Modern missions in the Far East; a report prepared by William Adams Brown ... for the Board of directors of the Union theological seminary, January, 1917.

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Preface

On May 18, 1915, the Board of Directors, following the precedent already created in the case of Dr. George William Knox, appointed me Union Seminary Lecturer on Religion in the Far East, and granted me six months’ leave of absence from Seminary duties. Pursuant to this action I left this country on the 26th of January, 1916, and spent the following four months and a half in a trip to the Far East, in the course of which I visited a number of mission stations, conferred with many Union Seminary alumni on the foreign field, and delivered numerous lectures, sermons and addresses. I beg herewith to submit to the Board the following report of impressions received during the course of this experience, so far as they bear upon the work of the Seminary as a school for training men for Christian service at home and abroad.

Table Of Contents

I. Outline of Work Done as Union Seminary Lecturer.

II. General Impressions as to the Present Situation on the Mission Field.

1. Magnitude of the enterprise.

II General Impressions As To The Existing Situation On The Mission Field

Magnitude of the Enterprise

The first impression made upon one who visits the mission field for the first time is of the magnitude of the missionary enterprise. Considered simply as a business proposition missions are a going concern. Both in the physical plant operated, the numbers of men and women employed, and the influence exerted, foreign missions are one of the outstanding facts with which any intelligent traveler in countries like China and Japan must reckon. The compounds of the leading foreign missionary societies occupy large tracts of land in each of the leading cities. The houses of the missionaries are substantial and comfortable. The educational and religious enterprises, judged by the standards which prevail, are well housed. In a city like Shanghai the missionary community numbers perhaps five hundred persons; in Peking and in Tokyo, several hundreds. A glance over the index of the Mission Year books of China and Japan reveals a story of many-sided and efficient activity. One feels that in the large cities at least the pioneer stage of Christian missions is past, and that a work which commands such large resources of men and of money must be judged by more exacting standards than those which were applied a generation ago.

Extent of the Success Already Attained

Nor is it simply from the point of view of the money and the energy invested that foreign missions impress the visitor. Their influence in each of the countries in which they are at work is altogether out of proportion to the number of individuals who are concerned. In China the leading educational institutions have been, up to the present time, missionary institutions. Missionaries have been leaders in various movements of social reform, notably the movement for the suppression of opium. In Nanking one of our own graduates, Mr. Joseph Baillie, has been a pioneer in the work of reforestation and scientific agriculture. In Hangchow the Christian community, though numbering only eight hundred in a population of several hundred thousand, succeeded in defeating a movement for the opening of a quarter for licensed vice, after the land had been granted and the buildings actually erected.

In Korea, until the advent of the Japanese, missionaries were everywhere looked up to as the leaders of the nation. In the absence of any effective native leadership either in church or state, every forward movement was due to their initiative, and it would be difficult to-day to find any community, even in the United States, where in proportion to the number of their inhabitants, the Christian churches exercise a more powerful influence. In Pyeng Yang I attended the Sunday School of the Central Presbyterian church. Three sessions were required to accommodate the scholars who in each filled the main audience room to its capacity. At the first session more than four hundred men and older boys were in attendance, at the second, six hundred women, while the same number of children of both sexes attended the final session. And the Central is but one of seven Presbyterian churches in Pyeng Yang, while the Methodists have a work second only in importance to that of the Presbyterians. At Syen Chun, fully half of the population are Christians, and from both centres an active evangelistic campaign is being carried on, in which the workers are largely volunteers serving at their own charges.

Even in Japan, where Christianity confronts a powerful, independent organization, both in church and state, the influence exerted by Christians on public opinion is altogether out of proportion to their numbers. While I was in Japan the attempt was made to open a licensed quarter near some schools in the city of Osaka. A powerful opposition at once arose, in which Christians were the leaders. On many important social questions, such as the divorce question, the right of woman to the protection of her person, the drink question, and the like, Christianity has proved itself a powerful factor in the formation of public opinion. Measured by what it has accomplished, the amount which has been expended for Christian missions has justified itself to date.

Greatness of the Work Still to be Done

A third impression produced by a visit to the mission field is of the greatness of the work still to be done. This is true even when one takes the narrowest view of Christianity as a purely individualistic religion. Eespectable as are the numbers of the converts, they are still, with the single exception of Korea, but a small fraction in each of the non- Christian countries, and when one passes from the individual to the social point of view and considers what has still to be done to create a Christian society one feels that one is facing a task not for decades but for centuries.

This impression of the greatness of the task is most vivid in China. I spent two days in Hwaiyuan, with our own graduate, James Cochran. Hwaiyuan is, I suppose, one of the best managed mission stations in China. It has an excellent hospital, a fine church, good schools, and an adequate and spacious compound for the workers. The work has been well manned and conducted with intelligence and success. A Christian community has been gathered; boys and girls are being trained, and through an evangelistic campaign the influence of the central station is reaching into the surrounding villages. Yet when one measures what has been done by what still remains to.be done one realizes the vastness of the task. Sanitary conditions in the city are conspicuous by their absence ; the village washing is done in a pond into which the sewage of the city drains, and Mr. Cochran found it convenient to send his wash to Nanking, three hours away by rail. Foot-binding is still almost universally practiced; executions take place on the public road outside the village, and the bodies are left to lie unburied until the family or some friend comes to reclaim them. The exposure of female infants is of common occurrence. When I was in the hospital Dr. Samuel Cochran showed me a man whose body was frightfully burned. He was a respectable merchant who had been beset by robbers and tortured in order that he might betray the whereabouts of his money. As Chinese communities go, Hwaiyuan is a very decent place, and the magistrate, the centre of all power in the Chinese community, a good one as magistrates go. But when one applies to such a community the standard of the Christian social ideal, one realizes how much has still to be done before China becomes a Christian nation.

It would be unfair to generalize from a single example ; but the impression made in Hwaiyuan was confirmed by what I saw elsewhere in China. Except in centres like Shanghai and Tientsin, where foreigners have exerted a controlling influence, one hears everywhere the same story of inefficiency, inertia and corruption. More even than in Syria I felt myself transported back into pre-Christian conditions, both as to economics and as to psychology. With human material of unusual promise, with capacities for industry, endurance, patience and good humor, unparalleled in any other people, with individual examples of character and achievement nowhere surpassed, there is yet something lacking in China which it will take generations, yes, centuries to supply. Of India I cannot speak at firsthand, but with this exception China impressed me as the great mission field of the world.

When, however, one shifts one ’s point of view from the longer to the nearer future one is led to modify one’s judgment. In magnitude China may be the great mission field, but in urgency J apan comes first. This is due to many different causes ; in part to the more effective social organization of Janpan which makes it possible to influence the whole country more rapidly and more effectively; in part to the relative strength and independence of the native church which has in Japan a power which the church in China does not possess ; but above all, to the strategic position which Japan holds in the political world both with reference to China and to Korea. Like all the countries of the world Japan faces a crisis in her political fortunes, and her decision both in questions of domestic and of foreign policy will have momentous consequences not only for Christianity within her own borders but in the world. Nowhere in my judgment is Christian leadership more needed than in Japan to-day, and nowhere will the next ten years count for more.

There is an impression in certain Christian circles that the work of missions in Japan is practically over, and that from this time on the responsibility for Christianizing Japan can be Jaid upon the shoulders of the native church. I believe that this is a mistaken impression, and that there will be work for the right kind of missionary in Japan for many years. It is true that the work of the missionary in Japan is very different from that of the missionary in China. In China what is needed is patient instruction in the elementary tasks of sanitation, economics and citizenship, until a generation of Chinese has been raised up who are able to assume the responsibility of Christian leadership all along the line. In Japan the problem of the missionary is to cooperate with the leaders of the native church in creating a public sentiment strong enough to affect the life of the nation as a whole. In view of the strength of the anti- Christian influences now at work in Japan, this is a task as important as it is difficult, and it would be unfortunate if the recent emphasis in missionary appeal upon the needs of China, an emphasis not greater than the facts warrant, should obscure even for a moment the equally important, and as I believe, even more pressing need of Japan.

The Opportunity for Further Advance

But if the need is great, so is the opportunity. In every country that I visited I found the barriers which have hampered the missionary enterprise in the past in the way of removal,, and the way open for a forward movement all along the line.

This is notably true in China. The attitude of suspicion which characterized the days of the Boxer outbreak is giving place to a feeling of sympathy and confidence. Intelligent Chinese welcome the help that Christian missions can bring them in solving their national and social problems, and the hospital and the school have established points of contact which give the missionary easy access to the minds and hearts of those for whom he works. I have spoken of the discouragements which the missionary must face: the corruption of the government, the inertia of the people, the heavy weight of the dead hand of the past. And it is necessary to do this if one is to give a true picture of the facts. So much has been said in missionary circles of the awakening of China in the past few years, and of the new forces which are making themselves felt in the life of the nation, that there is danger that those at home will underestimate the difficulty of the task and the long time that must elapse before the desired results appear. And yet it is true that China is awakening, and that in spite of the discouragements of her present political situation, there are elements in the life of the nation that are full of promise for the future. There is a new spirit abroad of which one finds evidence in the most unexpected places, a spirit of expectation and hope. Minds are waking up and new ideals are being conceived. Nothing impressed me more in my trip through China than the eagerness with which the more thoughtful Chinese — and I may add Chinese women — followed the changing political conditions, and the extent to which the standard by which they judged was a moral standard. Whatever other influences may have cooperated in Yuan Shih Kai’s downfall, the fact that he broke his pledged word was an important one. Men felt that he could not be trusted, and so he had to go. How China is to meet the crisis of the immediate future he would be a wise man who should venture to predict, but that there are moral forces in China which, if properly directed, will in time make her the great country she promises to be, no one who has been even a month in China can doubt.

Equally impressive though different in kind is the opportunity in Japan. There was a time some years ago when the relations between the missionary body and the native church were somewhat strained. But now that the church has won its independence, and the missionaries have frankly accepted the position of advisers, this strain has been removed. When the missionary comes to the Japanese in the spirit of brotherhood and equality with suggestions based upon superior knowledge and experience, his help is eagerly welcomed and his suggestions are apt to be followed. I do not believe that there is any place in the world to-day where the presence of a small group of able and far-sighted men full of sympathy with Japan in her legitimate aspirations and inspired with the Christian ideal of brotherhood and service can do more to advance the Kingdom of God.

In Latin America too doors are opening in unexpected ways. The restrictive policy which used to obtain in the Latin American states is rapidly yielding to one of toleration if not of sympathy. In the Central American republics the governments cordially welcome Protestant missionaries and cooperate with them. In Pern, the stronghold of reaction, liberty of worship and of teaching has finally been granted to Protestants. Thoughtful Latin Americans are becoming concerned at the state of irreligion in their universities and welcome the presentation of a form of Christianity which is not inconsistent with the results of modern science.

So much has been said recently in the papers about the Panama Congress that it may be of interest to say a word as to the impressions which I received there. I confess that I went to Panama somewhat in doubt as to the wisdom of the gathering and open to conviction as to whether the Latin American countries were really a missionary field in the strictest sense. I came back with a clear conviction that not only was Latin America a mission field for Protestants but one of the highest importance and promise. This is due in part to physical reasons like the vastness of the territory and the difficulty of communication; in part, to social reasons like the absence of any strong middle class to act as a connecting like between the little company of the well to do and the educated, and the great mass of ignorant laborers in the different countries; but above all, to the absence of effective Christian agencies to counteract these difficulties and to supply the uplifting and unifying influence which is needed. When all allowance has been made for the work which the Roman Catholic Church has done and is doing in the person of many of its representatives, with all recognition of the fact that in certain of the Latin American countries like Chile, Argentina and Brazil, we have a relatively high civilization which compares favorably with the corresponding civilization of Europe, the fact remains that when we take the field as a whole there is a work to be done by Protestant missions which intelligent Latin Americans themselves recognize and heartily welcome.

One of the most impressive addresses at the Panama Congress was delivered by Judge del Toro, a Catholic layman of Porto Rico. It was entitled “The Principles and Spirit of Jesus essential to meet the social needs of our time,” and was an eloquent appeal to the confernce to bring to his fellow countrymen of Spanish and Portuguese speech the type of free and spiritual religion which has been so important a factor in the life of the Protestant peoples of the North.

An interesting phase of the situation on which I can touch only in a word has to do with the relation of Christianity to the non- Christian religions. Here also conditions have changed greatly in the last few years and for the better. In every country that I visited the Christian has access to leaders of the non-Christian religions of a kind which would have seemed impossible only a few years ago. In China Confucianism impresses one as the one moral agency of importance which can be counted upon for help in the moral regeneration of the people. Buddhism seems moribund in spite of spasmodic efforts of the Japanese Buddhists to revive it, Mohammedanism is content to hold its own and make little effort at propaganda. The real religion of the mass of the Chinese seems to be a form of spirit worship, chiefly animated by fear. In all China Christianity meets no strong and effective opponent, and already the reflex influence of its propaganda is beginning to appear in the effect upon the leaders of the non-Christian religions. Far-sighted missionaries like Timothy Richard have established points of personal contact with leading representatives of the non-Christian faiths. In Peking there was recently held a conference of the leading Mollahs, somewhat after the model of John R. Mott’s Continuation Conferences, to consider what was the matter with Mohammedanism and what could be done to revive it. A similar conference, I am told, is planned by the Buddhists,

In Japan conditions are very different, but the outlook is no less encouraging. Here Buddhism is a living religion that is carrying on an active missionary propaganda. It has its professors in the imperial universities; it has its own educational establishments. It is imitating the social institutions of Christianity, and has its young men’s Buddhist associations and its Buddhist Sunday schools. It has revived preaching and is creating a popular literature. All this is so much to the good. It focuses attention on questions of religion; it creates a class of men to whom the Christian propaganda is of interest. While it makes demands for a high order of training on the part of the Christian missionary and a sympathetic understanding not easy for a foreigner, there is evidence that the work of Christian missions is having a far wider influence than a superficial observer would realize. Many Buddhist priests are reading the Bible ; not a few are Christians at heart.

It is more difficult to give a just estimate of the significance of Shinto in the religions life of Japan. Shinto is the primitive religion of Japan, the form in which the spirit worship which is the prevailing religion in China, reappears in this new environment. But in Japan it has undergone an independent development and, through its association with the ideals of patriotism, acquired a new lease of life. The festival in commemoration of the heroic dead plays an important part in developing the national self-consciousness. And while the government has decided that its significance is civic and not religious, and some missionaries have acquiesced in this interpretation, it must be confessed that for many Japanese the distinction is difficult to make. There are thoughtful missionaries who believe that in the future it will appear that Shinto and not Buddhism is the most formidable rival of Christianity, and that in spite of the government disclaimer, it may develop into a religion of imperialism which, as in ancient Rome, will deify the State and make the will of the Emperor the supreme law.

The Unity of the Missionary Enterprise

A fifth impression which one gains from a visit to the mission field is of the unity of the work. For convenience we divide the work of missions into sections which we label home and foreign ; but the divisions are only for convenience. In principle we face the same problems everywhere, whether in Shanghai or Yokohama, Buenos Aires or New York.

It would be difficult to conceive of two fields where the external conditions are more different than in China and Latin America. In one case you are dealing with an ancient civilization; in the other, with one comparatively modem. In the first case, with a population of exceptional density where the mere task of securing means of subsistence for the people is constantly pressing; in the other case, with a widely scattered population spread over vast reaches of territory. Yet in both cases the problems to be faced and the difficulties to be overcome are essentially the same. When I was in Shanghai I was requested to give a talk before an audience of missionaries on my experiences at Panama, and when I finished, the presiding officer remarked that the description of the situation and the needs could be transferred to China with the change of but a single word.

And what is true as between the different sections of the mission field is true also with reference to the work at home. I came to my study of the foreign field from a background of some years’ experience as a home mission administrator, and I found that there is scarcely a single problem which the missionary confronts in China, or Japan, which is not faced in principle by the church at home. The problem of race, of language, of class prejudice, of denominational rivalry, of the degree of the church’s responsibility for social and economic conditions, the problems of Christian education and of comity — these and many more which could be named are common Christian problems. The line between home and foreign is an imaginary line, like the equator on the map.

Nor is the unity simply in the problems to be faced. It appears also in the reflex influence which is being exerted by one country upon another. The work of the missionary as he preaches brotherly love and unselfishness is handicapped by the prejudice created by the conduct of his fellow-countrymen at home who, as a matter of fact, are acting selfishly. It is hard to presuade men of the practicability of Christianity as a social programme for China when every mail brings evidence of its failure in countries calling themselves Christian. More powerful than any argument for Christianity which the missionaries can give on the field would be the success of the Christian church in Christianizing social conditions at home.

The intimate connection between the problem on the field and the church at home was constantly brought to my attention during my trip. When I asked why such and such a thing was not done, or why such and such a policy was not followed, the answer was frequently that the sentiment of the church at home would not permit it. The prejudices and limitations of our local denominationalism are reflected across the sea, and the church in Japan and China is less effective than it might be because of the failure and inefficiency of the church at home.

The consciousness that the Christian enterprise throughout the world is one has been greatly reinforced by the war. One of my chief objects in visiting the mission field at this time was to learn what had been the effect of this world catastrophe upon the estimate of Christianity by the non-Christian peoples.

Would the war make the appeal of the missionary more difficult, or would it reinforce it by its demonstration of the appalling consequences of the policy of national selfishness, which has hitherto been controlling in the relation between nations? On the whole the latter has proved to be the case. The war has proved to thoughtful men in China and Japan not that Christianity is a failure, but that the nations which call themselves Christians are not really so. It has accentuated the gap between the professions of the western nations and their practice, and made us realize as never before that, so far as its national and social life is concerned, there is not a country in the world which is not missionary territory.

The Wisdom of the Present Leadership

The sixth and final impression of which I shall speak here is of the wisdom and ability of the present missionary leadership. When I wTas in Panama I had the opportunity of talking with representatives of all the larger Protestant missionary societies, and of learning their attitude toward the group of questions which are raised by the situation I have described ; and I have no hesitation in saying that the impression which I received was most encouraging. I am convinced that wTith few exceptions those responsible for our present missionary leadership have a clear conception of what needs to be done and the earnest desire to do this so far as conditions allow. The older individualistic conception is everywhere seen to be inadequate, and men realize that without intelligent cooperation success is impossible. The note of unity and daring struck at Edinburgh has re-echoed throughout the entire church and in ideal at least the leaders of the missionary enterprise are at one.

Nor is this true only in ideal. Much progress has been made in creating the machinery of effective cooperation. The Continuation Committee created by the Edinburgh Conference for all the countries outside of Latin America has now been matched by a Continuation Committee taking in these countries as well. For the first time in its history the missionary body has an organ through which it can express its unity and correlate its work.

This unification of missionary forces and ideals at home has its parallel in the field. In each of the great centres we find cooperative movements of great promise. The central Continuation Committees of which I have spoken have their parallels in local committees covering a single country or group, and the consciousness that the Christian enterprise is one is everywhere in evidence. One of the pleasantest features of my trip was the opportunity of attending gatherings like the weekly prayer meeting at Shanghai where all the Christian forces come together for conference and fellowship. There can be no question that as between the church at home and abroad the consciousness of unity on the foreign field is more highly developed and the possibilities of effective cooperation are greater.

Such then are the general impressions which I brought back from the mission field : the magnitude of the enterprise ; the extent of the accomplishment to date ; the greatness of the work still to be done; the range and many-sidedness of the opportunity; the unity of the work both at home and abroad; the wisdom and efficiency of the present missionary leadership. It is with these considerations in mind that we must approach the special problems which the missionary faces to-day.

III. Special Problems And Needs

The Problem of Administrative Efficiency

When one approaches a complex situation such as that presented by modem missions it is essential to distinguish between those general questions of principle or policy which affect the situation as a whole, and the more specific problems and needs which, however important they may be in themselves, are yet relatively independent. Fundamental among these more general questions is that of administrative method, for it is the key to all the rest.

I have spoken already of the impressions which I received of the wisdom of the present missionary leadership. But this is quite consistent with the recognition that there is room for improvement in our methods of missionary administration. At two points our present methods fall short of the highest standards of efficiency. First, in their lack of proper coordination between the executive at home and its representatives on the field; and secondly, in their failure to make the most effective use of the force on the field. This in turn is due in part to lack of proper organization of the different units at work; in part, to failure to provide individual workers with the equipment they need.

This failure is in part due to causes which are unavoidable. When one considers the conditions to be faced the wonder is not that there is room for improvement in missionary methods, but that so much has been accomplished in the face of so great obstacles. Instead of a single organization covering the field as a whole, we have to do with a large number of independent societies, each with its own traditions, constituency and point of view, each with its staff of workers responsible only to the home authorities, each with the natural local pride which is characteristic of denominationalism at home. The obstacles with which we are all familiar in our efforts to secure practical cooperation in Christian work on the home field reproduce themselves across the sea, and until our denominational divisions are overcome and organic unity secured, at least in the greater branches of the church, we must continue to face them. Under these circumstances, I repeat, the wonder is not that the highest success is not always attained, hut that so much has been accomplished, as is in fact the case.