The unfinished task of the Christian church; introductory studies in the problem of the world's evangelization

Contents

Dp GE NIRANING® seocrat ew) ce WAN be ae are LS II. Tur OpticaTion To UNDERTAKE THE TASK. . . 19

III. Extent or tHe Task: MoHAMMEDAN AND Nom- INALE YUtCHRISTIAN COUNTRIES. 2) oy (e. ao een 39

IV. Extent of THE Task: HEATHEN COUNTRIES . . 59 V. _ OBSTACLES TO. BES OVERCOME, 165 eh wee seen ea 7O VI. Successes oF THE EarLy CHURCH . . . .~ .» 103 VII. Successes oF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, I . ~- 129 VIII. Successes or THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, II . . I51

II

Never before has the subject of the evangelization of the world been so widely and carefully considered as during the last decade. Whatever the reason, a new interest in those who dwell in the remoter regions of the earth has been waked, and thousands are studying conditions in order to transform them. This new awakening of interest in non-Christian peoples has its basis in religion, and the efforts made to ameliorate their conditions find their primary and fundamental motive in Christianity. It is fair to ask if all or a main part of this new activity is due to fanaticism or impractical idealism. It is not difficult to effect a movement of people in masses through a sentimental impulse that is operative for a time and then dies away. If this modern interest in missions has no permanent motive, it is unworthy the attention of thoughtful, earnest men and women. If it is based upon sound reason as well as sane religion, then it should command the attention of all sincere Christians.

In answering the question: “ Why evangelize the world?”, a question of real interest to every Christian man and woman, it is necessary to survey briefly the foundation of foreign missions. Whatever may have been the arguments used a century ago when little was known of the non-Christian races, matters little to us to-day. We are compelled to consider the subject from the twentieth century standpoint and reason from the broadened knowledge of to-day. Emphasis upon Christian truth has shifted not a little from generation to generation. We will deal not so much with theology as with practical conditions and simple Christian truths. Let us briefly consider some of the reasons why Christians of to-day should interest themselves in the subject of evangelizing the world. The reasons given here are not exhaustive. They are fundamental, however, and cannot fail to be suggestive. The answer falls into three distinct heads: 1. Because self interest demands it; 2. Because the people of the world are in need of what Christianity alone can give them; and 3. Because loyalty to our religion demands that Christians engage in a world evangelizing effort.

1. Because Self Interest Demands the Evangelization of the World

This is not an argument that appeals to the highest in man; but it is one that has weight in influencing most of our acts. It is assumed in diplomacy that a nation has no right to maintain an aggressive attitude towards another nation except for the protection or promotion of its own interests. It is taken for granted that all commercial and industrial corporate activity, is for the promotion of the interests of the members of the corporation. No question is raised when an individual launches extensive and costly enterprises for the purpose of increasing his own wealth; not only does no one criticise him, but the reasons for his action are considered fully adequate.

There are many who cannot conceive of an individual, corporation, or state putting forth effort or making sacrifice for anything whatever, except the promotion of self interests. They cannot imagine an altruistic purpose or an effort or sacrifice that aims merely at the good of another. Perhaps this spirit is more general than we know, although we are convinced that it is not widely prevalent. Even among professing Christians and in the management of the affairs of the Christian church and especially in the conduct of denominational activites, we find astoundingly selfish ends pursued by professedly Christian people and organizations. To all these classes the argument of self interest may appeal when all other arguments for the evangelization of the world have utterly failed.

Some of the selfish interests conserved by foreign missions are the following :

a. The missionaries open remote countries to secular trade. It has been said that trade follows the flag. This is true, but, more than this, the flag follows the missionary. In almost every non-Christian country in the world, the missionaries are and have ever been, far in advance of the flag. American missionaries were in Turkey years before diplomatic and consular relations were opened between that country and the United States. Africa was crossed and recrossed by missionaries before the flag of any civilized nation had been officially raised on that continent. Missionaries were the pioneers in China, preceding by decades the advent of the Ministers or Consuls of their governments, and to-day they have penetrated into the remote interior of countries where their nations’ flags are never seen, save where they float over the simple homes of patriotic missionaries.

In no instance is the missionary sent out for the purpose of preparing the way for either the merchant or the government official. This effect of his work is purely incidental and does not enter into his plans. In fact, missionary work in a country is often hindered by the impression that gets abroad that the missionary is there to stimulate trade or to prepare the way for foreign domination. It is inevitable, however, that Christian civilization will always be a promoter of commerce, and commerce will always demand the consul.

b. The missionaries protect our own civilization from the evil influences of the far East. The great development of channels of communication has made the world small and brought all nations and races into close relations with one another. Whether or not the question is raised, “ Who is my neighbor?”’, the whole world has become one compact neighborhood of which we are all members. We cannot withdraw if we would; exclusiveness is impossible. When one section of the world starves for want of bread, the rest of the world suffers. When one section is at war, no part is exempt from the indirect effects of the distutbed conditions. When one part lies in the darkness of moral degradation, this darkness casts its shadow over the whole. Conditions are such to-day that to an ever increasing degree the solidarity of humanity is a practical fact of politics, thought, and morals. If one race is degraded then are all races in their measure degraded with it, and if one race is exalted so also are the others exalted with it. It is therefore imperative, in order to preserve our own boasted Christian civilization in its intelligence and purity, that we strenuously exert ourselves to improve the social, intellectual, and moral condition of all races. s

Among the millions of emigrants who are crowding to the shores of the United States from the less favored nations, there are many who do not know our standards of civilized living, and these can always be more cheaply, easily, and effectively influenced for righteousness in their own countries than after landing on our shores.

_ Many of the Christian workers to-day among the Armenians, Syrians, Greeks, Bohemians, Chinese, Mexicans, Japanese, and other foreigners in this country, were trained for that service in foreign mission institutions, and, in many cases, without these trained native leaders little could be done for the moral and religious uplift of the foreign peoples in our midst. To protect society from the irreligion and the lower standards of morality which many of these bring, we must first establish in the countries from which they come the institutions of the Gospel. The stream must be purified at its fountain head. Experience shows that we must save the non-Christian nations in order to save the Christian.

c. Missionary work begets in the worker the highest type of spiritual life. There is no distinctively Christian work, however small, that fails to return to the one who labors, some adequate measure of personal reward. One may help to support a church at home in order that he and his family may enjoy the privileges of worship and that the moral tone of the town in which he lives may be kept high. One may engage earnestly in Christian work in his own state or among people of his own nation from patriotic motives and in order that the standard of education and character be not lowered by the influx of the illiterate and irreligious. These lower motives may be the only impulses that lead many to personal sacrifices and effort for Christian institutions among the people close at hand, bound to them by a community of interests.

The danger of taking up foreign missionary work chiefly under the impulse of the lower motives is more remote. It is true that we have an interest in common with all peoples and races, and it is equally true that there is a place in foreign missions for self interest to manifest itself, but, at the same time, there is no other form of Christian effort that is so generally entered upon only under the highest impulse that can move men to action, that is, loyalty to Jesus Christ. This is presented as the supreme motive with the widest field for its activity, towards this we rise, and ofttimes work begun through lower motives develops in the worker that which is highest and best in the Christian life.

For an individual or a church to exercise this supreme motive in systematic effort and sacrifice, develops in both the highest type of spirituality. It is a privilege for any one to lose sight of self and personal interests and to make sacrifice. Only by so doing can a man fully demonstrate his allegiance to Jesus Christ, who gave all that He possesed for a lost and rebellious world. Only thus can the Christian life most clearly embody itself in human character and the church become the true body of our Lord upon earth. Thus alone is fulfilled the promise of Christ: ‘“ He that loseth his life. ...° shall find it.”

2. Because the People of the World are in Need of What Christianity Alone can Give Them

In countries like Japan, the need of Christianity is not sO apparent to the casual traveler as in countries like Africa and the South Seas, but to one who remains for a length of time in any non-Christian land there is no reasonable doubt that the people lack most bitterly the blessings which Christianity imparts to all who accept it. The lack that is at first most apparent is external.

The unclean and unsanitary condition of life is appalling to one who for the first time is brought into contact with the Orient. In so many cases the substitution of ceremonial cleanliness in the place of mechanical or chemical purity, as in India, which makes the offal of cattle more pure than distilled water upon which the shadow of a low caste man has fallen, leads to numberless customs that are vile from every standpoint of Christian civilization. Religious customs, that not only make the suppression of contagious diseases impossible, but directly promote their extension, are common everywhere outside the reach of Christianity. The high death rate among infants and even among all ages and classes, the absence of provisions for the amelioration of physical pain, the heartless cruelty in dealing with the aged and the afflicted, strike the Christian observer with overwhelming force. One wonders at times how it is possible for men and women to become so callous of feeling and so cruel of heart. The only conclusion possible is that the religions of those people do not promote cleanliness, charity, kindliness, sympathy, and selfforgetful service for others.

To understand this subject fully we need to investigate and consider the almost universal unsanitary conditions in which the people of non-Christian countries, especially the lower classes, live; the disregard of the most simple principles of hygiene, and the ordinary laws of health, and the painful insufficiency of medical knowledge; intemperance and the opium habit; slavery; brutality and absence of human sympathy; cannibalism and the evils that grow out of it; and human sacrifices.

Another need in non-Christians countries that appeals to the Christian is the imtellectual. This does not mean simply inability to read and write. Most of the great scholars of China and India are profoundly ignorant of many practical facts of life. Their learning draws them from the realities of life, often discourages logical thought, and does not stimulate to scientific investigation or incite to progress. It is too largely a fossilized learning that is valuable primarily as a specimen. Even these scholars, however, number but a small proportion of the great masses of those who know not Christ. If the so-called learning of the highest classes has done so little for them, what of the millions who compose the toiling multitudes? One is often astounded at the depths of ignorance into which the human intellect can sink, and wonders if some of the beings in human form, whom he meets in the East, are endowed with that intellect which is common to man.

Out of these conditions there come witchcraft and demonology with all their oppressive, degrading, and terrifying beliefs and practices; quackery, a part of the above but applied to the treatment of diseases; poverty, because of the lack of intelligent acumen and ability to create new opportunities or seize those that are created; neglect of the poor and sick, and slavish Obedience to evil customs, to break away from which there is not sufficient intellectual strength; submission to the cruel oppression of tyrants made more intense by mutual hatreds, suspicions, and rivalries; inability to change these conditions, because of slavish dependence upon their own religions and customs; ill treatment of women growing out of a belief that they are of an inferior class and not worthy common respect; the absence of the home and all that word implies in Christian lands.

Most important of all, and most appalling of all, are the spiritual needs. To a large degree this is fundamental to all that has gone before. While in the sacred books of India and of China as well as in the Koran of the Mohammedans, there is much that is true, uplifting and even inspiring, these few grains of wheat in the midst of such a mass of worthless chaff, or even that which is positively evil, do not find lodgment in the hearts of the general followers of those faiths nor bring forth fruit in purified moral characters. The masses of the people do not feed upon the kernels of grain, but upon the chaff and husks, and these afford no moral nourishment.

Mohammedanism may have produced some exalted moral characters; but they have been so rare that we point to them with wonder and regard them always as an exception. At the same time we know that Islam has blunted if not destroyed the conscience of every people it has dominated. As a class the 230,000,000 who bear the name of the Arabian pro-— phet to-day represent perhaps less true elevating moral principle and practice than any similar number of believers in any one religion.

Hinduism offers no spiritual stimulus to any except the high caste, while it condemns to perpetual and irretrievable social ostracism, all who were so unfortunate as to be born beneath them. The decorations upon its sacred temples are often too vile to be reproduced and the story of the life of many of its gods cannot be told in a civilized language. These are the gods and these the temples of Hinduism, and out of this religion can come nothing that rises to a higher moral level.

Confucianism has much that is commendable. Many of its precepts are worthy of honor in any race and in every age. These have had no little influence over the lives and characters of some of the best men in China and Japan. Still one must remember that Confucianism is not a religion. It begins and ends with precepts. It commands no worship and inculcates loyalty to no divinity. Never since the world began have simple precepts, however wise and true, been able to keep a people moral and upright or to generate and develop purity of life and strength of character. Confucianism has its value if accompanied by a religion, but it can never take the place of a religion. The moral character of Confucianists has not developed and strengthened but has continually weakened.

As we go lower in the scale the utter inadequacy of the non-Christian religions becomes baldly apparent. The cruelty, vileness, evil and abhorent practices which exist side by side with all of them, if not a part of the religion itself, preclude the necessity of arguing that they are inadequate to meet the needs of the physical, intellectual, and moral life of any race or people. They have all been faithfully put to the test and found to be woefully lacking.

The Christian knows that in the religion of Jesus Christ the only true remedy exists. Under its sway the evils that have been mentioned gradually disappear. It not only changes the character of all who embrace it, but it applies with equal force to every phase of human society. These facts are not mere theories or beliefs, but rest impregnable upon centuries of experience and observation as Christianity has strengthened its hold upon individuals and races,

In the face of the facts, as we observe the awful needs of our fellow men in the non-Christian countries of the world and as we consider that we possess that which alone will meet those needs, and when we realize that we have it in our power to apply the remedy to the disease with the assurance of beneficent results, there is no ground for waiting to ask where the path of privilege and duty lies. The captain of a steamer who sees a signal of distress flying from some disabled vessel and does not make every effort in his power to carry relief to those who are in need, is degraded from his position and disgraced. The physician who hears the call of human suffering and does not respond to the limit of his power to alleviate pain and save life, or who knows a remedy for human ills and keeps it to himself, is cast out from his medical societfes and loses standing with his profession. It is safe to declare that for the Christian there can be no standard of living lower than that which applies to secular matters illustrated in the physician and the sea captain. The cry of distress from the millions of fellow men in physical, intellectual, and moral despair, comes to the ears of the followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. Can the cry be unheeded without moral peril? “Inasmuch as ye did it not” stands as true to-day as it was when it was uttered.

3. ‘Because Loyalty to our Religion Demands that We Preach It

While the thought that the children of Israel were to become the dominant race, is not consecutively developed in the Old Testament, there is no question that the teachings of the Scriptures made emphatic the conception that Jehovah was to become the God of the whole earth. He is constantly referred to as the God of Gods, and the Lord of Lords. Abraham, as the representative of the people of Jehovah, was to increase until his seed filled the earth. The prophets caught visions of a world-conquest and spoke at times in no doubtful terms. Although they may not have had a clear conception of just what was meant by the supremacy of Jehovah upon earth, they were unhesitatingly confident that all other religions were finally to give way to the worship of the one true and supreme God. In a word, the religion of the Old Testament was imperialistic and the prophets had clear visions of a future conquest of the world. :

In the New Testament, the entire plan of a world conquest is unfolded with force and precision, a plan which Jesus Christ began to put in execution when He chose His disciples. In His own ministry, even while training His disciples, He constantly reached out to the regions beyond and He was never more moved than when conversing with the people of other races, like the women of Samaria and of Syrophenicia

The coming of Christ Himself was a great foreign missionary movement, directed towards an entire world. He came not for His race or for the people of any one country, but for the world, and every allusion to His coming sets forth His universal mission. There is no single doctrine upon which He so constantly dwelt and to which He so frequently returned, as that of His mission to all mankind. ‘“‘ Whosoever ”’ was repeatedly upon His lips; no classes were excluded and He turned aside to make strangers especially welcome. It required no little time and patience to raise His disciples to the thought that the gentiles also were to receive the Word of Life.

Without taking up all the separate points in the life and teachings of our Lord that make this plain, we will refer to but two significant and comprehensive utterances. The prayer of Christ, as recorded in John 17, was offered under peculiar circumstances. He was about to separate from His disciples for the last time before His crucifixion, for His work with them as Teacher was completed and the hour had struck for a farewell. He knew better than any one else how weak they were and how imperfectly equipped for the colossal task He was committing to them, that of evangelizing the world. He knew, as no one else could, what fiery trials they were to meet and the storm of opposition that would burst upon them as soon as their Master was withdrawn. Under these circumstances one would expect that there under the shadow of the cross during those few last tender moments with them, He would have poured out His soul in prayer that they might have wisdom to carry out His plans for the world and.strength to meet every opposition.

Yet it is surprising to see how little He prayed for them and how quickly the words “the world” begin to have prominent place. Speedily the prayer assumed world proportions. The repeated petition for unity among the disciples was that “the world might believe” that Jesus came forth from the Father and that He was sent by the Father and that the Father loved the people of the world as He loved the Son Himself. To this world that had not known Him He was to send His disciples and through their united effort the world was to know of Him. This prayer is but an enlargement of the “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth” of His earlier ministry, and the disciple who, hearing it, decided that he was fulfilling his commission as a disciple by staying in

Jerusalem, and working and praying only for that city, would be a traitor to his Lord. The disciples of Jesus Christ had no option but to pray the world prayer and prove their discipleship by the world life.

We but call attention to the great commission of our Lord recorded in some form in each of the four Gospels as well as in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Christ had arranged even -before His crucifixion for a meeting with His disciples in the mountain of Galilee after His resurrection. He made appointment with the disciples and then, for fear that, in the excitement of the crucifixion and resurrection they might forget it, sent word by the women and the angel. Surely it was an important meeting in the eyes of the Lord, and one at which He wished every disciple to be present. There it was He met them, and the great message was the command to preach, to the ends of the earth, the Gospel He had taught them, promising, if they obeyed Him, to be with them in power. It is evident that this command made a profound impression upon all who heard, otherwise the record would not have been so repeatedly made.

There can be no doubt that the disciples came down from that mountain profoundly impressed with the fact that they were to preach the Gospel of their ascended Lord to all nations, bearing witness of Him even to the uttermost parts of the earth. They could no more get away from the obligation laid upon them at that time than they could escape from their own personality; they were only to wait for equipment ere they must begin. It should be noticed that no distinction was drawn by Christ between the work in Jerusalem and the work at the ends of the earth.

It was all a part of one work, and yet, no one might remain in Jerusalem and still be loyal to Jesus Christ, if he were able to go abroad.

The disciples understood clearly the commands of Christ and began to preach in Jerusalem, at the same time scattering themselves abroad, east, west, north, and south, bearing witness to what they had seen and knew. No question seems to have been raised among them as to whether there was not work enough in Jerusalem or whether the Jews and the Gentiles did not already have a reasonably good religion of their own with which they seemed amply satisfied. No question was raised as to whether it was wise to disturb them in their beliefs, for they had heard the command of the Master saying “ go,” “ bear witness,” “preach my Gospel to every creature,’ and the responsibility for what should come rested no longer with them, but with Him who gave the command. He had confidently believed that it was better for the world that it should know His Gospel, and that was enough for the disciples.

Paul, separated by the Holy Ghost for the labor whereunto he had been called, was sent forth into Asia Minor where the work developed under his preaching with great rapidity. Travelling upon his first journey in a small circle, he returned to Jerusalem, and upon his second journey covering a part of the same territory, he found everything highly prosperous and the churches increasing in numbers daily. Suddenly in the midst of this most successful work they were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. Dazed by this prohibition, Paul essayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus permitted it not. All of Asia Minor was closed to him, atsthe moment when everything seemed most favorable for the spread of the Gospel, and Paul and his companions pressed on by Mysia and, almost in consternation, came down to Troas. We can easily imagine the frame of mind of the mighty Paul as he saw his work suddenly terminated by the very Spirit that had called him into the service, until, while waiting in Troas, the vision of the man of Europe appeared to him and, catching then the larger vision of the Christ and the world character of the message he had to preach, he decided at once that he was called of God not simply to preach in Asia Minor, but to go to another continent and preach to the world. Here Paul, who was not with Christ upon the Mount of Ascension, conceived the world wide character of the religion of Jesus Christ and immediately acted upon the new impulse. Thus the Gospel crossed to Europe and foreign missions were actually inaugurated.

The religion of Jesus Christ is pre-eminently missionary. There is no other word that so completely characterizes it. It is easier to conceive of a landscape without color, life without action, music without harmony, than it is to conceive of a Christianity as it was lived and taught by Christ and his disciples, which does not reach out for the redemption of all men. It is impossible to understand how one can be loyal to Jesus Christ whose name he bears and whom he professes before men to serve, and at the same time deny the obligation to do all in his power to evangelize the world. Loyalty demands this and will be satisfied with nothing less.

We have then three fundamental reasons for evangelizing the world, from which it is impossible to escape:

(1) The protection of our own Christian civilization; (2) The overwhelming need of the world and our ability to supply that need; (3) Loyalty to our profession of love to Jesus Christ.

THE, EXTENT: MOHAMMEDAN AND NOM- INALLY CHRISTIAN COUNTRIES

III The Extent: Mohammedan And Nominally Chris- Tian Countries

Much has already been done in the way of world evangelization. How much territory remains to be conquered? To what countries should forces and money be sent in order to accomplish the task to which we have set our hand? These are important questions, and upon the answers much depends. The time has passed when we can send missionaries at haphazard into any country that has appealed to ourssympathies and into almost any foreign city to which our attention has been drawn, and be sure that we are carrying on the Lord’s work in the best and most effective manner. To-day, at the beginning of the second century of the modern missionary movement, we can see that there has not been an equitable distribution of missionary forces. During the first century there has been much hasty entrance upon fields already fairly well occupied, while regions of vast proportions and densely populated, have been largely overlooked. Owing to the unequal distribution of the work, the impression may have been made that the unevangelized portions of the world have been pretty well covered already, and that it but remains for us to maintain the present forces on the ground until they accomplish the task that has been set for them to do. But the fact is far otherwise and those who are planning to go out as missionaries, as well as the missionary societies themselves, in massing and directing their forces abroad, ought to know where the greatest needs are, that the unevangelized world may be adequately covered.