The why and how of foreign missions

Front matter

ARTHUR JUDSON BROWtsf

REViSED EDITION

Class " BV ^06 Book -JLIL

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I Foreign Missions and World Reconstruction i

II The Foreign Missionary Motive and

Preface

The first edition of this book was prepared in 1908 in compliance with a request of the Young People's Missionary Movement for a succinct statement of the modern foreign missionary enterprise for busy people and mission study classes. About sixty thousand copies have been sold and many hundreds of mission study classes and summer conferences have used it in their courses. As the demand continues and as recent events have made many changes, not only in statistics but in problems and, to some extent at least, in points of view, this revised edition has been prepared. The design is to present the motives that prompt to foreign missionary effort, the objects that are sought, the methods of handling funds, the kind of persons appointed, the work that they are doing, the difficulties they encounter, the spirit they manifest, and the changing world conditions caused not only by the religious but by the political, commercial, and intellectual movements of our age and by the World War.

Those who are familiar with the author's larger book, The Foreign Missionary (Revell), will note that some of the material for this book has been taken from that volume. The present work, however, is not a condensation of the other nor is it

VI

PREFACE intended to take its place. The Foreign Missionary remains not only as a work of reference, but as the preferable volume for student volunteers, missionaries, and others who desire a fuller discussion of the problems involved. Chapter I utilizes parts of a chapter in a volume by the author entitled, The Mastery of the Far East (Scribners), in which this important question is given fuller consideration.

In adapting the material to the special purpose that it is designed to serve I gladly acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Mr. B. Carter Millikin, Educational Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions,. Dr. T. H. P. Sailer, Professor of Missions in Teachers College, Columbia University, and Mr. Franklin D. Cogswell of The Missionary Education Movement.

Arthur Judson Brown.

156 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

March 1, 1921.

FOREIGN MISSIONS AND WORLD RECONSTRUCTION

A world faith. The necessity for the foreign missionary enterprise has never been more clear than at this time when the world must be reconstructed after the havoc of a terrible war.

We should first of all remind ourselves what the foreign missionary enterprise is. It is not something extraneous to the Church, an outside object to be given an occasional collection as convenience may serve. It is an integral part of the object for which the Church exists. What is the Church for if not to preach the gospel throughout the world and to apply its principles to humanity's problems?

Where is the gospel to be preached? At home, of course. Those who are connected with foreign missions are as deeply concerned as anyone in the evangelization of our own land. This is not only because they themselves are American Christians, but because the home church is the base of the foreign missionary. We must pervade our own land with the spirit and principles of Jesus. But our land only? This was the perversion of the Pharisees, who maintained that Jehovah was distinctively the God of the Hebrews. Our Lord's thought was for a THE WHY AND HOW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS

the world. He told his disciples to " begin at Jerusalem," but to go on to " the uttermost parts of the earth." What was it that the angel said? 11 Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people." The program of the Church has been a universal one from the beginning. No local duty was to narrow its scope; Christianity stands or falls as a world faith. To take the elements of universality out of it would be to reduce it to the level of the non-Christian faiths. If the Church is to be true to its divine mission, its program must be world wide.

Foreign missions are the realization of the world program of the Church of God, the international mind upon the highest level, and the emancipation of the Church from the parochial and provincial into the wide spaces of the Kingdom of God. The Church was slow to realize its full mission, but gradually the splendid conception of a world-conquering gospel became clearer. Today the foreign missionary enterprise is the vastest work of the Church, as the facts that are given on other pages abundantly prove.

The reconstructive force of Christian missions. Everywhere Christian missions have gone, they have been a reconstructive force, a force that operates with less noise than political and economic forces, but that is, nevertheless, the most pervasive and reconstructive of all forces. Others effect changes in externals; but this effects an internal transformation. Others may make man a more decent animal and give him greater efficiency in the struggle for supremacy. But " if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature." This transformation involves not only the man himself, but all his relationships. " Behold, I make all things new." The missionary objective was finely expressed by St. Peter when he wrote : " We look for ... a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." The men of Thessalonica uttered a profounder truth than they knew when they complained that Paul and Silas had " turned the world upside down"; because it was wrong side up.

An economic force. Missions are a reconstructive economic force. Others besides missionaries have had a large part in this phase of the reconstructive process, but the missionaries have been potent influences. Lamps, kerosene oil, watches, clocks, furnaces, glass windows, sewing machines, and other conveniences for their houses attracted attention; likewise agricultural implements for their gardens and machinist's tools for their industrial schools, improved machinery and methods for the printing presses, — all contributed toward creating and developing desire. The missionaries sought no profit from these opening markets. But traders quickly turned them to commercial advantage and built up business interests which were of large value to Eastern and Western nations alike. Said former President William H. Taft: "You are pioneers in pushing Christian civilization into the Orient, and it has been one of the great pleasures of my life that I have had to do with these leaders of yours who represent your interest in China, India, the Philippines, and in Africa. These men are not only bishops and ministers, they are statesmen. They have to be. They make their missions centers of influence such as to attract the attention of native rulers. The statistics of conversions do not at all represent the enormous good they are doing in pushing Christian standards and advancing high civilization in all these far-distant lands."

A social force. That missions are a reconstructive social force, we shall note in some detail in a later chapter. They have effected striking changes in the popular attitude toward woman, in the status of the wife, in the education of girls, in the care of the sick, and in creating a sentiment against harmful drugs. William Elliott Griffis, who lived in Japan in the old feudal days, says that conditions at that time were unspeakably bad, that old Japan had no principle of regeneration; and he quotes approvingly a statement of Dr. Guido F. Verbeck's that new Japan came from across the sea with missionaries.

The defective and dependent classes were almost wholly neglected until the missionaries came with their humanitarian teaching and Christlike ministries. It was the missionary who first showed interest in the blind, the deaf and dumb, the orphaned, the leprous, the sick, and the insane. Institutions for their care are scattered all over Asia, and all of them were founded either directly by missionaries or indirectly as the result of their teachings. Mr. V. K. Wellington Koo, former Chinese Minister to Washington, has emphasized " the influence of the missionaries as a factor in the social regeneration of China. Many of the epoch-making reforms, such as the suppression of opium and the abolition of footbinding, have been brought about with no little encouragement and help from them. Their hospitals and dispensaries not only give shelter, comfort, and peace to hundreds of thousands of the sick and suffering, but also serve as centers from which radiate with increasing luminosity the light of modern medical science." This testimony is as applicable to other lands as to China. Professor Inazo Nitobe, of the Imperial University in Tokyo, after recounting the indebtedness of Japan to Christianity for schools, hospitals, and churches, added: " The leaders of the campaign to promote sanitation and hygiene, of the anti-prostitution movement, and of the temperance societies are recruited from among the Christians."

An intellectual force. Missions are a reconstructive intellectual force. The missionary has planted the church and the school side by side. He is a teacher as well as a preacher. The first modern schools in the Far East were founded by missionaries, and their present schools are among the best today. It is sometimes said that modern science has been the chief factor in the intellectual awakening of Asiatic lands; but it was the missionary who first took modern science to those lands, who translated the textbooks, taught the sciences, and explained the uses of steam and electricity. Mr. C. T. Wang, Vice President of the Chinese Senate, writes : " The mission schools throughout the country have led the way and in many cases have been the cradle of the modern Chinese educationists. In all the political upheavals people find that those students who, through their touch with the mission schools have embraced the real spirit of love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, are the ones that can best be trusted."

Substantially the same words might have been written of Japan. Missionaries were its first educators, founded its first schools, translated its first textbooks, and compiled its first grammars. In Korea practically the entire educational movement of the country was organized, directed, and maintained by missionaries until recent years. The governments in the Far East have now undertaken large educational programs of their own, but their officials unhesitatingly testify that they were indebted to missionaries for the suggestions and impetus, for the best textbooks, and for the most highly qualified teachers.

A moral force. Missions are a reconstructive moral force. They make plainer the distinction between right and wrong, clarify conscience, and quicken desire to do right. The light of Christianity makes virtue appear more attractive and vice more vile. There is evil in every land where Christianity exists; but it is there in spite of Christianity, not because of it. The most prejudiced critic knows that Christ should not be judged by the conduct of those who reject him, or by those who, while professing to accept him, show by their actions that they have only partially or nominally done so. The consistent Christian is a clean man, advocating good, hating wrong, fighting intemperance, gambling, dishonesty, and the social evil, purifying the moral atmosphere of the community, and furnishing the type of reliability that is indispensable to the stability of the State.

Bishop Awdry, the English bishop of South Tokyo, says that in the war between Russia and Japan, the Japanese Government ruled that all native interpreters who accompanied foreign correspondents must be Christians, and that this action was taken on the ground that for this important post men of absolute reliability were desired, who would fairly represent the interests of Japan. It is not surprising that Sir Ernest Satow, for many years the British Ambassador to Tokyo, and a recognized authority on Japanese matters, said: "In Japan, Christianity is now recognized as a very great moral motive in the national life."

A political force. Missions are a reconstructive political force. With politics as such, missionaries have nothing to do. They carefully avoid political affiliations. Mission boards do not encourage appeals to officials nor do they seek the aid of their own consular and diplomatic representatives except in cases of urgent need which involve necessary treaty rights. The missionaries . strongly believe that all due respect should be paid to the lawfully constituted civil authorities, that care should be observed not to embarrass them needlessly, that the laws of the land should be obeyed, and that it is better for the followers of Christ patiently to endure some injustice than to array the churches in antagonism to the governments under which they labor.

On the other hand, Christianity is always and everywhere a reorganizing force. It may not produce this result so quickly among a conservative as among a progressive people; but sooner or later, the consequences are inevitable.

Modern Japan is, swiftly in some respects and slowly but surely in others, reorganizing her institutions in accordance with the new spirit, so that the revolution in that country is a comparatively peaceful and normal one, as it was in England. The ruling classes in China and Russia, like those in France prior to the Revolution, shut their eyes to the facts only to be violently hurled from power. The ideas of God, of man, and of duty which Christianity inculcates invariably effect profound changes in the body politic. They did this in Europe and America, and they are doing it in Asia. Christianity alters a man's outlook upon life, gives him new conceptions of responsibility, strengthens moral fiber, and nerves him to oppose tyranny and wrong. What Draper said of Europe may be said with equal truth of modern Asia : " The civil law exerted an exterior power in human relations; Christianity produced an interior and moral change." Mr. Winston Churchill of the British Government said: " Every penny presented to the cause of missions is a contribution to good government; every penny spent on missions saves the spending of pounds in administration; for missions bring peace, law, and order." Similar opinions of British administrators in India have been widely quoted.

If Asiatic testimony is desired, it may be found in abundance. Of the scores of utterances that might be cited, two may suffice here: General Li Yuan Hung, the Commander-in-Chief of the Republican Army during the revolution, and afterward successor of Yuan Shih Kai in the presidency: " Missionaries are our friends. I am strongly in favor of more missionaries coming to China to teach Christianity. We shall do all we can to assist them, and the more missionaries we get to come to China the greater will the Republican Government be pleased. China would not be aroused today as it is were it not for the missionaries, who have penetrated even the most out-of-the-way parts of the Empire and opened up the country." Marquis io THE WHY AND HOW OF FOREIGN MISSIONS

Okuma, former Prime Minister of Japan: " The coming of missionaries to Japan has been the means of putting into these fifty years an advance equivalent to that of one hundred years. One thousand five hundred years ago Japan had advanced in civilization and domestic arts, but never took wide views nor entered upon wide work. 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."

A spiritual force. Missions are a reconstructive spiritual force. We do not mean to separate this phase of missionary influence from other phases. The spiritual motive pervades all forms of the work and furnishes the mainspring of activity; but missionaries are preachers and evangelists above all else. They believe that man's supreme need is the quickening of conscience, the discernment between right and wrong, the clarification of moral vision, the power that is conveyed in the gospel of Christ.

The history of their labors is a record of adventurous expeditions, of patient toil, of unflinching courage, of uncomplaining self-denial, of endurance of persecution, and finally of large achievement. As I have visited the missionaries, traveled with them, and watched their work during two visits to Asia, I have thought more than once that if the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews were to be brought down to date, it would surely include the names of many of these men and women of whom,

FOREIGN MISSIONS AND RECONSTRUCTION n

like the early Christians, " the world is not worthy." An international force. Missions are a reconstructive international force. " Foreign missions are influences toward better world relationships/' says former President William H. Taft. To quote again from the remarkable address of the Chinese Minister to Washington: " Even more significant than the trade relations between our two countries has been the work of i^merican missionaries in China, than whom no class of foreigners is more friendly, sympathetic, and unselfish in their attitude toward the Chinese people. The spirit which has underlain and still underlies the relations between China and the United States is nowhere better illustrated than in the devotion of this comparatively small group of Americans to their useful services in China and in their readiness to uphold the cause of justice and fairness. . . . The American missionaries' record of service properly deserves the gratitude of China and the admiration of the world."

A supernational religion. Christianity is, therefore, preeminently a supernational religion. We do not say international, because that suggests the plane of agreements between governments; but supernational, in that Christianity transcends nations. There is, indeed, a proper nationalism, and it has many noble elements. Patriotic love for one's own country and a zeal to advance its legitimate interests are great virtues. Missionary societies are in warm sympathy with all true nationalism. They thoroughly respect the reasonable desire of any people to manage their own affairs unhindered by unjust interference from outsiders. But it is sometimes difficult to draw the line between nationalism and internationalism — the due claims of a people to control their own interests, and the moral obligation to take into account the interests of humanity at large. It is as true of nations as of individuals that " none of us liveth to himself." Nationalism properly resents dictation in political matters, but it should welcome unselfish efforts to disseminate those truths of medicine, sanitation, education, social justice, and religion which are universal in character, and which no nation can exclude without consequences that are not only injurious to others but fatal to itself.

The type of nationalism which caused the World War is thoroughly pagan. It makes each member of the family of nations a law unto itself irrespective of the rights of others. It baptizes national selfishness and greed as patriotism, and justifies cruelty and murder as " military necessity." Said Lord Hugh Cecil, of the British Parliament: " Nationalism, in a degree, is a very desirable thing; but it differs from any other form of esprit de corps in that it implies or permits a suspension of the moral law. We must get people to feel that there is something higher than the loyalty to their own country — there is an obligation to the interests of all mankind. This doctrine is one of the most elementary tenets of Christianity. We want to get behind the idea that the higher loyalty is to our own country, to the idea that all men are brethren and that we owe to them a duty of inexhaustible, immeasurable love." True nationalism is related to supernationalism as the family is related to the community and the community to the State. The local duty is imperative, but it is consistent with the duty to the larger relationship. President Wilson declared in a memorable address: " The principle of public right must henceforth take precedence over the individual interests of particular nations. . . . Always think first of humanity."

This is precisely what foreign missions are doing. They inculcate that highest type of loyalty to country, which makes it minister to the supreme good of the race. Christianity is the antithesis of a self-centered nationalism. It substitutes the law of brotherhood for the law of the jungle.

Is Christian supernationalism practicable? Some have alleged that Christianity is impracticable as a working principle in social and national affairs. This is what Confucianists assert — that the Sermon on the Mount is a beautiful theory, but that it cannot be put into practice as Confucianism can be. It is odd to hear some professed Christians revert to this non-Christian argument. Did Christ preach an impracticable gospel? Did he tell his followers to do something that he knew they could not do? What are the impossibles anyway? The world said that it was impossible to break the temporal power of the Pope; impossible to extirpate slavery; impossible to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors by constitutional amendment; impossible for volunteers after a few months' training to stand against the trained regulars of Hindenburg; but we have seen all these alleged impossible things become actual. Nothing that is right Is impossible. Whatever ought to be done can be clone. Surely we must believe that Christianity is a religion that can be put into practical operation in human affairs; that the whole gospel applies to the whole life; and that nothing that man touches is beyond the scope of the law of God.

Since foreign missions deal with supernational ideas, they are in a sense a supernational movement. Of course, the individual missionary is a citizen of some country, and cannot claim supernationalism for himself unless he accepts the necessary implications of supernationalism. The country whose rights of citizenship he enjoys has rights regarding him and must hold him to responsibility for his acts and words. But his missionary objectives and work are supernational and they distinctly help international relations. The true missionary does not stamp his own national characteristics upon his work, but conveys supernational ideas of God and man and duty, and leaves the people who receive them freedom to organize their external forms in accordance with their own genius.

Representative Asiatics have repeatedly spoken in terms of warmest appreciation of the value of missionary work from this point of view. The late Mr. Fukuzawa, of Japan, said: " In the early days of Japanese intercourse with foreigners, there can be no doubt that many serious troubles would have occurred had not the Christian missionary not only showed to the Japanese the altruistic side of the Occidental character, but also by his teaching and his preaching imparted a new and attractive aspect to the intercourse which otherwise would have been masterful and repellent. The Japanese cannot thank the missionary too much for the admirable leaven that they introduced into their relation with foreigners."

It would be easy to fill pages with quotations to the same effect. Foreign missionary work is more and more clearly coming to be understood as distinctively altruistic in its character and aims. Christians in Western lands maintain it with no thought whatever of any return to themselves other than that of realizing the truth that u it is more blessed to give than to receive. "

Supernationalism and the war spirit. The correlation of such a supernational enterprise to a justifiable national spirit involves many difficulties. These difficulties become acute when international relations are ruptured. But it is manifestly unjust that an altruistic supernational work should be destroyed by nationalistic wars. When missionary work is broken up, the real sufferer is not the missionary, who usually is simply returned to his own country, but the natives — the sick and injured turned out of hospitals, children dismissed from schools, and struggling native churches left without guidance. The Japanese Government set a good example to all other nations in the Russia-Japan War. It was fraught with dire issues to Japan. Defeat would have meant subjection to a corrupt and ruthless Russian autocracy. But although the Russian Church was a State Church, the Japanese Government permitted the Russian missionaries in Japan to continue their work unmolested throughout the war, because it realized that their mission was conducted from motives quite distinct from the objectives of the war, and was for the direct benefit of the Japanese people. Count Katsura, then Prime Minister, sent an official communication to the representatives of the Christian Church in the Empire, in which he said that, anticipating that the feelings aroused by the war might cause differences between peoples of different nationalities and religious beliefs, instruction had been issued to local officials regarding the protection of Russian residents and the members of the Russian Church. He declared that the need for this caution was emphasized by the fact that the war was against a professedly Christian nation, and he hoped that no one " will be betrayed into the error of supposing that such things as differences in race or religion have anything whatever to do with the present complication. . . ., Regarding religion as an essential element of civilization, I have uniformly tried to treat all religions with becoming respect; and I believe it to be an important duty of statesmen, under all circumstances, to do their utmost to prevent racial animosities."

Of course, a government has the undoubted right to satisfy itself regarding the neutral character of a missionary, to watch him closely, and to insist that he shall accept the limitations which his supernational work involves. If he violates them, his punishment should be as stern and swift as the punishment of anyone who in a time of war misuses the privileges accorded him as a non-combatant. Some missionaries could not meet this test under the strain of the World War. But if the supernational principle is recognized, it is comparatively easy to test individuals by it and to eliminate those who cannot meet the required conditions.

The new need for world missions. All the motives that first prompted to the missionary enterprise exist today in undiminished force. Do not men still need the gospel, the sick to be healed, the children to be educated, the orphans and the blind to be cared for? It would be poor consolation for those whom w T e could save now to say that we can do nothing more until some future time, when many will be dead and many beyond our reach. Whatever reason there is for foreign missions at any time applies to all times. Sin has not ceased. The lurid glare of it is written across the sky. If men have ever needed Christ, they do today. Never were the words of inspiration more solemnly true: " Now is the acceptable time ; behold, now is the day of salvation."

Indeed, the World War, instead of having lessened the need for foreign missions, has created conditions that have enormously intensified it. Would the world be in its present chaotic condition if all nations had obeyed the law of God? The Archbishop of Canterbury truly said: " What is happening must be due to the pride, the high-handedness of men's temper thwarting the will of God. We have got to set ourselves to eradicate and make endurable the temper among men from which such things spring."

What power can do this? Can armament? Then let every nation arm to the teeth. But that method has been tried and found intolerable. The nation that had developed the most efficient fighting machine that the world had ever seen was the one that was defeated. Can science, philosophy, secular education save the world? We saw eminent professors defending the worst atrocities and using their scientific skill to devise more deadly weapons of destruction. The war taught us anew that while knowledge is power, it depends upon the principle which regulates the power whether it is for good or evil.

It is Christ that the world needs; not merely as a man, but as the divine and ever-living Son of God. It is the gospel that is to be preached; not merely as a cult, but what St. Paul declared to be " the power of God unto salvation."- It is the Bible that we must give to men; not merely as a textbook of ethics, but as the revelation of the mind and will of God. When the disciples were appalled by " the signs of the times " in their day, our Lord did not minimize the danger in the least, nor did he tell them that on account of it they should seek some quiet place until the storm blew over. On the contrary, he plainly said: " Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. . . . For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. . . . This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world." This is what foreign missions stand for.

The course of recent history in America illustrates some of the essential foreign missionary teachings. How did the United States get into the great war? Its coasts were three thousand miles away from the scene of the conflict, its citizens hated war, loved peace, and desired to avoid entangling alliances with other nations. But they realized that they have become a part of the world; that the period of isolation has passed; that they are kin to our brethren in other lands; that the maintenance of right and the repression of wrong anywhere concern them; and that when the weak and innocent are oppressed, Americans cannot pass by on the other side.

Is not this akin to our missionary message — that the world is one; that each nation is a part of it; that it is not possible for men to stand aloof from one another, however wide may be their geographic separation; that the only race is the human race; that each part affects and is affected by the others; that we in America cannot live apart from Europe and Asia; that we are our brother's keeper; and that we cannot leave any part of the world out of our thought? Everybody now knows these things — except a few reactionaries. The World War challenged the fundamental ideas on which the foreign missionary enterprise is based and on which alone a new world order can be built — the universality of a God of justice and love as against a tribal Odin or Thor, the brotherhood of man as against race enmity, the supremacy of moral obligation, the duty to protect the helpless and to punish the lawless.