who stand together for righteousness may make their power felt without invading the cher- ished convictions of any fellow worker. Mutual con- sideration and respect lie at the basis of all cooperative work. We firmly believe that a way may be found through the maze of divided Christendom out into the open spaces of Christian union only as the people of Christ follow the golden thread of an earnest desire to know and to do his will." 1 The Inspiring Thought. Beneath all the perplexing questions of relationship, form, and method lies the deeper and more comforting fact that God is raising up a people unto himself throughout that great section of our world which we have been wont to call non- Christian. No longer can Asia, Africa, the islands of the sea, and great sections of Latin America be painted in unrelieved black as contrasted with the white sec- tions which are occupied by the alleged Christian na- tions. Already there are light places in nearly all of 'Some of the material of these pages has been taken from the author's book entitled, Unity and Missions: Can a Divided Church Save the World? Compare that book for a fuller dis- cussion of the subject of union and cooperation and its related problems. RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 203 the countries of the world. Even darkest Africa has thousands of groups of people who have looked unto him and are radiant with the reflected light from the Sun of righteousness. 1 Lowly people they are, for the most part, poor in this world's goods, childlike in the simplicity of their faith and love; but they are wit- nessing for Christ with a joy and fidelity which should move our hearts to sympathetic love and admiration. Once more the Spirit of God is moving upon the face of the waters and once more a new created world is emerging. In this period of awakening and recon- struction we of the home churches as well as those on the field, are called upon to show breadth of mind, free- dom from racial and sectarian prejudice, catholicity of spirit, and a confident faith that the living Christ will continue to dwell within his Church in every land. The Spiritual Dynamic Not Organization. We should bear in mind throughout all our study that the church is preeminently a spiritual body and that its interests can be best advanced by the spiritual methods of prayer and consecrated effort and giving. Organization, however complete and efficient, cannot make a church. It is necessary to the work of the church, but in itself it is like a locomotive without steam. The usefulness of an engine depends not only upon the perfection of its mechanism but upon the power that utilizes it. Without power, the engine can accomplish nothing, cannot even move itself. The most highly developed ecclesiastical organizations have ^sa. xxxiv. 5. 204 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS seldom been those which exerted the largest spiritual influence Not Money. Nor can money in itself create a church. Of course money, like organization, is neces- sary. We are painfully aware that a great deal more of it is urgently needed. However spiritual-minded the missionary may be, his traveling expenses must be paid and his food and clothing bought. Residences, schools, hospitals, and other requisites of missionary work, must be paid for in hard cash. We should not be understood as lessening the heavy sense of respon- sibility that Christians in America and Europe should give systematically and in proportion to their means. Prayers and sympathy will avail little if they do not find expression in consecrated giving. But there is danger that in this commercial age the evangelization of the world may be conceived of as merely a question of mechanics and finance. A board is often told that if missionaries could have a sufficient appropriation, they could evangelize their fields in a short time. Hundreds of addresses and appeals em- body this argument, not infrequently figuring out just how much money the realization of our aim would cost. But what shall we say of such home cities as London, New York, and Chicago, in each of which thousands of salaried Christian workers are employed and mil- lions of dollars are expended annually in church work, but whose moral conditions are a reproach and a heart- break to the Christians who live in them? On the other hand some of the mightiest manifesta- RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 265 tions of the power of God have been largely inde- pendent of external means. The great results in Korea have been ascribed to the fact that the boards poured men and money into it and that corresponding results could have been obtained elsewhere if the boards had adopted a like policy. The reverse is true. The revivals preceded the pouring in of money, the latter being sent to take care of a work that had already developed. But afterwards, when the missions, with greatly enlarged force and appropriations, tried to make the greatest revival of all, it did not equal the revivals of earlier days when human resources were smaller. An Africa mission has had almost phenom- enal spiritual blessing during the last six years until its reports have come to be an inspiration to all who read them; but its annual budget is about the same as it was before. The most remarkable revival that China has ever witnessed came through the preaching of a Chinese minister without an additional dollar from abroad. Conversely, experience shows that, when European and American churches have had the most money, they have been most formal and barren. Ample funds secure pomp and architecture and nominal ad- herents but not real spiritual achievement. Some of our splendid laymen, accustomed to bring- ing big business enterprises to pass by the use of ample capital, are apparently under the impression that the success of the foreign missionary enterprise is chiefly a matter of capitalization. I heard one of them give a vivid description of the appalling conditions in a 206 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS certain country, and argue that if we would put suffi- cient money into it, we could reproduce the results that have been achieved in the most fruitful fields. And yet that field is one on which the Roman Catholic Church has spent millions of dollars. The principal city, which is only of moderate size, has a magnificent cathedral and nineteen other great churches. Every town in the whole country has an expensive edifice, while schools, priests, monks, and nuns are numbered by hundreds. Yet the spiritual state is so utterly dead and the moral condition so completely rotten that there is no hope of relief except as the Protestant Churches send a few missionaries, not to duplicate the expendi- ture of the Roman Catholic Church, but to preach and exemplify that kind of spiritual life which money and numbers cannot convey. Do we not need to remind ourselves that the grace of God cannot be bought; that the evangelization of the world is not primarily a matter of dollars or machinery? The book of Jonah shows what tre- mendous results God can achieve through one solitary man, and not an ideal man either. It would be lamen- table if we were to commercialize the missionary appeal and the missionary enterprise, lamentable if we were to feel that gold in any amount can bring a people to Christ. From apostolic days to the present, Christian workers never have had enough material resources from a human view-point, and the probabilities are that they never will have. God is not limited by our human RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 207 methods, and he often works most wondrously with what appear to us to be scanty material resources. Men are so constituted that they do their best work under pressure and have most faith in God when human aid seems most inadequate. The stony soil and stern win- ters of New England developed more virile men than Ceylon "Where every prospect pleases And only man is vile." Money in Its Place. These considerations do not form an excuse for the selfish withholding of money. I say again that a great deal more of it is urgently needed. The Bible strongly emphasizes the duty and privilege of giving. God has chosen to work through our gifts as well as through our prayers, and he will accept no plea for our neglect. There is hardly a mis- sion station in the world that has adequate equipment. One physician in a hospital and one teacher in a school, with small, meagerly furnished buildings and one or two half trained native assistants, cannot work to the best advantage. The evangelistic force is equally scanty. While boards and missionaries are careful to follow sound principles of administration, we are far, very far indeed, from the time when the calls upon the home churches can be lessened an iota. Rather must they be heavily increased if we are to discharge the duty that God has laid upon us. But we should never forget that organization and money of themselves have not saved our home lands and that they will not save foreign lands. Human resources will be a vain reliance 208 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS unless they are used of God. This is a money-mad age. Let us be on guard that its mammon-frenzy does not infect our work, and let us be careful to place heaviest emphasis on the spiritual power which alone can vital- ize our contributions and our toil. The love of money may be the root of all evil in missions as in other things. The effective missionary address must include in- formation as to the additional support that is required, so that hearers will know what they should do; but such information will accomplish nothing unless the spiritual interest has been aroused, the spiritual motive made powerfully operative, and men made to feel the inspiring privilege of becoming coworkers together with God in saving and helping their fellow men. The experience of a hundred years has proved conclusively that kindly humanitarian concern and mere pity for those who are worse off than we are are not adequate foundations for missionary work. They result in occasional and sporadic gifts for some particular in- stitution or individual that may have aroused tem- porary interest; but they lack the staying power that is required for a solid and enduring service through good and through evil report and for all the varied activities involved in the missionary enterprise, attrac- tive or unattractive. Mission boards have learned that they can permanently depend only upon those Chris- tians who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who support mission work from spiritual motives, and who give their time and money for Christ's sake. Prayer and Consecration. Face to face with the RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 209 tremendous opportunities in the non-Christian world, the immense work to be done, and the inadequate facili- ties for doing it, the preeminent need of the churches both at home and abroad is greater spiritual power. Foreign mission work needs more than double its present staff and equipment; but it needs a hundred times more prayer and consecration in those who support it in the home churches as well as in those who conduct it in board offices and on the field. It is as true of the difficulties which confront the disciples to-day as it was in the first century of the Christian era, that "this kind can come out by nothing, save by prayer." Dr. John R. Mott said at the World Mission- ary Conference in Edinburgh : "From my first world trip I came back saying we must have thousands of more missionaries. After my second trip, I said we must have scores of thousands of native workers. After my third trip I gave up talking figures. The evangelization of the world is not a question of mathematics but of dynamics. A few men full of the Holy Spirit will upset whole calculations." "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts." x The vital question for us to face therefore is not so much one of mechanics and finances as of spiritual power. Are we facing our problems and opportunities with sufficient courage and faith? Are we dedicating ourselves unreservedly to the service of Christ, obtain- ing aH the spiritual power that God makes accessible 'Zech. iv. 6. 210 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS to us, and doing our utmost to make Jesus Christ intel- ligently known to all whom we can reach? These questions should be pressed to the utmost limit. There are vast areas in the spiritual realm which few of us have yet explored. We stand wistfully on the border of that realm, burdened in spirit because we know so little of it, contrite of heart as we reflect that we alone are to blame for the shadows that obscure our vision, and looking eagerly toward the beckoning hand of him who withholdeth not but waiteth to be gracious. In this holy quest we are one with all those who in every age and land have sought to know the mind of Christ more perfectly and to do the divine will "as in heaven, so on earth." Love Awakened. The more I learn of the Chris- tians in the mission field, the more I respect and love them. I had expected to find intelligence in the Japa- nese leaders, for I knew that many of them come from the higher classes. But I confess that I was sur- prised by what I learned in Korea, China, Siam, Burma, India, Syria, Egypt, and the Philippines. Most of the Christians in these countries have come from the lower strata of society. I am not unmindful that some are from the upper classes and that the number is now increasing. But the average type is that of the village peasant and small shopkeeper. Comparatively few had any education or social advantages prior to their baptism. Mission schools are now turning out a larger proportion of educated men. But the ma- STUDENT VOLUNTEERS FOR HOME MISSIONS Shantung Christian University University of Nanking RELATION TO MISSIONS AND CHURCHES 211 jority of the believers still belong to the first generation of Christians. As I met the average types in villages and cities, churches and homes, I was profoundly im- pressed by their sincerity and devotion. Clear Witnesses. One Saturday evening, after a hot and dusty journey, we arrived at an isolated sta- tion. As I was tired and the hour was late, I did not expect to meet the Christians that night. Learning, however, that many of them had assembled in the church and were waiting for me, I went over and, after speaking briefly, I asked them to tell me in their own way what they had found in Christ that led them to love and serve him. One after another those men rose and answered my question. I jotted down their replies and find the following in my note-book : "Deliverance from sin," "forgiveness," "peace," "guidance," "strength," "power to do," "joy," "comfort," "eternal life." Surely these earnest disciples had found some- thing of value in Christ ! As we bowed together in a closing prayer, my heart went out to them as to those who, with fewer advantages than I had enjoyed, had nevertheless learned more than I of the deep things of God. Like the New Testament Churches. The scattered churches in the mission field to-day are in about the same position as the churches of the first century to which the inspired writers addressed their Epistles. They, too, were poor and lowly people in the midst of a scoffing and hostile world. The rich and the great heeded them not, and fidelity to Christ often meant 212 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS trials that were hard to bear. To them the apostles wrote, expressing the love which they bore them, their anxiety as they considered the problems and tempta- tions which the followers of Christ were facing, and yet their unfaltering faith that God would guide his people aright. We reread those Epistles from day to day as we journeyed among the churches in Asia, and we were impressed by the similarity of ancient and modern conditions. All of us will gain a better understanding both of the Epistles and of the churches in the mission field, if we study the Epistles from this point of view. The apostles could hardly have written differently if they had directly addressed the churches in non-Christian lands in the twentieth century. The little companies of believers in Rome, Corinth, and Thessalonica and the "sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia," are reproduced to-day in the churches of Africa, Asia, South America, and the islands of the sea. We may say of each of them what the Rev. J. Campbell Gibson said of the Church in China: 'Everything is hostile to it [the Church]. It is striking its roots in an uncongenial soil and breathes a polluted air. It may justly claim for itself the beautiful emblem so happily seized, though so poorly justified, by Buddhism the emblem of the lotus. It roots itself in rotten mud, thrusts up the spears of its leaves and blossoms through the foul and stagnant water, and lifts its spotless petals over all, holding them up pure, stainless, and fragrant in the face of a burning and pitiless sun. So it is with RELATION TO THE CHURCHES OF THE WEST 213 the Christian life in China. Its existence there is a continuous miracle of life, of life more abundant." 1 Our Duty to Help. Christians at home should have a deeper sense of the duty and privilege of strengthen- ing the missionary work which represents our coopera- tion with these churches in the mission field. Recogni- tion of their rights does not lighten our obligation in the slightest degree. Do we not owe as much to a brother as to a servant? Indeed, does not the change of rela- tionship strengthen our feeling of responsibility? We count it so in our personal relationships at home, and the Church is the family of God. 2 These churches are our younger brothers, growing rapidly, but most of them not yet able to walk alone, and even the strongest needing our assistance in many ways. The most ambi- tious and independent of them frankly tell us that they will require our help for a long time to come. Said the late Bishop Honda, of Japan: "Not to advance your present work there is out of the question. From the depth of my heart I request you to go on. The united new Church is struggling for self-support and has not power to advance ; so it is absolutely necessary to have the missionaries work for the unevangelized places. If the board of missions has an idea to with- draw from Japan, it is a great mistake. I hope your Mission Council will do all in their power to explain the real situation to the board and churches at home and the enormous need of missionary work." ^Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China, 240. : Gal. vi. 10 ; Eph. ii. 19; iii. 15. 214 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS The Waiting Millions. A Church may support and govern itself and be zealous in making Christ known to the people of its local communities ; but what about the training of its ministry, and what about the tens of millions of unreached peoples in other parts of the same country? How can 100,000 Japanese Protestant Christians, however energetic and devoted they are, evangelize a population of 53,000,000, or 1,655,000 in India evangelize 315,000,000, or 500,000 in Africa evangelize 130,000,000? Shall we leave nine hundred and ninety millions of souls of this generation to die without Christ because there are native churches that might make him known to the remaining ten millions ? The land that yet remaineth to be possessed! How the churches in the mission field need our help in pos- sessing it for Christ! Many a night during our jour- neys in Asia we had a picture in lights and shades of the spiritual condition of the non-Christian world. A humble church was filled with believers who were rejoicing within the pale of "his marvelous light." Beyond them and crowding the doors were many others, not yet wholly in the light, but partially illu- mined by it, their eager faces turned toward the place from which it was shining and where a man was speaking of the Light of the world. Behind these were still others whom I could not count, standing in deeper shadows. Now and then a flare of the lamp shot a ray of light into the gloom and showed scores or hundreds of spectators, some indifferent, some curi- ous, some gravely wondering; and then the darkness RELATION TO THE CHURCHES OF THE WEST 216 silently enfolded them again so that only indistinct masses of heavier blackness showed where an unnum- bered multitude was gathered. As I looked upon such a scene night after night, I was encouraged by the number of those who had come into the light, but I felt more deeply than ever that we, who stand in the brighter light, should consecrate our money and our lives to make the Light of the world shine more widely upon the multitudes that now stand "in gross dark- ness." Apostolic Greetings. I would that this book might bear to its readers a message of cheer and love from the far-off disciples in non-Christian lands. I seem to hear them saying: "All the saints salute you, espe- cially they that are of Caesar's household" followers of our Lord in places where the Christian life is as hard to live as it was in the palace of Rome's worst emperor; but even there walking humbly and faith- fully as saints of God, and sending their Christian salutations over land and sea to the saints that are in Europe and America. St. Paul gave noble expression to the attitude of mind which should characterize us of to-day in thinking of them. He wrote of his affec- tionate remembrance of them; 1 his frequent supplica- tion in their behalf; 2 his confidence that God would perfect his work in them ; 3 and his longing after them "in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus." 4 In like manner, should we of the West say of our brethren in the mission field, as St. Paul said of his 'Phil. i. 3, 7. 'Phil. i. 3, 4- 'Phil. i. 6. "Phil. i. 8. 216 RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS beloved fellow Christians in Colossae and Ephesus: "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spir- itual wisdom and understanding, to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;" 1 "till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, . . . unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 2 "Unto him ... be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever." 3 "Col. i. 9, 10. 2 Eph. iv. 13. *Eph. iii. 20. BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY General Allen, Roland. Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or Ours. Flem- ing H. Revell Company, New York. $1.50, net. Brewster, William. Evolution of the New China. Methodist Book Concern, New York. $1.25, net. Clark, H. M. Robert Clark of the Panjab. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $1.75, net. Datta, S. K. The Desire of India. Missionary Education Move- ment, New York. 65 cents. Bearing, J. L. The Christian Movement in Japan, 1914. Mission- ary Education Movement, New York. $1.25. Fenwick, M. C. The Church of Christ in Korea. George H. Dor an Company, New York. $1.00, net. Freeman, J. H. An Oriental Land of the Free. Westminster Press, Philadelphia. 50 cents. Gibson, J. C. Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South . China. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $1.50. Grubb, W. B. The Church in the Wilds. E. P. Button & Co., New York. $1.50. Jones, J. P. Year Book of Missions in India, Burma, and Ceylon, 1912. Missionary Education Movement, New York. $1.50. MacGillivray, B. The China Mission Year Book, 1914. Mission- ary Education Movement, New York. $1.50. Matthews, T. T. Thirty Years in Madagascar. George H. Boran Company, New York. $1.75. McGilvary, Baniel. A Half Century Among the Siamese and Lao. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $2.00, net. Moody, C. N. The Saints of Formosa: Life and Worship in a Chinese Church. Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, Edinburgh. 3s. 6d. Neely, T. B. South America: Its Missionary Problems. Mis- sionary Education Movement, New York. 60 cents. 219 220 BIBLIOGRAPHY Nevius, John L. The Planting and Development of Missionary Churches. Foreign Missions Library, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. 25 cents. Pieters, Albertus. Mission Problems in Japan: Theoretical and Practical. Board of Publication of Reformed Church in America, 25 East 22nd Street, New York. 75 cents. Pott, F. L. Hawks. The Emergency in China. Missionary Edu- cation Movement, New York. 60 cents. Ross, John. Mission Methods in Manchuria. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $1.00. Soothill, W. E. A Typical Mission in China. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $1.50. Speer, Robert E. Christianity and the Nations. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $2.00. Stewart, J. Dawn in the Dark Continent. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $2.00. Watson, Andrew. The American Mission in Egypt. United Presbyterian Board of Publication, Pittsburgh. $1.50. The Church in the Mission Field. Vol. II, World Missionary Conference, 1910, Edinburgh. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. 75 cents. "The Testing of a Mission." A Ten-year Policy, 1904-13, in the West Africa Mission. Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- sions, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. "Growth of the Church in the Mission Field Among the Bataks." Joh. Warneck. International Review of Missions, January, 1912. "The Future of the Native Churches." Eugene Stock. The East and the West, July, 1911. "The Growth of the Church in the Mission Field Church Mis- sionary Society in West Africa." F. M. Jones. International Review of Missions, April, 1912. "The Growth of the Church in the Mission Field Presbyterian and Methodist Missions in Korea." George Heber Jones. International Review of Missions, April, 1912. "The Chinese Church in Relation to Its Immediate Task." Ch'eng Ching-yi. International Review of Missions, July, 1912. "The Modern Japanese Christian Church." G. M. Rowland. Journal of Race Development, April, 1912. BIBLIOGRAPHY 221 "The Telugu Mission of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society." W. L. Ferguson. International Review of Mis- sions, October, 1912. "Church Organization in Bombay, and the Desirability of Synods in India and Limits of Authority." R. S. Heywood. Church Missionary Review, June, 1912. "The Growth of the Church in the Mission Field Archbishop Nicolai and the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission to Japan/' C. F. Sweet. International Review of Missions, January, "The Responsibility of the Chinese Church Toward the New China." Nelson Bitton. The East and the West, October, 1912. "The Growth of the Church in the Mission Field The Living- stonia Mission." Donald Fraser. International Review of Missions, April, 1913. "Problems of the Native Church in South Africa." H. P. Beach. Missionary Review of the World, January, 1913. "The Growth of the Church in the Mission Field The French Mission in Basutoland." E. Jacottet. International Review of Missions, July, 1913. "The Church in Japan." Findings of the Continuation Commit- tee Conferences held in Tokyo, Japan, April 3-11, 1913, under the Presidency of John R. Mott. "The Chinese Church." Findings of the National Conference, Shanghai, March, 1913, under the Presidency of John R. Mott. "The Church Missionary Society and Native Church Organiza- tion." Eugene Stock. International Review of Missions, April, 1914. "Church and Mission in Japan." Dwight W. Learned. Interna- tional Review of Missions, April, 1914. "The Missionary and His Task Problems of the Church in the Mission Field." J. H. Oldham. International Review of Missions, July, 1914. Self-Propagation, Self-Support, and Self -Government "Self Help in the Mission Field." Bishop A. G. S. Gibson. The East and the West, January, 1912. 222 BIBLIOGRAPHY 'The Part of the Chinese Church in Mission Administration." J. Campbell Gibson. Chinese Recorder, June, 1912. "The Indian Church and Indian Christian Leadership." Findings of the National Conference, Calcutta, December, 1912, under the Presidency of John R. Mott. "The Training of the Indian Clergy." G. Hibbert-Ware. The East and the West, January, 1913. "The Economic Problem of the Indian Christian Community." Alexander McLeisch. Young Men df India, January, 1914. "Church Administration and Leadership." J. Ashley Fitch. Chinese Recorder, April, 1914. "Should Financial Assistance be Given to Enquirers and Con- verts, if so, in What Manner?" G. J. Dann. Indian Wit- ness, April, 1914. "The Relation of Chinese Evangelists to the Problem of Self- Support." E. W. Burt. Chinese Recorder, May, 1914. "Relation of the Church and Mission in Japan." Arthur J. Brown. International Review of Missions, October, 1913. "A Self-Propagating Church the Goal of All Mission Work." Kate L. Ogborn. Chinese Recorder, May, 1914. (See also other articles in the same issue.) "Training a Native Ministry for India." W. T. Elmore. Mis- sionary Review of the World, June, 1911. "Self-Support in the Philippine Islands." Charles W. Briggs. Missionary Review of the World, January, 1911. Unity and Cooperation Brown, Arthur J. Unity and Missions. Fleming H. Revell Com- pany, New York $1.50, net. MacGillivray, D. China Mission Year Book, 1914, Chapter XI, "Unity and Cooperation." Missionary Education Movement, New York. $1.50. Cooperation and Unity. Vol. Ill, World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh, 1910. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. 75 cents. "The Missionary and His Task Problems, Cooperation, and Methods." G. A. Gollock. International Review of Missions, October, 1914. BIBLIOGRAPHY 223 "Unity and Cooperation in the Indian Mission Field." J. H. Mac- lean. International Review of Missions, April, 1912. "Is Unity Possible To-Day in Missionary Work?" Julius Rich- ter. Missionary Review of the World, January, 1912. "Church Unity in Japan." William Imbrie. Japan Evangelist, May, 1914. "United Church of India." E. S. Hensman. Harvest Field, June, 1914- Social Service Faunce, W. H. P. The Social Aspects of Foreign Missions. Missionary Education Movement, New York. 60 cents. Capen, Edward W. Sociological Progress in Mission Lands. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $1.50. Dennis, James S. Christian Missions and Social Progress. 3 Vols. Fleming H. Revell Company, New York. $2.50 each. Headland, I. T. Some By-Products of Missions. Jennings & Graham, Cincinnati. $1.50, net. Taylor, Alva W. The Social Work of Christian Missions. Foreign Christian Missionary Society, Cincinnati. 50 cents. Fleming, D. J. "Social Studies, Service, and Exhibits." Asso- ciation Press, Calcutta. Rupees 1-4. Fleming, D. J. "The Social Mission of the Church in India." Association Press, Calcutta. 2 annas. INDEX INDEX Abdullah, tact as interpreter, 46 Advance not measured by money, 204, 205 Africa, 205 ; attendance at ser- vices, 118; communicants and population, 214; transforma- tions of character, 119 Africans, as simple animists, 32; relation to Occidental Churches, 161, 171, 185, 186, 189, 191 ; worthy qualities, 14, IS "Agents" and "helpers," 177, 178 Aim, self-government, 171 ; to establish the Church, 187, 191 Aliens, missionaries in Asia, 27 All-round gospel, 166 American. See Baptist, Presby- terian, etc., mission boards American Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions, 132; favors cooperation, 200 American Christians a stum- bling-block to the Japanese, 7 American governments not al- ways Christian, 68 Amiel, quoted on the man formed as test of a system, 97 Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots, 10, 80, 118 "Among the Hills," by Whit- tier, quoted, 22 Ancestral worship, 37 Ancient world empires, de- scendants of, 42 Anglicanism and India, 196 Anglo-Saxon ancestors, our, 3, ipi Animistic or simple people, 32- 37; barriers among, 37 Apostles, ancient and modern, 105, 106, 160 Arabia, 47 Argentina, 121 Armenians, an eastern sect, 42, 44 . Asiatics, relation to Occidental Churches, 161, 171, 185, 186, 189, 191 Attap or nipa-palm, used for thatching, 40 B Bangkok, Christian College, 79, no; girls' school, no Baptist Board (American or Northern), favors coopera- tion, 199 Baptist churches (Southern), guardedly approve of co- operation, 201, 202 Barbaric forebears, our, 3 Barbour, Sir David, quoted on Dr. Chen, 7 Barotac, Filipino preacher at, 94 Barton, Rev. James L., views of, on cooperation, 200 Beirut, ^ Syrian Protestant Col- lege in, 122 Beneficent work of Christian missions, recognition of, 106- no. See also Philanthropic work Bible, 47, 81, 82, 102, T47-I5O, 192; schools, study, and training classes, 82, 83 227 228 INDEX Bible and Christ Asiatic, 192 Bishop of Oxford's views on "Anglican color" in India, 196 Boardman, Dr., at Tavoy, 36 Bolivia, 121 Boniface among German tribes, 3 Boon Itt, financial sacrifice, 86 Boxer's conversion and confes- sion in Pingyang-fu, 77 Boycott, early use of the, 61 Brahman mysticism, 38 Brazil, 121 ; independent Church in, 172 Briggs, Rev. C. W., Baptist missionary in Jaro, 93 British East India Company unfavorable to missions, 106 British missions, 137 Buddhism difficult to reach, 39 Buddhist legend, 41 Buencamino Senor Felipe, quoted, 14 Bunker, Rev. D. A., quoted, in Burma, 35, 39, 104; Judson and Price in, 31 Burmans, 15 Burmese Buddhism, 39 Burns, Robert, Carlyle's Essay on, referred to and quoted, 4 Calcutta, 39 Canton, porters' hard life, 20; philanthropic institutions, 156, 157, 165 Capen, E. C., referred to, no, 168 "Capitulations," in Turkey, abrogated, 63 Caracas, Venezuela, converts, 86 Carey, William, 31 Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, 4, 19 Catherine of Sienna, quoted, 21 Central America, 121 Chalmers, James, 120 Changing Chinese, The, quoted, 21 Chatter jee, Rev. K. C., quoted, 170; referred to, 184 Chefoo, Christians in, 84; social work in, 157 Chen, Dr., ability as financier, 7 Chieng-mai, Buddhist convert at, 40; growth of church at, 119; King aids mission col- lege at, no; work for lepers at, 157 Chile, 121 China, burden-bearers, 20, 21 ; independent churches, 172 ; mission statistics, 114, 124; official interest in Chris- tianity, 114, 115; remarkable revival, 205 ; roads, 162 ; self-governing spirit, 194 Chinese, 7, 8 Chinese Revolution, The, re- ferred to, 7 Chosen, 55. See Korea Christ. See Jesus Christ Christian leaders in non-Chris- tian lands, 96, 104, 105 Christian life, requirements and tests of, 51, 52, 162 Christian Missions and Social Progress, referred to, 168 "Christian" sects or clans lacking the Christ spirit, 42- 44 Christian Work, quoted, 201 Christian work in foreign lands, some details of, 184, I8 .5. Christianity, advance unnoted in mission lands, I ; forces in opposition, 72; not easily grasped by the Oriental mind, 28; regenerating and transforming power, 3-6 Christmas Carol, by Dickens, quoted, 7 INDEX Chtmdra Lela, evangelist in India, 96 Church Missionary Society, The, 195 Church of Christ in Japan, 193 Church, the, denned, 23, 24. See also Home Church, Native^ Church Civilization, ancestral lack of, 3 ; India's claims, ancient and medieval, 9 Cleanliness follows conversion, 78, 79 Clough, Rev. John E., among the Telugus, 161, 168 Colombia, 121 Comparisons of civilizations, 3 Compassion, a characteristic Christian spirit, 21, 22 Confucianism, 37 Congregational board favors cooperation, 200. See Ameri- can Board Consecrated leaders for train- ing schools needed, 180 Continental missions, 138 Conversion, proofs of, 76-79 Converts, in Roman empire and in modern missions, 104 Copts, an eastern sect, 43, 44 Cousins, H. T., referred to, 96 Creeds of native churches, 189, 190; values in western views, 195 Crowther, Bishop, referred to, 06 Cust, Robert Needham, quoted, on the missionary's only duty, 156 D Damrong, Prince, appreciates Christian schools, 79 Dealings of western nations with Africa and Asia evil, 68 Dehli. grandeur of, 9 Dennis, James S., referred to, no, 168 Denominational showing in Christian growth in India, 116 Denominationalism, opinions on, 196-198 Dickens, Charles, quoted, 7 Difficulties, 51 ; ten peculiar to converts in non-Christian lands, 52-72 Ding Li Mei, Chinese evan- gelist, 151 "Direct Christian work," 163 Disciples' board favors co- operation, 200 Discipline by natives, 175 Donohugh, Thomas S., re- fered to, 117 Double moral standard in United States, 56 Druses, an eastern sect, 43 Duff, Alexander, 31 Dunlap, Rev. Eugene P., in Siam, 76, 78, 79 Duty of the missionary, former views of, 154; more recent convictions, 156-164 East Indian peoples, 9 Eclipse foretold by mission- aries, 40 Ecuador, 121 Educational work, 30, 47, no- 113, 122, 135-137, 179-iSi Efulen, Africa, "Jesus men" in, 87 Egypt and Egyptians, 42, 45; mission growth, 119 Eliot, George, quoted, 5 Ellinwood, Rev. F. F., quoted, 191 England when evangelized by Augustine, 3 Epidemics suppressed, 107 Essay on Prevailing Methods of the Evangelisation of the Non-Christian World, quoted, 156 230 INDEX Eurasian Christians, 116 Europe, 190, 191. See also Continental missions European war, 86; a result of not accepting Christ's law, 68; effect on missions, 137, 138 Evangelistic work, 30, 33, 34, 36, 45, 103-105, in, 1 17-121, 145-152 Evangelizing as distinct from Christianizing, 143 Faith, call for a larger, 191 Faunce, W. H. P., no, 168 Filipinos, 13, 93, 120 Financial sacrifice, instances of, 86 Fish in Burma and Siam, 15, 16, 39 Fitness for self-government, 175, 186, 187 Folk-lore of Karens, 35 Foreign control undesirable, 170 Foreigner disliked and feared, 70, 71 Fortitude under persecution, 92 Foster, Hon. John W., on Li Hung Chang, 8 Fraser, A. G., and social serv- ice. 162 Fraser, Sir A. H. L., quoted, on India's lower classes, 10; on the Indian Church, 117; on native Christians, 80 Fruits in Siam, 39 Fruits, spiritual, a test of faith, 75 Geddie, John, 104 Gibson, Rev. J. Campbell, of Swatow, quoted, on Chinese Church, 114; on Christian life in China, 212, 213 Gilmour, James, 31 Gifts from Siam's rulers, no Giving, 138, 141 ; character shown in, 85 Gladstone, W. E., quoted, on liberty, 173 God, 5, 21, 27, 29, 36; false or inadequate views of, 27, 53, 54; true revelation of, 27, 33, 49; working not wholly dependent on means, 204-206 Gorst, quoted on Europe's in- tercourse with China, 70 Gospel of Mark, 83, 148 Great Britain, denominations in, 197 Greek sectaries at Jerusalem, 44 Greene, Rev. Daniel Crosby, "3, 152 Greetings, 215, 216 Griffin, Z. F., referred to, 96 Griffis, William E., 39, 95 Growth in grace, 88, 89 H Habeeb, a Syrian convert, 95 Hail, Rev. J. B., gives account of aged Japanese convert and preacher, 149 Halideh Hanem, of Constanti- nople American Girls' Col- lege, 13 Hall, Dr. M. J., 34 Halsey, Rev. A. W., speaks of work in Africa, 77, 142 Hamilton, Angus, quoted, 69, 70 Hardy, Arthur S., referred to, 96 Harrow School, young Siamese at, 12 Hawaii, 120 Hayashi, Count, 113 Hayes, Rev. Watson M., at Tsinan, 62 "Heathen," 2, 6 "Helpers," 177, 178 Helping believers in mission INDEX 231 field as our yotmger brothers, 213 Henderson and Watt, quoted, 3 Hepburn, Dr. James C, 31, 113 Hereford, Rev. and Mrs. W. F., in Japan, 165 Heroism required of disciples, 5i Higginbottom, Mr. Sam, and social service, 162 Hindu caste, 37 Hinghwa, Fukien, converts, 76 History of European Morals, quoted, I Holy Sepulcher church, Arme- nian procession and unseem- ly temper, 44 Holy Spirit, the, 6, 36, 73, 77, 78, 89, 95, 106, 173, 175, 181, 191, 203, 209 Home Church or churches, 19, 24, 25, 30, 103, 143-146, 171, 173, 177, 202 Home life among non-Chris- tian peoples, 78 Honda, Bishop, 95; quoted on continued work in Japan, 213 Hoskins, Rev. F. E., quoted, 47 "How the Lutherans Look at Christian Unity," 201 Hsi Liang, Viceroy, oration of at Jackson memorial service, 106 Imbrie, Rev. William, of Tokyo, quoted, 112 Imperfections of Christians in the mission field, 97 Independent churches in non- Christian lands, 172, 193 India. Anglican color undesir- able in, 196 ; mass move- ments, 104, 116, 117; mission statistics, 116, 124, 214,- the people, 9, 10; white travelers in, 70 Indolence in tropical countries* one cause of, 39, 40 Influence and strength of mis- sion churches, 106 Institutional funds, question of administering, 185, 186 Jackson, Dr. A. F., 107-109 Jacobites, an eastern sect, 43, 44 Japan Daily Mail, quoted on work of Protestant missions, 106 Japan, mission statistics, m- 113, 124, 213; semi-centennial of Protestant missions, 106; social work, 157 Japanese, 8, 38, 39, 54 Japanese criticism of Ameri- can Christians, 71 Japanese pastor in a sorrowing home, 149 Jerusalem, warring sects in, 43, 44 Jessup, Rev. Henry H., quoted, 46, 120, 122; referred to, 95 Jesus Christ, 4, 29, 39, 44, 71, 86, 105, 117, 175, 191; an Asiatic, 192 ; as Savior, 23, 49, 161 ; manifesting God, 21 ; proclaimed, 36, 143, 150; re- ceived and witnessed to, 30, 45, 76, 97, 131, 142, I47-I.52. 2O2, 211 ; social and uplifting power, 18, 19, 21, 22, 159, 160- 168 "Jesus men" in Africa, 87 Jews offered an opening for Paul's work, 27, 143 Judson, Adoniram, 31 K Kameruns, churches in the, 118, 129, 141, 142 Kamil, Moslem convert, 95 Karens, of Burma, 35, 36, 104 232 INDEX Kerr, Mr. and Mrs. John G., 156, 165 Kiating-fu meetings, 79 Kidd, Benjamin, quoted, 5, 64 Kim Chung-sik, early Korean Christian, 34, 35 Kingdom, our Lord's, 104 Kingsley, Miss Mary, quoted on African qualities, 15 Ko Tha Byu, first Karen con- vert, 36 Korea, adults in Sunday-school, 82; Angus Hamilton in, 69, 70; conditions and incidents, 30-34 ; independent church in, 172; medical missions, 156; mission statistics and work by natives, no, in, 152; re- vivals, 205 Koreans, 10-12 Kyoto, "barbarians" warned to leave, 39 Laos martyrs, 41, 42 Latin America, conditions in, 66, 121 Lawrence, Edward A., quoted, 25 Lawrence, Lord, quoted, 117 Leaders, prominent native Christian, 96 Lecky, quoted, I Legend, Siamese, helps the gospel, 41 Leper girl's evangelistic work, ISI Lepers, care of and work for, 107, 157 Liberty prepares for liberty, .173 Li Hung-chang, diary quoted, 70; Hon. J. W. Foster's opinion of, 8 Livingstone a pioneer, 31 ; his gospel, 163 "Loaves and fishes" motive to be guarded against, 128 Loyalty a proof of conversion. 87 Lutheran Church, favors co- operation, 200, 201 M Mackay, Rev. G. L., quoted on Negro qualities, 14 McGilvary, Daniel, 31 McKean, Dr. James W., of Siam, 157 "Man with the Hoe, The," quotation from, 20 Manchuria, grief for Dr. Jack- son, 108, 109 Markham, Edwin, quoted, 20 Maronites, an eastern sect, 43 Marriage in Asia, 57 Martyn, Henry, 31 ; quoted on Brahman conversion, 38 Martyrs, 41, 42, 93 Mass movements, 104, in, 116- 118 Medical work, 30, 107-109, 155- 157, 163, 167, 168 Memoirs of Li Hung Chang, quoted on effect of Chris- tianity on Japanese, 89-92 Messianic idea of the Gentiles, 27 Methodist Episcopal Board (Southern), favors coopera- tion, 200 Methodist Episcopal Church at Rangoon, 87 Methodist Review, article re- ferred to, 117 Mexico, 121 ; independent church in, 172 Mills, Mrs. Annetta L., work of, 157, 165 Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China, quoted, 72, 213 Mission work of mission churches, 152 Missionaries help their fellow men, 19 233 Missionary work of Paul, 25- 28 Modern Missions in the East, quoted, 25 Moffett, Rev. Samuel A., 34, 152 Mohammedans, conditions of work among, 45-47, 122 Money, the place of, in mission work, 208 Moody, D. L., quoted, 52 Morimura Ichizaimon, Chris- tian experience of Mr., 150 Morphine importers converted, 77 . Morrison, Robert, 31 Moslem lands, 45-47, 122 Mott, Dr. John R., quoted on mission needs, 209 Municipal government in America, 68 N Nan Chai, Lao martyr, 41, 42 Nan Inta, early Lao convert, 40 Nationalism in Japan, 38, 54 Nationality affects experience, 94, 95 Native Christians and workers, employment and compensa- tion, 140; high character of in India, 80; indispensable to mission success, 145, 146; question of salaries, 130-134 Native Church or churches, 24, *S, 52, 87, 88, 114-117, 123, 139, 146, 161, 164, 168-203, 211, 212 Neesima, Joseph Hardy, 96 Negro qualities, 14, 15 Nelson, William S., referred to, 95 Nestorians, an eastern sect, 42 New Acts of the Apostles, The, 104 New Forces in Old China, re- ferred to, 7 New Guinea, 120 New Hebrides, 104, 120 New standards of life, 58 New Testament churches and those in the mission field, 2ii, 212, 215, 216 Niles, Dr. Mary, 157 Nobel Prize, 9 Non-Christians, unjust con- demnation of, 19 Nsi Su Ya, Lao martyr, 41, 42 Nusairiyeh, an eastern sect, 43 O Object of foreign missionary work, 23, 24 Obstacles, encountered, 37, 38; to independent churches, 172, 173 ; to self-support, 127-140 Occupations in China, 20 Okuma, Count, address of, 106; quoted on effect of Chris- tian teaching, 113 Old Wang, Chinese evangelist, 96 Oldham, Mr. J. H., quoted, 68 Oriental mind, the, and Chris- tianity, 28 Page, J., referred to, 96 Palestine, 43, 47 Pantheism, 54 Pastor Hsi, 96 Paton, John G., 31, 120 Patriarch, Armenian, 44 Patrick in Ireland, 3 Patriotism as a cult, 54 Patton, Francis L., referred to, 26 Paul, apostle of the Congo, 06 Paul, New Testament apostle. 3, 25-28, 143, 159, 190, 215 ; a Roman citizen, 26 Pauperizing, danger of, 129 Permanent dependence of mis- sion boards, the only, 208 234 INDEX Persecution, 40, 93, 152; and the New Testament, 81 Persia and Persians, 31, 42, 45, 47, 132 Personal work at home and in the foreign field, 147, 148 Peru, 121 Petchaburi hospital, gifts to, no Pharisees rebuked, 60, 61 Philanthropic work, 106, 162- 168 Philippine Islands, 66, 67, 120 Piementel, Filipino Christian, 93 Pierson, Arthur T., quoted, 93, 104 Pingyang, Korea, persecution in, 34 Pingyang-fu, China, Boxer's conversion in, 77 Pioneers in missionary work, 31 Pneumonic plague in China, 107-109 Populations of some occupied lands and proportion of Christians in, 124, 214 Poverty in China and Korea, 40 Prayer and consecration essen- tial at home, 208, 209 Prayer life of converts, 83-85 Prejudice and social service, 166 Presbyterian Board (North- ern), 86; favors cooperation, 198, 199 Presbyterians (Southern), fa- vor cooperation, 200 Price, Jonathan, pioneer in Burma, 31 Prisoners study the New Testament, 81, 82 Problems, 176, 183, 186 Progress, comparative, 101-104 Prolific nature and indolence in the tropics, 30 Protestant work, in Japan, 106; in Latin America, 121 ; in the Philippines, 120 Puket's Siamese governor ap- proves mission work, 79 Q Qualities, of Christians in the mission field, 210, 21 1; re- sulting from Christian train- ing, 79 Quelpart, a Korean missionary to, 152 R Rabindranath Tagore, 9 Race superiority, 5 Reading, old-time Sunday, 59 Receipts on the mission field, 140, 141 Receptive peoples, 32 "Relation of Church and Mis- sion in Japan, The," referred to, 193 Relationship of the self-gov- erning Church a problem, 183, 186 Religion as a form, 65, 66 Religions in India, census of, 116 Remensnyder, Rev. Junius B., quoted, 200 Repentance a test, 76-78 Republicanism struggling in China, 194, 195 Richards, Henry, referred to, 96 Rio de Janeiro, 121 Roll of honor, native Chris- tian, 95, 96 Roman Catholic Church, 66, 116, 206 Roman empire, converts in, 104 Roosevelt, Theodore, referred to, 26 Ross, E. A., quoted, 20, 21 Ross, Rev. John, referred to, 96, 148 Ruskin, John, quoted, 6 INDEX 235 Sabbath observance, 59 Salaries of native workers, 134, 135 Salvation Army work, 157 Sato and his son visit Li Hung Chang, 89-^92 Sau Kyung-jo, 149 Scales of living differ, 128 Scotch Presbyterian Mission, 107 Scotland of To-day, quoted, 3 Scottish peasant's life, 4 Self-government for rising Churches, the native side, 170 Self-propagation a duty, 143 ; a necessity, 144 Self-support a fundamental need, 127, 129, 131, 137; en- couraging facts, 151, 152; ex- amples, 140; list of books on, 141 Seoul, 34, 35; prayer-meeting in, 84 Seward, Hon. George F., quoted on opening of Siam, 109 Shakespeare, quoted, 6 Shanghai, conditions in, 19; social work in, 157 Shidiak, Asaad, Syrian martyr, 93 Shmtoism, 37 Siam, church acts in a gam- bling case, 174; mission statistics, 119; schools re- ceive gifts, 110; social work in, 109; white travelers in, 70 Siamese, 12; causes of indo- lence, 39; legend helps the gospel, 41 ; village converts, 75; well-to-do people, 40 Sins of cities the same, 19 Social Aspects of Foreign Missions. 168 Social Christianity in the Orient, 168 Social Evolution, quoted, 64 Social service, apostolic, 160; in Christ's preaching, 167, 1 68; necessity for, 155 Social or philanthropic work in foreign lands, 155-168, 184, 185; statistics, 163, 164. See also Philanthropic work Sociological Progress in Mis- sion Lands, 168 Sorai, Korea, model village, 148 South America, 121 South Sea Islands, 31, 120 Sovereignty of the people, 192 Stanley, Henry M., 118 Starting the Church, 24, 25 Statistics, meaning of, 99, 123 ; philanthropic and social work, 163, 164; self-support, 140, 141 ; some populations, 124, 214; world mission totals, loo. See also separate fields, as Africa, Latin America Students in America from non- Christian lands, 135, 137 Sunday-schools, 82, 121 Sunday service at Iloilo, 88 Sunday, the old-time New Eng- land, 59 Superstition, 53-56 Syria, and Syrians, 42, 47 Syriacs, an eastern sect, 43, 44 Taj Mahal, the, 9 Taylor, Mrs. H., referred to, 96 Telugu mission, 104 Temptations or testings, 51-72 Test, endurance under perse- cution a, 02 Teutons in Caesar's time, 3 Thoburn, Bishop James M., in India, 116; quoted, 87 Times, The, London, quoted on missionary statistics, 115 236 INDEX Tiyo Soga, of South Africa, 96 Training of native leaders, 179, 180 Transformed lives, 79 Travels in West Africa, 15 Tripoli, Syria, 46 , Truthfulness, 58 Turkey, 43, 45, 63, 132 Turkish "capitulations," 63 Turks, 12, 13 Two views of missions, 106 Tyler, Josiah, pioneer in South Africa, 31 Types, national, 195 ; of con- verts, 210; of experience, 94 Typical, non-Christian house, 78; peoples, 7-16 U Uemura, Mr., of Tokyo, quoted on self-reliance of Japanese Christianity, 175 Uganda, Africa, 104, Il8 Un Ho, leper girl, 151 Unchristian conduct, 68-71 Underwood, Horace G., 34 Unfinished task, the, 123, 124 Union and cooperation recom- mended, 198-202 United Free Church Magazine, referred to, 96 United States, 24, 56, 66, 71, 144; denominations in, 197 Unity and Missions, 202 Vaccination, 107 Venezuela, 121 Verbeck, Rev. Guido F., re- ferred to, 31, 113 "Vestiges of Heathenism with- in the Church in the Mission Field," referred to, 56 Vices non-Christian world, 18 Vitality, test cf, 146 W Wages in Asia of the common people, 140, 186 War, effect on missions of the present. See European war Warneck, Professor Joh., re- ferred to, 56 Water of life, the, 47-49 Watson, Dr. Charles R., de- scribes Halideh Hanem, 13; on spiritual life in the Egyptian Church, 88 Wealth, the missionary's com- parative, 128 West Africa Mission in the Kameruns, 118 White man in Asia, The, 27 Whittier, John G., quoted, 22 Why and How of Foreign Missions, The, 145 Witnesses, 149, 150, 211 Wives among non-Christian peoples, 77, 78 Wolff, Rev. Joseph, in Tripoli, Syria, 46 Woman, inferiority a funda- mental view in non-Christian lands, 55, 59 ; position changed by Christianity, 78 Womanhood transfigured, 17 Worcester, Dean C, quoted on Filipino people, 13 Work, varied forms of, 30 Working church, the best, 87 World Missionary Conference, in Edinburgh, referred to, 209 Wretchedness appalling in non-Christian lands, 19, 20 Yokohama, early Protestantism in, 38 Yuan Shih-kai, and Confu- cianism, 62; qualifications of, 8; receives deputation, 115; referred to, 194 Mission Study Courses "Anywhere, provided it be FORWARD." David Livingstone. Prepared under the direction of the MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE: G. F. Sutherland, Chairman; A. E. Armstrong, J. I. Armstrong, Frank L. Brown, Hugh L. Burleson, W. W. Cleland, W. E. Doughty, H. Paul Douglass, Arthur R. Gray, R. A. Hutchison, B. Carter Milliken, John M. Moore, John H. Poorman, T. Bronson Ray, Jay S. Stowell. The Forward Mission Study Courses are an outgrowth of a conference of leaders in young people's mission work, held in New York City, December, 1901. To meet the need that was manifested at that conference for mission study text- books suitable for young people, two of the delegates, Pro- fessor Amos R. Wells, of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, and Mr. S. Earl Taylor, Chairman of the General Missionary Committee of the Epworth League, projected the Mission Study Courses. These courses have been officially adopted by the Missionary Education Movement, and are now under the immediate direction of the Educational Committee of the Movement. The books of the Movement are now being used by more than forty home and foreign mission boards and societies of the United States and Canada. The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering the various home and foreign mission fields and problems and written by leading authorities. The following text-books having a sale of over 1,500,000 have been published : 1. THE PRICE OF AFRICA. Biographical. By S. Earl Taylor. 2. INTO ALL THE WORLD. A general survey of missions. By Amos R. Wells. 3. PRINCELY MEN IN THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM. Biographical. By Harlan P. Beach. 4. SUNRISE IN THE SUNRISE KINGDOM. Revised Edition. A study of Japan. By John H. DeForest. 5. HEROES OF THE CROSS IN AMERICA. Home Missions. Bio- graphical. By Don O. Shelton. 6. DAYBREAK IN THE DARK CONTINENT. Revised Edition. A study of Africa. By Wilson S. Naylor. 7. THE CHRISTIAN CONQUEST OF INDIA. A study of India. By James M. Thoburn. 8. ALIENS OR AMERICANS? A study of Immigration. By Howard B. Grose. 9. THE UPLIFT OF CHINA. Revised Edition. A study of China. By Arthur H. Smith. ip. THE CHALLENGE OF THE CITY. A study of the City. By Josiah Strong. 11. THE WHY AND How OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. A study of the relation of the home Church to the foreign missionary enter- prise. By Arthur J. Brown. 12. THE MOSLEM WORLD. A study of the Mohammedan world. By Samuel M. Zwemer. 13. THE FRONTIER. A study of the New West By Ward Platt. 14. SOUTH AMERICA: Its Missionary Problems. A study of South America. By Thomas B. Neely. 15. THE UPWARD PATH : The Evolution of a Race. A study of the Negro. By Mary Helm. 16. KOREA IN TRANSITION. A study of Korea. By James S. Gale. 17. ADVANCE IN THE ANTILLES. A study of Cuba and Porto Rico. By Howard B. Grose. 18. THE DECISIVE HOUR OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. A study of conditions throughout the non-Christian world. By John R. Mott. 19. INDIA AWAKENING. A study of present conditions in India. By Sherwood Eddy. 20. THE CHURCH OF THE OPEN COUNTRY. A study of the problem of the Rural Church. By Warren H. Wilson. 21. THE CALL OF THE WORLD. A survey of conditions at home and abroad of challenging interest to men. By W. E. Doughty. 22. THE EMERGENCY IN CHINA. A study of present-day con- ditions in China. By F. L. Hawks Pott. 23. MEXICO TO-DAY : Social. Political, and Religious Con- ditions. A study of present-day conditions in Mexico. By George B. Winton. 24. IMMIGRANT FORCES. A study of the immigrant in his home and American environment. By William P. Shriver. 25. THE NEW ERA IN ASIA. Contrast of early and present conditions in the Orient. By Sherwood Eddy. 26. THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. A study of the social achievements of foreign missions. By W. H. P. Faunce. 27. THE NEW HOME MISSIONS. A study of the social achieve- ments and social program of home missions. By H. Paul Douglass. 28. THE AMERICAN INDIAN ON THE NEW TRAIL. A story of the Red Men of the United States and the Christian gospel. By Thomas C. Moffett. 29. THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SOCIAL GOSPEL. A study of the individual in the local church and his relation to the social mes- sage of the gospel. By Shailer Mathews. 30. RISING CHURCHES IN NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS. A study of the native Church and its development in the foreign mission field. By Arthur J. Brown. 31. THE CHURCHES AT WORK. A statement of the work of the churches in the local community in the United States. By Charles L. White. 32. EFFICIENCY POINTS. The Bible, Service, Giving, Prayer, four conditions of efficiency. By W. E. Doughty. In addition to the above courses, the following have been pub- lished especially for use among younger persons : 1. UGANDA'S WHITE MAN OF WORK. The story of Alexander M. Mackay of Africa. By Sophia Lyon Fahs. 2. SERVANTS OF THE KING. A series of eleven sketches of famous home and foreign missionaries. By Robert E. Speer. 3. UNDER MARCHING ORDERS. The story of Mary Porter Gamewell of China. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard. 4. WINNING THE OREGON COUNTRY. The story of Marcus Whitman and Jason Lee in the Oregon country. By John T. Paris. 5. THE BLACK BEARDED BARBARIAN. The story of George Leslie Mackay of Formosa. By Marian Keith. 6. LIVINGSTONE THE PATHFINDER. The story of David Living- stone. By Basil Mathews. 7. ANN OF AVA. The story of Ann Hasseltine Judson of Burma. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard. 8. COMRADES IN SERVICE. Eleven brief biographies of Chris- tian workers. By Margaret E. Burton. These books are published by mutual arrangement among the home and foreign mission boards, to whom all orders should be addressed. They are bound uniformly and are sold at 60 cents in cloth, and 40 cents in paper; prepaid. Nos. 21, 29, and 32 are 25 cents in cloth, prepaid. 1 best I magazine The Whole World for Its Scope. Promotes World Peace. Cultivates the Missionary Spirit. \ Unique Contains True Stories of Life, Ac- | tion, and Bravery. Develops High Ideals. Describes the Customs of Peoples in j All Lands. 1 Attractive Bound in a Beautiful, Appropriate | Cover in Colors. Abundantly Illustrated with Original | Drawings and Photographs. Printed on Excellent, High-finish | Paper. EVERYLAND in the Home. Why not 1 I supplement your influence among boys and | I girls? EVERYLAND in the Sunday-school. A | 1 rich source for missionary story material. | I An excellent award, Christmas, or birthday | I gift. EVERYLAND is issued monthly, thirty- | I two pages and cover. Subscription price, | | $1.00 a year, 25 cents extra for Canada, and | 1 50 cents extra for foreign postage. | EVERYLAND, 156 Fifth Ave., New York City'| UCSB LIBRARY University of California Library Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below ^Ofi?' . .;,../ UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACIUTY A 000 664 989 1